As a part of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts of Loyola University Chicago’s artist & scholar-in-residence program, Jessica Lanay has invited collaborative and interdisciplinary artist, Denae Howard to present their recent works in a solo show.

What was Fred Hampton dreaming when he died? What was Breonna Taylor dreaming when her house was illegally entered by police? In this exhibition from Howard, they activate their art practice to contemplate and share with viewers the radical potential of the timespace of dreams: as a space of continuity, as an autonomous space, a space of self-actualization, communication, transportation, and liberation. Using processes of automatic line drawing and dream journaling, Howard searches for pathways where the freedom found in dreams or the warnings found in nightmares can take physical space in our current, troubled, reality. In this exhibition, Howard presents imagery from a quantum space of living otherwise and living elsewhere in an effort to highlight possibilities for collective liberation and joyful reflection on the importance of remembering or even, reimagining, what it means to be human and center care and creativity.

A special thanks to my Loyola colleague, Josh Cook, for graphic design help.