Chicago Works: Lilli Carré
Installation view, Chicago Works: Lilli Carré, MCA Chicago
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago
Although Lilli Carré (American, b. 1983) is perhaps best known for her award-winning comics, animated films, and commercial illustration, her interdisciplinary creative practice employs a wide range of media including printmaking, artists’ books, painting, and, most recently, sculpture. Carré’s work, which defies simple classification by medium, encompasses delicate and moving explorations of humor and failure, narrative and time, the human form and abstraction, and presence and mortality.
For her BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works exhibition—the artist’s first solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago—Carré presents an entirely new body of work in animation, sculpture, and drawing, highlighting new directions in her creative process. Sculptures are displayed in pairs to show the objects in two separate states of being, while their dimensional forms are abstracted, flattened, and reflected in accompanying drawings. A new work, made specifically for this installation, consists of two videos projected on opposite walls. The dual projection reveals slowly shifting temporal relationships between images, which alternate between abstraction and figuration, and positions the viewer in the empty space between the two animations. The artist encourages viewers to interpret this space and play an active role in filling the gap between objects and their resonant images.
Carré’s work has been exhibited both locally and internationally at galleries and museums, film festivals, and alternative comics festivals. She cofounded the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation, and is a key figure in Chicago’s vibrant arts community. The BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works exhibition series showcases the best new work being made in Chicago, by artists whether emerging or established, at midcareer or undergoing reinvention.
