Jenny Kendler is extensively involved in the Chicago art scene, and also dedicated to environmental justice and activism.  In fact, her two passions are deeply intertwined. Through her work, she shares the wonder, beauty and complexity of nature and its relationship with human culture.  Jenny is a member of the BOLT Residency through the Chicago Artists Coalition, member of the feminist collective Henbane, and co-founder of OtherPeoplesPixels and the Endangered Species Print Project.  Recent show participations include “Black Arts” at Roxaboxen Exhibitions in Pilsen, and “Act of God,” a natural disasters-themed show curated by Jake Myers.  I sat down with Jenny at her home studio and talked with her about her passions, her life philosophies, and her thoughts on the Chicago art scene and environmentalism.

"Archipelago (Chanel Islands Fox)" 2011.

Lydia Shepard (LS): Please tell me a little about your work; it’s a fusion of art and environmental activism. 

Jenny Kendler (JK): My passion about the natural world has gone back at least as far as my passion for art.  They are intertwined for me.  The natural world is in a state of crisis that has been largely caused by the actions of human beings.  I think a lot of people don’t realize the magnitude of it, for example, the issue of the extinction crisis.  It is estimated that 1 in 4 mammals, 1 in 3 amphibians, and 1 in 10 birds are endangered.  We don’t always realize what’s happening in the place that we came from.  We ourselves are animals; we come from the natural world.  If we destroy nature, if we don’t check ourselves before its too late, then we are going to lose a really essential piece of what it is to be human.  This concept is something that really drives my work.  The Environmental Movement has tended to contextualize their activism as “nature for nature’s sake”, the same way that in art school we say “art for art’s sake”.  I wholeheartedly believe in that message; I think it is time for the message to also include human beings and how much we need and can benefit from a natural world that is treasured and cared for, especially the wonder and delight that we human beings can find in nature.  I guess that I would like to impart a little bit of the wonder that I feel when looking at the natural world.  A technique that I often use in my work is locating it on the human body, or locating it in interactions with the human body to address this very intimate, visceral relationship that I feel is possible with nature.  I’m not interested in talking about nature with a capital “N”, or this sealed, idealized environment. You’ll often see in my work nature growing out of or encrusting over the human body, or human being disappearing back into the natural world.  I like to complicate that relationship between nature and culture.

"Connection (A woman and a juvenile polar bear thinking a rainbow)" 2007.

LS:  It’s interesting that you talk about the wonderment of nature.  I see a lot of rainbows in your work, and I am always in awe whenever I see a rainbow. 

JK: That is another thing that is really interesting to me, looking at clichés that surround the natural world.  Rainbows are a great one.  People feel like rainbows are just tapped out.  They have become such a symbol that you almost feel like you couldn’t experience them in a real way anymore…Except every time you see a rainbow it’s totally amazing!  The fact that it is a cliché does nothing to interrupt the wonder of the actual experience.  If I could do anything with my work, I would like it to be a little bit like that experience; maybe you think that you know what nature is, but then actually having this really intimate experience with it that changes you in a way that you can’t expect.

LS: You mentioned that your passion for environmentalism goes as far back as your passion for art.  Did you make a conscious decision to focus on nature themes and environmentalism in your work, or did it just happen?

JK: I grew up my whole childhood playing in the woods and collecting berries to make paint out of and making crowns with feathers and leaves.  When I was a kid, I painted and drew all the time.  I always drew nature.  I would spend hours making these tiny little paintings of beetles.  Then I went to art school, and I sort of lost the thread for a while.  My work still had a lot of the same visual imagery, but I was interested more in the fantastical, and more in culture and less in nature.  Then, during graduate school, I had a little bit of this realization that I had always knownwhat I wanted to make work aboutand I had just forgotten for a little while.

"Whooping Cranes with Polluted Sky", 2010. Part of the Endangered Species Print Project

LS: Have you done any other environmental work?

JK: Yes, I often think that if I hadn’t been so compelled to go into art that I would have been a conservation biologist.  I have always felt this longing to be doing more direct conservation work.  I see myself, in tandem with my art practice, as an environmental activist working in a different method.  I run a project with my co-founder Molly Schafer called the Endangered Species Print Project.  It was a direct reaction to this question of “what can you do as an artist to be more like an environmental activist?”  We started this project of limited-edition prints that are limited by the number of plants or animals that are remaining in the wild, the Amur Leopard, for example.  There are only 45 of them remaining in the wild, so we created a print of it that has 45 prints in the edition.  We sell the prints, and then 100% of the profits go towards a conservation organization that is working on that particular species.  Nothing is really separated in my life between my art practice and the way that my husband and I choose to live.  We’ve chosen to live without a car, and if we have to fly we offset our flights.  We try to eat all organic, and we have two vegetable gardens.  I am a recycling nerd.  Everything that I am wearing right now is either secondhand or handmade.  We made a commitment that we would not buy anything that wasn’t secondhand, made out of recycled materials, or handmade, if at all possible.

LS: You seem very active in the Chicago Art Scene.  You also co-founded OtherPeoplesPixels. 

JK: OtherPeoplesPixels is a company that makes websites for artists.  My husband is a computer programmer, and, while I was in grad school, we had a lot of friends coming up and asking us if we could help them design their website.  We realized that there were not really any good, affordable solutions for artists who wanted to have a website and be able to update it.  Instead of us making the websites, we made software that made websites!  That way, we were able to make it very affordable.  The idea really took off.  We have decided to run the company very much in line with our ethical system, so we run it as a triple bottom-line company, which means “people, planet, and profit,” as opposed to normal companies have a single bottom-line, which is the profit.  The idea is that you have to serve all three of those goals; you can’t do anything to make a profit that compromises the way that you treat your employees or the planet.  Though our company we run a fund called the OtherPeoplesPixels Fund through which we give away a big chunk of our profits to environmental, social justice and arts organizations.

Relic from Wunderkammer, 2007

LS: Do you have any thoughts or opinions on the Art Scene?

JK: We should really stop talking about ourselves as a “Second City.”  I’ve noticed that every time anyone asks this question in a public setting, everyone talks about how we don’t have as many institutions, as much funding, or as many collectors as New York or LA, which I think is a useless discussion.  Also, it’s not necessarily valid in terms of evaluating the quality of the art scene.  I think that we may have a really amazing art scene because of those things, since people have had to find their own way.  Who better to create the art scene than artists?  I don’t want collectors creating our art scene, though they’re welcome to participate.  I think that we have a greater wealth of amazing apartment gallery spaces, artist-run spaces, and unconventional spaces than anywhere else that I know of.  I’m also just not that interested in the comparisons game.  New York and LA are both great cities, I just don’t feel that Chicago needs to be comparing itself to them all the time.

LS: You are a resident at the BOLT Residency at the Chicago Artists’ Coalition. How has your experience with the BOLT Residency been?

JK: My residency period is from June 2011 to June 2012, so it’s about to come to a close.  There are 11 artists in the program, two of which are also part of my feminist art collective called Henbane. (Henbane is a psychotropic herb that witches used to use, that is hallucinogenic in small quantities, and deadly in large.)  The CAC has been amazing; they’ve done things like organizing studio visits for us, and bringing in curators and gallerists to talk to us about our work.  We’re also doing an exchange with Detroit artists where we are going to curate a group of Detroit-based artists into our space and they are going to curate us into their spaces.  So, in February I will be in a show in Detroit, and the Detroit artists are going to be coming here for a tour of Chicago art spaces on May 17th.

LS: Anything else coming up in the future?

JK: I have a solo show coming up at the BOLT studio residency on October 12th.  I’m getting ready to leave for a 3 week trip to far northern Norway and Svalbard, and arctic archipelago, where I’ll be making some of the work for that upcoming show.  On the further horizon, I am going to be showing work with Johalla Projects at the Damen Blue Line station.  I don’t have the date for that yet, but it’s going to be super cool.

All images in this interview curtesy of Jenny Kendler.  To see more of Jenny Kendler’s artwork, visit her website here.  To learn more about the Endangered Species Print Project, click here.  To learn more about OtherPeoplesPixels, visit the site here. 

Mary Ellen Croteau. My Eye. 2012. Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago, IL (Photo Credit: Image Courtesy of Danielle Jackson)

Orange traffic cones, plastic prescription bottles, fallen tree branches, rulers, belts, deodorant caps, wire, and nails—just to name a few—are all materials that are familiar to us. They’re so mundane that many people don’t think twice about them. We encounter them in our homes, the alley, the park, and on the streets. We use them and discard them. How many of us could envision sculptural or painterly compositions using these seemingly monotonous materials? How many of us could abandon the traditional functions of these materials and incorporate it into our artistic practice?

Inspired by World Earth Day, Chicago’s Twelve is an exhibition challenging our traditional notions of these objects. These artists “repurpose” salvaged materials and promote sustainability. They are equipped with the capability to uniquely envision an artistic solution for these resources. Spread throughout the first floor of the Zhou B. Art Center, each work responds to the industrial quality of the gallery space. Space is not an afterthought in this exhibition. Many of the artworks interact with the cement pillars in the central space; as a result the gallery space becomes a significant element in the work.

Jason Brammer. The Illusion of Permanence. 2012. Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago, IL (Photo Credit: Image Courtesy of Danielle Jackson)

Cell phone audio tours accompany the artworks feeding both our visual and auditory senses. Upon entering the gallery space, I was mesmerized by Jason Brammer’s sculptural paintings. His use of salvaged wood, acrylic paint, plaster, and antique hardware is an impressive display of materials. Its rustic quality and craftsmanship fascinated me. Exploring themes of perception and utilizing the ancient “trompe l’oeil” technique, Brammer’s work provides the illusion that the viewer has entered into another time or dimension. Chicago’s Twelve is a powerful testament to the imagination and creativity of artists. Using these non-traditional art-making materials each artist develops distinctive compositions. These artworks are so beautifully crafted and original that they demand respect. Over the weekend, I caught up with the Director of Exhibitions Sergio Gomez just long enough to ask him three important questions about the exhibition.

Danielle Jackson [DJ]: What was your inspiration for curating the show?

Sergio Gomez [SG]: I was very interested in putting together an exhibition of non-traditional sustainable art materials that could engage the public at many levels. I wanted to create an experience for the public by including a wide range of works from representational to non-representational art.  I also wanted to focus on the creative usage of found objects and discarded materials. It was important for me to create an atmosphere where the public did not judge the work solely based on whether they understood a created image.  I wanted people to experience the art by walking under it, around it, through it, at close proximity and at a distance. It was great to see people from toddlers to seniors enjoying the experience during the opening.

[DJ]: How did you select 12 artists? What were some expectations you had for the artists?

[SG]: To find the 12 artists I put the word out via email and social media. I invited artists to send sample of work to me and asked lots of people in the arts to recommend artists. I am a big social media user when looking for artists. I had a specific set of parameters when selecting the artists for the exhibition. First, they had to be Chicago based artists (the Zhou B Art Center has always believed in the creative power of Chicago artists). Second, I looked for artists who have made sustainability a passionate working ethic and not a one time occurrence. Artists had to demonstrate a history of working with repurposed and non-traditional found objects. Third, the work had to be of the highest quality in terms of craftsmanship and presentation. Since most of the work was going to be installation work, it had to be done by artists who understand space as a medium and not just as a place to hang art. Fourth, artists had to respond to the gallery space I assigned to them. I met with each artist individually and we discussed the vision for the exhibition. After our meeting, they did what they do best, amazing work!  Some artists made brand new work specific for the show.

Check out the exhibition this 3rd Friday, May 18th

Chicago’s Twelve

On view through June 9^th

Zhou B. Art Center

1035 W. 35^th Street

Chicago, IL

If you were to dig into the corners of your closets, mine the contents of sealed boxes and locate the residual objects of your existence then pull them all together, what story would it tell about you? This was the process of artist Faheem Majeed as he began to create his most recent installation Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden for the Hairy Blob exhibition at Hyde Park Art Center. Instead of simply using his own history as source material for his work, Faheem combined his experience as the former Executive Director of the South Side Community Art Center and artifacts created, used and set aside throughout its rich seventy year history to re-imagine its past, more clearly understand its present and visualize its future.  Before we witness the activation of  his piece through invitational performances in the coming weeks, I asked Faheem to tell us more about his relationship with the South Side Community Art Center, where the title of the installation stems from and the path that took him from being a traditional sculptor to an artist who could more effectively articulate his thoughts by not settling for a single medium.  

TH: Your practice has taken many turns over the course of your career.  I was first introduced to your work through your beautifully surreal and disorienting steel sculptures.  Can you revisit the trajectory that took you from that point in your practice to the work you are doing now with the installation for Hairy Blob?

FM: I studied sculpture while an undergrad at Howard University. It was very traditional and the focus was basically making something well…something that was beautiful. When you first encountered my work, I was trying to stretch within the confines of what I knew. I wanted to do more…say more. Around the same time, I was trying to find a place to squat and work on my art while I looked around for a studio and I landed at the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC). It was fascinating to me because this was a place I studied while at Howard. Over time, I moved on to a studio space but remained involved at the Center. That relationship morphed and changed over time as I developed this infatuation with the space, the history and the people. I transitioned from volunteer to curator to Executive Director over the course of 8 years. At about 5 years into that relationship, I was taking on more and more responsibility…trying to push the Center in a different direction than it had been previously. And to be honest…that was exhausting.

At the same time, I was still trying to maintain my own art practice but that was falling to the side. It was my passion and what drives me and yet I wasn’t doing it. I was also at a cross roads with my work where I knew I wanted to try something new but I didn’t feel like I had the exposure or skills set to do that yet. So what do you do when you don’t know what to do? You get another degree. But honestly, that was the right next step for me. I needed a safe place to explore, I needed exposure to other artists, and I needed some candid critique of my work. Pursuing my masters at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) open the doors for me to try and sometimes fail. But I still had this challenge that I was spending so much time and investing so much energy at the Center. That’s when I decided to do an experiment and try to merge my role as an administrator and my role as an artist…sprinkled with this additional perspective as a curator. I started to explore other mediums including performances, video, audio, and photography. That attempted merger gave me a great outlet for the frustration I was feeling and also gave me the space to explore and redefine myself as an artist.

Faheem Majeed, "Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden" Installation (Detail), April 20, 2012. (Image Credit: Tempestt Hazel.)

As I was preparing to graduate from UIC, I started a number of conversations, in the context of my Acting Director role, about the SSCAC and its survival. That led to a shift in focus from merging administration and my art practice to institutional critique and appropriation. I was trying to make a statement about this organization…to both wake new people up to its existence but also shake up all of us who had been close, perhaps too close, to the Center for so many years. In that journey I talked to a number of institution leaders and realized that the challenges faced by the SSCAC were not unique which piqued my interest to this whole idea of culturally specific institutions–their purpose, their survival and the redefinition of what they are in context of an evolving society.

That was an obsession that I think I am finally ready to phase out of. The Hairy Blob exhibition and a few other shows I have planned are my way of transitioning to a new conversation that may be related to my previous work but definitely takes me in a different direction.

TH: Taken from an article written by Anna Tyler for the International Review of African American Art, you’ve titled the piece Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden.  The article goes through the history of the center and the programs, people and energy that went into getting it off the ground, as well as the ups and downs that are the threads of its historical fabric.  What is it about that article that resonated with you enough to make you title the installation after it?

FM: I have always found the article written by Anna Tyler to be one of the better summaries of the SSCAC’s history and its significance. I utilize it often in my teaching. I always found the tittle to be intriguing and peculiar. She never addresses the metaphor in the actual text. Over my tenure at the SSCAC, I have always been very vocal, and admittedly, sometimes overly transparent about the complex issues that faced my organization both externally and internally. Similarly, Anna Tyler was an artist and writer who was also passionate about the spaces and people she cared about. Even more than me, she never held her tongue or edited her opinion. In many ways titling this piece after her writing is in homage to her voice.

I looked up perennial gardening on the Colorado State University website and found the description to be a great metaphor the organizational history.

“A well-designed perennial garden can provide many years of beauty and enjoyment. Careful selection of plant materials and thoughtful planning can result in a full season of color.”

As my role in the institution became more complex I realized that in a lot ways I, my predecessors, and the many other stakeholders were the gardeners of the cultural landscape of the SSCAC.

In 2011, I decided it was time for me to step down as executive director. I still remain active in the organization. The board and new Executive Director Heather Ireland Robinson have been very supportive. For example, allowing me to harvest some of the wonderful items from the building for the Hairy Blob exhibition.

Faheem Majeed, "Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden" Installation (Detail), April 20, 2012. (Image Credit: Tempestt Hazel.)

TH: Through this installation you are breathing new life and adding value to objects that have been lost, forgotten and nearly discarded, yet when revisited and accumulated they become priceless pieces to the story of the South Side Community Art Center. When did you realize there was something to be discovered in these objects?

FM: This piece and process was so heartwarming and nostalgic for me. The Center’s board and Executive Director were very gracious in allowing me to borrow these various objects. The curator of Hairy Blob, Adelheid Myers, gave me a platform to share what I see and how I feel about the SSCAC.

Over my time at the Center I was always intrigued by what was deemed valuable and interesting. The Center has an amazing collection of painting, prints, sculptures, and historical archive dating back to the 1930’s. But I am always intrigued by what doesn’t make it into “the vault”. Things that aren’t necessarily deemed worthy of keeping versus the things that are semi-valuable and end up on a shelf in one of the classrooms. Also, there is an accumulation of things that have been forgotten and abandoned by artists and community members. The Center in many ways has been entrusted with these objects’ safety pending the slight chance that their owners return. I often joked that a big part of my job was moving things from one side of the classroom to the other. Regardless of how it came to rest or where it was stored at the Center, these objects are markers of events and the passing of time within the space.

TH: You state that they are “almost collectible.” In your opinion, what keeps them from crossing over to actually being collectible?

FM: Value is subjective and differs from person to person. In the Center, there are spatial limitations to what can be stored in “the vault”. So tough decisions sometime have to be made about what makes it into “the vault”. But this is also a question of positioning and exposure. Together, these items tell a story about the Center. They are all related by their shared history. If you separate them, some of the items may be valuable to certain audiences for their individual appeal, but for most of the objects, their appeal is lost in the unbundling…thus limiting their value as a collection.

TH: You mentioned that you have also stumbled upon a new definition of ephemera through this installation. Can you talk a bit about that redefinition?

FM: On a basic level, I knew what I wanted to do included ephemera but after my wife challenged me on my use in the context of this piece, I knew I needed to do more exploration. In trying to better understand the word, and the history behind the word, I realized that the word “ephemeral” was overall a better descriptor of the collection of objects I was using within the piece. Really these were objects that were transitory in nature. They had moved past their original purpose and had been discarded—not necessarily as garbage, but just by nature of the way they were being held. It was evident that there was no perceived value there…or at least no value had been placed on them yet.

What makes these objects fascinating is that in being discarded one by one, they did not necessarily speak to a history or story. But in their accumulation, together, they speak volumes. Some of it is subtle, some not so subtle. It is in their positioning together within the piece that some of them become so interesting, obscure and peculiar…odd. But if viewed on their own, they might be passed over.

In digging deeper into the more technical origins of the word “ephemera,” I came across the term “ephemeron.” The word “ephemeron” itself refers to an object of a transitory or impermanent nature, from the same word root as “Ephemeral”. It is used on the context of computer science and refers to a process known as finalization. Finalization occurs when a garbage collector informs an application that an object is “almost collectable.” To make finalization more useful, “almost collectable” is defined in terms of a new class of objects, called ephemerons. Now really the part of this that fascinated me was the idea of “almost collectible”. To me, that phrase really resonated with what I was doing and how these objects ended up where they were.

Faheem Majeed, "Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden" Installation (Detail), April 20, 2012. (Image Credit: Tempestt Hazel.)

TH: This installation does not appear to be an attempt to tell a comprehensive story of The Center, but it is definitely telling a different story than what those who are familiar with it are accustomed to. The placement of objects appears highly intentional and while you aren’t forcing connections you definitely appear to be helping the viewer along to occasionally land on a particular narrative.  As the former Executive Director of The Center, how does this re-shape your own understanding of the institution?

FM: In creating a piece for the Hairy Blob exhibition, I knew I wanted to do something connected to the history of The Center. After spending so many years gaining intimate knowledge about all of the various people, events and objects that had passed through the building, I knew there was a statement to be made about that history in a non-traditional way.

Just in their positioning in the piece, these objects are almost overwhelming. The word “hoarder” springs forward for some people when they first see the installation protruding into their line of site from the back of the Hyde Park Art Center. I feel like through this piece, those objects gain a voice and a tangible feel. When I first stepped back from the piece, even I was overwhelmed… frustrated. It’s such a departure from my normal aesthetic that I didn’t know what to make of it at first. But then you settle in for the journey and your eye starts to jump around to some of my intentional curating and you see the story start to emerge. What’s fascinating is that that story changes depending on the viewer and their history, or lack thereof, with the SSCAC.

I intentionally selected objects that might point to smaller un-highlighted moments in the Center’s 70-year history–a  flyer from a show in the sixties, a fundraiser hosted by Bill Cosby, oil cans and car parts, print making inks, and left over painting supplies from an art classes. These objects represent seemingly irrelevant moments in the history of the organization, but my argument is that each moment no matter how insignificant adds to the canvas of the space’s existence. I feel that there is an abundance of information about the Center available and if this installation piques the interest of a viewer, there are places to find that information. My goal was to show the magnitude of the smaller happenings.

TH: In your artist’s statement you mention that this is part of an “ongoing series of work that utilizes cedar wood panels to host a variety of interventions.” My mind automatically goes to an intervention as a something that situates itself between a point on an understood path and a predicted destination.  How does the installation, the performances and other ways you plan to utilize the materials act as interventions? Perhaps you have a different definition of intervention?

FM: That is a great statement that captures my intent! The interventions I’m speaking of will be an undetermined series of happenings that will take place on and with the panels. In the context of this piece, the intervention is making people pause to take notice of the Center or changing the way people have viewed the Center or even changing the way stakeholders view and interact with the Center. I find myself drawn to work that can drive dialogue and sometimes actual change. Although I am transitioning out of the Center and refocusing my work on other areas, this approach and passion are what I leave with. I want to continue to carry that perspective with me…of creating situations and curating opportunities that bring people together and perhaps act as a catalyst for change. Similar to the Center, my intention is that these panels and their use will live beyond me and other users.

Faheem Majeed, "Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden" Installation (Detail), April 20, 2012. (Image Credit: Tempestt Hazel.)

TH: SSCAC is steeped in history and holds a special place in the hearts of those who have connected with it whether that connection was made half a century ago or half a year ago.  This may be a difficult question to answer, but have you seen different responses to the work that you’re doing depending on where people locate themselves within that history?

FM: The great thing about this work is that it engages a variety of people in different ways. Older stakeholders from the Center can navigate the piece and can intimately explain the origins of the objects or content surrounding the objects. For someone who has never known of the Center, a familiarity of the types of things collected is of value. At one point someone told me the piece reminded them of old school Maxwell Street. “Something familiar” is important to the success of the work…a place of entry. Similar to many experiences around the Center, you may not know everything about the space or history but you do get a sense of value, warmth, and history.

Faheem’s installation will be on view through July 29, 2012 for Hairy Blob, the current exhibition at Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Avenue, Chicago, IL 60615. Join him and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) on Sunday, June 3 at 2pm for a free concert as part of his installation, where his piece will serve as the backdrop for a musical performance by Douglas Ewart & Quasar, members of the AACM.

Our weekly calendar is a list of visual art related events happening in Chicago. The events that we choose are loosely curated based on the information that is put in front of us. If you would like to take advantage of having your event listed on our website please send a press release to nicolettecaldwell(at)sixtyinchesfromcenter.org.

MONDAY || May 14th, 2012

Peace Party for AREA
Come party, dance and celebrate – a portion of bar proceeds will be donated to AREA Chicago to help keep our work going. PEACE PARTY is a monthly funk & soul fundraiser hosted by Danny’s Tavern featuring DJs Jocelyn Brown, Maggie Mui, Naomi Walker & Dave Marques. A portion of the bar proceeds go to a different beneficiary each month. AREA Chicago was chosen this month. So drink wisely! Friends welcome!

Founded in 2005, AREA Chicago supports the work of people and organizations building a socially just city. AREA actively gathers, produces, and shares knowledge about local culture and politics. Its newspaper, website, and events create relationships and sustain community through art, research, education, and activism.

Bringing you the funkiest of funk and deepest of soul are: DJ’s Maggi Mui, Naomi Walker, Shazam Bangles, Itzi Nallah, and Jocelyn Brown.

Danny’s
1951 W. Dickens Ave.
Chicago, IL
9:00p
Suggested donation
21+

TUESDAY || May 15th, 2012

TBD

WEDNESDAY || May 16th, 2012

Piranha Club #4: Garlic & Greens
This month, Chef Eric will team up with Fereshteh Toosi and her Garlic & Greens
projects to cook up vegan soul food with Dara Cooper of Fresh Moves mobile
grocery and Chef Tsadakeeyah of Majani Catering. Our menu will include peanut
buttered collard greens, okra & mushrooms, baked bbq black-eyed peas,
cornbread, yam-ginger pie, sweet tea and mint juleps.

Roots & Culture
1034 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL
6:00 – 8:00p
$30 in advance // Only 10 seats available // Buy tickets HERE

THURSDAY || May 17th, 2012

BON VOYAGE CELEBRATION and FUNDRAISER
The African Festival of the Arts proudly presents a BON VOYAGE CELEBRATION and FUNDRAISER as FANTA CELAH prepares to represent / present her FINE ART at this year’s International Exhibition at DAK’ART 2012 in Senegal, Africa!!!! This glorious exhibition will take place from May 11 through June 10, 2012. Fanta will be participating for 10 days and will share her experiences via FB posts and photos!

About DAK’ART: DAK’ART is an international artistic event devoted to African Visual Arts, gathering African and foreign artists from ALL continents! DAK’ART supports and encourages creativity, promotion, diffusion, artistic training and art education in Africa; promotes African artists internationally; encourages the integration of contemporary African Art into the international Art market; contributes to the development of art appreciation in Africa and publications on art and contemporary African artists.

Africa International House
6200 South Drexel
Chicago, IL
5:30 – 8:30p
$15 Suggested Donation

FRIDAY || May 18th, 2012

Nearer to Know Less // Performances by Husband, Robby MacBain, and Hannah Verrill
Please join us for an evening of performances organized by Original Features (Benjamin Chaffee and Samantha Topol). Included in the program will be new work by the group Husband (Annie Maurer, Matthew Shalzi, Millie Kapp and Noah Furman), a sound piece by Robby MacBain, and a performance related to past performances by Hannah Verrill.

ALDERMAN EXHIBITIONS
1138 W. Randolph
Chicago, IL 60607
Doors at 7:00p, begins at 7:30p
$5 Suggested Donation

8 x 8 at The Coop
In the spirit of artistic collaboration, The Coop and Gapers Block teamed up to produce 8×8, an experiment in writing and design. Eight Chicagoland designers were paired with eight local writers to create collaborative works, with text informing and influencing art and vice versa. The results of this experiment are presented in limited edition poster form, with writing and design back to back.

Writers:
Patrick Somerville, Claire Zulkey, Ramsin Canon, Kevin Guilfoile, William Shunn, Veronica Bond, Wendy McClure, Scott Smith

Designers:
Jesse Hora, Andy Luce, Chad Kouri, Ina Weise, Letterform, Ryan Sievert, Paul Octavious, Kyle Fletcher

Proceeds benefit Open Books

The COOP | A co-working space in River North
230 W. Superior, 2F
Chicago, IL 60654
6:00 – 10:00p

A MICROGALLERY :: Galerie F Fundraising Event
Finch’s Beer Co. will be hosting a fundraising event for the upcoming Logan Square gallery and shop, Galerie F. The night begins at 7pm at their brewery located at 4565 N Elston Avenue. Galerie F will turn the brewery in to an active gallery by hanging screenprinted posters on fermenters and can stacks.

We will have an OPEN BAR for the event duration, featuring their Cut Throat and Golden Wing brews. A live DJ will be spinning all evening long while small brewery tours are given by the Finch’s staff. Finch’s Beer Co. and Galerie F merchandise will be available for purchase as well.

Meet the printmakers and gallery owners while socializing with local artists, art supporters, and beer enthusiasts. A portion of all ticket sales will go towards the Galerie F Kickstarter. There is limited space so buy your ticket today!

Finch’s Beer Company
4565 N. Elston
Chicago, IL 60630
7:00 – 10:00p
Purchase Tickets HERE: http://store.finchbeer.com/collections/frontpage/products/gallery-f-benefit-hosted-by-finchs-beer-co
21+ Event

Sex, Spraypaint & Satire: Parody without Humor
Ray Noland has been an urban art pioneer. Noland is a Chicago native and graduate of the School of the Art Institute. He operates the Creative Rescue Organization (CRO) and works under the same pseudonym. During the 2008 Presidential election, CRO gained national attention with his street art campaign ‘Go Tell Mama!’ His striking images of Obama appeared throughout Chicago and across the country in the streets and alleyways. The concept was particularly interesting because of its contemporary, urban aesthetic, which proudly defied traditional campaign propaganda and stood apart from the street graffiti most of us are accustomed to seeing.

CRO followed up that campaign with a series entitled ‘Run, Blago Run!’ As the former Governor of Illinois pleaded his innocence on television, his image started appearing on Chicago buildings. CRO began garnering national attention for his provocative and instantly recognizable imagery.

CRO draws his inspiration from contemporary political discourse. His work is particularly powerful because of the elegant manner in which it depicts serious, complicated and contentious issues, while insightfully critiquing the political culture in which we all live. The visuals are lighthearted, satirical, funny, and contentious all at the same time. All the while, he has maintained an intense focus on local, national and international politics.

Grand Bizzare
1418 W. Division St.
Chicago, IL
7:00 – 11:00p
FREE

Design Cloud Gallery Reception: Culture Shocked
This multi-media event is designed to take you completely out of your element.
Paintings, photographs, installations and short film are exhibited together for a cohesive look at how beautiful, frustrating, and shocking cultural disconnect can be. Featured Curator: Susan Kissinger

Design Cloud, LLC
118 N. Peoria 2N
Chicago, IL 60607
6:00 – 9:00p
$10 Suggested Donation // Drinks and live jazz included.

a PERSONAL PROJECT show
13 chicago artists
baring their souls
so you can see
how their photographs,
paintings and other
expressions came to be.
it’s extraordinary.

Sandra Antongiorgi – Painter/mixed media
Alyssa Miserendino – Photographer
Donte Tatum – Photographer
Damien Thompson – Photographer
Alan Rovge – Photographer
Jeff Dalhgren – Photographer
Michelle Hierzer – Painter/mixed media
Robin Croke – Photographer
Luis DeLeTorre – Painter/mixed media
Scott Thompson – Photographer
Emily Gualdoni – Photographer
Tyler Mallory – Photographer
Sabrina Antoinnette – Painter/mixed media

Defibrillator Gallery
1136 N. Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, Illinois
7:00 – 11:00p
FREE

“And Then…” Artist Reception
“and then…,” showcases the work of Pattie Chalmers, Gerit Grimm and Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, three artists using traditional craft mediums to tell whimsical, fantastical and bitingly ironic narratives. Through figurative ceramics and textiles, Chalmers, Grimm, and Hiltner reinterpret childhood memory and 20th century American cultural history to create modern fairy tales.

Lillstreet Art Center
4401 N. Ravenswood
Chicago, IL 60640
5:00 – 8:00p
FREE

Artists of Eastbank Open Studio
View cutting edge and representative art at the Artists of Eastbank Open Studios the 3rd Friday of the month. The visually breathtaking 500,000 sq. ft. structure is site of the former landmark Speigel Catalog Warehouse. Artist Turtel Onli will give a workshop covering the simple use of airbrush at 6:30PM followed by a hands on session. Artists of Eastbank represent many artistic disciplines, including: painting, sculpture, graphic design, jewelry design, glass, custom furniture design, paste painting, ceramics, and fiber arts. Also, on display will be the Center’s new 20 piece multidimensional sculpture garden, including the 9ft. tall satiric metal sculpture in the image of Sarah Palin’s head. Attached you will find an image of Turtel Onli’s work and his biography as well as the Sarah Palin sculpture by Taylor Wallace.

Bridgeport Art Center
1200 W. 35th St.
Chicago, Illinois
6:30 – 10:00p
FREE

BAC Artist Series Presents: Peter Craig
Join us to celebrate Peter Craig’s 25 years of Art making in the Chicago Advertising community! This exhibit will display a range of paintings, drawings, and digital work!

Berwyn Route 66 Museum
7003 W. Ogden Avenue
Berwyn, IL 60402
5:30 – 9:30p
FREE

Art-N-Spoke Bike Banner Workshop
A free teach in to build your own bike banner! To keep costs low we ask people interested in the project to bring extra materials if they have them/can afford them. Materials will be provided but will be limited.

IF YOU HAVE IT BRING: Paper (poster board works best), Markers, Colored Tape, Hole Punchers, Scissors.

INVITE AND BRING ALONG FRIENDS! THE MORE THE MERRIER!!

500 W. Cermak
Chicago, Illinois
6:00 – 8:00p

MUSES & VALKYRIES new works by MEG LEARY
Muses & Valkyries is the first solo exhibition by Chicago-based artist Meg Leary. Trained as a classical opera singer, Leary is fluent in both the languages of music and visual arts, using one to inform the other. She uses a variety of mediums to explore ideas of sonic theory, the power of the human voice, and the construct of the “Diva.” Performance is at the center of Leary’s practice, engaging her interest in the body and the ephemeral nature of music. This work functions in conversation with her more formal object making practice, using materials such as cassette tape and vinyl records.

For the event at Thalia Hall, Leary is collaborating with the empty space at the historic opera theater, thinking about cultural memory and how music, art and performance can rejuvenate a space. Using a combination of performance, sculpture, music and dance, the show will be a two-night event followed by a gallery show of documentation and materials from the performance at Thalia Hall.

Thalia Hall
1215 – 1225 W. 18th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60608
7:00 – 11:00p
*This performance also takes place Saturday, May 19th from 7:00 – 11:00p.

Peter Dallos – The Struggle Series
More information coming soon …

Gallery Swarm
2902 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60657
7:00 – 10:00p
FREE

SATURDAY || May 19th, 2012

LOOK Back: The Chicago Art Renaissances
Nigel Freeman, Director and Founder of the African-American Fine Art
Department at Swann Auction Galleries in New York City will discuss Chicago¹s art history in the context of American culture. Don¹t miss your chance to view and hear the stories behind rarely seen works of classic African American artworks from SSCAC¹s permanent collection.

SSCAC
3831 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, Illinois
2:00 – 5:00p
FREE

Summer Open House: Free Workshops All Day
Celebrate the summer with Lillstreet Art Center! Enjoy FREE workshops and demonstrations for the whole family. Take something home that’s handmade by YOU in 1-2 hours.

Kids’ Activities: 12-4pm
Introduction to Drawing Workshop: 12-1pm
Glass Flameworking Workshop: 1-3pm
Hammered Bracelets: 1:30-2:30pm?
Wheelthrowing Workshop: 2-4pm
Wheelthrowing Big Demo: 2-4pm
Handbuilding Clay Slab Vases: 2-4pm
Screenprinting T-Shirts Workshop(bring your own or purchase from sales locker): 2-4pm
Band Rings: 3-4pm

Lillstreet Art Center
4401 N. Ravenswood
Chicago, IL 60640
12:00 – 4:00p

Suspended
Suspended is a state, a moment, some kind of disbelief, a stalemated gesture frozen in its own established conditions. Richard Galling’s paintings deconstruct and utilize marks and gestures within a framework of abstraction, proposing a new system of painted signs. Daniel Shea’s objects and installations examine the mythologies and histories of the post-industrial ruin and a perceived material authenticity. Together their work offers an interplay between an aesthetic and conceptual modernism and industrial modernity. As one history implicates another, their work shown together suspends multiple moments in aesthetic and political lineages.

LVL3
1542 N. Milwaukee Ave. 3rd fl
Chicago, IL 60622
6:00 – 10:00p
FREE

SUNDAY || May 20th, 2012

HOW THINGS STAND new works by JANINE BIUNNO
Janine Biunno’s body of work exhibited in How Things Stand is visually informed by the continual gathering of images, both via photographing her daily commute across New York City and by simultaneously searching the internet for existing imagery of the same spaces. These reference images, equal parts original and digitally sourced, investigate the relationship between representation and interpretation in the built environment. As an artist Biunno is primarily interested in the often overlooked in-between spaces and physical boundaries of the structures that comprise cities. The work presented here is a distillation of the dense visual information of urban space. How Things Stand includes thirty Constructivist-inspired paper cutouts and an accompanying take-away zine of a selection of the reference materials, intended to provide context to the minimalist works.

ACRE Projects
1913 W. 17th Street
Chicago, IL 60608
4:00 – 8:00p
FREE

Haiku Hike
Join us for an afternoon workshop of walking, chalking, crafting haiku, and bookmaking in this fun and family-friendly two-hour event. With the help of artist Guillermo Delgado and the North Branch Projects staff, participants of all ages will construct a handmade book for their very own haiku. This event is open to the public – no registration necessary – and donations of any amount will be accepted. All monies collected at this event will go toward the support of North Branch Projects – a community bookbinding facility.

This event is part of “Haiku-In-Residence: Daily Conversations with Nature,” an artist residency project by Guillermo Delgado in collaboration with North Branch Projects. Guillermo Delgado, an interdisciplinary artist, reflects on daily life – annotating the wisdom in nature through a daily practice of haiku poetry. Since March 24th, and for the 100 days following, North Branch Projects will exhibit Mr. Delgado’s sequential haiku articulations in its storefront window. In addition, the collected texts and images will be available for viewing on North Branch’s website and on the artist’s blog. A hand-bound book collection of haiku poems will become part of North branch Projects’ Neighborhood Archives and available for viewing at the end of the residency.

North Branch Projects
3550 W. Lawrence
Chicago, IL 60625
1:00 – 3:00p
FREE

MUSIC AND ART MEET CULTURE FEST: Chicago’s Largest Indoor Music and Art Festival
Be part of the most mind-blowing multisensory experiences ever brought to the City of Chicago!!! Bringing together Chicago’s top artistic and musical talent to Congress Theater, My Daily Escape and Myhabanero.com proudly presents:

This event will feed your 5 senses: SIGHT ● HEARING ● TASTE ● TOUCH ● SMELL

OPEN BAR, FREE appetizers, and sweets from 6:15PM-7:15PM

Art displayed throughout the theater with over 100 artists showcasing and selling their work. Live art stations, Body painting and walking art pieces, Live music performances on the main stage by:

Delamancha, The Second, Jesse “Fuser” Santoyo, Boom Shakalaka, Estrella Negra (w/ StankStar), and Shadow the Machine Angel!

Top Chicago DJ’s including Video DJ’s spinning all night long: Soulphonetics, DJ Al-T, DJ Kulprit, & DJ WarMachine

Free glow sticks and a raffle ticket for a chance to win prizes

The Congress Theater
2135 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
5:00p – 12:00a
$10 in advance // $15.00 cash at the door // Purchase Tickets HERE
18+ event // IDs required

• Art Talk Chicago
• Bad At Sports
• Chicago Artists Resource
• Fotoflow
• Gapers Block
• The Visualist
• The Pilsen Project
• Chicago Gallery News

Our weekly calendar is a list of visual art related events happening in Chicago. The events that we choose are loosely curated based on the information that is put in front of us. If you would like to take advantage of having your event listed on our website please send a press release to nicolettecaldwell(at)sixtyinchesfromcenter.org.

MONDAY || May 7th, 2012

TBD

TUESDAY || May 8th, 2012

SALON: Rooted: food and farming initiatives as regional artworks
To conclude the Of Other Chicagos SALON series, we will examine ways that innovative agricultural and culinary projects assert new understandings of spaces, ideals, tools, and relationships. Food is a common language with which we can talk about topics such as sustainability, local economies, nutrition, access, with many different types of people. These creative initiatives are about the pleasures of food, understanding diverse histories of cuisine, and bringing people together around a table to discuss the issues that are important to their lives in Chicago and elsewhere.

Featuring respondents Martha Bayne, Fallen Fruit, Eric May, Andi Sutton, and Fereshteh Toosi. Facilitated by Penny Duff.

threewalls hosts a variety of public programs aimed at engaging audiences in a conversations about the visual arts. The salon program is an open, topical conversation, where the public is invited to participate in a moderated conversation around current issues in contemporary art practice. SALONS invite a group of respondents to be on hand and part of the discussion, but everyone is welcome to come and be apart of the dialog. The SALON 2012 series Of Other Chicagos also highlights Propeller Fund awardees and other artists and creative thinkers who work in the public realm.

threewalls
119 N. Peoria #2C, North
Chicago, IL 60607
7:00 – 9:00p
FREE

WEDNESDAY || May 9th, 2012

Australian Cartoonists’ Caravan of Comics
Australia’s premier independent comic creators are hitting the road for three weeks in three small cars, stopping at Quimby’s on May 9th! Join us in welcoming:

Pat Grant – artist-writer­surfer whose debut graphic novel Blue (Top Shelf) about localism and racism may turn out to be the Great Australian Graphic Novel Ben Hutchings – a cartoonist whose softly spoken manner belies a surprisingly cheeky streak that informs some of the funniest comics in the world Andrew Fulton – a quiet and unassuming cartoonist whose wordless action comics are breathtaking in their inventiveness and sense of play with the form Mandy Ord – whose autobiographical comics about life in suburban Melbourne (including the recent “Sensitive Creatures”) are consistently some of Australia’s most accomplished sequential storytelling Douglas Holgate – part Viking, all cartoonist – is the Caravan’s most established member having published numerous children’s titles both in Australia and overseas.

Quimby’s Bookstore
1854 W North Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
7:00 – 8:00p
FREE

THURSDAY || May 10th, 2012

New Works on Paper by Arturo Herrera
One of the masters of contemporary collage, Herrera has a long history in Chicago, where he lived, studied (MFA, U.I.C.), and worked early in his prodigious career. Born in Venezuela, now residing in Berlin, over the last two decades Herrera has developed a highly personal, extremely flexible approach to paper collage. In this, his first solo show in Chicago since 1998, when he mounted a now-legendary exhibition at the Renais-sance Society, Herrera explores the notion of the series. Featuring groups of related collages ranging from diptychs to 10-piece series, each cluster of collages provides a different vantage on the nature of the series – some featuring a shared substrate, some sharing imagery, some sharing a palette or mood. With Herrera’s classic material, highly compressed and abstracted fragments from a wide variety of sources, the work in Series is a never ending gobstopper of visual stimuli, a bolus of pulverized paperwork, reconfigured into some- thing provocative, sensual, and always intriguing. Series is presented simultaneously in three different galler-ies – CvsD, Thomas Dane Gallery (London), and Sikkema-Jenkins (New York) – and the full set of series is reproduced in a full-color catalog, published by Holzwarth Publications, which will be available for sale at the opening.

Corbett vs. Dempsey
1120 N. Ashland Avenue, 3rd Floor
Chicago, Illinois, 60622
5:00 – 8:00p
FREE

Carmen McLeod
Rhona Hoffman Gallery is pleased to present new work by American artist Carmen McLeod. This will be her first exhibition at the gallery. McLeod’s sculptures and paintings are based on an awareness of material and process that is developed through experimentation and play in her studio. She expands upon the inherent properties of mediums, allowing these properties to direct the formal aspects of her work. Employing the very materials that compose a canvas (cloth, wood, and pigment) within her sculptural constructions and paintings, McLeod acknowledges their self-referentiality.

Drawing inspiration from the works of German artist Rosemarie Trockel (specifically a monochromatic work of knitted wool and wood entitled Black Sea) McLeod began a new series of woven paintings for this exhibition. In works such as Match, 2012, she references the feminist critique by employing weaving, an action often categorized as woman’s work, while playing with such serious notions as the monochrome and the artist’s gesture. In Heaven Here, 2012, yellow squares simultaneously reference a trompe l’oeil woven surface as well as the tiles of a domestic space. The screen of white and blue-green sky questions not only surface and material, but the pictoral space as a whole.

Carmen McLeod was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Hoffman Rhona Gallery
118 N Peoria St Ste 1
Chicago, IL 60607-2394
5:00 – 7:30p
FREE

FRIDAY || May 11th, 2012

Pulled -A Catalog of Screen Printing
Pulled is a 40+ artist show that catalogs contemporary screen printing. Initially curated in book form (Pulled) by Brooklyn based artist and designer Mike Perry, the art has traveled to shows in LA, Brooklyn, Portland and Cincinnati before arriving in Chicago.

Artists: Aesthetic Apparatus, Ashkahn, Scott, Barry, Deanne Cheuk, Josh Cochran, Michael Coleman, Jim Datz, DEMO, Rachel Domm, E. Rock, Anna Giertz, J. Namdev Hardisty, Steven Harrington, Maya Hayuk, Andrew Holder, Gluekit, Cody Hudson, Imeus Design, Jeremyville, Kaleidophant, Landland, Daniel Luedtke, David Maron, Marque & Anna Wolf, Blake E. Marquis, Scott Massey, Garrett Morin, Rinzen, Andy Mueller, Chris Silas Neal, Mike Perry, Pietari Posti, Luke Ramsey, Seripop, Chris Rubino, Nathaniel Russell, Joel Speasmaker, Marcroy Smith, Andy Smith, Sonnenzimmer, Jim Stoten, James Victore, Hannah Waldron

Screen printing is a utilitarian production technique. It exists, first and foremost, as an engine of mass production. Defined by repetition, consistency and physicality, the method serves the arena of the mundane: street signs, grocery bags, scratch and sniff stickers. Pulled is a show about the artistic limits of this medium. Showcasing an immense range of work from 40+ designers living and working in all corners of the world, Pulled examines the explosive creativity loosed by a rigorous breakdown and buildup of layers, opacities, exposures and pulls.

Public Works
1539 N Damen Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
7:00 – 10:00p
FREE

“Over and Over Again” Opening Reception
Chicago Artists’ Coalition is pleased to present OVER AND OVER AGAIN, a solo exhibition featuring work by BOLT Resident Stacia Yeapanis. Combining video, sculpture, collage and embroidery, the exhibition addresses the sometimes grueling, sometimes pleasant sisyphusian nature of daily life in order to reveal the ways that repetition can provide solace, understanding, and the opportunity for transformation in the face of its own monotony. In Yeapanis’ work, the collection and accumulation of ubiquitous materials emphasize time and the endurance required to exist from moment to moment. Appropriation and remix reveal the ways we choose to make our lives meaningful, even when we didn’t choose the circumstances in which we live.

Chicago Artists’ Coalition
217 North Carpenter
Chicago, IL 60607
6:00 – 9:00p
FREE

EXHIBITION: MEDLEY- A Collage Group Exhibit
Join us for the opening reception on May 11th for an exhibit featuring 13 visual artists working in the age old novelty of collage or, assemblage. Whether by glue, tape, or other method of adhesive, this exhibition strives to showcase a variety in treatment, theme, material, and aesthetic. Let’s see what they pull together!

Artists include: J.P. King, Jessica Bell, Emily Haasch, Oleg Borodin, Peter Kepha, Josh Slater, Matt Shaw, Justin Angelos, Chad Kouri, Ashlie Chavez, Arn Gyssels, and Ruben Aguirre.

The Chicago Urban Art Society
600 West Cermak Road
Chicago, IL 60616
6:00p
FREE

‘Second Fridays’ at Lacuna Artists Lofts Studios
Lacuna is excited to open its doors to the general public every Second Friday for this all-building, open-studios event, featuring painters, sculptors, photographers, fashion designers/retailers/distributors, multi-media designers, music, food, enjoy the “We Are Young” Runway Show on Lacuna’s luxury Rooftop deck, and much more!

View, peruse, meet new people, shop, or just come by to take a stroll through our 250,000sf converted warehouse space to see what Lacuna is all about. We hope to see you there!

FREE PARKING !!!

Lacuna Artist Loft Studios
2150 South Canalport (5A-5)
Chicago, IL 60608
6:30 – 9:30p
FREE

Morpho Gallery Presents: NATURAL NETWORKS
Four Chicago-based artists address systems of scale, thought, and unseen connectivity. Venture into the borderlands of the abstract, where recognition slips into chaos, revealing new growth–forms propagate themselves on the page, and seem to evolve independently from the hands that draw. Join us on May 11th for a pageant of melting ganglia, pulsating fauna, and hidden infrastructures that populate our earthly experience.

Artists include: Ben Dimock, Miriam Dubinsky, Serena Himmelfarb, & Renee Robbins

Morpho Gallery
5216 N. Damen
Chicago, IL 60625
7:00 – 10:00p
FREE

Manual Labor
The Post Family all began when a group of semi-like minded chaps bonded over excessive amounts of time on the computer. Oh, our poor young eyes, so weary. All the time, producing these virtual products that are here today, gone tomorrow. We romanticized about studio arts and began to crave the smell of letterpress ink, springy squeegees and dirty fingernails. Something more tactile. Some physical labor for gosh sakes!

Moving into our sixth year, those laptops haven’t completely gone away (we figured we’d be back on the abacus by now), but our time on them has been more and more influenced by our interests in skilled trades such as printmaking, ceramics, furniture making and custom typography. So, in celebration of hand-craft that inspires us to get our hands dirty, we bring you ‘Manual Labor’. Our Spring showcase focused on such things as letterpress printing, product design, small batch brewing, sign painting and handmade knit-wares.

The Post Family
1821 W Hubbard St #202
Chicago, IL 60622
7:00 – 11:00p
FREE

HIDDEN/REVEALED – The Art of Ryan Bourque, Sean Nader, & Carla Wyzgala at New Wave Coffee
New Wave Coffee’s newest gallery show, Hidden/Revealed, takes a look at identity within our surroundings and features the work of three artists, Ryan Bourque, Sean Nader, and Carla Wyzgala.

New Wave Coffee
3103 W Logan Blvd / 2557 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
8:00 – 10:00p
FREE

Involuntary. Loss(y). Privacy
“Involuntary. Loss(y). Privacy” is a timely compilation of works that looks at the Internetʼs evolving impact on our daily lives and the ways in which we are unintentionally identified/identifiable by data that is collected, captured and stored. Recent events in the national news media remind us of just how powerful a single fleeting image and profile can be in determining whether one is labeled menace or martyr. Stephen Flemister and Julian Williams are deeply invested in using portrait painting as a vehicle for exploring this duality. The exhibitionʼs title centers on American societyʼs increasing willingness to give up the right to control personal information via the Internet and social media. In information technology, lossy compression is a term that refers to a data encoding procedure that minimizes the amount of data that is needed to make an image file legible. Each time a file is compressed, data is discarded and resolution is lost. For this exhibition however, lossy has taken on many different meanings for Flemister and Williams: Loss of self; a loss of innocence; the reduction of a person down to a vague likeness; an identity that is unrecognizable, minimized, and mistaken. Both artists start with digital imagery of unknown Black subjects as their source material but arrive at very different conceptual places. “Involuntary. Loss(y). Privacy,” is on display May 11 – July 21, 2012.

Blanc Gallery
4455 S. King Drive
Chicago, IL
6:00p – 9:00p
FREE

Dear Resonance and the Memory Hole New work by Bradley Biancardi and Zoe Nelson
Bradley will be exhibiting works on canvas, paper, and piano. He sees these works as characters within a personal mythology, created from his experiences and memories. These works speak of his continuing interest in the area between figuration and abstraction, and the area between his music-making and visual art-making practices. Collaboration can be a magical variable of music making, and for this reason he is excited for his work to be in conversation with the work of Zoe Nelson.

Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Center
1034 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
6:00 – 9:00p
FREE

SATURDAY || May 12th, 2012

ARTIST TALK / LECTURE SERIES with INSPIRACJA
Join Gala Gallery Chicago this Saturday for our ARTIST TALK with the artist of INSPIRACJA. Chuck Walker, Greg Kumpin, Ish Muhammad, Liviu Poleuca and Max Sansing will hold a discussion and take questions about there techniques, inspiration and connection with the art community in Chicago. This is the first of a lecture series brought to you by Gala Gallery Chicago.

Gala Gallery
1000 N. Milwaukee Ave
Chicago
3pm – 8pm
FREE

MCA Screen: Cauleen Smith: A Star Is a Seed / Solar Flare Arkestral Marching Band performance
Mining the rich legacy of experimental music in Chicago as part of her ongoing research into radical black creativity in urban centers, filmmaker Cauleen Smith investigates the performance and experience of music and sound. A Star Is a Seed evolved from her explorations of the Afro-futurist identity developed in Chicago in the 1950s by experimental musician Sun Ra—a research opportunity that coincided with her 2010 residency at Chicago’s threewalls. Examining the connections among all forms of matter from seeds to stars—as well as color and reflection as metaphor—Smith created all-new work for this exhibition, which offers an immersive, multisensory experience. May 12–Sep 16, 2012

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
220 E Chicago Ave
Chicago IL 60611
1:00–1:30pm
FREE with museum admission

Explore Fulton Market
A collaboration of neighborhood business owners. Tap into creativity of local business owners. Tour Fulton Market District, one of Chicago’s last urban neighborhoods in transition. Meet urban pioneers who are artists and gallerists, fashion boutique owners and photographers, interior designers and home furnishings retailers, dance studio instructors and pet day care operators, as well as restaurateurs and food shop owners in the Fulton Market neighborhood.

Participating Galleries Include:

Peter Miller Gallery | 118 N. Peoria | 312.951.1700
Rhona Hoffman Gallery | 118 N. Peoria | 312.455.1990
Design Cloud | 118 N. Peoria |
G R N’Namdi Gallery | 110 N. Peoria | 312.563.9240
Western Exhibitions | 119 N Peoria St, 2A | 312.480.8390
Packer Schopf Gallery | 942 W. Lake St. | 312.226.8984
Douglas Dawson Gallery | 400 North Morgan Street | 312.226.7975
Jeffrey Breslow Sculpture | 1015 West Fulton Market | 312.526.3700
Linda Warren Projects | 327 N. Aberdeen | 312.432.9500
Kasia Kay Art Projects | 215 N. Aberdeen | 312.944.0408
Mars Gallery | 1139 W. Fulton Market | 312.226.7808
Takohl Gallery of Jewels | 110 N Peoria | 312-421-6222

Tour Chicago’s original produce district!

Between Halsted and Racine Streets, Kinzie Street and Randolph Street.
Ample free street parking and near new Morgan Street L Stop.
For more information visit: explorefultonmarket.com
12:00p – 5:00p

New Sounds and New Sculpture from Coppice and Maria Jönsonn
HCL proudly presents two dynamo sponsored artists: Writer/ Sculptor, Maria Jönsson and duo of bellows & electronics, Coppice (Noé Cuéllar & Joseph Kramer).

Join us as Maria Jönsson presents the culmination of her residency at HCL, “Lawn Sculpture”: a new body of work exploring the found object as maquette. Additional viewing hours Sunday May 13th, noon-5 PM. More info: http://mariajonsson.info/

Coppice presents a listening of “The Pleasance & The Purchase” (a new 7″ release on Italian label Senufo Editions) followed by a live set of new works for prepared pump organ and electronics, featuring Holly Murkerson, and visual art by Tara Hills. More info: http://www.futurevessel.com/coppice/

High Concept Laboratories
1401 W. Wabansia Ave.
Chicago, IL 60642
6:00 – 10:00p
RSVP: rsvp (at) highconceptlaboratories.org

1:1, new work by Olivia Valentine
Artist Olivia Valentine creates relationships between textile and architectural structures. Often working in site-specific installation using methods such as photography, drawing and textile construction, her work addresses the threshold spaces in both buildings and textiles. Recently these have taken the form of 1:1 scale lace windows.

The Happy Collaborationists
1254 N. Noble St.
Chicago, IL 60642
6;00 – 10:00p
FREE

ULTRAVIOLETS: New Work by Ellen Nielsen
Ellen Nielsen is an interdisciplinary artist whose work includes sculpture, photography, performance, and video. She received her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2008 and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. Characterized by absurd humor and uncanny visual transformations, Nielsen’s diverse body of work explores the conventions of kitsch, femininity, and artificial nature. She lives and works in Chicago.

The opening reception will followed by a basement afterparty with MTZ and DJ Jean Shorts.

Plaines Project
1822 S Desplaines St.
Chicago, IL
7:00 – 12:00a
FREE

SUNDAY || May 13th, 2012

Dawoud Bey: Picturing People Opening Reception and Artist Talk
Join us May 13th from 4-7pm for the opening reception of “Picturing People”, a career survey of Dawoud Bey’s work, including a new chapter of “Strangers/Community” featuring portraits of individuals from Hyde Park, Chicago, home to both the University of Chicago and the artist. A conversation with the artist will take place from 5-6pm in Kent Hall, Room 107.

Since 1975, Chicago-based photographer Dawoud Bey has developed a body of work distinguished for its commitment to portraiture as means for understanding contemporary social circumstances. Ranging from chance street encounters to studio portraits, Bey has investigated a range of methods to find increased engagement with his subjects, and the resulting candor and expression such images convey. The Renaissance Society is pleased to present a career survey of Bey’s work, which will be accompanied by a catalogue including new scholarly essays, and is being slated to travel.

The Renaissance Society
5811 South Ellis Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
4:00 – 7:00p
FREE

CROSSING SPACE: new works by EUNHYEA CHOI
Eunhyea Choi’s work is conducted within the frame of internal abstraction, perception of light and ephemeral visions, expressed through drawings, paintings, and installations involving light. This imaginative and emotional flow allows Choi to feel the consensual movement between space, time, and light to draw out vague outlines of unseen existences. Lights merge with one another, move, and dissolve within a fluid space. Through these various transformation stages, visual illusions expand their spheres and meanings by making connections with new spaces. Through these connections informed by the fragments of life, she is striving to create works that could be overlapped with endless imagination and numerous interpretations.

ACRE Projects
1913 W 17th Street
Chicago, IL 60608
4:00 – 8:00p
FREE

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Laura Miller, Sentient City, 2012. (Image courtesy of Gapers Block.)

This article was originally posted at Gapers Block on April 30, 2012 by Britt Julious. This article is part of a series of article exchange partnerships between Sixty Inches From Center and other online blogs and journals that have missions similar to ours–to document and support the visual arts happening in Chicago. The goal of these partnerships is to build bridges within our writing community, help promote one another to new audiences and give more exposure to the art that keeps our Chicago experience compelling.

Laura Elayne Miller describes the process of her work as an “archaelogical dig.” Before creating any new work in mediums ranging from sculpture to filmmaking to printmaking (and many others), Miller must collect, read, look, listen, and jump into the themes and ideas of her work. In her latest work – an “artistic cartography” of her three interpretations of sensory experience and space – entitled Sentient Space at THE MISSION, Miller based the creation on a prototype from two years ago.

In Sentient Space, Miller has created a map of sorts with life-size sculptures for the “natural world,” the “industrial,” and the “perceptive or imaginary space.” Her “natural world” sculpture is structured like a skewed double-helix and features moss, and fabrics and textiles in earth tones. The “industrial” sculpture (a welded metal structure) challenges and addresses the man-made made or structural world. Her “perceptive” sculpture demonstrates a playfulness and more imaginary spirit, yet still works in conjunction with her other two works. Miller created a giant, hand-made color prism of 100 pieces assembled and lit to cast certain shadows, eliciting a mystical quality in far contrast to the “natural” or “industrial” pieces to her installation.

“I just find it really interesting that you could take the structure of cartography or the idea of concrete data or elements from environment, space, and place to combine that with metaphor and experiential ideas,” she said.

Sentient Space marks the premiere of THE MISSION’s newest venture, THE SUB-MISSION. The creation of THE SUB-MISSION was born out frustration with the dearth of independent project spaces for emerging Chicago artists. THE SUB-MISSION aims to create a dialogue with the work THE MISSION features upstairs (primarily focused on emerging and mid-career South American artists).

Last year, the gallery began accepting submissions based on how the proposed projects could dialogue with what was planned in the main gallery space and new submissions will be accepted during the summer.

Gustavo Diaz, Estrato de estabilidad vulnerado por un bucle extraño con cuadraditos Gödel, 2012. (Image courtesy of Gapers Block.)

 Currently, Argentine-artist Gustavo Diaz exhibits Justificaciòn a priori, an exhibition comprised of nine new objects and drawings in the main gallery space. Director Natalia Ferreyra said that Miller’s proposal featured core ideas of mapmaking and a dedication to linear, architectural ideas, the same elements present in Diaz’s work.

“We really want to foster that dialogue, to see what is there amongst artists,” said Ferreyra.

Future artists for THE SUB-MISSION include Corinne Halbert, Brittany Pyle, and Mark Porter. Like Miller’s work in conjunction with Diaz, future projects in the space will continue to foster a dialog among local, national, and international artistic practices.

“Alternative spaces have become prominent here in Chicago because for a long time, there wasn’t that institutional support in order to provide exhibition space,” Ferreyra began. “Although all of them serve a great service, ultimately, I think artists are looking for something that will give their work more structure or take them to the next level in their career.”
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Sentient Space and Justificaciòn a priori runs through June 30. THE MISSION is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 12 – 6pm, and by appointment on Thursdays.

ZJ: To start off, what did your art history thesis focus on?

MT: North Central’s program does not require a thesis per se, yet I would say that the equivalent would be the opportunity to complete an upper level independent study.  My self-proposed independent study focused on the relationship between art and craft, specifically the way in which craft materials became more commonly used by fine artists in the contemporary era.  I was mostly interested in the way that artists began using these materials to communicate specific ideas or to identify themselves.  Being that a lot of the artists that choose these methodologies are female, including Judy Chicago, Sheila Hicks, Ghada Amer, and Janine Antoni to name a few, the research findings began to take a more feminist spin.

The presentation of my research was somewhat nontraditional compared to that of most art history theses.  Because I was a double major in studio arts I was able to come to an agreement with my instructor to respond to my findings partially through writing and partially through art making.  The writings were mainly responses toward critical analyses that pertained to artists using craft methods.  I also wrote a personal artist’s statement that related the body of work  I was working on to my research.  Finally, the artwork consisted of an artist’s book constructed of fabric, in which the text on the pages was embroidered.  It had an embroidery sampler quality to it, in which it seemed feminine and playful, but also expressed an opinion.

ZJ: What do you view as the strengths of your art history program? What would you have changed?

MT: North Central’s Art History program is definitely small, yet it is up and coming.  The college’s philosophy is actually to limit their class sizes, so it was really great during my advanced courses like Theory and Criticism because I had the opportunity to

Marcy Thomas studying in Rome through North Central College. 2010. (image courtesy of Marcy Thomas)

participate in the discussion.  Maybe it cannot offer some of the more specialty classes every year that a large university program can, but it does a great job coming up with unique topical classes for the upper level requirements.  A unique course that the program has to boast about is Chicago Art and Architecture, in which the class meets in the city, viewing the art and buildings first hand.  That particular course is offered in conjunction with Chicago History, which is really interesting to take alongside because then you get a real socio-historical context of what you are looking at.

However, if you feel like you cannot gain what you want to learn from a class that is offered, or if you want to expand on a particular topic, this can be achieved through participating in an independent study, as I did.  The college’s program also gives you the opportunity to gain credit through studying abroad.  I took advantage of a December term trip to Rome in 2010, and I hear that the Art History department is teaming up with the Classics department once again this coming December to visit both Athens and Rome.

It is very hard for me to say what I would change.  For me, it was a good fit because I like the flexibility that the program offered me, and I focus better in a small environment.  Yet, I suppose if one prefers to hide in the back of a giant lecture hall then it probably is not the program for them.

ZJ: What are you up to currently?

MT: I spent most of my time after I graduated getting together my applications for MFA programs, so that really wore me out.  Now that I am through that process, I am just reading a lot and trying to ground myself.  I try to go to museums whenever I visit the city, or to look for lectures close to home.  I am up for anything that is culturally stimulating.  This fall, I will be entering Northern Illinois University’s MFA program in Fiber, so in a sense I am mentally preparing for that.

ZJ: What area or areas of art history are you currently exploring or interested in?

MT: Since I am going into fibers, I want to further explore the focus of my independent study.  I would also like to go back further back in order to understand the origins of craft.  In general, I am into contemporary art as well and exploring these trends really helps me to see where my work fits in.

ZJ: How do you feel you use the knowledge and skills gained in your study of art history in your current life?

MT: Even though I am choosing the MFA route, I feel like I never would have been prepared had I not been an art history major.  I am a believer that the artist and art history go hand in hand.  I feel that it is really important to know the dialogue that your work carries with the past in order to know what your work is saying.  Research and writing are a huge part of my process as well, so in a way the historian side of me is always present.

The next installment of The Young Historians will be published on April 23rd. To view past articles in the series, click here.

With documentary photography, the artist becomes our extended set of eyes, capturing images we would not normally be able to see. He or she can take members from the edge of society and place them in the center of our vision. It is these qualities that are the power behind Golden States of Grace: Prayers of the Disinherited, an exhibition of fifty-two photographs by Rick Nehmias currently on display at the Chicago Theological Seminary. With Grace, Nehmias reveals the lives of eleven marginal religious groups in California. Their faith affiliations range widely, from members of a Jewish half-way house and singers in a transgender gospel choir to a branch of deaf Mormons and a group of Latina sex workers devoted to the controversial Santisima Muerte (Holy Death). Despite their differences, each group is tied together by the ways their faith helps them overcome the challenges in their lives

Spread between four floors of the seminary’s beautiful, light-filled building, each photograph captures its subject with dignity and humanity. The photographs are accompanied by text which explains their subjects and the importance of their faith. Despite facing hardships like alcoholism, poverty, transitioning to a new gender, incarceration, disability, HIV, and violence, the subjects speak powerfully about the uplifting role of faith in their lives. Marty, an elderly Vietnam War veteran incarcerated for murder at 26 comments, “Time in prison loses all meaning. It just isn’t important anymore. Buddhist practice goes hand in hand with that loss/nothingness. It is never about escape from prison life for me, but a helpful means of remaining centered and a reminder that noble paths are a personal choice.” The text continues, “[Marty] has used the support and fellowship of this Buddhist group, noting the calming, inner peace and focus it grants him, to overcome alcoholism.”

Staring at the faces of those photographed, and studying their homes, bedrooms, places of worship, and rituals, one starts to understand the importance of religion in these communities and, more importantly, how their lives may have crumbled without it. It is a testament not only to their faith but to Nehmias’ skill as a photographer that his subjects, as fragile as their lives may be, always look back at us with strength and perseverance.

Golden States of Grace is on display at the Chicago Theological Seminary through May 12. For more information and to see images of the photographs featured in the show, click here.

Mos Def (now known as Yasiin Bey), 1998/1999. (Image courtesy of Mike Schreiber.)

In one of my favorite Black Star tracks, Thieves In The Night, rapper Mos Def challenges listeners to “separate the real from the lie.” Maneuvering comfortably in the classic techniques and processes of analog photography, New York-based artist Mike Schreiber works to achieve exactly that by creating images which resonate globally with music lovers and photography aficionados alike. Whether it is of musicians who regularly occupy the headphones and speakers of millions of music fans, or the people on the streets of Cuba and Jamaica, Mike’s portraits place emphasis on the humanity of his subjects. His photographs remind us that these people are just that–people. He does not attempt to make them into caricatures of themselves or play into a larger-than-life persona. Mike pushes in the antithetical direction with the goal of making a photograph that brings out, as he puts it, a version of themselves that “their mother would recognize.”

Fittingly titled True Hip Hop, Mike’s recent book reflects the results, experiences and anecdotes of a career that has brought him and his camera in front of everyone from B.B. King to Voletta Wallace, the mother of the late Notorious B.I.G. In light of his upcoming debut exhibition in Chicago and book signing at The Silver Room, I spoke with Mike about his signature style, starstruck moments and what it means to be a photographer’s photographer.

Tempestt Hazel: At this point you have taken countless photographs of some of the top names in the music industry. Your book is an obvious testament to that. From Ol’ Dirty Bastard to M.I.A., Biz Markie to Erykah Badu, Nas, Method Man, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Keith Murray–the list goes on and on. But I’m curious about the opposite end of your career. When did a camera first come into your life?

Mike Schreiber: Well, I’ve loved taking pictures since I was a kid. My Grandpa and my mom were ALWAYS taking pictures, and my dad was a pretty good photographer too, so I always had cameras and picture-taking around me. It just always seemed natural to have a camera and take pictures.

A photo from Schreiber's travels to Cuba, 2001/2002. (Image courtesy of the artist.)

TH: Along with being a self-made and sought after photographer, you pride yourself on not being a photographer’s photographer, meaning you don’t get geeked over the hardware and you don’t necessarily try to speak that language. Has this ever been an obstacle for you in your career?

MS: First off, I think you’d have to define what a “photographer’s photographer” means. To many people, the fact that I DON’T get excited about technology makes me a “photographer’s photographer”. Equipment is simply a means to an end. It’s what you need to achieve whatever you’re looking to accomplish. That’s true whether you’re a photographer, painter, writer, musician or baker. So it’s all about perspective.

I rely on my brain and instincts more than on a machine. Ansel Adams said, “The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it”. With technology being what it is, people tend to forget that they’re still in charge and the work should be YOUR work, not the camera’s. I’d rather make the decisions than have a computer do it. I sometimes make the wrong decisions, but magical things can come from your mistakes. Technology takes away the mistakes and makes everything too clean and crisp and perfect for my taste.

Regarding being an obstacle, I have no idea. You’d have to ask potential clients. I’m not sure I’d really want to work for someone who was more interested in what camera I use than the work I produce.

TH: How would you describe the Mike Schreiber style?

MS: Hmmm… I dunno. I know my style is an extension of my personality. I guess it’s gritty. Simple. Straightforward. Truthful. In focus. I try to shoot things that I’m interested in, and to show them the way they really are. My approach is the same regardless of who or what I’m shooting. I’ve never been interested in the culture of celebrity and I think my style reflects that. To me, there’s no difference between shooting a multi-platinum selling rapper or a kid in Cuba. The circumstances might be different, but my approach is the same. I always try to get to some kind of truth in the subject, no matter who they are. It doesn’t always happen, but that’s always the goal!

TH: You’ve said in the past that one of the challenges of photography is to make a photograph that stands the test of time. Do you feel you are able to accomplish that in your photographs? Which ones have made it to that point, in your opinion?

MS: I think I’ve achieved it a few times. The most obvious example being the Mos Def photo (pictured above). That one has definitely stood the test of time. Thirty years from now, I’m sure it’ll still be out there. That’s kinda cool. Only time will tell, and it won’t be up to me. The viewers decide what’s relevant, not me.

TH: When not working on assignments and instead being guided by your own interests, what tends to be the subject of your photography?

A photo from Schreiber's travels to Cuba, 2001/2002. (Image courtesy of the artist.)

MS: I like to travel to places I’ve never been before. South America, Africa, Louisiana! I love seeing new places and people. Discovering new things is fun for me. I’m thinking about getting a van to drive around in and take pictures.
I studied Anthropology in school because I’m really interested in different cultures. I think that background has influenced my approach to shooting more than anything else. I like to shoot things the way they are, with very little interference by me.

TH: I love how spirited your street photography is, whether it is on the streets of NYC or in Cuba or Jamaica. Is there a difference from place to place? How do the street scenes of NYC compare to those of other places you’ve traveled?

MS: Thanks. Truthfully, when I’m home I don’t really do much street photography. It’s really only when I travel. The difference between here (the U.S.) and other places I’ve been is that here people tend to not be as open to being photographed. In other places I’ve traveled to, people have tended to be much more open to getting their picture taken. And I ALWAYS ask. I never try to steal pictures from people. I wouldn’t want someone jumping in my face with a camera, so I don’t do that to others. If I was a news photographer it’d be different, but I’m not a news photographer.

I really just love taking pictures of stuff. Old people, kids, dogs… I try to capture how a place feels. That’s the ultimate goal.

TH: True Hip Hop is years of photographs, memories, experiences and encounters–a substantial body of work from your career all compiled in print like this for the first time. How did it feel when you first flipped through its pages?

MS: It was pretty exciting. When I first started shooting, my only real goal was to go to concerts for free and, hopefully, not have to get a “real” job. So to have a book with my name on it, full of my pictures and stuff I wrote about them was pretty cool. I also didn’t really believe it was actually going to happen until I physically had the book in my hands. So flipping through the pages and reading what I’d written was pretty cool. I think the book reflects me very well. I’m very proud of the book and the fact that I’ve been able to stay true to myself along the way.

Phylicia Rashad, 2007. (Image courtesy of the artist.)

TH: Have you ever had a moment of awe during an assignment–otherwise known as a moment when you’re standing in front of someone you admire so much that your ability to form words or cohesive thoughts vanishes, even momentarily?

MS: A few times. The first time was when I got to meet B.B. King in his dressing room at the Blue Note. Also, sitting in a location van eating blueberries with, and shooting Phylicia Rashad for Trace was kind of trippy. Oh, and I met Dionne Warwick at the Apollo. That was a bit creepy to be honest. It was like she was reading my mind! And I was nervous to meet Dr. J. Coolest cat on the planet!

TH: If you weren’t a photographer, what do you imagine you would be doing with your life?

MS: Exotic dancer or movie star… or both!

Meet the man in that 12″ space behind the camera.  Mike Schreiber will be exhibiting a collection of his photographs and introducing his book True Hip Hop to Chicago music and art lovers at The Silver Room in Wicker Park on May 5, 2012, 6pm – 10pm, with a Q&A with the artist at 7pm. To see more of his work, visit his website, www.mikeschreiber.com.

True Hip Hop | Exhibition and Book Release
Opening Reception: May 5, 2012, 6pm – 10pm
On view through June 16, 2012
The Silver Room
1442 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622
www.thesilverroom.com

22 is a new art space on Cermak Road in Berwyn, IL. Jessica Calek and Dan Streeting, two graduates of Cranbrook Academy of Art, opened shop in December and are now in the middle of their fourth show, simply titled The T-shirt Show. The exhibition is comprised of thirty-two t-shirts by nearly twenty artists who have all transformed everyday apparel through foil printing, woodblock printing, spray painting, hand drawing, screen printing, and more. “The show’s been interesting for this neighborhood where people aren’t necessarily going to understand a fine art gallery with paintings on the wall, but walking down the street and seeing t-shirts, it’s an easy thing for everyone to understand,” commented Jessica. Dan continued, “We get a lot of people in here who think it’s a pop-up clothing store, so it’s an entry point for us to talk to them about the art, what we’ve been doing with our other shows, and what we want to do in the future.”

Dan and Jessica both have an interest in design, and that sensibility plays out in how they construct their shows. For The T-shirt Show, each shirt hangs on a translucent, green acrylic hanger, the artist’s name etched into it by laser. The hangars were designed and laser cut by Jessica. It was my first time seeing a show with nothing on the walls or the floor. Instead, the thirty-two shirts hung at different levels from the ceiling, creating an attractive, floating gallery.  I was pleased to see such a wide variety of approaches among the artists. A sweatshirt screen printed with the word “SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET” dangled only a few feet away from a stiff t-shirt, totally encrusted with teal and gold paint. Elsewhere, detailed portraits of President Washington and Lincoln, as they appear on the one and five dollar bills, had been ink pressed onto shirts from huge wood blocks. In addition to the hanging works, extra editions of many of the designs sat on shelves towards the back of the room. Looking at the work, I was happy to see a few artists who I’d encountered in Chicago. First was Mr. Walters who showed last year at Inkling, second was Megan Lee, whose popular Midwest Is Best t-shirts show up at shops and fairs across the city, as well as on the torsos of numerous Chicagoans. Jessica informed me that both artists live in Berwyn, which explained a new shirt by Lee depicting Berwyn’s famous car spindle with the words “Berwyn Love” below it.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s been the highest selling shirt from the show.

Mr. Walters and Lee are two of four artists from Berwyn showing work at 22. Jessica estimates that eighty percent of the artists in The T-shirt Show are from Chicagoland. Dan commented, “What I love is you discover all these people who are doing this work just down the street who you never would have learned about.” Like them, 22 is hard at work hosting inventive art shows and events just down the street from Chicago; It’s definitely worth getting to know better.

The T-shirt Show runs through Sunday May 6. More information can be found at 22’s website. 22 is accessible via the CTA 21 bus or by a short bike ride from the 54th/Cermak Pink Line or Oak Park Blue Line stations.

The T-shirt Show
April 20 through May 6

22
6910 Cermak Road
Berwyn, IL 60402