Date & Time

Friday, January 17, 2020 - 6:00 PM to Friday, March 20, 2020 - 5:00 PM

Location

Arts Incubator Gallery, 301 E Garfield Blvd

Admission

Free

Contact

artsandpubliclife@uchicago.edu

Description

Arts + Public Life presents S is for Soul Sister, an exhibition showcasing photographs by Okunola Jeyifous, an independent photographer and neurobiologist, at the University of Chicago.

Exhibition Dates: January 17—March 20, 2020

Arts Incubator Gallery, 301 E Garfield Blvd., Chicago, IL  60637
Gallery Hours: 12-6pm, Wed-Fri
Free and open to the public.

• View photos from the January 17, 2020 opening reception
• RSVP and share on Facebook or Eventbrite
• Download the exhibition catalogue

2020 marks 50 years since children living in the Harold Ickes Homes sat for portraits that were used as visual aides in Chicago classrooms and libraries. Inspired by those portraits taken in 1970, Jeyifous has photographed the children of the “Black ABCs” today as adults, celebrating the beauty and historic impact that those images and individuals still hold. Expanding on the definition of portraiture, Jeyifous blurs his practice as a photographer and scientist by creating rare digital art works. The collages, a combination of overlaid visualizations, includes the individuals’ cells combined with traditionally styled portraits. This blend of artistic, medical, and clinical styles of portraiture raises questions and critiques about the complicated and often problematic history of science, medicine and Black subjectivity.

Presented by Arts + Public Life, with generous sponsorship from the Arts, Science + Culture Initiative and Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture.

 

EXHIBITION RELATED PROGRAMMING:

• Science, Medicine and the Black Body, March 4, 6:30pm-8:00pm, Arts Incubator, 301 E Garfield Blvd
• Public Housing and Community Narratives with Audrey Petty, March 18, 6:30pm-8:00pm, Arts Incubator, 301 E Garfield Blvd

IN THE NEWS:

• ‘S is for Soul Sister’ project is finding the South Side kids, now adults, who were in the Black ABCs — posters that brightened classrooms nationwide in the ’70s, Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, January 15, 2020.
• "S is for Soul Sister" Remembers a Forgotten Alphabet, Alexis Florence, Chicago Maroon, January 24, 2020.
• 'Black ABC' flash cards originally from in Chicago celebrate 50 years with gallery 'S is for Soul Sister', Yukare Nakayama, ABC 7 News, January 31, 2020.

• Soul primer: An Arts Incubator exhibition uses the Black ABCs to chronicle the lives of South Siders, Andrew Peart, The University of Chicago Magazine, Fall 2020

 

Learn more about Arts + Public Life at arts.uchicago.edu/artsandpubliclife