Tu Casa Es Mi Casa: Artists Respond to Gentrification hopes to bring awareness of the changes that are occurring across Chicago, neighborhoods that are considered low-Income areas are being bought out, rehabbed, while the residents are being displaced and pushed out. Some say artists are partly to blame, since they make the neighborhoods safe for urban professionals to come in and buy property as an investment. Artists are usually on the low-end of the income scale and that is a major reason why they look to move into areas that offer cheap rent. What is an artist to do?
gen tri fi ca tion
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents
Artists:
Amanda Gutierrez
Amy Mall
Antonio Patlan
Dianna Frid
Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa
Hector Duarte
Hugo Michel-Hernandez
Jaime Mendoza
Jesus Macarena-Avila
Juan Compean
Kimberly Viviano
Marcy Sperry
Mark Nelson
Miguel Cortez
Ruben De Santiago
Saul Aguirre
Tom Sibley
Amy Mall is an artist, currently living in Chicago and is earning her B.F.A. at the School of the Art Institute. She believes in the full integration of living, learning, doing, and art. She divides her time between Chicago and the Indian Himalayas.
Antonio Patlan is a Chicago based self-taught artist. He is currently working on a digital photography project documenting storefronts/architecture in the Pilsen neighborhood.
Dianna Frid was born in Mexico City and since 1983 has lived in Canada and the U.S. As an undergraduate, she studied Anthropology at Hampshire College (Amherst, MA) before completing her BFA at the Art Institute of Chicago. Dianna Frid has exhibited her work in Mexico, Canada, the U.S., Europe and Brazil. She was a Trustees Merit Scholar in the Fiber and Material Studies Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she completed her MFA (2003). Dianna Frid is Collegiate Assistant Professor at the University of Chicagoís Midway Studios where she is a Harper-Schmidt Fellow. She recently showed her collaborative project, ěThe Field,î at Gallery 400 as part of the At the Edge series.
Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa has been active as a multi-disciplinary artist, educator and has exhibited in many galleries and centers in Chicago, Minneapolis, and has had work tour various states in Mexico and the U.S. Elvia received her B.A. in Fine Art from Trinity Christian College in 1992 and is currently earning her M.F.A. at Columbia College. Elvia is the Director of Community Programs at Pros Arts Studio.
Hector Duarte was born in 1952 in Caurio, Michoacan, Mexico. He studied mural painting at the workshop of David Alfaro Siqueiros in 1977. Since moving to Chicago in 1985, Duarte has participated in the creation of more than 45 murals. He has exhibited his paintings and prints in solo and collective shows at such venues as the School of the Art Institute, the State of Illinois Gallery, the Chicago Historical Society, and the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, and Casa Estudio Museo Diego Rivera in Mexico. Duarte has received a number of awards, including a 1995 Chicago Bar Association Award for best work of public art and a 1994 NEA project grant. Duarte is the co-founder of the Julio Ruelas Print Workshop in Zacatecas, Mexico, La Casa de la Cultura in Zamora, Mexico, and Taller Mestizarte in Chicago. He has been a resident in the Pilsen neighborhood the past 19 years.
Hugo Michel Hernandez is a Chicago based artist and educator, born in Havana, Cuba in 1972. His primary work is painting and installation work. He has exhibited throughout Mexico, Cuba, Colombia and nationally. His most recent exhibit was at the 8th Bienial of Havana, Cuba. He is currently a faculty and staff member at Columbia College Chicago.
Jaime Mendoza, based in Chicago, received his BA in Studio Arts from Northeastern Illinois University and a MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mendoza, is among the few Chicano artists in the Midwest who continues to redefine and reestablish the dialogue between community and artist. His installations confront society with an in your face approach to socioeconomic cultural politics in the US. Mendozaís use of video and large scale prints embodies the idealisms of Chicano Art theory and Contemporary art practice by forging and fostering a visual language that explores the perspective of multiculturalism in the US through the eyes of the undocumented and bicultural/bilingual community.
Jesus Macarena-Avila is a Chicago based artist and studied at the School of the Art institute of Chicago and Vermont College of Norwich University. He is a 2003 recipient of grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Chicago.
Juan Compean studied fine art at Columbia College. His work has been featured in Polvo Magazine and Hasta Cuando?, a local magazine dealing with art and politics. He is also a musician and tours with his hardcore-punk band I-ATTACK.
Kimberly Viviano Is a Chicago artist currently earning an M.F.A. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Visual Communications) and received her B.F.A. at Kendall School of Design (Illustration), Grand Rapids, MI, also did an undergrad study in Florence, Italy. Recent exhibitions include the Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago, IL, Joan Flasch Artistís Book Collection and Around The Coyote.
Marcy Sperry is a multimedia artist currently completing her M.A. in art education at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she is a teaching assistant. Most recently she has been involved in community arts education at a youth-based HIV/AIDS awareness organization and was a co-instructor for a collaborative web project at Street-Level Youth Media.
Mark Nelson is employed as an artist-in-residence at Stone Academy of Chicago where he directs youth in creating permanent site-specific works of fiber, ceramic mosaics, limestone monuments, painted murals, and technological media. Mark received an M.F.A. from the University Of Illinois at Chicago and a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute. His studio is in Chicago's "Pilsen" neighborhood.
Miguel Cortez is an artist living in Chicago and born in Guanajuato, Mexico in 1970. He has studied filmmaking at Columbia College and fine arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has exhibited his work for more than a decade in Chicago, Mexico, and Spain. Recent exhibitions include a group show at Centre Civic de Barceloneta in Barcelona, Spain and one in Madison, Wisconsin at the Commonwealth Gallery.
Ruben De Santiago is a Chicago artist who frequently experiments with digital video, painting and installation.
Saul Aguirre studied at the School of the Art Institute. Recent shows Include Beacon Street Gallery, Butcher Shop and La Llorona Art Gallery in Chicago. Saul's work can be found in several private collections throughout Alexandria, VA; Chicago, IL; Washington, DC; ANCASH-Huaraz, Per; Rome, Italia and Mexico City, Mexico.
Tom Sibley is a multi-media artist. He studied at the School of the Art Institute and over the past 10 years has worked on experimenting with sound, Installation and digital video. He is a frequent contributor to Hasta Cuando?, a local magazine dealing with art and politics.
IMAGE
Miguel Cortez
Pilsen for sale
2003,
sticket, 4" x 4" each,
public art project
Related Links:
