Aesthetics of Power
Aesthetics of Power
Curator: Mahwish Chishty
Opening Reception: Friday, October 3, 2025, 5-8pm
As tools of harm grow more remote, outsourced, and hidden, their impacts continue to rapidly shape our lives. While the mechanisms may be out of sight, their impact remains immediate, shaping the human experience, memories, and the cultural archive. This exhibition highlights work that responds to this contradiction: a world where power hides in plain sight, but leaves its unmistakable marks.
Aesthetics of Power, an exhibition juried by artist Mahwish Chishty. This show looks closely at how aesthetics can be used to express layered, quietly disruptive ideas. We are drawn to work that surprises, that reveals itself slowly, and that occupies the fragile space where beauty unsettles rather than soothes.
Artists in this exhibition reflect on how aesthetic interpretations carry the weight of history, how beauty might obscure or reveal power, and how what is finely wrought can also bear witness.
Exhibiting Artists: Parto & Pardis Ahmadpour, Rodrigo Azaola, Jane A Barrow, Rex Cassidy, Kyle Chaput, Lucas Cordes, Vincent Escareno, Morgan Ford Willingham, Tara Sabini, Mack Gingles, Matthew Girson, Briena Harmening, Yuliya Klochan, Roopa Kosuri, Jiselle Ramirez, Sajal Siwakoti, Yaning Xing, Shelly Zhang
About the Curator: Mahwish Chishty
Mahwish Chishty merges new media and conceptual art with the rich materials and techniques of South Asian artistic traditions.
With over seventy exhibitions both in the US and internationally, Chishty's work has garnered widespread recognition. She has been awarded numerous residencies, including Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago, and the Vermont Studio Center in Vermont. Ms.
Chishty also has works in public and private collections including the Foreign Office Islamabad,
Pakistan, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka Shi, Japan, and Imperial War Museum, London, UK. Notably, Chishty is a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.
Chishty is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She holds a BFA with a concentration in miniature painting from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, and an MFA in studio arts from the University of Maryland in College Park.
Visit Mahwish @ https://www.mahachishty.com/
Exhibition dates: October 3-24, 2025
Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.