A Tale of Today: Emerging Artists Fellowship - Darrell McKinney and Luis Rodríguez Rosario
July 22, 2019
The Driehaus Museum has launched A Tale of Today: Emerging Artists Fellowship as a two-year pilot program that will engage with four Chicago-based artists of color each year to promote their careers and expand their networks using the Museum’s resources and its home, the Nickerson Mansion, as a springboard.
Below, we learn a little more about two of the Fellows in our inaugural class, Darrell McKinney and Luis Rodríguez Rosario.
Darrell McKinney - https://www.darrellmckinney.com
Darrell McKinney is a designer exploring the intersections across design, art, and architecture. His practice speaks to how design can be utilized to explore the complexities of politics, race, and social infrastructure through the interconnectedness of history, people, and places. Currently his work spans spatial design, object design, and social practice.
Q: What mediums do you primarily work with?
Darrell McKinney: Stone, wood, and concrete.
Q: Describe your artistic process.
DM: I always start with gathering information and research, from there develop some preliminary ideas, test those ideas, then constructing 
the final piece.
Q: What artworks/artists inspire you?
DM: The Afronauts by Cristina De Middel, Deadstar (Ghosttown) by Janice Kerbel, and Home Within Home Within Home Within Home Within Home by Do Ho Suh
Q: What is your favorite part of/what do you find the most interesting about The Nickerson Mansion?
DM: The dense mixture of the different materials used to decorate the walls and floors.
Luis Rodríguez Rosario - http://cargocollective.com/luisrr
Luis Rodríguez Rosario is a Puerto Rican artist residing in Chicago with an MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has participated in several exhibitions within Puerto Rico and the United States of America; such as the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and the Museo Antiguo Arsenal de La Marina Española.
Q: What mediums do you primarily work with?
Luis Rodríguez Rosario: My practice is heavily influenced by a background in the fabrication of objects, from furniture to fine printmaking. Mediums are chosen based on their image-making and sculptural capabilities but are also selected according to their connections to culture. Hence, primarily my materials include wood, concrete and also drawings, in response to attention to the quotidian.
Q: Describe your artistic process.
LRR: It begins with research: collected images, texts. The most current focus is on rituals, tropicalism and the vernacular/quotidian. From the gathered materials, objects and spatial relations are developed through the design and fabrication of objects. Color, scale, and display are important considerations in how an overarching aesthetic experience can be achieved.
Q: What artworks/artists inspire you?
LRR: Gabriel Orozco, Roberto “ El Boquio” Alberty, Isamu Noguchi
Q: What is your favorite part of/what do you find the most interesting about The Nickerson Mansion?
LRR: I find the most interesting is the wooden floor pattern and its wood carpet style.
Images
Darrell McKinney, Black Space, 2018, Clay, bricks, and soap
Darrell McKinney, Supernatural, 2018, Cast glass, aluminium, LEDs
Luis Rodríguez Rosario, ¿Cómo se decora una sala? ( Abanico #1), 2019, Oil board and charcoal
Luis Rodríguez Rosario, Duho, 2019, Walnut wood, laser cut paper