Line Age Gap

Two photographs are spliced together. On the left, Alberto Aguilar holds a camera to his face with his right hand while his left hand grasps his wrist. His mouth rests slightly ajar as he looks forward intently. He wears a brown long-sleeved shirt and sits next to a houseplant. Behind him in the distance, his daughter Madeleine stands behind, also looking towards the front. She wears a red shirt and blue jeans. Her body is very small as compared to Aguilar in the foreground. On the left-hand side of the screen, another photo depicts Madeleine outside in a yard. Behind her there is a brown and yellow swing set a multi-colored bouncy balls. She sits on her knees in the foreground while holding a camera up to her face. Madeleine and Alberto's poses mirror each other, creating continuity between the two as father and daughter and co-presenters of this artist talk.
Double Portrait, 2006, digital image, courtesy the artists.


A Father/Daughter Artist Talk In Turn

Date: Wednesday, May 1
Time: 6pm
Location: Gallery 400

Throughout this father-daughter artist talk, Alberto Aguilar tells origin stories about certain works in his survey exhibition while Madeleine Aguilar tells stories through original music written as records of certain life experiences. Their storytelling happens in turn over an hour timespan and sometimes correlates.

About the Artists

Madeleine Aguilar (Chicago) was born in Phoenix, AZ in 1998 and currently attends the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a musician and also works in drawing, printmaking, and fibers. She is the author of many self-published comics and is a regular contributor to F Newsmagazine. She has performed at the Queens Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

I will write this biography using 181 words but will not discover this number until I’m done writing it. From this point forward he will speak in third person. Alberto Aguilar is a Chicago born and based aartist. Aguilar’s creative practice often incorporates whatever materials are at hand as well as exchanges with those around him and people that encounter his aart. His work bridges media from painting and sculpture to video, installation, performance, and sound and has been exhibited at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary AArt, the Queens Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American AArt, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary AArt, the Minneapolis Institute of AArt and the AArt Institute of Chicago. From 2006-2018 he taught at Harold Washington College where he also coordinated Pedestrian Project, an initiative dedicated to making contemporary aart practices more available to his students. He currently teaches at the School of the AArt Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. In order to create slight confusion, he has added an extra letter A where ever the word aart appears in this bio.

About the Exhibition

Alberto Aguilar's first large scale survey explores how the Chicago-born and based artist’s various life roles and surroundings have shaped a searching, inquisitive practice that is grounded in, and produces, a radical everyday. Aguilar’s creative work often incorporates whatever materials he has at hand and has extended into collaborations and exchanges with others, including his own family. Navigating measurement and limits, of his own body or in his ready materials—whether it's the structure of a sheet of mini legal paper or the territory of an area rug, to name a few examples—his work bridges media, from painting and sculpture to video, installation, performance, and sound as well as the use of social media and teaching as art forms.

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Accessibility

Gallery 400 is located on the first level of the Art & Exhibition Hall building with a push-button accessible door and can be accessed by a set of stairs with a railing or an elevator (Level 1R). If there are any barriers to entry on the day of the event, we will post updates through our social media channels.

There are two All Gender restrooms located on the same floor as Gallery 400. While the restrooms are accessible to wheelchair users, the door to the restroom is not. Visitors who use wheelchairs can request personal assistance with opening and closing the restroom doors by asking any Gallery 400 staff member.

The entrance to the building is located in a turn-around where visitors may be dropped off right outside the main door. The closest UIC public parking lot is the Harrison Street Parking Structure. Further information regarding parking on campus can be found at UIC Parking Services. Motorist assistance is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by calling 312.355.0555.

Gallery staff can provide chairs in the gallery space upon request. The front desk attendant is trained in Personal Assistance and can provide audio description, large text labels, and transcriptions.

Other accessibility services are available upon request and may be arranged by contacting the gallery at 312-996-6114 or emailing Megan at gallery400engagement@gmail.com.