Results tagged “art”

This month is National Novel Writing Month — Nanowrimo for short. A time for cranking (crunking?) out 50,000 words of elegant prose — or crap, depending. A time (30 days, to be precise) within a time (that lacks a foreseeable end, to be depressing) of widespread unemployment among writers, many of whom used to get paid to wordsmith. Damn, man. Those were the days.

If you're sick of looking at paintings and sculptures all the danged time, for god's sake already, then maybe it's time to give your eardrums a work-out. And here's the perfect venue to do so: the 10th annual Outer Ear Festival of Sound, a celebration of the sonic arts in Chicago presented by the Experimental Sound Studio, the Sound Department of the School of the Art Institute and several other local cultural organizations. The Festival begins today and stretches over the next few months, with poetry, installations and more. Here's what's on the menu:

     

Happy Halloween! Have you been wondering how your favorite politicians, Chicagoist editors and, um, Richard Marxes are going to dress this year? Eyewitness News Chicagoist has the scoop!

The Dow may have jumped over 10,000 points but budget-conscious Chicagoans are not buying into any talk of "recovery." Understanding our love for good local food and an affinity for the beauty of our city, the Bluebird has teamed-up with local artists Mary Livoni and John Coyle Steinbrunner to create Sunday dinners dedicated to painting a picture of our great city in good times and during this downturn.

How much do you know about Chicago's vibrant poster art scene? Not much? Well, maybe it's time to change that. Get a primer on some top local poster artists and their other-city peers by checking out Died Young Stayed Pretty, a documentary film by Eileen Yaghoobian that plays tomorrow, September 30, at the Music Box Theater in Lakeview.

Sometimes when we're on Craigslist, searching for "single male 50-85 heir Monte Carlo casino vacations D/D-free," we take a break from our romance quest to click on the "Artists" clicky. And every so often, we encounter cool stuff like these elegantly crafted Styrofoam coffee cups by Newport Beach, Cal.-based artist/animator Cheeming Boey. According to a June 2009 article by the Orange County Register, Boey is originally from Malaysia and has been making cup art since a day in 2006 when, sitting in a cafe and looking for something to doodle on, he grabbed an empty cup from the trash and started drawing. Nowadays, Boey sells his tricked-out styro-vessels for a few Jacksons ("aaaaaaaa," seen here, is $230); cups come packaged in a sturdy case. If you'd like to watch him at work, this time-lapse video features Boey making one of his ornate pieces. Score another point for resourceful recycling.

The West Loop gallery Spoke is offering up Objet Petit A: an exhibition and auction of artist-created piñatas to benefit both the gallery and the Chicago Rarities Orchard Project. A brand-new organization, CROP was founded to establish community rare-fruit orchards in Chicago and preserve open space. Auction participants will bid on piñatas created by artists Abby Christensen and Emily Vanhoff, Ben Fain, Jose Lerma and Cristina Tufino, Michael Jones McKean, Tomas Moreno, Harriet Salmon, and Astri Swendsrud — and the winners will be able to either keep the works as-is, or bash them up at a public performance event and reception taking place on September 11.

In Chicago, murals can sometimes convey a culture or a neighborhood's feel better than the businesses and residents. Stretching across the north and south walls of the Foster Street underpass at Lake Shore Drive is a new addition to one of the city's most recognized artistic traditions: a mural entitled "Indian Land Dancing,"

On Saturday, we paid a visit to Logan Square to check out the brand-new headquarters of Busy Beaver Button Company, which held an all-day grand-opening bash to show off its new pin palace to the public. Thanks to a Small Business Improvement Fund (SBIF) grant from the city, the company rehabbed its new location -- a vintage storefront at 3279 W. Armitage -- to include geothermal heating and cooling, recycled tire rubber flooring, and other eco-friendly gestures.

For the past two years, Chicago artists Chris Silva and Lauren Feece have been living on a 16-acre farm in Puerto Rico, enjoying married life and making art. Many a Chicago artist has missed the talented duo, whose works have hung in places ranging from Berlin art galleries to State Street. The couple is back in town to co-host Mating Call, their collaborative exhibition running through Aug. 23 at Believe Inn in Bucktown. Opening reception today, July 31 from 6-10 p.m. 2043 N. Winchester. Recently we chatted with them about their work and life together.

We all know that rock bands pile into vans to go on tour -- well, why not creative agency types? So goes the rationale behind Plaid Nation 2009, a "rolling celebration of creativity and a demonstration of social media in action" founded by the principals at Plaid, an agency based in Danbury, CT. The Plaids kicked off their tour in Detroit on July 20, and yesterday stopped in Chicago to visit the headquarters of t-shirt juggernaut Threadless in the morning, and Wicker Park's The Boring Store in the afternoon. They came, they saw, they tweeted/photographed/filmed/swag-distributed. And then they headed east toward Indianapolis.

Why you wanna go and spend your weekend standing in some litter-covered park, staring at scrawny musician types for hours on end? Those rock and rollers don't care about you, honey -- they'll just take your money and then move on to the next town or festival, leaving you with nothing to show for it except grass stains, foggy concession stand memories and some iPhone/gPhone/SLRphone pics.

Tonight marks the LivingRoom Gallery's opening reception for Rosemary Lee's It happens that the stage sets break down, an installation of drawings and soft sculptures that focuses on "the malleability of memory." And by "malleable," we mean pieces such as "Reconstruct" -- a collection of gray, fabric building blocks that can be stacked and re-stacked to make brand-new objects. Lee is an Art Institute of Chicago grad who has had pieces shown at Phaiz and Hyde Park Art Center, among other places.

Cue the Boyz II Men, for this weekend marked the final show at Logan Square's Mini Dutch apartment gallery. After two years of using her home to showcase the work of emerging artists, Director Lucia Fabio is closing shop and heading to Los Angeles with her fiance, Robert Andrew Mueller; "family health issues" are cited as the reason. Mini D's final offering was a one-night group show featuring the couple's collection of artworks made by friends and featured artists past -- including some, like Bushwick-bound Stacie Johnson, who have their own moving trucks parked and packed. It's so hard to say goodbye -- especially when Chicago has lost so many apartment galleries in the past year. But our loss will be L.A.'s gain: Fabio plans to apply the knowledge she's gained running a small gallery to future projects.

Back in 1989 urban planners proposed a plan to develop the South Loop into an arts community that would provide fixed affordable housing for artists alongside studios, galleries, and performance spaces. At the time, a decline in manufacturing and warehousing business in the area north and west of the Chicago River had opened up an abundance of cheap loft space that seemed suited for working artists and galleries.

Looking to support a good cause and good art? Consider The Arts of Life, a community group which provides developmentally disabled adults an outlet for expression in the form of creating art. Now they're in a new space at 2010 W. Carroll Avenue and are ready to hold their ninth annual summer exhibit with a special showcase and auction Saturday night, June 20th. Besides the art exhibit, there will be a raffle and a silent auction as well as a performance by the Arts of Life band. Wine, beer and hors d’oeuvres are included in the price of the tickets and all proceeds benefit the Arts of Life Gallery+Studio.

We’re kicking ourselves for waiting so long to see the Cultural Center’s exhibition of works by Chicago-based photographer Jed Fielding—Look at me: Photographs from Mexico City. The exhibit, which closes on Tuesday, July 7, displays Fielding’s candid portraits which intimately examine facial features and gestures of blind children, affirmatively stripping away self-consciousness while celebrating their lives and confronting the concept of “disability”. The photos were taken at children’s schools for the blind in Mexico City, in collaboration with the children, their parents, as well as teachers.

We firmly believe in the open door policy of art walks—the chance to spy on someone’s live/work space where the chaotic hocus pocus of creation happens. Whether it’s meticulously mounted Polaroids hung from floor to ceiling or ten cats eating Meow Mix from paper plates on a painter’s floor tarp (true story), the studio is a unique, inspiring detour through an artist’s mind.

There are many reasons why we love letterpress printer Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. First, he apparently doesn’t own a phone and would rather that you send him a letter. Second, he said goodbye to middle class life as a computer programmer to work in the lost crafts of letterpress printing and bookmaking—in the tiny town of Gordo, Alabama. Third, he recommends that you trust his expertise. According to the printmaker's web site, “Printing is what we do. You send the text and a check, and go home and pray."

Need a break from the doom and gloom of la recession? Head to the Museum of Contemporary Art on Tuesday, June 2 for Works in Progess with artist Chris Uphues. Uphues, an SAIC graduate who currently lives in Brooklyn, will be at the museum drawing and painting his supercutesy-faced hearts, robots, and other twee creations that resemble stickers you put on your Trapper Keeper in grade school. Actually, Uphues’ adorable pop culture characters can be found virtually everywhere these days—on buttons, t-shirts, storefronts—even farm silos.

It's American Craft Beer Week and the men behind the Drinking and Writing empire (Steve Mosqueda, Sean Benjamin and Pete Crowley) have planned a unique event to celebrate. Ten homebrewers have been given the basic ingredients to brew their own beer. The brewers are also tasked with pairing it with food either they or others make for them. Then the beer and food will be paired with an artist, writer, musician or dancer, who will interpret the pairing in a slam-style talent competition.

Under a proposed plan, some Pace buses could get traffic light priority along some routes thanks to a service called "Arterial rapid transit" or ART.

It’s evident from artist Justin Santora’s bio that he’s not a fan of the adult status quo—go to college, go to work, punch in, punch out, repeat. Sure, we all have to work, but sometimes putting on your pieces of flair blows. (Yea, we know. We’re thankful to be employed, too.) Regardless, said “rules” make us feel cagey as hell. And many of Santora’s illustrations and screen prints, which show humans performing mundane, routine tasks—photocopying, answering a phone in the cube farm, drying hands underneath the bathroom blow dryer—reinforce the notion that we truly are creatures of habit. Check out Santora’s upcoming opening, “Gestures in a Blender” at within(Reason) gallery on Friday, May 8. His screen prints, mixed media, and an installation will be presented—no TPS reports required for entry.

O.K., so Uncle Fun Chicago doesn't sell artists. But on the last Saturday of every month, the popular Lakeview toy store does display them in its window. Or displays us, I should say: A couple of weekends ago I was the featured artist of Uncle Fun's three-month-old "Artist in the Window" series.

If you’re a fan of pop kitsch American-style, check out Mitch O’Connell’s series of new paintings, "God Has Forgiven Me (so what's your problem?)" at Packer Schopf Gallery, May 15 - June 20. Interestingly, the gallery's website refers to O'Connell's exhibit as "Divorce." Hmm... And the artist's MySpace page asks friends to "come gaze at the colorful brushstrokes of Mitch working through personal, painful issues... for your viewing pleasure!” We love a guy with a wicked sense of humor.

If you were saddened when Bridgeport 32nd & Urban Gallery shut down last winter, then sadface no more: Gallerists Lauren Pacheco and Peter Kepha are busy working on a new project, the Chicago Urban Art Society, to highlight contemporary and emerging artists.

Art kids, brace yourselves. Version Fest 09 Immodest Proposals is upon us. Organized by Ed Marszewski & Co. (Public Media Institute), this year's events list comes close to sensory overload. From April 23 - May 2, progressive art, politics, and music will saturate the streets, galleries, and music venues of Bridgeport and the West Loop with programs galore to inspire and engage you. We’re also stoked about Friday’s Korean-Polish BBQ.

There’s a hint of melancholy in the eyes of artist Tara McPherson’s characters—wan, porcelain faces that remind us of a cross between Blythe Dolls and the lovably macabre creatures born from Tim Burton’s brain. If you’re a fan of the scary fairytale style, head to Rotofugi this Saturday where McPherson will be signing her latest book, Lost Constellations. Published by Dark Horse comics, this new release chronicles the NYC-based artist’s most recent paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Also on display will be McPherson’s new Kidrobot mini-figure series, Gamma Mutant Space Friends.

Earlier this month, Ravenswood photographer Brian Ulrich received a special letter in his mailbox: No, not a rhyme-y poem from his mom (that's what we receive in our mailbox), but a note stating that he had won a Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography -- the same prize bestowed upon such shutter-snapping legends as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus and -- it's worth noting -- a slew of Chicagoans. Ulrich, who is an adjunct professor at Columbia College and part-time prof at the Art Institute, will use the fellowship to continue his Copia project, which examines Americans' relationship to consumption and, when completed, will comprise a decade of work. Recently we chatted with Ulrich about photography, economics and big-box aesthetics.

There’s something deliciously voyeuristic about visiting an apartment gallery like Mini Dutch. They're so intimate—furniture shoved into a corner, cats mingling with guests, looking out at life from someone else’s front window. And, of course, the art. If this sounds like your scene, take a peep at MD's finale of "Dusty Bunnyfield vs. Molotovia Cocktail: Three Openings, One Show" this Saturday.