Tonight! The School of the Art Institute of Chicago celebrates a weekend of exhibitions, festivals, symposiums, and creative gathering with graduating students from both the Undergraduate and Masters programs. The weekend will kick off at 7pm this evening, with the opening of the annual Graduate Exhibition located in Sullivan Galleries, showcasing the work of more than 130 grad students completing their degrees in the Master of Fine Arts program. Guest curators include Steven Bridges, grupa o.k. (Julian Myers and Joanna Szupinska), Tumelo Mosaka, and Pablo Helguera. I'll be performing in congruence with MFA in Art and Technology student Dao Nguyen! This event is one you won't want to miss.

Jeffrey Daniels
MFA in Art and Technology

Saturday follows up going just as hard with Impact Performance Festival which presents the work of the second year graduate students who are also finishing up this spring. This work exemplifies examples of theater, movement, and visual arts that merge together and collectively unite to display outstanding and profound visions of performance art. Impact will also take place on Sunday evening for those of you who cannot make it the first night.

Also running the majority of the day from 9am until 4:30pm students in the Bachelor of Arts in Visual Critical Studies and Bachelor of Fine Arts with Liberal Arts Thesis programs, are participating in a symposium where students in their respective departments speak about their thesis work, with the objective of exploring socia land cultural meaning in visual experiences.


MFA Show 
April 27th 7pm
Sullivan Galleries
36 S. Wabash Ave

BAVCS + BFA with Liberal Arts Thesis Symposium
April 28th 9-4pm
Art Institute of Chicago- Nichols Trustees Suite
159 E. Monroe St

Impact Performance Festival
April 28th & 29th 7-8pm
Peformance Space
280 S. Columbus Dr.

http://www.saic.edu/

Depth, humor, deception, and a whole lot of color are what you will find at Kipper and the Corpse opening this Friday, April 20th at Robert Bills Contemporary Gallery. These works of art created in a variety of different mediums, including sculpture, photography, drawing, collage, and animation will play tricks on you, abstracting spatial relationships and disguising images and materials as if it were a game. Flipping through the preview images on gallery's website, it's no wonder why this group was put together. Visually you can see parallels between form, texture, color combination, and technique. It's not until you investigate a little bit further into the artists' work where you begin to read into a clear dialogue happening between the themes and context of these crafted works as well.

(Montgomery Perry Smith)

The show features the works of four highly talented conceptual and skilled makers, Lauren Anderson, Mike Andrews, Jessica Labatte, and Montgomery Perry Smith. The three, Anderson, Labatte, and Smith are all former students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), while Mike Andrews, is a current faculty in the Fiber and Material Studies Department, making this a show that I personally am definitely anticipating and looking forward to. The show will be on view from April 20th until June 2nd.

(Mike Andrews)

(Lauren Anderson)

(Jessica Labatte)

Take a look at the full press release at:
http://robertbillscontemporary.com/

I don't know about you all, but I certainly enjoy my meals. I especially appreciate my meals when I can integrate them with art. Whether I'm eating a snack provided by an opening reception at a gallery or partaking in a potluck where contemporary art topics may be discussed, it's a satisfying and fulfilling way to indulge in both of my interests all at once. Combing through the calendar this month, I stumbled upon several events that have intrigued my senses. Below I've compiled my own list of upcoming opportunities to eat and experience a meal with local artists and creative minds here in the city. Don't miss out on these events. They will most definitely be a special treat!

Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art
Smart Museum
http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu

February 16 – June 10 2012
(free)

The Smart Museum of Art presents, Feast, an extraordinary presentation constructed by over thirty artists who address social, political, and cultural structures, through engaging with food and shared meals as a medium for art making. This particular ongoing exhibition focuses on heightening the everyday meal experience through radical methods of hospitality. Exhibiting artists include, Marina Abramovic, the Italian Futurists, and Gordon Matta-Clark along with several other emerging artists who are jointly moved and interested in re-contextualizing and challenging concepts related to the food experience and embracing others to become active participants in shaping such a dialogue. In addition to this modern day “Dinner Party” excursion the program includes concerts, workshops, lectures, and symposiums. Make sure you attend at least one of these events. This exhibition is a definite must-see!  

Re-Thinking Soup
Jane Addams Hull House
http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/

February 21  (every Tuesday)
12 – 1pm

Every Tuesday, the Hull House Museum provides organic soup and bread to lead an open talk available to the community of Chicago. Each week the program gathers in the prestigious Residents’ Dining Hall, where renowned scholars like, Gertude Stein, W.E.B. Dubois, and Upton Sinclair came together to critically investigate social, political, and economic issues related to their community. Similarly, several guests, including visiting artists, activists, farmers, and chefs, also accompany this contemporary discussion with Re-Thinking Soup. Join the museum to participate, discuss, and contend ideas and concerns surrounding food, art, and life and the every day.


Prints and Pints
Hyde Park Art Center
http://www.hydeparkart.org

February 17 2012
7pm – 11pm (free)

Looking for a fun, free, and fantastic opportunity to work with printmaking? Make a trip to the Hyde Park Art Center to interact with teaching artist Elke Clarke, as he guides you through a 45-minute workshop to print on anything of your choice. A dj-set and cash bar are also included.


Dinner Series with the Chicago History Museum
chicagohs.org
Taste of Ireland
Mrs. Murphy’s & Sons Irish Bistro
3905 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60613

March 6 2012
7pm ($55 members, $60 non-members)

Reconnect with Chicago’s Irish history and the History Museum in March for an excellent opportunity to experience a four course, contemporary Irish meal (with beer) at Mrs. Murphy and Sons, a local Irish bistro in they city. The Chicago History Museum will also be hosting a topic-related discussion regarding the development the restaurant,
Irish influence in Chicago, St. Patrick’s Day, as well as many other quirky and interesting facts.

Punk ‘n’ Brew Beer Dinner
Revolution Brewing
2323 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

April 9 2012
7pm ($55 members, $60 non-members)

Last chance! Perhaps you couldn’t attend the first Dinner Series event in March. Here’s another opportunity to participate in this fantastic program. Punk ‘n’ Brew gives you an option to appreciate punk music’s significant role in Chicago’s history with the inclusion of yet another four-course meal at Revolution Brewing. Here, you can listen and learn more about the restaurant and the genre of punk itself. Who knows, maybe you’ll even discover a few new punk bands or musicians that you enjoy too!

Dinner and a Show: Marc Bamuthi Joseph/The Living Word Project with Theaster Gates: red, black and GREEN: a blues
MCA Chicago

Apr.il 12 2012
7pm

Get a chance to meet the artists before their opening at the MCA during this wonderful dinner reception provided by Wolfgang Puck Catering. Red, black, and GREEN: a blues, is the culmination of a collaboration between activist and visual artist Theaster Gates and spoken word and dance artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph that addresses fundamental environmental issues from the perspective of communities of color. Also, be sure to check out this duo's two day performance on April 13th and 14th. It's another show that I am really anticipating.

2012 is here, and it'll be blowing past us faster than we can imagine.  Time flies no matter where you are, but when you're in the art world, you're usually thinking a season or two ahead, so we wanted to take the chance to think about about winter and the here and now while we could.  Our January-March 2012 issue is out, and soon we'll be planning for April-August, see what we mean about the time flying by? 

Our website is now packed with tons of information about new gallery shows, exhibiting artists, gallery specialities, galleries and spaces that are new on the scene, and more. Click through our pages to find what you're interested in already, or to discover what you might want to learn about in 2012. Also be sure to read the latest interviews with artists, collectors, and dealers.  Above all, have fun and go out and discover all there is to see and do. Chicago can be a rough place in the winter, but not if you know where to go to stimulate your mind and keep your spirit warm!

- CGN

Here is our list of places for you to start your 2012 art discovery:

• The winter gallery season opens on January 6 so if you're free, come check out the new shows and then hang around the districts for dinner with friends to chat about all you've seen. The shows will be up for awhile, at least until the next round of openings in February.  If your new year's resolution is to see more art (we think it should be!) then this is the night to start. Of course, you can visit the galleries any time, but Friday night is the most social scene.  The January 6 list may be found on our openings page, as well as the rest of the openings schedule for January-March 2012.

Gallery hoppers in Pilsen East for 2nd Fridays, taking place in the Chicago Arts District each month.

• Saturday gallery tours start up again on January 7 (and they don't take a break until Memorial Day since they happen every Saturday). The River North tours are always popular, even in the freezing cold, but we encourage you to make the trip to the West Loop in 2012 for a tour if you haven't yet.  River North tours take place weekly, but West Loop visits are only every 6 weeks.  Saturday afternoons are a great time to visit the galleries around Washington + Peoria and along Fulton Market, since the hubub of the Randolph restaurant scene is still in a quiet pre-dinner phase, and the meat packers playing frogger with their palette lifters aren't zipping around while you're trying to cross the street.  These tours are FREE and they give you total access to dealers, and sometimes visiting artists. Many tour-goers have become regulars each week and some have also become collectors!  The winter schedule of dates and participating galleries may be found HERE.

• Attend an open studio or weekend gallery walk.  Free tours are great, but there are less structured ways to just grab your friends and dive into a neighborhood art center or studio building.  Practically every neighborhood in Chicago has banded together by now to organize a regular monthly event. Check out our full list here, and make the trip to Bridgeport, Pilsen East, Oak Park, Crystal Lake, and beyond. Places like the Chicago Arts District, Lacuna Artist Lofts, Bridgeport Art Center, the Zhou B Art Center, and Lakeside Legacy in suburban Crystal Lake have been running these 1st, 2nd and 3rd Friday events for awhile, and they've gained a following!

• Visit a museum - one that you haven't been to before. Chicago is home to a lot of amazing smaller museums.  We adore the Art Institute and the MCA as much as the next art-lover, but we also want more of you to check out the Block Museum, the Smart Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Elmhurst Art Musem, the Renaissance Society, the Driehaus Musuem, as well as out of state destinations worthy of a road trip, such as the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University, and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.  Here is our long list of museums you should see.  Our calendar of events lets you know what's on now.

• Attend an auction or a visit a market.  Everyone loves treasure hunting, and Chicago has some outstanding resources for discovering art and antiques on the secondary market.  Save the dates for some upcoming auctions at Leslie Hindman on Lake Street in the West Loop. Hindman's Marketplace Auctions (January 11-12) are fun for beginners, as basically, anything goes. You can rifle through eccentric collections or pick up unique furniture that just needs a little TLC in order to be perfectly at home in your house or apartment.  Bidding in person or online raises the stakes for some competetive fun.  You can preview the sale online in advance and also visit to see pieces in person during days leading up to the auction.  On the market side, the Randolph Street Market is now taking place all year long!  Don't miss the first Wonderful Winter Market February 4-5.  Besides a lot of great things to admire and bring home, there's free parking and furniture delivery! Details here.

• Take an art class this winter.  Seeing art more often is a great idea, but what about giving it a try yourself?  You don't have to aspire to launch your own career as an artist, but you will most likely discover a range of pleasures that go along with learning a new skill and getting to be artistic in the company of others.  There are several notable centers in the area where you can sign-up to learn any number of specialties.  Give it a try this season! Below are some art centers to get you started, but there may be an organization in your neighborhood that has programs worth exploring as well.  Whatever you do, be inspired and be creative!
 
Lillstreet Art Center Founded in 1975 and today located in a former gear factory in Ravenswood, Lillstreet has a range of classes + opportunities starting next week.  Check out exhibitions and installations for inspiration, as well as visit several artist studios.  Adult classes include metalsmithing + jewelry, painting and drawing, ceramics, textiles, glass, and more.  Kids + family programs are also available. Lillstreet.com

Evanston Art Center + The Art Center Highland Park
On the north shore, the Evanston Art Center offers classes and workshops, for people of all ages and levels of experience, taught by professional artists.  Register online for winter classes that begin January 9. Classes match any interest, from learning to make a cocktail hat, experimenting with lithography, exploring digital design, or navigating the business of art: marketing, ceramics, fashion, painting, and metal sculpture. Evanstonartcenter.org

The Art Center in Highland Park also offers classes and workshops in the visual arts, and they host regular gallery exhibitions, special events and performances for class members and faculty, as well as local artistic talent.  Theartcenterhp.org