Ground Floor is a survey exhibition of multi-media work by 20 promising artists who recently emerged from Chicago’s top level MFA programs. Filling the three galleries that make up the entire ground floor of the Art Center, the artwork included illustrate the exciting state of these artist’s career ready to take off. This biannual show of new art and artists brings together under one roof the stylistic trends and innovative talent of the moment produced throughout the city.
With a history of shows like Hairy Who? a definitive exhibition featuring the Chicago Imagists movement of the late 60s, Hyde Park Art Center has been at the forefront of encouraging Chicago-based artistic practice. In keeping with the mission to ‘stimulate and sustain visual arts in the city of Chicago’, this exhibition questions if there is a decisive Chicago style happening in art being produced right now.
The artists hail from a broad range of schools that offer graduate level fine art degrees, including University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Northwestern University, Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The Exhibitions Committee is led by the Chair, Dawoud Bey, and includes Huey Copeland, Matthew Girson, Kelly Kaczynski, Sze Lin Pang, and Art Center Staff, Allison Peters Quinn, Chris Hammes, and Kate Lorenz. The committee received over 100 recommendations from faculty in the local art schools. After conducting slide reviews then studio visits, the committee rigorously narrowed down the candidates to a final shortlist of artists.
