Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni. ✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
Mexico City's VICO is a video project that conducts workshops and seminars that encourage the exploration of experimental cinema and film. For the first time in Chicago, VICO recently presented Counter-montages, Tinkering subjectivity, which included a collection of short films made from students in a workshop led by Javier Toscano. The program, co-presented by Little House and Comfort Film, featured 11 shorts from creators who were not traditional artists, or who did not consider themselves artists whatsoever.
The films shown were a collection of appropriated images, youtube videos, and political context that spanned Mexican culture and a digital realm. My Sweet 15 by Dulce Rosas presented a series of young women attending and performing at their quinceañera. By tradition, the women are adorned with extravagant dresses, jewelry and makeup for their 15th birthday celebration. In Rosas' short, the artist appropriated shots of girls dancing, celebrating and prepping themselves for the soon-to-be party. The beginning of the film focused on a baby girl who was crying and cradled; she represented the future character, or characters, at the quinceañera. The short film prodded at the honor, as several clips featured girls awkwardly dancing with dolls, or posing next to expensive cars. At first glance, it looks like an all-American teenage prom.
Sentir, Tocar (To Feel, To Touch) by Carlos Cruz y Grisel Castro, 2012.
VOA Associates, Inc., will be designing the Pullman Artspace in the historic Pullman neighborhood, which will include 45 affordable live/work apartments, as well classrooms, an exhibition space, and workshops. Artspace Project Inc., has its headquarters in Minneapolis and offices in Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Seattle and Washington DC.
By designing a creative space, VOA Associates hopes to achieve a sense of honor for the historical "character of Pullman's landmark community" and welcome those who are interested in a creative weaving within the public sphere.
Overall, 20 architecture firms submitted and 10 semi-finalists were chosen. The three finalists for the competition were each awarded $10,000 to finalize their concept and VOA Associates was selected as the winner. The Pullman Artspace strives to preserve Pullman as a leading arts neighborhood with an immersive creative hub for its residents.
I've only been in the Hancock Tower once and I never thought it would be to visit an art gallery, but hey, there's a first for everything. Amused, I found myself inside the swarm of tourists and photographers who posed and smiled near a colossal sculpture that hung low from the ceiling in the lobby. In order to enter the space, I had to stop at the security desk where my driver's license was scanned and I was handed a slip with a barcode that granted me access through a futuristic gate. Once the door swung open I entered the elevator, free at last to look at art. I felt underdressed and out of place as I tiptoed quite dramatically to the glass doors of the Richard Gray Gallery.
Founded in the 1960s, the gallery has been a prominent and important creative hub for artists at both locations in Chicago and New York. The gallery is "collector orientated" and focuses on the importance of fine art, authenticity, and quality. Magdalena Abakanowicz, Jan Tichy, and Jaume Plensa, are some examples of artists who are represented by the Richard Gray Gallery.
Installation Image, courtesy of Richard Gray Gallery
The newest exhibition, Body Building, which opened July 6, is located down the hall from the main gallery room, which features works by Susan Rothenberg and David Hockney. Body Building, curated by Gan Uyeda and Raven Munsell, presents works from the 1900s until present day and focus on the relationship between the physical human form and the way that it is viewed through an architectural lens. The works in the exhibition date from 1917 to 2012, and display a variety of mediums and materials, such as wax, ink, wool, crayon, and collage.
While the plot, setting, and characters are pure Chicago, this isn't the Chicago of sitcoms and rom-coms; it's the Chicago of immigrants and their children, their communities, and their ...superpowers. In The Real Life Adventures, a 13-year-old Mexican-American boy living in Pilsen and Little Village spends his days playing baseball, helping his abuela with her elote cart, and hiding the fact that he has telekinetic powers. When his mother, an undocumented factory worker, mysteriously disappears, Jimmy is determined to find her. With the help of two "pirates," he finds himself facing a pack of mutant Chihuahuas and a ruthless sweatshop owner in a high-stakes battle to reclaim the streets of his neighborhood.
The newest exhibit at the National Museum of Mexican Art entitled Deportable Aliens will feature work from the Chicago-based artist, Rodrigo Lara. Opening July 24, the show will include site-specific installations that survey politics, immigration and social justice. The work largely depicts the Mexican Repatriation of the 1930s and the relocation of individuals in the U.S. who were of Mexican descent.
Deportable Aliens will open Friday, July 24, with a reception from 6-8pm and will be on view through February 28, 2016, in the Kraft Gallery.
Face painting, speeches, musical performances, crafts and other all-American activities are on the agenda for the Fourth of July celebration at the Chicago History Museum from 10am to noon Saturday.
Afternoon events at the History Museum will include a premiere of the film The Great Chicago Adventure in the renovated Robert R. McCormick Theater. Visitors can explore a wall-to-wall map of Chicago and other interactive art pieces in the grand opening of the Guild Gallery. President Gary T. Johnson said in a press release. "We couldn't pick a better day to showcase these fantastic new experiences that celebrate Chicago's place in American history."
Any day now, Mes Aynak, one of the world's most significant archeological sites, might be destroyed. Its historical and cultural riches, thought to be on par with the discoveries of Pompeii, will be forever lost. Its story--and the story of the men working tirelessly to save it--is the subject of Director Brent Huffman's Saving Mes Aynak.
Huffman, a faculty member in Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism and a documentary filmmaker, is working with Chicago's Kartemquin Films to produce Saving Mes Aynak.
The site sits within the Taliban-controlled Logar Province of Afghanistan, atop an enormous, untapped copper reserve with an estimated worth of $10 billion dollars. It's that copper reserve, and not the Taliban, that poses the chief threat to its continued existence. In 2007, MCC, a state-owned Chinese mining company, struck a deal with the cash-strapped Afghan government to harvest the site's reserves for $3 billion, with little oversight and no environmental regulation. Since 2011, a small team of Afghan archeologists have been excavating the area, unearthing finds of immense cultural significance, but a complete excavation could take 30 to 40 years, and mining is slated to begin in less than a year.
The Zhou B Art Center and the Ed Paschke Art Center are coming together to create a traveling exhibition, for both you and the artists. "Journey to Art" will be a community-coordinated event where Chicagoans are invited to attend the collaboration between both venues from June 19-21.The friendship of the Zhou Brothers and Ed Paschke is being celebrated and honored during the ongoing exhibitions at both locations.
By creating a sort of trade, or swap if you will, the Zhou Brothers will present their work at Jefferson Park's Ed Paschke Art Center, and the late Paschke's work will be in Bridgeport at the Zhou B Art Center. In addition to gallery spaces, the Zhou Brothers will be featuring their sculptural work at Jefferson Park for a family day event.
The work of DOES, a renowned Dutch graffiti artist, will be on exhibit from June 13 through July 31 at the Maxwell-Colette Gallery in Noble Square. The exhibit, titled Transition, will feature recent mixed media paintings on canvas, including large-scale work up to 18 feet in length. This is the artist's first solo show in Chicago.
Letterforms are DOES' passion, according to gallery director Oliver Hild. Transition will show text-based paintings where "words are visually imploded and reconstituted as aggregations of disarticulated, smoldering letterforms," but will also show work where DOES explores new ground visually and conceptually.
ACRE, an artist residency and exhibition space, and Ordinary Projects, are presenting the artist Noelle Garcia, in her installment, LÁLDISH, as a 2014 ACRE summer resident. The exhibit opened last weekend at Mana Contemporary (2233 S. Throop, 5th floor).
The exhibition includes an exploration of parental connection, her father's history, documents, and Native American lineage. "My father died at age 64. Convicted of murder at the age of 25 (while intoxicated) my father spent the majority of his life in prison", explains Garcia in her statement concerning the specific project. A string of emails exploring her fathers life and official records allow Garcia to create a connection between her and her estranged father.
Milwaukee-based artist, Sonja Thomsen, will be featuring her photographs, sculptures, and installations that focus on the quality of light at the DePaul Art Museum opening today. By utilizing the weightlessness in contrast with dimensionality, Thomsen visually examines the tension between color and light.
Thomsen stated in an interview with Columbia College Chicago Photography Department's Jennifer Keats, that she was a "...student of science. That language is something I'm drawn to in a poetic way, where knowledge is always in a state of becoming. I'm interested in the synergy that happens in the studio as catalyst for new understandings, never quite satisfied with conclusions that may eventually be disproved." She continues by explaining her influences, "How do we locate ourselves in the world? A multiplicity of ways, an always a shifting matrix, never a fixed point. I see each of my photographs and installations as a way to measure that locale, a way to assess the space between the mountain, the self and the light. My goal as an artist is to construct an authentic experience in which to recalibrate our perceptions..."
Chicago Dancemakers Forum and High Concept Labs are joining together to present a full day of events on Saturday, May 9, for panel discussions and rehearsals, which focus on contemporary dance and dramaturgical processes.
The free event invites creators, artists, dramaturges, performers, students and the greater Chicago community to engage in the conversations and dialogue concerning the practice and theory of movement and the body.
amfm, a Chicago-based arts, music and fashion web portal, will present their first art exhibition, Can I See Your ID?, at Cultura gallery, 1900 S. Carpenter St., during the Pilsen Second Friday art walk May 8.
When someone asks to "see your ID," you're being asked to expose the basics -- a photograph that fashions last year's hair color, a height that doesn't matter, and a hazel eye color that changes with the seasons. Is this how you want to be perceived? Is your ID a reflection of who you are as an individual? By approaching someone entering a bar and saying, "Can I see your ID?" the bouncer is asking, "Who are you?" -- a question that is summed up by glancing at our choice of ID. amfm has asked several artists to feature a facet of themselves in the exhibition that they would like to explore, erase or simply present.
Local artists will be presenting and featuring their true and authentic identities in the amfm exhibition. Societal labels, struggles, talents, and all things encompassing the "self" will be featured by the selected four creatives, Sam Kirk, Barrett Keithley, Madhuri Shukla and Chantala Kommanivanh.
amfm was initially created as a college thesis in 2009 by founder Ciera McKissick but has since moved to an online publication. The collective serves as a hub for artists, makers, thinkers and doers who want to expand and share their stories.
The exhibition will be open May 8 from 6 to 10pm during the Chicago Arts District 2nd Friday Gallery Night in Pilsen.
Archibald Motley Jr. was not your average African-American male in 1914. The man who became a world-renowned artist and contributor to the Harlem Renaissance was the son of a Pullman porter and the daughter of a former slave. But in 1914, he became a painting student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and studied there for four years. The rest, as they say, is history.
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Motley, known for the paintings that chronicled African-American urban life in the 1920s and '30s, was born in New Orleans and raised in the Englewood community, which was then a predominantly Irish-German-Swedish neighborhood. He socialized in Bronzeville and its vibrant cultural life inspired many of his paintings. He also spent time in Paris in 1929-30 on a Guggenheim Fellowship and in Mexico in the 1950s with his nephew, Willard Motley. (Author of novels including Knock on Any Door and Let No Man Write My Epitaph, Willard Motley was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame in 2014.)
Last year, the Chicago Loop Alliance invited the public to interact and experience the alleyways of downtown Chicago. Bringing interactive artists such as Luftwerk, and hosting a party-like atmosphere, the Loop was transformed into a pop-up urban experience. Beginning May 15, the CLA will be hosting six nights of ACTIVATE one night each month until October.
Nearly $400,000 was produced for local Loop businesses in the first seven ACTIVATE events from 2013-2014 and more than 14,000 attended the event during the series. The series will be continued this year from May until October with new artists, music, and culture, which were carefully curated for the public.
If you're itching for a packed day of art, events, exhibitions and ceremonies, then the Hyde Park Art Center will tend to your creative needs this Sunday, April 19. Being the first space to exhibit the work of the Hairy Who artists in the early 1960s and currently housing a flourishing residency, several galleries and ongoing events, the HPAC is a hotbed for Hyde Park artists and locals.
The spring exhibition receptions include several openings and closings that feature resident artist, Susan Giles, solo artist Nancy Lu Rosenheim, HPAC students Charles Heppner and Diane Jaderberg, filmmaker Melika Bass, and ArtShop. The receptions will take place from 3 to 5pm Sunday and will include three new exhibitions in addition to ongoing exhibitions that are coming to a close.
When I read that the post-rock, Icelandic band Sigur Rós commissioned Melika Bass to direct and produce a music video for their composition, "Varðeldur," I wasn't terribly surprised. Bass' archetypical characters and magical components cohere with the subliminal sound that is the framework of Sigur Rós. The ethereal and red-headed character for "Varðeldur" appears as another one of Bass' character studies. In her current solo exhibition at the Hyde Park Art Center in the Kanter McCormick Gallery, Bass presents a reoccurring character, as well as two male characters, who share similar professions but all live different lives.
The Latest Sun is Sinking Fast introduces familiar faces (if you're a Bass fan) and continues and expands on the past and present. The characters connect visually, thematically, professionally, and fictionally, throughout the installation-based exhibition at the HPAC. Archaic and modern, the characters crawl through bushes, bath in public restrooms, listen to sermons on an iPhone and work in their tool shed.
Great Lakes Tattoo will be hosting the first ever Midwest solo exhibition of New York City tattooer and visual artist, Thom DeVita. The exhibition, American Folk Art$, will open Thursday, March 19, and will be on view until March 22. Additionally, the artist will exhibit at the Chicago Tattoo Arts Convention March 20-21.
Thom Devita is an 82-year-old prolific artist whose career spans 50 years. Bridging the gap between his personal style and "old school" biker tattoos, DeVita was, and remains, an important figure in the tattooing community. Working illegally in New York City during the mid '60s and '70s, DeVita began paving his own way into the art community and created a unique aesthetic.
DeVita has focused on his pen-and-ink drawings and 3D works since 2003. Reminiscent of his years as a tattoo artist, DeVita creates loose and textured pieces that are an "iconographic style of American tattooing." The Harlem-born artist will present his work at Great Lakes Tattoo, 1148 W. Grand Ave., March 19-22. The Chicago Tattoo Arts Convention will feature several of his pieces March 20-21 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, 9300 Bryn Mawr Ave. in Rosemont.
The new Evanston gallery, Sidetracked Studio, will host its first exhibition curated by Michele Mahon Jahelka Saturday from 6 to 9pm. The artist couple, Lauren Levato Coyne and Rory Coyne, work upstairs in the studio producing their own work, while the showroom on the first floor presents rotating exhibitions.
The all-female exhibition, What Did She Say? , will present works that span the spectrum from oil to wood and printmaking to drawing. Each artist brings forth a dialogue for perspective and communication through a variety of mediums. Jahelka urges viewers to "Stop and listen" when entering the exhibition space and derive meaningful contexts within the gallery and with the individual works.
The exhibition will be on view until May 10. The studio and gallery space is located at 707 Chicago Ave., Evanston. Gallery hours are noon to 6pm Wednesday through Saturday.
I'll have to admit, I'm a little -- okay more than a little -- immersed in the online archive, Inside/Within. I won't go into specifics about how sleek their website is, or how they sometimes incorporate .gifs into interview segments, but I will go into how important I think studio visits are for eager fan-folk (like myself) and how, similarly, they are beneficial for the artists themselves. In a nutshell, Inside/Within is an online archive that visits, absorbs and features Chicago artists in their creative spaces. Exposing an artist's creative space allows for other artists, or interested peers, to gain insight into what goes on behind the scenes. The website has a pretty large collection of captivating interviews and close-ups of studio practice. For both reader and artist, the process enables creative growth and the ability to share ideas and artistic practice.
So, of course, excitement and dedication forced me outside into the fresh snow and black ice when I heard that VIA Publication and Inside/Within were hosting an event at Threewalls called "I Like Your Work."
Underground Unseen is the first exhibition of 2015 for FLATS Studio, a gallery space located in Uptown. FLATS strives to "develop, enhance, and engage" their neighborhood community by channeling the arts and representing Chicago creatives. The studios provide housing for residents who apply, as well as gallery spaces and exhibition venues.
On Feb. 20, FLATS will be hosting Underground Unseen from 6 to 10pm at 1050 W. Wilson Ave. The night consists of visual arts, performance, and sound, as well as the launch of the magazine publication, VAM, a new production which focuses and celebrates emerging artists in the Chicago area. The exhibition will feature photographer Todd Diederich, video artist Mikhail Khokhlov, textile artist Kristi O'Meara, street artist Ali6, and Allison Van Pelt. Additionally, Owen Bones will be DJing for the night and Antibody Corp will be performing at 8pm.
Koval Distillery and Lakeshore Beverages will be serving drinks for free throughout the night. Although there is no charge to enter the gallery, they do ask that attendees RSVP to rsvp@flatschicago.com with the number of guests attending.
"Pushing the paint around -- it's always in an attempt to get at something: something true, powerful, good. Paint is pure, innocent...it holds the potential to become an image that captures a facet of the elusiveness that is one's experience of being alive. In this way, the practice of art-making honors both the love and the suffering by keeping a record while always remaining vulnerable," states Rebecca George, founder of The Art House, a studio workshop and gallery based in Chicago.
The Art House, located at 3453 N. Albany, offers artist residencies, innovative coursework, advanced support for artist's professional practice, and above all, an environment to flourish as a creative individual. The studio/gallery offers instructional courses for the development of personal momentum and a meaningful connection to one's work while expanding and strengthening the technical language of material and method.
Calling all plant lovers and plant parents! (Provisional) Park would like you to place your plants on temporary loan for a project in Bridgeport.
(Provisional) Park will be a temporary indoor park made up entirely of your wonderful green and tropical houseplants, located inside of Co-Prosperity Sphere at 3219-21 S. Morgan St. The project was created by artist Allyson Packer, who graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with a BFA in 2009. The park will free and open to the public March 6-April 3 between 6am and 11pm.
If you would like to lend your plant to Packer for the duration of the park, email provisionalpark@gmail.com to schedule a pick-up or feel free to bring your plants to Co-Prosperity Sphere between 10am and 5pm on Sunday, March 1. Have no fear, your plants will be returned in April once the project is completed!
Lands End, a new exhibition at University of Chicago's Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts curated by Zachary Cahill and Katherine Harvath, focuses on physical boundaries, the human psyche, and a revitalized concept of landscape. The notion of a "beginning" or a boundary of "separation" is displayed in the videography, auditory, painterly, and interactive work by 13 multidisciplinary artists represented in the exhibition.
Located in the midst of Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park, Heaven Gallery is exhibiting the work of Shawn Creeden, Marshall Elliott, and Rachael Starbuck. Heaven, a contemporary art gallery which serves as an exquisite, yet affordable, Vintage Shop during the day, features musicians and visual artists throughout the year. The current exhibition, Mend Thine Every Flaw, is in partnership with Artists' Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions (ACRE), a non-profit which offers artists an open platform for discussion, support, and development for their visual practice. The artists featured in the current exhibition at Heaven Gallery are the summer of 2013 artists in residence at ACRE.
The three artists exhibited in the two gallery spaces in Heaven (plus the tiny room on the left, don't miss it!) are focused on video, experimental painting, performance, and sculptural techniques. The works are cohesive in terms of craft and attention; embroidered pieces hang on the walls, a rock is created from pulp, resin and plaster, and a tractor pulls several canvases through mud and muck. Each individual artist in the exhibition features work that invites patience, intimacy and understanding, in conjunction with visual manipulation.
Adam Szymczyk is curating documenta 14, which is one of the known as the world's most significant art exhibitions. Northwestern will be hosting Adam for his first US discussion about his vision and curation of documenta 14.
Documenta 14 is a contemporary art exhibition which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. During this talk, the Polish-born curator and the visiting professor, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, will be discussing the "best frequented contemporary art exhibition." 2012 documenta artistic director Edith Kreeger Wolf will also be joining the talk for her input and background with the show. documenta has shown works from major movements such as Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, the Blaue Reiter and Futurism.
The event is free and open to the public. The conversation will be held in the McCormick Auditorium at the Norris University Center., 1999 Campus Dr. in Evanston.
Flats is a Chicago-based company that curates live-in spaces for those with character, authentic taste and design. The rent for FLATS is affordable and the spaces are exquisite. In addition to apartments, FLATSstudio is the sister to the housing unit -- the exhibition aspect that displays artists and creatives in the Chicago area in the Uptown neighborhood.
Last Friday, FLATSstudio exhibited its first formal show, titled Gravity. Ethereal forces and otherworldly shapes filled the space, located in a beautifully adorned and decorated building on Wilson Avenue. The opening reception featured nine artists ranging from painting, photography, and installations. Movable walls throughout the large gallery featured liquid mixtures of blood and water by Jen Lewis which were eloquently placed alongside Edward Muela's two pieces which featured a deteriorating clay baby in a clear container.
The show glowed with hues of pink, red and green. All of the pieces reflected and aided one another to create a cohesive and successful collection of works by Chicago artists.
In addition to the hues, Gravity displayed two floor-to-ceiling pieces that spread out like a red carpet (although black and white in shade) across the space. The connections between all of the artists and artworks displayed a strong sense of an ubiquitous force or impression of emotion.
Thoroughly impressed, visitors mingled, sipping on delicious cocktails from Koval Distillery and listening to a DJ set throughout the night. The show will run through Oct. 10 and may be viewed by appointment only. The FLATSstudio gallery is located on 1050 W. Wilson Ave. Contact (855) 443-5287 for appointments and other questions.
This summer, the Chicago Park District and Chicago Sculpture International, commissioned artists based in the area to create artwork made out of dying trees. Either due to Emerald Ash Borer or various other tree diseases, these trees were transformed into sculptural pieces of art by selected artists around the Chicago area. Overall, a selection of 10 artists were made and each creative was given a tree to work over and embellish. The artists selected for this project are, Mia Capodilupo, Ron Gard, Kara James, Karl and Indira Johnson, Margot McMahon, Nicolette Ross, Marc Schneider, Vivian Visser, Taylor Wallace and Cheryl Williams.
The vibrant sculptures bring back to life the once sick and dying trees. In addition to this, the public art in conjunction with nature brings forth a beautiful display of creative work throughout the city of Chicago. The project was organized by Chicago Sculpture International which is a group of artists who promote sculpture as an important aspect to our communities and surroundings.
Learn more about the project and their locations by watching the video below and liking the Chicago Sculpture International Facebook page. Here is a map of the tree locations around the parks in the city.
LVL3, the crowd-pleasing alternative gallery space located in the heart of Wicker Park, had its opening reception last night for the exhibition, Two Rocks Do Not Make a Duck. Milano Chow, Sofia Leiby and Malin Gabriella Nordin are the three artists featured in the group show which exhibit detailed drawings, black and white collage and graffiti covered canvases. Typically, LVL3 hosts conceptual artists that spread out onto the floor, their paintings made up of duct tape and crayons or oddly shaped installations that involve teddy bears. Still conceptual, this show appears to be more tame. This is not to be taken the wrong way--this exhibit is absolutely a breath of fresh air, something viewers haven't seen at LVL3 recently.
Milano Chow, an artist residing in LA, creates large drawings of domesticated settings set through the window pane of a house or a structure. These classical drawings are so precise and so soft that one must take a moment to truly become aware if they are drawings, photographs or digital depictions.
The Peanut Gallery, a small creative space in Humboldt Park, is featuring the artist Derek Weber until May 18 for his exhibition entitled Melting. Weber's work is all-encompassing -- ranging from drawings, video, installation and sound. The exhibition at the Peanut Gallery focuses on the natural world, sensory elements and psychedelia within the work of Weber's various mediums.
Upon entering the space, there is an overhead projector which shoots a surreal and unearthly image onto a white wall, while on the other side a more familiar scene is being displayed -- swimming at Devil's Lake. Throughout the exhibition, familiar, yet hypnagogic images can be examined by the viewer.
Derek Weber's interest in all mediums is something that creates a sensory successful exhibition. He includes CDs, pins, photographs and interactive black lights while walking through Melting.
The Peanut Gallery is free and open to the public. It is located at 1000 N. California Ave.
The Hyde Park Art Center, located at 5020 S Cornell Ave, is a wonderful addition to the Hyde Park neighborhood. The center holds exhibitions as well as artist residencies and classes for adults and children. While walking from the Bridgeport Coffee shop to the opposite side of the center, one cannot help but notice the new and alluring photography exhibition that the art center has recently installed. Typically, their is a large exhibition space which holds artwork, however, this presentation is located in a pathway and smaller gallery space--a perfect chance for us to take in the work of Ross Sawyers, a professor at Columbia College whose project beautifully documents "the rise and fall of the United States housing market."
At first glimpse, these images are abstract, surreal even. In almost every photograph, their is a glowing light drawing the viewer in, however, the light is too bright to fully contemplate what is there. Upon reading further into the images, one can conclude that Sawyers' work is focusing on the abandonment, manipulation and destruction of the housing market in the U.S. Traveling from the beginning to the exhibition until the end, the viewer is able to see the deconstruction of something that so familiar to all of us. In the beginning of his series, he depicts a closed space--claustrophobic and quiet--and by the end the image are torn and and tattered, yet beautiful and exposed.
The exhibition, Model Pictures, will have its opening reception Sunday, April 13 from 3 to 5pm. A gallery talk is also occurring on Wednesday, April 30 at 6pm.
Hyde Park art center is free and located at 5020 S. Cornell Ave. For more information call 773-324-5520
Are you intrigued by anatomy and art? Are you interested in (literally) looking inside of yourself? This spring, UChicago Arts will be hosting a multi-venue exhibition entitled Imaging/Imagining that incorporates both the artistic and the scientific history of the body.
This exhibition will be held in various locations across the campus, including the Special Collections Research Center (The Body as Text), the Smart Museum (The Body In Art) and the Crerar Library (The Body as Data). Each space will introduce the history of anatomy in a specialized and organized category. The Body as Text explores the history of medical illustration as well as when the partnership of art and science were separated due to the invention of the x-ray. The Body as Data focuses on modern anatomy and the introduction of computers. The exhibition at the Smart Museum, The Body as Art, focuses on the subjective imagination within the medical illustrations that were once incredibly important for anatomists.
The Chicago Arts District in East Pilsen opens its galleries, artists studios and neighborhood shops for local people every second Friday of the month.
Last night, Rooms, a performance space, had its final performance from an ongoing series entitled, RITUAL NO. 10:WAVES. The ritual included two male performers--one was seated and one was pouring water from one bucket to the other. The seated man beat a steady dream-beat while the standing performer transitioned from a platform to the wooden floor. As pictured above, the individual poured water from one bucket to another for three steady hours.
The weather, warming up slightly this week, urged a substantial amount of Chicago makers, gallery goers and visual arts lovers, to the Flat Iron Arts Building last night. I, finally wearing something that wasn't reminiscent of a Christmas Story, trekked out to Wicker Park for the open studios, refreshments and socializing. This was my first time "First Fridays" at Wicker Park; I usually frequent Pilsen for "Second Fridays," instead. However, I am a fan of the area and decided to wander down for a peek at how they run things down at the Flat Iron Building.
Encircling the Logan Center walls and spreading out like a scroll are the six large projections by the cinematographer and photographer, Yang Fudong. The exhibition, both a film and installation, is titled East of the Que Village, and features a rural area where Fudong grew up.
Upon entering the gallery space, I was struck by black and white film projections on each wall. As I stood in the middle, slowly circling my body to face each screen, I noticed people, rural locations, isolation and most importantly, wild dogs. Lots and lots of ravenous and skeletal dogs--fighting over meat, sanity and space.
As I rotated my body to face each of the projections, I continued to glance back at the dogs. I can't remember if it was their loud growls and bellows that attracted me or their savage existence to simply survive, however, my interest was incredibly sparked for further observation. Once I watched the film for a great amount of time, I began to connect the story between the separate screens. The stray dogs and the humans are all tied together into one, creating a pseudo-documentary which is united because of one young crippled dog.
The East of the Que Village exhibition will be up until to Sunday, March 30 at the Logan Center which is located at 915 E. 60th St. Yang Fudong's film is a documentation of his memories and time spent in his hometown. The dogs were pre-ordered, the locations scouted, but the environment and individuals are very real. Check out more Logan Center events/news on their Facebook and Tumblr page.
Okay, okay. So it already started last night. But if you're only going to make it to one art event this weekend, check out Vision Quest 2013.
Held at Mana Contemporary in East Pilsen near the river, Vision Quest is a three-day post-internet [IRL] translation of the dinca.org blog experience, featuring a handful of screenings and live A/V performances that travel the niches of internet art, computer art, new and experimental media, video art, avant-garde film and video, documentary and ethnographic cinema.
Hatch Projects was just nominated by Newcity as the "Best Opportunity for Emerging Artists" because of the impressive critical infrastructure the Chicago Artists Coalition has built around the studios it houses to support its resident artists' practices and careers. It promises regular contact with curators, critics, collectors and arts administrators... even a solo exhibition for each member. To see what has come of it, head over to the CAC in the West Loop tonight for Twelve Variations.
East Garfield Park curator Edra Soto (right) with Featured Artists Andrea Jablonski (left) and DJ Mr. Voice (center)
There are a bunchofshows opening in the West Loop tonight, but if only because of its sheer breadth (and that's not the only reason), if you can only go to one "art event" this weekend (because those are the parameters I've committed to for this weekly column), go to East Garfield Park.
This weekend, if you can only go to one art opening, go to David Sprecher's Anchors on Sunday -- his second solo exhibition at Peanut Gallery. He has built a false wall and is playing with perception subtly through various methods, and his playful approach to art making combined with his personal investigation into the human body and spirit makes for a compelling exhibition. BUT, because of my personal involvement with Peanut Gallery I may be biased, so I'm going to give you another option.
Rusty Shackleford Dream Feeder & Katie Torn Dream House
How about some colorful prints, paintings, arrangements & video work loosely based on nostalgia and technology at Roots & Culture?
If you can only go to one art show this weekend, consider spending a portion of your Friday night checking about a bunch of new sculptures that pee into wading pools!
If you don't know this about me, I co-produce a monthly live lit series called That's All She Wrote with my co-conspirator Angela Benander. Every second Sunday of the month we meet at Swim Cafe (1357 W. Chicago Ave.) and read stories aloud, with featured readers like Samantha Irby, Keith Ecker, Dana Norris, Roger Bonair-Agard, and many others. We'll be celebrating our one year anniversary on Sunday, October 13th with readings from Sarah Hollenbeck, Lindsay Muscato, Byron Roussin, and Martha Bayne. It's going to be fabulous, and we'd love to see you there. Doors open at 7:30pm, stories start at 8pm. Free and BYOB.
Signs of Life, a musical about the Czech ghetto Terezin, has made its way from New York for a limited run at the Victory Gardens Theater (2433 N. Lincoln.) This weekend comp tickets are available if you enter the code OCTOBER at checkout. Valid for tonight's (Saturday) performance at 8:30, tomorrow's 3pm performance, and possibly next weekend as well.
Every weekend in Chicago, there is more art available to check out than any of us actually have time for. Most of it is listed at thevisualist.org and at Art Talk Chicago. For those of you who have a hard time deciding which to go to, I'll make a recommendation for you every week. This week's pick:
DJ Algoriddim is staring at a huge pile of furniture. He has his eyes on a set of bass scoops buried in a corner. By now, he knows the routine. Vince the store manager laid out the rules: You have to dig items out yourself and be able to carry them out the door without assistance -- if you want the 10 dollar deal. With a smile, DJ Algoriddim starts climbing the pile.
For the past six years Charles McGary has operated the only African-American owned auction house in Chicago. The building on the 8400 block of Cottage Grove is huge. Three floors packed with items bought at estate liquidations and storage auctions. A constant flow of merchandise. The first floor is an auction house and store. The second and third floors are used as warehouse and storage. Charles has decided it's time to close. He could auction everything off -- but he came up with a better idea. Ten dollar entry fee -- all you can carry -- free.
Whenever a fair or festival becomes successful, satellite events are soon to follow. And now that the much-hyped EXPO Chicago has gotten a little steam, that's exactly what's happening. This weekend the Chicago Artist Coalition (CAC) and local gallerist Andrew Rafacz have teamed up to create EDITION Chicago with the aim of exhibiting high quality, cutting-edge work that presents new ideas, while remaining financially attainable. Because let's face it, EXPO is bound to have a lot of exciting work on exhibit, but most of us won't be able to buy any of it.
"We are pleased to present such a diverse and respected list of galleries in our first year that proves great contemporary art can be found in all price ranges," said Executive Director of CAC Carolina O. Jayaram. "Not only is the new EDITION Chicago an incredible opportunity to start building an art collection or add to your existing collection, but the satellite fair builds on the exciting momentum surrounding art in Chicago right now that CAC is proud to be an integral part of."
The work of eight artists, six of them Chicago-based, will be shown at an exhibit titled Constantly Consuming Culture--The Art Show, September 7-13 on the lower level of 222 N. DesPlaines St.
None of the artists is represented by galleries or management, although some of their work already has been exhibited. The artists work in various media, including painting, sculpture, found art and video art. Chicago-based artists are John Airo, John Hamilton, Elyse Martin, Gretchen Hasse, Mikey Peterson and John Schedler. Other artists include Serene Toxicat, San Francisco, and Mez Data.
Chicago's summer festival season continues to roll along--and next week, August 20-24, it dances along with the Chicago Dancing Festival, a five-day showcase featuring performances by top local and national dance companies. Co-produced by choreographer Lar Lubovitch and dancer Jay Franke, this diverse, "free-to-all festival," now in its seventh year, will not only be spread across various venues like the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Museum of Contemporary Art and the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park; it will also feature various dance styles including ballet, modern, rhythmic, and more.
This year, the festival's dance card is filled with Chicago staples such as Chicago Human Rhythm Project and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and newcomers to the festival include Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater and Chicago's Natya Dance Theatre.
I recently spoke with Franke about the festival, its diversity, and what makes Chicago's dance community special.
Founder and Overlord of WRITE CLUB Ian Belknap (named Best Literary Event by the Reader and Best Live Reading Series by Chicago Magazine) isn't taking the summer off - he's been busy producing Live Lit on the Lake, which takes place on Thursday and Friday nights through August 9.
The format for Live Lit on the Lake is intended to mirror the "sampler" spirit of Theatre on Lake, which seeks each summer to showcase the best of the past year's storefront theater. LLotL invites some of the city's Live Lit all stars to read certain of their favorite pieces, and have a brief chat with host/curator Ian Belknap about the craft and practice of live lit.
Beginning Monday, July 8 through July 31, the Gene Siskel Film Center, in conjunction with the Chicago Tribune Foundation and the Chicago Public Library, will feature "Best of Black Harvest Film Festival," a summer program consisting of a screening series of selected films from past festivals.
The Black Harvest Film Festival, described as "the Midwest's largest and longest-running festival dedicated to telling stories of the black experience," kicks off in Chicago on Friday, August 2; however, film fans, in anticipation of this year's festival, can attend free [select] screenings of previous showings, which will be held at various library locations (Woodson Regional, Legler, North Austin and Douglass) throughout the city.
Hi, guys! I didn't find much going on this weekend. Please leave info about additional exhibitions that flew under my radar in the comments section. Happy holiday!
Experience interactive art from Intel at Grant Park Friday, June 7 through Sunday, June 9 at "Experience Intel. Look Inside." This global tour aims to introduce customers to the Intel's broad array of innovative devices. The Grant Park installation will combine art, film, fashion, music, and interactive performances that are all powered by Ultrabook. The weekend will include an interactive installation from Universal Everything, a gaming experience from Hide & Seek and a visual history of computing by The Office for Creative Research. Bring your old laptops to be recycled and receive a discount coupon redeemable for a new Ultrabook. In addition, several Ultrabooks will be given away to guests every day of the installation. The event is free and open to the public.
Chicagoans, listen up. Do you like to dance? Are you ready for gorgeous ladies in amazing outfits? Are you ready to hear body-slamming beats that you've been missing for years, or maybe even your whole life? Fabulous Ladies of Fitness (FLOF) is where you need to be. Second Thursdays of every month at Cole's Bar, FLOF hosts a dance party that makes it impossible for you to have a bad time. Using only their dance moves, killer outfits, and their signature blend of '70s lite rock, '80s/'90s R&B and hip-hop, current dance hits (and the occasional TV theme song), FLOF will have you doing amazing line dances that make you feel super hip and also united with your fellow dancers in no time. I had a chance to ask Jennifer Boeder, Molly Kavanaugh and Dorie Silverman--the ladies responsible for this guaranteed feel-good event--about how FLOF got started and how they manage to keep making it more and more fabulous every month.
On Monday nights, you can usually find throngs of hip, artsy folks smoking and chatting outside of Beauty Bar. Inside, you can find even more of them dancing and performing. Salonathon, which takes place every Monday night at the bar where you can get a martini as easily as you can get a manicure, is one of Chicago's favorite parties. Combining performance of all varieties--from storytelling to improv to live music--with a killer post-show dance party and great cocktails, Salonathon is sure to please. The founder and curator of this weekly extravaganza, Jane Beachy, not only runs Salonathon, but also produces events at some of the hippest venues in the city, including the Metro, the Logan Square Auditorium, and Steppenwolf Garage. Currently, Beachy is planning for a Pride event at Berlin and for the Two Year Anniversary of Salonathon on July 15 at Beauty Bar. I got to chat with this Chicago gal who seems like nothing short of a party expert.
Tonight from 6-8pm, join the DePaul Art Museum (935 W Fullerton) for a free artist talk with Mequitta Ahuja, whose mixed-media drawings are part of the current exhibition at DPAM, "War Baby / Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art." Exploring constructed Asian American identities in the US, "War Baby/Love Child" is a multi-faceted project that includes a book, traveling art exhibition, website and blog. The project examines if, and how, mixed heritage is expressed in the artwork of Asian Americans. Multi-media works, including video and installation, bring to light the overlap of race, war and imperialism, gender and sexuality, and citizenship and nationality.
View a trailer for the project here:
"War Baby/Love Child" is at DPAM (939 W Fullerton) from April 25-June 30. Photos courtesy of museums.depaul.edu.
Ever Mainard and Rasa Gierstikas are two Chicago comics and producers who are as similar as they are opposite. Both sassy, loud, and unapologetic, but in totally different ways, they are a unique and dynamic duo when they take the stage to co-host The Shit Show, a free comedy showcase on the last Friday of every month at The Shambles. While Mainard, a cast member at Chicago Underground Comedy, packs her schedule with stand-up, sketch and film, the more focused Gierstikas pours herself entirely into the project that she and Mainard are currently co-producing: The Shit Show. Mainard and Gierstikas have devoted many more hours of planning and decorating to the show than their audience, buzzed from The Shit Show's free Fireball Whiskey shots and delirious from laughing too hard, might ever know. But now they can! Here, the co-producers confess that their "shit show" is much more work than the title suggests, and that their relationship is a bizarre, but functional, business and drinking partnership.
The Shit Show started as an open mic that was a comedian-favorite on Monday nights, but, since August, you've transformed it into a showcase on the last Friday of every month. What was that transition like?
Mainard: We knew it would be a little different to run it as a showcase. There's a lot of organizing and a crazy number of press releases to send. We were a little nervous about turnout, but it's been fun watching the show grow more and more.
Gierstikas: I think since it was an open mic before, we know what we want from the showcase and it transitioned smoothly. I haven't experienced the worst of it yet (except for Ever Mainard).
How did you two decide to do a show together? What is it like being co-producers?
Mainard: I met Rasa when I used to go to The Shambles open mic. I thought she hated me and was the meanest person I had ever met. We started working together and the open mic grew from just 7 comics stepping up to the mic to the now 100 people in attendance for the show. [As co-producers], we try and fail at GoogleDocs and then we text a lot. We also meet at The Shambles to talk and plan and drink. We have fun, and then we stay out of each other's lives.
Gierstikas: [When I met Ever], I thought she was really fun and talented, so it seemed like the logical choice to have her help take over co-hosting The Shambles open mic every week. We're on the same page with what we want from this show and I think we trust each other's judgment.
Bar nights are meant to be fun, and this one doesn't disappoint. There are always drink deals and some kind of food provided. It seems one of the sponsors does a prize-draw every time, and a business card is all that's required to enter. Yet, with events like this, I always wonder if professionals are actually forming connections, or if this is just a chance to party on someone else's tab.
When I asked Brian Eaves, "photographer first," and "digital tech. second to pay the bills," he said that it is a very important event that offers a multitude of opportunities that may not immediately meet the eye. "It's great for networking," he said, "'cause every now and then you do find some good people here that you've never met before." Eaves told me how a whole community of photo-related professionals ranging from makeup artists to printers surface at the allure of a more informal setting.
This informal setting also offers the opportunity for up and coming artists to rub elbows with the more established folks in order to make the connections that may eventually lead to the coveted photography assistant job.
The bar night has a long history, beginning before ASMP and APA took the event on, maintained by devoted artists until the present day. "There was always like ten of us that would do this," said Eaves, "Everyone that pretty much worked off of Grand Avenue, between Foster and Damen and south to Lake St. -- we would page each other... everyone would come and just talk."
The event still sustains that important human element and cultivates the spirit of creation. The next bar night will be Wednesday, Mar. 13 at DeLux Bar and Grill, 669 N. Milwaukee Ave. It's free to go -- bring a business card to enter the drawing.
...aaand that's all she wrote, folks! Please leave info about additional visual art events this week in the comments section, if you know of any. Have a warm and happy solstice!
The big, glaring (in a good way) art event this weekend is obviously EXPO, which I highly recommend after seeing it last Wednesday (I will be posting about it shortly). Give yourself a good two hours there, at least. BUT after you check that out, check this stuff out:
Last Monday evening in an old gymnasium in the Edgewater neighborhood, a group of 30 or so Chicagoans opened multicolored umbrellas in-sync, waved cellphones above their heads like lighters at an outdoor concert, and mimed a quaint, picturesque baseball game. The activities - familiar, universal - were just quick glimpses of Bolero Chicago, the local edition of the acclaimed community-centric dance work. Created by New York-based Larry Keigwin of KEIGWIN + COMPANY (K+C), Bolero Chicago features anywhere from 30-80 local non-dancers incorporating a variety of different movements to represent Chicago's broad culture and style. The work will be featured along with performances from the Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Giordano Dance Chicago, and national dance companies as part of the 6th annual Chicago Dancing Festival. This year's festival runs from August 20 - 25.
The idea of an emerging Chicago fashion community has been one of the inhibiting, not strengthening forces for Chicago designers. "Emerging" suggests a path from A to B or steps a community, a city must take to make it established, respected, and part of the crowd. But the true Chicago creatives think differently, if not practically. Chicago can never be the new New York on a logistical (a lack of manufacturing resources) or cultural (a lack of outlets for exposure) level. But Chicago succeeds in its ability to nurture singular designers and talents. One such designer, Anna Hovet, will present a collection of her past work at the newly-launched ROOF Runway series. Hovet's show takes place tonight, with additional shows running once a month through October 11.
It's not that traditional architectural practices lack a focus on design and the execution of ideas. But after spending time in Tele Vision, the School of the Art Institute's final graduate exhibition featuring works from students in the Architecture, Interior Architecture, Designed Objects, and Fashion departments, it is apparent that like other departments in the school, SAIC students value the complete synthesis of the tangible and conceptual.
Cher Horowitz walks down a hallway wearing a yellow plaid skirt and matching cropped jacket. The outfit -- part schoolgirl innocence, part precise tailoring and professional realness -- is a perfect summary of a film (and a decade) that can be best defined by its lack of classification. Clueless, a film more often recognized for its banter and "Before They Were Famous" celebrities, was radical because it refused to play by the rules. Director and writer Amy Heckerling's film based on Jane Austen's Emma was less a contemporary update and more of an independent, one-of-a-kind "world creation" of youth, debauchery, language and style.
In their first collection as THE MALL, Ready-to-Stare jewelry designer Alysse Dalessandro and vintage seller Matt Kasin (aka the Gaudy God) created and curated a an Etsy-based concept store of highly aesthetic and idea-driven handmade accessories and vintage clothing inspired by the film as well as other '90s teen cult classics such as Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion and Spice World. This is not nostalgia, for nostalgia elicits a desire to return to the emotions born in a past era. Rather, THE MALL understands and utilizes the films as important cultural references that are as valuable and inspirational now as they were more than a decade ago. The two will debut their collection this Friday at a launch event at ZaZaZoo Nail Salon.
On Monday, May 21, Northwestern University's Evanston campus will host a fleeting work of art, erected by students, staff, and faculty and removed by nature. The construction is a recreation of conceptual artist Allan Kaprow's seminal sculpture/performance work, "Fluids," and will entail stacking approximately 375 blocks of ice to build a monumental structure on the Plaza outside the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at 40 Arts Circle Drive.
Kaprow coined the term, "Happening" to describe an event or situation performed in the name of art. He first conceived of "Fluids" in 1967 and intended it to be staged again by others--creating a shared experience in art through separate happenings. This will mark the first time the project has been reenacted in the Midwest.
The University of Chicago's Law School is hosting a two--day conference, Manhood in American Law and Literature, which will serve as a platform for discussion surrounding the issues of sexuality and law within the context of literary works.
A highlight of the conference is sure to be the two dramatic scenes presented by the school's faculty members. Judge Richard Posner, Professor Jonathan Masur, and Professor Daniel Abebe will perform scenes from The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, by Herman Wouk, followed by performances from Professor Martha Nussbaum and Professor Douglas Baird in The Little Foxes, by Lillian Hellman.
The conference will also feature speakers from a variety of fields and universities. Discussions will be anchored in literature, including classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. There will even be a live reading by renowned author, Joyce Carol Oates.
The conference will take place on UofC's campus on Friday, February 17 through Saturday, February 18. A full schedule of events can be found here.
The conference is free and open to the public. No RSVP is required, but seating may be limited.
Emerging choreographers Samantha Allen, Hope Goldman, and Jessie Young will debut a trio of new pieces tonight for two free performance programs titled Out on a Limb.
Created in collaboration with and performed by dancers Lindsay Reich and Katie Jean Dahlaw, Allen's KJ&L explores the relationship between performers as well as with the audience. With a sound score designed by Casey Swoyer, the performance combines abstract movement and references to other dance forms in search of meaning found through movement.
A documentary about "the most blacklisted author in the history of Iowa," Zielinski toes the line between black comedy, government conspiracy theory, and poignant portrait of the artist as an old man. The film's directors, Ryan Walker and Chase Thompson, embarked upon the film after meeting John M. Zielinski in Columbia, Missouri. I caught up with Ryan to find out more about public access television, conspiracy's funny side, and the man behind the rhetoric.
Get a head start on Chicago Artist Month this weekend with the kickoff event -- the Ravenswood Art Walk, which will feature the work of over 200 local artists, including over 40 open studios. This opening night event this Friday will also include live performances and some damn good food by some of Ravenswood's best restaurants.
The Friday night event will kickoff at 7pm in and around the Ravenswood Event Center (4011 N. Ravenswood), with ample spillage out into the street (Ravenswood Ave. itself will be shut down between Montrose and Sunnyside for a street fair)(Stop by the GB booth!). The fun won't stop Friday, though, so make sure to stop by on Saturday and/or Sunday for more festivities. Bring the kids. Details here. MORE details, including a schedule of performances, can be found here. Click here for a map. Best of all, admission is FREE!
Alright, guys. This is it. This is a big weekend for gallery openings, with many (most?) of them kicking off their fall programming with the best of the best tonight. If you only make it out art-hopping once this year, go tonight.
...and there are surely many more I've missed. Check back on us in a few days -- A/C's newest contributor Natalie Edwards and I will have a recap of the opening chaos, including our two cents on the art we were able to catch glances of while smooshed amongst the drunken hordes.
Local online and print art publication Jettison Quarterly made a splash at NEXT as part of the larger Art Chicago weekend with their newly formatted print edition of the magazine. Their latest issue -- featuring artist Scott Reeder and former MCA curator Tricia Van Eck -- promises to deliver on locally focused news, art and culture. To celebrate their latest release, the publication will be joining Old Style and Longman & Eagle for a free block party on Kedzie and Schubert. The event will feature a pig roast and dance party with tunes spun by DJs from the ever-popular Windy City Soul Club. The What's Happening!! block party takes place this Sunday, September 4 from 4pm to 10pm.
Additional copies of Jettison Quarterly will be available Sept. 9 at the Kavi Gupta gallery as part of the opening night for the fall art season, the Renegade Craft Fair on Sept. 10-11, and at various cafes and venues in the city.
Sunlight filtered in through the windows of the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. Like past dance companies, the River North Chicago Dance Company used the cozy rehearsal space to finalize 9-Person Precision Ball Passing, a company premiere by Charlie Moulton. Nine dancers stood on a set of black stairs performing a largely upper-body based routine featuring repetitive hand gestures and minor juggling feats with colored balls. The entire routine looked not unlike the clapping games little children practice on school playgrounds.
On the surface, the movements appear simple, but a closer examination demonstrates how the movements grow increasingly more complicated rhythmically as the routine progresses. Stay calm and carry on was the motto of the routine as additional pressure to stay on the varying beat of the accompanying music demonstrated the various manifestations of contemporary dance.
Movies in the park are charming, but may not be the most comfortable cinematic experience during this heat wave. Fortunately on Tuesdays this summer, threesixty Entertainment is hosting Free Movie Tuesdays at The 360 Theatre, the tent where their production of Peter Pan is currently running. The movies are free and admission is on a first-come first-served basis. Doors open at 6:30pm and the movies start at 7pm.
The schedule is as follows:
July 19: Ghostbusters
July 26: Back to the Future
August 2: The Karate Kid
August 9: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
August 16: Sixteen Candles
The 360 Theatre is located at 650 W. Chicago Ave (in between Halsted St. and the Chicago River).
An iconic image, featured in the exhibit, of Thurgood Marshall and Autherine Lucy en route to the Federal Court in Birmingham, AL in 1954 to fight for her right to attend the University of Alabama.
Marching Toward Justice: The History of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is on display now at John Marshall Law School, is about much more than the milestone amendment, passed in 1868, which granted automatic citizenship to anyone born in the United States. The colorful, maze-like panels and giant black-and-white photographs cover more than 350 years of African-American history, from the arrival of slaves in the Americas in 1619 through the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that ended legal segregation.
Tomorrow afternoon the Hyde Park Art Center hosts part four in their series of neighborhood-centric gallery tours -- Artist-Run Spaces in Garfield Park. Hop on your bike and explore the warehouse artist studios and artist run spaces on the west side. Starting at noon at my favorite coffee shop, The Star Lounge (2521 W. Chicago), the tour will visit some of the city's newest exhibition venues and see the work of emerging artists, followed by a barbecue (at my house!). Visit hydeparkart.org for details (the site says the tour is over at 3 but a little bird (and a bunch of fliers) told me it goes 'till 6pm).
Tonight at 7pm, Art In These Times, the community gallery at In These Times' office (2040 N. Milwaukee Ave.), presents a new exhibition of posters and photographs from ongoing labor demonstrations in Wisconsin that began on February 14, 2011. The exhibition is a collaboration with Nicolas Lampert and will feature prints and placards he has collected as an active participant in the labor and community rallies in Madison. The Hard Times Trio, a jazz group which performs classic labor songs, will perform. The artwork will be on display through the summer and fall.
The exhibition features screenprints and off-set posters from rallies in Madison and Milwaukee and features prints by Nicolas Lampert, Colin Matthes, Eric Drooker, Jesus Barraza, Josh MacPhee, Jesse Graves and others. The photography of Lauren Cumbia (who co-organizes the gallery space with Daniel Tucker), Brandon Pittser and the Public Collectors archive will also be exhibited.
Check out this recent report from Wisconsin by curator Nicolas Lampert and Dan S. Wang for more information about the movement to defend collective bargaining rights.
On the seventh floor of the former Carson Pirie Scott building, the graduating students from the School of the Art Institute's Departments of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects (AIADO), and Fashion, presented works befitting the classic Louis Sullivan-designed building. Aesthetically speaking, their designs and concepts - ranging from mobile food cart projects to illuminated public art works to multi-functional furniture - are a far cry from Sullivan's steel-framed Chicago landmark. But the goals of the students' designs, often touching upon ideas of recycling, conservation of resources, and streamlined communication, were grounded in multi-generational sustainability.
"It was a chance to do something really beautiful, really challenging, and a challenge for myself," said Alysse Filipek (BFA 2013), the Grand Prize winner of the Designers of Tomorrow competition. Filipek's work addresses both her personal history in Southern California and her reaction to the harsh, Seasonal Affective Disorder-creating winters of Chicago.
Other works on view include LOADED: SAIC in Milan, originally presented during the 2011 Milan International Furniture Fair; Industry Partners: Living in a Smart City; a five-year GFRY Design Studio retrospective; and Where is Where, the graduate thesis exhibition.
Furniture geeks and functional art fans, take heed: the 7th Annual Guerrilla Truck Show is tonight, along with a bevy of exhibitions and parties in the area designed to be visited in tandem. These events take place tonight from 5:30 to 9:30 in the West Loop, with the official truck show at Morlen Sinoway Atelier: 1052 W. Fulton Market St. For more information, visit the Facebook event page. For a map of all the locations participating, click here. Also, (not noted on the map) EBERSMOORE (213 N. Morgan, #3C) is hosting a special exhibition of work by the talented group known as the Dock 6 Collective (works pictured above). For photos of past GTS's, check out this Flickr collection.
In the past year, what has become noticeable in Chicago's emerging and contemporary gallery scene is the ubiquitous and relative importance of Anna Cerniglia's Johalla Projects. The space not only provides ample opportunities for many locally-based artists to exhibit their work. It also provides a unique platform for more experimental and brief artist projects that connect a wider variety of artistic practices than the traditional exhibition.
In Urban Dwellers, artist Andrea Jablonski in collaboration with Vicki Fuller of VLF Development created and installed large-scale and glittered deer in the empty lot of 1827 North Milwaukee. The deer serve as a reminder for of the original natural surroundings of the area prior to urban development. Urban Dwellers closes June 11.
Thomas Roach, 86 plastic chairs uncomfortable to stack but ill, 2011.
Tonight begins a two-part reading series at Alderman Exhibitions featuring selections from William T. Vollman's short story collection, The Atlas. A companion to the gallery's current exhibition, Thomas Roach: New Drawings, tonight's reading will also include a discussion and reception. Vollman's stories, often quick and glinting descriptions of brief moments in passing, are a compliment to Roach's drawings which often evoke an ethereal and visceral quality. Although the event is free, guests are encouraged to RSVP at info@aldermanexhibitions.com. PDF's of the selected stories are available for each session and copies can be sent to you upon request in the RSVP.
The Program:
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 7pm
William T. Vollmann, The Atlas, PART 1
Selected stories for Part 1:
The Back of My Head
It's Too Difficult to Explain
Bad Air
Brandi's Jacket
Houses
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 7pm
William T. Vollmann, The Atlas, PART 2
Selected stories for Part 2:
The Atlas
The Rifles
Where Are You Today
Last Day at the Bakery
Alderman Exhibitions is located at 350 North Ogden, 4th floor.
Face painting, speeches, musical performances, crafts and other all-American activities are on the agenda for the Fourth of July celebration at the 
I'll have to admit, I'm a little -- okay more than a little -- immersed in the online archive, 
Whenever a fair or festival becomes successful, satellite events are soon to follow. And now that the much-hyped 
Get a head start on 
