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Hyde Park Art Center, on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering, production, and exhibition space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. Since its inception in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center has grown from a small collective of artists to establishing a strong legacy of risk-taking and experimentation, emerging as a unique Chicago arts institution with social impact. Today, the Art Center offers a diverse suite of programs for artists and art lovers of all backgrounds, ages, and stages in their careers including: contemporary art exhibitions in six galleries; an open-access community-based school with 2,500 annual enrollments; weekly arts education to over 1,000 public elementary school students; weekly and summer programs for 250 teen artists; professional-advancement programs for artists; a local and international artist residency; and public programs that connect residents with Chicago art and artists. The Art Center’s Oakman Clinton School + Studio is the nation’s first fully contribute-what-you-can visual art school for all ages. The Art Center functions as an amplifier for creative voices of today and tomorrow, providing the space to cultivate new work and connections.
All exhibitions and events are free and open to the public. Visit our website for updated hours and info.
Image: Installation View: Yasmin Spiro: Cornerstone, Hyde Park Art Center, 2025; photo by Tran Tran
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\r\n\r\nJessie Mott returns to the Art Center for her first solo exhibition in the space, A Wish to Repair. The exhibition explores themes of intimacy, desire, beauty, anxiety and shame through works on paper, site- specific wall paintings and the debut of a new collaboration with artist and writer Steve Reinke.
\r\n\r\nA Wish to Repair builds upon Mott’s previous work including her and Reinke’s collaboration which uses past animations of Mott’s imagery coupled with the voices of friends accompanied with the music of Madonna. Despite its bright colors and kitsch aesthetic, the work is somber, dealing with existential crises where creatures pine and mourn for lost lovers, finding only brutal antagonization in return. More than 50 new works on paper will also be exhibited along side and embedded in a large wall painting to create an immersive experience which will leave the viewer pondering the same questions of meaning, value and love.
\r\n\r\nMott, a graduate of Northwestern’s MFA program, has emerged as an artist to watch, not just in Chicago and the surrounding region but also internationally. Following the completion of her MFA in 2009, Mott has continued to grow as an artist,participating in prestigious group and solo shows including Hyde Park Art Center’s 2010 edition of Ground Floor, which highlights the most talented artists coming out of Chicago’s MFA programs, and the 2014 Whitney Biennial.
\r\n\r\nAbout the Artist
\r\n\r\nJessie Mott is a Chicago-based visual artist. Mott works primarily in drawing and painting and is best known for her watercolors of hybrid animal creatures. Her collaborative animations with the artist and writer Steve Reinke have been screened widely at national and international venues, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, VIDEOEX International Experimental Film & Video Festival in Zürich, and the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, Germany. Her drawings were featured in Reinke’s video program in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Mott received an MFA in the department of Art Theory & Practice from Northwestern University and a BS in Studio Art from New York University. She is a current MSW candidate from Loyola University’s School of Social Work and 2016-2017 Field Fellow at University of Chicago.
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