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ART-IN-PLACE: A Project to Connect, Inspire and Bring Hope While We Are Disconnected

BOB FAUST, Michael Workman / Landing Projects. 2858 W. Belle Plaine Ave. Chicago, IL 60618 Vinyl lettering on glass, 23” h x 21” w. Not for sale. Artist’s Note: From a foundation that is at best precarious, we enter 2020 with an uncertainty that requires our own power and focus to remain upright. The number “2020” is both a date focused on this political moment in time, as well as a measurement as a call for clarity of vision. By siting “Hope & Peace” in Landing Projects’ windows and playing on the transparency between inside and out or what is “mine” vs. “ours,” it is a super direct reminder of what we need both domestically as well as communally.

 

By CGN Staff via PR

The past several weeks have made many artists and art world players think very differently about how to make and share art with a public that is largely unable to gather in one place. The organizers of a new initiative, based out of Chicago but with a global reach, were inspired by the generosity of artists and the power of art to transform and connect us. 

ART-IN-PLACE (AIP) is an initiative of CNL Projects (founded in 2016 by Cortney Lederer) and Terrain Exhibitions (a nonprofit founded in Oak Park Illinois by the late artist Sabina Ott and author John Paulett.) At the onset of the pandemic, these art connectors noticed so many artists began to create and offer to send small artworks in the mail to anyone that asked. Artists were using Instagram as a platform to share this generous offering. They shared collaged postcards (Kelly Kristen Jones and Melissa Oresky), "corona rings” (Laura Davis), seeds to grow (Anna Brown), plant clippings, and other creative works. CNL says they received about five different artworks in the mail within a couple weeks. Art became a way to connect, inspire and bring hope during a moment when we were all so suddenly disconnected from one another. We felt moved and inspired. We wanted to create a platform to share this generosity and consider what we all need right now—connection to others outside the virtual. There is no better tool for this than art.

Visit https://www.cnlprojects.org/artinplace to view participating artists.

The organizers note that due to the fact that over 275 artists are participating (including artist living in Berlin, Canada, Japan, India, Israel and Peru) they are still in process of uploading artists' image details and websites. Click on each artist's image to learn more about each artist and locate an address of where to tour art in your community. A live map is being developed for release next week. 

Collectors have the option to purchase a beautiful set of curated postcards showcasing a collection of every ART-IN-PLACE participating artist (forthcoming). Artists collectables, editions and original works of art are available for purchase. Please contact cortney@cortneylederer.com if you are interested in a work of art.  From each artwork sale, artists receive 80% and donate 20% to the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund, which provides financial relief to workers and organizations in the creative industries impacted by COVID-19.  All proceeds from postcards sales will also support this fund.

ART-IN-PLACE will be on view from May 20–June 20, 2020 

 

AIMÉE BEAUBIEN 2443 N. Francisco Ave. Chicago, IL 60647  Size variablePrinted banner material, paradord $3,500 Artist’s Note: What happens when a plant closes its eyes, when it loses its leaves? What will the last leaf look like?For After the Last Leaf, I took stock of my immediate landscape and photographed specific leaves plucked from plants growing inside of my home and in the garden that surrounds. Qualities of the garden run parallel to the nature of photography: they are spaces defined by interactions of the scientific, the accidental and the temporal. Wild, fast growing vines slink through the yard and climb around our house. In my home studio, plants mingle with huge tangles of cut and woven photographs that dangle down from the ceiling in various states of progress and decay. I photograph the ever-changing conditions as plants dry and projects grow.Vines trail, ramble, lean, flop, twine, weave, root, grasp, cling and climb. I translate my responses to the vitality of vines by pushing color while imagining how energy is harnessed from the sun in photosynthesis. I reorganize the scale of my photographs to amplify the ambition of vine movements while translating their enviable ability to embrace everything near in acts of remarkable adaptability. Vines are tenacious. Vines will win.

 

CECIL MCDONALD, JR. 10026 S. Wood Chicago, IL 60643 40” x 30”Mylar and pigment ink$3,000 Artist’s Note: Car garage wrapped in Mylar, waited for the colors of night, street lamps, car headlights, brake lights and the green of the surrounding nature to reflect in a spectacular fashion for the photograph. The goal was to explore the transformative power of photography.

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