"Enterprising Machines" Exhibit at Giertz Gallery, Sept. 30–Nov. 2

Solo exhibit features works created using hand, mechanical approaches

Exhibition: Monday, September 30–Saturday, November 2, 2019
Reception: Thursday, October 3, 5:30–7:30 p.m., gallery lounge, with Gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. by Jessica Gondek and music by Derick Cordoba Trio
Additional artist lecture: Thursday, October 3 at 1:15 p.m. in lecture hall L111


CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — "Enterprising Machines," a solo exhibition of works on paper by Chicago-based artist Jessica Gondek, will open Sept. 30 at Giertz Gallery at Parkland College.
 
This exhibit runs through Nov. 2 and includes an artist reception Thursday, Oct. 3 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The reception features a gallery talk by Gondek at 6:30 p.m. and music by the Derick Cordoba Trio. Gondek will provide an additional lecture earlier that day, at 1:15 p.m. in lecture hall L111.
 
As with all Giertz Gallery programs, the exhibit, reception and lecture are free and open to the public.
 
Jessica Gondek often incorporates current technology, using both hand and mechanical approaches to develop her work. Stemming from an interest in geometry, machine aesthetics, architecture and nature, her recent body of work is sparked by machines from the early part of the 20th century, old trade catalogues, domestic utilitarian objects, Da Vinci’s inventions and war machines, Duchamp and contemporary art movements. Marrying both traditional media and digitally mediated computer approaches to the work, she blurs the line of distinction between the hand and the machine.
 
"I use a range of computer programs to create images; 3D modeling software has direct engineering applications and allows me to construct images in a manner that brings me to a sculptural understanding of the forms I create on the desktop," Gondek explained. "Photoshop subsequently allows me to investigate appropriation, transparency and layering, and the manipulation of imagery. These works are comprised of charcoal and pastel drawings on paper developed on top of digital print substrates, as well as oil and digital print on canvas."
 
Gondek is an associate professor at Loyola University Chicago and teaches drawing and painting in the Department of Fine and Performing Art. Solo exhibitions include A.I.R. gallery in Brooklyn, the Phoenix Gallery in New York, the Northern Illinois University Art Museum, the Butler Institute of American Art Beecher Center in Youngstown, Ohio, and the Abdijhoeve Ten Bogaerde Cultural Art Center in Belgium. Gondek has received a number of awards including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Artist Grant, a Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Grant, and a Mid-America Arts Alliance National Endowment for the Arts Grant. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Washington University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a member of ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation and Woman Made Galleries in Chicago. 
 
Fall gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, noon to 2 p.m.
 
To find the gallery we suggest using the M6 parking lot on the north corner of campus. Walk past the gym and the fountain area, enter through Door X7, turn left, and follow the ramps up to the highest point of the first floor, where the gallery is located. The gallery windows overlook the outdoor fountain area.
 
Programs at the gallery are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. All events in the accessible gallery are free and open to the public. Parkland College is a section 504/ADA-compliant institution. For accommodation, call 217/353-2337 or email accessibilityservices@parkland.edu
          
For more information on the exhibit, please call the gallery office at 217/351-2485 or visit the gallery web page.

[Image: Enterprising Machines, charcoal, pastel, and digital print, 46"x29", 2016 ]