Jun 29th 2019

The STORYTELLERS

@ Carrie Secrist Gallery

835 W Washington Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607

Opening Saturday, June 29th, from 5PM - 8PM

On view through Saturday, August 17th

Participating artists:

Sarah Bastress
Cecilia Beaven
Cathy Hsiao
James Kao
Ryan Nault
Alex Stark

Carrie Secrist Gallery is pleased to present our summer group exhibition The Storytellers. This exhibit brings together six Chicago-based artists whose practice involves narrative as a visual means to investigate approaches in storytelling. The Storytellers opens June 29 and runs through August 17, 2019, with an opening reception June 29 from 5 to 8PM.

Storytelling is in many ways a universal, implicit standard of life by which we learn, are entertained, question and understand. The role of a storyteller is to depict a narrative that compels emotive components through plot, characters and settings in a manner traditionally beholden to a beginning, middle and end. Within this structure are devices that compel meaning through theme, structure, genre, and tense. The nuances that occupy each told story are what make them unique, giving the reader personalized access and room to emotionally respond.

Within the confines of visual art, the framework of a single static image may or may not travel the entire distance of a story arc. In some cases the story jumps from artwork to artwork, and in others, the non-sequential narrative is built into a single image. What lies outside that framework, or the untold, is a reminder that the human condition is complex and unconditional. As such, narrative art – art that tells a story – challenges the viewer to discern meaning through the level, approach and amount of an artist’s articulation of a depiction.

What bind many of the artists in The Storytellers is the highly personal experiences through which their stories visually unfold. The use of figure(s), animals, nature and a myriad of other motifs develop deceptively simple to complex story arcs. The autobiographical and individual stories that are told evolve through this narrative approach as a way to convey shared meaning. Ultimately, how these images resonate gives agency to the viewer so that they may place themselves somewhere along their own arc.

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