ArtSlant

A post on ArtSlant about our Judy Pfaff exhibit here. I especially like the line "Pieces like I dwell in possibility are almost dioramas or terrariums, little environments unto themselves." Perfect description of the work.

P.S. WE think the show feels like a "bang".

Open to Public - Free Tour & Complimentary Ticket to Art Chicago

On Saturday, May 1st, the David Weinberg Gallery is running a special program, consisting of in-depth tours of the Judy Pfaff and Jennifer Scott McLaughlin exhibit.  This program is open to the general public, by registration only. The hour-long tours will be offered to adults and children with parental supervision at 1:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Participating in this tour will include a complimentary ticket for Art Chicago, the international art fair taking place at the Merchandise Mart the same weekend. Visit the David Weinberg Gallery's booth(#142) at Art Chicago as well.

Contact Meghan McCook, Education Program Director, at meghanqmccook@gmail.com to register. Limited slots available.

Hope to see you this weekend!

-mqm

Artist, Helen Maureen Cooper, brought her students from Harold Washington College,  for an educational program.

Art Fairs This Week in Chicago

The 12th annual Chicago Art Open is already in session and continues through May 7. This show features 350 local Chicago artists selected by a jury of Chicago art experts at the River East Arts Center with no charge for admission. On May 2 from 12 - 3pm, there will be a panel discussion: "How to Collect: A Panel of Experts" followed by guided tour of the fair. The Chicago Art Open is sponsored by the Chicago Artists' Coalition. To see samples of featured work click here.

Artropolis, consisting of Art Chicago, NEXT and the International Antiques Fair kicks off this week at the Merchandise Mart. There are various preview events for each show on Thursday, April 29, with the official opening Friday, April 30 at 11am. Our gallery will be featured in Art Chicago, at booth #142.

Art Chicago (12th floor) features emerging and established galleries from around the world who show contemporary and modern art, NEXT (7th floor) explores the interaction "between art its public," and the Antiques Fair (8th floor) brings together over 100 of the finest international antiques dealers.

This is an event not to miss! Each fair will be open from 11am – 7pm on Friday and Saturday, 11am – 6pm on Sunday, and 11am – 4pm on Monday, with the Antiques Fair closing an hour early at 3pm.

Judy Pfaff in Chicago Art Magazine

Another great article about Pfaff's work.
Judy Pfaff at David Weinberg Gallery in Chicago Art Magazine by Robin Dluzen.

Install Week - Behind the Scenes Sneak Peek

This Friday we have our much anticipated Judy Pfaff opening, along with new paintings by returning artist, Jennifer Scott McLaughlin. Take a sneak peek at the worker bees, making it all happen after the artists put their art in our hands.

the elusive HR

Kerri, Johnna, and Heather - pro art packers

New gorgeous paintings by Jennifer Scott McLaughlin.

Kerri and Aaron deinstall a delicate Noelle Allen piece after the Alumni (SAIC) exhibit.

New work by Jennifer Scott McLaughlin amongst the organized chaos.

Monday, ready for Judy's work to arrive on Tuesday.

Rob and Aaron unpacking on Tuesday. Rob has worked for Judy for 16 yrs and drove her work all the way from NY!

One of Judy's pieces. Rob said she will continue to work on it when she arrives on Thursday. This is how Judy often works, her process...a piece evolves up until the very end, before exhibiting. A true installation artist.

Amazing!

Don't miss this amazing exhibit, opening this Friday, April 16th from 5-8pm.

Learn about and watch Judy's process on Art 21.

-meghan

SAIC Panel Discussion - Creative Economy

Last week most of us from the gallery headed over to the School of the Art Institute's ballroom on Michigan Avenue. Aaron and David were invited to sit on a panel discussion, Creative Economy - Galleries, Artists, & the Market. Also contributing to the panel were a few other figures in the CHGO art community; Rhona Hoffman, Larry Fields (art collector), Shannon Stratton, and moderator, Duke Reiter. It was a great opportunity to exchange ideas and for the panel to answer questions from the audience, which consisted mostly of SAIC students. Afterward, I was on hand to disperse gallery postcards and information, but also to spread the word about our free art education programming. It was a great event, and I hope we get to be a part of more like them in the future. More frequent discussions and exchanging of ideas from all players in the art world, will only help CHGO's art community.

- meghan

Gorgeous SAIC Ballroom

Rhona, David, Aaron, Shannon, Larry and Duke.

Our info table, wo-manned by yours truly.

Judy Pfaff and DWG in Weekly Roundup

Our upcoming exhibition of Judy Pfaff's work caught Art 21's eye! Check out the Weekly Roundup for information about her solo show at DWG as well as other events, exhibitions and write-ups on Pfaff's fellow female visionaries.

♥ me some Banksy

Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop | Art & Design | Lifelounge

Great little video detailing bansky's work and street art.

Two More Days for Alumni Show

Only Friday and Saturday left to see our Alumni show featuring SAIC MFA grads Noelle Allen, Helen Maurene Cooper, Amy E. Mayfield and BFA grad Michael Ratulowski. Recent MFA grad Daniel Kim still has artwork in Dave's office as well.

We'll be starting deinstall Saturday evening gearing up for the Pfaff opening on Friday April 16. Jennifer Scott McLaughlin's work shows up Monday. Judy's Tuesday. And by Thursday night we will have transformed the gallery into something else.

This will be . . .

this by Monday morning.

Creative Chicago Expo

This weekend Chicago Artists Resource will be hosting the annual Creative Chicago Expo at the Chicago Cultural Center. The event is on Saturday, April 10 from 10 am to 4 pm and it's free! I recommend that anyone involved in the arts stop by, as there is something for everyone among a long list of free workshops, consultants and over 100 vendors. Some interesting workshops include Contemporary Approaches to Promoting Art, DIY Web Basics, Forming a Non-Profit, and Using Social Media. Consultants will be available for 45 minute appointments at $15 each for matters including legal, portfolio or grant review, casting agents and more.

All the details for the event can be found here on Chicago Artists Resource's website.

Childish Creativity

Peter Pan: Well I will not grow up! You cannot make me! I will banish you like Tinkerbell.
Wendy: I WILL NOT BE BANISHED!
Peter Pan: Then go home. Go home and grow up. And take your feelings with you!

In his article, Childish Creativity , writer Jonah Lehrer looks into the loss of creativity children experience as they age. Blame it on our brain (our prefrontal cerebral cortex to be exact!) The good news is that, by just thinking of ourselves as children again, we are actually able to regain the creative thinking that we have slowly lost as adults.

(posted on the Frontal Cortex by Jonah Lehrer, March 25, 2010)

Looking for a Good Read?

AIGA is a fantastic organization that exists to support and advance the graphic arts and design. I am personally a student member of the Chicago chapter, and have attended several events, all of which have been outstanding and rewarding. In trying to keep up with all the marvelous things that AIGA does, I came across a collection of books they have assembled, called 50 Books/50 Covers, chosen for demonstrating excellence in design. This collection was one of the best ways I have lost a couple hours of my life in a long time! In this collection you will find one amazing, intriguing book after another, with a design, layout, and details that were carefully chosen to match and enhance the book's contents. I suggest taking the time to go through as many as you can, and reading the descriptions of the books as you go. You might just find your next Must Read! Below are some of my favorites from the collection.

For it's use of strong, simplified graphic elements to give the contents a fresh, new face: "Clássicos Saraiva collection"
Multiple Contributing Authors
Design Firm: REX Design



For its playful nature: "L is for Lollygag"
Illustrator: Melinda Beck
Designer: Tracy Sunrize Johnson

For it's elegance and use of visual metaphor:
"Zibaldone, de las cinco etapas de la vida"
Author, Director, Designer: Ana Cortils

For enhancing the title, and visual interest: "The Age of Entanglement"
Author: Louisa Gilder
Design Firm: Alfred A. Knopf
Jacket Design: Jason Booher



For it's power through simplicity, and unique design:
"The Way Through Doors"
Author: Jessie Ball
Design Firm: Vintage Books
Designers: Jason Booher & Helen Yentus

For the perfect use a single image:
"Brought to Light: Photography and the Invisible 1840 - 1900"
Multiple Contributing Authors
Design Firm: San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art
Designer: James Williams

Judy Pfaff Studio Visit

I visited Judy Pfaff's studio this week to check out the work that will be here for her show. Judy's studio is on a large plot of land at the base of the Catskill mountains. It is pretty idyllic. It was raining pretty hard that day, but Judy warmed me up with a cup of tea and her generous spirit. She's an outstanding and lovely individual.

Her studio is a place of constant flux - the way any good studio is. She's simultaneously preparing for our show at the gallery, our booth at Art Chicago and a concurrent show at the Reavley Gallery at the Texas National 2010 show in Nacogdoches, Texas.

The Texas National show is an annual competition, open to all artists living and working in the United States, juried each year by an internationally acclaimed artist. This year, 191 artworks by 161 artists were chosen by Judy. The TN 2010 show will be held in the Ledbetter Gallery of The Cole Art Center at the SFA School of Art. Previous jurors have included Doug and Mike Starn, who have also show at the David Weinberg Gallery, along with the likes of Leon Golub, Donald Sultan, Sandy Skoglund, Ed Moses, and - one of my favorite enigmatic artists - Mel Chin.

On top of managing all of this, Judy is also the head of the Art Department at Bard. It's pretty astonishing to think that she can handle the (overly)full plate that is in front of her, especially considering that several works we will show are very large, new, and never before seen. She's amazing and the show will be amazing. See you there!

New, in progress and as yet untitled work by Judy Pfaff - likely to appear on the back wall in Gallery 1, Assemblage materials / Mixed media, 91x91, 2010

A photo I snapped on my last visit to Judy's studio in August of 2009. Judy is a sponge and takes inspiration from nearly everywhere, but this is just outside her back door and I think you can see a direct relationship to the previous image. Awesome.

Studio view

Another studio view

Women's Lib

A letter from Nancy Spero to Lucy Lippard, dated 1971. (via)

In discussing our exhibition schedule yesterday, we discovered 10 out of 13 of our upcoming artists will be women. I know we're just one teeny gallery in the grand scheme of this crazy ass art world, but hopefully Saltz will agree this is a step in the right direction.