For the past twenty years, collaborative duo Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen have created a body of work that blurs the boundaries between solid form and reflected image, surface and depth, and object and facsimile. Drawing from minimalism, their installations, sculptures, paintings, and photographs play with the visual perception, demonstrating a keen inquiry into how light and form produce space. For instance, they have extracted color pixels from an aerial image of Antwerp (where they live and work) as the environmental background for geometric mirrored panels that create the effect of a moving image for viewers. Arocha–Schraenen will present an exhibition at Monique Meloche Gallery this fall and are joined for a conversation by Denny Mwaura, UIC Gallery 400’s Assistant Director and Curator.

ABOUT

Carla Arocha (b. 1961, Caracas, Venezuela) and Stéphane Schraenen (b. 1971, Antwerp, Belgium) have collaborated as an artist duo since 2006. They are internationally recognized for their large-scale modular mirror works and immersive installations. Rooted in the traditions of geometric abstraction and optical art, their practice often begins with everyday objects, which they strip of their conventional functions and reduce to essential forms, patterns, and silhouettes. Their work is held in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; the Walker Art Center; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp.