The Hills Esthetic Center is pleased to present, Growth, an exhibition featuring new work by artists Dmitri Hertz, Kate Levant, and Emilie Waterhouse. Using sculpture and video installation, the artists in this exhibition explore growth as it relates to the literal natural world, our individual bodies, the theological declarations of self-help books, and the Cassandra-like stories of science fiction.

Working across the globe, the artists generated ideas for this show primarily through email and Google Plus video huddles. The fragmented time and disconnection achieved through this form of virtual communication forced the artists into a silicon separation, augmented by their interwoven ideas. Though each piece of artwork is very much created by an individual, the main gallery will function as a space dedicated to growth, where the works are meant to be viewed as part of the garden of available ideas. Each artist approached the idea of “Growth” utilizing a different method. Waterhouse plays with what is means to trap and encourage the growth of an object in sculptures created with petrified fish, glass, metal, magnifying glasses and literal growing plants. Levant rendered her pieces by drawing on plastic coated paper and the resulting figurative images exhibit a kind of shifting mimetic search for definition. Hertz created cellular entities of plaster, fabric and concrete that creep around the gallery. In addition to the gallery as garden, there will be a separate video installation by the three artists investigating cluttered detritus, which often follows in the wake of growth.

Born in Chicago, Kate Levant is currently residing in Amsterdam, where she is participating in the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten/Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science residency. Recently, Levant’s work has been featured in the Whitney Biennial 2012, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Grey Goo at Night Gallery, Los Angeles; The Unlimited Plan: Alex da Corte Kate Levant at Cleopatra’s, Brooklyn NY; This is Laced at Zach Feuer Gallery, New York , NY; The Island, organized by LAND / OHWOW, Flagler Memorial Island, Miami FL; Kate Levant and Michael E. Smith, Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Ferndale MI; and Open at Zach Feuer Gallery.

Living in New York, Dmitri Hertz is currently attending the Bard College MFA program. Most recently his work has been featured in Bankers’ Aerosol’s Bottoms, Mr Fine Art, New York, NY; Grey Goo, Night Gallery, Los Angeles California; Festival of Lights, Know More Games, Brooklyn, NY; Deep Struggle, Primetime New York, NY; and Please Remember Everything, Actual Size, Los Angeles, CA.

Emilie Waterhouse is currently working in Northern California and has been featured in shows such as Festival of Lights, Know More Games, Brooklyn. NY), Field of Dreams, Bruce High Quality, Brooklyn (NY), A Call to Arms, Redemption Center, Brooklyn (NY) and The Arc, Traveling Exhibition, USA.

The Hills Esthetic Center is both a conventional and organic exhibition space located within a complex of artist’s studios and audio recording facilities on Chicago’s west side. Focusing on emerging artists and local arts initiatives, the space aims to promote a breadth of cultural production and invention in the service of independent artistic expression. We value a relaxed artist-controlled environment with the potential for the interaction of critical and social dialogues.
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Tags: Dmitri Hertz, Emilie Waterhouse, GROWTH, Kate Levant, The Hills