Chicago Curates Columbia: Dan Devening + Fine Art

Exhibition Dates: January 17 - February 29, 2012

Opening Reception: January 19, 5-PM

Chicago Curates Columbia is a new curatorial series that is designed to engage arts professionals from various creative industries with the diverse arts and culture makers of Columbia. Pairing successful arts practitioners with Columbia College disciplines, the program brings curators to campus to meet with students, provide informed critiques and curate exhibitions of student work. Goals of the program include creating contacts between students and industry professionals and providing exhibition opportunities to students who may not envision their work as existing within a gallery space. Chicago Curates Columbia kicks off with gallerist and curator Dan Devening, director of devening projects + editions.

This exhibition will feature work by: Shayna Cott, Kimberly Kim, Julia Mlakar, Lizzy Szwaya, Alex Tam

From Dan Devening:

Several weeks ago, I met with a wonderful group of young artists in their studios and took on the unenviable task of editing that group to a more manageable number for a group exhibition. This wasn’t easy. All the work I saw that day was strong; each artist presented me with recent projects that I liked and that obviously reflected serious and focused creative practices. But particularly impressive to me were five young people doing what I consider to be intriguing and consequential work. Shayna Cott, Kimberly Kim, Julia Mlakar, Lizzy Szwaya and Alexander Tam each showed me ongoing projects that led to lively conversations about the possibilities of their work within the context of this exhibition. The way each of them articulated the concerns that framed their work and the various structures and form it took got me thinking more clearly about how this show might come together. That excitement grows as I continue to speak to each of them and imagine the installation that might develop out of this shared context. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how the work evolves and potentially shifts meaning as it shares space with the other work in the show.

Academic Partners: Art + Design, Photography
Exhibition Contact: Justin Witte / jwitte@colum.edu / (312)369-8177