Artist Statement: ‬

‭Communication is a sacred offering. Making food for a friend, investing time online in‬ search of comaradery, devoting attention and love towards people we’ve never met—these are all‬ offerings we make in hopes of making genuine connections.‬

How do we form connections and relationships in a modern culture full of‬ interconnectedness and isolation?‬‭

In Flesh and Code‬‭ invites viewers to explore the complex‬ dynamics of human connection and belonging, both in-person and through screens.‬

‭Chloe Albers reflects on one-sided connections where one over-invests in a personality‬ that exists beyond the screen. Her work is inspired by an experience in which she felt intense‬ grief for the loss of her horse in a video game, despite knowing the horse was just a sequence of‬ codes and pixels. Albers’ work explores metaphors such as an unperturbed digital horse representing‬ an object of intense affection and the viewer or player in front of the screen existing as Napoleon‬ Bonaparte, a powerful, narcissistic dictator who experienced obsessive yet unrequited love.‬

‭Shannon Corgan’s paintings and drawings reflect on the complexities of how one chooses‬ to reconcile with living in the shadow of the screen. Her distorted portraitures serve as reminders‬ of our reflections in screens that often encompass our attention, blinding us from not only our‬ physical selves but also from those around us. Corgan’s work plays with how we make‬ connections online in order to compensate for the lack of real human connection that screen‬ culture often steals from us.‬

‭Eavan O’Neil’s interdisciplinary work explores connections in relationships and‬ communities. Through the layering of transparent screens, O’Neil explores how varying but‬ sincere perspectives blur realities. Her work highlights the impossibility of truly being known by‬ and knowing other people. Like the layered materials, these differing realities build upon each‬ other within communities and affect the dynamics of reciprocity, the give and take of genuine‬ connection, requiring love and discomfort.‬

‭This show captures the beauty and complexity of human connections both tangible‬ and imagined. Each artist’s work meditates on the personal realities created within ourselves that‬ are often at odds with the ‘real world’ and other perspectives. Each asks how to manage all these‬ realities—physical, digital, mental—and how to navigate relationships in these different‬ contexts.‬

About the artists:

Chloe Albers is an artist who mainly works with two-dimensional media. She was born and raised in a small town, surrounded by even more small towns and cornfields, in southern Illinois. In high school, she fell in love with painting portraits, and saw art as an opportunity to connect and to explore the human condition. She graduated from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a specialization in painting and a minor in Business Administration. 

instagram: @chole_albers

website: chloealbers.com 

Shannon Corgan is an artist specializing in the mediums of painting, drawing, and photography.  She completed the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with a concentration in painting at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in December of 2023. Her thesis work values and interprets the emotional and physical experience humans have with screens. Corgan’s first solo show, On Screen, exhibited at the Edwardsville Art Center in July of 2023. Her work has been featured in various juried exhibitions, including Annual Juried Art and Design Student Exhibitions at SIUE and the Wood River Small Works exhibition at The Wood River City Museum. She received Best of Show during the 2021 Small Works Exhibition at the Miller Art Creative Gallery in Saint Louis, MO. Her work has also been shown in the Annual Student Art and Design exhibitions at Southwestern Illinois College Schmidt Art Center and the juried group show, En Plein Air at the In Art Gallery in Edwardsville, IL. As of September 2024, she resides in Durham, North Carolina working from her home studio. 

instagram: @shannoncorgan

website: shannoncorgan.com

Eavan O'Neil lives and operates out of Saint Louis, Missouri. She attended university at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (SIUE) where she received a full tuition waiver to pursue art and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting, a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology, and a minor in art history. She is a mixed-media painter experimenting with large-scale layered compositions combining drawing, painting, and textiles. Concentrating on themes of community and representing multiple perspectives within group portraiture, Eavan's duplicated information can obscure, confuse, and muddle reality, or even contradict itself–just as multiple perspectives are often sincere while still being at odds. These works embody the notion of paradox and contradiction by paying tribute to the love, admiration, and wholeness experienced within relationships while saving space to wrestle with the impossibility of being known by and knowing other people. 

Outside of the studio, Eavan has experience as a studio assistant, art instructor, and freelance painter, with commissions for live event painting and portraiture. Most recently, her work has been featured in: The Neon Museum of Saint Louis, The Sheldon, and Soulard Art Gallery--voted best gallery in Saint Louis four years in a row (see CV for full list).  Currently, Eavan works as a full-time artist, curriculum coordinator, and painting instructor for the Edwardsville Art Center and Saint Louis Artist Guild. 

instagram: @eavan_oneil

website: https://eoneil4.wixsite.com/eavan-o-neil

Curated by Shannon Corgan, Dara Baldwin, Chasity Dailey and Parlay Vitalis

Presented by the Durham Art Guild