CURRENT SHOW

Fev3r Dr3@m

A solo-exhibition from LaNia Sproles

Tooth & Nail Gallery is very excited to be showing a collection of drawings from artist LaNia Sproles November 8th through December 14th, 2025.

Join us for an opening reception Saturday, November 8th 6-9pm  at Tooth + Nail Gallery 2018 S 1st Street suite 308, Milwaukee.

Sproles lived and worked in Milwaukee until their recent relocation to Chicago. Through a queer and feminist lense, Sproles uses an expressive style to depict intimate and playfully subversive scenes. This collection includes some of their most recent drawings of carnal fantastical stories that are both mischievous and vulnerable. Portraits of themself, friends, and lovers often set in bedrooms makes the viewer feel that they have been given a rare private invitation to witness the softest and sharpest parts of Sproles investigation of self, race, sexuality, and power dynamics.

Statement from the artist

“This exhibition is an extension of the collective ways in which I perceive myself and loved ones to be. The scenarios that are constructed cast like spells that collect in my mind. Sometimes the intention behind each spell has no specific meaning other than to depict things and the people in my life how I experience them. My subjects are always shifting from salacious yet curious beings but always mischievous. Somehow I’m only able to concoct these images when I feel my lowest in my body. It’s at the bottom of these feelings where I feel closest to processing my reality unfiltered. The compositions I create all fall rhythmically with my crippling desire to constantly assess my environment.”

Until recently, LaNia Sproles (American, b. 1995) lived and worked in the segregated city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin where they also received a BFA from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2017. Now based in Chicago, their work spans several disciplines including: printmaking, drawing, and collage. The philosophies of self-perception, queer and feminist theories, and inherent racial dogmas are essential to the artist’s work. Sproles examines the works of feminist artists and writers such as Octavia Butler, Kara Walker, and Rebecca Morgan. In 2020, they completed their year as a 2019 Mary L. Nohl Fellow, continued as a teaching artist-in-residence at the Lynden Sculpture Garden, and guest curated an exhibition hosted by NADA art fair with The Green Gallery. Sproles has exhibited several artworks with Elijah Wheat Showroom hosted by David Zwirner’s online exhibition space, Platform, and with Goldfinch Gallery and FLXST Contemporary in Chicago.