Magic Hour Gallery presents: Steph Costello
Join us Wednesday, November 18th, for Magic Hour Gallery’s first artist event, a conversation with Steph Costello and Rafael Robles.
Steph is a New York-based artist with deep Chicago ties, who uses painting and drawing to create imaginative urban constructions. She works from sketches and photos of places she’s lived or dreamt of, deconstructing and reconstructing them on canvas into bold built environments and labyrinthine spaces. Steph has shown her work with Pierogi Gallery in New York, La Pan Gallery in Barcelona, and The Bronx Museum. She is a recipient of public art grants from The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the NYC Department of Transportation, New York Health and Hospitals, and The Brooklyn Arts Council. Steph has four pieces currently on view at Magic Hour: Barcelonetta, Sea Palace, Napoli Port I, and Napoli Port II.
Rafa is the co-founder and director of Duo Development, a creative practice that works like an art studio and an innovation lab, making buildings, spaces, and businesses that improve our collective quality of life. Instead of just designing a building, Duo asks what that building could be and who it should belong to, and that question starts with the people who will use it. Duo even created In.Field, a kit that gathers neighborhood input like a board game. That approach led to Starling, North Lawndale’s first transit-oriented community space and coffeehouse, which shares its profits with the people who use it. Starling was backed by the Chicago Community Trust, the City of Chicago, We Rise Together, and IFF. Duo also created Homekeep, a three-building rental portfolio with shared ownership designed to keep housing affordable over the long term.
Together, Rafa and Steph will talk about how places begin, who gets to shape them, and how we can imagine the ones that don’t exist yet but should. There will be time dedicated for audience questions and for viewing the entirety of the Magic Hour show. Drinks are included.
Wednesday, November 18, 6-8pm CT
Magic Hour Gallery, 661 W. Lake St., 2nd floor
$40 | Limited to 50 guests | RSVP required