Carrie Secrist Gallery Reopens as SECRIST | BEACH
APRIL 4, 2024
(Chicago) Carrie Secrist announces today the next iteration of 32 years of operation in Chicago. Henceforth, this new chapter will be called SECRIST | BEACH and will be located at 1801 W. Hubbard Street in Chicago.
Established in the city's River North gallery district in 1992, Gallery A (becoming Carrie Secrist Gallery in 1996) sought to re-imagine an enlightened salon by creating an environment rich with conversation. Initially focused on emerging artists and local makers as well as large thematic exhibitions, this first iteration of the gallery emphasized an engaging environment for discovery and experience.
In 2003, Carrie Secrist Gallery relocated to the West Loop, a 5,000-square-foot space on Washington Blvd. The new space allowed Secrist as curator to exhibit larger scale artworks as well as the opportunity to formally develop investigations around her aesthetic interests through in depth solos exhibitions and large-ranging survey exhibitions that partnered internationally known artists alongside those mid-career and emerging.
Beginning in March of 2020 - coinciding with the onslaught of the COVID epidemic - Secrist began developing the next vision of the gallery, continuing a career-long process of reinvention.
Carrie states, “Even prior to the pandemic, I found myself questioning if our foundational commitment to sharing a longer look and a deeper dialogue around artworks that demanded an in-person exchange still mattered in the art world of the ‘now’. Then as fate would have it, I (along with most of the rest of the world) was offered down time to experiment, elaborate on those questions, eliminate the unnecessary excess of ‘what was’ and finally prioritize what proved to be at the core of authentic creativity... community. So while other businesses were downsizing their physical footprint and digitizing most of their communication, I decided to mow down my corn crop and erect a baseball diamond for the spirit of yesteryear to reclaim the field ... trusting in my gut that ‘If We Build It, They Will Come!’.”
Moving forward to April of 2024 that vision will culminate in a new 10,000-square-foot space featuring double bow-trussed ceilings flooded with sky-lit natural light, opening a new chapter in a storied career: SECRIST | BEACH.
SECRIST | BEACH combines the names of Carrie Secrist and her partner in business and life, Bill Beach. With this transitional moment in name and location, new progressive programming will be introduced that reinvestigates and expands the initial gallery mission from 1992 of an enlightened salon. One half of the physical space will be dedicated to challenging and solidifying the practices of represented artists. The other half will present a simultaneously curated group exhibitions that will conceptually elaborate upon the concurrent solo exhibition while introducing new ideas. Bisecting the two spaces will be a salon - a dedicated physical room for artistic collaborations that will offer a variety of intellectually challenging programs featuring lectures, events, performances and more. This new initiative is squarely aimed at the gallery goer with the intent of dialogic real time engagement.
The preview of inaugural exhibitions at SECRIST | BEACH will take place Friday, April 12, from 5-8PM.
HILMA’S GHOST | SPECTRAL VISIONS: A Feminist Collective Signals Magickal Futures
A retrospective and new works by Hilma's Ghost (Sharmistha Ray + Dannielle Tegeder)
COSMIC GEOMETRIES: The Prairie's Edge
Curated by Hilma's Ghost and featuring the following artists:
Candida Alvarez, Elijah Burgher, Holly Cahill, Mike Cloud, Gianna Commito, Edie Fake, Vanessa Filley, Julia Fish, Beverly Fishman, Diana Guerrero-Maciá, Azadeh Gholizadeh, Michelle Grabner, Christina Haglid, Rachel Hayes, Gina Hunt, Michiko Itatani, Miyoko Ito, Anna Kunz, Alice Lauffer, Aya Nakamura, Deb Sokolow, May Tveit, Georgina Valverde, Susan C. White, Amy Yoes and Jade Yumang.