Mavra Gallery in Jefferson Park hosts 'Apocalypse Drawings' exhibition

Mavra, a new artist-run gallery located at 5338 W. Lawrence in Jefferson Park, is hosting an exhibition titled 'Apocalypse Drawings.' The show focuses on the physical and immediate nature of drawing, connecting the practice to spiritualist and surrealist traditions such as automatic drawing and exquisite corpses.

Curators Mary Amelia and Parker Davis organized the collection to position drawing as a bodily and expansive practice. They describe the medium as a mechanism for expressing the unspeakable, including the violent and grotesque aspects of the mind. The curators argue that drawing allows artists to communicate feelings of surrender or conflict in response to current societal pressures.

The exhibition reflects a specific economic context where rising costs and limited job opportunities have made material security harder to achieve for many young people. The show does not offer a definitive answer to the role of art in this environment but instead asserts the continued power of an artist's voice during times of crisis.

The works are installed across two levels of the gallery. Pieces include traditional pen on paper drawings and mixed media items. The installation spans walls, tables, and the basement rafters. The tables themselves were designed and built by the gallery's founder, J.G. Singhal.

The participating artists range in age and background, with some self-taught and others formally trained. The collection features rare work by comics artists Mark Beyer and Mike Diana. Parker Davis, writing under the name DOTTK2007_TYPHONIANGRAFFITI in the accompanying text, states that black squares represent the composite of all possible images and function as mirrors.

Mary Amelia writes in the show text that confronting one's body in real time requires facing the precarity of the current moment. The exhibition includes works that convey macabre, dreamy, and anxious impulses.

The show runs through November 6. Mavra is open from noon to 6 p.m. on Fridays through Tuesdays. The gallery is located in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Chicago.