ON DRAWING DRAWING ON

Lawrence Abu Hamdan    Fadi Baki    Alison Bechdel    Sara Black    Bill Brown & Ted Brown (STUDIO R-A)    James Carpenter    Hillary Chute    Romi Crawford    Marc Downie    Samantha Frost    Hannah B Higgins    Ghenwa Hayek     Theaster Gates    Amber Ginsburg    Sean Griffin    Paul Kaiser    Omar Khouri    Julia Kuo    George E. Lewis    Antoni Miralda    W.J.T. Mitchell    Sidney Nagel    Stephan Palmié    Monica Peek    Pope.L    Dieter Roelstraete    Cauleen Smith    Jessica Stockholder    Catherine Sullivan    Garland Martin Taylor    Augusta Read Thomas    Elizabeth Tung    Anne M. Wagner    Yao Chen    Judith Zeitlin

Drawing is at once a catalyst for shaping reality, a middle place between being and becoming, and a fully realized work of art in its own right. It brings things into the world, pulls us into worlds, and, as such, is an ideal emblem of the collaborative and experimental work that has taken place at the Gray Center in the past decade. Moreover, it is hard to pin down what constitutes drawing in the 21st Century—it evades definition as practitioners across the disciplines make use of the medium to spell out musical notation, choreograph theater, or create a video game.

Much like the Gray Center itself, drawing is simultaneously disciplined and un-disciplined, creating forms as it goes. Over the last ten years, artists and scholars have come together to draw on each other's minds and to create new genres at the borders of art and scholarship. Necessarily sketchy at their inception, Gray Center Fellowships have experimented with what is possible at the meeting point between the arts and academic life.

Upon entering the exhibition space, visitors will first encounter a reading room where they can listen to interviews with Gray Center Fellows and read through issues of Portable Gray—the Gray Center’s magazine—as well as other publications and pieces of ephemera. Visitors are then welcomed into the main gallery where they will find an expansive selection of artworks that represent a variety of approaches to drawing. Occurring throughout the run of the exhibition will be a series of special screenings in the Logan Center’s Performance Hall that will feature film and moving image works by Gray Center Fellows.

The Exhibition Guide and Essay are available to read and download here. Click here and here for a video tour of the exhibition led by curators Zachary Cahill and Mike Schuh, recorded on Instagram Live, February 9, 2022. An exhibition Photo Gallery is available to view here.    

Logan Center Gallery | 915 E 60th St, Chicago
Gallery Hours | Tuesday-Saturday: 9am-9pm; Sunday: 11am-9pm
Visitors to the Logan Center over age 5 must wear masks. Additional requirements regarding vaccination status can be found by clicking on the following link and further clicking on the Health and Safety Protocols dropdown. Click here.

Related Programming: 
EXHIBITION CONVERSATION
February 9th, Noon CST, On Drawing, streaming link posted day-of here.

ONE-DAY FILM SCREENINGS 

• February 17th, Noon-9 pm, Cauleen Smith, Three Songs About Liberation 
• March 2nd, Noon-9 pm, Marc Downie & Paul Kaiser w/ Ken & Flo Jacobs, Ulysses in the Subway
• March 9th, Noon-9 pm, Lawrence Abu Hamdan,  A Thousand White Plastic Chairs 

CLOSING RECEPTION
March 13th, 2-4pm CST, in the Logan Center Gallery

ON DRAWING DRAWING ON is presented by Logan Center Exhibitions and curated by Zachary Cahill, Director of Programs and Fellowships, and Mike Schuh, Assistant Director, Fellowships and Operations at the Gray Center. This exhibition is made possible by support from Richard and Mary L. Gray and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as the Revada Foundation, The Reva and David Logan Foundation, and friends of the Logan Center.

Please read our COVID-19 Updates for current information on building access and health & safety protocols.

Please contact logancenter@uchicago.edu with requests for any accommodations.

Photo: 7000 Marks, ongoing. Amber Ginsburg and Sara Black. Photo credit: SPACES Gallery, Cleveland