Warhol Foundation supports experimental work at Gallery 400

“Witchual,” a video by Macon Reed, will be in the first Gallery 400 exhibition funded by the Warhol Foundation.

Gallery 400, UIC’s contemporary art showcase, received a $100,000 grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for original exhibitions over the next two years.

The grant is one of only 48 grants given nationwide by the Warhol Foundation.

The gallery plans exhibitions that match the foundation’s focus on challenging, experimental work, including six large-scale group shows, three commissioned projects and a series of commissioned works for the gallery building’s windows.

Lectures, panel discussions, performances, readings, film and video screenings and musical events will complement each exhibition.

“We at the gallery have been working to highlight the great exchange between contemporary art and the urgent issues affecting people’s lives,” said Lorelei Stewart, Gallery 400 director. “The Warhol’s support is a great endorsement of our vision for art, community inclusiveness, activism and accessibility.”

Planned exhibitions include:

“The Warhol’s support is a great endorsement of our vision,” says director Lorelei Stewart. Photo: Jenny Fontaine/UIC Public Affairs

•   Sept. 11 – Oct. 24: “Making Chances,” part of the citywide “Platforms: 10 Years of Chances,” a fall series by Chances Dances, a queer dance party and collective in Chicago. Commissioned and existing art and performances curated by Stewart and artist-UIC alumnus John Neff.

•  Jan. 15 – March 5: “Few Were Happy with Their Condition: New Tendencies in Romanian Photography, Video and Film,” a group exhibition curated by Olga Stephen that explores life in post-communist Romania.

•   Fall 2016: a commissioned, large-scale presentation by Chicago-based David Leggett, who uses humor to address racism, sexism and homophobia.

•    Fall 2016: new drawing by Chicago-based artist Christa Donner on the complexities of the human body and body image.

•   Winter 2017: “Embodiment Abstracted: The Influence of Yvonne Rainer,” recent works by artists who use Rainer’s 1960s experimental approach to the body as a material, including Marwa Arsanios (Lebanon), Ralph Lemon (U.S.), Jimmy Robert (Belgium) and Simon Leung (U.S.). Organized by Elise Archias, UIC assistant professor of art history.