Alexandria Eregbu is an interdisciplinary artist and curator whose practice draws from history, lived experiences, and her own imagination to deepen her connectivity to the natural world. Her work is driven by memories, whether real or dreamt, as well as the history and culture of West Africa. Frequently working with natural materials such as feathers, obsidian, cowrie shells, and dried flowers, Eregbu is also interested in the history of natural specimens and views her work as a conversation with these materials. Her work has been exhibited at Woman Made Gallery, the Homan Square Community Center, and the Luminary in St. Louis, among others.
Devin T. Mays' practice is driven by an investigation of the so-called “in-between” space created by the polarities in his identity. He is interested in developing a visual language that defines and re-defines the “in-between” being. Through performances, spatial interventions, and installation work, Mays’ practice questions and complicates how we view our identities and understand ourselves subjectively. His work has been exhibited at the DePaul Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, as well as the Chicago Artists Coalition.
Maryam Taghavi is a Tehran-born Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist working in photography, installation, video, publication, drawing, and performance. She employs a post-studio, site-specific practice that weighs in on and intervenes in existing modes of production. Interested in the interchangeability between the observer and participant, Taghavi locates agency in the role of the trickster. Her practice can be seen in a lineage of institutional critique that seeks to demystify and explicate contemporary art’s relationship to labor, production, and discourse. Taghavi’s work has been exhibited at LAXART, the Queens Museum, and the Chicago Cultural Center, among others.
Unyimeabasi Udoh is an artist and graphic designer whose work is driven by the idea of making peace with the notion of the void. Udoh works across various media ranging from textiles and prints to computer games. They are interested in topics including surface and absence, text as image, and blackness as a color and a construct. Udoh’s work explores how systems of communication and knowledge—particularly the Western canons of art and literature, and the position of black people and African artifacts within them – are created and maintained. Udoh has exhibited work at the Chicago Artists Coalition, SITE Galleries in Chicago, and the Porto Design Biennale in Portugal.
Curatorial Fellow Kekeli Sumah is an artist, curator, and designer living in Chicago whose practice is interested in history, agency, and visual culture. His work has been exhibited at Università Ca’ Foscari, as part of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, as well as at Sullivan Galleries (Chicago), Supernova Gallery (Chicago), and Galerie 73 (Vienna, Austria). As the Driehaus Museum’s first Curatorial Fellow, Sumah curated A Tale of Today: Nate Young and Mika Horibuchi, in addition to pioneering and leading the Emerging Artists Fellowship. He holds a BFA, a BAVCS, and an MArch from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Donate Now to Support the Work of the Driehaus Museum
The 2020 A Tale of Today Emerging Artists Fellowship is made possible in part by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
