FRAGMENT: Sampling the Modern

Fragment: Sampling the Modern, was an exhibition of new work by four Chicago-based artists Leslie Baum, Diana Guerrero-Maciá, Jessica Labatte, and Adam Scott.

Similar to the contemporary musician’s process of making new material from samples of familiar music, the artists mine and digest bits and pieces of visual culture from sources such as printed advertisements, urban debris, common pictorial symbols and the history of art. These visual samples, manipulated and placed into large-scale paintings, appliquéd textiles, paper collages, and photographs, are treated with the bold and colorful visual language reminiscent of early 20th century modernist abstraction.

With knowing reference to artistic precedents, the artists construct their own hybridized formats around these fragments of contemporary culture. The resulting work pays homage to their forerunners and contributes to new conversations about the relevance of abstraction, the meanings behind materials and signs, and, above all, compels viewers to keep looking.