Reception: Sunday, August 3, 11:30am-1:30pm
Artist Q & A: Sunday, August 3, 10-11:30am, during church service
Reception and artist Q & A are free and open to the public.

Gallery Hours:
Sunday 11:30-12:30, or by appointment
By appointment all day Monday
By appointment Tuesday-Saturday 6:30-7:30
To make an appointment, email Dan Addington at dan@addingtongallery.com to arrange a visit.
To inquire about the artwork, please contact: info@firstfree.com

Free street parking is available on Ashland Avenue and in the neighborhood to the West. Please enter through the glass doors at the front of our Family Life Center on Ashland Avenue. An entrance ramp is at the front of the building on Ashland and an elevator serves all levels of the sanctuary and Family Life Center buildings.

This exhibition will include both drawings and sculptures by Chicago artist Mary Porterfield. Her works on semitransparent film, along with her charcoal drawings, address her mother’s role as caregiver to her disabled father before he passed. These works explore the evanescence of Porterfield’s father and her mother’s loss of identity, as she became increasingly consumed with his care. Several painted windows are also on display, symbolizing those fleeting connections to the outside world, made more precious as her father was unable to leave the home.

The new sculptures are comprised of her father’s clothing, which her mother saved after his passing in 2021. These items, which seemed insignificant while her father was alive, feel monumental now that he is deceased. Porterfield has become increasingly interested in those things we keep that preserve intimate memories, while enabling the process of loss.

Porterfield’s work is influenced by her work as occupational therapist and her interaction with patients and their caregivers, including her mother’s role as caregiver to her disabled father. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues including the Lim Lip Museum in South Korea, the Phoenix Art Museum, San Diego Art Institute, Hyde Park Art Center, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Kohler Arts Center, Dubuque Art Museum, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Rockford Art Museum, Figge Art Museum, Freeport Art Museum, Weatherspoon Museum, and Warnes Contemporary. Solo shows have included the Hofheimer Gallery (Chicago, Il), the Packer-Schopf Gallery (Chicago, Il), Indiana University-NW (Gary, IN), Concordia University (River Forest, Il), the University of Illinois (Urbana, Il) and the West Valley Art Museum (Surprise, Il). Honors include three Illinois Artist Council Grants, a City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Grant (DCASE), a Puffin Foundation Grant, and three Chicago Community Arts Assistance Program Grants. Porterfield teaches at Northeastern Illinois University and received an MFA from Arizona State University.

Official Website

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Tags: Andersonville, Chicago, First Evangelical Free Gallery, First Free Church, Mary Porterfield, When the Time was Gone