Contributing Artists

Alberto Aguilar, Claire Ashley, Eric May, Mr. Wiggles, Trii Ngo, Vincent Uribe

Exhibition Statement as Preserved in the SUGS/SITE Archives:

PARTY begins as a one-night evnt celebrating SUGs’ 20th anniversary as a forum for student-run exhibitions with select elements on view through February 7. For this special occasion, atworks and participatory projects by SAIC alumni and faculty reconfigure and question the traditional components of a perfect celebration. Featured artists include Alberto Aguilar (BFA 97, MFA 2001), Claire Ashley (Adjunct Associate Professor, Contemporary Practices, Painting and Crawing, MFA 1995), Eric May (OxBow Chef, BFA 2000), Mr. Wiggles (Adjunct Professor, Painting and Drawing, MFA 1979), Trii Ngo (BFA 2013), and Vincent Uribe (BFA + BAVCS 2013) with Chelsea Culp (BFA + BAAHC 2007). Claire AShley gets the Party started with junk bumpin’ punk humpin’ ass crunkin’, presenting dynampic, inflated sculptures that echo the spinning, sweaty dizziness of a pulsating dance floor. DJ Mr. Wigles sets the beat as dancers in Ashley’s painted inflatables cut loose in a high-energy choregraphed performance. Collaborators Vincent Uribe and Chelsea Culp invite guests to pose for photogrpahs against an interchangable series of backdrops created by over 30 SAIC alumni. The backdros double as social instigators translating lived experience into social media. Alberto Aguilar mines the creative energy of intimacy within the boistrous social atmosphere, offering free-hand henna tattoos in a private booth. In a separate installation, Aguiar hangs a series of ceiling streamers that play with the minimal aesthetics of the LeRoy Neiman Center. Every party has a backstory and an invitation to atend (or for attention). Places at street-level, a series of large, hand-painted window signs by Aguilar and Eric May play with notions of exacted design, an empty message, and the utter nonsense of most advertising in the public sphere. Trii Ngo commemorates SUGs’ anniversary with an intricate installation located in teh Neiman Center’s Wabash window. Over five thousand individually hung postcards from past student exhibitions form an interwoven network of images spanning SUGs’ 20 year history. The anniversary celebration continues wit After Party, a curated exhibition of SAIC student work open February 12-28 in the LeRoy Neiman Center Gallery.