Residency: February 25 – April 16, 2022 | Exhibition: April 2 – April 16, 2022

Exhibition Reception: Sat., April 2, 12–4pm
Open Hours: Sat, April 9 + Sat, April 16, 12–4pm + by appointment

I keep returning
to the archive
to memories
to past work

that which lingers
sometimes
it is like an aftertaste
or an echo

other times
it imprints
it clings and becomes a mantra
a memory, a prayer, a bruise, a scar
un recuerdo, a ghost

it leaves traces
scuff marks from rubber soles on a tiled floor
a bleach stain on black fabric
an eyelash on the bathroom sink
a thorn embedded in soft skin

Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago is pleased to announce regresa, regresa, regresa (return, return, return), a residency and exhibition by Juan Molina Hernández. For the past several years, Molina Hernández has been creating photography-based installations that incorporate plants, brightly painted walls, and asymmetrical layouts. During the artist’s childhood, these visual elements marked spaces as being either homes or sites of belonging, and together they form what Molina Hernández has come to think of as an “aesthetics of homemaking.” By incorporating these structural elements into their work in relation to images pulled from their collection of family photo albums, the artist draws directly from a lineage of homemakers in crafting and claiming space. Combined with new works produced by the artist, these images and presentation strategies constitute an ever-expanding archive—a place to return for research, a site for revisions, and a point of departure for new work.

During the residency, Molina Hernández will continue to build upon ideas of the archive, memory, belonging, and nostalgia while expanding on their exploration of materials and object-making. An exhibition will follow, with an opening reception scheduled for Saturday, April 2, 2022 from 12 – 4 p.m.

* * *

Juan Molina Hernández (b. Guanajuato, México) is a Chicago-based visual artist. Molina Hernández’s art practice uses photography, objects, and installation to create narratives that address the complexities of the hybrid immigrant identity. By appropriating symbols from the environment, culture, and personal memory they construct stories in relation to place, family, and a culture that never speaks one language.

Molina Hernández graduated from Northern Illinois University with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in photography. In the past, they have exhibited at ACRE Projects, Aurora Public Art Commission, Chicago Artists Coalition, Evanston Art Center, Elmhurst Art Museum, Jack Olson Gallery, and Roman Susan. juanmolinahernandez.com | @juanmolinahernandez

This exhibition is organized by Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago member Julia Klein.

Image at top: Juan Molina Hernández, mantenerte a salvo III (safekeeping III), 2021. Archival inkjet print, concrete, glass, 7 x 8.5 x 2 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Tiger Strikes Asteroid is a 501c3 non-profit network of independently operated, artist-run exhibition spaces with locations in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Greenville, SC. Our goal is to collectively bring people together, expand connections and create community through artist-initiated exhibitions, projects, and curatorial opportunities. We seek to build an ethos of cooperative achievement in the visual arts, creating the physical and emotional space for artists to show their work and exchange ideas on their own terms. Our artist-run model expands the artist’s role beyond that of studio practitioner to include the roles of curator, critic, and community developer and provides an alternate model to the conventions of the current commercial art market.

For more information visit: www.tigerstrikesasteroid.com
Contact us: chicago@tigerstrikesasteroid.com

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Tags: Chicago, Juan Molina Hernandez, Lower West Side, regresa regresa regresa, regresa regresa regresa (return return return), return return return, Tiger Strikes Asteroid