Aesthetics of Loss

The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art is proud to present Aesthetics of Loss, a collection of work by seven artists who have experienced loss of family members recently. Their studios became places for grieving and understanding the sudden vacuum of losing loved ones either suddenly or over a long period of illness. Caregiving, memory, helplessness, loss and the ultimate mystery of death are explored through painting, print-making, fibers, ceramics, photography, installation and video. Some artists utilize objects and clothing left behind by their loved ones and transform them into artworks and some use ritual and natural materials as memorial or commemorative actions of grieving and coming to terms.

Ebti is a multidisciplinary artist, a self-taught photographer and a translator living between Cairo and San Francisco. She received her MFA in Fine Art from the California College of the Arts in 2021. Her practice is informed by languages, theater, literature, music and her family’s making-traditions she never got to learn. Through this multi- faceted, dislocated lens she looks at the ideas of home, belonging, and attachment. Though her work is rooted in photography, she is constantly looking for new materials and methods that will best translate her ideas. Once she starts working on a project, she embraces notions of accident and failure. Her practice is ever-evolving and is influenced by her restlessness.

Cassidy Early (b. 1994, Worcester, MA) is a nonbinary Scottish American artist living and working in Chicago, IL. They graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a MFA in Painting in 2020 and received their BFA from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts in 2016. Early’s work has been featured in a solo exhibition with Lauren Powell Projects, (Los Angeles, CA), a three person exhibition with Olympia (New York, NY), and larger group exhibitions with La Loma Projects (Pasadena, CA), Green Gallery (Milwaukee, WI), The Salon at The Wing Chicago (Chicago, IL), and in I Like Your Work, Podcast. Their work has been published alongside Garth Green- well’s essay Making Meaning: Against Relevance in Art in Harper’s Magazine (Nov. 2020), and as the LVL3 Artist of the Week (Nov. 2020).

Brianna L. Hernández is a Chicana artist, curator, educator, and death doula guided by socially-engaged values. In developing as an artist, Brianna credits her late mother, Sylvia D. Hernández, as her most significant mentor. Brianna’s studio practice focuses on end-of-life care, grieving processes, and mourning rituals based on lived experience, cultural research, and collaborations with peers. In addition to formal artworks, she offers

workshops or viewers to self-educate on grief and end-of-life planning through the safety of the creative process. As a curator, Brianna works with artists to make socially-charged topics publicly accessible in order to create opportunities for education and empathy. She also collaborates with community health researchers to incorporate the arts into public health projects through curatorial consulting. Brianna proudly serves as Director of Curation and Board Secretary at Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Southampton, New York.

Linda b. Marcus (b. 1961, Los Angeles, California) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Drawing on her long history as a storyteller in journalism and fashion, Marcus now focuses on fiber, sculpture and photography. Marcus’s work has been exhibited widely in Wisconsin including the Museum of Wisconsin Art, The Trout Museum, the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and fiber arts and the Charles Allis Museum as well as numerous galleries and in several publications. Marcus is currently pursuing her MFA at the School of The Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois. Marcus has been awarded several residencies including on at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Currently, Marcus is the creative director for the Saint Kate Arts hotel in Milwaukee where she continues to push the limits of contemporary art and provide a platform for other artists.

Jessica Meuninck-Ganger’s prints, artist’s books and large-scale hybrid media works have been exhibited in museums and both experimental and commercial galleries regionally, nationally and internationally. Her art is included in several private and public collections, including the Weisman Museum of Art, Marcus Corporation (Saint Kate Arts Hotel), Northwestern Mutual, Target Corporation, and in contemporary publications, such as Andrea Ferber’s, Sustenance: Contemporary Printmaking Now, Richard Noyce’s, Printmaking Beyond the Edge, and Nathaniel Stern’s, Interactive Art and Embodiment: The Implicit Body as Performance. Jessica earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education from Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana and MFA in Studio Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is currently the Print and Narrative Forms Area Head and Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

Nirmal Raja is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Milwaukee. She had lived in India, South Korea, and Hong Kong before immigrating to the United States thirty-two years ago. She holds a BA in English Literature from St. Francis College in Hyderabad, India; a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She has participated in solo and group shows in the Midwest, nationally, and internationally. She is the recipient of several awards including Graduate of The Decade from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Raja received the Mary L. Nohl Fellowship for individual artists for the year 2020 and the Mildred L. Harpole Artists of the Year 2022 award from the Milwaukee Arts Board. She collaborates with other artists and strongly believes in investing energy into her immediate community while also considering the global. She is a mentor for the Milwaukee Artists Resource Network’s mentorship program. She periodically curates exhibitions that bring people from different cultures and backgrounds together. Raja is represented by Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee.

Anders Zanichkowsky is a transgender artist from the Midwest. They have had residencies with The Arctic Circle sailing expedition in Svalbard, Røst AiR in Sápmi/Norway, and the Chicago Park District’s Cultural Asset Mapping Project. Their work has been exhibited across the United States, Europe, and Australia, including the Wisconsin Film Festival. Anders has received awards for their studio practice, public art projects, and international research, including a SPARK grant from the Chicago Artists Coalition and a Temkin Award for their MFA thesis show, You Are Running Into Danger. Anders has an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2019) and a BA from Hampshire College (2008).