In Transit

Catherine Feliz is an interdisciplinary artist, full spectrum doula, and community medicinemaker born and raised in NYC (occupied Lenape territory). Her multimedia projects are personal reflections on the social-political constructions of power and knowledge. Through applying the languages of visual desire and the practices of care, they’re interested in imagining new narratives of place that center the experiences of politicized bodies. Catherine’s identities as a queer, diasporic, bilingual, and afro-latinx inform her love-powered community healing practices and the founding of Abuela Taught Me, a modern pop-up botanica. In 2017, they received a BFA in Photography from SUNY Purchase College of Art + Design. She has attended ACRE Residency, Summer Forum for Inquiry + Exchange, and her work has been featured in galleries such as BRIC Arts Media.

Allison Lacher is an artist and curator based in Springfield, IL. She is the Exhibitions Manager at the University of Illinois Visual Arts Gallery and she is a founding member of the artist-owned gallery Monaco in St. Louis, MO. In 2013 she Co-founded DEMO Project, a space for contemporary art in Springfield, IL, and served as Co-director of the space until its demolition in 2018. She has exhibited at venues that include E.TAY Gallery, The Luminary, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, PDX Contemporary Art, CUAC Contemporary, Future Tenant, Grounds for Sculpture, and the Illinois State Museum. She has been awarded artist residencies with ACRE, Spiro Arts, Prairie Center of the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The Luminary, and Signal Fire on US/Mexico borderlands. She was a HATCH Projects curatorial resident with the Chicago Artists Coalition and is a previous recipient of the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Award. In addition to her independent studio practice, she maintains an active collaborative practice with artist Jeff Robinson. Recent collaborative projects have taken place at Illinois State University Galleries, Hyde Park Art Center, RomanSusan, Outhaus, Ski Club, and the 3rd Terrain Biennial.

Ahmed Ozsever is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago. He works in installation and embraces architectural anomalies, as well as the hidden histories of a given location and exhibition space. His background in photography informs his recurring interest in the process, and limitations of the photographic way of looking. Ahmed’s work explores the articulation and perception of constructed temporalities, mediated experiences of land(scape), and the peculiar human traces inscribed in quotidian spaces. Ahmed earned his BFA in Photography from Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, IN and received his MFA from Cornell University in 2015. Ahmed’s independent and collaborative works have been exhibited at the HF Johnson Gallery at Carthage College, Gallery19 in Chicago, Terrain Biennial: Outpost Enos Park in Springfield, IL, and station923 in Ithaca, NY, among others. He attended ACRE residency in 2017 and is currently a CORE resident at Chicago Art Department. Ahmed teaches in the department of Contemporary Practices at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jeff Robinson is an artist and curator based in both Chicago and Springfield, Illinois. He received his MFA degree from Illinois State University in 2011. Robinson has exhibited independently and collaboratively at numerous venues including Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), RomanSusan (Chicago), Ski Club (Milwaukee), University Galleries of Illinois State University (Normal), Rosalux Gallery (Minneapolis), Outhaus (Urbana), and E. Tay (New York). His work has been published in New American Paintings and MANIFEST Gallery’s International Painting Annual. His work has been featured on Daily Serving, in NewCity Magazine (Chicago), FLOORR Magazine (London) and in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), among others. He is a previous recipient of an Individual Artist Support Grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Robinson has worked as artist-in-residence at Ragdale (2017) and ACRE (2017). In addition to his studio practice, Robinson serves as Instructor of Art at the University of Illinois Springfield and as Director of the UIS Visual Arts Gallery. He also served as co-director (and co-founder) of DEMO Project until its demolition in early 2018.

Nayeon Yang is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL. Yang has exhibited her work at different venues including Door and Room (Daejeon, S. Korea), CICA Museum (Gimpo, S. Korea), Performance Art Bergen (Bergen, Norway), Latitude 53 (Edmonton, Canada), The Birdsell Project (South Bend, IN), 849 Gallery at the Kentucky College of Art and Design (Louisville, KY), Art Museum at the University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), Roy G. Biv Gallery, Urban Arts Space (Columbus, OH), Bunker Projects (Pittsburgh, PA), Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery, Midway Fair, and stARTup Art Fair (Chicago, IL). Upcoming exhibitions include twoperson show at Roots and Culture (Chicago, IL), and solo show at Mythtake Museum (Gapeong, S. Korea). She received an MFA from the Ohio State University in 2016 and BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011, and has attended artist-in-residencies such as ACRE, Wassaic Project, Vermont Studio Center, and others.

Lauren Leving is a Chicago-based writer and curator. She is the Exhibitions Manager at Wrightwood 659, a new gallery space focused on the intersections of art, activism, and architecture. She holds a Master’s in Museum & Exhibition Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has worked as the Curatorial Fellow for Hyde Park Art Center, at 6018North, and in commercial galleries in both Chicago and New Orleans. Her research and curation investigate the intersections of contemporary exhibition practices, pedagogy, and social justice.