Feb 9, 3-6 pm: Please join us for the opening spread of Two Spreads / Michael Lopez and Roni Packer

Exhibition Dates: February 9-23, 2019

Resisting boundaries that dictate convention within the arts, Lopez and Packer use the un-archival material of food with the hopes of forming memories; for this exhibition, the end game is anything but a sale. Typically known as object makers, they choose to explore new mediums as a supplement to those they are most comfortable using in the studio, opting instead to explore the mutual connections in which their friendship is grounded: a love of eating and a love of creating.

Lopez and Packer met on their first semester of graduate school, a time when the practice of creating art is—and should—be selfish. It is now more than three years after Lopez and Packer’s first encounter, and the work they have developed for Two Spreads is a true collaboration. Conceived and produced together, each element of the exhibition is co-authored. They discuss their exhibition concept with me sitting around a table at Café Jumping Bean. Their process of ordering mirrors their process of making. A quickly agreed upon hummus sandwich to share. Without onions? An easy compromise.

Inspired by the relationships between food and art, two of the artists’ great loves, Two Spreads highlights their passion for color and form. Creators in every way, Lopez and Packer pile mounds of homemade edible color onto a plate of canvas. Though these foodstuffs are the focus of the opening and closing events, they are unable to overpower the audience’s presence.

Lunch table as artwork, these spreads are made for sharing.

There will be a closing reception for Two Spreads on February 23, 3-6 pm.

Michael Lopez is an interdisciplinary “bi-racial” UIC MFA native of Chicago. His mother is a public school teacher and last year he claimed only $3,400 on his taxes. For a detailed breakdown of his genetics and artwork please visit www.michaelplopez.com

Roni Packer is a painter who prioritizes the paint over the image. Her spacious paintings and installations are a terrain for material and formal explorations that invariably put color at their core. Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Packer moved to the United States in 2014. She received her MFA from The University of Illinois-Chicago in 2017, and was a BOLT resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition in 2017-2018. www.ronipacker.com

An essay by Lauren Leving will accompany the exhibition.
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Tags: Compound Yellow, Michael Lopez, Oak Park, Roni Packer, Two Spreads