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.

Know Your Artist Tuesday

I think I need some structured posting deadlines on here.

Soooooo, I'd like to introduce a new weekly segment I will call "Know Your Artist Tuesday" (... or at least until I can think of a cleverer name). I'll post an interesting fact about one of our gallery artists each week... b/c who doesn't want to hear about the fun and exciting lives of artists?

Check back next Tuesday for the first installment: Tricia Rumbolz.

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

Our new exhibit will be opening on April 16 and we are delighted to have the honor to host the work of Judy Pfaff. This is a must-see show and a rare opportunity since Judy has not exhibited in a Chicago gallery since the 80's.

Much of what we will show will be brand-new (she's still creating it) and LARGE. So large, in fact, we sadly can't even fit many of the pieces in the gallery. After talks of ripping out door frames and smashing through cement walls (not kidding) were quieted, we decided to exhibit the smaller works here (and by small we're still talking 6ft) and take 2 large pieces to Art Chicago. Like I said... you don't want to miss this.

To get a little background on Judy, here is her bio and her segment on Art:21 -

Biograhpy......................
Judy Pfaff was born in London, England in 1946. She received a BFA from Washington University, Saint Louis (1971) and an MFA from Yale University (1973). Balancing intense planning with improvisational decision-making, Pfaff creates exuberant, sprawling sculptures and installations that weave landscape, architecture, and color into a tense yet organic whole. A pioneer of installation art in the 1970s, Pfaff synthesizes sculpture, painting, and architecture into dynamic environments in which space seems to expand and collapse, fluctuating between the two- and three-dimensional. Pfaff’s site-specific installations pierce through walls and careen through the air, achieving lightness and explosive energy. Pfaff’s work is a complex ordering of visual information composed of steel, fiberglass, and plaster as well as salvaged signage and natural elements such as tree roots. She has extended her interest in natural motifs in a series of prints integrating vegetation, maps, and medical illustrations, and has developed her dramatic sculptural materials into set designs for several theatrical stage productions. Pfaff has received many awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (2004); a Bessie (1984); and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1983) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1986). She has had major exhibitions at the Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison (2002); Denver Art Museum (1994); St. Louis Art Museum (1989); and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (1982). Pfaff represented the United States in the 1998 São Paolo Bienal. Pfaff lives and works in Kingston and Tivoli, New York.


Video link......................