LOVE & Collaboration

Guest Jurors: Marketa Sivek (image) and Collaboration Team: Anoush Bargamian and Thomas C. Buechele (image)

Who do we love and how do we define love?  These selected artists illustrate the many ways artists express LOVE. Although not the first to appropriate the word LOVE, Robert Indiana’s famous LOVE sculpture in New York City, may be the most famous. As a society, who we love is constantly under debate, from our national policies to our cultural reactions to advertising. 

When artists come together and work together something magical can happen. Our guest jurors, husband and wife collaborators take the definition of partnership to a new level. They selected work created by artists in collaboration, which implies an element of trust, partnership, and cooperation in order to achieve work that stands on its own merit made by more than one artist. 

Together, TACHP has merged these two open calls, exhibiting the work side by side to express love and collaboration.

Czech born artist Marketa Sivek has been living and working in Chicago for over 20 years. Born under communist rule, the narrative of Ms. Sivek’s multifaceted work is deeply rooted in her childhood. Inspired by the relationship of the past to the present, the known vs. the unknown, the stillness and movement, Ms. Sivek’s work is focused on the emotion it evokes within the viewer, and the recurring theme of love, hope, peace and promise. 

Established as one of the leading artists in the community, her work has been featured in Elle Decor, American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur and other publications, as well as featured on the Rachael Ray Show and national television.  Ms. Sivek has numerous private and corporate collectors in the U.S., England, Australia, the Nordic countries and elsewhere, and is part of the private collection of Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith as well as many others. (http://www.marketasivek.com)

Thomas C. Buechele, Artist/ Administrator, has lived and worked in Chicago for the last 33 years. He has maintained an active art practice along with his day job as the Vice President of Facilities and Campus Operations at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received his BFA in 1989 and MFA in 2017. In 2016, he co-published a book on the history of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been highlighted in Chicago Business and American Builders Quarterly. Thomas’s work is inspired by the beauty of motion and the allure of common materials. Evident in his works are the reoccurring sounds of background noises, that we tend to tune out. (tbuechele.myportfolio.com)

Anoush Bargamian was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, living and working in Chicago, Illinois. After attending Massachusetts College of Art/BFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago/MFA and the University of Illinois Chicago/BFA, her work has been seen in many selected exhibitions. Anoush’s background in art history, painting, printmaking, design, typography, and color theory, greatly influences the conceptual and compositional characteristics in her work. She is inspired by nature, mosaic tiles, textures, patterns, free forms, organic lines, symbols of hope, Art Brut, and dreams. Experimental in material and process she has explored aspects of collaborative work that has further enriched her process. (www.sweetangst.com)