Art exhibit explores cultural upbringing

The Rogers Park Art Space will host an exhibit later this month featuring hand-embroidery, ceramic, mixed-media paintings and sculptures reflecting areas of cultural upbringing.

“Soft Show,” by Chanel Thomas, is composed primarily of soft fiber works that portray elements of Thomas’ interior life, family, utilitarian objects, and elements of popular culture that colored the artist’s life during the 1990s and early 200s, according to a release announcing the exhibition.

“The exhibition honors cultural upbringing and values, derived out of a longing to reconnect and reestablish family ties, as well as acknowledge the origins of identity,” according to the statement.

Thomas was born in Chicago in 1991, and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Art Education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014. She taught in the Chicago Public Schools from 2017, and is a current resident at Showhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Starting this Fall, she will pursue a Master of Fine Art and Painting degree at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut.

The space will be open to the public between July 21-August 12 on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays from 4-7 pm.

– Elvir Mujkanovic