Artist Story: Irene Pérez

If there’s one thing that has become critical to my artist practice, it’s the drive to make things happen beyond my studio. This drive comes from a desire to both materialize my art projects and to exchange ideas and collaborate with others.

Chicago has a long and rich history of independent art spaces, most of which have been created and run by working artists. It has been my experience that in these spaces, artists are reaching beyond their studio practice—presenting their unique visions through the creation of exhibition opportunities, community, and a context for collaboration. Furthermore, these spaces are helping to develop important dialogue, as they become an alternative to the more established institutions.  

In the last three years, I was fortunate enough to be part of two of these ventures. As a result, I’ve gained incredible professional and personal experience and have also developed partnerships with other artists that will forever enrich my own practice. 

In the spring of 2007 artist Anni Holm invited me to participate in a project to create an international residency program in the town of West Chicago, Illinois. To generate funds for the residency program, and to publicize it, Anni came up with the idea of organizing an exhibition inside an empty former hardware store in town. At that time, I had experience working for both a non-commercial gallery and a commercial one, but I’d never been part of the creation of a project outside the institutional or business realm. Nonetheless, I was very much inspired by Anni’s drive and resolution and joined the team of organizers of the first artXposium.

After a matter of weeks, and with the participation of more than 80 artists, we put together a three-day multimedia event. Now in its fourth year, artXposium has become a successful program that generates much-needed funding and also functions a nesting place for meetings and further collaboration among artists and between artists and the public. With artXposium, one person’s idea became a reality through group cooperation, which in turn generated other partnerships and projects. 

A year later, in the spring of 2008, my colleague Christopher Smith and I were having a casual conversation about the possibilities of turning an empty room in his apartment into an art venue and, before we knew it, we’d created the newest “apartment gallery” in town—Second Bedroom Project Space. We started throwing ideas at each other about what we thought the project space should be and do. Both Chris and I had been very much interested in installation work in our own practices, so it seemed only natural that our space would primarily host these kinds of projects. We also wanted to emphasize the space itself and so were interested in exhibiting work that was inspired by Second Bedroom’s location or otherwise was in need of our space to be realized.

Chris and I presented Second Bedroom Project Space to the public in May of 2008 with a show by artist Adam Farcus. Little by little, through our work with the exhibiting artists and through word-of-mouth within the art community, Second Bedroom became an active participant in the Chicago art scene. As I was getting ready to move back to my native Spain in July of 2009, I left Second Bedroom in the hands of Chris. The space continues to host and provide creative exhibition opportunities to emerging artists and extend the artistic community network. 

Today, I am writing while sitting in my apartment in Barcelona, Spain. I have been back for few months after almost an 11-year absence. I am still getting used to all the changes (together with the upcoming birth of my first child) and the experience of not yet being part of an art community. My plan is to create a space that will promote exchange and cooperation among artists, as well as projects that are based on collaboration between artists and citizens. Furthermore, I’d like to establish an exchange of artistic and cultural events between Barcelona and Chicago, and eventually between Barcelona and other places. I have many hopes and ideas for such a place, and I know it will take time and a lot of work to realize, but I also know that I won’t have to do it alone and that the essence of this new project will reside in creating partnerships with others. 

Written in March, 2010.

Irene Pérez is an emerging visual artist making work that explores place, perception, cultural identity, and language. Irene works on projects in a variety of media, including works on paper, fiber pieces, and installations. Born in 1975 in Terrassa, near Barcelona, Spain, she started her practice in Chicago, Illinois, where she lived between 1999 and 2009. In addition to her practice as an artist, she has worked on a number of curatorial projects, serving as assistant director at the Orleans Street Gallery in St. Charles, Illinois, curator of the Library Art Exhibition Series at the College of DuPage Library, assistant organizer of artXposium 2007, and co-curator of artXposium 2008 and artXposium 2009. In 2008, she co-founded the Second Bedroom Project Space in Chicago with Christopher Smith, aiming to offer creative and exhibition opportunities to emerging artists working in installation media. Irene recently returned to Barcelona where she now lives and works.