Carolyn Castaño and Arnold J. Kemp at Gallery 400

You’re invited to attend a dialogue between artists Carolyn Castaño and Arnold J. Kemp at UIC Gallery 400. Castaño and Kemp are fellow artists who have been friends for decades. In the gallery amidst Castaño’s large “My Mother Mountain” paintings, Kemp and Castaño discuss the processes, materials, ideas and references in the exhibition. They also share elements of their ongoing dialogue about artmaking, community and navigating histories across diasporas. Kemp is present in the gallery while Castaño joins virtually from her studio in Los Angeles.

About

Arnold J. Kemp is an artist working across sculpture, painting, performance, video and writing. His recent exhibitions include solo presentations at the Neubauer Collegium, University of Chicago; M. LeBlanc, Chicago; Martos Gallery, New York; JOAN, Los Angeles; Biquini Wax, Mexico City, Mexico; and Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, Maine. Kemp is a professor of painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Carolyn Castaño’s debut Chicago solo exhibition, “My Mother Mountain,” is currently on view at UIC Gallery 400. She has presented solo exhibitions at the Craft Contemporary and the Orange County Museum of Art and been featured in group exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum, the 56th Venice Biennale and at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Last year, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts.

Last year, Kemp and Castaño exhibited together in the exhibition “Bay Area Then” at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Franciso, where in the 1990s Kemp was a curator in the 1990s and Castaño exhibited. Also last year, Kemp curated Castaño into the exhibition LIFE-A Group Show at Artist’s Space, New York.