Kavi Gupta Gallery

06/29/2022

Vic Mensa and Programming Director Chanelle Lacy discuss "SKIN + MASKS" in the summer issue of Cultured Magazine.

The activist, rapper and budding curator Vic Mensa curates the group show “SKIN + MASKS: Decolonizing Art Beyond the Politics of Visibility,” opened June 18 at Kavi Gupta in Chicago. Summoning Antilles-born author Frantz Fanon, Mensa reflects on the legacy of Black identity and will donate all p...

06/09/2022

Kavi Gupta presents "SKIN + MASKS," a group show curated by Vic Mensa, Grammy-nominated rapper, author, singer, visual artist, activist, NAACP Image Awards nominee, and founder of SaveMoneySaveLife, a Chicago-based, philanthropic non-profit organization operating at the intersection of art, entertainment, and sustainable social change.

Operational since 2018, SaveMoneySaveLife has forwarded initiatives in violence prevention and supported youth arts programs in response to evolving community needs. Kavi Gupta will donate all proceeds from "SKIN + MASKS" to SaveMoneySaveLife for use in creating infrastructure and providing resources for young artists in Accra, Ghana. "Ghana is the hub of fine art in West Africa right now," says Mensa, whose family is Ghanaian. "What's needed is resources."

Mensa’s creative and political work centers the need for critical thinking, honest self-expression, and public truth-telling. He first became aware of the disparities that exist between the rich and poor in America while growing up in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. He learned to express his thoughts and feelings through the arts.

For his curatorial debut with Kavi Gupta, Mensa deploys a seminal text by Antilles-born author Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) as a foundation for a group art exhibition aimed at decolonizing Black art beyond the politics of visibility.

Fanon wrote brilliantly about the ways that the barriers of race impede our ability to experience humanity. Published in 1952, his book "Black Skin, White Masks" is a psychoanalytical tour-de-force, exposing how colonization weaponized skin as an agent of alienation, imposing an existential divide on people, Black and White.

"SKIN + MASKS" will center work by a range of contemporary artists who, like Fanon, are striving to understand and express the meaning of Black identity not from the vantage point of White gaze, but from the perspective of individual realities, including: Sherman Beck, Hebru Brantley, Andrea Coleman, Mikey Coleman, Joshua Donkor, Ndidi Emefiele, Jewel Ham, Erol Scott Harris, Armani Howard, Sydnie Jimenez, Dada Khanyisa, Mia Lee, Muna Malik, Kenrick McFarlane, Jahlil Nzinga, Josie Love Roebuck, Foster Sakyiamah, Elizabeth Sekyiamah, Troy S**t, Terron Cooper Sorrells, Thelonious Stokes, Jake Troyli, Nikko Washington, Darryl Westly, and Gerald Williams.

Opening Saturday, June 18th, the exhibition will be on view at Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St. through August 13th.

https://kavigupta.com/exhibitions/364-forthcoming-skin-masks-decolonizing-art-beyond-the-kavi-gupta-elizabeth-street/

05/10/2022

Kavi Gupta proudly presents “Stars Are Born In Darkness,” a solo exhibition of new paintings by New York-based mixed media artist Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, inaugural Foreland Fellow, 2020 NXTHVN Fellow, Sustainable Arts Foundation Grantee, and a 2022 Headlands Center for the Arts Artist in Residence.

Sikelianos-Carter envisions a parallel universe in which white supremacy has been eradicated and Black features are honored as a manifestation of the mystical. Her painting practice explores a speculative world in which Blackness is a superpower. Within this universe, ancient, supernatural guardians call upon Black people to activate the innate divine technology they possess in order to manifest their transmutation into consecrated, immortal beings whose Blackness is critical to their survival and essential to their celestial transcendency.

“Stars Are Born In Darkness” gives shape to the beginning of this narrative. It centers the true story of kidnapped Africans trafficked on ships to be enslaved in the Americas, who threw themselves, or were thrown, overboard during the middle passage.

Reimagining this historical moment of utter despair, Sikelianos-Carter employs optically dazzling materials such as glitter, mica, and abalone shell to postulate a moment of cosmic transformation. Instead of drowning in the ocean, the falling bodies of these terrified souls are called by gigantic, underwater deities to mobilize their inherent power of sacred adaptation transform themselves into Afronauts—beings whose hair becomes a buoyant, consecrated diving apparatus that allows them to breathe and thrive in a sanctified, underwater world.

Through the illuminating pictorializations of the parallel universe in which these stories are taking shape, Sikelianos-Carter is utilizing her painting practice as a healing act—a process of using storytelling as an act of empowerment and love to uplift those people who were taken from us; of reimagining historical trauma, and highlighting the strength and resilience of Blackness.

“Stars Are Born in Darkness” is on view through June 11 at Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St. Floor 2. To explore the 3D virtual walkthrough of the exhibition, visit our website!

https://kavigupta.com/exhibitions/368-alisa-sikelianos-carter-stars-are-born-in-darkness-kavi-gupta-elizabeth-st-fl.-2/

05/07/2022

Kavi Gupta proudly presents "A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire," a solo exhibition of new works by acclaimed visual artist Devan Shimoyama. The exhibition follows Shimoyama’s debut European solo museum exhibition, "All the Rage," at Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany, and coincides with his ongoing monumental installation "The Grove" at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building in Washington, DC.

Shimoyama’s visually scintillating artworks stop people in their tracks. Viewers easily enchanted by beautiful things might get lost in the shimmering artistry of Shimoyama’s expertly crafted cosmetic veils. Those whose eyes and minds travel beyond the surface subterfuge of glitter, flowers, and jewels gain precious entry into a complex world of mystery, introspection, rhapsody, and desire.

The paintings and sculptures in "A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire" examine cultural representations related to transformation. The result of a long period of self-reflection for Shimoyama, the work materially alludes to an internal dialog he has been wrangling with concerning the difference between superficial and true change—a discrepancy noticeable at all levels, from the societal, to individual interactions in which we perform social niceties for each other rather than admit the truth about how we are doing.

“We have this desire to present outwardly as contained and keeping it together,” Shimoyama says. “We think it’s a gift to say, ‘I’m fine.’ There’s a mimicry of something really desired, but it’s fake. There’s a danger to that kind of thing.”

Shimoyama’s work has been exhibited widely around the world. His solo exhibition "Cry, Baby," at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, juxtaposed his works with a rotating selection of Warhol’s "Ladies and Gentlemen" paintings from the 1970s, offering a unique opportunity to consider generational evolutions in aesthetic portrayals of gender, sexuality, race and violence.

“A Counterfeit Gift Wrapped in Fire” is on view at Kavi Gupta | 219 N. Elizabeth St. Floor 1 through June 11. To explore the 3D virtual walkthrough of the exhibition, visit our website!

https://kavigupta.com/exhibitions/367-forthcoming-devan-shimoyama-a-counterfeit-gift-wrapped-in-kavi-gupta-elizabeth-st-fl.-1/

04/29/2022

Kavi Gupta presents "The Witness," a solo exhibition of new paintings by Arghavan Khosravi, Joan Mitchell Foundation Grantee and Walter Feldman Fellow. Following recent exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, China, and Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, this exhibition continues Khosravi’s investigation of the aesthetics of ancient Persian miniature painting as a vehicle for cultural transformation.

Khosravi’s paintings dazzle the eye with their dreamlike color palettes and masterful draughtsmanship. Yet, their most formidable visual characteristic is their multi-dimensionality. The images burst forth from the wall, their complex scaffolding of cut wooden panels offers a dramatic and constantly shifting perceptual experience to viewers. If aspects of these images look familiar it is because each of Khosravi’s paintings references a specific Persian miniature painting from history; yet, their architectural presence makes clear that they are not homages, but are intended to subvert the tradition to which such images belong.

Persian miniatures originally illustrated folkloric texts. Their landscapes were flattened, eliminating any sense of depth or perspective, and depicting all figures and architectural features at the same scale. No longer conforming to the architecture of the page, Khosravi’s paintings are able to literally broaden the narrative, creating new spaces that welcome new points of view.

For Khosravi, these paintings are about taking a conscious look at how values are transmitted and fostered through visual art.

Like the ancient Persian miniatures they emulate, Khosravi’s paintings operate on multiple levels—intellectual, sensual, and emotional. They both critique and weaponize a particular type of authoritarian thinking: that which supposes art is frivolous and decorative, and yet knows art has the power to communicate and affect social expectations and desires.

“The Witness” is on view at Kavi Gupta | 835 W. Washington Blvd. Floor 2 through May 21. To explore the 3D virtual walkthrough of the exhibition, visit out website!

https://kavigupta.com/exhibitions/366-arghavan-khosravi-the-witness-kavi-gupta-washington-blvd-fl-2./

04/22/2022

Kavi Gupta proudly presents “FEELS LIKE LOVE,” a solo exhibition of new paintings by Beverly Fishman, acclaimed visual artist and Anonymous Was A Woman Award Winner, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow, and National Endowment for the Arts Grantee.

“FEELS LIKE LOVE” features Fishman’s luminescent, geometric relief paintings, which arrive at a crucial moment in America’s relationship with healing, when people are less connected than ever, and antidepressant use and opioid dependency are at historically high levels.

Along with their radiant material presence, their uncanny structures challenge viewers to look beyond the surface, to try to recall where it was that they have seen these curious shapes before. Epiphany is aided by the titles Fishman gives her paintings, which invoke a litany of ills, such as depression, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder, opioid addiction, insomnia, and ADHD—these are pharmaceutical forms, abstracted from the pills we ingest every day to balance our bodies and minds.

The color world of “FEELS LIKE LOVE” is opalescent and electric, enmeshing the mind in a flocculent, cotton-candy-like state of comfort. The highly reflective automotive paint, Fishman’s medium of choice, gives her paintings such highly polished surfaces that they seem to glow. That iridescent light radiates into the empty spaces in the forms, creating transcendent zones that speak both literally and metaphorically to the potential of voids.

Like all important achievements in symbolism, Fishman’s pill reliefs transmit lasting truths about the human condition to those literate and brave enough to read between the shapes.

“FEELS LIKE LOVE” Is on view at Kavi Gupta | 835 W. Washington Blvd. Floor 1 through May 21.

To explore a 3D virtual walkthrough of the exhibition, visit our website!

https://kavigupta.com/exhibitions/365-beverly-fishman-feels-like-love-kavi-gupta-washington-blvd-fl.-1/works/

01/05/2022

A massive thank you to Architectural Digest India for including us in their latest 2022 issue “The most beautiful homes in the world”!

We are absolutely thrilled to have the story go international! If you’re able, don’t forget to snag a copy of this month’s Digest India featuring the article written by Janelle Zara and photographed by Gianni Franchellucci.

From Architectural Digest:

Throughout the transformation, the couple’s love of frequent, impromptu visitors was a major consideration. “This is a very public-facing space,” says Jennifer Kranitz.

“The design is very much in service to the art,” says Jessica Moss, noting a general minimalism and restraint. Low-slung furniture in shades of black, white, and grey allows more colourful works to take centre stage, including the Angel Otero collage of oil-paint skins above the living room sofa.

Works by MacArthur Binion, Roger Brown, Beverly Fishman, Theaster Gates, Jeffrey Gibson, Sam Gilliam, Manish Nai, Jessica Stockholder, Wadsworth Jarrell, Angel Otero, Nick Cave, Devan Shimoyama, Young-Il Ahn, Deborah Kass, Sookyung Yee and Tony Tasset

Architecture by Jonathan Splitt Architects; design by Jennifer Kranitz of Set Setting Studio in collaboration with Project Interiors and KOWOK Design; styling by Project Interiors.

04/07/2021

Kavi Gupta invites you to an artist talk with Michael Joo and Charles Gaines Friday, April 9 at 3 pm CT on Zoom.

The two artists will discuss Joo's exhibition "Sensory Meridian" on view at our Elizabeth St. gallery and the thematic cross sections between their respective oeuvres, centering nature, transmission, and representation. The event marks the occasion of EXPO Chicago and the closing of "Sensory Meridian".

The exhibition features a series of new sculptures of disincarnate body parts, alchemized from scans of historical works in the Smithsonian Archives, exploring the prior mentioned issues of representation, and transmission.