Jordan Eagles & Dylan Vitone - Opening Friday

Aaron has been working hard over the past couple days to get our next exhibit ready for Friday. We are so excited to reveal this show Friday, and we can't wait to hear your questions and feedback.

Both artists will be here for the opening - Friday, November 5, 5-8PM, so don't miss this chance to ask them about the work.

This is Eagles' debut Chicago exhibit. We will be showing work from the past 3 years, showing a variety of Eagles' experimentation within his self-invented process. The work is made using combinations of UV & white resin, plexiglass, copper and blood. Jordan suspends, encases and permanently preserves cattle blood, salvaged from slaughterhouses, in a manner that is designed to retain the blood's natural colors and textures and to expose its finite details.

This will be Vitone's second solo show with the gallery, and will show a selection of work from his new series, the Miami Project. In this series he explores the heightened sexuality, spectacle and income-based disparities that exist throughout the city of Miami. This marks Vitone's first body work in color, but he sticks with his tradition of assembling large-scale panoramic photographs that simultaneously show the details and relationships at multiple special and perceptual levels.

Check out our website for more images, and to read further about the two artists' work in the press release.

Amanda Friedman & Miss Aniela Reviews, Season Opener

Next week marks the conclusion of our current exhibit, Amanda Friedman & Miss Aniela.

Read reviews by Michael Weinstein in Newcity, and by reporter Lauren Veira in the Chicago Tribune and come out by next Saturday to see the show.

Our next exhibit features a solo show from David Burdeny's new series Sacred & Secular and a group show in galleries 2 & 3 with prints from the Yale University School of Art 2010 MFA Photography candidates. Check out the press release on our website, and come out for the season opener on September 10. Galleries in every district will be open; this is a night to clear your schedule and make sure you get out and see some art!

You can find a complete list of galleries that will be premiering new shows for the season opener (September 10), and a schedule for the rest of the year on Chicago Gallery News' website. They also now organize the Saturday morning art tours around River North, and you can find that schedule here.

Images: (above) Amanda Friedman, Santa Monica #8
(below) David Burdeny, River Nile, Cairo, Egypt, 2009

Open Books - Revelry

If you haven't visited Open Books yet, you should. Being a used bookstore fanatic, I was jumping for joy when I heard one was opening down the street from the gallery this past year. Then when I found out it was a nonprofit to promote literacy, I knew my compulsive book-buying was going to enter a whole new dimension. Meghan, our Education Director, has been working on collaborative workshops with them and has nothing but praise for the organization. From the Open Books website:

"Open Books is an award-winning nonprofit social venture that operates an extraordinary bookstore, provides community programs, and mobilizes passionate volunteers to promote literacy in Chicago and beyond."

They have an incredible store with 50,000 books to choose from (but I've heard they're processing more than 350,000) with very affordable options in any genre you can imagine.

Last night I attended one of their volunteer orientations and was impressed by the turnout. The bookstore itself is staffed almost solely by these volunteers. Click here to get a list of ways you can get involved including story time, school visits, book processing, tutoring, etc.

I'm pretty excited about their upcoming event - The Revelry 2010. Here is the brochure:

Click the image for more details

Our Jordan Eagles opening falls on the same day but that runs from 5-8 pm so there's plenty of time to fit both in the night. Your $100 will go to a great cause and you'll get a fun night of drinks and entertainment to boot!

Jordan Eagles - "Blood Artist"

Writer/comedian Lou Perez wrote an article for Beyond Race Magazine about artist Jordan Eagles and posted it on his blog this week. Eagles is an artist we will be exhibiting in November alongside new photographic work from Dylan Vitone. We decided to exhibit these artists during November to coincide with the Chicago Humanities Festival, whose theme this year is "Body".

Jordan Eagles is a very interesting artist considering his choice of medium. He creates his beautiful, vibrant works with a mixture of animal blood and resin. Lou Perez posted a fascinating excerpt that didn't make the article:

Eagles asked that I keep the resin he uses to preserve the blood a secret. It’s taken him years to find the perfect one. Fearing my loose lips, I didn’t even venture to the corner of the basement where dozens of containers of resin were upside-down, draining into buckets.

Another secret I’m going to keep is how Eagles manages to get black “aged blood” without the horrible stench. He has horror stories of working with old blood, where the entire studio would reek of it. “If you were down here, you’d throw up,” he said. A brownie tin of dry black blood—months’ worth of layering—sits scentless on the table. It actually looks like a slab of uncut brownies.

We are eager to get these works in the gallery to see them in person. Below is a sampling from his series New Blood:

UR21, Blood preserved on plexiglass, UV resin, 48"x48"x3"

TSV+TSV1, Blood, copper preserved on plexiglass, UV & white resin, 36" x 72" x 3"

The exhibit opens on November 5, 2010 with a reception from 5-8pm and runs through January 1, 2011. This will be Jordan Eagles' first exhibit with the gallery and Dylan Vitone's second. Vitone will be exhibiting work from his new series set in Miami.

Amanda Friedman, Opening July 23

We just got in Amanda Friedman's work and it's already off to the framers. Her second solo show with us opens on July 23rd. It will be a blend of her Night Landscape series along with her portraiture and architectural photographic works pulled from her work as a professional photographer. Working with clients such as Forbes, GQ, Newsweek, Stella, and Time Out Chicago, Freidman takes full advantage of her hectic travel schedule to shoot in a variety of locations for her private artwork. You may have even seen her recently published photos in Time Out Chicago of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, aka, She & Him. Friedman said of the job, "I only had 15 minutes to shoot as they had to get to Coachella to perform. It was a bit rushed but I’m happy with the results." She has every reason to be. Check this outtake of Deschanel.

Amanda Friedman, Zooey Deschanel, shot for Time Out Chicago, 2010

Coming soon: Miss Aniela

The work of one of our photographers, Miss Aniela, arrived at the gallery today. We are proud to be the American premier show for London based Miss Aniela. She will be exhibiting with California photographer Amanda Friedman. This will be Friedman's second solo show with the gallery and the first in our main space.

The exhibit opens on July 23rd and runs through September 4, 2010. An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 23 from 5-8pm. Below are a few examples of Miss Aniela's photography:

Miss Aniela, An impromptu performance, 2008

Miss Aniela, The smothering, 2008

Miss Aniela, About Time too!, 2006

Our press release on her work:

This is the first American gallery show for the artist known as Miss Aniela. Born Natalie Dybisz, the artist adopted the alter ego of Miss Aniela (taken from her middle name), as a way to distance her personal identity from the one she explores in her self-portraiture. Aniela first gained notoriety in 2007 when she started, as an untrained photographer, to take and then load her self-portraits onto the photo-sharing site Flickr. Within a year she had over one million hits and had earned a reputation as an inventive, playful and sometimes-brooding young artist. One of her works even graced the cover of the 2009 May/June issue of American Photo with a feature article on so-called “Flickr Superstars.” Aniela is also outspoken on her blog about the method of her work, which is often times manipulated in PhotoShop. Aniela is sometimes attacked for appearing “pretty” in her work (including by world renown photographer Martin Parr who posted just such a comment on her blog) and thus, as the criticism goes, not being concerned with any deep or formal conceptual considerations. On the contrary, Aniela has exhaustively and articulately outlined her point of view on her personal blog, which includes musings on feminist theory, issues of artistic craft, and thoughts on artistic intention vs. viewer bias. Aniela has also engaged audiences at numerous workshops and teaching events, including Photocamp at the National Media Museum in Bradford, England and at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit in Seattle, with plans to expand her workshops in London later this year. This show will feature works from several bodies of work, including her Self-Gazing series of straight portraiture and her Multiplicity series, which features multiple iterations of the artists within the same image.

Wheatley, Kaiser-Smith & Glink Opening

Last night was a great time for our opening reception of Wheatley, Kaiser-Smith & Glink. Rhona Wheatley, Yvette Kaiser-Smith and Marissa Glink were all here, and helped to make it a wonderful evening.

Wheatley's work focuses on language, the written word, and the act of translating inner feelings, thoughts and concepts into a particular language throughout history's cultures. Her current body of work focuses particularly on the concept of the divine. Kaiser-Smith has been working with fiberglass, which she crochets into geometric shapes, and then hardens through a process using polyester resin. These shapes are then constructed into larger structures that involve mathematical series and numbers such as pi, the Fibonacci sequence, and Pascal's triangle. Finally, Glink has installed her organic, soda fired ceramic groupings that are reminiscent of oceanic, coral reef life forms.

Wheatley, Kaiser-Smith & Glink will remain on display through Saturday, July 17. Our next show will be Friedman & Miss Aniela, with an opening reception the night of Friday, July 23.

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

instant art critic

Never know what to say at an art opening? Try this.

Alumni Opening at DWG

Come see our newest exhibit opening this Friday! Details:


Alumni

School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduates:
Noelle Allen
Helen Maurene Cooper
Amy E. Mayfield
Michael Ratulowski

February 26 - April 10, 2010

Opening reception Friday, February 26 from 5-8pm

Noelle Allen (b. 1979) received her MFA from the SAIC in 2004. In 2007 she was chosen for an MCA 12x12 exhibition. Noelle lives and works in Chicago and teaches sculpture at Dominican University in River Forest, IL. Noelle’s current work is based on images of the genus Accipiter, birds of prey, as well as fossil studies and scientific renderings of cellular mitosis. These materials are the basis for the fragmented forms and ruptured avian figures that appear in her ink and graphite drawings on mylar. Beyond these particular sources, however, the works demonstrate a sustained interest in corporeal transformation: the ability of physical bodies to break, tear, decay, heal and regenerate. When viewed closely, the drawings can be explored as intricately detailed compositions, or a microscopic topography of precise markings. However, on a macro level, there exists an aesthetic of fantasy, in which there is a quick transition from recognizable forms to abstracted areas of line and movement. In this shift and in the flux of states, there is an investigation of the process of decay and the pleasure and pain of transformation.
http://www.noelleallen.com/

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Amy Mayfield (b. 1978) received her MFA from the SAIC in 2006. In 2007 she was also chosen for an MCA 12x12 exhibition. Amy lives and works in San Diego. Amy's work is challenging and fun, exuding energy with obscure darkness lurking just beneath the surface. Amy's paintings are highly saturated surreal landscapes, permeated with unusual and fantastical creations that she refers to as "bearded membranes, encrypted anthropomorphic mythical creatures, and biomorphic poisonous blossoms." Her seductive surfaces are at once decadent and disturbing, an exploration of dreamlike imagery resulting in patchwork of non-linear narratives.
http://www.amyemayfield.com/

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Helen Maurene Cooper (b. 1980) received her MFA from the SAIC in 2007. Cooper lives and works in Chicago and teaches at Harold Washington College, Wilbur Wright College and SAIC. Cooper is concerned with the act of storytelling mutated by pop culture. Often, her works take the form of a disjointed narrative, skewing the location, subjects and motivation. These works are influenced by a preoccupation with longing, desire and the containment of wildness. With some works, Cooper takes on the role of producer, director, photographer and subject. In other works she explores the dichotomy between the synthetic and the real, romance and sex, the exchange of power between male and female bodies, and the relationship of the body to landscape. With a minimum of information, Cooper allows viewers to interpret a story and make their own conclusions concerning subject, action and place.
http://hmcooper.com/

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Michael Ratulowski (b. 1980) received his BFA from the SAIC in 2007. Michael's work is deceptively simple. Through a deft and minimal touch, his pieces are profound and sublime. However, Michael is far from a passive artist. He supplies viewers with sufficient information, but also insists on a certain level of engagement from participants in order to realize the full concept and understand every nuance. This is evidenced in his new Anniversary Series, which is at once funny, sad and deadly serious. The title of each work consists of a date, or “anniversary.” Each photo is a self-portrait of Ratulowski pouring out a 40oz beer onto the ground. Ratulowski has mined hip-hop culture through much of his emerging career, but here the work becomes less observational and more personal. There is a stoic air to Michael's actions, which mark the deaths of rappers, many of whom died tragically and young. The viewer is left to decide whether or not the gesture is genuine and (if they don't know) inquire as to whom the anniversary refers. Among artists that Ratulowski has memorialized are Notorious BIG, Proof and Tupac. This will be Michael’s second exhibition with the gallery.
http://michaelratulowski.com/

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(1) Noelle Allen, Accipiters, 2007, graphite & watercolor on mylar, 42" x 162"
(2) Amy E. Mayfield, Slithering Bear Bread, 2007, 17" x 15"
(3) Helen Maurene Cooper, Untitled, 2006, inkjet print, 32" x 40
(4) Michael Ratulowski, April 11, 2009: 3rd Anniversary (detail), 2009, inkjet print, 24" x 36"
** contact the gallery for pricing information