AFTER THE AFTER PARTY // new work by Christina McClelland & Tom Costa on Feb 10
AFTER THE AFTER PARTY
new work by CHRISTINA McCLELLAND & TOM COSTA
February 10 – 28, 2013
Opening Reception: Sunday, February 10, 6-10pm
Open Hours: Saturday, February 23, 12-3pm
Roxaboxen Exhibitions
2130 W 21st St, Chicago, IL
In After the After Party, Christina McClelland explores ideas of celebration and commemoration through found objects, sculpture, and installation. Using ephemeral party supplies such as leis and streamers, she draws on the tension between the anticipation of a celebratory event and its physical manifestation. Her work considers the elevation of these festive goods in contrast to the temporary nature of their materiality. Throughout her practice, McClelland examines conflicting perceptions of, desires for, and pursuits of prestige and status, as well as the relationship between decoration, presentation, and implied value.
Tom Costa presents a group of paintings dealing with personal relationships. How do we exist within family, among friends, and alone with the self? What is the materiality of our shared experience with others? Detritus and memory are what we are left with as the sun goes down. We reach out to, and indeed need, others. We revel in groups and are sometimes afraid to disengage and rediscover what awaits us at home.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
CHRISTINA McCLELLAND is an interdisciplinary artists and arts administrator whose practice encompasses sculpture, installation, and printmaking. McClelland’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, notably at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, IL; the Sullivan Galleries in Chicago, IL; the Des Moines Art Center in Des Moines, IA; and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE. In 2013 she has curated Fleeting, an exhibition of 14 artists, at Indi Go Gallery in Champaign, IL. She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the University of Iowa.
More information about Christina McClelland can be found at christinamcclelland.com.
TOM COSTA was born in the foothills of Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains and spent part of his childhood in a fishing village in Brittany. These environments filled little Tommy with a sense of wonder toward the natural world and an awareness of the horrors of history. Today, he lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is still trying to make sense of it all by posing unanswerable, wordless questions to transient audiences. Costa has deemed modern society to be irrational, harsh, and full of beauty—a perverse reflection of the carnivorous wild—and many of his works speak about loss, ambition, desire, and vulnerability. His work has been shown at New York’s Leo Koenig and Clementine galleries, among other spaces throughout the city, the United States, and Denmark.
More information about Tom Costa can be found at www.tomcosta.com.
ROXABOXEN EXHIBITIONS is an artist run gallery and performance space in the heart of Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, dedicated to displaying the work of emerging artists and providing a space for creative collaboration.
More information about Roxaboxen Exhibitions can be found at roxaboxenexhibitions.blogspot.com.