This week’s what to see this weekend. More info here and here.
Sounding even bigger and less destructible than last year’s Big Youth, this hot young artist show at the Kunz,Vis,Gonzalez. garage space will include the work of Chicago or New York artists Brad Hoffman, Dan Jarvis, Elena Ballara, Peter Clodfelter, Scott Frigo, Racer LeVan, Emre Kocagil, Austin Eddy, Brandon Coley Cox, Nicholas Steindorf, Devin K. Kenny, Eli Samuels and Jacob Bergman. Opens Friday, August 20th from 6-10PM @ Kunz,Vis,Gonzalez., 2324 W Montana St.
Austin Eddy, Red chair
I like Lauren Gregory‘s fucked up paintings on fake fur or hair, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything from this year’s production. Definitely a painter who with plenty of surprises left though – I’ll expect one of those. Like Gregory, Carly Silverman is also a mostly figurative painter doing the MFA program at the School of the Art Institute. The show of both artists’ work opens Friday, August 20th from 6-9PM @ Zrobili, 2649 ½ N Spaulding Ave, 2N.
Carly Silverman, Growing Up
Minneapolis Justin Thomas Schaefer will open a short-run show this weekend called Practice Makes Purpose at Monument 2. Not too much on the web apart from a cool installation show at Midway, so we’ll see what he does with the space on Point. Opens Saturday, August 21st from 6-10PM @ Monument 2, 2007 N Point S.
Justin Thomas Schaefer
Also this weekend: the Old Gold crew is fundraising for their Chicago extraction with a silent auction on Saturday and Sunday at their Logan Square location. If you’re looking to pick up a piece by Caleb J. Lyons or friends on the cheap while offering well wishes for future endeavors, now’s your chance! Info here.
the bar is set
This week’s picks from Ryan.
(removed at artist’s request)
B.C. MacEachran, 1 2 3 Alaira
Carl Krull
SSION
Fendry Ekel, Young Gropius as Soldier
Masao Yamamoto
Lizzi Bougatsos, Hey Jack (don't worry I won't embarass you)
teach it to fuck
New Icon was the Contemporary Arts Council annual show for 2010, located this year in the very nice and spacious Loyola University Museum of Art. The show was curated by Britton Bertran (well known for directing Gallery 40,000 and for many other projects since its closing) and included seven artists: Zachary Buchner, Pamela Fraser, Carrie Gundersdorf, Dan Gunn, Diana Guerrero-Maciá, Brennan McGaffey, William J. O’Brien, Sze Lin Pang and Kevin Wolff.
While the show presented a pretty thorough look at everyone involved, from Pamela Fraser’s color-theory-ish blooms to Carrie Gundersdorf’s rumored photo collages (later on display at MCA), New Icon’s most significant aspect – that it was the first CCA show to exclusively include Chicago artists – also meant that a lot of work on display had been shown before or many times before around the city. Still, that primary significance shouldn’t be downplayed. New Icon felt like a declaration of mass, and a demonstration that the current mid-career generation of Chicago lifers can be skimmed at the top and still fill a large space with excellent work. Considering ours is a city where art institutions often define headline credibility by curating in from the coasts, I think Bertran should be commended for making the statement that our art can hang together at any level.
Diana Guerrero-Macia, Devoured by Symbols
William J. O'Brien, Corpse
Zachary Buchner, Untitled (Gold I) and Untitled (Gold II)
The second reason for New Icon‘s significance, at least to me and to my summer, and the reason I made a return trip only a few days after my first, was the superb Dan Gunn room at the back of the show. The work was an apparent leap forward for the artist and probably the best art I’ve seen so far this year. Gunn’s style and visual logic was expressed through a confident consistency, with celebratory colors and patterns and reflection combining in ways at once familiar and new, gestures and forms making movement by repetition at every scale, and all to make a highly convincing, approachable, and thoroughly enjoyable visual experience. With luck New Icon might also be remembered as the second launch for Dan Gunn, as I hope (and expect) to see a lot more of his work soon – it’s really that good.
Dan Gunn, Mystery of Rectangle No. 5
Dan Gunn, Inside the Studio for the Development of the Technology of Enchantment
Dan Gunn, Inside the Studio for the Development of the Technology of Enchantment (detail)
Dan Gunn, Inside the Studio for the Development of the Technology of Enchantment (detail)
Dan Gunn, Inside the Studio for the Development of the Technology of Enchantment (detail)
Dan Gunn, Harlequin No. 4
Dan Gunn, Object of Interaction, and End of the Line
Dan Gunn, End of the Line (reverse)
For the sake of numbers, I give it all an:
New Icon opened June 5th, 2010 and closed August 1st, 2010 @ Loyola University Museum of Art, 820 N Michigan Ave.
Here’s a late run review written earlier this summer by Paul Germanos. Thanks, Paul!
Break a beverage bottle’s tamper-evident seal and a plastic ring falls free from the cap. According to the chosen brand’s marketing scheme including the improving of the website with the use of a SEO company, this Gilbert SEO Expert that can rank your site, as well. Erik Wenzel took notice of the formal qualities possessed by these common objects. And in so doing he found latent a real sculptural potential.
Erik Wenzel @ DOVA Temporary
“If I had assistants I’d force them to drink the brands I hated,” said Wenzel.
Lacking assistants, Wenzel collected the plastic rings left in the wake of his own more-or-less pleasant cap-twisting: each one being a reminder of that moment in time corresponding to his personal consumption. Then, in his solo exhibition “New ‘N’ Lonlier Laze” at DOVA temporary, Wenzel played out his accumulation through the site-specific installation of, “Rings.”
As he took possession of DOVA’s white cube, Wenzel forestalled rehabilitation of the gallery environment: preserving, if not the former art, the former artist’s modification of the space. Where Wenzel found a nail hole in the gallery wall, he randomly selected and then hung one of his own plastic rings. So that the evidence of the previous show’s removal determined the pattern of the current show’s placement.
The resulting piece takes the form of a curious system of notation: points of intersection between personal and communal, choice and fate, intake and output, etc., being mapped. “Rings” is an abstract, post-minimal composition of found elements. Visually, it’s interesting; it’s pretty, even.
Red ring, yellow ring, blue ring: What does it mean?
While might be possible to describe “Rings” as a form of institutional critique–each bright circle calling to attention a flaw (nail hole) which he found within a structure of the Academy–Wenzel doesn’t seem to want to bring it all down. Rather he aims to interact with, and preserve, the overarching framework within which he’s free to exercise his vision.
With a BFA from SAIC, an MFA from UC, personal blog, documentary photography on-line, critical writing in various places, and a presence in the local apartment gallery scene, Wenzel does have a legitimate involvement in many different art-related endeavors, i.e., he’s organically developed what is now called a “practice.”
But his practice isn’t social practice. Enigmatic and provocative, Wenzel engages–visually–not only with the often unobserved aspects of his environment but too with any kindred spirits also willing to take the time, and look. Is Chicago still looking?
Erik Wenzel @ DOVA Temporary
Erik Wenzel‘s New ‘N’ Lonlier Laze ran from June 25th to July 24th, 2010 @ DOVA Temporary, 5228 South Harper Avenue. Review written by Paul Germanos, July 11, 2010.
Here are my picks for what to see this weekend. Its the end of summer and there isn’t much, but more listings can be found here and here.
It was only 14 months ago that ebersmoore (then ebersb9) opened its first show, an exhibition of B.C. MacEachran‘s paintings titled Shooting Stars. It was among the first shows I reviewed here at Chicago Art Review, so with MacEachran’s second show at the ebersmoore coming up this weekend I can’t help but think of it as a slightly late anniversary for many parties. McEachran’s paintings are still gorgeous little pattern works, and the show (titled The Big Gray Con) opens Friday, August 13th from 6-9PM @ ebersmoore, 213 N Morgan St, 3C.
B.C. MacEachran, Sopwith Stonies
Melissa Marinaro curated this group show about religion, spiritualism and ritual in contemporary art, which features work by Elijah Burgher, Sara Fagala, Terence Hannum, Chad Harrison, Ivan Lozano, Adam Ludwig and Rebecca Walz. Burgher’s been getting buzz lately and Hannum is fucking hardcore, so it’d be alone worth spotting if you haven’t seen one or the other yet. The show opens Friday, August 13th from 7-11PM @ Johalla Projects, 1561 N Milwaukee Ave.
Terence Hannum, A New Black Order
LVL3 Gallery is back in business after a quick summer vacation and directorial eurotour, and is starting things off with a show titled Feeble Intimacy which will attempt to analogize representation art theories with personal relationship dynamics (I think) through the work of Liz Nielsen (director of the always cool Swimming Pool Project Space), Kate Ruggeri and Brendan Sullivan. The show opens Saturday, August 14th from 5-9PM @ LVL3, 1452 N Milwaukee Ave, 3. LVL3 also has a thing going on at their space in the Merchandise Mart, which you can read about here.
Kate Ruggeri, Cryer
wait uh couldn’t we like just bury them all at once?
This week’s picks from Ryan.
Elizabeth Deasy, Untitled
Mónica Palma, Deshilado
Marie Koetje, Relics
Julia Asherman, metal plate, wooden disk
Caleb J. Lyons, Real Pirates
Jane Ryder, Rishika Bear Honey Bear
you can ruin your eyes
This week’s weekend picks. There aren’t that many other listings, but for more check out this link and also this one.
I can’t be the only one surprised that Carrie Gundersdorf hasn’t already taken part in the UBS 12×12 series at the Museum of Contemporary Art, but I guess she hasn’t since she’ll be this month’s 12×12 artist for what I assume to be the first time. Gundersdorf’s big star-field paintings and drawings look great together, and it should be fun to see a dedicated solo in the 12×12 space. The event goes public on Saturday, but the reception can is Friday, August 6th at 6PM @ The Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E Chicago Ave.
Carrie Gundersdorf, The Epsilon ring varies in width as it orbits the planet
Spoke is having a little week-long show of Mark Porter‘s kinetic sculptures and diagram drawings. I think I remember his name from the Mini Dutch archives, so it’ll be nice to see what he’s been up to since. The show, titled Replication Machines, Territorial Markers and Preliminary Drawings, opens Friday, August 6th from 6-9PM @ Spoke, 119 N Peoria St, 3D.
Mark Porter, Internal External
The annual design show Public Works returns to Andrew Rafacz’s space this week, giving the West Loop crowd another examination of the points of contact between the artwork made to sell itself and visual media made to sell something else. Artists/groups presented include Dan Funderburgh, Sonnenzimmer, Mike Perry, and Seripop, and the show opens Friday, August 6th from 4-7PM @ Andrew Rafacz Gallery, 835 W Washington.
Sonnenzimmer and SERIPOP
For a short show at Monument 2 aimed at addressing the cultures of the domestic space / gallery space, the exhibition Minutes away from downtown brings together paintings by Orion Martin and furniture from the collection of Hudson Harrington Berry. The show is opened and received on Saturday, August 7th from 6-10PM @ Monument 2, 2007 N Point.
Orion Martin
you have me down here as someone else
This week’s picks from Ryan.
Christian Schumann, Solar Bloom
Christy Matson, Healing Station
Dan Gunn, Untitled
Derek Aylward
John Riepenhoff, Uh Oh by Nicholas Frank
Kristine Moran, Dispersion 3
Ryan Shaffer, Holy Mountain
thank god im not a peregrine
Hey, this is the weekly post where I usually put up my picks for the weekend, but since the city is taking it easy on art openings for the next few days (though there still are a few), I thought I’ll dedicate this post to suggesting that you check out New Icon @ Loyola University Museum of Art if you haven’t seen it yet. The show has some of what I think is the best art up in the city right now (and which I’ll be writing more about soon) but it’ll all close up and come down after this weekend so go see it while you can. You’ll be happy you did!
That said, there’s also Sara Schnadt‘s Network, Domestic Intervention @ What It Is, which might be the most actively disruptive installation I’ve ever heard of for a multi-functional domestic gallery space. It’ll also be great excuse to cut out to Oak Park and see what Holly and Tom have been up to. The show opens Saturday, July 31st from 3-8PM @ What It Is, 1155 S Lyman Ave, Oak Park.
Sara Schnadt, Network
ill be a round
This week’s picks from Ryan. Super good set.
Claude Zervas, V39B
Tracey Snelling
Kim Rugg, There Are Still Unresolved Questions
Jamison Brosseau, Exotic Squash Competition
William Powhida
Jeanette Mundt, Create the Perfect Bedroom
Jean Dubuffet
you leave her out of it
This week’s picks. Check out more listings here and here.
Danny Think Tank is a space and show going up this weekend for the Milwaukee Ave Arts Festival, and will feature work by Curt Bozif, Derek Chan, Ryan Fenchel, Dan Gunn, Roxane Hopper, Lisa Majer, Stephen Nyktas, Cole Pierce, Julie Rudder, Kendrick Shackleford and Craig Yu. Come see the opening this Friday, July 23rd from 6-10PM @ 2628 N Milwaukee Ave, 2nd floor.
Stephen Nyktas, Kiwi
Spoke hosts the probably awesome results of Grant W. Ray‘s pseudo-scientific investigation into electric and psychic communication with nature. Check it out this weekend only, and stop by the opening on Friday, July 23rd from 6-9PM @ Spoke, 119 N Peoria St, 3D.
Grant W Ray, Athens, Ohio: Shadow of its Former Self. Electric Quija Board for Trees
This month at The Hills, artist Jessica Taylor Caponigro will install a site specific layering of fabric, wood, patterns and objects in a piece she’s giving the doubly intimate title Looks Like A Place I Came In. The opening for this sharp domestic look is on Friday, July 23rd from 8-11PM @ The Hills Esthetic Center, 128 N Campbell Ave, G.
Jessica Taylor Caponigro
I’m always a fan of summer good time feel good party shows, and Booze and Bacon looks set to be one of those exactly. In addition to the refreshingly honest refreshments, there will be an overload of work from artists Brooke Barnett, Benjamin Bellas, Tola Brennan, Judith Brotman, Christopher Bungart, Ann Chen, Laura Davis, Meg Duguid, Jason Dunda, Kirk Faber, Brent Garbowski, Max Garett, Jeffrey Grauel, Matt Harrison, John Henley, Andrew Holmquist, Fred Holland, Michael Hunter, Carol Jackson, Brad Johns, Larry Lee, Kirsten Leenaars, Mican Morgan, Helen McElroy, Chris Naylon, William Newhouse, Susannah Papish, Laura Prieto-Velasco, Scott Ramon, Tim Schade, Sarah Wild and Philip von Zweck. Opening is this Saturday, July 24th from 7-10PM @ Slow, 2153 W 21st St.
Tim Schade
Andrew Rafacz Gallery is either hosting or involved in hosting a number of artists at the William H. Cooper Manufacturing building. Pretty cool collection, with Zachary Buchner, Karl Erickson, Andrew Falkowski, Heidi Norton, John Opera, Joe Pflieger, Matt Stolle and Philip Vanderhyden showing work. Check it out this Saturday, July 24th from 12-3pm @ William H. Cooper Manufacturing, 816 N Spaulding Ave.
John Opera, unitled (Maquoketa)
please do not bury your images in Flash
This week’s picks from Ryan and some from me.
Yukata Sone, Highway Junction 110-105
Erik Foss, Don't Look at Me
Chris Scarborough, Untitled (Portrait)
Adolph Gottleib
Fraser Taylor
Robert Arneson, A Nuclear Warhead
Jana Flynn, Return to Battle
science of style includes adventurous avant garde cuts with painstaking precision and dramatic designs that predict the future of fashion and draw you into his captivating carnival of couture
This week’s picks. Check out more here and here.
Terence Hannum is a pretty metal dude, performing (along with André Foisy) in Chicago’s intensely metal experimental duo LOCRIAN and making comparatively heavy paintings in low-end monochrome. Check out some of his new work on display this month in Negative Altars, opening this Friday, July 16th from 6-8PM @ PEREGRINEPROGRAM, 500 W Cermak Rd, 727.
Terence Hannum, Scenes from Altar
In a combination of indoor installations and outdoor screenings, Curators Stephanie Nadeau and Amira Hanafi bring together 25 videos from a local and international set of artists for the first annual Humboldt Moving Picture Show. The artist list looks really interesting. Check out the screening and show this Saturday, July 17th @ Richmond Manor, 1625 N Richmond St.
Patrick Holbrook, Talk to Me
The Twelve Galleries Project is a traveling and experimental curatorial project organized by Jamilee Polson?, and this year each quarterly show invites three curators to put together a collaborative show under a (mostly arbitrary) title or theme. This third installment brings together Anthony Elms (Gallery400 codirector, writer, and on special occasion contributor to this website), Philip von Zweck (of VONZWECK fame), and Katherine Pill (former co-director of Concertina Gallery). The curatorial breakdown is as follows:
Anthony Elms brings Danielle Gustafson-Sundell, Shane Huffman, Erin Leland, Matthew Metzger, Sonny Venice, and Philip von Zweck. Katherine Pill brings Madeleine Bailey, Samantha Bittman and Matt Nichols. Philip von Zweck brings three curators, Christina Cosio (who brings Erik Peterson), Stevie Greco [who brings Jason Bryant, Todd Mattei and Caroline Picard), and David Roman (who brings Matt Irie and Dominick Talvacchio). Somehow this is all arranged like swimming pool lanes, but we’ll have to see for ourselves this Saturday, July 17th from 6-10PM @ Swimming Pool Project Space, 2858 W Montrose.
Todd Mattei, With the Prayer
Two shows go up this month at devening projects + editions, an analytical collaborative painting exhibition from Paul Cowan and Matt Stolle titled Causality Without Cause, and a mass-media installation from Thomas Roach titled Wheatstone Stereoscope. Both shows open Sunday, July 18th from 4-7PM @ devening projects + editions, 3039 W Carroll Ave.
Matt Stolle, Untitled (MP11)
we’re us
This week’s picks from Ryan.
Tom Otterness, The Marriage of real Estate and Money
Harvey Pekar
Jonathan Borofsky, Human Structures
Jonathan Richman
Philip Hanson, Rainbow in the Sky (Wordsworth)
Mike Kelly
Keith Coventry, Crack
deadening ubiquity
Here are my quick picks for this week’s openings. Do yourself a favor and check out broader listings here and here.
This Friday Johalla Projects will be hosting a fundraising event for ACRE‘s summer residency program, complete with drinks from my favorite Chicago art group, The Hornswaggler Bar. Work by the residency’s 2010 residents will be up for raffle and auction, so you’ll have a chance to pick up work from Caitlin Arnold, Alex Chitty, Ben Driggs, Paul Ershen, Scott Fortino, Rebecca Gordon, Elisa Harkins, Kelly Kaczynski, Irena Knezevic, Young Joon Kwak, Jason Lazarus, Aliza Morell, Heidi Norton, Jennifer Ray, Matt Siber, Montgomery Perry Smith, Greg Stimac, Brian Ulrich and others. $10 at the door this Friday, July 9th from 6-11PM @ Johalla Projects, 1561 N Milwaukee Ave.
Montgomery Perry Smith, Soul Searching
Its youth and beauty as interpreted by the young and beautiful in YOUNGER THAN JANIS, the weekend art and music and food exhibition at Noble & Superior Projects. The artists – appropriately all under 27 years old – include Marcel Alcala, Ryan Barone, Lucas Blair, Patrick Bobilin, Connor Camburn, Kevin Clancy, Adam Cruces, Cara Anne Greene, Eliza Koch, Andre & Evan Lenox, Vanessa Macholl, Celia Marks, Ross Meckfessel, Michael Morris, Erin Nixon, Michael Radziewicz, Anna Rochinski, Liz Rugg, Hannah Verrill, Blair Waters, Ali White, Andrew Norman Wilson, Travis Wyche and me, Steve Ruiz. Check it the opening and musical performances this Friday, July 9th from 6-10 and the Film/Video screenings and BBQ on Saturday, July 10th from 7-10PM @ Noble & Superior Projects, 1418 W Superior St, 2R.
Adam Cruces, hit it
The rent is due and the lease is up and apartment gallery/listening spot MVSEVM is closing its doors. In a farewell gesture, work from the gallery’s three directors (Daniel Baird, Jamie Keesling and Bret Schneider) will make up the final show Exhibition 8.07102010, which opens Saturday, July 10th from 6-10PM @ MVSEVM, 1626 N California Ave, 2.
Jamie Keesling
ADDS DONNA is a new apartment gallery/collective study institution not far from Lake and Pulaski, and for their first exhibition they’ll be showing the humming, floating work of sculptor, artist and director of peregrineprogram, Edmund Chia. Say hi to everyone and the new place at the opening on Sunday, July 11th from 3-5PM @ ADDS DONNA, 4223 W Lake St, #422.
Edmund Chia, Untitled
see ya more
This week’s picks from Ryan and me.
Paul Brainard, Off hours
Chad Person, Amazing Grace
Rune Olsen, Kissing
Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Blued
Matthew Metzger, Other Criteria
Nathaniel Robinson, Double Reliquary (part A)
Terra Fuller
better head than red
Quiet scene this weekend, but here’s whats going on. Check out other listings here and here.
Documentary photographer Gregg Evans and digital film artist Jeroen Nelemans put on double solos at ebersmoore this month. You can catch the opening Friday, July 2nd from 6-9PM @ ebersmoore, 213 N Morgan St, 3C.
Gregg Evans, Things I Once Owned
Still life gets another exhibition examination, this time through the curatorial selection of Ghazal Hashemi and the hands and lenses of artists Wilford Barrington, Amir H. Fallah (insert Beautiful/Decay plug here), Ian Hawk, Bruce Ingram, Sandy Kim, Jason Lazarus, Maximilian Schubert, Dylan Walker, and Harley Young. The show will be up all month, but you can see the afternoon opening on Saturday, July 3rd from 2-6PM @ Monument 2, 2007 N Point St.
This is Still Life
Julius Cæsar opens two shows this weekend: new work from Texas-by-way-of-Chicago artist Gil Rocha, and …Sorry I Didn’t Have Time to Google You, a group show with work from Berlin artists David Jourdan, Lisa Holzer, Kitty Kraus, Chiara Minchio and Stefan Schuster. Opening Sunday, July 4rd from 4-7PM @ Julius Cæsar, 3144 W Carroll Ave, 2G.
Gil Rocha, her funky walk
goat monkey, duck finches
This week’s picks from Ryan.
Dana Dart-McLean
Keiko Narahashi
KAWS
Brian Chippendale, Human Filth
Melissa Manful
Violet Hopkins, Could be a Sculpture, A Machine Tool, A Propeller or an Architect's Model
Christian Marclay
ughhh fack namsayin
Summer’s here, check it out. Also check out my picks for this weekends art events, and also also check out full listings between here and here.
Come back ghosts Old Gold present a double showing of painter Peter Hoffman and photographer Dick Dermody, with shows respectively titled Painting with Peter and INVINCIBLE. Opens Friday, June 25th from 7-11PM @ Heaven Gallery, 1550 N Milwaukee Ave, 2nd Floor.
Dick Dermody, the_fun
South side art watchers should go see Erik Wenzel‘s New ‘N’ Lonelier Laze, a reductive pursuit promising at least a video and some objects, on display at University of Chicago’s DOVA Temporary in Hyde Park. Opening reception is Friday, June 25th from 6-9PM @ DOVA Temporary.
Erik Wenzel
Meanwhile, North siders may want to plan a trip to new Rogers Park gallery iceberg., the curatorial project of art collector Dr. Dan Berger, for a film screening by photographer and film maker Doug Ischar. Also on display, collaborative work with Tom Daws and new work by Elijah Burgher, Erin Leland and Michael Sirianni. Shows start Saturday, June 26th at 6PM @ iceberg., 7714 N Sheridan Rd.
Doug Ischar, Come Lontano
Indulge flesh lust at Johalla Projects‘s In a Plain Brown Wrapper, a exhibition of NSFW art curated by NSFW artist Barbara DeGenevieve. Participants include: Steven Frost, Elisa Garza, Elise Goldstein, Emerson Granillo, Jesse Hites, Jacob King, Ivan Lozano, Joelle McTigue, Karina Natis, Clare O’Sadnick, Edward Rossa, Joshua Sampson, Talaya Schmid, Kristen Stokes, Jaroslaw Studencki, Bu Tu, Wayama Woo and Meredith Zielke, and show opens Saturday, June 26th from 7-11PM @ Johalla Projects, 1561 N Milwaukee Ave.
Joshua Sampson, weird sister #2
Having technically kicked off their season’s activity with shows at NEXT in Chicago and Tate Modern in London, The Suburban returns in form this weekend with an exhibition of work from minimal painter (and comedy writer) Richard Roth and comparatively maximal painter Hilary Wilder. See it this Sunday, June 26th from 2-4PM @ The Suburban, 125 N Harvey Ave, in Oak Park.
Hilary Wilder
