Blood Pressures
Manal Kara
The Body, 2024-ongoing
Dimensions variable
Dimensions variable
Manal Kara
The Body, 2024-ongoing
Dimensions variable
Dimensions variable
Liza Jo Eilers
Its Hard to Keep Track of What You’ve Forgotten, 2026
Acrylic on linen
18 x 15 inches
CJ Shaw
Love Me In December As You Did In May, 2026
Oil, inkjet pva on canvas
46 x 54 inches
Neal Vandenbergh
Untitled, 2026
Graphite, charcoal, pastel, colored pencil, acrylic, ink on dibon panel
29.5 x 22 inches
Paul Heyer
Broken Window, 2024
Oil, enamel on canvas
30 x 40 inches
Kira Scerbin
Possibility of Happiness, 2025
Graphite on paper
18 x 13 inches
Kira Scerbin
Two Kissers, 2025
Graphite on paper
13 x 18 inches
Kira Scerbin
Baste, 2025
Graphite on paper
13 x 18 inches
Cameron Spratley
Amber. Matte Black (Siren), 2026
Acrylic, flashe, marker, epson
27 x 40 inches (in artist frame)
Noelia Towers
Silver apple 2.0, 2026
Silver star stickers on paper
24 x 24 inches (in artist frame)
Eden Yono
MIMI-cry, 2024
Colored pencil on coventry rag
38 ⅛ x 50 inches (in artist frame)
Leonardo Kaplan
Life Style Choices, 2025
Acrylic toner transfer, marker, pencil, pen, acrylic on gessoed canvas
27.5 x 38.5 inches
Pay attention to physical cues, a racing heart, clenched jaw or shallow breathing.
At the tone please press 1 followed by your pin and the pound sign.
If the person appears unresponsive
Break the tension, release yourself
Stand clear of the closing doors with someone you trust, and pause before acting.
Hold an ice cube
In the case of an emergency
(focus on their feelings)
To speak to an agent
Count five things, feel four things, hear three things, smell two things, taste something
Follow my voice, deeper… and deeper.
Do you accept the charges?
Blood Pressures brings together a group of artists based out of the midwest, connected less by aesthetic parallels and more by a shared sensitivity to the ways life is absorbed, interpreted, and transformed. It investigates moments in which emotional, and physiological experiences become inextricably entangled.
These are artists whose practices have developed alongside one another through exhibitions, friendships, and shared geographies. Blood Pressures emerged from an attempt to connect those conversations and recognize a common current running beneath otherwise distinct artistic languages.
Pressure is invisible until it is measured. There are unseen forces that nevertheless shape our human condition. Transduction is the process by which one form of energy is converted into another. Consider how external forces become internal realities. Anxiety becomes muscle tension. Grief settles into posture.
Pressure, however it might exist... is rarely experienced directly. It is sensed osmotically. It is indirectly interpreted, and transformed through perception, behavior, the body, the nervous system and the
subconscious.
- Leo & James
Liza Jo Eilers (b. 1993, St. Paul, MN) received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL in 2020. In 2024 she was the recipient of the Soho House Dreamers in Residence Grant and the Hopper Prize Grant. The artist's solo exhibitions include The Great American Songbook, GROVE, London (UK), 2024; Scorchers, with Andrew Ordonez, Roommate, Chicago, IL, 2024; Don’t blow on the soup., Material Room, Richmond, VA , 2023; GLORY’S, with Alessandra Norman, Yew Nork, Chicago, IL, 2023; The Care and Keeping of You, SULK CHICAGO, Chicago, IL, 2022; SLUDGE, Rainbo Club presented by M. LeBlanc, Chicago, IL, 2021; Good Friday, Bubblez Gallery, curated by Tyson Reeder & Lauren Sullivan, Chicago, IL, 2021; and Cheese Dust to Dust, curated by Breanne Trammell, (South) Eastern Pole, Fayetteville, AK, 2020.
Cameron Spratley (b. 1994, Manassas, VA) lives and works in Chicago. Spratley obtained his bachelor's degree in 2016 from Virginia Commonwealth University. He attended the Yale University at Norfolk residency, was the recipient of the Alice Cabell Horsley Parker Scholarship from Virginia Commonwealth University, and received a full tuition scholarship from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago where he is completing his MFA. Recent exhibitions of Spratley's work include Botanicá (2019) at Demon Leg in New York; Angel Dust (2019) at ADA Gallery in Richmond; and GHOSTBLOOD (2017) at Valet in Richmond, VA. In addition, this past year, Spratley collaborated with Monkey Paw Studios on the upcoming remake of Candyman, set in Chicago.
Paul Heyer (b. 1982, Chicago, IL) has had solo exhibitions at The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; Chapter NY, New York, NY; Mickey, Chicago, IL; and Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. His solo exhibition Chicago Works: Paul Heyer was on view in the spring of 2018 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL where he has participated in multiple group shows. Other recent group shows include Chapter NY, New York; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Perrotin Gallery, New York; MX Gallery, New York; Galería Agustina Ferreyra, Mexico City, MX; Park View Gallery, Los Angeles; HOME, Manchester, UK; and What Pipeline, Detroit, MI. His work belongs in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN. His work has been written about in Art Agenda, Artforum, the New York Times, and FlashArt, among others. He lives and works in Chicago.
Kira Scerbin (b. 1991, Cleveland, OH) lives and works in Chicago. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include GAPING HOLE LIVE (2025) at King’s Leap in New York; Caleb Jamel Brown & Kira Scerbin (2022) at Chapter in New York; Array (2021) at Final Hot Desert in White Pocket, AZ; Mommy’s Big Machine (2021) at Et. al. in San Francisco, CA; and Pot of Snot (2019) at Prairie in Chicago, IL. Select group exhibitions include those at Bradley Ertaskiran in Montréal, CA; King’s Leap in New York, NY; Pharmakon Gallery in Bucharest, RO; Sebastian Gladstone in Los Angeles, CA; Scherben in Berlin, DE; Hudson House in New York, NY; Harkawik in New York, NY; and Interstate Projects in Brooklyn, NY.
Manal Kara (b. 1986, Pennsylvania) is a Moroccan-American self-taught interdisciplinary artist based in Gary, IN. Their work has been exhibited extensively in Chicago and New York as well as in Istanbul, Vienna, and Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions include The Wild Thing Rides Again, Hair+Nails, Minneapolis (2024); Sacred Topologies, Deli Gallery, New York (2023); Hypothèses, Pangée, Montréal (2022); Conjectures, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles (2022); Xylem & Phlöem, No Place, Columbus (2021); The Viewing-Room vs. The Adoring-Gaze, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn (2020); Song of the Other Worm, Prairie, Chicago (2019); and Tearassin’ Like a Slug Outta Heaven, Basketshop, Cincinnati (2019). They have attended residencies at 8th House, Shandaken: Storm King, ACRE, Ox-Bow, September Spring at the Kesey Farm, and Project Freewill.
Eden Yono (b. 1981, Michigan) lives and works in Chicago, where she received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Yono’s work has been exhibited in galleries and institutions including Museo de Arte Transfemenino Mexico City; Rhona Hoffman Chicago; and No Place, Columbus, OH. Yono has also worked extensively with s+s project in Mexico City and has performed and exhibited at the Centro Cultural del México Contemporáneo.
CJ Shaw (b. 1998, Los Angeles, CA) lives and works in Chicago. He received his BFA from Columbia College Chicago, IL and recently had his first solo show, It was revealed to me on my walk at Weatherproof. Selected group exhibitions include Weatherproof in Chicago, IL; SULK CHICAGO in Chicago, IL; Night Club Gallery in St. Paul, MN; Pop Gun in New York, NY.
Neal Vandenbergh (b.1986, Harvey, IL) lives and works in Chicago, IL. He received his MFA from University of Illinois at Chicago in 2012. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Mickey Gallery, Chicago (2022); and Silke Lindner, New York, NY (2023). His work has been included in group shows at The Hole, NYC; Harper's, NYC; Massimo De Carlo, Milan; Good Mother, LA.
Noelia Towers (b.1992, Barcelona, Spain) is a Chicago based artist born and raised in Barcelona. Her subjects of choice display the power of intimacy, trust, and love with references to larger philosophical quandaries. Towers' brush strokes are a combination of representational and light impasto, creating a quality that refers to the stark digital nature of casual contemporary snapshots. The resulting paintings are unsettling portraits that relate to the artist’s own unique perspective. Towers has exhibited her work at de boer, Los Angeles, CA; Stems Gallery, Paris; Half Gallery, NY; Nino Mier Gallery, NY; Swivel Gallery, NY; Grove, London, UK; Woman Made Gallery and Public Works Gallery in Chicago, IL.
Leonardo Kaplan (b. 1985, Bogotá, Colombia) is an artist based in Chicago. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, with presentations at Specialist Gallery, Seattle; the Graham Foundation, Chicago; New Capital Projects, Chicago; Freies Museum, Berlin; No Place Gallery, Columbus, Ohio; Mickey, Chicago; and at the NADA Art Fair in both New York and Miami. Kaplan previously co-directed The Hills Esthetic Center and BOYFRIENDS, and in 2021 founded Special Feature, an exhibition space in Chicago dedicated to presenting emerging artists working across disciplines. He is currently presenting a solo exhibition, thirteen, at Mickey, Chicago, on view through August 2nd and is featured in City in a Garden at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.