Written by Megan May Walsh
Copy Edited by Parker Renick
Photo Edited by Yzabella Zari and Yanting Chen

Chaos, deadly and devastating, haunts the world we live in, its madness and terror spinning into the very fabric of our reality. A pandemic. Police brutality. Climate change. Storming of the capital. School shootings. War. End to abortion rights. And so forth. If a dark angel descended upon this Earth with their deadly grace to bear witness to the devastation, what would they think? Who would they avenge? And who would experience the wrath of their unholy terror?

These were the questions photographer Ren Picco-Freeman pondered over when capturing movement artist Mo Naughton in the center of Grant Park, Chicago, adorned in their ethereal Angel of Death wings. Desiring to make sense of the darkness in this world that seemed to cast greater shadows in the last two years with a rise in hate speech, poverty, violence, and the devastating effects of climate change, Picco-Freeman imagined a reality where justice had not been vanquished by the whims of chaos and hate.

However, amidst all this darkness and terrifying uncertainty, there is a glimmer of hope, not just in Picco-Freeman’s work, but also in the community of artists, neighbors, family, and fellow firehearts behind her artistry. Lens Stories exhibition at 1100 Florence Gallery in Evanston, Illinois was the culmination of over two years of work captured during the pandemic with images from a few series all exploring the themes of grace, hope, resilience, strength, and the beauty of movement. This exhibition was made possible by the inspiring mission of 1100 Florence Gallery to serve as a resource to Evanston’s thriving creative community, which is made up of thousands of artists, artisans, and creative entrepreneurs. The network of local artists and the community of neighbors surrounding 1100 Florence Gallery offering creative support and friendship is a beautiful sight to behold and a wondrous environment to experience. The gallery’s commitment to host solo shows by emerging artists, granting them the rare opportunity to build and display a full body of work through mentorship and their very own gallery setting, is a commitment to making artists’ dreams come true.

Standing quaintly yet prominent in its community presence at the corner of Greenleaf and Florence lies the former Polish Meat Shop transformed into a live-work gallery and home: 1100 Florence Gallery. The gallery owner, Lisa Degliantoni, and her family purchased and rezoned the building in 2016, transforming the space into an exhibition and office space, a working artist studio, as well as their home with a kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms. The only remnant of the Polish Meat Shop is the distressed walnut floor where fixtures of the meat shop, meat counter, and chopping block once stood. The rest of the storefront appears as a traditional white-wall gallery space, serene and spacious despite its tininess.

On the opening night of Lens Stories on June 10, 2022, a lightness filled the air on the street corner of Greenleaf and Florence. Outside 1100 Florence Gallery, a community of artists, family members, and neighbors lingered, their bubbly chatter leaving a playful murmur in the air as they sipped from plastic cups of Trader Joe’s wine. Beneath their feet, side-walk chalk in hues of baby pink and lime green swirled in shapes and letters.

Inside the gallery, people stand with their eyes wide in the portrait of deep thought, amidst the photographs hanging on the wall. They share whispers of awe amongst each other as they witness the artistry of movement rendered still in the images. Standing amongst the viewers is photographer Ren Picco-Freeman herself, peering through the lens of her camera at the viewers encountering her work.

What’s particularly incredible about the collaborative nature and sense of community support around Picco-Freeman’s work is that it doesn’t end with 1100 Florence Gallery. With Picco-Freeman’s fascination with the otherworldly grace and artistry of dancers, she also works closely with Chicago’s Moonwater Dance Project, a contemporary repertory all female-identifying company dedicated to teaching their movement artists to know their worth and channel their sense of individuality in their work. These captivating and alluring movement artists are often the subjects of Picco-Freeman’s photography. They emerge in various manifestations, free-falling, flying, feathered, and fierce. Their otherworldliness, their defiance in Picco-Freeman’s work to adhere to the laws of the universe, allow them to bring forth alternate realities and dreamscapes for the mind to wander and ponder on the existential questions and feelings evoked from this world of our own.

Picco-Freeman’s Fall Series offers a less haunting take than The Dark Angel Series on navigating the isolating and desolate territories of chaos. Where The Dark Angel seeks retribution, the free-falling dancers seek serenity amidst the mayhem of everything they cannot control and everything just out of their reach. They embrace the uncertainty, finding positions, both compelling and beautiful, in their free fall towards whatever awaits them.

Before the closing of Picco-Freeman’s opening night, several Moonwater dancers from the Fall Series took position in the middle of the gallery. Sensing a performance underway, everyone gathered around, crouching along the perimeter of the gallery or peering in through the large storefront windows from outside to witness the subjects of Picco-Freeman’s photographs come to life.

As the crowd’s chatter fell to silence, a quiet and eerie music filled the space, conjuring an ethereal movement from the dancers as they traced the rhythm with their bodies. Effortlessly capturing the aesthetic of the Moonwater Dance Project, the dancers’ movement was similar to the captivating duality of water — “soft yet strong, both nurturing and destructive; a force to be reckoned with and unpredictable” (Moonwater Dance Project).

After the Moonwater Dance Project finished gracing the gallery with their alluring grace, Mo Naughton, the Dark Angel, took the floor in all their powerful and enthralling force. In frantic yet powerful movements, they tore across the walnut floor with their darkly angelic might. And all the crowd could do was witness the strength and flight before them.

The collaborations that made June 10th at 1100 Florence Gallery not only possible but incredible, from Lisa Degliantoni’s vision and mission to Moonwater Dance Project’s performance to the Evanston and greater Chicago-land area community that showed up to the artist behind it all, Ren Picco-Freeman, was something only a community of emerging artists and neighbors rooted in friendship could inspire. This vibrant community of artists in Evanston may not be big in name, but they are passionate creatives determined to build the spaces, communities, and networks to help each other and create opportunities to expose their work, the beautiful and vulnerable pieces of themselves, to the public eye. Evanston’s 1100 Florence Gallery serves as a central hub for many of these emerging artists to witness their dreams come true and for the greater Evanston and Chicago community to witness the creativity of the artists that walk among them.

While there is a darker thread woven into Picco-Freeman’s work as she explores the unexplainable and the shadows both the world and ourselves cast, the glimmer of light glows brightly in the community she is a part of that serves as the very antithesis of the hate and violence and the sense of hopelessness and isolation chaos aims to instill. Other worlds are possible, and if you look hard enough, you will find they are constantly emerging within the fabric of this world we call our own. The corner of Greenleaf and Florence in Evanston, Illinois is only just one example.

For more information on the upcoming exhibitions of emerging artists hosted by 1100 Florence Gallery, please visit their website here. To see more of photographer Ren Picco-Freeman’s work and all of her projects, follow her on Instagram @renstudio or visit her website at www.ren.studio.

Jul 19 FEATURE: Ren Picco-Freeman’s Lens Stories at 1100 Florence Gallery in Evanston, Illinois

Jul 20 Architecture: Shikkui Japanese Plaster

Jul 19 Moment: Ransom Ashley

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