Date: Wednesday, April 14th

Time: 6 pm

Where: Zoom

How: Free event, just register on Eventbrite link to get login information

Curator Conversations at 21c Chicago is back in April with Cortney Lederer and Yasmin Spiro! Curator Conversations is a monthly series that asks a local art curator to chat with an artist of their choice with ties to the Chicago arts community. Each month we’ll switch up those pairings to give you a look into the rich arts community that we have here in the city.

This event is FREE but please sign-up on our Eventbrite link to get the Zoom login information. This is sure to be an exciting conversation you won’t want to miss!

Check Out Their Work:

Cortney Lederer is an art consultant, curator, and educator with 20 years of experience managing an array of artistic programming for organizations and businesses. From 2011–14 she served as the director of exhibitions and residencies at Chicago Artists Coalition. In 2014, Lederer launched CNL Projects to provide artists and organizations with a platform to creatively produce impactful art experiences. CNL’s work is deeply centered on her unique, collaborative approach to working with artists, clients, businesses and organizations to advocate for the value of art and culture in our daily lives. As a respond to the pandemic, CNL launched ART- IN-PLACE May 2020, where 400 artists from around the world activated their homes with works of art to share with their neighbors and through a virtual platform. This collective action provided artists and community members with a sense of hope and connectivity through the experience of public art. Cortney is faculty in the Arts Administration and Policy department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and provides professional development workshops and individual consultation to artists. Most recently, she curated two site-specific installations at the Willis Tower by artists Olafur Eliasson and Jacob Hashimoto.

www.cnlprojects.org/

IG: @cnlprojects 

Yasmin Spiro was born and grew up in in Kingston, Jamaica and currently lives and works in Chicago. Spiro’s work is multi-disciplinary, primarily based in sculpture and immersive installations, with video, drawing and performance – exploring issues of cultural identity and socio-economic issues within the framework of urban development and social politics – often through the lens of Caribbean culture.

Spiro’s work explores concepts related to architecture and urbanism, socio-economics, futuristic cities, and craft and culture. Research is often layered with personal narratives connected to both the landscape and culture of Jamaica. Much of the work is textile based connecting directly to personal history and reconstructed memories. The work also utilizes casting – plaster, ceramic, and cement – creating architectural elements that reference futurism and femininity in our built environments. Her studio practice pulls in various aspects of personal and cultural history to build stories within the work – layered with conceptual research, and material experimentation.

Spiro’s work has been shown at galleries in the US and Caribbean and she was a founding member of the tART women’s collective in NY (F2004). Her work has been covered in NewCity, Art News, Washington Times, Miami Herald and others. She attended Pratt Institute for her BFA, and MFA studies. She has held residences at the Kohler Arts and Industry program in Wisconsin, Vermont Studio Center, Chicago Artist Coalition and an upcoming residency as a Dora Maar Brown Foundation Fellow in Menerbes, France.

www.yasminspiro.com/

IG: @yspiro