Luminous is a site-specific installation by Karen Azarnia. Time, relationships and connections between people, absence and presence, and the ephemeral are all concerns of the artist. Shown during the height of spring, Luminous celebrates transformation and change.

Decidedly lo-fi, the work emphasizes the importance of light and the hand-made. Exploring the dialogue between abstraction and representation, the piece itself undergoes a daily visual change during the transition from day to night. Through the slowness of looking, it is meant to evoke mystery, memory, and the universal human experience as we shift through time and space.

Karen Azarnia received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,and her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She has exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at the Union League Club o­­­­f Chicago, IL; Gallery Uno, Chicago, IL; as well as recent group exhibitions with Aviary, Boston, MA; Morehead State University, Morehead, KY and Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL. She has been awarded multiple artist residencies including Ox-Bow and the Vermont Studio Center, and is a grant recipient from the Illinois Arts Council and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. She currently serves as Director of the Riverside Arts Center Freeark Gallery. For more information visit: www.karenazarnia.com.

Brent Fogt
Gardenia Royales

Brent Fogt developed his site-specific installation, Gardenia Royales, while dreaming of spring and summer months. Terrain South, positioned in-between two homes on an empty lot, would seem a perfect location for the bounty of a community garden. Reminiscent of his grandfather’s plot in central Texas, Fogt’s sculptures recall the gravity of squash after a good week of rain.

Allured by the purple mass, this installation calls the community to gather around and marvel closer. The enormity of the crotched vessels dwarf it’s audience and offers the familiar perspective of someone very small curiously gazing at nature’s wonder. Entirely made by hand, the work is an homage to the hours of labor and care involved in tending the garden.

Born in Ohio, raised in Texas, and currently based in Chicago, Brent Fogt creates intricate drawings, collages and installations that investigate organic growth and transformation. Brent’s work has been featured in New American Paintings, Art in Americaand the Houston Press and in solo exhibitions at Austin College, Emory University, Indiana University and the Lawndale Art Center. He has completed artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Chicago Artists’ Coalition and Yaddo. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. For more information visit: www.brentfogt.com

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