McHenry County College is thrilled to host a Visiting Artist Talk + Artist Reception for Ari Norris’ solo exhibition, An Exercise in Restraint.

Artist Talk & Reception: Wednesday, March 5
2:30 p.m. — Artist Talk in the Luecht Auditorium, B170 | In-person and presented virtually on Zoom: https://mchenrycc.zoom.us/j/99807430428
3:30 p.m. — Reception in artspace144, A144e

Exhibition:
February 17 – March 14, 2025
McHenry County College | artspace144
8900 U.S. Highway 14, Crystal Lake, IL 60012

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ARTIST STATEMENT
Using realism as a point of entry, duplications of real-world objects are produced in the pursuit of generating a visual poetry of common subjects. These investigations are typically arranged in what immediately appear as casual or coincidental occurrences, but are in fact deliberately actualized through a mixture of traditional and contemporary approaches. This practice of subterfuge has been aimed at negotiating artwork’s relationship with temporality, and to inversely reveal the same of its audience. Being acutely aware of this reality, varying levels of economy are employed along the way, incorporating fast, intuitive solutions that reveal themselves at varying levels of inquiry. Through this process, a deliberate control over time, gravity, and material is asserted in an attempt to momentarily escape entropy, relating to humanity’s intrinsic desire to manipulate the factors that shape our understanding of life, history, and the universe.

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BIO
Originally from West Michigan, Ari Norris is an artist primarily working in sculpture, utilizing a variety of processes and materials in what generally result in the duplication of real-world objects, aimed at exploring the boundaries between the ordinary and the phenomenal. Norris received an MA from Northern Illinois University in 2021, and has exhibited solo shows in Chicago at David Salkin Creative, and the Plan. Norris has been included in the 100th Show and West, Wester, Westest 4 at Left Field Gallery, Los Osos, CA, Purpose of a System is What it Does, at Sawhorse, Chicago, IL, Introspective Dream Assembly, at Riverside Arts Center, Riverside, IL, Shooting Pool with a Rope, at Baby Blue Gallery, Chicago, IL, the Midwest Sculpture Exhibition in Kokomo, IN, among other locations including Michigan, Missouri, New York, Florida, Texas, and Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Norris’ work has been reviewed by Chicago Spleen and included in publications such as Chicago Gallery News. For more information about Norris, visit www.arinorris.us and his Instagram page @aristotle_norris.

IMAGE CREDIT: Ari Norris, Cheese and Crackers (Golden Ratio), 2022, Bronze, paint

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Tags: An Exercise in Restraint, Ari Norris, artspace144, Crystal Lake, McHenry County, McHenry County College