"I've seen Avocado trees weighed down with so many fruit that some ripen right on the ground.   The whole tree is pulled taut by its harvest and when it rains branches break.  It's not stressful, it feels full and healthy and right.  I've seen whole banana trees fold in half under the weight of their own crop. The heart of a banana tree is like a bunch of paper straws filled with liquid and it kinks and bends easily unless you prop it up with something.  It doesn't matter what it is. People make supports out of scraps of 2x4, broom sticks or old folding chairs. Inevitably, the thing that is used to prop up the tree, begins to feel alive.  After the hummingbirds have come and the bananas have ripened and gone, people regularly leave the prop against the tree.  It acknowledges both an expired event and an inevitable future. Often, so much depends on so little".

Alex Chitty, born in 1979 in Miami, is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago.

In Slight Pitch, Chitty's work relies on specific points of tension. Entire surfaces are held in place by those points.  It's simple to imagine a piece dissolving right there in front of you.  You can basically take apart the whole thing in your head.  Once you trace out the steps and resolve the completed picture in your mind, the softest shift could cause the whole thing to slip apart.

While her portfolio ranges from photographic prints to sculpture, her current practice invites viewers to question both the materiality and presentation of an object. Chitty received a Bachelor of Fine Art from Smith College (MA) and a Master in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she is a professor in the Sculpture and Printmedia departments. This year she had a solo shows at Patron Gallery and at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. In 2015 she exposed at Shane Campbell Gallery in Chicago.