Weekend Art Walk: Monique Meloche and Mariane Ibrahim

Link to Register: https://www.artencounter.org/weekend-art-walks

Join painter and Artistic Director Joanna Pinsky for Art Encounter’s Weekend Art Walks, where we explore different gallery districts throughout Chicago and discover new ideas and a variety of artistic media through interactive group discussions.

On Saturday, December 9, avoid the cold as we explore two neighboring galleries with exceptional exhibitions. We’ll begin with Candida Alverez’s exhibition Multihyphenate at Monique Meloche Gallery to discuss the prominent Chicago artist’s large-scale kaleidoscopic paintings on linen as well as her intimate paintings and drawings on napkins. Known for her exploration of ideas and materials ranging from painting to sculpture, photography, and conceptual work, Alvarez has created abstract imagery that deals with emotions and memories of Maria, the hurricane that devastated her homeland of Puerto Rico and brought her mother to this country. Nationally recognized, her work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the M.C.A., the Whitney, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. 

At Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, delve into an exhibition of work by four international artists. Almost here, Almost there, Almost home was curated by Jérôme Sans, a notable French curator and art director who was a co-founder of the prestigious Palais de Tokyo. Artists Joël Andrianomearisoa (Madagascar), Alexandre Gourçon (Paris), Mwangi Hutter (Kenya/Germany), and Tony Lewis (Los Angeles) express complex emotions using reductive artistic means to consider themes of identity. From realism to abstraction, the artists explore the poetry of duality through images of entangling bodies that search for unison, the layering of material, or the meticulous two-fold treatment of textiles or dripping paint.

Image Credit: Puerto Rico Hurricane Collage (Villalba) no. 6 by Candida Alvarez