A Look Within: Judy Norris & Suzette Bross

Opening Reception: March 1, 5:30-7:30pm

Artist Talk with Judy Norris: March 15, 2019, 5:00pm

TACHP exhibits two Chicago artists who explore the representation of self and others through art. Judy Norris has been painting for fifty years, with a prolific collection of works often reflecting her own life.  As a kind of visual diary, there is a complexity between herself and viewer as her self portraits do not look us in the eye, but rather she turns her back to us, leading us further into her private world. By Contrast, Suzette Bross’ For the Glass, transforms the traditional portrait by turning a digital flatbed scanner into a contemporary version of the photographic plate. “Meditating on the tradition of portraiture, Bross mimics the sharp details and imperfections in the surfaces of 19th-century studio portraits. Her relationship with her subjects becomes a performative act of photographing.” By pushing technology into the past, Bross creates an intimacy with her subjects, including herself through her own self portrait.  Together, their work exemplifies a commonality of self expression seen through very different lenses.

Judy Norris is a Chicago based artist explores the self, identity, and relationships to family. She is inspired by personal tales, the environment, and cultures around the world. Her work embodies much from her own life, including a series and book dealing with the sense of grief from the loss of her son. Her self portraits defy the usual expectations of defining the self with a sense of humor and realism tied together.

Suzette Bross is a photographer living and working in Chicago, Illinois. Her work is in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the New Britain Museum of American Art, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art and more. With an MFA from the Institute of Design at IIT, Bross has taught at Columbia College Chicago, the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and the Northwestern University Medical School. Her work has been exhibited internationally and across the United States. Her series, For the Glass, was featured in solo exhibitions at the Chicago Artists Coalition and Lehman Arts Center in North Andover, MA, Geary Contemporary booth at EXPO Chicago 2016, and as the first exhibition in the Chicago Google Artist Initiative. The series pushes the boundaries of portraiture.