Wicker Park resident and queer artist Magalie Guerin is bringing her work to the Elmhurst Art Museum this summer.
The exhibition is titled “With a Capital P: Selections by Six Painters” and presents the curations of six local painters in six rooms.
Originally from Quebec, Guerin received a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. She has shown in New York and LA, as well as Chicago, most recently during January 2018 with a solo show called “Magalie Guerin: bunker” at the gallery Corbett vs. Dempsey.
She published a book in 2016 called Notes On that was a diary depicting her daily practice in the studio to pair with a past exhibition called Copy Drawings.
Windy City Times: You are originally from Montreal. What is the art scene like there and how does it compare to Chicago?
Magalie Guerin: I left Montreal 20 years ago, so I couldn’t tell you what the art scene is like now but I remember when I first moved to Chicago after living in New York for a decade, that I said to myself, “This city has a Montreal warmth to it!”
That said, I have a show opening in Montreal on May 25 at Galerie Nicolas Robert—my first in a gallery over there—so I’ll have more of a sense of it after that.
WCT: How do you feel the queer artist community is here locally?
MG: It’s a nice community, although I always wish for it to be larger!
WCT: Is there a medium you have not work with but would like to?
MG: I’m dying to work with ceramic, but I’m afraid of what that’ll do to my paintings!
WCT: What artist have you been compared to, and who has influenced your work?
MG: At some point, in grad school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, my work was described as having a conversation with Charline von Heyl. We now show at the same gallery here in Chicago, Corbett vs Dempsey, and have since become friends.
WCT: Talk about how sculpture fits into painting for a showing.
MG: Oil paint is very sculptural in its application. I mold the paint into the shapes I want to see. And the sculptors I chose for this exhibition think about surfaces in a painterly way. It’s all connected; the sensibilities are very similar.
WCT: Do you have advice for young upcoming artists?
MG: Think [about the] long term: “How can you create space for a sustainable studio practice, if you use a studio, in the years to come?”
WCT: Where do you see the arts scene in Chicago going?
MG: I see Chicago as being more and more included in the larger conversation. There seems to be a big difference from 10 years ago—more people/institutions are looking at what is being made here.
WCT: You have an upcoming show in New York?
MG: I just had a show in New York with Chapter NY that closed on March 24th so nothing upcoming for a while!
“With a Capital P: Selections by Six Painters” is on display May 11-Aug. 25, at Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 S. Cottage Hill Ave, Elmhurst.