An Epithet is a constellation of ubiquitous materials, a multimedia exhibition featuring artists who use playful strategies of resistance to create sacred monuments and excavate the structures of domination that use language to exclude, consume and mold subjects. As a slur, a classification, or a synecdoche, an epithet can conjure consent, pain, discernment, and lamentation. Consider the tenacious poltergeists who haunt, tickle, and reconfigure our bodies, domestic spaces, and technologies. In this mischief, an epithet demands rebirth.
Jory Drew is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Chicago, IL. Their work reckons with the social constructions of race, gender, and love and how they influence the economic, legal, and political conditions that affect black intimacy and liberation. They have exhibited locally and nationally and have participated in residencies at Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL), ACRE (Steuben, WI/Chicago, IL.), Open Kitchen (Milwaukee, WI.), and Hot Box (Austin, TX.).
They are currently a co-lead artist for the Teen Creative Agency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and may also be recognized as a Co-founder of F4F, a domestic venue in Little Village, and a Co-organizer of Beauty Breaks, an intergenerational beauty and wellness workshop series for black people along the spectrum of femininity.
Joelle Mercedes
mercedesjoelll@gmail.comJoelle Mercedes is an artist and educator whose work is grounded in collage techniques that puncture the restrictions of the two dimensional frame, examining and stretching concepts of origin, ancestry, birth and history. Their work has been presented in various forms at: ACRE Projects, Links Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Compound Yellow, Roman Susan, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Threewalls, Sherman Park Branch Library, Hyde Park Art Center, Sullivan Galleries (Chicago), Lynden Sculpture Garden Gallery (Milwaukee), California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, CA). Their work has also been published by KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Recodo.sx.