KEVIN UMAÑA, Cathy Hsaio and Emily Hermant
Dial Tone
June 17th - August 8, 2022
LVL3 proudly presents Dial Tone, a three-person exhibition featuring Kevin Umaña, Cathy Hsaio, and Emily Hermant. In Dial Tone, Like a visual telegraph, the artists use their disparate iconographies to flag us down in hopes of a conversation.
Umaña’s melodic visual language reduces and distorts cropped images, and the resulting abstract compositions are both geometric and biomorphic. Without figurative cues, the artist’s intuitive approach to visual tones and harmonies signals a defined sensory experience to the viewer. Hermant weaves colorful, geometric silicone “quilts” from impressions of nonviable ethernet cables. Their repeating patterns use left-behind modes of connection to signal a sense of domesticity and comfort. Hermant’s use of recently defunct material culture proposes a return to slowness amidst our contemporary information cycle. Hsiao’s clever anachronisms–cast iconographies from architectural patterns to emojis into wall sculptures–elegantly examine Craft traditions as the result of the human drive to translate our experiences of nature into material forms. Playing with scale and 2d vs 3d space, her practice looks at the fruitful tension between ancient and modern technology. In Dial Tone, the artists emphasize the mediums & modes used to communicate within the material world–where nature and the built environment are one and the same.
Opening: Saturday, June 18th, 7 – 10 pm!
Gallery hours are Sundays 1-4 pm and can also be made by appointment. Email team@lvl3official.com or call/text 312-469-0333 to reserve a time outside of gallery hours.
