M. LeBlanc

About the Gallery
In 2017, M. LeBlanc opened in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, presenting an exhibition program of international contemporary art, drawing predominantly from artists working in Germany and the US. The annual exhibition program is hosted in the gallery’s turn-of-the-century storefront and weighted toward solo exhibitions and projects by gallery artists. This program is punctuated occasionally with young group exhibitions, readings, and screenings, that are dedicated to bringing celebrated international artists to a Chicago community. Since its founding, the gallery has produced nearly fifty solo and group exhibitions and participated in art fairs internationally. 

About the Presentation
For M. LeBlanc’s exhibition at Independent, gallery artists Cameron Spratley and Peppi Bottropt will each present new works made in the months leading up to the fair. The curatorial decision to place these two artists together rose from not just a shared aesthetic understanding, but a common conceptual impetus as well. Seemingly disparate at first glance, the two are intellectually related through their prescient understanding of material, labor, the body, and the exploitation/exhaustion of all three. Where Spratley’s works have traditionally addressed these concepts through niche pop cultural subjects and the sensationalization of violence, Bottrop’s approach stems from the languages of abstraction and automation.