The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago presents “Mark Me, Too: Five Artists,” a group exhibition curated by Dr. Rikki Byrd, the center’s inaugural Radicle Curatorial Resident. The show features works by Lisa DeAbreu, Lex Marie, Natasha Moustache, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, and Ciarra K. Walters, each exploring mark-making as a conceptual and material practice. Highlights include Walters’ video “Eileen’s Daughters,” which uses fragile eggshell-covered suits to evoke familial intimacy and vulnerability; DeAbreu’s textile works that transform household items into visual heirlooms; Ogbara’s sculptural piece “Hopscotch (A Safe Space to Land),” combining bronze and soil to address Black beauty and West African heritage; and Marie’s reimagined American flags made from hospital blankets and beads, critiquing the nation’s relationship with Black maternity and childhood.
The exhibition matters because it reframes mark-making beyond a purely physical gesture, linking it to broader narratives of migration, kinship, cultural legacy, and social critique. By centering five emerging and mid-career artists of color, the show underscores the Hyde Park Art Center’s commitment to diverse curatorial voices—particularly through Byrd’s Radicle residency—and contributes to ongoing conversations about identity, history, and materiality in contemporary art. The review’s critical engagement with both the successes and struggles of the works offers a nuanced perspective on how artists use marks to navigate personal and collective memory.