Save the Date 11.17.2023— Class of 2023: Vol. II Opening Reception
Join CPS Lives at our opening reception for the Class of 2023 artist’s exhibition on Friday, November 17 at 7:00pm (CST)!
Class of 2023 Vol. II is a continuation of the exhibition Class of 2023, which was originally exhibited at Jude Gallery in July of 2023. The exhibition featured the works of CPS Lives’ 2022-2023 artists in residence and showcased the projects they created with their Chicago Public School collaborators. Vol. II expands upon this exhibition providing a look into the lives of 14 different Chicago Public Schools through the eyes of 14 local Chicago artists who spent the last school year working with students, faculty, and staff to capture these unique communities.
Class of 2023 Vol: II will be on display from November 17- December 10
Opening Reception: Class of 2023: Vol. II
Friday, November 17 2023
7 pm- 11 pm
Heaven Gallery
1550 N. Milwaukee Ave #2
Chicago, IL 60622
Artist Talk
Saturday, December 2 2023
12 pm-1 pm
Gallery Hours
Thursday-Saturday: 1pm -6 pm
Sunday: 1 pm – 5 pm
CPS Lives Class of 2023 Vol. II Artists:
Kris Derek Hchevarria (he/him)
Kris Derek Hechevarria moved to Chicago in 2009 to volunteer educational services to the West Town community with AmeriCorps. He received his Masters of Art in Art Education from the school of the Art Institute of Chicago where he researched the ways in which learning takes place in the museum. After receiving his MA he developed an art curriculum as a founding member of high school for students with learning disabilities. He has developed programming for The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art: Chicago, National Museum of Mexican Art, National Veterans Art Museum and the Smart Museum.
Juan Hernandez (he/him)
Juan Hernandez is an incarcerated artist born and raised in Chicago. His artwork has been exhibited at Angelica Kauffman Gallery, dragonFLY Gallery, Art in Odd Places, and others. He has been featured in Latino Rebels and he is a 2022 grant recipient of The Puffin Foundation.
James Hosking (he/him)
I am a Chicago-based photographer, filmmaker, and visual artist. My work has screened internationally and appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, and many other publications. I developed a multimedia project examining identity, aging, and labor among veteran drag performers in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. It included a documentary that I directed, produced, and edited entitled Beautiful By Night. I had a multi-year collaboration with the Tenderloin Museum in San Francisco that included screenings, public programming, and a solo photo exhibit of this work. The project was included in the 2020 group show Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America? at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. It was the focus of a solo exhibition at the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities gallery during January and February of 2022. I am currently a 2022-2023 HATCH resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition. HATCH is a juried program for emerging and mid-career artists that offers the opportunity to develop new work and produce collaborative exhibitions.
Mariah Karson (she/her)
I am a Chicago based photographer and artist – I studied photography and printmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and my work has been published in Le Nouvel Observateur (l’Obs, France), The Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader, Newcity, Red Eye, The Daily Southtown, The American Legion Magazine, and The Guardian (UK). Solo exhibitions include Modern David at the Robert F. DeCaprio Gallery, and American Legion at Firecat Projects and the Chicago Public Library Irving-Austin Branch.
Nathan Miller (he/him)
Nathan Miller is an artist and educator from the South Side of Chicago. His work in photography, sculpture, sound, and public installation is a material translation of faith within the context of the human experience, with research interests rooted in Christianity and the Black church. He has studied photography abroad at the University of The Arts London (UK) and received a BFA degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. He has exhibited in Chicago, New York City, London, and Rhode Island, including at Chicago Art Department (IL), Ignition Project Space (IL), ClampArt (NY), RISD Museum (RI), and the Washington Park Arts Incubator Gallery (IL).
Ludvig Perés (he/him)
Ludvig Perés (b. Sweden) is a Chicago-based artist whose photo-based practice intersects traditional print media and sculpture. Perés’ artistic exploration is centered around technology’s rapid development and its impact on our lives. He employs a sociological approach to probe the relationship between technology and alienation, raising critical questions about its role in our hypermodern society. Perés’ work has been featured in a number of exhibitions, including Fotografiska Talent 2018 at the Swedish Museum of Photography (Fotografiska) in Stockholm. The following year, he was invited to attend the prestigious Eddie Adams Workshop XXXII to work and network with leading photo professionals. In 2022, he was awarded the IAP grant by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for his documentation of the Covid-19 pandemic’s hardships at Chicago public schools through his work with CPS Lives. Through his artistic practice, Perés creates a space for reflection and contemplation, encouraging viewers to consider the consequences of our frenzied reliance on technology in our contemporary lives.
Pooja Pittie (she/her)
Pooja Pittie is a self-taught visual artist who lives and works in Chicago. Raised in Mumbai, India, Pooja Pittie trained as an accountant and moved to the U.S. in 1999. She earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, which led her to a career in finance and entrepreneurship. A long held practice and self-study in painting was always apparent, and, in 2016, she decided to pursue her passion and shifted her focus to painting full-time. Pooja has an incurable and progressive form of muscular dystrophy and her painting process explores the constantly changing relationship between an often slow body and an active mind. Pooja is an alumna of the HATCH residency at Chicago Artists’ Coalition and the Center Program at Hyde Park Art Center. As a Board member of Hyde Park Art Center, she is an advocate for equity and accessibility in the Arts. Pooja was awarded the 2020 3Arts UIC Bodies of Work Fellowship and has been nominated for the 3Arts Visual Art Award and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant. Her paintings have been exhibited at venues such as Art Miami, EXPO Chicago, McCormick Gallery and The Union League Club of Chicago, and she is in public and private collections across the country. Pooja is represented by the McCormick Gallery in Chicago.
Kathryn Rodrigues (she/her)
Kathryn Rodrigues is a Chicago based artist and educator. She was born in Georgia and within weeks was on the move to her family’s next destination. Her family moved to 10 different locations within the next 13 years, including Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal and Germany, before finally settling in Illinois. Being raised as a “third-culture kid” left her with a deep interest in cultural identity, notions of belonging and longing, domestic life, and the natural world. She often uses both visual and symbolic systems of mapping in her work as a way to express her interior life and navigate the world around her. Her work represents an investigation of and a reflection on the collection of experiences and memories that shape her identity. Kathryn received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of Illinois and a Master of Science in Art Education from the Massachusetts College of Art. She has taught courses for children and adults at the Massachusetts College of Art, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Marwen. Exhibition highlights include the Chicago Cultural Center, Copley Society of Art, Woman Made Gallery, Midwest Center for Photography, Spilt Milk Gallery, Open House Contemporary and ARC Gallery.
Jess Smoot (they/them)
I am a professional mischief maker who uses tactics from my background as a trained clown to examine social power structures. Through playful and inquisitive performances, I ask viewers to question current circumstances and imagine new ways to relate to each other that aren’t hierarchical and oppressive in nature. Drawing directly from the lineage of the clown as a court jester, I believe the best way to destabilize authoritarian figures is by removing them from their pedestals, allowing us to magnify their flaws while also examining our own and coming to terms with the full complexity of human individuals within the harmful systems we’ve created. In recent years, I’ve also been using archival material as fodder for my work. When I use historical material, I remove it from its context and examine it within the contexts of today. My work puts the archive on display, and while it often acknowledges the historical narrative, it does not prioritize it. I seek to use it as a way to collaborate with people who we no longer have access to physically so that we can better understand the circumstances we presently find ourselves in.
Chang Ching “Casper” Su (he/him)
Chang-Ching Su searches for transitional spaces between different systems or structures of authority, on the stage or behind the backdoor, before a parenthesis, after a quotation, within vicissitudes, beyond perpetuity. Acting as an internal birdwatcher, stalker, activist, protagonist, and apologist, he shuttles between understanding and incomprehensibility, between naivety and reality, between red velvet cake and national security, between free-flowing elocution and words approaching the tip of the tongue.
As an interdisciplinary artist, Su works with images, languages, found objects, videos, appropriations, social structures, stereotypes, conversations, inquiries, humor, satire, and randomness. He holds a BA in Political Science from National Taiwan University and is currently an MFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Denise Waite (she/her)
Denise Waite is an accomplished visual artist as well as a writer. She is a graduate of Williams College where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Art with honors. Recently she received her Master of Fine Arts in Art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Her primary focus in art is portraiture in pastels and acrylic paint.
Dylan Yarbrough (he/him)
Dylan Yarbrough is an artist, photographer, and educator. He earned his BFA from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and his MFA at Columbia College Chicago. His work has been exhibited as a solo show, “Sompasuana,” at the Arcade Gallery in Chicago, as well as numerous group shows at venues such as Center For Creative Photography, Midwest Center for Photography, and the Historic Arkansas Museum. Dylan was the recipient of the 2019 Stuart Abelson Graduate Fellowship and the 2019 Lya Dym Rosenblum Award. Dylan’s photos have recently been featured in several publications, including Aint-Bad Magazine, Too Tired Project, and Oxford American Magazine.
Zhuyan Ye (she/her)
Zhuyan Ye (b. 1996) born in Zhejiang, China and lives between China, Taiwan and Chicago. Walking around the marginal spaces of these different cities, I try to test the relationship between the body and the space. I am drawn to people’s agency facing their gentrified personal spaces. In this practice, Language and conversation exist in the form of oral history to negotiate with the grand narrative. I witness the movement from everything and perform like an animal while accepting illness and death numbly and discipline them into writing and pictorial memory. In the forms of installation, performance and autoethnography documentary, I am currently working on an on-going project “chair practice”. I received a Master of Fine Arts in Studio from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2022.
Alyce Haliday McQueen (she/her)
Alyce Haliday McQueen is an artist and educator in Chicago, IL. Her work delves into the concepts surrounding feminine identity and female stereotypes. She weaves between medias, incorporating photography, video, sculpture, and installation techniques. McQueen’s exhibition record includes group exhibitions at: Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA; The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO; Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL; Filter Space, Chicago, IL; Perspective Photography Gallery, Evanston, IL, and solo exhibitions at: Max L. Gatov Gallery, Long Beach, CA; Lillstreet Annex, Chicago, IL; Kitchen Space Gallery, Chicago, IL; and Wedge Projects, Chicago, IL. She was named an “Artist to Look Out For” by Starry Night Publications and is a two-time recipient of the Puffin Foundation Individual Artist Grant. In addition to her art practice, she enjoys cats and chocolate cake.
