The Hyde Park Art Center is proud to present Multiples and Multitudes, the first-ever solo exhibition by Chicago-based artist and educator William Estrada. Estrada’s socially-engaged practice has been rooted in Chicago neighborhoods for the last twenty years. Through collaborations with youth, community members, teachers, and other artists, and through his multifaceted art practice, Estrada aims to reimagine public and educational spaces to unite people and amplify local voices. Estrada’s work in the studio and the classroom create space literally and metaphorically for others to express themselves artistically and politically. Multiples and Multitudes will feature artworks in print, photography, performance, and video, as well as works that blur disciplinary boundaries to highlight the diversity of approaches within his practice and his unwavering commitment to political activism through art.
Public projects like Estrada’s RADICAL Printshop, a pop-up print shop that takes residency in communal spaces; Mobile Street Art Cart, a printing studio on wheels designed to offer art workshops anywhere; and Arte with Maestro William, a bilingual YouTube channel where Estrada teaches art lessons for families to follow from home, will be included in the exhibition. These projects have been designed as invitations for others to create, venues for the artist’s performative community interventions, and visual artworks in their own right. Taking the form of video works, prints, installations, and sculptures, these artworks will be activated by the artist during impromptu and planned performative events throughout the run of the exhibition that invite community members to participate and make art.
