The Yards and The Back invite all to join us for a night of art, music, and celebration. “Welcome” is an one-night exhibition curated by Isaac Vazquez and will display the work of Caroline Lee Liu, Maria José Karaman, and Angelina Almukhametova. The show will be open from 7pm until 11pm on Friday, December 14th at The Yards (2028 S Canalport Ave). The following after-party will take place at The Back (2141 W 21st St) and feature DJ sets by Antonio Linneman and TBD artists ✨

This exhibition presents three artists that work within a confined realm that is the medial between a public and intimate place. The artists hover between sculpture, imagery, installation, and textiles – while pointing towards an existing space, whether it is physical or psychological. Each one of their practice share an inclination to call into question daily existence, while drawing from their own histories. Their practice implies other ways of viewing reality and elements that surrounds us. It is important that we do not see these works as reactions to the world around us, but as explorations and experiments. Rather let it be how we react to these circumstances and phenomena: Welcome.

– Curated by Isaac Vazquez.

Caroline Lee Liu (b. 1997, SF Bay Area) makes drawings, photographs, and objects that investigate the space between the real and the fictive. Her work often references structures like windows, screens, and frames that suggest the existence of more than one reality. By drawing out the subversiveness of the everyday, she questions our belief in images and how we experience them. She has recently shown at the World’s Largest Laundromat in Berwyn, Zhou B Art Center in Chicago, and After School Special in Milwaukee. Caroline has also been the recipient of the Lunch Money Grant and Frederick Fursman Scholarship. She is currently a BFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Advanced Painting program. Caroline is also part of the collective Quilt Buddies, with Elaine Hsu and Jeremy Sublewski, as well as the publishing collective West Coast Friendship Club.

Maria José Karaman is a Chicago-based artist from Cali, Colombia. Through the making of objects and drawings, she alters cultural artifacts and material identities as ways to examine matters of absence, dysfunctionality, memory and deception. Maria sees potential in exploring ways in which spaces can be transplanted, staged and fragmented without loosing their genuine affect. Trying to bridge the organic and the fabricated; orchestrating a space where sculptural and symbolic elements are subjected to perform. Maria is currently a BFA candidate at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the sculpture department. She has recently shown her work at Sullivan Galleries as part of the show Within Receding Horizons and at SITE as part of the show Dys/functional Furniture. She is also part of the Si-Pillas memeart collective from Cali Calentura.

Born in Kazan, Russia, Angelina Almukhametova is an artist and writer that investigates the subjective experiences that the world has to offer. Her current focus lies in the challenges and discoveries of using the body as a tool for translation and vessel for performance and travel, devising performance scores, alongside urgent collages from found and personal objects and textiles. She is currently earning her BFA in Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She takes part of the publication Poetics of the Ordinary, is published in digital arts publication Collective Terrain, and has shown work at Safehouse in Houston, TX, and at the Roger Brown Study Collection in Chicago, IL.

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Tags: Angelina Almukhametova, Caroline Lee Liu, Chicago, Illinois, Isaac Vazquez, Lower West Side, Maria José Karaman, The Back, The Yards, Welcome