Alex Chitty, Der Stuhl, 2014
C-print
35 x 42 in.

The Chicago-based artist Alex Chitty (b. 1979) printed this image for her site-specific exhibition in the McCormick House at the Elmhurst Art Museum. Her solo exhibition they will bloom without you (November 18, 2017 - January 7, 2018) began with this photograph. The small versions of Modern furniture handmade by Chitty remain still, enclosed, and protected from the busy workshop that surrounds it. In this protective plexiglas box, time and environmental factors do not affect the model pieces. Additionally, the studio scene is further preserved as a moment in time through the photograph itself. However, art history is not fixed like the Modern chairs memorialized in the image. Instead, art and design are constantly re-evaluated, reinterpreted, and even re-categorized by new generations.

Alex Chitty received a Bachelor of Fine Art from Smith College and a Master in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she is a professor in the Sculpture and Print Media departments. She was awarded the prestigious Nancy Graves award with her work from the Elmhurst Art Museum exhibition. Other recent exhibition venues include: the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago; PATRON, Chicago; NIU Art Museum, DeKalb; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; LUCE, Turin, Italy; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago; ADDS DONNA, Chicago; and Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago.