InterArts Presence Strong at Chicago Artists Coalition Opening

There was no shortage of InterArts participation at all levels of “The Terrestial, The Celestial, and The Imagined Inbetween,” a group exhibition curated by MK Meador that opened Friday, October 7 at the Chicago Artists Coalition.

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Media student Greg Browe asks Nicolas Sagan about his work.

Nicolas Sagan, a 2011 InterArts MFA alumnus and current HATCH Projects Resident at CAC, installed (among other works) reconfigured salt scans to make intuitively assembled cosmological maps. He describes his work as “data and celestial compositions” that reference “the fact that our understanding of space is heavily reliant on the data and imagery we collect second hand via satellites.” HATCH Projects is a yearlong, juried incubator for contemporary Chicago artists and curators that strives to support an ecology of curatorial and artistic practice. A pioneering initiative, HATCH Projects fosters shared experimentation, exchange and creativity to produce ground-breaking exhibitions and programs.

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Annette Barbier shows students Leo Selvaggio and Greg Browe works in progress.

Meanwhile, current InterArts students also visited faculty member Annette Barbier in the open studios at CAC where she is a BOLT resident. The residency provides nine professional open-plan studios and a 500 square foot gallery space dedicated to residents. BOLT functions as an incubator program—taking a  holistic approach to the development of residents’ artistic careers by providing studio work space, exhibition opportunities, and creative community.

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Jessica Cochran, Nicolas Sagan, and Leo Selvaggio converse at the opening.

Jessica Cochran, Columbia’s Center for Book and Paper Arts’ curator of exhibitions, also attended the opening and is taking a turn as a current curator-in-residence at the CAC. Her additional curatorial investigations are part of the CAC’s year-long Hatch Arts Incubator program, which has several exhibitions each year. Cochran’s first curated exhibition for Hatch, Indelicate Objects, opened on Friday, March 15.