One of the staples of summer is the suburban art show. Like everything else having to do with the arts, drastic changes have been made to make these shows safe, if the shows are still going on at all.
Naperville artist Diana Leviton Gondek was just featured in a Chicago show that was conceived to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, and expanded to reckon with the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests around the country following the death of George Floyd in police custody in May in Minneapolis.
Gondek, who says she has been an artist her whole life, learned about the exhibit, called “All in the Same Boat — Or Are We?″ and hosted at Stola Contemporary Gallery in Chicago, through another Chicago artist group. Anne Farley Gaines, who came up with the idea and curated the show, asked Gondek to participate.
“The title ‘All in the Same Boat’ came from a remark that Martin Luther King had made in one of his impassioned civil rights speeches. I originally felt that all artists and humanity in general were ‘all in the same boat’ regarding the newness and strangeness of pandemic isolation and wearing masks, etc., however necessary for safety.
Picture Source: Diana Leviton Gondek
