Opening in the newly renovated Montserrat Gallery is the first regional solo exhibition by the Bronx-based artist, Wells Chandler. Chandler uses vernacular and so-called “craft” materials, such as patchwork, crochet, clay, cake, and other media to build queer communities alongside and with others. Highlighting Chandler’s extensive drawing practice, Psychedelic Soccer Dada is an immersive experience featuring the artist’s iconic crocheted drawings of whimsical yarn figures and objects, patchwork bean bag chairs, drawings made in collaboration with the artist’s friends and students, as well as selections from Chandler’s extensive collection of drawings made by neurodiverse artists. In the exhibition, Chandler engages with histories of art that celebrate, rather than exclude, diversity and queerness as its dominant language.

Wells Chandler is a Bronx based artist who explores ecology, community, gender and queer iconography through the mediums of crochet, embroidery, drawing and cake. He received his MFA from Yale University in 2011 where he was awarded the Ralph Mayer Prize for proficiency in materials and techniques. From 2016-17 he was a recipient of the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program. Recent solo exhibitions include Galerie Eric Mouchet (Brussels, Belgium), Andrew Rafacz (Chicago, IL), Diablo Rosso (Panama City, Panama), and Galerie Eric Mouchet (Paris, France). Recent group exhibitions include International Objects (Brooklyn, NY), Goldfinch Gallery (Chicago, IL), and Helena Anrather (New York, NY). His work has been reviewed by Roxane Gay, Art Forum, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Hyperallergic, The Huffington Post, TimeOut, Modern Painters, and Two Coats of Paint. Chandler is a Soloway gallery member. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor at SUNY Purchase where he has taught for four years. In the Spring of 2023, Chandler was appointed the Teiger Mentor in the Arts at Cornell.