BODY IN FLUX | Friday January 11th, 6-10pm
Chicago Art Department Presents
Body in Flux:
Opening reception: Friday, January 11th, 6 – 10 PM.
This exhibition focuses on different modalities of body representation in contemporary creative discourse. The three Artists: Galina Shevchenko, Lauren Carter and Frol Boundin present three approaches to the use of the body image in different medium and concept. The themes of memory, sensuality, decay and rebirth play out through the range of visual methods and forms. From subtle two dimensional reflections on the historical transformation of our perception of direct representation of the body, to the baroque colors and patterns of the moving image, to a sensual treatment of raw materials in construction of enigmatic forms, this exhibition laments and celebrates the human form.
Galina Shevchenko is a Moscow born, Chicago based multimedia artist, working across the media of animation, video installation and live video performance.
Galina’s visual language coexists across her live video performance, animation, video installation and immersive video environments that she creates for art galleries , theatrical happenings and multimedia festivals. She loves to combine vernacular visual elements with archetypical and cultural icons creating exquisite combinations of high and pop, classical and postmodern. Whether it is a video, a painting, an animation or a design object, Galina’s work is baroque and provocative, it teases &questions, seduces & demands… ultimately it is a delicious visual treat.
Galina’ s work has been shown at numerous venues nationally and internationally, including international Art Fairs in Miami and Chicago, Berlin’s Director’s Lounge Video Festival, New York’s Red Shift Film Festival, Chicago’s Motion Graphics Festival, Media ART LAB segment of Moscow International Film Festival, where her work took a second Prize in 2007; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago and numerous Chicago Art galleries. Currently Galina is an artist member of the Chicago Art Department, using this unique space as a platform for exhibiting and curatorial explorations.
Lauren Carter is a Louisiana native who recently relocated to Chicago by way of Albuquerque, New Mexico where she received her MFA in the fall of 2012. Carter’s mixed media sculpture, 2d work, and installations explore the ephemeral by examining the physical, spiritual, and cultural realms of healing.
“Human beings are organic matter; our bodies deteriorate and decay making pain and illness an inevitable part of the corporeal experience. Our relationship to medicine seems to be rooted in emotions of desperation and curiosity, perhaps due in part to fear of death, loss, and the unknown in American culture. Our current relationship to health and wellness and our flirtations with immortality are a direct result of this fear”.
Frol Boundin, was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg, Russia) in 1974. Received the initial artistic training in the traditions of realism from the grandfather Victor Boundin, as well as the Leningrad’s School of General Arts. Moved to United States in 1990 and received the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2000. In the following 10 years Mr. Boundin lived and worked in Chicago focusing on large-scale abstract paintings and prints, as well as installation projects and graphic design with the local arts community. Currently, Mr. Boundin resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, while pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in Print Media at the University of New Mexico. Recent exhibitions include Global Matrix 3, American Impressions 2012 and Atlanta Print Biennale where the “Aral Sea Cycle” received a Jurors Choice Award.
“My work explores the symbols of a complex relationship between humanity and its habitat. The impact that human-made objects have on entire landscapes, the evolution of artificial and natural elements into symbiotic ecologies, the effects that these environments have on their inhabitants, I see as monuments of our desire to control and modify ourselves and the environment. Drawing on feelings of nostalgia and despair, and using images of people and places that have been transformed by the relentless flow of time I create emotionally charged, deeply layered compositions that speak to the temporality of human aspirations.”