“White Sands” by Kate McQuillen

Johalla Projects and the Chicago Athletic Association hotel are pleased to showcase work of Brooklyn-based Kate McQuillen, which will be on display in the hotel’s fine art case, located in the second floor lobby, from May 15 through June 13.

Kate has exhibited at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, O’Born Contemporary Toronto, and in the Terrain Biennial. She has received numerous grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for her large-scale installations. Her work has appeared in Art in Print, The Chicago Reader, New City, the Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, Hyperallergic, and Poetry.

Kate’s sculptures and images refer to environments that are faraway or untouchable, such as skies, starry nights, and smoke, and speak about possibility, the unknown, intimacy, and wonder. Her installation, “White Sands,” uses illuminated tissue paper to create a glowing, bursting cloud, visually hovering between smoke, flowers, and explosions. Within the case structure, she plays with opposing themes of explosiveness and containment, beauty and alarm. She is interested in the classical notion of the Sublime, in which views can experience opposing emotions of the formidable and the beautiful, resulting in a sense of the awe-inspiring.

Learn more about Kate’s work, and be sure to check out “White Sands” here at the hotel.