Connecting with nature and spirituality through process and invented ritual is the driving force within both Lauren Payne and Erin Washington’s work. Their processes intersect with a mutual desire to question the unknown. Presenting new works based upon the collaborators’ return to ACRE, As Above So Below will focus on where these disparate methodologies converge.

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LAUREN PAYNE’s desire to connect is steeped in creating site-specific happenings and rituals in aims of thrusting the content beyond the personal pursuit of connection into a new mythological context by creating a space for shared experiences. Her work aims to illuminate a new understanding of the metaphysical through photography, video and daily performances. Lauren Payne received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2010. Selected Exhibitions include: ACRE in Miami, Design District, Miami, Florida; My Apocalypse, Hungerford Building, Rochester; Hammes/ Payne, New Capital, Chicago, Is This Thing On, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati; Magic > Nature False Front, Portland; White Lodge, High Concept Laboratories, Chicago; Out of the Woods, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit; Lauren Payne lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.

More information about Lauren Payne can be found at www.laurenpayne.com.

ERIN WASHINGTON embraces materiality and labor to examine themes of vulnerability and permanence. Questioning how time structures transitions in ephemera, she creates mixed-media paintings, drawings, and sculptures which unravel time through the performance of their making, and their subsequent degradation. Erin employs fugitive and symbolic materials such as blackberries, lemon-juice, fire, ashes, moss, sugar, bone and saliva. Colors fade or pigments are burned: and the resulting objects emulate the cycles they describe. Her actions and products are in a constant state of flux, highlighting the disharmony between meaning, beauty, and a fundamentally messy universe. However, the temporality of the work’s making counters ambivalence; the immediate process and present-ness the work demands eclipses uncertainty…for the moment. Erin Washington received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. Selected exhibitions include MDW fair, Julius Caesar, Murdertown, Columbia College NY, and Zolla Lieberman.

More information about Erin Washington can be found at www.erinwashington.com.

JOHALLA PROJECTS was established in the fall of 2009 by Anna Cerniglia as a venue for emerging and mid-career artists. Prior to the founding of Johalla Projects, Cerniglia ran South Union Arts for several years; after its closing, she felt a need to establish a home base for her curatorial work. Located in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, Johalla Projects exhibits art of all mediums that excels beyond conventional expectations. Working together with various artists and curators, we are the collective known as Johalla Projects. As a collaborative project space, we are a haven for artists, curators, and patrons who desire to expand their aesthetic horizons. Every exhibition undergoes a thoughtful selection process, assuring that each show presented at Johalla Projects is comprised of the finest contemporary work.

More information about Johalla Projects can be found at www.johallaprojects.com.

ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibition) was founded in 2010 with the ambition to provide the arts community with an affordable, cooperative, and dialogue-oriented residency program. The residency itself takes place each summer in rural southwest Wisconsin and brings together artists from across disciplines and levels of experience to create a regenerative community of cultural producers. Over the course of the following year ACRE endeavors to further support its residents by providing venues for exhibitions, idea exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and experimental projects.

More information about ACRE can be found at www.acreresidency.org.

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Tags: ACRE Projects, Erin Washington, Johalla Projects, Lauren Payne, West Town