Through sculptures, image and sound-based performances Cathy Hsiao plays with networks of circulation and who gets to circulate: the migration of objects, the movement of bodily life (human plant and animal), the circulation of western art history, it’s positive and negative spaces, the sedimentation and translation of material traces, a sort of object sedimentary subjectivity.

Born in New Delhi, where she remained until moving to the United States at the age of eleven, Kaveri Raina’s work revolves around the often-conflicting aspects of hybrid identity. Raina examines the strangeness of the physical body displaced, hovering, uncomfortable, and always anxiously awkward. She navigates binaries searching for in-betweeness, trying to both fulfill and disrupt expectations at once.

Cathy Hsiao is an artist and curator working in Chicago. She was born in New York City and immigrated to Taiwan at the age of three and back to the US after graduating high school in Taichung, Taiwan. She comes from a background in craft, specifically weaving animal fibers dyed with plants, raised by a devout Buddhist mother. “Plant and Animal Studio” keeps this name as acknowledgement to those histories. She has exhibited in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

Kaveri Raina received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016 and her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2011. Raina has received awards and fellowships including the James Nelson Raymond fellowship, Fred and Joanna Lazarus Scholarship, amongst others. She was recently nominated for the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors grant. Raina’s work has been exhibited in the US, India and Germany. In summer 2017 Raina attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She will be a fellow at Lighthouse Works and Triangle Arts Association in New York, 2018.

“Time Is Her Name” takes the shape of a wish and is a continuation of a practice of creating visual love letters to time, light and color as prayer. Consisting of mixed media sculpture, the work comes from an understanding that mysticism is a knowledge that cannot be communicated directly but can be expressed through languages of symbol and metaphor- channeling kabbalic ideas such as tikkun. Using ceramics (with clay harvested in Chicago/Los Angeles and fired in backyard fire pits), hand/machine sewing, silk cotton, alpaca, human hair, salt dough, papier-mâché and heirloom and found objects, Magritte constructs a visual thought scape of femininity, empathy, wisdom and offers a jewish mysticism based the intricacies of light, time and perception.

Magritte Emmanuel Nankin was born in what is now called California, USA. Magritte is a jewelry maker, toolmaker, textile worker and 3rd generation ceramicist. Magritte’s objects exist as talismanic art, heirlooms and gifts.

Magritte has performed and been shown in The Roman Susan gallery, The Comfort Station, Threewalls, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, bedrooms and closets. Magritte has been featured in publications such as 3rd language, 21st Century Artist identify themselves, The Walrus Literary Journal and other DIY artist books. They are currently in collaboration with Carolina Poveda on a stop animation project. Magritte has created a large body of Performance and sculptural work in the collaborative project, “Mouthy Women” with Olive Stefanski.

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Tags: Cathy Hsiao, Chicago, Kaveri Raina, Magritte Nankin, Roots & Culture, To Hover, West Town