Lisa Alvarado + Joshua Abrams

Lisa Alvarado is a visual artist and musician whose practice gravitates towards creative traditions of overcoming and exuberant forms of resilience. Her perspective is rooted in the underrepresented American history of the Chicanx diaspora. Alvarado works with painting, fabric, murals, natural light, sand, sound and musical performance to reimagine collective space. Guided by what she calls “vibrational aesthetics,” Alvarado draws from bodily pulses and earthly cycles, creating multi-sensory works rich with visual and sonic resonance. She plays harmonium in the acclaimed creative music ensemble Natural Information Society and uses her free-hanging paintings as mobile stage sets in their performances.

She has recently exhibited her work in solo exhibitions at The Fabric Workshop Museum, Philadelphia; Joslyn Museum, Omaha; The Kitchen, New York; The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Hartford; REDCAT, Los Angeles; and group shows Whitney Biennial 2022, New York; The Moody Center for the Arts, Houston; Bergen Kunsthall, Norway; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; MCA Chicago. She has performed at Inhotim Museum, Brazil; Le Guess Who, Utrecht; Pioneer Works, New York; Palais De Tokyo, Paris; Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto; Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago; Documenta 13, Kassel. Alvarado has recorded on albums released on Eremite, Drag City and Aguirre Records.

Joshua Abrams is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, improviser and a key figure in Chicago’s creative music communities. His practice began on the streets of Philadelphia busking as an original member of hiphop legends The Roots and performing with composer Earle Brown. In 2010 Abrams formed Natural Information Society (NIS), recording eight albums of his compositions for Eremite and two for Drag City with Bitchin Bajas. Working the seams between minimalism, jazz and experimental practice, NIS has become a touchstone for contemporary non-idiomatic creative music. Abrams has scored eleven feature films including the Oscar nominated Abacus: Small Enough To Jail. His collaborations include work with Fred Anderson, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Hamid Drake, Theaster Gates, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Mike Reed, Simon Starling, and Town and Country. Performances include: Apollo Theater, Berlin Jazz Festival, Big Ears, Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Documenta 13, Inhotim, Fuji Rock, Le Guess Who, London Jazz Festival, Palais de Tokyo, Pioneer Works, PS21, Pitchfork Music Festival, Ryman Auditorium, Serralves, Sons D’Hiver and Teatro Manzoni. He recently served as musical director for The Harvest Time Experiment and released Music for Pulse Meridian Foliation on Drag City. Abrams was a 2018 Grants for Artists recipient from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.