The Bridge at 909 art exhibit in the lobby of City Hall features six works by established Evanston-based artist Chris Froeter and emerging Chicago-based artist Gabi Bozeman.
Located at 909 Davis St., Froeter’s large black and white portraits contrast sharply with Bozeman’s smaller canvases full of color. The exhibit opened on Feb. 5 and is scheduled to remain on display until the end of March.
Community members gathered to see the exhibit on Thursday during a reception, speaking with Froeter about his work.
Froeter said he began painting as a teen after his parents’ divorce, adding he felt like he lacked a voice at the time but could communicate and create a “comfortable space” through his art. When painting a subject, Froeter spends about an hour taking photos and getting to know them in order to showcase their character, he said.
His three paintings hanging in the exhibit are part of a larger series called “Voices,” which highlights activists in intimate ways, he explained. The artist added the simplicity of his large black and white paintings allows the deeper meaning to shine through.
“The goal was to create an emotional experience with these faces,” Froeter said. “It becomes beyond intimate at this point, and you’re looking at eyes and they are the size of your fist. So there’s an opportunity to tell stories here that are really meaningful.”
One of the portraits depicts Nestor Gomez, a professional storyteller, covering his mouth. Noting the contradiction between craft and imagery in this portrait, Froeter questioned, “What does that say?”
Bozeman, who was unable to attend the exhibit’s reception, is an artist “rooted in surrealism, emotion and nostalgia,” producing art featuring primarily young Black women, according to a biography provided during the event.
Bridge at 909 is a pilot program that Juelle Daley, the city’s arts and culture engagement specialist, hopes to expand around Evanston.
Daley said she wants the exhibit to feature more artists and bring people from different backgrounds “together, sharing space and having dialogue.”
“I almost feel like my mission in Evanston is to create a charcuterie board of experiences, not to take anything away, but to sort of add these different layers to a larger board of options for people to have,” Daley said.
Daley explained she also hopes to create spaces for community members who don’t normally interact with art to see and engage with artistic expression in their daily lives, adding she has seen passersby stop to give the paintings a closer look.
Visual artist and musician Abdoulaye Conde said he loves to support exhibitions and that going to Bridge at 909 inspired him.
“Art is something special, something creative, from people who got talent, so they can share their talent,” Conde said. “They can make life more interesting.”
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