The third division of a ruminant’s stomach is
called a psalterium because, when slit open, its folds fall apart like the
leaves of a book. The fruit is star-shaped when cut in cross section and is
therefore called star fruit. Our people often name an object after the
manner in which we destroy it.
—Ben Lerner, Angle of Yaw

Post-Nature, Tele-Ecologies is a two-part exhibition that brings together the work of Emily Belknap, Jon Chambers, Chaz Evans, Lee Hunter and Devin Mawdsley. With the second part taking shape in November, this structure seeks to reflect on the relationships between the artists and their practices over time. For this iteration of the show, these artists examine natural, urban and virtual environments and expose anxieties about their representation and sustainability through sculpture, photography, video installation, painting and networked computers.

Finding ruptures within tele-technologies and contemporary landscapes, the artists translate, critique and question our hypermediated surroundings. Emily Belknap and Lee Hunter reveal the way we experience, navigate and attempt to control nature by turning an unsettling lens on the dehumanized character of our urban landscape. To express the atomization of our socio-cultural sphere, Devin Mawdsley’s layered, maximalist painting reflects the plurality (and precariousness) of our experiences on and off the net. Jon Chambers and Chaz Evans further this notion of plurality and fragmentation by directly implicating the role and persistence of telepresence. Together the works in this exhibition propose a viewpoint in which the boundaries between natural and virtual ecologies are thin.

—

EMILY BELKNAP Through an interdisciplinary approach using drawing, sculpture and installation, Emily Belknap examines boundaries in landscape. Belknap received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 and her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2007. This year she received the Mary Nohl Fellowship Award in the Emerging Artist category in Milwaukee. Her exhibition history includes solo exhibitions at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison in 2013, the Sharon Lynn Wilson Center in Brookfield in 2010 and the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend in 2009.

More information about Emily Belknap can be found at http://www.emilysbelknap.com

JON CHAMBERS is an artist and educator based in Chicago. He received an MFA in New Media Art from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 2012 and currently teaches media histories at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and information/data aesthetics at UIC. Chambers’ work focuses on the production of art through technological objects, software, and networked interfaces while aestheticizing experiences of saturation, obsessions and contradictions that emerge from relationships with these technologies. He has shown work nationally and internationally, in screening venues, galleries and online.

More information about Jon Chambers can be found at http://jonchambersart.com

CHAZ EVANS is an artist, educator, art historian, and curator. He is a Lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Director of Exhibitions and Programs for Video Game Art (VGA) Gallery. He teaches courses on creative programming, web art, moving image art, and games. His artwork and writing analyzes the cultural valences of technology through the satirical use of software and hardware, and also builds continuity between contemporary media and the art historical past. Evans has exhibited with The Nightingale, ACRE TV, Hyde Park Art Center, Evanston Art Center, and Chicago Artists Coalition. He holds an MA in Art History and an MFA in New Media Art from University of Illinois at Chicago.

More information about Chaz Evans can be found at http://chazevans.net

LEE HUNTER is a multi-disciplinary artist working with photography, sculpture and video. She is interested in the built environment, landscape and perception. Her work has exhibited at artist run galleries and non-profit art spaces such as Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia; Savernack Street Gallery, San Francisco; and The Luminary Arts, St. Louis. She has received support to attend a number of artist in residence programs including The Vermont Studio Center, I-Park Foundation, and ACRE. Hunter received her BS from Portland State University and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She lives and works in New York, NY.

More information about Lee Hunter can be found at http://leehunter.org

DEVIN MAWDSLEY is an artist and educator living and working in Chicago. Devin is a multimedia artist with strong roots in drawing and painting. His work is informed by his upbringing in airports and planes, as a “third culture kid” raised in several different countries during the roaring 90s, in none of which he can claim to be a native son. He received his BA in Chinese at the College of William and Mary and his MFA in Studio Painting at the Hope School of Fine Arts, Indiana University.

More information about Devin Mawdsley can be found at http://www.devinmawdsley.com

RAVEN MUNSELL is a curator, writer and arts administrator based in Chicago. She co-directs the mobile exhibition space and artist bumper sticker project TRUNK SHOW and creates exhibitions independently, institutionally and with Third Object, a collaborative curatorial group she co-founded. She earned dual M.A. in Art History and Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014.

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Tags: ACRE Projects, Chaz Evans, Devin Mawdsley, Emily Belknap, Jon Chambers, Lee Hunter