We are excited to share the announcement for THERE IS TIME TO GROW OLD, a two-person exhibition by Rebecca Griffith and Lauren Iacoponi at Purple Window Gallery. An opening reception will be held Friday, April 8th, from 12-5 pm. The show runs April 2 - 29, 2023.

Rebecca Griffith’s work examines the process of caregiving for a parent’s illness and coping with this from a young age to adulthood. By excavating selected VHS cassettes and imagery from movies, Griffith recalls a time in her life when her mother was not suffering from multiple sclerosis and was independently running a video store in the early 1990s. Griffith uses the VHS to address how we process information and memory from the use of films of her childhood. Griffith cuts the magnetic tape and reassembles the film to disrupt the film sequence and create a new narrative about herself and her mother. In There is Time to Grow Old, Griffith examines What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?, 1962 through a VHS copy. The movie is intentionally selected to discuss caregiving, aging, and mental illness.

Anonymous in appearance, yet commanding a strong material presence, Iacoponi’s work evokes both an aesthetic and conceptual reference point. Gestural and abstract, three-dimensional and planar, her artworks—through the repetition of form—focus on process, material, and gravity. Actions are layered, the passing of time is acknowledged, and minimalist forms are imbued with organic warmth and sensuality. Iacoponi redefines sculpture as “an activity done to material” and in doing so explores the dichotomy of order and chaos and the paradox of accident and control. Her work creates engagement with the physical-phenomenological dimensions of space, body, and self.

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Rebecca Griffith is a multidisciplinary artist working with found materials and personal belongings she reconstructs as textiles, tapestries, collages, and sculptural objects. Griffith has exhibited at the University of Oople in Poland, Unpacked Mobile Gallery in Chicago, Women Made Gallery, in Chicago, Side Heaven Gallery in Chicago, and Ann Arbor Art Center in Michigan among other midwest galleries and cultural institutions. Griffith was awarded first place in the emerging artist exhibition at Cleve Carney Art Gallery in 2018. Griffith is the current gallery manager and member at Purple Window Gallery where she curates, exhibits, and provides media and design services. She was the 2018 curator for Northern Illinois University's President's Office and the president of the Graduate Arts Association at Northern. Griffith earned her B.S.Ed. from Northern Illinois University in 2013 and her M.F.A. from Northern Illinois University in 2018.

Lauren Iacoponi is an artist, curator, and arts administrator living and working in Chicago, IL. Iacoponi is the Director and Founder of Purple Window Gallery and the Director and Co-founder of Unpacked Mobile Gallery and its online counterpart Dispatch Gallery, as well as the midwest representative for BOCCARA Art, an international art dealing agency with locations in Miami, Palm Beach, and Los Angeles. Iacoponi covers Art & Culture in Chicago as a freelance writer for publications such as Sixty Inches from Center, New Art Examiner, Chicago Reader, Chicago Artist Writers, Third Coast Review, Odyssey, DEFINE ART, APOTH Creative, and Discovering Art in Chicago. Iacoponi received her MFA from Northern Illinois University with a Certificate in Art History and her BFA from Columbia College with a Minor in Art History. She was the 2016-2017 recipient of the Northern Illinois University Fellowship for the School of Art and Design.

About the gallery: Purple Window is an artist-led, community-supported project space and gallery inside Mana Contemporary Chicago. Purple Window is jointly owned and democratically controlled by its members. The gallery exhibits innovative artists across disciplines through monthly two-person, group, and four-person exhibitions.

All photos by Amy Shelton, courtesy of the gallery.