Category Archives: Reviews

Works on Paper Juried Exhibition @ Around the Coyote

The full title of this latest show from Around the Coyote (2nd Annual Joseph Frasca Memorial Works on Paper Juried Exhibition) may be all the introduction you need. This is indeed a works on paper exhibition, the second in as many years, and it is in memory of Joseph Frasca. If you haven’t read the […]

Selections from the Fabio-Mueller Collection @ Mini Dutch

Last Saturday saw the final show at Mini Dutch, Lucia Fabio‘s seasoned apartment gallery in Logan Square. Having ran the gallery for more than two years (a truly respectable amount of time for any alternative space), Lucia and her fiance Robert Mueller chose to close it out by exhibiting the art they’d personally collected along […]

Size Matters! @ Packer Schopf

The problem with titling a show Size Matters! is that it places a dozen professional artists under the flipsy membrane of a cock joke. It also forces every reviewer to pun off of the title. So, while many of the pieces in this show did live up to the name in terms of scale, the double […]

Karolina Gnatowski @ Spoke

While many are busy bemoaning the stable review shows that are up for this summer, one shouldn’t get the impression that interesting art in Chicago takes the same vacation as the universities do. This weekend, crush in the heart of the West Loop’s 119 N. Peoria building (home to many local faves), the Spoke gallery […]

Summer Show @ Antena

There are three artists showing this summer at  Antenna, a gallery ran by Miguel Cortez of Polvo fame. The first and most immediatey recognizable in the space is Saul Aguirre, whose immaculately framed drawings occupy two large walls in grids; the second is Yarima Ariza, who has come out of the Floridian woodwork with new fiber works; […]

Jola Jastrzab @ E|C Gallery

Tucked into a pretty front in the West Loop is E|C Gallery, a relatively new space ran by Polish-born and Chicago-based artist Ewa Czeremuszkin (note the titular initials) which, with its floor to ceiling windows full of western sun, functions perfectly as an import venue for Czeremuszkin’s bad-ass artist friends from Polandland. E|C’s current show Crazy Julka is […]

David Horvitz @ Believe Inn, and a Brief Word on Fried Okra

I spent Saturday afternoon back at the Hyde Park Art Center for their Fryvalry event, hosted by third annual fry daddies Philip von Zweck (local mover and shaker whose curated show at Western Exhibitions runs through to August 1st, 2009) and Kevin Jennings (local white, working class, straight male without a website). I came there late […]

The Edge of Intent @ Museum of Contemporary Photography

Located on Michigan Avenue, Columbia College’s Museum of Contemporary Photography is one of the lucky institutions to be part of that great easternmost edge of the downtown, that decorative sea-wall which can be seen from the parks and water as the outer cliff which begins a city. You can cross the street and turn around […]

Pop Sizzle Hum, Single Channels @ Tony Wight Gallery

There are two shows going on right now at Tony Wight. Pop Sizzle Hum, a fairly small show of eerily similarly sized paintings in the main space, and Single Channels, a three-part video installation with work from Timothy Hutchings, Allison Schulnik, and Jacco Oliver, tucked away in the rear project space. Pop Sizzle Hum was came off as […]

Dutes Miller @ Western Exhibitions

In the rare case that your only exposure to Dutes Miller is through his sensitive and extremely human collaborations with Stan Shellabarger (who is also extremely human), prepare to have your understanding tilted, because this is something entirely different. Like an Atlantis Cruise missile spunked from the bleached bowels of Fire Island, Dutes Miller’s The Ecstasyist will blow your […]

B.C. MacEachran @ EbersB9

Located above the Swim Cafe in Wicker Park, EbersB9 is the brand new, proof-of-dedication apartment gallery of Sara Ebers, SAIC grad, gallery assistant at Melanee Cooper, and all around friendly face in the active up and comers in the Chicago art scene, and Dominic Paul Moore, assistant director at Packer Schopf and a similarly active and up […]

Zoe Crosher @ 65GRAND

I should admit straight out that my impression of Zoe Crosher’s Selections from the Analog Collection opening at 65GRAND last May 1st was undoubtedly effected by the fact that I could not feel my legs. I’d become disconnected somewhere between the winding, uneven stairclimb up to the gallery and the two full days of no-where-else-to-go […]

Artists Run Chicago @ Hyde Park Art Center

My passion for kimchi and an irradiated, blood-hound-like sense of smell led me down to the Hyde Park Art Center where Roots and Culture was running a demo for kimchi pancakes this Saturday. Looming over this small fragrant affair was Michael Rea’s A Prosthetic Suit For Stephen Hawking w/ Japanese Steel, the imposing wooden robotic […]

Notes on a NEXT fair.

Notes taken at Thursday night’s preview of Next: Merchandise mart. Feeling underdressed. My black pass doesn’t mean shit but a free coat check. Whiteface singers scaring me. The money is staying on the elevators, shooting for 12. I love any clothing that is contemporary or avant gard, go and look for the latest oufits in the fashion […]

Brian Dettmer @ Packer Schopf Gallery

On the day after the first Thursday of April of 2009 I had the opportunity to take in the amalgamation of reading and scissors that was Brian Dettmer’s exhibition at Packer Schopf Gallery. Dettmer has made an art form of buying the book for its pictures. As a child I was taught picture books were […]

Geoffrey Todd Smith @ Western Exhibitions

The first friday of April 2009 saw Geoffrey Todd Smith’s opening at Western Exhibitions, and the 119 Peoria St. building was packed wall to wall (and to Three Walls, for more beer) with Chicago artists, industry insiders, and fans all asking the same question, “What the fuck is happening to me?” And a good question […]