Collective Threads

Collective Threads

Wednesday, August 8, 2018 | 6:30–8:00 PM
Arts Incubator (301 E. Garfield Blvd.) | FREE
RSVP Recommended

Join artist-in-residence Victoria Martinez as she shares research about the African Presence in Mexico, her studio process, and projects facilitated throughout her residency at the University of Chicago Arts Incubator. Participate in creating a weaving with paper images of textiles from Africa and Mexico and learn how fibers connect various communities.

This program is in conjunction with the exhibition "Carrying A Place Called Home," the culminating program for the 2017-18 resident artists, Victoria Martinez, Arif Smith, and Brittney Leeanne Williams. The exhibition features new works the artists produced during their ten-month residency at the Arts Incubator in Washington Park that reflect on identity, memory, and place through painting, collage, dance and video.

Exhibition on view: July 20–August 31, 2018
Arts Incubator Gallery Hours:
Wednesday–Friday 12:00–6:00 pm

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About the artists:

Victoria Martinez

As artist and educator, Victoria explores textiles, installation art, site-specific experiments, printmaking, and painting. Her research on the African Presence in Mexico is shared through the collective creation of weavings and parachutes with youth and South Side audiences. victoria-martinez.com

Arif Smith

Arif’s performance and video-based work centers on diasporic citizenship and African-rooted performance practices. He has produced a monthly dance workshop series, a sculptural project using found materials from Washington Park, and a new video that draws upon archival footage and music collaboration. arifsmith.com

Brittney Leeanne Williams

Brittney’s work unpacks trauma and the Black body situated within landscape. Exploring Washington Park as her site, she captured photographs, sketches, and written exchanges with individuals in the park to create new paintings. brittneyleeannewilliams.com

About the Residency Program:

The University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture hosts individual artists through the Artists-in-Residence program and interdisciplinary partnerships through the Crossing Boundaries Prize. These residency programs are open to Chicago-based artists and groups whose work explores issues of race, politics and culture. Both programs advance the opportunities available to artists who are underrepresented in the Chicago and national arts scenes.

Arts + Public Life, an initiative of UChicago Arts, provides platforms for artists and access to the arts through residencies, education, cultural entrepreneurship, and arts-led programs and events. Arts + Public Life advances and promotes a robust, collaborative, and evolving relationship between the University of Chicago and the South Side’s vibrant civic, cultural, and artistic communities. Learn more at arts.uchicago.edu/apl.