Amira DiawAva PetersonRebekka FederleOlivia Porter A house is never only a structure. It is a sequence of movements, arrangements, and experiences: arrivals and departures, objects placed then replaced, rooms slowly infused with life through use. Housewarming, Elise Seigenthaler Gallery’s inaugural exhibition, brings together a group of artists whose works consider the domesticity as a site of memory, projection, and emotional investigation.&nbsp;Throughout the history of art, interiors have offered a framework for thinking through personal environments and the quiet pressures of everyday life. Neither purely private nor entirely fixed, the home emerges as a place shaped by negotiation: between self and other, permanence and impermanence, outside and inside, care and neglect. The works in&nbsp;Housewarming&nbsp;engage with these tensions, approaching domestic space not as a static backdrop but as an active and evolving habitat.&nbsp;Across painting, beaded work, and sculpture, familiar elements of the home are loosened from their functional and traditional roles. Ornate decor dissolves into shimmering strokes of abstraction, rooms register absence as much as occupation, and wooden objects become affective substitutes for pets. The components and meaning of an interior are revealed as something constructed, vulnerable, and deeply entangled with personal and cultural histories.&nbsp;As the gallery’s first exhibition,&nbsp;Housewarming&nbsp;reflects a moment of arrival. The exhibition extends its attention inward and treats the gallery itself as a space in the process of becoming. The works gathered in this show trace their own paths through memory, material, and imagination, offering the gallery as a provisional interior, newly occupied and still taking shape. Amira Diaw&nbsp;(b. 2002 in&nbsp;Houston, TX)&nbsp;is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL. Her paintings serve as an archive of their history, capturing moments from the 1970s through the early 2000s that lend a stranger-like quality in the realm of the family or kinship space. Diaw has exhibited her work with John St Gallery, Point Blank Gallery, and Gure. She is a BFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2026).&nbsp;Rebekka Federle&nbsp;(b. in&nbsp;Chicago, IL) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL. Federle received her MFA from the University of Chicago (2025). Federle’s work was recently exhibited in the solo shows&nbsp;The Liberators, Chat About x CWAC Exhibition Series&nbsp;(Cochran Woods Art Center, IL) and&nbsp;In Your Dreams&nbsp;(Topo, ME) and&nbsp;GOODUNANIMOUSBAD BADUNANIMOUSGOOD(Logan Center, IL)&nbsp;Ava Peterson&nbsp;(b. 2002 in Columbus, OH) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL. Peterson received a BFA in Studio Art from Denison University (2024) and is an MFA candidate in Painting &amp; Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2026). Notable exhibitions include the solo shows&nbsp;House &amp; Garden&nbsp;(Incubator Gallery, IL) and&nbsp;Clear the Kitchen Table&nbsp;(Bryant Arts Center, OH) as well as the group show&nbsp;In a Child's Place&nbsp;(Purple Window Gallery, IL). Peterson has also received the Nan Nowik Memorial Award for Outstanding Artistic Expression (2024) and was a Luminarts Visual Arts Fellowship Finalist (2025).&nbsp;Olivia Porter&nbsp;(b.1995 in Los Angeles, CA) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Porter received her BA from Kenyon College (2018). Recent exhibitions include&nbsp;The Last Notice Show&nbsp;(Rusha &amp; Co., CA) and&nbsp;Garden 2022(Ladie’s Room, CA).&nbsp;

Housewarming

Elise Seigenthaler Gallery

Please join us for an artist talk with Ava Peterson&nbsp;on&nbsp;Saturday, February 21 at&nbsp;2PM.This conversation offers a chance to hear directly from the artist about her practice, themes, and the work currently on view. Guests are encouraged to engage and ask questions, creating an open dialogue around the artist's process and ideas.&nbsp;This event is free and open to the public.Tea and snacks will be served. We hope you’ll join us! ABOUT THE ARTIST:Ava L. Peterson (B. 2002, Columbus, OH) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL, who investigates the consequences of opulence and excess. Through the lens of painting, Peterson re-examines imagery sourced from contemporary interior design magazines and historic upper-class interiors, allowing these idealized tableaux to stain, bleed, and drift apart until ornament deteriorates into abstraction.Peterson received a BFA in Studio Art from Denison University (‘24) and is an MFA candidate in Painting &amp; Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (‘26). Notable exhibitions include solo shows, "House &amp; Garden" (Incubator Gallery, IL) and “Clear the Kitchen Table" (Bryant Arts Center, OH). Recent group shows include "Housewarming" (Elise Seigenthaler Gallery, IL) and "In a Child's Place" (Purple Window Gallery, IL). Peterson has also received the Nan Nowik Memorial Award for Outstanding Artistic Expression ('24) and was a Luminarts Visual Arts Fellowship Finalist ('25).

Artist Talk: Ava Peterson

Please join us for an artist talk with Rebekka Federle&nbsp;on&nbsp;Saturday, February 7 at 2 PM&nbsp;at the gallery. Tea and snacks will be served. We hope you’ll join us!This conversation offers a chance to hear directly from the artist about her practice, themes, and the work currently on view. Guests are encouraged to engage and ask questions, creating an open dialogue around Rebekka’s process and ideas.This event is free and open to the public. About the Artist:Rebekka Federle is a sculptor working primarily with wood and paper to explore the limits of empathy, domination, and the inconstancy of truth and language. Her work seeks to position the viewer in a state of benevolence from which they can decide whether or not to extend care. She is particularly interested in slapstick, peasant craft, and dogs.&nbsp;She earned her MFA from the University of Chicago, and holds a BFA in Woodworking and Furniture Design from the Maine College of Art. Her work has recently been shown at The Lawn (Chicago, IL), Cochran Woods Art Center (Chicago, IL), The Logan Center (Chicago, IL), and she has upcoming shows at Heaven Gallery (Chicago, IL) and Stove Works (Chattanooga, TN). She is currently a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago.&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1769633421/bhr8cyhnie4vo5jtceub.jpg">

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