Ground Level Projects: Deb Sokolow (last day)

This spring, Spertus Museum launches a dynamic new initiative called Ground Level Projects, a series of artist commissions for Spertus’ glass-enclosed, street-level vestibule space.

Engaging four artists over a year-long period, the project aims to foster creative encounters that investigate, challenge, and expand traditional perceptions of the Jewish experience. The resulting projects will be visible from the street, bridging the realms of public and private space and encouraging passers-by to enter into a meaningful and thought-provoking dialogue with the works on view as well as with Spertus. The commissions will be accessioned into Spertus Museum’s collection, enhancing its growing contemporary art holdings and reflecting its innovative exhibition program.

A new work by Chicago-based artist Deb Sokolow will be the first Ground Level Project. Sokolow’s imaginative narratives of hand-drawn texts and images are loosely based on her own personal experiences as well as media stories and films she finds compelling. Spinning off into numerous tangents in an attempt to uncover “truths”, these comic and often-paranoid ramblings lead viewers on a journey that rarely culminates in answers. Her large-scale drawing for Spertus is inspired by her family’s Chicago history (certain family documents are part of the Chicago Jewish Archives at Spertus) and the supposedly hidden stories behind objects in Spertus Museum’s Open Depot collection display. Sokolow has recently made site-specific works for the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City and the Van Abbemuseum in The Netherlands.