Opening Saturday, February 27, 2021
On view through April 10, 2021

Special Opening Weekend Hours Saturday and Sunday, February 27-28, 12-4pm, by appointment. Regular gallery hours are Fridays and Saturdays, 12-4pm, by appointment.

About the Exhibition

Goldfinch is proud to present “36° 15’ 43” N 29° 59’ 14” E,” a solo exhibition of new sculptures by SaraNoa Mark.

SaraNoa Mark’s practice investigates traces left by time, as they exist in landscapes and in collective memory. Using lasting materials like carved clay and discarded stones, the artist explores notions of permanence and erasure, questioning why certain pieces of history remain visible, while others fall away and are lost. Through intricate sculptural work that “rhymes” with, rather than replicates, ancient artifacts and sites of antiquity, Mark considers how we task certain objects with surviving time and how, in turn, these objects shape our perceptions of history. In other words, when we only see what we’re reminded of, what do we neglect in the process? What remains hidden, but still present?

Mark’s new body of work stems from a recent Fulbright research fellowship in Turkey, during which the artist visited living rock monuments throughout the country. Among these sites was Myra, an ancient Lycian metropolis, in the present-day Antalya Province. Now a Turkish national park and international tourist destination, the site is known for its rock-cut tombs, carved into the vertical cliff faces of a mountain. With further exploration of the area, Mark visited the mountain’s other side, quietly tucked behind orange groves, away from the crowds. The mountain’s “backside” revealed rock cut staircases and tombs, equally as complex and mysterious as the carved ruins of the front. For Mark, this “secret” or neglected part of an ancient site threw into very literal relief questions about pilgrimage and abandonment, value and neglect. “36° 15’ 43” N 29° 59’ 14” E,” the coordinates of Myra’s reverse mountainside, invites us into a new landscape, where what is discarded, buried, and remembered is exposed all at once—a historical record remade, and then remade again.
Exhibition Programming

*Additional Programs To Be Announced

Communal Beach Clean at the 57th Street Beach
Sunday, March 21, 2021, 1 pm – 3:30 pm

This event is hosted in partnership with the Alliance for Great Lakes ADOPT-A-BEACH

To register: https://adopt.greatlakes.org/s/cleanup/a2o1L000000hjjAQAQ/aab19459

Artist’s Bio

SaraNoa Mark (b. 1991, New York, NY) pursues a drawing practice that reflects a desire to evidence the constant and invisible activity of time. Mark’s work has been supported by a Fulbright art research award in Turkey. SaraNoa was named a Visual Arts Fellow by the Luminarts Cultural Foundation. They have received grants from The John Anson Kittredge Fund, Illinois Arts Council, and a SPARK grant. Mark’s work was acquired by the West collection through a LIFTS grant. Upon graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts SaraNoa was awarded a European travel scholarship. SaraNoa was a BOLT resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition, and has held residencies at the Montello Foundation, Jackman Goldwasser Residency at the Hyde Park Art Center, The Lois and Charles X. Carlson Painting Residency, Sedona Summer Colony, and Art Kibbutz. Recent exhibitions of her work have taken place at Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY; Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, IL ; Tiger Strikes Astroid, Philadelphia, PA; Monaco, St. Louis, MO; Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL; Smithsonian Institution’s S. Dillon Ripley Center, Washington, DC among others. SaraNoa is a co-director at the 4th Ward Project Space in Chicago where she lives and works.

Official Website

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Tags: 36° 15’ 43” N 29° 59’ 14” E, Chicago, East Garfield Park, Goldfinch, SaraNoa Mark