Andrew Mcilvaine: Resilience Story

On view Apr. 6 to Nov. 5, 2023

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Emotions and memories inspire the mixed media installation and sound exhibition Resilience Story.

"In the space, viewers encounter drawings on paño, which are works on fabric traditionally created by Chicano prisoners from the south and southwestern United States," said Mcilvaine. "These works express feelings of loss, progress, hope, love and highlight stories of resilience. This show is about redemption through imprisonment and generational movement."

In his first institutional solo exhibition, Andrew Mcilvaine highlights the power of art to transcend systemic inequities. Resilience Story prominently features Mcilvaine’s relationship with his father, who was incarcerated for most of the artist’s life. Unable to connect in person, their bond was communicated through the art they exchanged. Resilience Story is a continuation of this formative artistic experience. In Mcilvaine’s work, artmaking becomes a ritual for recovering the truth of his past and repairing generational traumas to transform his future.

By invoking culturally specific sounds, colors, and materials, Mcilvaine honors his home of San Antonio, Texas, and immerses viewers in the aesthetics that shaped his upbringing. These components come together to ignite a sacred space where it becomes possible to cleanse one’s soul. Through his practice, rooted in tradition, he seeks to address personal, intergenerational, and cultural losses stemming from settler colonialism.

Andrew Mcilvaine (b. 1993) received an MFA from Washington University and BA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. In 2022, Mcilvaine won the Visual Artist Award from the Charlotte Street Foundation. He currently lives in Overland Park, Kansas and is an Assistant Professor at the Kansas City Art Institute.