Inside\Within

Rashayla Marie Brown: Interrogating the Artist’s Mythology

Published February, 2018

Rashayla avoids having a a centralized studio. Her practice instead lives in gestures, interactions, and observations— improvisationally finding its home in her relationships and lived environments. Her interdisciplinary practice allows her to shapeshift into different figures, some presented in-frame while others are integrated into her daily life. For our particular studio visit we convened at the Chicago Cultural Center where Rashayla had organized a collection of research materials and photographic prints for her installation Appropriation Politics 102 Circa 2017.

Read Further

E. Aaron Ross’s Existential Nihilism

Published June, 2017

Entering into Aaron’s studio you immediately encounter several projects in different states of decay—loaves of white bread transforming into gruesome piles of sludge, and past-due bologna twirling above your head while other slices discolor the walls. Originally focused on video, his practice is more concerned with the process behind each of his pieces rather than their final image. Aaron closely follows how his work lives, rots, and dies, utilizing the mediums of sculpture, photography, or one-off performances which follow his destruction of a love seat within the context of an improvised death metal show.

Read Further

Aimée Beaubien’s Woven Imagery

Published December, 2016

Collecting images like objects, Aimée slices her photographic documentation into pieces that are then woven into large three-dimensional forms. These works, which often hang collectively from the ceiling, are filled with information and bits of data from friends, family, and strangers’ personal collections. By intricately collaging the photographs Aimée allows personal histories to align with those from collected sources, using photographs taken at places such as the Roger Brown Study Collection and Museum of Contemporary Photography.

Read Further

Sanaz Sohrabi’s Mapmaking as Action

Published December, 2016

Initially drawn to staged photography while working in Iran, Sanaz translated her interest in narrative to the moving image after moving to the US, capturing bodies in action rather than those that were static and posed. Recently Sanaz’s practice has begun to focus on government-based image making through cyanotypes and architectural memory through film, recently collecting footage for a project that will trace the complicated histories of several monuments erased by government forces.  

Read Further

MuWDV: Devin Mays' Iconic Detritus

Published July, 2016

INSIDE\WITHIN and Danny Volk sit down with Devin Mays to talk about his work’s obsession with cigarette packaging, how religious imagery has found its way into his performative work, and Danny gets made up in the style of the Hughes Brothers’ film Dead Presidents.

Read Further

MuWDV: Stephanie Graham's Global Matriarchy Through Personal Narrative

Published July, 2016

INSIDE\WITHIN and Danny Volk sit down with Stephanie Graham to discuss navigating church camp, slaying misogyny as the goddess Oya, and how she broadcasts all of the above on social media.

Read Further

Robert Chase Heishman’s Process-Driven _IMG

Published January, 2016

Taping off large sections of familiar territory, Robert brings monotonous methods to mundane environments through elaborate tape constructions in his ongoing series _IMG. The resulting works flatten the picture plane while leaving his hand an evident part of the image, the photographic pieces resisting rigidity to embrace a more freed-up personality. Starting his career in the direction of Merce Cunningham, Heishman has continuously focused on collaboration in his work, chance manifesting projects just as equally as intuition.

Read Further

Selina Trepp's Solitary Shangri-La

Published December, 2015

Contorting her body and balancing precariously on stools, Selina transforms her studio still lifes into performative images by capturing herself within strategically placed mirrors. Drawn to the economy of gesture, Selina uses the mirrors to multiply and expand her limbs and the objects they surround, producing scenes that reference her native alpine home. Due to a personal pact she has not bought any new materials for her studio since 2012, forcing her to constantly change her aesthetic as paints and pastels run dry.

Read Further

Jason Lazarus: Image as Footnote

Published July, 2015

Jason uses image to build community around certain historical events and moments, often involving his subjects directly in the process of each of his ongoing projects. Understanding the social nature of photography, Jason has moved beyond pure documentation, layering his images with meaning that can either be digested or taken at face value. Looking outside the typical frame, Jason observes subjects from all angles, creating alternate ways of looking, even turning the picture to the wall to make the image something that can only be envisioned.

Read Further

Christopher Meerdo's Absent Image

Published November, 2014

Chris’s studio is interrupted by a large reflective orb, a sculpture that exists as both present and absent. Absence is often an area of interest for Chris—mining images that have been purposefully deleted or encrypted. Through this digital ritual Chris explores the corruption and failures that surface through bringing back an image that has already been lost.

Read Further

Alex Chitty's Additive Distortions and Photographic Sculptures

Published August, 2014

Alex’s studio space is a culmination base camp, a bright studio where her many materials finally merge together. Although previously focused on scanner distortions, Alex has incorporated shelving-based installations through a similar method of additive information. Transitioning back and forth between the design of both the shelves and the objects they hold, Alex forms cohesive arrangements that distort the viewer’s observations of personal narrative.

Read Further

Assaf Evron's Overlooked Aesthetic

Published April, 2014

Assaf is an Israeli artist and former photojournalist who traded his motorcycle for an art practice. Assaf’s studio is located in the Hyde Park Art Center, a large second floor studio packed with sculptures layered from door to window, a byproduct of his recent move from 2D to 3D.

Read Further

Jeroen Nelemans: Deconstructing the Life Form of the Digital Image

Published April, 2014

Jeroen’s studio in the West Loop is tucked in the same space as ASPECT/RATIO, his husband’s video art gallery. As a Dutch artist Jeroen is obsessed with light, using his work to pick apart its use in lasers, classic paintings, and the digital image.

Read Further

Meg Noe's Witchy Kitsch

Published March, 2014

Meg recently graduated from Columbia College Chicago and moved into a minimalistic studio she shares with three others in Pilsen. Picking through cemetery refuse, Meg satiates her necromantic obsessions while dually finding inspiration for her digital and film photography.

Read Further

Alex Tam: Mark Making and Mediating the Void

Published February, 2014

Alex is a recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago and founder of South of the Tracks, a project he curates out of his studio space in Garfield Park. Alex produces image with more than the traditional modes of photography—focusing on the experiential rather than latent image.

Read Further

Joseph Rynkiewicz: Suspending Disbelief for the Intangible

Published January, 2014

Joseph is an archivist and sculptor who encourages his audience to participate further than a momentary observation of his work. From his studio in Garfield Park, Joseph subtly manipulates materials to share experiences that cannot necessarily be seen.

Read Further