THE

OF

THE M

ATTE

R

“Art was, in effect, something that

was happening to me, happening at

that very moment. And the world

seemed new again, moved by an

invisible impulse. Everything was

so relaxing and admirable, it was

impossible not to look. Blessed is

the morning, I thought.” 1

-Enrique Vila-Matas

As cultural producers, how is our capacity and desire to keep making

catalyzed by what Vila-Matas calls the ‘invisible impulses’ that move

through the world? In this sense, how is the work we make something

of a vital record; a form of transmission; an extraction from the

everyday?

Exploratory and observational, the exhibition “The Heart of the

Matter” is what curator Carolyn Christov–Bakargiev might call a “veil”

or “draft”2 as opposed to a thematic or analytical exhibition, and it is

comprised of 12 artists recently affiliated with organizations funded

by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation. What unites these

works—mostly “faces and places”—is some observable manifestation

of the artist’s everyday life  through closely observed gestures that

span intimacy, awkwardness, specificity and inimitability. Some artists

in the  exhibition engage in some form of locational abstraction – or,

abstract works that are rooted in the logic or poetry of place. Others

Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation Curatorial Fellowship in partnership with the Chicago Artists Coalition

Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, 35 East Upper Wacker Drive, Chicago  

January 29 – June 16, 2016

The protagonist of the meta-fictional novel, The Illogic of Kassel, is a

Spanish writer-in-residence at the citywide Documenta biennial, where

he moves through a sometimes-foreign, sometimes-familiar sea of

contemporary art and ideas, experiencing in near-simultaneity the

cyclical highs and lows of an artist’s inner life. On his last day walking

the German city of Kassel, he expresses an absorptive “peak”: 

Curated by

Jessica Cochran,

Curatorial Fellow

Artists

Alex Bradley Cohen

Laura Davis

Howard Fonda

Roberto Jamora

Anna Kunz

Esau McGhee

Jovencio de la Paz

Josue Pellot

LJ Roberts

Jean Schuster

Alice Tippet

Polly Yates

The following is a list of participating artists, and the organizations, all supported by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, with which they were affiliated:

Alex Bradley Cohen Roots & Culture, Elmhurst Art Museum

Laura Davis Threewalls, Elmhurst Art Museum

Howard Fonda Heaven Gallery, Roots and Culture

Roberto Jamora Ragdale

Anna Kunz Woman Made Gallery

Esau McGhee Elastic Arts, Chicago Artists Coalition

Jovencio de la Paz Threewalls, Chicago Artists Coalition

Josue Pellot Heaven Gallery

LJ Roberts ACRE

Jean Schuster Union Street Gallery

Alice Tippit Roots & Culture

Polly Yates Spudnik Press

For more information visit chicagoartistscoalition.org and gddf.org

The mission of the Chicago Artists Coalition is to build a sustainable

marketplace for entrepreneurial artists and creatives. As pioneers in

advocacy and professional development, we capitalize on the intersection

of art and enterprise by activating collaborative partnerships and

developing innovative resources. The Chicago Artists Coalition is

committed to cultivating groundbreaking exhibitions and educational

opportunities, and to building a diverse community of artistic leaders that

defines the place of art and artists in our culture and economy.

The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation’s Gen Ops Plus strategy in the Chicago region provides

general operations grants and an array of other kinds of support to help grantees sustain their artistry and

strengthen their operations.

HEA

RT

are engaging in a deeply emotive type of figuration—the human or

animal body rendered with wit, affection or, sometimes, pathos.  

At the heart of each work we can perhaps locate, at arms length, the

mobilization of some “invisible impulse” or energizing force – it may

be an Instagram photo, a magazine, a bottle, studio remnants, rocks,

a residency, a friend, a joke, or a llama. In a world saturated and fast,

these artists model slowness and divergence, situating themselves

and re-situating themselves in relation to the world, as if art is

always, “in effect,” happening.

The location of this exhibition within a foundation headquarters

prompted several curatorial goals:

First, by alternating between figuration and abstraction, I hope to

disrupt the psychological overhead of the office by introducing into

the space an orchestrated sequence of interruptions – a nice, steady

hum. New “officemates” peering off picture planes; the essences

of other places emergent and expressed through abstracted color,

pattern or surface.

Finally, I hope to bring to the Donnelley Foundation headquarters

the special, quotidian corners of artists’ lived spaces and inner lives

through works that feel intimately rendered and tremendously

specific, if not emotional, funny, eccentric and sometimes just

practical.

-Jessica Cochran

Jessica Cochran is a curator living in Chicago, where she also manages a

private family art collection and teaches at the School of the Art Institute

of Chicago.

1 Enrique Vila-Matas, The Illogic of Kassel, trans Anne McLean and Anna

Milsom (New York: New Directions, 2015), 220.

2 See “A Powerful Curator’s Idiosyncratic Genius” by Emily Stokes, the New

York Times, December 1, 2015

ALEX BRADLEY COHEN

A Friendly Ritual, 2015, oil on canvas

(Roots & Culture, Elmhurst Art

Museum)

LJ ROBERTS

Jenny Romaine and Kubby Bear at Idyll

Dandy Arts Smithville, TN, 2013

Single-strand embroidery on cotton

(ACRE)

JEAN SCHUSTER

Llama, oil on canvas, 2013

(Union Street Gallery)

ANNA KUNZ

The painter, 2009 styrofoam, gesso,

branch, ink (Woman Made Gallery)

ALICE TIPPIT

Flush, 2015, oil on canvas

(Roots & Culture)

POLLY YATES

From the Landscape Series, 2013-2015,

found photo collages (Spudnik Press)

ROBERTO JAMORA

Walking around Seashore State Park by

myself one day, 2015, oil and beeswax

on MDF (Ragdale)

ESAU MCGHEE

Untitled Post-Racial Pyramid #1

Dedicated to the Body Defined as Other,

2015, collage of archival prints,

staples and archival tape in frame

built by artist (Elastic Arts)

JOSUE PELLOT

Untitled-Blue, 2015, mixed media

(Heaven Gallery)

JOVENCIO DE LA PAZ

The Window’s Gifts, 2015, screen print

and monoprint on canvas (Chicago

Artists Coalition, Threewalls)

HOWARD FONDA

Untitled, 2015, oil on canvas (Heaven

Gallery, Roots & Culture)

LAURA DAVIS

Untitled drawing, 2014, pencil on

paper (Threewalls, Elmhurst Art

Museum, Chicago Artists Coalition)