Chat About
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please reply this email (to tobywu@uchicago) to indicate your attendance.
Please contact Toby Wu (tobywu@uchicago.edu) or Catilyn Au (cmau@uchicago.edu) with any questions.
* Double Feature *
Wilson Yerxa, in conversation with Ambrin Ling and Xuanlin Ye
Religious and consumer symbolism, shifting points of view, including the point of view of humor, the materiality of recycled clothes, and the perpetual reconstitution of painted form and subject matter in the artist’s oeuvre— these are but some of the points of discussion in Ambrin Ling (MAPH) and Xuanlin Ye’s (MAPH) talk with Wilson Yerxa (MFA) about Yerxa’s practice. Treating the studio as a lab of experimentation, Yerxa, Ye, and Ling reflect on how Yerxa's works on paper draw on his theatre, poetry, and video experiences and incorporate new approaches to first person perspective. In doing so, his works revel in the confusion between the subjects and objects of paintings. This inversion of roles will continue as Yerxa in turn discusses Ling and Ye’s studio practices.
Caleb Clemente and Jacob Pet, in conversation with Sarah Hobin and Jingchen Jiang
Join us for a conversation with Jacob Pet (MFA), Caleb Clemente (MFA), Jingchen Jiang (MAPH), and Sarah Hobin (MAPH), as we consider how objects are imbued with meaning. Through histories and through the process of their making, art objects can leverage narrative to amplify significance. Sometimes, however, meaning can emerge from elements of the object that are hidden from the viewer. How is meaning experienced by the audience? And what, after all, is the artist’s intent? In light of these questions, we will also look to the art practices of Pet and Clemente to consider transcendence—as theme, as process, and as effect—and the meaning within objects that artists explore in their practices.
* Presenter Bios *
Ambrin Ling is a graduate student in the Master of Humanities Program at the University of Chicago. She is interested in material and visual culture as sites of interpreting and forming identity especially in the contexts of nation and migration. In addition to her research and writing, Ling has also exhibited her experimental works on paper most recently at Women Made Gallery and Northwestern University in Chicago.
Wilson Yerxa is a painter and drawer with roots in poetry and theater. He is a 2nd year MFA in DoVA at UChicago.
Xuanlin Ye was born in Wenzhou, China and now lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. Xuanlin received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2017 and recently graduated with an MFA degree from LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Art at The Maryland Institute College of Art. Currently, he is studying at the University of Chicago for a Master of Art in Art History. He tasks himself to seek a new visual representation of Asian contemporary art. Xuanlin’s works have been shown at many group exhibitions internationally, including Oak Park Art League in Chicago, Hongik Museum of Art in Seoul, Maryland Hall for creative Art in Annapolis, Maryland, and Art Cake in Brooklyn New York.
Caleb Clemente is a first-year MFA currently working in sculpture and mark-making. He is interested in tension, the body, and iconography.
Jacob Pet is an MFA candidate working in needle felted fiber sculpture and transmission art. His work is interested in communication, belief and the phenomenon of hypnosis - its relationship to art making and art interaction.
Jingchen Jiang is a MAPH student reading art history. Her interest spans from East Asian Buddhist art to exhibition practices and museum management.
Sarah Hobin is a writer and arts administrator. She is currently a candidate for an MA in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she studies poetry and creative non-fiction. Prior to her time at the University of Chicago, Sarah worked in curation and arts programming for museums and galleries in San Francisco, Oakland, and Salt Lake City.
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Chat About is a student-run open-critique hosted by graduate students, supported by the Department of Art History and the Department of Visual Arts. These open-critiques are organized to build community and to hold space for inter-disciplinary discourse—with an emphasis of thinking alongside practice and research. Artists open their work to a spectrum of opinions and articulate their practice; art historians, curators, and scholars probe, suggest and situate these works through research and exploration. We hope that Chat About inculcates space to discover new affinities and relationships.
Image Details:
Thumbnail:
Wilson Yerxa, Untitled, 2021, Paper pulp, acrylic, and photograph
Left side of main image:
Caleb Clemente, Resting Rag, 2022, Mixed media
Right side of main image:
Jacob Pet, Fixation Object, 2020, Mixed media