In Of Boldness and Subtlety, curator Gabrielle Garland brings together artists whose work shares both confident gestures and careful intention. Artist You Ni Chae draws from late Neolithic period Chinese ceramics in her work, using bleeds of color that create both depth and volume. Michael Hunter’s triptych of tropical forms is part of a larger body of work using the same vibrating marks to create a dynamic calm. Stacie Johnson’s work explores the tension between sculpture and painting. Often working from compositional manquets, Johnson’s paintings are tightly designed and compositionally complex. Alice Tippit is interested in how the language of painting operates and creates meaning. Employing a graphic, hard-edged style and a limited palette, her work remains ambiguous enough to allow interpretation and inquiry. Jason Benson and Joel Dean are painters turned sculptors. They both play with everyday materials and familiar forms to build unexpected, half-familiar objects. Of Boldness and Subtlety results in “a brashness of form amid exacting, deliberate and colorful detail” through the artists’ negotiations of color, movement, material, and shape.

Jason Benson is a founding member of Important Projects, an exhibition space in Oakland, California. He has shown in the United States, Mexico and the UK. Benson earned his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He lives and works in Oakland, CA.

You Ni Chae has shown throughout in the Midwest and most recently at 65GRAND in Chicago. She earned her BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently lives in New York.

Joel Dean lives and works in New York City. He is a founding member of Important Projects, an exhibition space in Oakland, California. He has shown nationally and internationally and has an upcoming exhibition at Mini Bar Artists’ Space in Stockholm, Sweden. Dean earned his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Michael Hunter has shown his work throughout the United States as well as internationally. He earned his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He currently lives and works in New York and is represented by Michael Jon Gallery (Detroit and Miami).

Stacie Johnson has shown at galleries and alternative spaces in Chicago and NYC, including her most recent solo exhibition at Bull and Ram Gallery in NYC. She was a founding member of the artist-run exhibition space Regina Rex in Queens. She has held numerous residencies including at the Contemporary Artists Center-Woodside, Troy, NY; Harold Arts, Southeastern Ohio; and the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. Johnson earned her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and currently lives and works in New York City.

Alice Tippit has shown at Roots and Culture in Chicago and at Jancar Jones in Los Angeles, as well as across the United States. She earned her BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is the 2013 recipient of the George & Ann Siegel Fellowship. Tippit currently lives and works in Chicago.

Gabrielle Garland is an artist and curator based in Chicago and New York. She has shown both nationally and internationally as well as at Hap Gallery in Portland, Oregon. She earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from the University of Chicago. Of Boldness and Subtlety is the second show Garland has curated at Hap.