Often, surrounded in my studio by buckets and paper towels, I wonder what kind Freudian mistake has been made to turn me into a painter- Amy Sillman, On Color

The contemporary world is full of agony, disaster, grief, and pain. Climate change, losing control of our bodies, and war are just a few of our daily realities. Artists may walk into their studio and question their choice to create, if doing so even has meaning at all.

Radical Joy is the act nurturing one’s own happiness, it can be used as the greatest combatant against global uncertainty. This kind of joy is not dependent on outside forces but is within us and within our control. When expressed, it can help us create a change and inspire others to do the same.

When the world is on fire, painting is an act of Radical Joy.

RADICAL JOY is an exhibition of six Chicago painters curated by another Chicago painter, Kailyn Perry. The pieces included examine the radical joy we can find in creating artwork, and the conclusions we come to in the process. The show includes work from: Nicole Rey Alderson, Meghan Borah, Mel Cook, Flor Flores, Madelyn Turner-Havens, and Patrick Wilkins.

Kailyn Perry was born and raised in Massachusetts. She received a BFA in Art History and Painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2013. She attended The London Summer Intensive, an artist residency at Slade School of Fine Art at University College London in 2018. Her work has been exhibited at many Chicago galleries- most recently Belong Gallery
and Cleaner Gallery. Kailyn has also shown at the Camden Arts Centre in London, The Neon Heater in Findlay, Ohio, and at a pop up exhibition featuring the Chicago Imagists at 56 Downing St Brooklyn NY. Kailyn’s work has been reviewed in The Chicago Tribune, ArtNet, Artsy, Art News, and NewCity.

Nicole Rey Alderson is a Chicago-based painter working primarily in watercolor and oil paint. Through her intuitive approach, Nicole creates works that build layers of self-reflection, emotion, and memory, inviting the viewer into an intimate journey of self-discovery and offering them the opportunity to embark on their own journey of interpretation and meaning. Nicole’s work is deeply process-driven, exploring the concept of projective psychology, where each story is encouraged to reveal itself and evolve organically. Nicole has an MFA in painting and sculpture from Indiana University and an MS in Clinical Anaplastology from Johns Hopkins University. Her artistic practice provides a counterbalance to her hyper-realistic clinical work, offering a space for discovery and introspection. The resulting paintings act as a visual diary—an autobiographical expression where the personal and psychological merge.

Meghan Borah is a painter and educator based in Chicago. Borah received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from the painting and drawing department in 2017. She is currently represented by Galleri Urbane (Dallas) and Goldfinch Gallery (Chicago). Her work has been featured in Patron Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Time Out Chicago, New American Paintings, and ArtSlant. She has been the recipient of numerous artist residency programs, including the Vermont Student Center in 2018, and is the current Artist in Residence at Esmé (Chicago).

Mel Cook is a visual artist currently living and working in Chicago, Illinois. She has previously taught at Illinois State University and Illinois Central College and currently teaches at Marwen in Chicago, Illinois. Her work has been featured in Art in Print, Studio Visit magazine, and most recently in New American Paintings, Midwest ed. No 125. In 2016 she was a participant in The
Center Program at Hyde Park Art Center and a resident at Skowhegan School of Painting Sculpture in 2016 and ACRE in 2017. Most recently her work has been exhibited at Left Field Slo, in San Luis Obispo, California, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Condo Association, and Roots & Culture in Chicago, The Riverside Arts Center in Riverside, Illinois, and The Chicago Show, in Brooklyn, New York.

Flor Flores is a transdisciplinary artist & poet. Their works are proposals for queer belongings & new modes of expressing & relating to one another. Some themes & subjects in their works are: Flowers as a stand-in for myself (Flor); Kiki, a queer monarch butterfly that loves the discotheque–Kiki is also a framework for collaborations, Kiki is also now an experimental
publishing project; “X” an Epic poem about the letter X, as in Latinx & its other uses as a gesture of erasure, inclusion, voidance, & as a placeholder for a language that is yet to come. Flor has had recent “Solo” exhibitions at Everybody Gallery, Chicago Artists Coalition, ADDS DONNA, BAR4000. They have been featured in reviews and publications such as Artmaze, Sixty Inches From Center, New American Paintings, Newcity Art, Chicago Artist Writers, and Monsters & Dust.

Madelyn Havens is a figurative painter based in Illinois. She has a BA in studio art, and is currently pursuing an MFA degree with Illinois State University. She is interested in the physical and affective experiences with the body. Her paintings have been featured in publications and galleries such as Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL, the Borzello Gallery in Galesburg, IL, the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA, the Catich Gallery at St. Ambrose University, IA, and New American Paintings.

Patrick Wilkins was born in Wiesbaden, Germany and grew up in Elkhart, Indiana. He earned his BA from Purdue University and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has worked as a Butcher, a Glass Repairer, a Construction Worker, and a Dog Walker, among many other jobs that he looks back on with varying degrees of fondness. He currently lives and works in Chicago.

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Tags: Chicago, Flor Flores, Heaven Gallery, Kailyn Perry, Madelyn Turner-Havens, Meghan Borah, Mel Cook, Nicole Rey Alderson, Radical Joy, Radical Joy: Artist Talk, West Town