CONSTRUCTING THE INTANGIBLE
New work by CITY SOUVENIRS
Curated by KATE BOWEN
March 3-17, 2013

Opening Reception : Sunday, March 3, 4-8PM
Open Hours : Sundays & Mondays, 12-4PM

ACRE Projects
1913 W. 17th St.
Chicago, IL 60608

Navigating the city, we learn how to operate within it. For urban dwellers, a firsthand knowledge of the texture of urban space is embedded in our daily lives as we notice small fragments like the uneven surface of the sidewalk, or ornate details embedded in the architecture we pass on the street. Buried in our everyday concern are the surfaces, sites and landmarks that help us orient ourselves. This experience is kinetic, like the city itself, and always changing us as we, in turn, change it. We are continuously building and modifying, collecting new information and altering the image of the city for ourselves.

Nicole Seisler and Liene Bosquê are a collaborative artist team known as City Souvenirs. The duo invites participants to make casts and impressions of their surroundings. The objects created serve as relics that hold the imprint of a site specifically chosen by each individual while also resonating with an experience familiar to most urban dwellers. The objects are made from clay, which changes physical states during the process of creation, from flexible to delicate to durable.

This exhibition also marks an experimental shift in material for City Souvenirs, with the inclusion of brick casts made using paper. Unlike clay, the paper objects never reach a permanent state. The material remains delicate, and with water would return to a flux state of pulp, ready to be mixed and re-shaped. As with the city, the malleability of these objects is incorporated into our understanding of their material character.

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Nicole Seisler is an interdisciplinary artist who creates sculpture, installation, and public art that investigate themes of time, ephemerality, and the overlapping roles of artist/viewer/participant/collaborator. Nicole received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has exhibited her work at venues such as the Elmhurst Art Museum, Illinois; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee; Armory Arts Center, West Palm Beach; NEXT Art Fair, Chicago; Alto Galleria, Brussels; and Flash Atoyle in Izmir, Turkey. Nicole has been awarded the City of Boston Public Art Grant, the Fort Point Arts Community Public Art Fund, and she recently received the Maria Scholarship for her residency with ACRE Projects. Nicole is currently an Instructor of Ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Liene Bosquê is a visual artist based in New York where she is current artist-in- residence at Workspace, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council 2012-2013. Recently Liene participated in NYFA Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Liene was born in Brazil, where she completed her BFA at São Paulo Estate University and a baccalaureate in Architecture from Mackenzie University. Bosquê’s work deals with the exploration of sensorial experience within architectural, urban and personal spaces. Her installations, objects and site specific works have been exhibited internationally at locations such as the Museu de História Natural in Lisbon, the Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto in Brazil, Elmhurst Art Museum, in United States and non-profit galleries and public spaces in Brazil, Portugal, Chicago and New York. In 2007 she received the “Anteciparte” award in Lisbon.

More information about City Souvenirs can be found at citysouvenirs.wordpress.com.

Kate Bowen is an artist living and working in Chicago. She is the Curator of Video Programming at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and a Teaching Artist at Senn High School. She received her MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2011.

More information about Kate Bowen can be found at katembowen.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: ACRE, City Souvenirs, Liene Bosquê, Nicole Seisler, Pilsen