Category Archives: Openings

Opening Weekend Reviews / Impressions, with guests Pedro Vélez and Erik Wenzel

For this year’s opening weekend, I invited two other artists/writers to join me in writing up short impressions of everything we saw. The first is Erik Wenzel, who writes mostly for ArtSlant, blogs at Art or Idiocy?, and who has an exhibition at Harold Washington College coming up on September 30th. The second is Pedro […]

Mike Kloss @ The Hills Esthetic Center

The folks at the Western Corridor shared live/work studio/venue/loft known asThe Hills Esthetic Center have recently added a fresh white cube and brick gallery to their space, and this last Friday kicked off their exhibition foray with a show of work from Mike Kloss called The Hills Have Thighs. While Kloss’ work spans plenty of […]

Kim Piotrowski @ 65GRAND

While a bubbling zeitgeist, published theory, secret CIA promotion, institutional propping, market hype and bar booth collectives may be the most commonly understood forces by which art trends and made and made to move, one of my favorite and too often overlooked components of progress is the availability of new materials, and of how their introduction leads […]

Future Facing @ Old Gold

With a new address, coat racks, a paneled ceiling and a floor covered in tiny stones, Old Gold has opened again with a one night show featuring the work of Aline Cautis, Josh Mannis and Andy Roche. There was the prevailing social element to the event of the kind expected at one night events, with the work itself giving […]

MiniReview: Site Unspecific @ O’Connor Art Gallery

(Note: I’m catching up on my backlog of shows I attended, photographed, and never wrote about. Enjoy the pictures and the brief summary.) At the end of September, Dominican University’s O’Connor Gallery opened Site Unspecific, a group show which included work by Heather Mekkelson, Mara Baker, Adam Farcus, Rafael E. Vera, Brian Yates and Heidi Norton. The […]

MiniReview: Group Painting Show @ Ebersmoore

(Note: I’m catching up on my backlog of shows I attended, photographed, and never wrote about. Enjoy the pictures and the brief summary.) The first show at the new Ebersmoore space was also the last show at the Ebersb9 space. Given the straightforward title of Group Painting Show, and including the work of Amy Mayfield, Howard […]

Australia @ Concertina Gallery

Since Logan Square’s Concertina Gallery is pretty fresh and steaming, I’ll introduce their newest show  by introducing the space itself: as I understand it, Concertina Gallery is the apartment gallery lovechild of directors and SAIC graduate students Katherine Pill and Francesca Wilmott, who, along with co-founder and former resident Corina Kirsch and design help from current […]

Eric Lebofsky @ Western Exhibitions

Here in Western Exhibitions second gallery space and separated (though barely) by frames rather than by posting dates, Lebofsky’s heroes hold themselves well, funny by way of observational comedy and clever by way of creepy absurdity.

Lumpen Re-Release Party (not actually a release party)

While I don’t like getting this soap box dirty with unrelated posts, I want to do some quick hype work for Lumpen’s next issue since I like the magazine and I’ll have some writing in it and more upcoming as more issues come. The magazine, which has run for longer than any independent culture rag […]

No More Perfect Moments @ Scott Projects

The latest show at Scott Projects represents Baltimore’s second featured incursion into Chicago, but while NAH POP NO STYLE brought the painters, Brad Troemel‘s brought the photographers. And punk archivists. Okay, maybe just one photographer and one punk archiver, but they’re definitely from Baltimore and their work is definitely in Chicago and their names are […]

Gimme Baby Robots @ The Empty Bottle (tonight!)

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a sweet auction tonight at The Empty Bottle. If you’re looking for top shelf art on a dime, Gimme Baby Robots is your kind of event: auctions start at just a few bucks – and with works from over a hundred artists including Jason Dunmars and Mike Rea on […]

Artphone: Wildlife Features @ Fill in the Blank Gallery

Better late than never: Mary from Fill in the Blank Gallery called last Thursday to talk about the relatively new gallery’s definitely new show, Wildlife Features from artist and illustrator Kyle Harter. The show opened Friday, but it runs through to September 26th at 5038 N. Lincoln Avenue. Here’s the free sounds: And as always, […]

Google Searching for God @ ebersb9

Despite what everything from the title to the content and presentation of the work might suggest, I’m pretty sure that Jason Ferguson isn’t really concerned with God, or finding God, as much as he is in searching for him. With only three pieces installed, two of which are photographic prints and the third a sculptural relic […]

Transparent Reflect @ The Co-Prosperity Sphere

The very busy culture masters at the The Co-Prosperity Sphere put together a new show for us this weekend which features nine artists’ contemporary takes on the tradition of portraiture. Specifically, it was about the overlap between self portrait and portrait, that grey ground that exists in the relationship between artist and subject, the choice […]

Keil Borrman & David G.A. Stephenson @ The Suburban

Two little shows opened this Sunday at The Suburban, the backyard super-space of Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam. The first, Keil Borrman: I have not painted in a year. I have been listening to my stereo, is a small collection of works by Borrman and six others. The second, located in the original ten by […]

Signs of the Apocalypse / Rapture @ Hyde Park Art Center

Mystery replaces history this month at the Hyde Park Art Center, where the heavy and the high of contemporary art have been shaken south for one of the hottest shows of the summer. Following the curatorial undertaking that was Artists Run Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center’s Signs of the Apocalypse/Rapture is a doomsday blend […]

Weekend Preview (i dont know what to dooo)

This weekend is pretty light for openings, but here’s what I’d see if I were you: SAMAD @ Nightingale Theater Shirin Mazaffari and Ehsan Ghoreishi have curated an exhibition of short underground Iranian videos which, due to political or otherwise controversial content, have never been screened publically in Iran. Very cool event that I will […]

NAH POP NO STYLE @ Roots and Culture

I first dropped by Roots and Culture’s latest show on opening night, squeezed past the crowd outside and poked my head over shoulders of an unusually tall crowd to see the art, decided the tide had turned to afterparty early, and ran out. While too much crowd to see art with both eyes, not bad for […]

control c, control v @ ebersb9

If you’ve been following Fecal Face‘s features this year and panting at work coming out of California, you’ll be happy to know that  Ebersb9‘s latest show control c, control v has brought lots of familiar Fecal Face featured (fecal?) faces to Chicago. This fecal feel probably has something to do with Ryan Travis Christian, sole contributor […]

Artphone: 360 SEE and Carrie Secrist Gallery

Another week, another two audio previews! My internet phone won’t stop internet ringing! Fittingly, Works on and of Paper @ 360 SEE Jordan from 360 SEE called in to talk about their’s new show, Fittingly, Works on and of Paper, which will kick off this Friday, July 17th, 6 – 9 PM, and run through to […]