Peyton Rack

Chicago, Illinois

My work explores the relationship between entropy and vacancy. I am drawn to the sensational quality of physically uninhabited and undefined spaces. The act of visually depicting these environments, combined with those of the subconscious, engages this duality.

I became fascinated with the post-industrial landscape when I moved to Chicago, and began incorporating the ethereal aesthetic of the abandoned sites into my paintings and collages. I have found that these once places of congregation, though empty, are saturated and glowing with residual energies of the past.

Peyton Rack (b. 1993, Virginia Beach, VA) received her B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including Supermarket 2014 held at the cultural center (Stockholm, Sweden), Zhou B Art Center, and Bridgeport Art Center (Chicago). She received the Nippon Steel Presidential Award presented by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal in 2014. In the Spring of 2018, a solo exhibition of her paintings and collages was held in Manhattan. Her work was selected for several more shows in New York, notably 440 Gallery in Brooklyn, and a juried exhibit at Demousy Contemporary on Long Island, in which she received an honorable mention. She was selected to speak at the Artists and Scholars Colloquium panel at Columbia College in 2019.