In summer 2012, #With (Matt Nichols and Kristina Paabus) built a traditional-style, Estonian Village Swing while at the ACRE residency. The focus of this permanent installation was to create an object that serves as an active location for open dialogue and exchange. In ‘the jerks’ Nichols and Paabus continue their process of exchange, shifting their interests inward as they explore visual conversation through a series of collaborative collages and objects.

Unlike the highly structured approach required to execute the Village Swing, the works within the exhibition are allowed to develop fluidly over time. In most instances each piece stems from a given form (frequently a photograph) that is altered by Nichols or Paabus with no instruction from the other. The piece is then modified and exchanged in this manner until it reaches an agreeable level of completion. Working remotely (between Los Angeles and Chicago), the artists allow distance and technology to act as the limiting factors in the creative process. The result is a collection of uncanny works that reflect the psychology of personal dialog produced by an analog means.

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MATT NICHOLS is a Los Angeles based artist. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California Berkeley in 2003, and was a Trustee Scholar at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning his MFA in 2010. His work has been shown by galleries in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

More information about Matt Nichols can be found at www.matt-nichols.com.

KRISTINA PAABUS was born and raised in Massachusetts, and has also called Tallinn, Providence, Minneapolis, and Chicago home. She studied Fine Arts and Religious Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Fine and Applied Arts at The Estonian Academy of Arts (EAA), and received a BFA and Art History Concentration from the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2009 she earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and then moved to Estonia as a Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Artist at the EAA. Kristina has taken part in residencies in the U.S., Iceland, Estonia, and Romania; and has exhibited her work in Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Rosendale, Providence, Reykjavik, Miami, Berlin, and Tallinn. Currently, Kristina lives and works in Chicago where she is a faculty member and Graduate Coordinator in SAIC’s Department of Printmedia.

More information about Kristina Paabus can be found at www.kristinapaabus.com.

ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions) is a volunteer-run non-profit based in Chicago devoted to employing various systems of support foremerging artists and to creating a generative community of cultural producers. ACRE investigates and institutes models designed to help artists develop, present, and discuss their practices by providing forums for idea exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and experimental projects. ACRE enacts its mission primarily through an annual summer residency program in rural southwestern Wisconsin. Throughout the rest of the year, ACRE offers opportunities for exhibition to each of its residents.

More information about ACRE can be found at acreresidency.org.

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Tags: #With, ACRE Projects, Kristina Paabus, Matt Nichols, Pilsen