Join us for our final Center Day of the year this Saturday and shop in our School & Studio Holiday Sale + Fundraiser, enjoy exhibition celebrations with the artists in the shows, including Beneath the Visible featuring work from our Center Program cohort 10, Candace Hunter: The Alien-Nations and Sovereign States of Octavia E Butler, and Marion Carow: Salvages, and visit our Radicle Resident Artists one last time before their residency 2023 ends.

For Center Days, Hyde Park Art Center is activated with activities throughout the center for the public, neighbors, and families. Guests are treated to a family-friendly filled day with intergenerational art making activities, artist workshops, artist talks, open studios, curatorial tours of our exhibitions, and community collaborations.

Exhibition Receptions: Beneath the Visible, Candace Hunter: The Alien-Nations and Sovereign States of Octavia E Butler, and Marion Carow: Salvages

1-4PM

Join us as we celebrate our Winter exhibitions, Beneath the Visible featuring work from our Center Program cohort 10, Candace Hunter: The Alien-Nations and Sovereign States of Octavia E Butler, and Marion Carow: Salvages.

About the Exhibitions

Beneath the Visible

Beneath the Visible features the work of 20 Center Program artists translating impermanence, cyclical events, and transformation curated by Silvia Inés Gonzalez. By reflecting on the cultural, environmental, and social layers of their work, artists enact poetic research processing beyond immediately apparent material. Fragments are re-constructed into blueprints. What was once an idea becomes a detectable dimension. The exhibition features new work by: Alexandra Antoine, Lucia Calderon Arrieta, Holly Cahill, Kittisak (Wa) Chontong, Karen Dana Cohen, Jane Georges, Rhonda Gray, Lauren Grudzien, Marylu E. Herrera, Laurie LeBreton, Carisa Mitchell, Joseph Josue Mora, Amanda Mulcahy, Ameera Pernebsati, Fabrizzio Subia, Kushala Vora, David Vosburg, Nayeon Yang, and Dennissa Young

In exploring the topographies of artistic practice, artists are considering what it means to exist today, preserve the past, and envision multiple possible futures. Ephemeral materials are transformed into a type of documentation of the processes of change. Through repetitive actions, artists are uncovering methodologies that shape the meaning of their work. The exhibition challenges baseline views by solidifying the relationships between memory, material, and process.

Center Program is generously supported by: Joyce Foundation, Kanter Foundation

Candace Hunter: The Alien-Nations and Sovereign States of Octavia E Butler

In Chicago‐based artist Candace Hunter’s largest solo exhibition to date, The Alien‐Nations and Sovereign States of Octavia E Butler, she explores ideas from “Parable of the Sower” and “Xenogenesis Trilogy (Lilith’s Brood)” by speculative fiction author Octavia E Butler (1947‐2006). Hunter presents a new series of collage‐based works, installations, video, and sound works that illustrate the meticulously sculpted worlds Butler imagined in her novels, examining their significance for Black bodies and future societies.

Work with synthetic plants, remnants of an ongoing culinary experiment, a reading nook, and imagined portals to other worlds make up what Hunter describes as an “alien lush space.” The exhibition examines the concepts of nationhood, asking questions about who is other and in what situations do we see people as other to ourselves? How do we become universal? Comparing the “Parable of the Sower” to the Trump era and using “Xenogenesis Trilogy (Lilith’s Brood)” to explore what “alien” worlds might exist beyond America and its race relations today, Hunter’s exhibition creates a speculative space where multiple generations come together to envision a better future.

Marion Carow: Salvages

What are the true surfaces of an object? Chicago-based artist Marian Carow considers this philosophical perspective and other formal concerns in her upcoming solo exhibition. Salvages will present new sculptural work rendered in cardboard and collages, through which Carow explores minimal forms referencing architecture as well as the constant flux and impermanence of our built urban environment. Carow is an alumna of Hyde Park Art Center’s Center Program (2016) and has been making drawings and sculptures for several decades.

Artist Activation: Mutual Agreements by Beneath the Visible Exhibition Artist, Dennissa Young

2- 4PM

Mutual Agreements encourages friends to join Dennissa Young across a desk to talk about their relationship stipulations, wants and expectations. These friendship contracts will help the audience define their relationships with their friends. Each session will consist of talking through and making a final agreement about the individual set of mutual agreements.

About Denissa Young

Dennissa Young is a Chicago-based, Native New Mexican, relational artist and curator. With projects focusing on friendship, connection, and collaborating, she has exhibited all across the US (Rock Hill, Boston and Charlotte to name a few), and internationally (from Bogota, Colombia to Istanbul, Turkey). She has been featured in numerous publications, including CLTure, Broadening the Narrative Podcast, York County Magazine, and the Art | Tea Podcast. Dennissa’s work strives to foster intimacy, radical softness, and capture the spiritual journey of humanity. Her artistic practice creates time, space and honesty, where audience members can engage and participate however they see fit. Dennissa deemed 2023 her Jordan year: she turned 30, had her first solo show, got into the Center Program at Hyde Park Art Center.

Guida Family Creative Wing Open Studios

1-4PM

Come and visit the studios of the artists working in our Jackman Goldwasser Creative Wing! Visit with our Radicle Residents, Eric Perez, Sofía Fernández Díaz, Kushala Vora, and Rhonda Wheatley one last time before their residencies end, and meet our Guida Family Creative Wing studio artists, Tongi Phillip Qian, Candace Hunter, Juarez Hawkins, and Malika Jackson.

Oakman Clinton School + Studio Fundraiser & Sale

1-4pm

Support our Oakman Clinton school and studio community and the Hyde Park Art Center through our annual School + Studio fundraiser and sale! Check out handmade items like ceramics, prints, jewelry, wearables, and more made by our students in house! These one of a kind items made great gifts this holiday season!

Semicolon Bookstore Pop-Up Shop

1-4PM

Check out an Afrofuturism and Science-Fiction pop up book shop curated by local Black woman owned bookstore, Semicolon Bookstore & Gallery in honor of our The Alien‐Nations and Sovereign States of Octavia E Butler exhibition.

Semicolon Bookstore is a Black-woman owned bookshop and gallery located in Chicago’s River North area. Founded in 2019, we are booksellers dedicated to bridging the literacy gap among minoritized communities by providing access TO and building interest IN books. We focus on the community aspect of bookselling by putting on author events, as well as hosting our #ClearTheShelves programming, where we allow CPS students to take the books that they want free of charge in an attempt to incite a love for reading via the celebration of books!’

Open Arts Studio Art Making Activity: Kool Weaves

1-4PM

Learn how to create colorful weavings using cardboard looms. You’ll be working with vibrant yarn dyed using the playful hues of Kool-Aid, adding a burst of color to your creations. Learning this basic weaving technique will allow you to make your own wall art, tapestries, and more!

Create Your Own Cardboard Sculpture
1-4PM

Families and visitors are invited to create their own cardboard sculpture inspired by our Marion Carow exhibition, Salvages, using recycled materials and colorful paint with teaching artist Terah Weddington.