Solo Exhibition: Hand to Hand
Nov
1
to Jan 10

Solo Exhibition: Hand to Hand

  • Process Gallery at Maxwell Hall (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Opening reception: Friday, November 1, 4-6pm

Artist talk: Friday, December 6

Solo exhibition by Hale Ekinci, Engaged Artist-In-Residence, Spring 2023

View the exhibition catalog

View exhibition gallery photos

Process Gallery, Gayle Karch Cook Center for Public Arts & Humanities at Maxwell Hall, 750 E. Kirkwood Ave. Bloomington, IN

November 1, 2024 through January 10, 2025

The Cook Center’s Engaged Artist-in-Residence program brings two working artists to the Bloomington campus each year to work and interact with IU students and community members through a series of workshops, outreach projects, and exhibitions. The residencies are designed to advance a model of “engaged” artistic practice that supports artists whose careers can be significantly furthered by access to IU’s resources in curation, collections, and research, and who can, in turn, activate those resources in new ways and demonstrate new engaged modes of artistic exchange for the Bloomington community on, and off campus.

Exhibition statement:

A direct translation of the Turkish idiom “el ele,” this exhibition by artist Hale Ekinci reflects her focus on connection and community building during her artist residency. Through  video, installation, ceramics, and a diverse range of mixed-media textile works-embroidery, textile design, photography, painting, crochet, and printmaking—Ekinci explores themes of touch, body language, intimacy (particularly in femme relationships), and the immigrant experience.

During her engaged residency at the Gayle Karch Cook Center for Public Arts & Humanities, Ekinci conducted research at the archives of the Kinsey Institute and the IU Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. Inspired by her findings and the local landscape, particularly a sign discussing “immigrant species” on a hiking trail, she created patterned textiles using the IU Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design Fibers Department’s large-format fabric printers. These textiles serve as both canvas and backdrop for the exhibition.

The vibrant mixed-media works delve into the social organization of diverse cultures, merging Islamic ornamentation, local “immigrant” plants, and photo collages of cordial women, cross-dressers, and body gestures. As a new American citizen, Ekinci grapples with her roots in a collective culture while celebrating her individualistic tendencies. Through a femme-centric lens enriched with symbolic Ottoman patterns, such as the tulip and the carnation, as well as images of “immigrant” flora like garlic mustard, the works reveal the complexities of relationships, the interpretations of gestures, and humanity’s representation of the natural world. Photographs of individuals are transformed into intricate patterns intertwining with floral motifs, evolving the concept of the “individual” into the “collective”.

Ekinci is particularly drawn to the nurturing energy of femme spaces and the symbiotic nature of these communities as safe havens. Central to these gatherings are plants, food, conversation, and collective crafting, all woven into the exhibition. Through her work, Ekinci examines expressions of intimacy and the nuanced interpretations of closeness, focusing on female bonds—holding hands, fortune-telling, exchanging personal objects, and sharing amulets.

View Event →

Tapestry of Voices: The Poetic Dialogue Project
Oct
9
to Nov 14

Tapestry of Voices: The Poetic Dialogue Project

  • Christopher Art Gallery at Prairie State College (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Oct. 9-Nov. 14, 2023 Tues.,

Oct. 10, 9:30-10:30 a.m.: Panel Discussion on the creativity of collaboration

Wed., Oct. 11, 10-11 a.m.: Second panel discussion, followed by poetry readings

Reception: Wed., Oct. 11, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

An exhibition that features ten pairings of contemporary visual artists and poets, with each pair creating a collaborative work of visual art and text. Works in photography, painting, fiber, installation and hand-made books are included.

View Event →
For (Y)Our Eyes Only - Solo Exhibition at SooVAC
Jun
17
to Jul 16

For (Y)Our Eyes Only - Solo Exhibition at SooVAC

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 17th from 6-9 PM

Soo Visual Arts Center, 2909 Bryant Avenue South #101, Minneapolis, MN 55408

In Turkish, the words for “you” (sen) and “I” (ben) share common letters, and there are no gendered pronouns. Everything in the natural world is “o” in the third person, and you and I overlap intimately. This imprecise language, double-meaning words, and absurd sayings leave room for playful interpretation - misinterpretation of the world. How we mutually understand each other is contextualized by the cultures we belong to and the languages (both verbal and visual) we share. The works in For (Y)Our Eyes Only by Hale Ekinci are encoded textiles, circumventing power structures and creating a place of humor and beauty where the othered finds a place of connection. Ekinci yearns for the shared letters of ben, sen and, in that yearning, creates a new visual language where empowerment is  disrupting systems and establishing new ones; there is strength in an inside joke.

 

Ekinci spent her childhood and much of her young adult years in Turkey, the homeland that she brings in and out of focus throughout her works. Collaging together fiber techniques, found textiles, and images from family archives, her work explores phases of acculturation, immigrant identity, and ideas about gendered labor. The decorative fringes on many of her works are influenced by the Middle Eastern tradition of Oya (lace edging on a headdress) and its use of symbolic patterns that serve as a secret language between women to express personal sentiments that otherwise remain private out of necessity. Influenced by Islamic ornamentation, her art references a mixture of coded symbolism such as Oya and kilim rug symbols. 

 

Ekinci creates adorned, intercultural photo transfer portraits framed with oya on bedsheets. The people get repeated or turned into patterns themselves to intertwine the “individual” into newly configured “collectives” or to perform multiple personalities. She layers embroidery and painting over them to further muddle the identities. The domestic surfaces, like used bed sheets, hold personal and bodily history, invoking feelings of home and intimacy. Similar to the construction of identity, these come alive through an additive process of embedding symbols and densely layered imagery. The obscured portraits play with the malleability of identity and cultural representation while combining domestic and fine arts materials, aesthetic traditions, and symbols of women’s work.  

 

The draped fabrics are framed with colorful crochet and mimic traditional oya styles or make up new motifs like the “green card” edging, reflecting her contemporary reality. Ornamentation can seem like a mere beautification tool but it can also trigger tension by teasing us. It can proliferate and overwhelm the figure it initially sets out to embellish. This method echoes the different acculturation strategies- integration, separation, assimilation, or social marginalization. Mimicking this ploy, the ornament and the figure perpetually displace each other as the definers of identity and what is actually in the periphery.

 

Hale Ekinci is a multidisciplinary Turkish artist based in Chicago.  She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts & Media at Columbia College Chicago and is an Associate Professor and Chair of Art & Design at North Central College. Focusing on personal history, cultural identity, gender politics, and craft traditions, her works vary from videos to embroidery paintings embellished with vibrant colors, patterns, and autobiographical relics. She is currently the Engaged Artist-in-Residence at the Gayle Karch Cook Center for Public Arts and Humanities at Indiana University. She was recently a Spudnik Press Cooperative and Facebook Chicago Artist in Resident. Her work has been exhibited nationally at EXPO Chicago, One After 909, Woman Made Gallery, South Bend Museum of Art, Koehnline Museum of Art, St. Louis Artists’ Guild, and Queens College Art Center. Her videos have been screened internationally, including in New York City, Berlin, Warsaw, and Jerusalem. She has completed residencies at ACRE, Jiwar Barcelona, Momentum Worldwide Berlin, Elsewhere Museum, and Chicago Artist Coalition.

View Event →
Too Long; Didn’t Read - Group Exhibition at Heaven Gallery
Jun
2
to Jul 9

Too Long; Didn’t Read - Group Exhibition at Heaven Gallery

Opening Friday, June 2, 7 - 11 pm

Virtual Artist Talk: Sunday, June 11, 12 - 1 pm

Heaven Gallery, 1550 N Milwaukee Ave #2, Chicago, IL 60622

Curated by Jenn Sova

Artists: Jose Luis Benavides, Andi Crist, Francis Dot, Hale Ekinci, Häsler Gómez, Kelly Kristin Jones, Yuyang Zhang

“Real time is slower than social-media time, where everything feels urgent. Real time often includes periods of silence, reflection, growth, space, self-forgiveness, processing with loved ones, rest, and responsibility.” adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy (149)

We're living in a time where our attention is more political than ever and has become a form of social currency. Between social media clicks and algorithms, 24-hour news cycles, endless streaming content, apps to ease every inconvenience, and expectations of being available at all times - digital distraction blurs our everyday interactions and confuses our relationships to labor, self, community, and empathy. Too Long; Didn’t Read (TL;DR) is coded internet language that exposes the attention culture that we accept as our new normal. TL;DR is an internet acronym signaling that whatever content follows could be long, tedious, and/or complex. This exhibition invites us to instead view TL;DR as a flag, warning us to pay attention, to be curious about what’s under the surface, and to decide, critically, what to invest our time in. 


Too Long; Didn’t Read brings together works by  Jose Luis Benavides, Andi Crist, Francis Dot, Hale Ekinci, Hasler Gomez, Kelly Kristin Jones, and Yuyang Zhang. While the works range from textiles, ceramics, painting, text, and installation, each artist employs tactics of attention. Yuyang Zhang and Andi Crist use humor and vernacular imagery to disarm their biting critiques of propaganda and professionalism. Francis Dot’s twenty-foot installation Time|Ghost|Town inundates the viewer with hazy outlines of histories of violence and extraction, inviting us to draw connections that may or may not be apparent. Similarly, Jose Luis Benavides’ letters presented from his documentary short, Letters to Lost Loved Ones, reveal and amplifies stories that our society works to silence, of incarcerated folks sharing their experience, struggles, and life during COVID-19 through their own voices and handwritten letters and poems. Hasler Gomez and Kelly Kristin Jones pull us in with repetition, asking us what can be learned from objects and images that may appear straightforward but when in multiples expand our knowledge of offered histories. Weaving, stitching, and layering are tactics used by Hale Ekinci to bring us into conversations about gendered labor and immigrant identity in a tactile web to notice every decision. Too Long; Didn’t Read offers a moment IRL (in real life) to slow down and witness what’s lost in our hightened attention culture and the urgency it demands. What can be found in that slowness and how can it change us?

View Event →
"Between You and I" - Solo exhibition at Comfort Station
Dec
3
to Jan 22

"Between You and I" - Solo exhibition at Comfort Station

Exhibition Dates: December 3, 2022 - January 22, 2023

Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647

Opening Reception: Saturday, December 3rd, 4 - 7 PM

In Turkish, the words for "you" (sen) and "I" (ben) share common letters, and there are no gendered pronouns. Everything in the natural world is "o" in the third person, and you and I overlap intimately. This imprecise language, along with double-meaning words and absurd sayings, leaves room for playful interpretation/misinterpretation of the world. The noises we make, the symbols we draw — all that we mutually understand about each other feed our experiences. How we communicate these experiences are contextualized by the cultures we belong to and the languages (both verbal and visual) we share. Through these linguistic sentiments, in Between you and I, artist Hale Ekinci explores the intersection between "you", "I”, and "it": the immigrant, the Western, the Eastern, the woman, the lover, the human, the other, the plant, the tongue.

The structure that houses Comfort Station was initially built to be a refuge for commuters seeking shelter. In this spirit, the space is transformed into a cozy environment filled with colorful, patterned paintings on domestic textiles. These surfaces, such as the used, patterned bedsheets, hold personal and bodily history, invoking feelings of home and intimacy. Architecture, like textiles, covers, houses, and protects the body, but is historically attributed to male labor. Extending the rigid walls and sharp corners with soft fabric and crochet edgings reminiscent of women's work imagines a cuddly shelter.

The colorful mixed-media works investigate the social organization in divergent cultures by combining Islamic ornamentation painting, photo collages of cordial females, crochet, and embroidery. Having recently become an American citizen, the artist often yearns for her roots in a collective culture while embracing her individualistic tendencies. Through a femme-centric lens embellished with symbolic Ottoman patterns, such as the mighty tulip or the loving carnation, the artist reveals an ambiguity in relations, the interpretation of touch in distinct cultures, and the meanings behind humans' representation of the natural world. Photos of people get repeated or turned into humbled patterns to evolve the "individual" into "collectives" and intertwine with the floral beings.

Ekinci is captivated by the welcoming energy of femme spaces and the giving nature of these symbiotic communities of safe havens. Central to these gatherings, house plants, food, therapy, and collective crafting are brought into the exhibition. She investigates expressions of intimacy and ambiguous readings of closeness, explicitly regarding female bonds, such as holding hands, sleeping together, exchanging personal objects, sharing amulets, and being vulnerable. Accurate translation is impossible, communication is complex, and "you" and "I" are too apart; negotiating these with humor, the artist yearns for the shared letters of ben, sen.

View Event →
The UIS Visual Arts Gallery presents Turkish artist Hale Ekinci in solo exhibition and lecture series
Oct
27
to Nov 17

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery presents Turkish artist Hale Ekinci in solo exhibition and lecture series

ECCE Speaker Series lecture: Thursday, October 27 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 6:30-8 p.m. at the UIS Visual Arts Gallery

The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery presents “Motif: Silent Language,” an exhibition of mixed-media fiber works by Turkish artist Hale Ekinci. “Motif: Silent Language” will open on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022 and will run through Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022.

In conjunction with this exhibit, the artist will present an ECCE Speaker Series lecture from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27 in Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library. Ekenci’s lecture, entitled “Written in Oya: Symbolic Patterns and Women's Work,” will feature images of her works that explore phases of acculturation, immigrant identity and ideas about gendered labor.

Immediately following this lecture, the UIS Visual Arts Gallery will host an exhibition reception for “Motif: Silent Language” from 6:30-8 p.m. at the UIS Visual Arts Gallery. This event is free and open to the public.

“Motif: Silent Language” will feature works that combine collaged fiber techniques, found textiles and photographs from family archives. Decorative fringes are influenced by Turkish oya, lace edging on a headdress, and its use of symbolic patterns that serve as a secret language between women to express private, personal sentiments. By utilizing found materials and fiber crafts, Ekinci questions the value and worth assigned to materials and women’s work.

Hale Ekinci is a multidisciplinary Turkish artist based in Chicago. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art & Design at North Central College. Focusing on personal history, hybrid identity, gender politics and craft traditions, her works vary from videos to embroidery paintings embellished with vibrant colors, patterns and cultural relics.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery is centrally located on the UIS campus in the Health and Science Building, room 201 (HSB 201). Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

For more information, visit the UIS Visual Arts Gallery website or contact the gallery at 217-206-6506 or iszab2@uis.edu

View Event →
Compound Subjects - Solo Exhibition at Leonor R. Fuller Gallery
Aug
29
to Sep 23

Compound Subjects - Solo Exhibition at Leonor R. Fuller Gallery

  • Leonor Fuller Gallery (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Artist Talk: Friday, Sept 23, 2022 (6:00 – 7:30 pm)

Collaging together fiber techniques, found textiles, and images from family archives, the exhibition explores phases of acculturation, immigrant identity, and ideas about gendered labor. My decorative fringes are influenced by the Middle Eastern tradition of oya (lace edging on a headdress) and its use of symbolic patterns that serve as a secret language between women to express personal sentiments that must otherwise remain private. Adopting these methods of embellishment and encoding, I create adorned, intercultural portraits framed with oya on bedsheets.

View Event →
When or If I Was There at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Chicago
Apr
30
to Jul 17

When or If I Was There at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Chicago

Opening reception: Saturday, April 30 between 12 - 4 pm
Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery, 2233 S Throop St #419, Chicago, IL 60608

April 30 – June 11, 2022

A two-person exhibition curated by Noah Hanna and Jaclyn Jacunski, featuring works by me and Rachel De Cuba. See exhibition photos at https://www.tigerstrikesasteroid.com/tagged/whenorifiwasthere

Selected as a MUST SEE exhibition by Artforum

Stay tuned for programming. You can find updates on my Instagram or visit Tiger Strikes Asteroid’s website

View Event →
CONTINUUM
Apr
19
to Jul 9

CONTINUUM

View Virtual Exhibition at Textile Center’s website

April 19 – July 9, 2022
Joan Mondale Gallery & Mary Giles Gallery
Textile Center
3000 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414

Featuring the work of Hale Ekinci, Claire Hu, DongKyu Kim, Na Chainkua Reindorf, Shenequa, and welcoming emerging artists Kehayr Brown-Ranshaw, Jocelyn Suzuka Figureoa, and Nicole Thomas.

Join us for our spring exhibition, which showcases rising talent from across the country, to continue our support of incredible contemporary work being done by artists from underrepresented communities in the field of fiber art.

This range of work and practices, unique to each artist, addresses myriad ways that textile materials, processes, histories, and traditions continue to be used today to tell share narratives about individuals and communities, through the eyes and hands of makers.

View Event →
Sugar Coating
Apr
8
to Apr 30

Sugar Coating

Opening reception: Friday, April 8 at 8 - 11 pm
Co-Prosperity
3219-21 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60608

Sugar Coating is a group exhibition featuring works by artists Renee Cloud, Hale Ekinci, Andrea Vail, Douglas Degges and HNin Nie.

Visit Co-Prosperity’s website

Sugar Coating brings together the work of five artists who conceal or reveal something below the surface. Each artist offers an array of visuals and textures that frequently deceive, leaving viewers to wonder what's on the other side of the shiny exterior. Upon closer inspection, all of the works give way to deeper questions about the utility and varied functions of accumulation, beauty, color, decoration, and nuanced language. 

Looking to undercut the perceived seriousness of nonobjective abstraction, Degges’s work deploys the visual language of gestural abstraction at a modest scale and with humor, an eye for the everyday, and appreciation for small moments of formal awkwardness. In the case of Vail’s work, her woven and looped assemblages of pre-owned objects speak to her ongoing interest in the stylistically obsolete and habits of consumption. Ekinci, similarly, collages together embroidery, found textiles, and images from family archives to explore the phases of acculturation, immigrant identity, and ideas about gendered labor and materials. Her fringes are inspired by the Turkish tradition of oya (lace edgings on headdresses) and its use of symbolic patterns that serve as a secret language between women. On the other hand, Cloud creates work that connects with the viewer through text-based explorations on mirrored glass and other reflective substrates to intertwine her personal narrative, commentary on the Black experience, and the power of the written word. The text used in her work provides only a fraction of the narrative, leaving the viewer to imagine the rest. Conversely, Nie offers the answer more directly. Her sculptures and paintings empower those who step into a fantasy world of anthropomorphised fruit and vibrant imagery layered over unsettling vignettes. Conversations about gender inequity and female liberation are prompted by the slick, candy-like sheens and relatable imagery.

View Event →
Open House at MANA Contemporary
Apr
8
6:00 PM18:00

Open House at MANA Contemporary

  • Art Studio #684, Mana Contemporary (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Come see my works in progress and studio at Mana Contemporary’s open studios. The building is full of wonderful artists that will open their doors to the public. Come by and say hi. The open house is part of EXPO ART WEEK. Then join me at my reception at Co-Pro in Bridgeport.

Entrance is on the east side of the building. Take the elevator to the 6th floor.

View Event →
2022 Textiles and Fiber Art Juried Exhibition
Jan
4
to Apr 4

2022 Textiles and Fiber Art Juried Exhibition

Tuesday, January 4, 2022 to Monday, April 4, 2022

THE ROBERT HILLESTAD TEXTILES GALLERY
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, East Campus

A celebration of the nation's finest in textile art, juried by Fiber Artist and Professor Emeritus, Dr. Robert Hillestad.

Experience a virtual tour of the exhibit with comments from many of the artists.

View Event →
A Different Future in the Making
Nov
20
to Apr 6

A Different Future in the Making

I served as collaborating artist with Studio Gang on the exhibition and created site-specific textile installations

On view November 20, 2021 - March 31, 2022
1520 West Division Street in Chicago
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Works created:

The Stitchers
Diana Aguilar and Hale Ekinci
, 2021
Hand-sewn and machine-couched curtain, 16ft x 10ft
The Stitchers
uses thread and couched yarn to depict three of the garment workers and owners of Blue Tin. Aiming to convey both their individuality and shared strength, the curtain is lifted to form a gateway around which the three women stand tall, ushering viewers into the next room.


Igniting a Movement
Hale Ekinci
, 2021
Fabric collage on curtain, 8 panels at 4ft x 10ft each
Igniting a Movement
is a modular quilt celebrating the women of Blue Tin and how the bottom-up change they are making is growing in strength and influence as it joins with the work of others. Using fabrics selected by Blue Tin stitchers that resonate with their cultural backgrounds, artist Hale Ekinci creates a dynamic landscape resembling a fire. Rising out of the fire are sparks that transform into silhouettes of diverse people, their profiles drawn from the scale figures used in Studio Gang’s architectural model of 63rd House to represent the building’s many different users.

Both The Stitchers and Igniting a Movement are planned to be installed in 63rd House as part of a system of movable curtains that will define its community spaces, rather than solid walls. The hemming and finishing of all the panels was done by Blue Tin.

A collaboration with Blue Tin Production, A Different Future in the Making: Building Garment Worker Power & A Broader Abolitionist Movement with Blue Tin Production and 63rd House is the inaugural exhibition in Studio Gang's new Wicker Park gallery space.

Read more and see images at Studio Gang’s website

View Event →
How Have You Been?
Dec
4
to Jan 23

How Have You Been?

  • Schwitzer Gallery on Second Floor at the Circle City Industrial Complex (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Opening reception: First Friday, December 4th, 2020, 6-9pm
Schwitzer Gallery on Second Floor at

the Circle City Industrial Complex
1125 E Brookside Ave
Indianapolis, IN 46202

How Have You Been? Grouop Exhibition

Participating in the ongoing quarantine and social distancing practices, we as a community have been asked to stay home, separate ourselves and continue to monitor our health. For the first time we are all collectively imposed to a knew kind of solitude and asocial society.

Our December exhibition, 'How Have You Been?' explores the themes of this past year revolving around self-awareness, isolation, longing for friends and family, body-awareness and your state of mind.

We are excited to feature 12 artists with backgrounds in photography, painting, screen printing, embroidery and more. Through these works we encourage our patrons to reflect on how quarantine has impacted your mental, physical, and social state of being. This exhibition will be open to the public with masks required as well as virtually online through https://www.circlecityind.com/.

Featured artists, John Brooks, Jessica Calderwood, Ruth Crowe, Kara Doak, Hale Ekinci, Levi Hadley, John Harlan Norris, Sara Olshansky, Christina Zimmer Robertson, Brandon C. Smith, Mark Sawrie, and David Wischer.

* The virtual exhibition will be available on opening day so all can view safely *

View Event →
Home As Situation
Oct
1
to Dec 4

Home As Situation

Bolivar Art Gallery at University of Kentucky

Online Exhibition

​Many artists working today are addressing notions of home in unexpected ways, particularly challenging traditional definitions of home and proposing new approaches to understanding its complexity and fluidity. This exhibition seeks to examine where ideas of home intersect with themes of cultural identity/ies, colonization, access, refuge, politics of space, labor, community infrastructures, archiving/documenting presence, social (im)permanence, historicizing domestic spaces, diaspora, and many others. While this exhibition was conceived in 2019, our current era of stay at home orders, political unrest, and protests against racial injustice adds new layers to our collective experience of home as a varied situation.

Co-curators Rae Goodwin and Becky Alley would like to thank the artists for generously sharing their work and for adjusting to this digital iteration.

Visit the virtual exhibition here.

My work can be found here.

View Event →
Winter Bridge Program 2020 Online Showcase
Aug
14
6:00 PM18:00

Winter Bridge Program 2020 Online Showcase

Winter Bridge Program 2020

Online Showcase

August 14

6-7pm

Please join us for an online showcase of Hyde Park Art Center's Winter Bridge Program.Program artists include: Ellen Campbell, Hale Ekinci, Veronica Giraldo-Puente, Marylu E. Herrera, Janis Kanter, Denise Orlin, Katelyn Patton, Suzanne Rampage, and Vida Sacic. Participating artists will present their work virtually, followed by a Q&A session. 

Registration is required. A Zoom link will be sent the day of the event. 

Visit the virtual gallery here.

View Event →
Complex Territory: Image and Appearance
Feb
10
to Mar 24

Complex Territory: Image and Appearance

This exhibition includes nine contemporary artists who explore and create imagery as a way to investigate their ideas. Using a variety of methods such as historical research, mapping, found imagery, and landscape, they examine our relationship with complex imagery as it relates to the personal, the collective, and the unknown.

Exhibit participants comprise artists and faculty from the US including Paul Flippen, associate professor at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Co.; Adriane Little, associate professor of photography and intermedia at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich.; Collaborative artists Casey McGuire and Mark Schoon, both associate professors at University of West Georgia, Carrollton, Ga.; and Thom Sawyer, a studio artist who spends his time in both New Mexico and Washington State. The four artists residing in Illinois include Peg Shaw, associate professor of art and design at Parkland College in Champaign; Chicago-based studio artist Michael Thompson; and Hale Ekinci, associate professor of art and design, and Whitney Sage, assistant professor of art and design, who are both faculty at North Central College in Naperville.

Three additional artist lectures will be given by Hale Ekinci, Whitney Sage, and Peg Shaw. These presentations are free open to the public.

Hale Ekinici draws on the layers of history, transcultural identity, and gender to paint and embroider colorful family portraits. Domestic fabric surfaces like bedsheets set the stage for transfers of old photos from her Turkish heritage and her American husband. She obscures the bodies and faces with pattern and color; these families could belong to anyone or no one of a particular background. Using Islamic arts of ornamentation, she embellishes the images by painting over the patterns of the fabric and embroidering eclectic, at times gendered, cultural symbols like party hats or papal garments that add an element of humor when combined with carefully posed scenes. These scenes are then framed with customized, colorful crochet edgings—a nod to the old tradition of "Oya," a narrow lace trimming used on headdresses of women and household textiles, she explains. "Similar to the way identity is constructed, through a heavily additive process adorned with a combination of symbolic patterns and densely layered imagery, my work explores the complexity of communication and translation—translation of culture, identity, tradition, and gendered labor," Ekinci said.

Whitney Sage is a native of the suburban Detroit area; the rich cultural heritage of Midwestern cities and their relevance to the American way of life are things that influence her artwork. "Midwestern cities are places of increasing cultural relevance with parallels to larger American struggles, big industry and suburban migration, leaving behind empty storefronts, ghostly architectural skeletons and scarred empty plots of land," she remarks. Throughout her career, Sage has continually depicted the city as subject matter to create an open dialog about tough histories and the lenses through which communities view one other.

The third artist presenter is Peg Shaw, who teaches photography and video at Parkland College. Shaw reflects about her interest in the making of images "… the beauty of images captured or created is that we can pass on what we witness and hope the intrigue continues for others. It is how we connect to people we may never meet. For me, looking back and looking forward is time coming full circle."

 

Programs at the gallery are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. Parkland College is a section 504/ADA-compliant institution; for accommodation, call 217/353-2337 or email accessibility@parkland.edu. For more information on the group exhibit, please call the gallery office at 217/351-2485 or visit parkland.edu/gallery.

View Event →
Oya: Borders of History
Jan
10
to Feb 9

Oya: Borders of History

  • Dittmar Gallery at Northwestern University (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Solo Exhibition Opening reception Friday, January 10 at 5 - 7 pm

Referencing the tradition of oya (narrow lace trimmings used as edging on headdresses of women and household textiles in the Middle East), the exhibition explores transcultural communication and translation—translation of culture, identity, tradition, and gendered labor. Both oya and ornamentation hold symbolic meaning that is used as secret communication by their creators—mainly women. Similar to the construction of identity, through an additive process of embedding symbols and densely layered imagery, Oya: Borders of History showcases painted and embroidered colorful family portraits. The obscured portraits play with the malleability of identity and cultural representation while combining disparate domestic and fine arts materials, aesthetic traditions, and women’s work.

View Event →
Reminiscence
Dec
13
to Jan 4

Reminiscence

  • One After 909 Gallery (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Opening reception December 13, 2019 6-9pm

One After 909 is pleased to present Reminiscence, a group exhibition celebrating the first eighteen months of the gallery’s existence. Artists Cindy Bernhard, Patty Carroll, Salvador Dominguez, Hale Ekinci, Michiko Itatani, Jeroen Nelemans, Omar Velazquez, Art Paul, and Rodrigo Lara each bring the traditions and customs from their countries of origin or cultural backgrounds to the selected works in “Reminiscence.” Through photographs, paintings, works on paper and mixed media, the works in this exhibition highlight the ways in which artists use the lens of their roots, and the visuals, metaphors and experiences therein, to speak to the world they live in today.

Reminiscence, is a celebration and special holiday exhibition in collaboration with the neighbor gallery Aspect/Ratio.

Image: Patty Carroll, Tea Party, 2015

View Event →
Portals
Sep
27
to Nov 7

Portals

  • Chicago Artists Coalition (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

A group exhibition featuring new work by HATCH artists-in-residence Hale EkinciShir EndeMayumi Lake, and Liang Luscombe curated by Elliot Reichert. In this exhibition, each artist draws from an array of practices—among them, photography, video, fiber, sculpture, printmaking, and performance—to produce images and forms that open vistas into other worlds.

View Event →
SURVEY 1 (during EXPO)
Sep
6
to Sep 20

SURVEY 1 (during EXPO)

CHICAGO ARTISTS COALITION
Chicago, IL
September 6 - 20

Reception: Friday, September 6 | 5–8 p.m.
Closing reception and breakfast: Friday, September 20 | 9-11AM

Chicago Artists Coalition is pleased to present Survey 1, an inaugural group exhibition featuring works by current HATCH artists-in-residence. Exhibiting artists include: Mark Blanchard, Holly Cahill, Cass Davis, Hale Ekinci, Shir Ende, kwabena foli, Ashley M. Freeby, Gina Hunt, Kelly Kristin Jones, Mayumi Lake, Liang Luscombe, and Kushala Vora.

View Event →