Hyde Park Art Center, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, announces Ground Floor, the eighth iteration of the Art Center’s biennial program since 2010 showcasing select work by recent graduates from each of Chicago’s five MFA (Master of Fine Art) programs, on view from December 7, 2024 - March 23, 2025.
The exhibition offers a single destination to view some of Chicago’s most promising emerging talent who graduated in 2023-24 from one of Chicago’s five top-tier MFA programs: Columbia College Chicago (CCC), Northwestern University (NU), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), The University of Chicago (UofC), and The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Artists represented in Ground Floor include Chelsea Bighorn (SAIC), Sebastian Bruno-Harris (SAIC), Teresita Carson (UIC), Maximiliano Cervantes (NU), José De Sancristóbal Higareda (NU), Kyrin Hobson (UofC), Hillary Johnson (CCC), Janhavi Khemka (SAIC), Betty Kim (UofC), Jules Koreman (UofC), Hien-Minh Le(UIC), Hai-Wen Lin (SAIC), Morisha Moodley (NU), Grace Papineau-Couture (CCC), Carissa Lee Pinckney (SAIC), Katie Revilla (NU), David Sami (UofC), , Aleksandra Walaszek (SAIC), andSangwoo Yoo (SAIC).
Ground Floor presents the work of select graduates made in the past few years to articulate conceptual and stylistic trends coming out of Chicago art schools right now. While their modes of making range the full spectrum in media from performance and film to painting and sculpture, many of the artists in this year’s selection are traversing themes of loss and liberation, alternative archiving methods, and engaging the senses to be more connected and present in defiance of the overwhelmingly isolated state of our world.
Ground Floor—so named because it provides a crucial platform for rising artists and traverses the entire lower level of the Art Center—gives exhibiting artists a major public venue in which to display their works at a critical juncture in their careers, helping to build, support, and ensure a strong and vibrant community of artists in Chicago.
The nineteen artists in the exhibition were selected by the Art Center’s Ground Floor Selection Committee from a competitive pool of applicants who were nominated by respected Chicago-based artists, curators, and administrators. The 2024 committee includes nationally and internationally renowned artists and educators Dawoud Bey (committee chair), Juan Baños, Paul Catanese, Erin Hayden, Arnold J. Kemp, and Laura Letinsky. The exhibition is curated by Director of Exhibitions and Residency, Allison Peters Quinn, and Exhibitions and Residency Coordinator, Tran Tran.
The exhibition is enriched through a series of public programs, offering opportunities for artists to engage with audiences, and is documented through an illustrated catalog to be released in 2025, which includes a commissioned text by an emerging art writer about each exhibiting artist.
Participating artist José De Sancristóbal Higareda said, “Being alongside other artists who recently graduated from an MFA program in Chicago feels like finding new peers to share that experience with. It allows for new connections to be made not only with artists but also with curators, organizers, cultural workers, and the expanded community around Hyde Park, shaping each other's work and ideas.”
Participating artist Teresita Carson added, “The Ground Floor Biennial is an incredible platform and opportunity to be a part of a larger conversation. I am eager for audiences to be exposed to my work and ideas inspired by Sci-Fi, Mesoamerican culture, and Indigenous epistemologies.”
This exhibition is generously supported by Northwestern University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Chicago.
ABOUT THE HYDE PARK ART CENTER
Hyde Park Art Center, at 5020 South Cornell Avenue on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering, production, and exhibition space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. Since its inception in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center has grown from a small collective of artists to establishing a strong legacy of risk-taking and experimentation, emerging as a unique Chicago arts institution with social impact. Today, the Art Center offers a diverse suite of programs for artists and art lovers of all backgrounds, ages, and stages in their careers including: contemporary art exhibitions in six galleries; open-access community-based school with 2,000 annual enrollments; weekly arts education to 1,000 elementary school students in public schools; weekly and summer teen programs for 100 teen artists; professional-advancement programs for artists; a local and international artist residency; and public programs that connects residents with Chicago art and artists. The Art Center’s Oakman Clinton School + Studio is the nation’s first fully contribute-what-you-can visual art school for all ages. The Art Center functions as an amplifier for creative voices of today and tomorrow, providing the space to cultivate new work and connections.
For more information, please visit www.hydeparkart.org.
