Richard Medina: Sex Land Power

November 20, 2016

Richard Medina’s work takes the form of paintings, sculptures, performances, and videos. In his practice, he invests in rigid existing structures and uses them to generate new work. Medina has a fascination with the American Southwest as a cultural, historical, geographical, and topographical site. In particular, he is drawn to artwork that deals with the iconography of the West and speaks to the problematic nature of a space practically designed for hyper-masculine roles and rituals. Medina finds Westerns interesting for this very reason. Films that exist in a vacuum of tropes and archetypes that are purely fictional but are nonetheless trapped inside a historical time period often burrow deeper into their genre instead of attempting to transcend their boundaries, creating and recreating settings and situations—concepts of landscape as it relates to the American Southwest.

Artist Website:
Richard Medina

Sophie Ansell: Discount Dreams

October 26, 2016

As an artist working in film and performance, storytelling is key to Sophie Ansell’s practice. Her work explores narratives, in particular, the stories which are fed to us as a society. Tales of Hollywood Glamour and Benefits Scroungers, Disney Fairytales and The Deficit, Beauty Standards and Austerity Measures. Some of these stories are thrilling, some are simple and some are boring but all are told so subtly and frequently that they threaten to become fact. Ansell uses dark humor to question and critique these modern media and political narratives.

Artist Website:
Sophie Ansell

Jon Henry: VOMB

October 16, 2016

For millennia, humans have (unknowingly) worshiped the VOMB. Yet, it was only about 30,000 years ago with the invention of glitter that humans could begin to materialize their devotion and dedication of the VOMB, which lead to further discoveries and devotees. This exhibition gathers together various objects related to the VOMB in regards to the 'myths' of creation, power struggles, and theology.

Artist Website:
Jon Henry

Joey Knox: YOU ASKED FOR IT

September 18, 2016

YOU ASKED FOR IT is an exploration of the significant social value placed on childhood celebrations and milestones. These defining touchstones mask a true identity behind a veil of exuberantly inexpensive decorations and momentary but fleeting joy. Within these constructs, it is expectations that create predisposition and shape our sense of want and desire.

Gender is both established and confined through events like birthdays. Words, colors, and behaviors begin to have strongly weighted connotations, all of which come to shape much of what guides us in early and later sexual identity.

Artist Website:
Joey Knox

Patricia Keck: When Birds Sleep

July 10, 2016

I have felt out of step with the focus of mainstream society. We seem to move forward in such a clumsy way both rebuilding and destroying in the same breath. As a child I would daydream of being someone else leading a life separate from the one around me. As an artist I have become both the participant and the observer. Now my adult daydreams enable me to communicate through gesture and attitude reactions to events that occur in the lives that are common to all people.

Artist Website:
Patricia Keck

Erik L. Peterson: Ink & Water

April 17, 2016

Erik L. Peterson is a pro-bono public artist, sculptor, curator living in Chicago. He is best known for his large-scale urban interventions, Face Value and Inner State, and signature edible ice cream sculptures, CreamCycle and Soft Palate. Public performances employing sculptural elements like Two Tow'n and Square Dance, are camouflaged urban spectacles, while the annual Southwest Wisconsin Make Your Own Softball League game gathers artists who build their own bats and balls in order to play. Additionally, Peterson is a founder of Hyde Park Kunstverein, a community museum and solo project space in Chicago.

Artist Website:
Erik L. Peterson

Linda Ding: General Merchandise

February 21, 2016

Ding’s work interprets the complexities of mass-produced goods and television commercials. Alongside simplified colors and forms drawn from food packaging, her work delves into bridging the consumer cultural divide as a first-generation American. She is influenced by television programs such as The Simpsons, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune. Watching television and movies is how she connects to American culture and humor. From infomercials and “As Seen on TV” products, cheap and readily available consumer goods have come to epitomize American standards of abundance and wealth. Ding continues to seek the symbolic meaning found in objects through their commodity value and representation.

Artist Website:
Linda Ding

Adam Turl: Kick the Cat

October 25, 2015

The installation tells the story of the artist, Mary Hoagland, a Peoria native and former member of the 13 Baristas Art Collective, forced to move into her brother's garage after a serious car accident. The title comes from the rank-and-file union newsletter produced by Caterpillar workers in the 1990s. In her paintings, Mary tells fictionalized stories of the children and grandchildren of laid-off Cat workers and other residents of the greater Peoria area. This includes a young Mary, who, in a bid to stop global warming, kidnaps Punxsutawney Phil so that he will never again see, or fail to see, his own shadow.

Artist Website:
Adam Turl

Sara Peak Convery

August 9, 2015

The installation includes previously created work: 3 prints from 1988, an oil canvas from 2006/7, and part of a triptych from 2012. The canvas Sleepless is one of my rare attempts to paint from an idea without a visual source to reference. What A Piece of Work Is Man (2012) was a visual amalgamation of 3 disparate photographic sources: a celebrity photo, a snapshot of my grandfather, and an advertisement.

Artist Website:
Sara Peak Convery

Colleen Itani: Bird's Eye

Colleen Itani (she/her) maintains an interdisciplinary practice that “explores domestic architecture through an abstracted lens.” She is inspired by everyday structures like row houses, semi-detached homes, and flats and states that, “the timelines of these sites situate themselves along histories of those who have lived within and around them. The architectural forms allow me to use inanimate structures as stand-ins for the body and human relations.” She reflects on spaces close to home in Philadelphia and also structures from her familial past in Beirut, Lebanon, “investigating my present location alongside my heritage.” Through an initial process of intuitive drawing by considering physical and emotional exchanges, Itani’s work “takes on a new form by involving printmaking and photography, resulting in work that plays with scale, temporality and multiplicity.” By abstracting environments, she encourages viewers to visit the world around them through a new lens.

Itani lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. She has exhibited at galleries across the U.S., including New York, California, Florida, and Georgia. She completed a residency at Vermont Studio Center in 2019 and is currently a member at Black Hound Clay Studio and in the Master Gardener program. Itani received her BFA in Studio Art and BA in International Studies from The University of Tampa and her MFA from Florida State University.

The Fall 2022 micro-residencies and exhibitions are sponsored by Big Picture Initiative. Big Picture Initiative is a 501c3 whose mission is to build a thriving & vibrant community for all by using arts and creativity as a driver for social change, economic development, and wellness. They do this by providing arts-based solutions, promoting and supporting artists and arts initiatives, and advancing arts education. Meal assistance for the artists was donated by Radish Kitchen, a “plant-based and vegan hub for the Heart of Illinois.” Radish Kitchen is dedicated to making “plant-based and vegan eating more available and accessible in the region.”

Programming:
Reception and artist talk

Exhibition Info:
Press Release
Colleen Itani website and Instagram
Big Picture Initiative website and Instagram
Radish Kitchen website and Instagram

Peytin Fitzgerald: what now?

Peytin Fitzgerald (they/them, she/her) has a background in traditional printmaking, however their work includes installation, journaling, music, and fiber arts. Fitzgerald says their work is “motivated by the longing to discover myself in order to live a life full of pleasure and understanding; to sit in the trials of my life and of those around me, pushing for growth.”  They often explore personal experiences of trauma, pain, feminism, classism, and familial relationships through hand-stitched soft sculptures that they call “pillows.” These forms are organic, relating to the body with rounded edges and fleshy colors—scars, bumps, and blemishes are implied through the use of stretching and layers of fabric. The pillows are often pinned to the wall or resting in small hammocks and set within installations that include hand-dyed fabric and clotheslines, artist-generated playlists, altars, and handwritten notes or journal entries. The spaces Fitzgerald creates are loaded with their own narrative, but done in a way to “give permission for others to speak their own stories.”

Fitzgerald, a Wyoming native, is a new artist to the Peoria-area as of summer 2022. Their work has been exhibited at: Transpace Gallery, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois; Joe McCauley Art Gallery, Heartland Community College, Normal, Illinois; and most recently Our House Entertainment, Peoria. In 2020 Fitzgerald completed a residency at the Stay Home Gallery in Paris, Tennessee. They received a BFA in Studio Art and minor in Gender and Women’s Studies from the University of Wyoming, as well as their MFA in Printmaking from Illinois State University.

The Fall 2022 micro-residencies and exhibitions are sponsored by Big Picture Initiative. Big Picture Initiative is a 501c3 whose mission is to build a thriving & vibrant community for all by using arts and creativity as a driver for social change, economic development, and wellness. They do this by providing arts-based solutions, promoting and supporting artists and arts initiatives, and advancing arts education. Meal assistance for the artists was donated by Radish Kitchen, a “plant-based and vegan hub for the Heart of Illinois.” Radish Kitchen is dedicated to making “plant-based and vegan eating more available and accessible in the region.”

Programming:
Children’s art lesson
Reception and artist talk

Exhibition Info:
Press Release
Peytin Fitzgerald website and Instagram
Big Picture Initiative website and Instagram
Radish Kitchen website and Instagram

The 4th Terrain Biennial

Terrain Biennial
October—November 2019

Programming:
October 13
Reception and Performance by Jam Rohr
Artist talk by John Steck Jr.

Participating artists: Sage Dawson, Venise Key, Jam Rohr, and John Steck Jr.

This is the second time Project 1612 will be participating in the Terrain Biennial, this time splitting between the homes of co-founders Jessica Bingham and Zach Ott in Morton, IL, and Alexander Martin in Peoria, IL. Projects by four artists will be displayed at the Peoria location, including a participatory performance and sculptures by Jam Lovell of East Peoria; a window installation by Venise Keys of Chicago; a time-based installation by John Steck Jr. of Chicago; and an intricate woven carpet in Point 1612 by Sage Dawson of St. Louis. Sage Dawson will also exhibit a flag piece titled Everywhere Around Us at the Morton, IL location.

Exhibition Info:
Press Release
Artist Statements and Bios
Peoria Journal Star

Kiley Brandt: ¿should i use the first person here

Brandt’s art is political. It is derived from a deep concern and needs to be involved in the discussions that have preceded me. Feminist, phenomenological, and post-modern theories have influenced her work. The conceptual nature of her practice means that the majority of the pieces she produces span mediums such as video installations, legal forms, soundscapes, and poetry. In her practice, she tries to maintain honesty and emotion while also seeking to disrupt comfort. Brandt wants her work to compel uncertainty in the space that people occupy, whether that is the gallery space or their own bodies. She feels the urgency in the need to create in the wake of the 2016 election, which has displaced not only progressive policies but also human lives.

Artist Website:
Kiley Brandt