Ground Floor brings together work by Chicago’s most promising emerging talent, offering a single destination to discover the spectrum of artists whose work demands to be seen and supported. Ground Floor—so named because it provides a crucial platform for young artists and fills the entire lower level of the Art Center—is an ongoing biennial project. Based on nominations by respected members of the arts community, Hyde Park Art Center’s Exhibitions Committee of artists and curators select work by recent graduates from each of Chicago’s nationally top-ranked Master of Fine Art programs: Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
This exhibition is the brainchild of acclaimed photographer and Exhibition Committee Chair Dawoud Bey, who together with Huey Copeland, Sze Lin Pang, Jason Salavon, and other members of the Art Center’s Exhibitions Committee assisted the Art Center in organizing the exhibition. We would like to thank the many nominators that generously assisted us with the selection of the artists.
An exhibition catalogue featuring the work and information about Ground Floor artists was released during the run of the show. It features critical writing by Chicago-based writer Caroline Picard.
