Naturally

The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art is delighted to announce Naturally opening on February 5th, 2022 featuring works by Judith Roston Freilich and Lilach Schrag who have come together for their first joint exhibition.

Fascinated by forces of nature and mind, Judith Roston Freilich and Lilach Schrag examine, each in her own way, essence, energy, and evolution. Judith Roston Freilich’s works on paper and textiles were inspired by her aspirations to integrate the arts into everyday life. Throughout her life, Roston Freilich’s home and works have always centered around the cycles of life and the natural offerings of every season. The vital consequences of climate change and the COVID-19 virus have impacted the artist’s work, and aspires that her artistic creation will act as a springboard for awareness towards scientific ways that aim to heal our planet. With images and materials drawn from both her natural and domestic environment, Lilach Schrag uses organic found objects, fabric, paper, enamel, and acrylic paints, charcoal, graphite, threads, pins, and staples in making large-scale energy-packed paintings with epic figures and creatures transforming into each other and into vegetation. Layered, camouflaged, and not immediately identified, they convey a sense of awe, urgency, determination, and vulnerability. The natural materials rich with texture, meaning, and previous life sends Schrag on a fantastic flight, and at the same time keeping her grounded in this physical world.

Artist Biographies:

Judith Roston Freilich earned a BFA and merit-based scholarship award from Washington University in St. Louis. While working at Landfall Press as a printing assistant and curator, she earned a graduate degree in printmaking with Misch Kohn from the Illinois Institute of Technology. She has exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been selected for the Rockford Midwestern Biennial at the Rockford Art Museum, the Evanston and Vicinity Biennial at the Evanston Art Center, the Bradley International Print and Drawing Show. Her work is in multiple permanent collections including the Library of Congress.

Lilach Schrag graduated from Hamidrasha Art School in Israel, and holds a Master of Arts from Spertus Institute, Chicago. Her work has been featured in publications such as the Chicago Tribune, and The Jerusalem Post, and she has exhibited in solo and group shows in the United States and in Israel including: Spertus Institute, Governors State University, 33 Contemporary Gallery in Chicago as well as the Janco Dada Museum and the Jerusalem Biennale in Israel.