Adler & Floyd (Chicago), The Back Room at Kim’s Corner Food (Chicago) and Diasporal Rhythms (Chicago).

The exhibition Kelly Kaczynski, Thomas Kong, Patric McCoy, and John Neff / Curated by John Neff, curated Jamie Stevens was initiated in August 2018 by Neff for Delmes & Zander at the invitation of curator Jamie Stevens and Okey Dokey. The show features works by Neff and three other Chicago-based artists: Kelly Kaczynski, Thomas Kong, and Patric McCoy. An experiment in collaboration, exchange, and practical problem solving in real time, the project will grow and change throughout its duration.

Kelly Kaczynski, working with her three-year-old daughter Serafin Kaczynski, is contributing a series of photographic diptychs titled This Knot, This (tandem) to the exhibition. Of making the project, she writes:

This was framed as a game. The photographs were taken over a period of two weeks in August and shot on Kodak and Fuji disposable cameras purchased at a convenience store. Three year old Serafin was prompted to photograph something she found interesting while her mother, Kelly, attempted to follow by taking a photograph of the child taking the photograph. The side by side view of the printed images call to mind point of view in regards to speed and scale inasmuch as intention. The photographs may be a record of subject interest but they are primarily a depiction of the desire (or necessity) to spend time together enacting the game. The series is a study of nearness, which is a study of distance. The series is displayed [at Adler & Floyd] in Chicago while a selection from the side of the diptychs taken by Serafin will travel as postcards to Cologne for exhibition.

Thomas Kong is an artist working in collage and assemblage, he crafts his woks from advertising, packaging and other surplus material from his convenience store, Kim's Corner Food, located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Kim's Corner Food features an evolving installation of Kong's work, and an experimental project space – The Back Room – is housed in the space.

Patric McCoy recently retired from a twenty-eight year career as an environmental scientist in the Air and Radiation Division of the U.S. EPA in Chicago. McCoy has been collecting contemporary African American art for forty-eight years, accumulating a collection of over 1300 works, ninety percent by Chicago artists. In 2003, McCoy co-founded Diasporal Rhythms, a not-for-profit arts organization of informed and passionate art collectors from Chicago’s African American communities. In the early 1980s, McCoy decided to teach himself 35mm black and white photography. Formalizing his self-education, he made a written commitment to: carry a camera with him at all times, make at least one photograph every day, and photograph everyone requesting a picture (allowing subjects to pose as they wished). McCoy processed and printed his images in a home darkroom, carrying copies of the pictures with him so that, on meeting subjects again, he could give each a copy of their portrait. Through this process, McCoy captured many images of the denizens of 1980s Black Chicago’s downtown social scene while commuting to and around the Loop’s hot spots.

In addition to bringing together the artists in the exhibition, and plotting the arrangement of their works in the gallery space, John Neff is presenting prints from his 2013 series of photographs of Thomas Kong’s store. As part of the exhibition, he is also creating a YouTube channel – Neon Kiefers – that will be updated throughout the duration of the exhibition.