COVID-19
Artists are like everybody else, feeling the losses, the isolation and the lassitude brought on by the pandemic. Unlike the rest of us, they have the skills and determination to make something concrete out of a morass, as displayed here in a survey of new work by the twelve residents of the Chicago Artist Coalition’s HATCH program (curated by its trio of curatorial residents). Standouts, or at least those works that speak to my current state of mind, include Unyimeabasi Udoh’s black hole embroidery hoop and illuminated no-exit sign; Katie Chung’s mind-numbing canvas covered all over in thousands of sewing pins; Julia Klein’s tortured, headless but resiliently stable yogi; Juan Molina Hernández’s quiet, light-filled photographs of domestic care in the form of plants and intergenerational love; and Gericault De La Rose’s scary, fabulous, mythical apparition, who, post-performance, leaves behind only a wig, chains, wings and other residue. When will she rise again? When will we all?
—Lori Waxman 2021-04-21 11:33 AM