Beneath the Visible exhibition artists Fabrizzio Subia, Marylu E. Herrera, and David Vosburg discuss the role that ritual, grief, and structures of power play within their work and practice. Through this conversation, artists will discuss their exploration of traditional modes and new forms of ritual-building in their work. Whether they’re making objects, audio archives, or working with technology within the digital space, these artists are actively engaging with and challenging the act of ceremony. This program will begin with a reading of Maintaining, Maintaining, Maintaining from Beneath the Visible artist, Laurie LeBreton, who will share words about the power of insisting in both life and practice. The conversation will be moderated by Center Program Curator and Lead, Silvia Gonzalez.

About the Featured Artists:

Fabrizzio Subia

Fabrizzio Subia is a Chicago-based artist and performer from Guayaquil, Ecuador. He earned his BFA in Performance from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020. He is a member of the radical art collective, P.O. Box Collective, and founder of the Tortas y Talento Open Mic. He serves as the Assistant Manager of Exhibitions and Development at the International Museum of Surgical Science, and is the Preparator in Residence at Chicago Art Department.

Maryly E. Herrera

Marylu E. Herrera (she/her) is a Chicago-based Chicana collage, printmedia, craft, and fiber artist who uses the home as a political and personal site where celebration is a form of existence and resistance. Herrera earned her BFA in Studio Art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston at Tufts University and her MFA in Printmedia from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently works as the Communication and Design Coordinator at LATITUDE Chicago. Herrera’s work has been exhibited at Chicago Art Department, Comfort Station, RUSCHWOMAN, Woman Made Gallery, SITE Galleries, Hyde Park Art Center, and Tish & Koppelman Galleries. Her Artist Book, Me Voy, is a part of the Artist Book Special Collections of SMFA & Tufts Library Archive in Boston. She is currently a Chicago Art Department Resident and a part of The Center Program at Hydepark Art Center. Most recently, Herrera has been awarded the Chicago DCASE 2023 Individual Artists Program Grant. Her collage work has been featured in New York Magazine (The Cut), Los Angeles Times, Bitch Media, and Eater.com.

David Vosburg

David Vosburg is a conceptual artist living and working on Chicago’s south side, exploring intersections of place, power, and meaning-making. In addition to the Center Program, he has exhibited work across Chicago, the United States and internationally. He received his BA in Film Studies and earned an interdisciplinary MLA from Johns Hopkins University.

Laurie LeBreton

Laurie LeBreton is a sculptor living and working in Chicago. Her primary material is abaca, a paper that she makes herself. She also uses a wide variety of other materials, including yarn, ribbon, beads, aluminum cans, wire and flower petals. LeBreton graduated from Columbia College with an MFA in interdisciplinary arts, with an emphasis on the book and paper arts. She has exhibited widely in the Chicago area, across the country and internationally. LeBreton is currently enrolled in the 10th cohort of the Hyde Park Art Center Program.

About the Moderator:

Silvia Gonzalez

Silvia Inés Gonzalez is a multi-disciplinary artist, cultural worker, and educator in Chicago creating spaces where collective wellness takes on critical dialogue, art making, and community building. Her visual and audio work is a ballad to nostalgia–the borderline between myth and memory. Silvia has curated and facilitated workshops to address structures of power, imagination, repair, collective care, play, confinement, and freedom. Her work has been exhibited at The National Mexican Museum of Art, Woman Made Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, ACRE, and local grassroots art spaces. She is a member of the Chicago ACT Collective and the 96 ACRES Project. She was awarded the 3Arts Make A Wave Award in 2018, CAC + OtherPeoplesPixels Maker Grant in 2020,The Illinois Humanities Envisioning Justice Grant in 2022, and The Ignite Fund in 2023.

As the organizer and administrator of (People of Color) Artist Space, she connects artists of color from across Chicago to resources through social meet-ups, salons, and development opportunities. Two extensions of POCAS include POCAS is Salon, which is a co-learning space for artists to connect across various topics and ideas, and POCAS + Friends–inviting intentional relationship-building as a means of support and care. Most recently, Silvia has developed Sala: A Living Room of Ideas on Lumpen Public Radio. Sala invites artists, cultural workers, and civically minded people to discuss liberation, education, organizing, community, and practices toward healing, from the perspective of Artists’ and their processes. She is a current Co-Lab resident at Chicago Art Department.

About the Exhibition

Beneath the Visible features the work of Center Program Artists translating impermanence, cyclical events, and transformation. By reflecting on the cultural, environmental, and social layers of their work, artists enact poetic research processing beyond immediately apparent material. Fragments are re-constructed into blueprints. What was once an idea becomes a detectable dimension.

In exploring the topographies of artistic practice, artists are considering what it means to exist today, preserve the past, and envision multiple possible futures. Ephemeral materials are transformed into a type of documentation of the processes of change. Through repetitive actions, artists are uncovering methodologies that shape the meaning of their work. The exhibition challenges baseline views by solidifying the relationships between memory, material, and process. Beneath the Visible is on view through February 25.

The Center Program is the Art Center’s capstone program for artists who are ready to challenge and grow their art practice. Artists apply to participate in the eight-month seminar with the purpose to develop new works, participate in critical dialogues, engage with professionals in the field, and ultimately exhibit new works to a broader audience.

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Tags: Chicago, David Vosburg, Fabrizzio Subia, Hyde Park, Hyde Park Art Center, Laurie LeBreton, Marylu E. Herrera, Radical Reconsiderations…On Maintaining Grief Ritual and Power, RITUAL, Silvia Gonzalez