Susy Bielak seated inside Pueblo Unido Gallery beside blue and gold botanical paintings covering the storefront windows of Camas de Ceniza / Ash Beds.

Camas de Ceniza/Ash Beds (2026)

Pueblo Unido Gallery
6212 N. Clark Street, Chicago
June 27–October 1, 2026
Saturdays, 10 am–3 pm, and by appointment

Camas de Ceniza / Ash Beds moves between Lake Michigan and the volcanic terrain surrounding Popocatépetl and Paso de Cortés, tracing relationships among body and weather, breath and ash, erosion and maintenance, memory and place.

Born in Mexico City and based in Chicago, Susy Bielak brings into dialogue two landscapes that have shaped her life: the volcanic terrain surrounding Mexico City, where much of her family remains, and the shoreline of Lake Michigan, her daily horizon for the past thirteen years. Geological diagrams, bathymetric maps, hazard maps, retinal scans, and other scientific image systems become tools for thinking through accumulation, instability, and the traces left by environmental, political, and bodily experience.

Developed over three years through research, travel, fieldwork, and studio practice, the project grew through dialogue and collaboration with Mexico City–based artist Nuria Montiel. Later fieldwork at Paso de Cortés brought Bielak’s longtime collaborator Fred Schmalz into the conversation. Exchanges spanning the monitoring of Lake Michigan and records of Popocatépetl’s exhalations revealed unexpected correspondences between distant geographies and lived experience.

Bringing together paintings on amate paper, visual poems, suspended broom forms, volcanic ash, storefront paintings, needlefelt works, and photographs documenting temporary actions, Camas de Ceniza / Ash Beds considers how we orient ourselves within unstable environments—and how gestures of care, maintenance, and attention become ways of living with uncertainty.

Installation

Wide installation view of handmade broom forms and glass bottles of volcanic ash arranged across a white gallery wall, with a large amate painting at right.

Camas de Ceniza / Ash Beds, installation view, Pueblo Unido Gallery, Chicago, 2026.

Detail of a handmade broom made from dried reeds and a branching wooden handle above two glass bottles filled with gray volcanic ash.

Suspended broom forms and volcanic ash, detail.

Susy Bielak stands with her back to the camera and arms extended before a wall of handmade broom forms and bottles of volcanic ash.

Susy Bielak with suspended broom forms and volcanic ash, installation view.

Paintings on amate

Large vertical painting on amate paper with layered fields of dark blue, green, gray, white, and yellow suggesting mapped terrain and flowing water.

Drift, 2026. Acrylic on amate paper, 95 x 47 inches

Large horizontal painting on amate paper combining a black volcanic silhouette with fine bathymetric and linework from a scientific drawing of the retina.

Accumulations, 2026. Acrylic on amate paper, 95 x 47 inches

Corner installation view combining a large vertical amate painting, smaller works on paper, handmade broom forms, and bottles of volcanic ash.

Paintings on amate paper, visual poems, broom forms, and volcanic ash, installation view.

Visual Poems

The visual poems weave together text, scientific image systems, medical language, weather reports, and personal observation as overlapping forms of record.

Visual poem titled Accumulations combining curved autobiographical text with language drawn from weather reports, medical imaging, smoke monitoring, and vision tests.

Accumulations, 2026. Visual poem, 36 × 45 inches.

Visual poem titled Interference formatted as a table with columns for ash, section drawings, exhalation counts, the body, and the city.

Interference, 2026. Visual poem, 36 × 45 inches.Visual poem titled Interference formatted as a table with columns for ash, section drawings, exhalation counts, the body, and the city.

Field Actions

A series of temporary actions, photographs, and observations developed during fieldwork in the volcanic landscape surrounding Popocatépetl.

Two figures in blue work garments sweep volcanic ash across an open landscape beneath Popocatépetl.

Maintenance for Impossible Weather I, 2026. Photograph.

Correspondence I, 2026. Photograph.

Storefront painting

Bielak and Montiel painted the gallery storefront together, extending the exhibition into the street and surrounding neighborhood,

Close view of blue, gold, cream, and lavender botanical forms painted directly onto the gallery storefront glass, with Clark Street visible beyond.

Storefront painting by Susy Bielak and Nuria Montiel, detail.

Credits

Camas de Ceniza / Ash Beds
Susy Bielak with Nuria Montiel

Curated by Abigail Winograd

Presented by Pueblo Unido Gallery, with support from Isabella Aguilar and Peter Fitzpatrick, and research support from Lake Forest College

Works by Susy Bielak
Paintings on amate paper, visual poems, suspended broom installation, storefront paintings, and photographs

Collaborative contributions
Storefront painting by Susy Bielak and Nuria Montiel
Needlefelt works by Montiel
Fieldwork/photographs at Paso de Cortés with Montiel and Fred Schmalz

Essay by Abigail Winograd
English–Spanish translation by Kenya Dworkin and Laura Martínez Terrazas

Exhibition photography by Chris Evans

Resources

Exhibition Essay (PDF)

Exhibition Checklist (PDF)

Press, interviews, gallery visits, images and inquiries
susybielak@gmail.com