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Event: Artist Talk Painting, Land, Friendship: Carolyn Castaño and Arnold J. Kemp

Carolyn Castaño, Cumanday: El Nevado Del Ruiz, 2023. Photo by Jonas Mikosch Müller-Ahlheim.

Date

July 14, 2026

Time

6:00–8:00 pm

Location

Gallery 400

Address

400 S Peoria St.
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ABOUT THE EVENT

Join us for a dialogue between artists Carolyn Castaño and Arnold J. Kemp, two fellow artists who have been friends for decades. In the gallery amidst Castaño’s large My Mother Mountain paintings, Kemp and Castaño discuss the processes, materials, ideas, and references in the exhibition. They also share elements of their ongoing dialogue about artmaking, community, and navigating histories across diasporas. Kemp is present in the gallery while Castaño joins virtually from her studio in Los Angeles.

ABOUT

Arnold J. Kemp is an artist working across sculpture, painting, performance, video, and writing. His recent exhibitions include solo presentations at the Neubauer Collegium, University of Chicago; M. LeBlanc, Chicago; Martos Gallery, New York; JOAN, Los Angeles; Biquini Wax, Mexico City, Mexico; and Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME. Kemp is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art institute of Chicago.

Carolyn Castaño’s debut Chicago solo exhibition My Mother Mountain is currently on view at UIC Gallery 400. She has presented solo exhibitions at the Craft Contemporary and the Orange County Museum of Art and been featured in group exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum, the 56th Venice Biennale, and at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Last year, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts.

Last year, Kemp and Castaño exhibited together in the exhibition Bay Area Then at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Franciso where in the 1990s Kemp was a curator in the 1990s and Castaño exhibited. Also last year, Kemp curated Castaño into the exhibition LIFE-A Group Show at Artist’s Space, New York.