Join us for an artist talk between Harlequin Choreographies exhibition artist, Erol Scott Harris, and Gallery Director, Ciera Alyse McKissick during EXPO Extended Gallery Hours to discuss the the work on view, notions of family legacies, labor, migration, and Harris’ experience in graduate school at Yale School of Art.

Pushing his familiar and signature medium, linoleum vinyl flooring, into new directions, these recently developed monoprints and floor installation conjure the spirit of his ancestors’ handiwork, in this deeply personal work. Learn more about the exhibition here.

About Erol Scott Harris

Erol Scott Harris is a multidisciplinary artist who creates identity-based work. Currently studying Painting and Printmaking at The Yale School of Art, he is a Chicago boy who was born in the north suburbs in Waukegan, Illinois. For Harris, painting is an arena in which to uncover how he can work with the body— his own and others – to mobilize autobiographical folklore to investigate materials used by laborers.

Having played cello for many years, Harris re-orders marks the way music is made. His substrate of choice is vinyl and linoleum sheet flooring, a synthetic material made to fool the eye by perfectly mimicking natural stone or wood. A material being used in hospitals, schools, and in affordable housing, but also in high-end residential and hotels. It’s used across the board. In the studio, He constructs situations that contain both structure and potentialities for a laborious process of cutting, chopping, shearing, rubbing and burning of this material to take place.The resulting image or object could be perceived as a relic of a performance, a concretion of a lived experience, or as a materialization of possibility.

For Harris, forming an impression also depends on how objects impress on us. It can be a belief (“to be under an impression”) . It can be an imitation or an image (“to create an impression”). Or it can be a mark on the surface (to leave an impression”) We need to remember the ‘press’ in an impression…

About Ciera Alyse McKissick

Ciera Alyse McKissick is an independent, curator, event producer, writer, and the founder of AMFM, a media platform whose mission is to promote and uplift emerging interdisciplinary artists and creatives. McKissick created AMFM, originally a web magazine, as an independent study project in 2009 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she studied Journalism and Mass Communications. Her work since then has involved supporting the work and practice of Black and brown artists through writing, exhibitions, partnerships, and activations in collaboration with local arts organizations and institutions. Ultimately, she seeks to stimulate community engagement that’s driven by inclusivity, accessibility, intention, and care. She recently launched a new contemporary art space, cam.contemporarie, in 2024, was the Inaugural Curatorial Fellow with The Luminary in 2023, and was a participant in the Independent Curators International’s Chicago Curatorial Seminar in 2022. Formerly she was also the Public Programs Manager at the Hyde Park Art Center. She is currently pursuing a Masters at Goldsmiths University in London, UK.

McKissick’s projects and events have been featured on / with Artsy, Cultured, EXPO Chicago, Terremoto MX, Afropunk, ABC 7 Chicago, The Chicago Tribune, WGN, WTTW, Newcity, Sixty Inches From Center, Chicago Reader, The Chicago Sun Times, South Side Weekly, and more. Programmatic partners include The Hoxton Hotel, Saatchi Art / The Other Art Fair, Red Bull and more.

Photo Credits: Natasha Moustache

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Tags: cam.contemporarie, Chicago, Ciera Alyse McKissick, Erol Scott Harris, Harlequin Choreographies, Lower West Side, Mana Contemporary, Mana Open Studios