Candida Alvarez has been to the Tarble Arts Center before.

Last year, Alvarez was a visiting artist to the Tarble Arts Center.

She has since created an exhibit of her own.

Her exhibit, titled Tossing Pennies / Mapping New Territories / Fireflies in an Open Field / In the Dark (for Sol LeWitt), called an “intervention”, opens this Sunday and goes until Dec. 16 at the Tarble Arts Center.

“I called this an intervention because I was bringing together his (LeWitt’s) drawing with sensitivity for the architecture and design of the space,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez is an associate professor in the department of painting and drawing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Michael Watts, director of the Tarble Arts Center, gave Alvarez the opportunity to have an exhibit at Tarble.

“This was somewhat of a new type of art for Alvarez, a chance for her to try something different and for the Tarble to exhibit something somewhat different. So in a way this was sort of an experiment or research project for both the Tarble and the artist,” Watts said.

Alvarez constructed her art on Tarble’s eGallery.

“The eGallery is the Tarble’s most flexible space for presenting more experimental forms of visual art, especially art works that use new electronic media like projections, computers, and sound,” Watts said.

Alvarez accepted the invitation to work on an exhibit without seeing the eGallery. In about 5 weeks, the art was completed.

“There are seven interventions. I came to the Tarble and spent about five long weekends there, getting the work done,” Alvarez said. “I was not sure what was going to happen or what the space was going to look like at first. Time was an important component of this exhibit.”

Alvarez’s work on the eGallery has received much praise. It is one of two pieces of art that’s being commissioned for both this year’s Contemporary Currents series and for the Tarble Arts Center’s 25th anniversary for 2007-08.

The eGallery used projections as a means to cover the space of it.

“It is a long space with high ceilings, oak trim and carpeting. I had the trim covered up and wanted to move your eyes upward into the space, away from the floor. So I started in the corners of the room. I used projections as a way to quickly draw in the space,” Alvarez said. “I had a total of five overhead projectors.”

Alvarez drew much of her inspiration from the artist Sol Le Witt, who died earlier this year.

“I wanted to work with a postcard drawing by Sol LeWitt sent to me and my family several years ago. I wanted to paint on the walls, and I wanted to use his drawing as a template,” Alvarez said.

These paintings are done right on top of the eGallery walls, making it a new idea both in art and for the Tarble.

“Making up the intervention is an animated projection, framed paintings, paintings and drawings done directly on the eGallery walls, and a cut paper/mixed media collage also done directly on the walls, doors and windows,” Watts said.

The Art Department is excited about Alvarez’s exhibit.

Glenn Hild, chair of the Art Department, said he is planning to see Alvarez’s exhibit.

“I am hoping to see a rather exciting visual exhibition,” Hild said.

Since Alvarez drew inspiration from LeWitt, it became another reason for Hild to attend.

“I liked Sol LeWitt as an artist,” Hild said.

With art, there is no set way to make it, as illustrated with the eGallery.

“Not all exhibitions are about bringing something from the outside and hanging them inside,” Alvarez said. “Some exhibits are process orientated and ideas are generated within the space.”

Duncan MacKenzie speaks at Tarble Arts Center on Nov. 8 about his individual and collaborative art pieces as well as his podcast show Bad at Sports. The show is hosted by MacKenzie with a new episode each week revolving around the art of Chicago. Karolina

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