Pilsen art walk ... "Ashland" side

I really enjoyed this art walk!

... the weather perfect, neighborhood interesting, people friendly!

Some studios - some galleries - some new, some old!!!

We started at 1 p.m. and went until 5ish, we still did not make it to all of the venues.
The topics of the art are very different from the Halsted side of the Pilsen neighborhood.

Themes about immigration, politics and wrestling ... real people and real live issues.

First stop organized grafitti art ...
these guys were talented and really moving along!

Indoor/outdoor art - a painting of our president ... by Victor Montanez

Wonderful ceramic work (and conversation) by Nicole Marroquin
- see a showing of her works at the Mexican Museum of Art this winter!

A great find! ... nicely organized group show at Margus Studio

Community gallery Tonantzin Community gallery

Great mixed media piece by Miguel Aguilar - at a pop-up space on Blue Island and 18th

Salvador Jimenez-flores mixed media work at the Beer Run Gallery

Marcos Raya - "Mano a mano"

We ended the evening by listening to a band playing on the sidewalk

Garfield Park - Form in Flora Sculpture Show!

Wednesday October 6th – Saturday November 6th

This fall, come enjoy nature-inspired sculptures by members of Chicago Sculpture International placed throughout the plant collection in the Show House and the Bluestone Terrace. An Opening Reception for the exhibit will be held at the Conservatory on Wednesday October 6th from 5pm to 8pm. The reception is free and open to all – it’s a great opportunity to meet the sculptors in person.

For more information about the exhibit or the reception, please email garfieldparkart@gmail.com.

Really a worth while exhibit, most of the sculptures are placed inside, but a few are out. The cost is FREE.
So, no excuses - get out there and enjoy the fabulous sculpture and this great fall weather!!!

Chicago Artist Month - Pilsen Open Studio/House

Well, I must say the Pilsen area has lost it's groove. This area used to be exciting - booming with artists and galleries - busy, fresh and exciting ... now the area is really struggling, but they have not given up! There are A LOT of empty spaces and those filled might have had an issue with flooding - there is an odd smell that many try to cover up with patchouli.
The newest places were very interesting to us - recommended not to miss:

MORNING GLORY STUDIOS: 571 W. 18th St. # 1R
Wonderful space - great variety of artists - top notch!
Scott Ashley "dig" (left) gallery shot (right)













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PER POPULUS gallery - 626 West 18th Street
Great prints by John Vogl - creative, well done and affordable! Something for everyone!!!










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CAD (Chicago Art Department) - 1837 South Halsted
had a couple of very unique works!
Pei-San Ng, matchstick art










and Jen Rosenthal, ink and thread on vellum










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On the functional side some great creativity!!!
ARTPENTRY - 1825 S. Halsted
Speakers framed by old luggage and trunks!










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and the PLYWOOD OFFICE also on S. Halsted
great furnishings - simple and crafty!










... you have to explore, but there are places really worth while!!!!
Get down there!

ArtPrize big venues ...

... a few of my favorites at the bigger venues:
GRAM - Grand Rapids Art Museum

This was one of my ultimate favorite pieces
so soft yet so strong! BEAUTIFUL!!!
Artist: Judy K. Dethmers
Title: Glory Days
Medium: Prisma color on mylar
Venue: GRAM






unique medium used and grand over all feeling
Artist: David Spriggs
Title: Vision
Medium: Acrylic on multiple sheets of transparent film housed within a display case
Venue: GRAM




DeVos Conference Center

Great piece for the times ... !!!
Artist: Oliver Aguilar
Title: False Promises
Medium: Photography in Recycled Materials
Venue: DeVos





this I really liked - not the HUGE presence of the felt/fiber piece at GRAM ... but wonderful theme, concept and construction
Artist: Gloria Kirk-Hanna
Title: Growing Seasons
Medium: shredded Fiber Art
Venue: DeVos



Grand Rapids Public Museum

Fresh concept, futuristic and light feeling ...
Artist: Jennifer Surine
Title: Reminisce
Medium: Sterling Silver
Venue: Grand Rapids Public Museum







Interesting mix of medium and meaning
... strong and weak, elite and common ...
Artist: SangSik Hong
Title: Five eyes
Medium: drinking straws
Venue: Grand Rapids Public Museum






the B.O.B

Nice craftsmanship and medium ... a standout
Artist: Konrad Winter
Title: Homeless
Medium: Automotive paint on aluminum
Venue: BOB




This one I did not get an image that turned out so I took it from the artprize Site.
I like fish in general but I thought these were wonderfully done in composition and playfulness of the title.
Artist: Bruce Wyma
Title: Bad Company
Medium: Photography
Venue: BOB

ArtPrize begins ...

HOW EXCITING - Grand Rapids Michigan is exploding with art, artists and energy!
You definitely need more than one full day to see everything at ArtPrize !!! We hit the big venues (because you have to) and got around to as many smaller ones that we could fit in (to our 1 day), we will have to get back to GR to do the neighborhoods.
Make sure you see the smaller pieces, and out of city center venues - there is a lot of great art out there at places you would not expect!
Below are some diverse talents you don't want to miss at the smaller venues!

Artist: Troy Picou
Title: Water Pony
Venue: Go Java









Artist: Brian Murer
Title: .38 Howitzer
Venue: Purple East









Artist: Patrick Richardson
Medium: Mixed media
Venue: God's Kitchen







Artist: Steven Vinson
Title: The Urban Landscape of GR
Venue: Capsule Gallery







Artist: Audrey Riley
Title: America
Venue: Heartside Park







Artist: Scott Blake
Title: Barcode Bruce Lee
Venue: Stache Gallery







Artist: Alex Schweder La
Title: Evaporative Building
Venue: UICA - Sheldon Exhibition Center









Artist: Peter Sorrell
Title: Ashwan Caban
Venue: Grand Valley Artists at Alten Place

I have to give a big WOW to this one
- the most stunning painting I have seen in a long time!!!!







another one for Grand Valley Artists at Alten Place

Artist: Sayaka Ganz
Title: Emergence
Venue: Grand Valley Artists at Alten Place





Artist: Jiyeon Yim
Title: Emotive Vessels
Venue: Calvin College Gallery









Artist: Jackson Martin
Title: The Redemptive Quality of Life II
Venue: Gillette Bridge






We were beat and needed a rest after all of this walking ... a great place toput your feet up at the end the day - DeVoss Center

Artist: Loud Art
Title: Benchmark Experience
Venue: DeVoss Center

CHICAGO Fall Season Gallery Openings 2010

It is the grand kick off for galleries all over the country ... me being in Chicago - there was a lot to see! I only got around the River North Area but I was impressed with the mix of style, medium and levels.

Starting at the David Weinberg Gallery I was very impressed with the photography by the Yale School of Art, MFA ... the works by David Bush really captured my attention. Artist's Biography David Bush started photographing as a teenager. At age 16 he built a darkroom in his parent’s basement and learned the basics out of books and the backs of Kodak boxes. He continued his education at Bard College, where he studied with Stephen Shore and earned a BA in Photography in 2001. After graduation he lived and worked as a photographer and assistant in New York City for 3 years. In 2004 he took on a position as the Technical Director for the Bard College Photography Program. David is currently a student at the Yale School of Art where he is working toward a MFA degree in 2010.


ZG Gallery had amazingly detailed and well painted (and ink / graphite) images by Justin Henry Miller. Attached: "Scout" oil on panel, 12" x 19".
Justin Henry Miller’s paintings are meticulously rendered, finely wrought realist sci-fi fantasies of a bio-medical graveyard that take place in the (maybe not so distant) future: after the experiments have concluded and the labs have been abandoned. Failed experiments are mixed with semi-successful results in the now defunct paraphernalia and discarded equipment of bio-medical waste. Fetal tissue and synthetic organs are encased forever in a state of suspended animation. Artificial respiration, insemination, and even perspiration are machine generated in self sustaining perpetuity. MORE from Chicago Artists Resource

I rarely make it over to Printworks Gallery but I am always pleasantly surprised when I do ... drawings by Audrey Niffenegger - wow!

Bio
Audrey Niffenegger was born in 1963 in the idyllic hamlet of South Haven, Michigan. Her family moved to Evanston, Illinois when she was little; she has lived in or near Chicago for most of her life.

She began making prints in 1978 under the tutelage of William Wimmer. Miss Niffenegger trained as a visual artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and received her MFA from Northwestern University’s Department of Art Theory and Practice in 1991. She has exhibited her artist’s books, prints, paintings, drawings and comics at Printworks Gallery in Chicago since 1987.

Her first books were printed and bound by hand in editions of ten. Two of these have since been commercially published by Harry N. Abrams: The Adventuress and The Three Incestuous Sisters. MORE

Last feature is a new spot in Chicago to see art ... Lee Weitzman Furniture
Some interesting photography by Yeleen Lee - a great outlook on daily life in the big city.

… What is real and unreal? Why is the banal accepted as reality? With these questions in mind, I express my own ideas and philosophy about this world’s phenomena. It is part of my character to try to find the solution to these questions in my work…

“After the rain… As in a time when I can still see the impression of the rain, As in the traces of tears in a cleared world after overwhelming distress, As in a place where the rain and the sun meet, not yet parting from each other, I, who am standing somewhere in between, listen to the stories of both sides: of this world that I see and walk on… and of the vulnerable world that, like the frame called nature, trembles in a faintest breeze…” - from the artist’s notes by Yeleen Lee
MORE

THERE IS PLENTY MORE OUT THERE TO SEE ... DON'T MISS OUT!!!

SANG SIK HONG ... different and unique contemporary sculpture

SangSik Hong’s sculptures go beyond the limit of the materials; the images of lips may be interpreted as symbols of desire. Connecting such symbolized images and meaning (power and sex) reveals clearly that his interest is focused on human desires.

“Power is strength, scarce and heading toward eternity. However, the straw, contrary to the properties of power, is a weak structure, easily available to anyone for it is produced on a large scale and a disposable material”. This juxtaposition symbolizes semantic relationships and the structure of desires, connoting the pathos of reality. MORE

“Power is strength, scarce and heading toward eternity. However, the straw, contrary to the properties of power, is a weak structure, easily available to anyone for it is produced on a large scale and a disposable material”. This juxtaposition symbolizes semantic relationships and the structure of desires, connoting the pathos of reality.

ART PRIZE 2010 - Grand Rapids, MI

ART PRIZE
September 22 to October 10, 2010
* $449,000 prize ($250,000 to 1st place)
* Top 10 entries receive a prize
* Artists can submit one entry
* Property in downtown Grand Rapids can be a venue
* Venues choose the artists they exhibit
* Anyone attending the event can vote
* WINNER IS DETERMINED BY PUBLIC VOTE

ArtPrize is part arts festival, part social experiment
- this international contest is decided solely by public vote.
The event is designed for you to take it into your own hands and make it what you want it to be.
The outcomes of ArtPrize are infinite. What will you bring to the equation?

ArtPrize is a platform for creation. The event's organizers are just a small part of the whole.
Everyone brings something unique to the table, and we're excited to see what you will bring.

Art is the focus of the competition, but the main event is community. Artists take over the city, visitors explore and new relationships form. Communities open to new ideas organically.

The community keeps growing, even after the event is over.

Darren Houser ... serious comic art!

MYTHOPOEIC

Through this body of work I am investigating what we perceive to be religious ‘truth’, how hortatory rhetoric can construct reality within other peoples minds, and a desire to break away from the orthodox ideas of religion to experience genuineness solely constructed from a language of personal relevance. There is an interesting relationship between the cartoon style characters from comics and the figures from religious stories I was taught as a child. In my mind, both are caricatures of reality and are used as symbols to represent the deep and complex issues of our human nature. The conflict and confusion of crafting a personalized idea of truth is expressed in this work with densely packed areas of appropriated information and graphic elements that do not follow a linear narrative thread. By deconstructing the original narrative of these images and segments of texts, the definition of truth initially ascribed to them is dissolved allowing for a new interpretation. While it is not my intention to create an iconoclasm per se, this body of work should be viewed as an arena to explore the subjective nature of ‘truth’.

You have to see his work in person to see the detail and craftsmanship ... wonderful, creative and unique!!!

ART Chicago and the NEXT Art Fair

April 30 thru May 3
Opening Preview
April 29
located at the
The Merchandise Mart

Art Chicago® 2010, the annual international fair of contemporary and modern art, brings together the world’s leading emerging and established galleries. Art Chicago offers curators, collectors, artists and art enthusiasts a comprehensive survey of current and historic work, from cutting-edge to modern masters in a wide variety of media including: painting, photography, drawings, prints, sculpture, video and special installations.

More than an art fair, NEXT is a showcase for the world’s talents and an adventure in cutting-edge culture. An opportunity to redefine the relationship between art and its public, NEXT is a portal to seeing contemporary art in new, innovative, eye-opening ways. NEXT will include works from both commercial and non-commercial arts organizations--galleries, project spaces, art publications and key private contemporary collections from around the world.

Amazing display ... Beth Lipman at Heller Gallery NY!

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nick cave gets a lot of attention - as deserved!

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sarah walker acrylic on panel - Pierogi

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