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BIO

Chantel Foretich is an American artist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her works are mostly small-scale versions of real, imagined and literary scenes, mechanized and illuminated with various motors and lights.  

 

The shrunken places are charged in some way, built because of their accumulated history, fleeting exchange, idea, offer of respite, or role in violence.  Each can be thought of as a constructed relic, almost small enough to imagine inside a human body, sized in the same way that memories recede, but fill the body upon recollection.     

 

Chantel worked in fundraising for opera for many years in NYC and Santa Fe, and the works can resemble stage set maquettes, or, not-quite-to-scale architectural models. 

 

Her work has been shown mostly in non-traditional spaces including libraries, storefronts, empty warehouses and closets, as well as galleries and museums. 

 

As a curator, Chantel and Carrie Mackin (Mackin Projects) oversaw the program for QF Gallery in East Hampton, NY, both a physical space and a mobile curatorial project, featuring exhibitions by Mickalene Thomas, Nan Goldin and numerous emerging and experimental artists, curators and architects.
 

Chantel has served as a committee member for the nonprofit CloudTop Comedy Festival since its inception in 2019.

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SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Deep in the Heart of Summer

Mechanized, illuminated sculptures inspired by literature, including works referencing fiction by John Cheever, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carson McCullers, John Steinbeck, Sylvia Plath, Ralph Ellison and Radclyffe Hall

Satin/Reichman Memorial Art Gallery

Santa Fe Public Library, Santa Fe, NM

August 5 - September 2, 2022

 

TG&Y Paperplate Throw

Street-facing window installation, shrunken version of 1970s Thanksgiving tradition in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. TG&Y employees threw paperplates with prizes written on them from the roof of TG&Y to eager families in the parking lot. Prizes included board games, TV trays, clothes and more.

La Lunchonette restaurant, New York, NY 2004

 

Nebraska Avenue

Street-facing window installation, shrunken version of street in Tampa, Florida including Alpine Liquor, House of Meats and more.

La Lunchonette Restaurant, New York, NY 2003

 

Musicboxes & Dioramas

Apocalypso thrift store, New York, NY 2002

 

Entre Nous

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Gautier, MS 1998

 

Recollections and Lovers

Outdoor human-scale bird house and daily sunset installation of small, viewer-animated sculptures

University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 1997

 

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

 

HACKING THE LIBRARY

Participating artists, librarians, community members, students and scholars share how they 'hack' the institution itself, discovering and addressing ideological terrains, passing time in existing libraries, or making one's own library.

West Virginia University Library, Morgantown, West Virginia, August 2023

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THROW THEM BONES ON THE GROUND

exploring themes of identity and perseverance in light of the current political climate of local and state politics and including artists Catalina Chang, Kalup Linzy and John Murdock

Tempus Projects, Tampa, FL, August 2023

 

ROCKY MOUNTAIN TRIENIEL

Juror Merry Scully

Museum of Art Fort Collins, Fort Collins, CO, May 2023

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MEDIUMS

Participating artists met with a medium and made work about it. My work was a view into John Cheever’s apartment building in NYC and his daily commute to write in the basement boiler room. Rooms in the building featured miniature versions of paintings that the medium had hanging behind him in his home during zoom sessions.

Calico Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2015

 

A Necessary Shift

EFA Project Space, New York, NY 2013

 

Peekskill Project 2012

Warehouse installation of miniature versions of Peekskill businesses including the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, CVS, anti-abortion “clinic” and more.

Peekskill, NY 2012

 

Room without a View

Curated by Trong Gia Nguyen

Freies Museum, Berlin, Germany 2010

 

Prozess

Curated by Jazz-minh Moore

Interactive installation welcomed viewers to activate music box mechanism and illuminate work based on The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

Lyonsweir Gallery, New York, NY 2009

 

Mixtape

717 Studio, Brooklyn, NY 2009

 

Bridge Art Fair

Catalina Hotel, Greene Contemporary, Miami, FL 2007

 

The Encampment

Installation of 90 19th-century-style tents by Thom Sokoloski in empty field at southern tip of Roosevelt Island. The tents represented patients who once lived in the island’s smallpox hospital, the remains of which are nearby. Inside each tent, artists and volunteers arranged artifacts to memorialize patients and other island residents. The tents were illuminated from within, so “The Encampment” was visible from both sides of the East River, a glowing link to the area’s history

Roosevelt Island, NY 2007

 

Conflux

Shrunken re-creation of businesses surrounding functioning phone booth inside phone booth, just above phone itself, including barber shop, fish shop and more

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 2007

 

Thirty Second Spot

Video installation of mechanized sculptures

Cuchifritos, New York, NY 2007

 

Peekskill Project 2006

Window installation referencing Hurricane Katrina

Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY 2006

 

The Studio Visit

Exit Art, New York, NY 2006

 

Traffic

Exit Art, New York, NY 2005

 

EA50

HERE Arts Center, New York, NY 2004

 

Home

Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY 2003

 

Dreamy

Ziehersmith Gallery, New York, NY 2003

 

Miss Lower East Side Pageant

Talent: Music boxes

Host: Murray Hill

Slipper Room, New York, NY 2002

 

Jean Bordeaux Florida Sculpture Show

LeMoyne Art Museum, Tallahassee, FL 2000

 

The Devil Made Me Do It

Covivant Gallery, Tampa, FL 1999

 

Featuring Florida '98

John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL 1998

 

Art to Arm the Women of Hattiesburg

The Cha-Cha Palace, Hattiesburg, MS 1993

 

Hub City Panorama

The Studio / Hattiesburg Public Library

National Endowment for the Arts

Hattiesburg, MS 1992

 

Hattiesburg: The Other Mississippi

Gallery 203, Hattiesburg, MS 1992

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CURATORIAL

QF Gallery

HABITATS, Market Art and Design, Bridgehampton, NY 2015

PLOT, artMRKT, Bridgehampton, NY 2014

WEARWITHALL, QF Gallery, East Hampton, NY 2012

 

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

Indian Mountain Arts Residency, Lakeville, CT, 2015

I-Park International Artist-in-Residence Program, East Haddam, CT, 2013

ArtSlant Showcase, HI TIDE, Aqua Art Miami, Aqua Hotel, Miami, FL 2010

Residency for NYC arts workers, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY 2010

The Tin Shop Residency, Breckenridge, CO, 2007

 

PRESS

Meier, Allison, "Artists Visit a Spiritual Medium and Make Work About It", Hyperallergic, March 25, 2015

Hodara, Susan, "Hudson-Inspired Art, Popping Up All Over", New York Times, October 19, 2012

Vartanian, Hrag, "Aqua Returns to Miami Beach", Hyperallergic, December 3, 2010

 

EDUCATION

1997 Master of Fine Arts in Photography

University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida

1991 Bachelor of Science in Journalism, Minor in Philosophy University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi

 

ARCHIVE

Old website

Artslant interview with Susan Thomas

 

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