Join us Friday, May 8, 2026 5:00-9:00 PM for the Opening Reception of LAB^4 Team 3's art exhibitions, featuring live performances by visual artist Leslie Iwai and local band wishing_well. The exhibitions feature the art of Aiden Caes, Nkechi Chibueze, Leslie Iwai, India Johnson, Tinuade Oyelowo, and Heidi Parks. This opening reception will be part of MMoCA’s Gallery Night Tour.
Opening Reception for LAB^4 Team 3 Exhibitions
Aiden Caes grew up making things, and has been sewing since elementary school. When not crafting, they are usually playing with or training their dogs, Roy and Linus.
Nkechi is a self taught Photographer in fascinated with bodies, emotion, humor, and love. She has focused her efforts on locating and amplifying her subjects’ spiritual light to show them visions of themselves that they might never see otherwise. Her present focus is on comedians and authors.
Leslie Iwai is an installation artist and sculptor who creates conceptual work informed by her education in mathematics, chemistry (Wayne State College, Nebraska) and architecture (MArch, Virginia Tech) She was the first recipient of the Bemis Community Arts Fellowship (2005) and most recently (2024) completed Cumulate, a 1% for Art public art project for the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Leslie was honored to be part of the Museum of Wisconsin Art’s Claiming Space: A New Century of Visionary Women (2021) and her artist residencies include AIR Serebe and Kimmel Harding Nelsen Center for the Arts. Leslie has taught in both academic and community settings in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, and New Mexico. She has been a contributing writer and artist for Image Journal and The Well (InterVarsity). Leslie enjoys living in Wisconsin with her husband where she creates art, collaborates, and connects with her community.
India Johnson (she/her) is a research-based artist working across craft, artist publishing, and social practice. She is half of Late Night Copies Press, and co-founded the Workshop for Independent Publishing in Minneapolis, MN.
Tinuade Oyelowo is a Nigerian American multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn whose practice moves across performance, installation, sculpture, and visual art. Rooted in the reclamation of the Black body, her work explores untold histories through the intersecting lenses of race, gender, political oppression, environmental decline, and class. Working from open ended questions, Oyelowo creates pieces that hold tension, memory, and transformation at once.
She earned a BFA in Theatre with an emphasis in Original Works from Cornish College of the Arts and later received an MFA from Brooklyn College’s PIMA Graduate Program.
Oyelowo has exhibited throughout New York at venues including Trestle Gallery, Clemente Soto Vélez Gallery, Art@Renaissance Gallery, Recession Art Gallery, 7 Dunham Gallery, and Brooklyn Open Studios. She was a 2015 Wassaic Project resident, installation residency at 5 Myles Gallery, and in 2022 presented digital work through the Roots Hotel... Read More
Before Heidi Parkes was born in Chicago, IL in 1982, her grandmother organized a collaborative family quilt to commemorate her birth. Now based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin her quilting and mending celebrate the hand, and her works explore the themes of diary, daily minutiae, manifesting, and cognitive reframing. Often using specific textiles, like an heirloom tablecloth, bed sheet, or cloth tea bag, Heidi adds subtle meaning and material memory from the start. Engaging in the worlds of art, quilts, mending, and social media, Heidi is an advocate for the domestic realms, slow stitching, and mindfulness. Find her on Instagram and YouTube. She has exhibited across the USA, in France, and in South Korea, and is a 2005 graduate from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.
Our galleries are open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.