Christina Warzecha

Crew Profile: Christina Warzecha

Year you began at The Block: November 2018.

Can you tell us a bit about your background? What should we know about you?

Christina Warzecha completed an MFA in Ceramics and a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Northern Illinois University (NIU) in 2016. She has completed artist residencies at Touchstone Center for Crafts and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. She has exhibited at such institutions as the Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center in Cincinnati, OH; the Hite Art Institute in Louisville, KY; and Gallery UNO in Berlin, Germany. Warzecha is the Gallery Manager at Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Center in Chicago.

Memorable experience preparing an exhibition at the Block? 

One of my favorite parts of working on installation teams is the ability the crew has to make any location a pleasant working environment. A few rooms from the historic Roycemore school building are on loan to the Block Museum by Northwestern University. These rooms provided a homey space to create exhibition furniture for the Block Museum’s Caravans of Gold exhibition. Lunch walks to the nearby lighthouse, afternoon tea breaks, and art theory discussions broke up the day. The scratchy sounds of NPR from an old stereo and the heat from the radiators created a comfortable working environment where we fabricated cases for objects on loan from around the world.

How does work as a museum preparator inform or influence your artistic practice? Or not?

Problem-solving within complex art installations and the attention to detail necessary to put together a successful exhibition shape how I build my work. Seeing museum exhibitions “behind the scenes” inspires and informs my artistic practice.

Where have you been finding inspiration at this time?

Because of the current health crisis, I have more time on my hands than usual, which may seem like a luxury, but I do not work well in the studio that way. I need deadlines and structure, so the current world of unraveling plans is not conducive to my studio practice. However, I am grateful to the Block Museum for this project which motivated me to reflect, create, and write.

What can you share with us about the work you created for this project?

For years I’ve thought about the linkages between my professional work in museums and my studio practice. I wanted to use this opportunity to expound on the crossover that occurs when I work within an art institution or in my studio.