Chicago Art Review » Weekend Preview

Weekend Preview – stacked

Steve Ruiz — Fri, 20 May 2011 20:35:33 +0000

This week’s late picks from me. For more listings, check here and here.

And hey, if you’re heading to the threewalls benefit tonight, say hello and dig or bid on my painting!

Rachel Niffenegger + Paul Nudd / Band of Bikers @ Western Exhibitions

Friday, May 20th from 5-8PM @ Western Exhibitions, 119 N Peoria St 2.

Paul Nudd

Mark Mulroney @ ebersmoore

Friday, May 20th from 6-9PM @ ebersmoore, 213 N Morgan St, 3C.

Mark Mulrony

Jasmine Justice @ 65GRAND

Friday, May 20th from 7-10PM @ 65GRAND, 1369 W Grand Ave.

Jasmine Justice

Greg Stimac @ Andrew Rafacz Gallery

Saturday, May 21st from 4-7PM @ Andrew Rafacz Gallery, 835 W Washington Blvd.

Greg Stimac

Thomas Roach @ Alderman Exhibitions

Saturday, May 21st from 6-9PM @ Alderman Exhibitions,350 N Ogden Ave, 4E.

Thomas Roach

Kendell Carter @ Monique Meloche

Saturday, May 21st from 4-7PM@ moniquemeloche, 2154 W Division St, Chicago, IL 60622

Kendell Carter

bringing up craigslist to web developers

Weekend Preview – bring it over

Steve Ruiz — Fri, 13 May 2011 22:34:02 +0000

This week’s picks on what to see this weekend. For more, see here and here.

Charles Mahaffee @ LLoyd Dobler Gallery

Friday, May 13th from 6-10PM @ Lloyd Dobler Gallery, 1545 W Division St, 2.

Charles Mahaffee, Untitled

Mark Grotjahn @ Shane Campbell Gallery

Friday, May 13th from 6-8PM @ Shane Campbell Gallery, 673 N Milwaukee Ave.

Mark Grotjahn

April Childers and Max Warsh @ New Capital

Friday, May 13th from 7-10PM @ New Capital, 3114 W Carroll Ave.

Max Warsh, Exterminator

William J. O’Brien @ The Renaissance Society

Sunday, May 15th from 4-7PM @ The Renaissance Society, 5811 S Ellis Ave.

William J. O'Brien

Are you gonna believe me, or your lying eyes?

Weekend Preview – youngest poorest person ever

Steve Ruiz — Fri, 06 May 2011 03:11:42 +0000

This week’s picks for what to see this weekend. As always, check here and here for more listings.

Matthew Metzger @ Museum of Contemporary Art

Mr. Metzger‘s been quietly kicking ass these last few years via hyper realistic 2D still lives, most recently with an exhibition titled Three specific paintings at Tony Wight Gallery. On Friday, May 6th, the artists will debut his latest, titled Nocturne, at the UBS 12×12 space @ the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E Chicago Ave.

Matthew Metzger

TWEEN @ The Octagon Gallery

New space from Pentagon off-shoots opens with a mega-.GIF using work by Aaron Orsini, Adam Farcus, Adam Grossi, Alberto Aguilar, Alicja Zelazko, Angeline Evans, Arielle Bielak, Adam Trowbridge, Ben Russell, Big Bad Ron, Brandon Alvendia, Brian Wadford, Burak Birinci, Chris Hammes, E. Aaron Ross, Eric Fleischauer, Emily Keuhn, Hooliganship, Isak Berbic, Jake Myers, Jerimiah Chiu, Jesse Avina, Jon Satrom, Kevin Jennings, Kevin Robinson, Kirsten Leenaars, Kyle Fletcher, Laura Boban, Lara Stall, Mark Sansone, Michelle Harris, Michael Radziewicz, Miguel Cortez, PaperRad, Philip Parcellano, Philip von Zweck, Rob Ray, Silas Reeves, Steven Pate, Tim Pigot, Tom Burtonwood, Theo Darst. Check it this Saturday, May 7th from 7-10PM @ The Octagon Gallery, 1318 N Milwaukee Ave, #300. Keep a special eye out for a painting I left with the last tenants who lived there, which I hope is still there, and let me know if its not.

Angeline Evans, Pet Potato

Andy Roche @ Roots & Culture

Deep psychedelia from artist Andy Roche, with film screenings of Born to Live Life, Black Iron Vatican II, and audio collaborations with British collabro David Price. See the screenings this Saturday, May 7th at 7PM @ Roots & Culture, 1034 N Milwaukee Ave.

Andy Roche and David Price

A Rod Stewart Little Richard Prince Charles Manson Family @ LVL3 Gallery

Sextuply artifacted cross-state disfractual collaborations from artists Carson Fisk-Vittori, Derek Frech, Justin Kemp, Joe Lacina, Joshua Pavlacky and Daniel Wallace. See the opening this Saturday, May 7th from 6-10PM @ LVL3 Gallery, 1452 N Milwaukee Ave, 3.

Daniel Wallace

check my french

Weekend Preview – still likable

Steve Ruiz — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:30:01 +0000

Picks on what to see this weekend. I normally link here and here, but I want to give a special suggestion to check out OnTheMake.org’s excellent and expansive 2011 Art Fair Guide. Considering the iceberg of art going on this weekend, please accept the following as just the tip.

Art Chicago / NEXT @ The Merchandise Mart

Is it that time already? It is! Check out new work and old at the annual art fairs this Friday and Saturday from 11AM to 7PM, Sunday from 11AM to 6PM, and Monday from 11AM – 4PM @ The Merchandise Mart, 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, 12th floor. Tickets cost money or they are free at this link.

Nuala Clarke

5th Annual Fundraiser @ Roots & Culture

The Wicker Park non-profit exhibition space and cookery Roots & Culture is holding its annual fundraiser, featuring food, music, liquor, and a silent auction with works from (deepbreath) Mike Andrews, Isak Applin, Ali Bailey, Carl Baratta, Timothy Bergstrom, Elijah Burgher, Zach Cahill, Paul Cowan, Scott Cowan, Dana DeGiulio, Rob Doran, Jeanne Dunning, Austin Eddy, Stephen Eichhorn, Ryan Fenchel, Andreas Fischer, Carson Fisk-Vittori, Howard Fonda, Gabrielle Garland, George Gittins, Jacob Goudreault, Michelle Grabner, Jonah Groeneboer, Carrie Gundersdorf, John Henderson, Shane Huffman, Michael Hunter, Jo Jackson, Matthew Paul Jinks, Chris Johanson, Katy Keefe, Jessica Labatte, Jason Lazarus, Jose Lerma, George Liebert, Caleb Lyons, CJ Matherne, Aspen Mays, Brian McNearney, Michael Milano, Easton Miller, Rachel Niffenegger, William J. O’Brien, Carmen Price, Scott Reeder, Tyson Reeder, Edra Soto, Kristen Vandeventer, Nate Wolf, Vanesa Zendejas, Erin Zona and Molly Zuckerman- Hartung. Check it this Saturday, April 30th from 8-12PM @ Roots & Culture, 1034 N Milwaukee Ave. Oh, and bring $30!

Gabrielle Garland, Untitled

Myranda Gillies and Elspeth Vance @ Happy Collaborationists’ Exhibition Space

Objects from the in-between, with a little nostalgia to taste, as presented by ACRErs Elspeth Vance and Myranda Gillies. See the opening this Saturday, April 30th from 6-10PM @ Happy Collaborationists’ Exhibition Space, 1254 N Noble St.

Elspeth Vance, Security Blanket

Sara Greenberger Rafferty and Ruby Sky Stiler @ The Suburban

Artists Sara Greenberger Rafferty, and Ruby Sky Stiler take takes on installation and display through wall-sculpture and re-thought exhibition space as parody studio this Sunday, April 31st from 2-4PM @ The Suburban, 125 N Harvey Ave, Oak Park.

Ruby Sky Stiler

hey, that’s something at least

Chicago Art Review @ MDW Fair

Steve Ruiz — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:09:05 +0000

This weekend is the Midway / MDW Fair, a popularly explosive art event organized by Ed Marszewski and threewalls, Roots and Culture and the Public Media Institute, happening this weekend, April 26-27th @ the The Geolofts, 3636 S. Iron Street, Chicago. Included in the list of participants are two projects of mine: the Chicago Art Review booth, featuring a project by Philip von Zweck, and the OpenCrit.com publisher’s table, featuring an interactive demo of my developing social art criticism project of the same name.

Also, on Sunday at 4PM, I’ll be speaking on the New Chicago Visual Arts Advocacy panel along with Elizabeth Chodos, Associate Director of Ox-bow, Laura A. Fox, marketing professional, arts writer and Intuit Board member, Barbara Koenen, Artist and Director of Chicago Artists Resource, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and Abraham Ritchie, independent art critic and Senior Editor for ArtSlant: Chicago. This panel will be chaired be Britton Bertran.

Here’s more information on the fair’s and its participants:

Press Release:

CHICAGO: threewalls, Roots and Culture and Public Media Institute announce The MDW Fair, a gathering of independent art initiatives, spaces, galleries and artist groups from the Chicago metropolitan area. Held April 23-24, 2011 at The Geolofts, 3636 S. Iron Street, Chicago. The MDW Fair will demonstrate the diversity, strength and vision of the people/places making it happen in the art ecology of our region.

The fair features for-profit, 501(c)3, and commercial and unincorporated galleries, independent curatorial projects and publishers and media groups in over 25,000 square feet of exhibition space that includes a 8,000 square foot sculpture garden with work by local artists. The MDW Fair is a manifestation of the collective spirit behind the region’s most innovative visual cultural organizers, focusing on the breadth of work done here by artists and arts-facilitators alike.

Spaces/Curatorial Projects:

65GRAND
ACRE
Adds Donna
Alderman Exhibitions
Antena
Packer Schopf Gallery
Bad At Sports
Blackpoint Editions
Chicago Art Review
Chicago Urban Arts Society
Columbia College A&D Department
Devening Projects + Editions
DEFIBRILLATOR
Department of Visual Art U of C
ebersmoore
Flat 9 Prelude
Green Gallery
Heaven Gallery
Harold Arts
Hornswaggler Arts
Hyde Park Art Center
Iceberg Projects
Johalla Projects
Linda Warren
Lloyd Dobler
LVL_3
Monument 2
No Coast
Ox-Bow
Pentagon Gallery
Oskar Friedl Gallery
PEREGRINEPROGRAM
Portage ARTspace
Rebuild Foundation (Dorchester Project)
Regional Relationships
Reuben Kincaid/ Co-Prosperity Sphere
Roots and Culture
Roxaboxen
Tag Team
The Hills
The JNL Graphic Design
The Post Family
Sidecar Gallery
slow
The Stockyard Institute
The Storefront / Silver Galleon
The Suburban
threewalls
Twelve Galleries Project
UIC
Western Exhibitions
What it is
ZG Gallery

Publishers:

Alternative Press Center
Soberscove Press
Golden Age
Half Letter Press
Neoteric Art
OpenCrit
Area Magazine
Post Press
Proximity/Lumpen
Quimby’s
Fill In the Blank Gallery
Fine Line Magazine
Spudnik Press
Readymade Magazine

In the Sculpture Garden:

Mike Andrews, Dayton Castleman, Jacob C. Hammes, Jesse Harrod, Cody Hudson, Daniel Lavitt, Heather Mekkelson, Brian Murer, The Mt. Baldy Expedition: James Barry and Hui-min Tsen, Ben Stone, and Patrick Willi.

Conversations:

Saturday:

2:30-3:30 PM: Tom Burtonwood will be leading On the Road, a conversation about artist run / dealer led art fairs + expos, creating new markets, and inviting attendees to discuss the pros and cons of producing a similar satellite event outside of Chicago. Tom Burtonwood is an artist and co-founder of What It Is an exhibition space in Oak Park, IL. In a previous life he organized art fairs in Berlin, Chicago, London, Miami & New York.

4-5 PM: Making it work
These spaces are rethinking and re-imagining how to distribute, exhibit, and position the artists they support, whether it be in producing public art projects, creating multi-use venues, adapting space within universities, or developing new exhibition possibilities. This panel will discuss models that are making it happen.
Featuring: The Chicago Urban Art Society, Johalla Projects, Packer Schopf Gallery, Slow Gallery, and DoVA Temporary

5-6 PM: Outside/Inside
These exhibition venues fill a much-needed gap in the Chicago and regional art-world, providing space and opportunities for artists experimentation and career growth. The panelists will discuss their approach to working with artists, how they sit in relationship to more mainstream, commercial or institutional exhibition sites, and how they decide their curatorial program.
Featuring: Pentagon Gallery, PEREGRINEPROGRAM, Lloyd Dobler Gallery, Iceberg Projects, SideCar, LVL3

6-7 PM: The artists’ perspective
Giving control over to artists to produce and disseminate their own work or forming communities of mutual support through exhibitions, residency opportunities and one-night events, these spaces and projects actively interrogate how to provide new forums for artists’ voices to be heard.
Featuring: The Post Family, Regional Relationships, ACRE, Floor Length and Tux, The Suburban

Sunday:

The Better Together panels will explore collective selection and organization by examining the nature of collaboration. Each of the panelists employ unique models that facilitate experimentation while still engaging vast and varied publics through multiple disciplines and perspectives, and it is the goal of these discussions to find out why such group efforts are so important to audience and community building.

2 PM: Better Together—Part One

The first panel discussion focuses on curatorial collaboration and negotiation between partners within a fixed space. Featuring panelists Garry Alderman and Ellen Hartwell Alderman of Alderman Exhibitions/Method Bicycle Company, a project space that aims to provide emerging artists, architects and designers with a place to collaborate across disciplines, and Tom Burtonwood and Holly Holmes of What It Is, a domestic space and venue for installations,happenings, dinners, garden parties, screenings and so forth.

3 PM: Better Together—Part Two

The second panel centers its attention to collective organizing and the collaboration intrinsic to planning multi-person events and projects. Panelists include Jason Dunda and Teena McClelland of the Alliance of Pentaphilic Curators, a coalition of sorts that puts together a series of solemn celebrations that will memorialize five cultural ideas, and the ladies of Quite Strong, a design and events collaborative made up of five female Chicago-based creatives: Elaine Chernov, Jana Kinsman, Victoria Pater, Jennifer Sisson and Katherine Walker.

4 PM: A New Chicago Visual Arts Advocacy

This discussion will be framed around the context of a specified advocacy specifically for the visual arts in Chicago. A sample of topics and questions to be pursued include: what arts advocacy means specifically in 2011 and with the visual arts in particular; how “regime change” with a new mayor and the loss of Lois Weisburg can help propel Chicago visual arts into the 21st century; the effectiveness of the City when it comes to promoting artists from within; what non-governmental support and concepts exist, and; soliciting ideas from the audience for further components to making things work for artists and the individuals that support them.

Participants include: Steve Ruiz of chicagoartreview.com/, Elizabeth Chodos, Associate Director of Ox-bow, Laura A. Fox, marketing professional, arts writer and Intuit Board member, Barbara Koenen, Artist and Director of Chicago Artists Resource, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and Abraham Ritchie, independent art critic and Senior Editor for ArtSlant: Chicago. This panel will be chaired be Britton Bertran, Program Manager at Urban Gateways and Independent Curator.

Hope to see you there!