634 Carpenter Ave.
Noelle Allen, host & curator
Bobbi Meier, artist
Edra Soto, artist
Terrain Biennial Closing Reception Potluck!
Please bring a dish or drink to share!
Hosted by: Noelle Allen, Bobbi Meier, Sonnenzimmer, Edra Soto
and Julie Rodrigues Widholm
September 26, 4:30 - 8:00pm
634 & 707 Carpenter Street
Oak Park, IL
Bobbi Meier
Treasures
Celebrating the profusion of plant life already present in Noelle Allen’s lush garden, I began collecting objects to develop the idea of what we treasure. Nature, an experience to be treasured, is subverted by the artificial materiality of constructed forms: manufactured cast-offs, which intercede and compete for attention. Playful and unreal, these scavenged materials have become seductive treasures, as objects to be admired and questioned. Un-natural and unchanged by nature, imperfect and out of place, they somehow belong, having found a new purpose. These exotic mutations of color, form and material compete for attention, as synthetic interlopers in the natural landscape.
August 2015
Bobbi Meier is a Chicago-based visual artist working in variety of media. Subversion and ambiguity are recurring themes in her work, as she engages sensibilities of mystery, seduction, and revulsion. She manipulates materials and point of view to explore anatomical and natural worlds.
Ms. Meier earned her MFA in Fiber and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. She has exhibited in many local and national venues including; Columbia College-Glass Curtain Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, ARC Gallery, Woman Made Gallery, The Museum of Surgical Science, The Franklin, and upcoming in 2016, Roots and Culture and Governors State University, all located in the Chicago Area. Additionally her work has been exhibited at, Las Esquinas Gallery, Kansas City, The Studios of Key West, Florida and Amos Joseph Gallery, New Mexico. She has been awarded residencies at Ragdale, Lake Forest, Illinois, Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, Michigan, Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, Colorado, Sanskriti-Kendra, New Delhi, India, and Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont.
Tropicalamerican is a limited edition of representations of the American flags produced by Soto at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency during the summer of 2014. Rigorously crafted, these flags representations were made using a variety of tropical leaves from Rauschenberg’s Captiva terrain, collaged with simple shapes derived from traditional quilting practices. Once the collages were made, they were photographed and translated into a digital format. Tropicalamerican approaches the patriotic art tradition that for centuries artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and David Hammons, among others, have followed with the intent of canonizing events, aesthetics, and American culture.
Edra Soto (b. Puerto Rico 1971) is a Chicago based artist. She attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she obtained her Masters in Fine Arts in 2OOO. Immediately after, she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent presentations include: Hyde Park Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Galeria Agustina Ferreyra in Puerto Rico and Field Projects in New York City. Trough a partnership between Alliance of Artists Communities and 3Arts, Soto will be attending the Robert Rauschenberg Residency program in Captiva, Florida in spring 2014. Soto and her husband Dan Sullivan design, fabricated and currently run operations of THE FRANKLIN, an artist-run project space located in their home’s backyard in Chicago. THE FRANKLINwas selected one of the Top 5 New Art Galleries on 2012 and 2013 for the Newcity’s Top 5 of Everything and Chicago Magazine. This project has been funded by Northeastern Illinois University, the 3AP program of 3Arts and most recently by The Propeller Fund. Soto and Sullivan were selected by the CTA as part of Your New Blue project as contractors for the Western Station. This project is expected to be unveiled during the fall of 2015. Their latest installation, DOMINODOMINO was exhibited recently at Morgan Lehman Gallery in Chelsea, New York. Soto’s work was selected to be a part of the IV Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan, Latinoamérica y el Caribe that will be opening in the fall of 2015. On 2016, Soto will be having her first solo exhibition in New York at Cuchifritos Gallery and Project Space of the Artist Alliance Inc., curated by Albert Stabler.