Kate McQuillen
Lights Out

Johalla Projects has been proud to collaborate with the Ace Hotel, Chicago on a range of creative endeavors since its opening. Opening December 2019, Johalla Projects curated an installation of New York-based artist Kate McQuillen’s work in the central lobby of the Ace Hotel, Chicago. Lights Out visualized an imagined celestial topography that spanned beyond the charted and tracked night’s sky. Transforming the lobby into a luminous horizon, McQuillen mirrored the scientific way that peripheral vision is utilized when looking out into space. Through scale and perspective, she encapsulated the limitlessness of celestial possibilities within the Ace Hotel. This installation was extended during its exhibition and remained available for viewing through April 2020.

Johalla Projects served as a creative advisor for the development of Soho House Chicago’s Artist in Residency Program, starting summer 2021. The program supports the pursuit of creativity and facilitates the advancement of emerging artists from across the nation. With Soho House Chicago and the West Loop neighborhood as the backdrop to the residency, artists will draw inspiration from the culture and community that resides in the House. Inviting artists to temporarily live and work at Soho House Chicago for a two week period, the program creates an opening for members to see the creative process first hand and for the artist to directly impact the house and community through programming and other engagement series.