Back to All Events

OPENING RECEPTION - "Till it Sticks" Yesenia Bello + Nataliya Kotlova

March 2 to March 24 | Comfort Station

Opening reception | Fri | March 2 | 5:00-8:00pm

Till it Sticks is a collaborative sequence between Yesenia Bello and Nataliya Kotlova. Through a perpetual push-and-pull, a telepathic space, these works explore togetherness and what it means to find a middle ground between two separate stand points. Steps in combined decision-making and material play lead these artists to employ a methodical approach in devising new creative structures. Using fabric, rope, elastic, clay, rods, and hooks, Bello and Kotlova construct drawings in space, which explore an improvisational conversation: regarding resourcefulness and problem solving.

This act of a communal ‘searching for’ and ‘finding of’ a middle ground is a quiet exploration; one that thinks with the body and ruminates until resolved. Pulling from the social nature and history of fiber processes, Bello and Kotlova continue a collective dialogue. An approach to team building that seems a vital practice in our current times, taking matter into hand and working inventively to recompose surroundings.

------

Yesenia Bello (b. 1994) lives and works in Chicago. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her installations,drawings and sculptures have been presented locally at spaces including The Overlook Place, DfbrL8r Gallery, Clutch Gallery, and 6018 North. She was a HATCH Projects (2016-17) resident at Chicago Artists Coalition and attended the Oxbow and ACRE residency in 2018. Between 2011-2016 she was co-founder and organizer of Walla Fest. Current exhibitions include ‘My mouth is a motherlode’(solo) at Tiger Strikes Asteroid. She is a 2019 Center Program resident at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Nataliya Kotlova (b. 1993) lives and works in Chicago. She received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent exhibitions include Rover (Chicago, IL), Woman Made Gallery (Chicago, IL), Lula Cafe (Chicago, IL), and DfbrL8r Gallery (Chicago, IL). Kotlova is currently the director of Andrew Rafacz Gallery in Chicago, IL.