(Featured Image: Baggage Cart, 2000, 4 x 8 x 2 feet, ceramic, stains,mixed,media)
WHAT IS SEEN AND UNSEEN: MAPPING SOUTH ASIAN AMERICAN ART IN CHICAGO
Thru OCTOBER 26
South Asian Institute
1925 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago
What is Seen and Unseen: Mapping South Asian American Art in Chicago is a ground-breaking exhibition documenting the history of South Asian art and artists in Chicago. The exhibition, is part of the Terra Foundation’s Art Design Chicago 2024, a citywide collaboration that highlights Chicago’s artistic heritage and creative communities. This is the first comprehensive exhibition to map and disseminate this vital chapter of Chicago’s art history.
The exhibition comprises of: Shadows Dance Within the Archives, an archival exhibition of 100+ years of under-documented exhibition and cultural history, and Are Shadow Bodies Electric? featuring Chicago-based contemporary South Asian American artists. A series of public presentations and a symposium will be held to complement this exhibition.
The exhibition narrative begins with colonial-era perspectives, including those reflected in documentation from the Indian Pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition and the Indian delegation at the World’s Parliament of Religions, both held in conjunction in 1893, in Chicago. It continues with highlights from the long-forgotten first-known solo exhibition in the United States by a South Asian American renowned in international art circles. Details of the exhibition that was held in Chicago in 1920, have been pieced together from various archives across the country.
From this point, the exhibition examines the growing interest in and acquisition of Asian antiquities in the United States in the 1920s-40s, how this relates to the bigger story of Orientalism and modern art, and why select permutations of this phenomenon were presented in Chicago’s cultural institutions. The exhibition also acknowledges the influence of South Asian art, music, dance, theater, literature, and spirituality on American counterculture movements from the early 1900’s to the 1980’s, including the Theosophical Society, Tagore Circle, Beat Generation, 1967’s Summer of Love and its legacy, and underscores how these art forms continue to mark Chicago’s cultural landscape.
Lastly, the exhibition maps a route through the contemporary era, from the 1990’s to today. Chicago has a 30+ year history of contemporary exhibitions and public programs that have featured South Asian American artists, and this section of the exhibition focuses on senior, mid-career, and emerging artists who have made Chicago home and are reshaping the art and life of the city.
While this exhibition endeavors to offer a comprehensive portrayal of the South Asian art experience, critical silences, gaps, and fractures exist in the historical record. This project will hopefully encourage additional efforts at mapping and contextualizing these under-documented South Asian American art histories in Chicago and across the United States.
This project is led by Shelly Bahl, who has significantly contributed to BIPOC community-led arts organizing, programming, research, documentation, and dissemination in Canada and the USA.
Rebirth: Stories of Transformation and Renewal
Solo Exhibition @ Governor’s State University, August 16 – September 30
Rebirth: Stories of Transformation and Renewal explores the intricate tapestry of life’s perpetual cycles—birth, death, rebirth and renewal. It traverses the dual landscapes of Chicago and Mumbai, weaving a narrative that explores spirituality, nonviolence, community engagement, and the profound significance found within life’s discarded fragments.
Through a vast and diverse array of sculptural and mixed media works, viewers are invited to reflect upon their own journeys within the ceaseless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth and stands as a testament to the universal human experience, urging reflection and engagement with the profound rhythms of existence.
Join Indira Freitas Johnson on September 25 at 1pm for an artist talk at the Governors State University Visual Arts Gallery and tour the world class Nathon Manilow Sculpture Park, including the Ten Thousand Ripples installation.
Governors State University, 1 University Parkway • University Park, IL
Agency: Craft in Chicago from the 1970s-80s and Beyond,
Group exhibition @ Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art
Sept. 22 – Dec. 22nd 2024.
The Space Between, mixed media
Funded by the Terra Foundation, as part of Art Design Chicago 2024, the research-based exhibit centers on the work of 37 artists of diverse backgrounds, historically excluded from major art narratives. Curated by Adrienne Kochman, UIMA curator.