Tarik Echols: Open
On view through May 14, 2023
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Chicago, Illinois
www.art.org
“Tarik Echols: Open” presents a breadth of drawings made by the artist between 2011 and 2020. Evident in the pieces on exhibition, Echols builds upon patterns of repeated words, letters and symbols to create drawings rich with color and visual movement.
Jennifer Mannebach, Echols’ former arts facilitator at Little City, notes the words “open,” “home” and “mother” are “a few of his favorite words,” as the artist often repeats these in many of his drawings. Though Echols primarily creates with crayons and watercolors, he occasionally collages found materials into his works of art, incorporating layers and textures as seen in the pieces “Open 35” (n.d.) and “Speckled Trout” (2011).
For more than 15 years, Echols has participated in day programs run by Little City, a nonprofit organization in Palatine, Ill., that serves children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities through residential programs, employment services, horticultural programs and art-making at the Center for the Arts.
Read more and view online here: https://www.art.org/tarik-echols-open/
[Tarik Echols (American), Home 239, 2014. Watercolor and crayon on paper, 22 x 30 in. Collection of Jennifer Mannebach]
