Chicago Artists Coalition is pleased to announce A Cloak Dripping Femme, a solo exhibition by 2023-24 BOLT Resident Ále Campos.

A Cloak Dripping Femme is a solo exhibition by Ále Campos (also known as Celeste) that features all new works that expand on their desire to unfold

the mechanics of self-realization through queered performance and drag. The works in the show come together to suggest the power of queering vision through the use of cameras, masks and masking and how they can be harnessed as strategies or tools for self-musing, self-reflection and understanding the nuances of the psyche.

The video A Cloak Dripping Femme and its sound (originally made for a live performance titled “onto a skin, highly reflective” performed at SITE/less this year) that includes an original text serves as a conceptual foundation for the exhibition as a whole.

The works in this exhibition have involved the collaborative efforts of many including Will Mitchell, Claire Flemming Staples, Tomm Roeschlein, Natasha Moustache, and Fick Patterson.

Image: Ále Campos, video still from a muse over a muse, 1 channel video, TRT ~12 min, 2024

Ále Campos (b. Los Angeles, California) is a multidisciplinary artist and performer whose elastic studio practice is anchored by drag and their persona, Celeste. Their performances, often mediated by technologies (cameras, green screens, live-streams, projections), test the directions of the gaze and the scales of hyper-visibility, stretching the boundaries of the stage. Their live work naturally unfolds into sculpture, video and print-media at the hand of exploring ephemera and the after-life of performance. Drag is at once their material but also their scaffolding for performance making, guiding their efforts in returning to formative experiences re-constructing familial archives and cultural mythologies. Through this they strive to unearth intersectionalities through time whilst navigating a queer, future-thinking state of becoming. Their work harnesses the potential of melodrama, vulnerability and camp and vibrates between the traditions of performance and drag.

They are an active, participating member of the drag and nightlife community in Chicago and are currently a resident performer / co-producer of Rumors, a monthly event that showcases some of the city’s premiere performers and DJ’s.

They received a BA from Bennington College (2016) and an MFA in Performance at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago (2022). Their work has been shown at the Hyde Park Arts Center, NO NATION, Comfort Station, Heaven Gallery, Ruschwoman (Chicago, IL), Lanemeyer Projects (Denver, CO), Collar Works (Troy, NY), September Gallery, The 405 Project (Hudson, NY), Kunsthalle Darmstadt (Germany). They attended ACRE Residency and are a recipient of the 2022 James Nelson Fellowship Award at SAIC and the City of Hudson’s Tourism Board Grant (2021).

www.ale-campos.com

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