Comfort Station is proud to announce the upcoming two-person exhibition, The fool who knows more than the hero, dragonfruit image belies content, presenting a selection of recent work from artists Tegan Brace and Briony Galligan. The pair were participants in ACRE’s artist residency in 2015, where they were selected to be a part of the organization’s spring showcase with Comfort Station. Tegan Brace is an artist living and working in Chicago. A native of Australia, Briony Galligan will be exhibiting for the first time in the U.S.

Approaching this two-person show with vastly different artistic styles, Brace and Galligan chose to focus their work around the character of a striving but failing woman, lost in the wilderness.

Brace’s work is inspired by a woman’s prerogative to leisurely fail while maintaining integrity. Influenced by psychedelic crafting processes and a philosophy of casualness, her installations and objects question what it means to find oneself across different dimensions. Cyanotypes processed in tanning beds, plush lazy rivers and desert mirages confront the complexities of relaxation and work, while the assembly of holistic zones explore the magic of believing in constructed spaces.

Galligan’s work features text printed onto fabric in a resist dyeing process using cow dung, red pitaya and the boiled down remnants of an Australian energy drink called ‘Mother’ and the American soda ‘LaCroix’. Through these coagulated texts, images begin to bely their content. The starting point for the work is a series of images that mask what the eyes see. For Galligan, the work revolves around “a dragon fruit, a political speech with a meter that sounds true and an effervescent drink that births a god”.

Tegan Brace is a visual artist from Indiana who has been living and working in Chicago since 2007. She received her BFA from Appalachian State University in 2007 and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014. Upon graduation, Brace has inserted her swiftly crafted objects and installations into public and private spaces in the greater Chicago area. She has exhibited her work with Roots & Culture, Third Object, 2nd Floor Rear, ADDS Donna, and ACRE.

Briony Galligan is an Australian artist working with textiles, installation, video and drawings. Galligan conflates points where social and art histories collide. Galligan completed a BFA (Hons) at Monash University Melbourne Australia in 2014, and studied at the Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta, 2012. She has exhibited in Australia and South East Asia (National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Cemeti Art House, Sangkring Artist Space) Her show with Tegan Brace at Comfort Station in April 2016 is her first U.S. exhibition.

This show as curated by Mary Wells and MK Meador. Mary Wells is the Visual Arts Coordinator with Comfort Station and MK Meador has been curating exhibitions with the Station since 2012.

Press inquiries, please contact Mary Wells at art@comfortstationlogansquare.org

Comfort Station is a multidisciplinary art space whose mission is to present challenging and stimulating programming that is open and accessible to everyone. We are a community-centric organization offering a wide variety of programs: art exhibitions, concerts, film, workshops, lectures, participatory events, and more.

Comfort Station is located at 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647

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Tags: ACRE, acre artist, briony galligan, Comfort Station, Logan Square, Mary Wells, MK Meador, Tegan Brace