Zolla/Lieberman Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the Chicago gallery season with a solo exhibition featuring the work of renowned Chicago artist Riva Lehrer. The Monster Studio will be on view from September 6 to October 12, 2024.
The opening reception will be on Sept. 6, from 4pm to 7pm at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery – 325 W Huron St, Chicago, IL 60654
About the show:
It features new portraits from Lehrer’s ongoing Risk Pictures series alongside a curated selection from the artist’s archive.
It will include a portrait, to be unveiled at the show, which represents Riva’s most technically and aesthetically challenging work to date.
For the show’s six-week run, Lehrer will be performing a public portrait studio. She has invited a selection of distinguished collaborators, including:
- Authors/performers/podcasters Stephen T. Asma and Brandy Schillace
- Art critic Jill Casid
- Sculptor Anna Campbell
- Theorist Jeffrey Jerome Cohen.
Each collaborator will be asked to describe—and collaboratively draw—an image depicting their inner “monsterselves,” resulting in portraits created through deep conversation.
The Monster Studio is a public event. We actively encourage viewers to be part of the audience, to comment, ask questions, and witness these conversations.
The portrait schedule will be posted soon, and the sessions will also be live-streamed.
For more information, see also Lehrer’s statement of purpose for this project.
“I believe that the true product of a portrait is not the object, but the exchanges between artist and collaborator. Intimacy is the very foundation of what we do. I am who I am because of the countless transformative conversations I have had in the studio.” – Riva Lehrer
About the artist:
Riva Lehrer’s work is celebrated for its exploration into the marginalized and stigmatized body.
Through a distinct blend of drawing, painting, collage, and sculpture, she challenges viewers to
reconsider their assumptions about beauty and difference. She has become a leading voice in
the formation of Disability Culture, and her contributions to art, literature, and activism have had a profound impact on the way we understand diversity.
The Risk Pictures: Stephanie Kielb, MD
Mutual Mirror: Portrait of Sky Cubabcub and Riva Lehrer
About Riva Lehrer
Riva Lehrer is an artist, writer, and curator who focuses on the socially challenged body. She is best known for representations of people whose physical embodiment, sexuality, or gender identity have long been stigmatized.
Lehrer’s work has been seen in venues including the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian, Yale University, the United Nations, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, the Arnot Museum, the DeCordova Museum, the Frye Museum, the Chicago Cultural Center, and the State of Illinois Museum.
Awards include the 2020 Disability Futures Fellowship from the Ford Foundation, 2017 3Arts MacDowell Fellowship for writing, 2017 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant; 2015 3Arts Residency Fellowship at the University of Illinois; 2014 Carnegie Mellon Fellowship at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges; 2009 Prairie Fellowship at the Ragdale Foundation. Grants include the 2009 Critical Fierceness Grant, the 2008 3Arts Foundation Grant, and the 2006 Wynn Newhouse Award for Excellence, (NYC), as well as grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the University of Illinois, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Lehrer’s memoir, Golem Girl, was published by the One World imprint of Penguin/Random House in October 2020, won the 2020 Barbellion Prize for Literature; was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and was shortlisted for the Chicago Review of Books 2020 CHIRBY Awards.
Lehrer was a longtime faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is instructor in the Medical Humanities Departments of Northwestern University.
About Zolla/Lieberman Gallery
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery was established in 1976 by Roberta Lieberman and Robert Zolla within a then-desolate industrial neighborhood now known as the River North Gallery District. They transformed a vacant industrial space into a hub for contemporary art, laying the foundation for the thriving art community that the area is today.
Now located at 325 W Huron St, William Lieberman continues to uphold the legacy of quality and professionalism established since the gallery’s founding. Z/L represents a diverse range of artists and genres that offer a dynamic view of contemporary art in Chicago. They are dedicated to providing personal attention to both beginning and established collectors, as well as other art professionals.
Instagram: @zlgallery
Facebook: facebook.com/zollaliebermangallery
Exhibition Details: