Kyle Bellucci Johanson / untitled (“radical hospitality” and its constant gardeners) (Chicago)
(untitled) radical hospitality and its constant gardeners (2021) by artist Kyle Bellucci Johanson
The artwork is an edge-to-edge floor installation of coir fiber door mats, arranged in a grid with printed text on each mat stating Welcome in black ink. An underlying truth of unspoken, less kind sentiments is also printed within the fibers of the mats—
revealing the obscured language, rituals of hospitality, and passive aggressive behaviors that historically and today remain as the constant gardeners of white supremacy,
and as the veiled gatekeepers to resources and equity.
BIO: Artist Kyle Bellucci Johanson completed a B.A. in Reconciliation Studies and Art at Bethel University in 2009. In 2008 he studied Peace and Conflict at the University of Ulster in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and later completed an M.F.A. at California Institute of the Arts in 2016. Kyle was a 2015 fellow at Land’s Edge, an artist-led, autonomous, and experimental platform focused on intergenerational mentorship and engaged programming in community-run spaces across East and South Los Angeles.
In 2018 Kyle opened Table, a temporary project space dedicated to situating artist’s practices through exhibition, discursive meals, and publication. Currently he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at University of Illinois Chicago, and a Lecturer at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Kyle’s work has recently been on view at the Gray Center at the University of Chicago, Bill’s Auto (Chicago), Museum of Contemporary Art on the Moon (MOCAM), Automata (Los Angeles), Sullivan Galleries at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, ALTES FINANZAMT (Berlin), Centro Cultural Metropolitano – MET Quito (Quito), and Human Resources (Los Angeles).
(photo credit: Kim Becker)
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