MCC gallery shows feature thought-provoking art by faculty

Two exciting exhibits are on display at McHenry County College. "I'm Not an Artist, I'm a Beggar" by MCC art instructor Violet Luczak and "Unstitched," a two-person exhibition featuring the works of Griffin Carrick and Diana Gabriel, will be featured in the college's art galleries now through Dec. 16.

Luczak is a multidisciplinary artist creating paintings, designs, and interactive sculptures. Working at the intersection of art and design, her work opens up questions about gender binaries and the relation between body and identity. "I'm Not an Artist, I'm A Beggar" seeks to encourage viewers to consider where their own identities originate from.

Based in Chicago, Luczak holds her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and her BA from Elmhurst University. She is a current Chicago Art Department Resident and was previously a 2020 Talking Dolls Resident in Detroit, Michigan. She has shown at various spaces and has been published in New American Paintings, No. 147 MFA Annual Issue, Young Space, and It's Nice That.

"I'm Not an Artist, I'm A Beggar" is displayed in Galleries One and Two, inside and outside the library, respectively.

"Unstitched" will be on display in the Epping Gallery across from the MCC Store in Building B. The two-person exhibition features the works of Griffin Carrick and Diana Gabriel, Illinois-based artists and adjunct faculty in the MCC Art Department. "Unstitched" is an examination of traditional methods and materials and an opportunity to reflect on the threads that connect each of us to the past.

Carrick is a quilling artist, educator, and interior designer. While quilling traditionally involves gluing strips of folded, curled and rolled paper to a substrate, Carrick lets the patterns and shapes that arise from the quilling process form both the armature of the work and its composition, merging the surface decoration with the structure.

Carrick earned a BS in Architectural Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a MA in Interior Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She has spent more than 10 years teaching design and working on commercial and residential interior design projects.

Gabriel uses lines and geometry to forge a connection with the kind of Colombian handicrafts she deeply reveres but never learned, "restitching" the rift created by her migration. Born in Bogota, Colombia, she earned her BFA from Northern Illinois University and her MFA from Illinois State University. She teaches at Harper College, College of Lake County, and McHenry County College. She has exhibited in Chicago and nationally. Her work has been published in New American Paintings, The Chicago Tribune, and Sixty Inches From Center.

MCC is at 8900 Route 14 in Crystal Lake. For more information, visit www.mchenry.edu/artgallery or contact Trevor Power, gallery curator, at (815) 455-8785 or tpower@mchenry.edu.