CO.LAB
Chicago Art Department’s CO.LAB features artists who have dedicated studio space at CAD, and collaborate with the community organically. CO.LAB artists push their practice independent of CAD programs, but connect with our community as opportunities present themselves throughout the year.
2023/24 CO.LAB ARTISTS:
Amanda Williams
Eric Von Haynes | Chicago Printers Guild | Flatlands Press | Love Fridge Chicago
Kent Henderson + Dud Lawson | Depression Press
Silvia Ines Gonzalez | POC Artist Space
Amanda Williams is a visual artist who trained as an architect at Cornell University. Amanda’s practice blurs the distinction between art and architecture. Her projects use color as a lens to highlight the complexities of the politics of race, place, and value in cities. She is best known for her series, “Color(ed) Theory,” in which she painted the exterior of soon-to-be-demolished houses on Chicago’s south side using a culturally-charged color palette to mark the pervasiveness of vacancy and blight in black urban communities. The landscapes in which she operates are the visual residue of the invisible policies and forces that have misshaped most inner cities. Most recently, Amanda was awarded the distinction of 2022 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow. For more information visit https://awstudioart.com/home.html.
Depression Press Mfg & Ink Inc is operated under the CAD West Roof. “Puality Qrinting” by your pals and letterpress studio founders Kent Henderson (L) and Dud Lawson (R).
Eric Von Haynes is the founder of Flatlands Press, a co-founder of The Love Fridge Chicago, and presently serves as Board President for Chicago Printers Guild. He is an artist, publisher, designer, and curator whose work synthesizes old and new printing methods and aesthetics. While design and printmaking are his passions, he is energized by collaborations and the ideas and challenges that come from working with a community. Flatlands has created art objects and printed ephemera for artists worldwide. One of the core tenets at Flatlands Press is community building and making the invisible visible.
During his residency at CAD, Eric is eager to work on multiple programs that focus on community engagement.
Silvia Ines Gonzalez is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator in Chicago actively participating in spaces where collective wellness takes on critical dialogue, art making, and community building. Her visual and audio work are a ballad to nostalgia–the borderline between myth and memory. Silvia has curated and facilitated workshops to address structures of power, imagination, play, confinement, and freedom. Her work has been exhibited at The National Mexican Museum of Art, Woman Made Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, ACRE, and local grassroots art spaces. She is a member of the Chicago ACT Collective, Multiuso, and the 96 ACRES Project. She was awarded with the 3Arts Make A Wave Award in 2018. As an organizer for the group POC (People of Color) Artist Space, she connects artists of color from across Chicago to resources through meet-ups and development opportunities. She fiercely believes in the power of people, poetic intervention, and possibility.