The Metamorphosis of Gabriel Villa introduces Villa’s new direction from painting into installation and clay sculpture created during his Jackman Goldwasser Residency at Hyde Park Art Center, along with previous paintings. Through an extensive studio and public art practice, Villa seeks to seamlessly translate the language of Mexican traditions and the personal, urban American experience into charged intimate narratives. Villa’s subjects are ever evolving but always concentrate on psychological and social inequity in the multifaceted contemporary world. His stream of consciousness approach to painting and drawing expose the heightened reality found in everyday objects and places. " This exhibition is partially supported by a grant from The Illinois Arts Council.

Gabriel Villa, a studio and public artist, was born and raised in the El Paso, Texas/Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, border region, and currently resides in Chicago. He was a 2018-19 Jack Goldwasser Artist in Residence at Hyde Park Art Center, and a recipient of the Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Eminent Scholar in Latin American Studies at Columbus State University, GA, 2017. He received his MFA from the University of Delaware, a BFA from Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME, and The New York Academy of Art, NY. Villa served at the National Museum of Mexican Art, from 2006-2011 as a Co-Curator for the Chicago Kraft Foods Gallery, and from 2005-2011 as the Director of Yollocalli Arts Reach, a youth initiative.