Wilmer WIlson IV (MFA '15) in Chicago - Opens Friday, August 22

Valerie Carberry Gallery and Richard Gray Gallery, in collaboration with Black Artists Retreat, are pleased to announce RETREAT, an exhibition conceived of and organized by Theaster Gates.

photo: Wilmer Wilson IV, Shed Skin (Notary)

Artists have been invited by Gates to consider how the concept of retreat, either in theory or practice, contributes to a position of strength and perspective in the making of visual art. Works selected for

exhibition communicate both active interpretations of retreat characterized by pressure or force and passive expressions of retreat that invoke contemplation or meditation. Participating artists — Derrick Adams, Erika Allen, Elizabeth Axtman, Bethany Collins, Tony Lewis, Kelly Lloyd, Valerie Piraino, Mitchell Squire, Wilmer Wilson IV and Nate Young — represent the full range of contemporary art practice in all media, including painting, drawing, photography, installation, body art and video.

Installed in adjacent gallery spaces on the 38th floor of the John Hancock Center, RETREAT opens to the public on Friday, August 22, and is on view through October 4. An opening reception will take place August 22, 5 - 7 p.m., with extended gallery hours until 9 p.m., for the artists and the community to celebrate. (This event is free and open to the public, although online RSVP is strongly encouraged. The RSVP link is accessible through the Richard Gray Gallery website: http://www.richardgraygallery.com/exhibitions/2014-08-22_retreat-by-theaster-gates/)

As a special extension of the exhibition co-hosted by Carberry and Gray, Gates has selected Erika Allen and Mitchell Squire to create a special project booth at EXPO Chicago, September 18 - 21 at Navy Pier. Art fair attendees are invited to experience the exhibition concept of retreat in a “living architecture” space designed for respite and gathering.

A fully illustrated publication with essay contributions by Hamza Walker (Associate Curator and Director of Education at the Renaissance Society) and Romi Crawford (Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute) will debut at EXPO Chicago.