OCTOBER 18th - NOVEMBER 20th 2021

“Nature is a haunted house- but Art- is a house that tries to be haunted.” - Emily Dickinson

M. LeBlanc is proud to present MOLOCH, a group exhibition featuring new work by Connor Camburn, Stevie Hanley, Manal Kara, Cameron Spratley, Vincent Larouche, Hans-Jörg Mayer, James Krone, and Emma Pryde.

Connor Camburn spent his childhood imprisoned in a maximum security facility and was addicted to inhalants when not incarcerated. Presently, he is embroiled in the cultural transmogrification of husks, disrobing, and elucidating that which is socially unspeakable. Based in Chicago, Camburn is an artist and composer working primarily with automation, repetition, implemented via hardware instrumentation. Musical projects include Agnes and litüus. He has released music on Avian (Berlin), Mazurka Editions (Australia), Nostilevo (U.S.), Notice Recordings (U.S.) and Imminent Frequencies (U.S.). Camburn also operates the music label Chained Library.

Stevie Cisneros Hanley (b. 1983 in Sacramento, CA) envisions an architecture of queer inversion. Considering the ways images sit among other objects in the world, almost becoming perceived as immaterial rather than object-bodies in their own right, fascinates Hanley to create large-scale works as arenas for actions not yet possible. Select past solo exhibitions include Ghost Sex (2019) at M. LeBlanc, Chicago; Synaesthetica (2016) at the International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; Creeping Towards the Light (2015) at Julius Caesar, Chicago; Perverted Living (2014) at Flat Space, Chicago, and Held Open (2012) at September Gallery, Berlin. Hanley received an M.F.A. from the School of The Art Institute Of Chicago in 2014, where he was a George and Ann Siegel Fellowship recipient. Hanley lives and works in Chicago.

Manal Kara (b. 1986) is a Moroccan-American artist living in Gary, Indiana. Recent solo exhibitions of Kara’s work include The Viewing-Room vs. The Adoring Gaze (2020) at Interstate Projects in Brooklyn; Song Of The Other Worm (2019) at Prairie in Chicago; and 100% Raw Acid House Hoes Against Empire & Capital at Boyfriends in Chicago. Selected recent group exhibitions of Kara’s work include Jupiter Finger (2021) at Real Pain in Los Angeles and Suspended Disbelief (2021) at Arsenal Contemporary in Toronto.

Cameron Spratley (b. 1994 in Manassas, Virgina, lives and works in Chicago). Recent solo exhibitions of Spratley's work include In The Air Tonight (2021) at James Fuentes LLC in New York; 730 (2020) at M. LeBlanc in Chicago, and Botanica (2019) at Demon Leg in New York. He has also been included in recent group exhibitions at Arcadia Missa in London, UGLY in Chicago, and Pilot Projects in Philadelphia. Spratley received a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA in Painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Most recently. M. LeBlanc published Spratley's first monograph detailing the past half decade of the artist's collage and painting, entitled Necropolis.

Vincent Larouche (b. 1995) lives and works in Montreal. Recent exhibitions of Larouche’s work include Café de Flore (2021) at Interstate Projects in New York, Ocelle (2020) at Fonderie Darling in Montreal, and Coch/Lear/Sweat at NEW WORKS (2019) in Chicago. Larouche’s work was also included in This Sacred Vessel Part III at Arsenal Contemporary in New York. In 2019, Larouche received the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant. The artist received his D.E.C. from the Cegep du Vieux Montréal (2012-2014) and a B.F.A (2014-2017) from Concordia University in Montreal, where he lives and works today.

Hans-Jörg Mayer (b. 1955 in Singen, DE) lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions of Mayer’s work include A Touch of Chthulu (2020) at Galerie Nagel Draxler in Cologne and Sweet Distance - Bittere Maronen (2018) at nationalmuseum in Berlin. Mayer’s work has been included in many institutional exhibitions, including Painting 2.0: Malerei im Informationszeitalter (2015/16) at MuMoK in Vienna and Museum Brandhorst in Munich, Captain Pamphile – Ein Bildroman in Stücken (2011) at Collection Falckenberg, Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Make Your Own Life: Artists In & Out of Cologne (2007) at the Henry Art Gallery at University of Washington, Seattle and Museum of Contemporary Art Miami, and Made In Berlin (2004) at Art Forum Berlin, Berlin. In addition, Mayer’s practice has been the focus of multiple features in national and international periodicals, and is held in numerous public and private collections.

James Krone (b. 1975 in Chicago) lives and works in Berlin. Krone has exhibited extensively in the United States and Europe at venues such as Brand New Gallery in Milan, Kavi Gupta in Berlin, Country Club in Los Angeles, and Galerie Setareh in Berlin. His debut exhibition Model Of Dissolve opened in April 2019 at M. LeBlanc Chicago. His work has been written about in publications such as Monocle, Modern Painters, and Mousse Magazine.

Emma Pryde (b. 1991) lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin. Recent solo exhibitions of Pryde’s work include Counterplayer (2021) at King’s Leap in New York and Playset (2020) at Mickey Gallery in Chicago. Selected group exhibitions of Pryde’s work include Hissing Haze (2021) at in Lieu in Los Angeles, Fantasy Finery (2020) at Berlinskej Model in Prague, and My shed shaped heart (2019) at hotel art pavilion in Brooklyn. In 2014, Pryde received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago. Pryde continued studying at the University Of Wisconsin Madison receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree last year.