2015 Media alumna Janelle Dowell will be showing work at a workshop tonight at Gallery 400 as well as in an exhibition that opens Sunday at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Gallery 400 and the MB collective (which includes current B &P student Viktor L. E. Givens) are hosting “Mothership: An Afro-Futurist & Afro-Surrealist Experience of Prophetic Imagination” tonight from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. This multi-dimensional workshop hosted by a collective of Chicago Afro-Futurists and Afro-Surrealists utilizes music, dance, art, video, and participatory performance to bring an interactive experience where the power of radical imagination and Black Love can be harnessed to create brilliant new worlds.

As part of a variety of activities, Dowell will be showing her thesis project Watermelon Bay. Based on Idle Wilde, an African American relaxation resort that emerged during Jim Crow segregation, Watermelon Bay will invite participants to relax, enjoy refreshments, and engage in conversation focused specifically on visions of the future.

“Mothership” Facebook event link: click here

Dowell will also be exhibiting in Finding Prospect in Myth at the Hyde Park Art Center, opening this Sunday July 26, 2015 with a reception from 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. This exhibition explores the relationship between mythology and prospect by bringing together photography, painting, sculpture, archival images, and mixed-media works. The featured artists investigate how culture and environment affect our lives through the interplay between the past, present, and future hybrid landscapes that fuse the natural with the artificial.