Wrangler explores the complex relationship between early childhood development, trauma and education in New Orleans. The fourteen years since Hurricane Katrina have seen an entire generation raised from adolescence. This period has been marked by uncertainty across institutions both public and private as New Orleans youth navigate the ever-changing landscape of their city. From teachers with short-term commitments to their students, to a profit-motivated charter school system, the shifting standards set for children coming of age in Post-Katrina New Orleans are often unfair and impersonal, with factors of instability conditioning them in their youth. In general, Marta Rodriguez Maleck's practice often takes the form of multimedia installations with video components, abstract sculpture, and audio components. As a New Orleans based artist and educator, she uses her work to create tolerance, understanding, and appreciation between groups of people who have differing perspectives.

 

This exhibition is presented in partnership with ACRE Projects

Marta Rodriguez Maleck

Marta Rodriguez Maleck is a New Orleans based artist whose installation, film, and sculptural work explores (mis)communication, self-care, trauma, childhood, educational issues, and identity. She records interviews with family, friends, coworkers, community activists, teachers, students, neighbors, and fellow artists. 

These conversations reveal nuanced perspectives which become a jumping off point for her installations, sculptures, films, drawings, and paintings. Marta shows in public spaces, like in the Canal Place Mall in downtown New Orleans, as well as museums including the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta. Her work was exhibited in galleries including Ground Floor Gallery in Brooklyn, Anytime Dept in Cincinnati, and Good Children Gallery, Parse, The Front, and May Gallery in New Orleans. Marta has been a featured artist in New American Paintings, Bust, and Hiss magazine. She held residencies at FUTURA, the Contemporary Art Center in Prague Czech Republic, as well as Acre in Wisconsin, The Printed Matter Residency at the Ace in New Orleans, Popps Packing in Detroit, and the Vermont Studio Center. In 2018, Rodriguez Maleck worked alongside Ashley Teamer to mount 'But I Didn’t Mean it Like That,' a multimedia installation at Prospect.4. Together they received a Joan Mitchell Grant, Platforms Grant, and Jazz and Heritage Foundation Grant for this work. In the Fall of 2019, she will show a new iteration of this collaboration at the New Orleans Contemporary Art Center. Marta will be the artist-in-residence at the NOLA Paper Machine in December, 2019.

 

Opening Reception:

2201 S Halsted St
Chicago , IL 60608

Wheelchair Accessible

Open hours: by appointment