3418 W Armitage Ave Logan Square

Cheryl Flack

is a papercutting and collage artist from Evanston, IL. She began to hone her papercutting craft during COVID lockdown. In May, 2020 she started by playing with abstract designs and patterns, in addition to collaged compositions made from remixed print media images. She uses re-purposed frames salvaged from thrift and second-hand stores to present her art.

 

Michelle Ecke

I am Chicago-area artist. I use mixed media to create paintings that transport the observer into imaginative child-like worlds through the use of vibrant colors, tactile materials, organic and geometric shapes. I draw inspiration from childhood memories of storybook and movie imagery, as well as visionary and outsider art. Blending the real and surreal into dreamlike landscapes, alternate dimensions with fantasy and sci-fi motifs. -

 

Erica McKeehen (b. 1987, Marion, OH)

is a multidisciplinary artist in Chicago, IL. As a sex worker and burlesque performer, she creates self-portraits and images, often paired with biographical text, of her close friends and peers who also navigate a range of roles within the sex industry. In building long-term collaborative narratives of performers, she explores identity, performance, and storytelling to present nuanced views of femme experience, sexuality, and autonomy. She also curates intimate public panel discussions with her peers in burlesque and sex work and co-produces Chicago’s Lust for Life, a rock n’ roll burlesque show, alongside her collaborator, Kitty Tornado. Growing up in rural Ohio, McKeehen spent her childhood consumed by her dad’s vast rock n’ roll media collection; her lifelong fascinations with public persona and depictions of glamorous performers come from the music videos, album covers, and photo spreads in Rolling Stone that she studiously viewed. McKeehen received her BS ‘10 from Ohio University, and her MA ‘21 and MFA ‘23, both from Columbia College Chicago.

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Kathleen Cecilia Nesbitt

began as a writer and photographer. For over forty years she has rarely been without her camera. Having studied with Peter Thompson, Myron Davis, Ray Metzker, and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen Kathleen’s subject matter spans through, play of light and shadow, textures, people on the street, portraiture and self-portraiture, the beauty of imperfection, and documentary photography. With each photograph she seeks to connect with the interior and the personal journey of the observer. She aims to tell a story, a story of before, during, and after the image was captured. Kathleen is also a passionate, self-taught collage artist who began cutting and pasting in 2021. In her collages she re-configures found images with her own photography to create strong representational political narratives that approach preserving our planet, women’s issues past and present, and the themes of loss, loneliness, and isolation. Although her collage work is largely intuitive, her background in poetry and fiction writing inform the metaphorical and narrative aspects of each piece. Her work with traumatized and underserved populations influences many of her collages.

 

Yuliya

I grew up in Ukraine and learned how to weave on a loom as a child—though I'd forgotten it all until last year, when I was looking for a way to reconnect with my culture. Beading is now the way I honor my Ukrainian heritage, though the patterns are often inspired by my current home, Chicago. Ideas come when I take a colorful photo or peruse the Art Institute’s digital archive—by now, I see city scenes and artworks in bead colors. When the combination feels right, I make the beading pattern a reality. I specialize in loom beading, sourcing top-quality Miyuki Delica and Toho Aiko seed beads—woven together with durable fishing line. The beads come in iridescent, metallic, matte, and luster finishes. About 2,000 of them per piece create a beautiful gleam.

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Audrey Dwyer is an emerging mixed-media artist based in Chicago. She graduated from DePaul University with a BFA in Art, Media, and Design in June 2024 and works as a freelance graphic designer.

Statement:
Inspired by cosmic symbology–icons, mandalas, fractals cymatics, etc.– Audrey Dwyer evokes the sublime, a sense of exaltation or transcendence inspired by the beauty and power of nature.  Dwyer meditates on the intersection of nature, the self, and the divine, depicting subjects such as aliens, angels, orgasms, flora, fauna, and communion. In doing so, Dwyer seeks to foster gratitude, mindfulness, and a sense of stewardship for a planet needing protection against climate change.

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 Niara Stephens is a ceramicist and painter based in Algonquin, Illinois. She is originally from Lithonia,  GA. Stephens graduated with her associate of art from East Georgia State College in 2020.  She received her bachelor of fine arts in 3d studies with a concentration in ceramics from Georgia State University in 2023.  Stephens makes a variety of sculptures ranging from figurative works such as busts and self-portraits to abstract sculptures with organic shapes. She often takes inspiration from art movements such as psychedelic, modern, contemporary, and abstract expressionism. She uses a vivid color palette of neon and pastel gradients with black as a contrast. While Niara mainly hand-builds her sculptures she also is known to wheel-throw her forms as well as make functional ceramics. Her art touches on various subjects from mental health, to self-exploration, and abstract representation of herself.

 

Ruth La Sure pinpoints a moment in time when a strong desire to be an artist overtook her. She says, “I remember as a child standing in a field near my home and hearing the sound of a freight train whistle from across the river. I knew then I would like to capture the essence by painting.” She came to produce art in a roundabout way, after raising a family. She entered the American Academy of Art in Chicago where her largest influences were Fred Berger and Eugene Hall. She went on to study design in Fontainebleau, France through L’École des Beaux Arts (The American School of Art) just outside Paris and in Fouras, France, where she took classes with Yves Rouanet, a sculptor. La Sure’s largest fascination of recent years has been abstractions in monotype mixed media and in photography.

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Katie Moriarty My work deals with the tension that arises from the discrepancies between expectation and reality. Through my portraits, I reflect on the external and internal representations of self. My paintings emerge as the place in-between what is perceived by others and what the self believes. Most of my work does not include any setting, allowing the figures to exist anywhere. In the creation of each painting, I engage in an intimate dialogue with myself—an ongoing search for understanding and expression of my own identity.

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Kelsey Skelton

​Inspired by nature, the occult, and generally everything around me, I find ways to twist reality into surreal concepts for a child like sense of escapism. I've always been drawn to a whimsical darkness in art that helps me cope with the struggles and mundanity of life, with a little bit of shock. I feel people can sense the warmth, curiosity, and emotions I project through art and I love to find that unspoken connection.