The Curators
Paloma Trecka
Paloma Trecka
B. 1964, XALAPA, MEXICO
Paloma Trecka is an artist and educator based in Chicago. She studied Studio Art and Design for the Theater in Montreal and has a BFA from Concordia University. She is currently teaching about the history, art and industry of animation at Columbia College Chicago and at DePaul University and is an abstract collage artist. As a visual artist her abstract paper compositions are pure forms of collage without narrative or representation of life outside of the collage. They are rhythmic repetitions of color and form, pushing and pulling their way through layers of paper ephemera in lieu of paint, often careening into the realm of sculpture. In these relief works, she is attempting to further the language of collage by abandoning representational imagery and eliminating figurative signifiers.
www.palomashaloma.com
Todd Bartel
Ray Borchers
Multidisciplinary artist Ray Borchers has turned the key on Alice herself. With her signature delicate vows her work lives on a pendulum of minuscule detail and contrasted weighted forms. Her large format paintings are constructed through a collage-like process in sourcing images and in practice. Her subjects range from storybooks to lazed female forms; her dry humor and understanding of art‘s greater life context is never far from her finished works. With a strong exhibition history she has refined and morphed her content and technique.
She is also an avid clothing designer constructing original block prints for her co-label BOY NAMES, as well as a noise foundling in the band AITIS BAND. Ray’s committed practice has propelled her forth to constant new mediums to express her singular color vision of tension reimagined. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Todd Bartel received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1985 concluding his studies at RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome. In 1990, he was a recipient of the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship (U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C.) and the Liquitex Art Materials Award. He earned an MFA in Painting from Carnegie Mellon University in 1993. Bartel’s work assumes the forms of painting, drawing, and sculpture in a collage and assemblage format. His work investigates the interconnected histories of collage and landscape and the roles of nature and natural resources in Western culture. Bartel was awarded a Connecticut Council on the Arts Fellowship Grant in 2000 in support of the continuation of his related series entitled, Terra Reverentia and Garden Studies. Bartel has taught drawing, painting, and sculpture at Brown University, Manhattanville College and Carnegie Mellon University, Vermont College MFA in Visual Art, New Hampshire Art Institute MFA in Visual Art among others. He has been a guest critic at Rhode Island School of Design, a visiting critic at Vermont College (since 1999) and New Hampshire Art Institute since 2014. Bartel has lectured at Alfred University, Western Connecticut State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Montclair State University, Chatham College among others. His work has been exhibited nationally in venues that include Palo Alto Art Center (Palo Alto, CA), Katonah Museum (Katonah, NY), Brockton Art Museum (Brockton, MA), The Rhode Island Foundation (Providence, RI), Zieher Smith (New York, NY), Mills Gallery (Boston, MA), Iona College (New Rochelle, NY). He is the founder and Gallery Director at the Cambridge School of Weston’s Thompson Gallery, a gallery dedicated to thematic inquiry, including such exhibition series as Sublime Climate, Collage at 100, Kiss the Ground, Nowhere Everywhere, With Eyes Open, and About Vulnerability. A seasoned teacher since 1986,
Bartel currently teaches drawing, painting, collage, assemblage, conceptual art, and installation art at The Cambridge School of Weston, Weston, MA.
Tony Fitzpatrick
Tony Fitzpatrick is a Chicago-based artist best known for his multimedia collages, printmaking, paintings, and drawings. Fitzpatrick's work are inspired by Chicago street culture, cities he has traveled to, children's books, tattoo designs, and folk art. Fitzpatrick has authored or illustrated eight books of art and poetry, and, for the last two years has written a column for the Newcity.
Fitzpatrick's art appears in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC. The Neville Brothers' album Yellow Moon and the Steve Earle's albums El Corazon and The Revolution Starts Now also feature Fitzpatrick's art. In 1992, Fitzpatrick opened a Chicago-based printmaking studio, Big Cat Press, which exists today as the artist exhibition space Firecats Projects. Before making a living as an artist, Fitzpatrick worked as a radio host, bartender, boxer, construction worker, and film and stage actor.