A trip out to the Rockford Art Museum is always an adventure. &nbsp;The exhibition space, carved out of a former factory and now attached to a larger cultural center, is vast and well-suited to displaying larger scale works of contemporary&nbsp;art.&nbsp;

The current exhibition,&nbsp;Deconstructing the American Landscape, with&nbsp;work by Sarah Krepp and Joel Ross, features Krepp&#39;s large scale, vivid multimedia paintings&nbsp;adjacent to a space displaying&nbsp;surprising sculptures and thought-provoking installations by Ross.&nbsp;

The show&#39;s grounding&nbsp;inspiration, of course, is the&nbsp;American landscape.&nbsp;Both Krepp&nbsp;and Ross&#39;s artistic&nbsp;translations of&nbsp;interactions between society and the land&nbsp;invite viewers&nbsp;to reconsider the notion of landscape in art.

Krepp&#39;s signature colors of black, white, red and yellow are wielded in large works and on hyper-textured surfaces, sometimes containing hundreds of words and messages. Other works use everyday materials from the road, such as tires,&nbsp;taking&nbsp;seemingly used up things and&nbsp;rendering beautiful compositions.&nbsp;

Ross&#39;s text-based sculptures first invite viewers to read, and then to consider the message in a landscape context. The objects, installations and photographs offer a break from just passing by and instead provide a means for looking anew at the every day (empty lots, alleys, roads, shopping centers). A tower of old suitcases asks, what do we really need to bring along, or leave behind? What&#39;s shut up inside?&nbsp;

Sarah Krepp is Founding Director of&nbsp;DIALOGUE Chicago,&nbsp;and a&nbsp;professor emeritus and former chair of the painting program at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Joel Ross is currently an associate professor at the&nbsp;University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; he is represented by&nbsp;Monique Meloche Gallery.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/deconstructing-the-american-landscape-sarah-krepp-joel-ross">Deconstructing the American Landscape: Sarah Krepp &amp; Joel Ross</a>&nbsp;runs through January 29, 2017 at the Rockford Art Museum.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption=" Sarah Krepp, Rip Currents III (#112), n.d., oil, tire, mixed media on panel" data-rich-file-id="1685" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1685/original/krepp3.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Sarah Krepp, Switchback (#516), n.d., oil, acrylic on linen" data-rich-file-id="1684" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1684/original/krepp2.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Sarah Krepp, Residue (#816), n.d., tire, screws on wall" data-rich-file-id="1683" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1683/original/krepp4.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption=" Sarah Krepp, Blow-Out: Full Force (#716), n.d., tire on panel, steel, acrylic" data-rich-file-id="1682" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1682/original/krepp1.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Joel Ross, Failure to Communicate, 2000, color photograph, parking meter, Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago" data-rich-file-id="1686" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1686/original/ross1.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Joel Ross, Room 28, 1997, mixed media, Collection of the James Hotel, Chicago. Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago." data-rich-file-id="1687" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1687/original/ross2.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption=" Joel Ross, Unstoppable, 2016, shims, acrylic paint on wood, Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago" data-rich-file-id="1688" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1688/original/ross3.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Joel Ross, &lt;i&gt;False Promises&lt;/i&gt; (installed and abandoned, Champaign County, IL), 2000, archival pigment. Print ed. 1/3, Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago" data-rich-file-id="1690" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1690/original/joel-ross-false-promises.jpeg" />

Images at top of page: Left:&nbsp;Sarah Krepp,&nbsp;Switchback I (#416),&nbsp;n.d., oil, acrylic on linen; Right:&nbsp;Sarah Krepp,&nbsp;Switchback II (#516),&nbsp;n.d., oil, acrylic on linen

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Exhibitions by Sarah Krepp and Joel Ross are now on display at the Rockford Art Museum.

Deconstructing the American Landscape: Sarah Krepp & Joel Ross at Rockford Art Museum

By KARA JEFTS

Following the Presidential election results of the previous week, the country is experiencing a notable cultural divide. Many will look to history to try to understand this moment, and many will turn to their community for reassurance and support. Art making as a way of understanding one&rsquo;s self, and as a way to relate to others, will also prove important during this fracture of our nation&rsquo;s bedrock. The Cairn Project, conceived by artist Corinne D. Peterson, provides an exemplary model of art&rsquo;s power to create a unified sense of community, and it will be installed at Citlalin Gallery in Pilsen from November 19-December 31, with an opening reception on November 18 from 7-10 pm.

&ldquo;We live in a culture that discourages us from looking at pain&rdquo; notes Peterson, reflecting on the reasons she has spent over two years working on the Cairn Project, a series of workshops that have engaged over 550 participants in the greater Chicago area, including: immigrants; LGBTQ youth; cancer survivors; survivors of sexual abuse; families of gun violence victims; the homeless; Iraqi, Burundi, and Burmese refugees; veterans; nurses; the bereaved; the blind; among many other men, women, and children from diverse communities across the city.

Peterson believes that rocks, like people, are shaped through traumas: tumbled by the sea, split by tectonic shifts, born through the violent molten explosion of volcanoes, or slowly dissolved by the weathering of acid rain. She leads each community group participating in the Cairn Project to consider form and feeling, and upon entering the room each person is asked to select a rock from a small but thoughtful collection, which she has provided. As the workshop begins, the participants introduce themselves by describing why they selected their rock.

<img alt="" data-caption="&quot;When asked to think about trauma, I imagined an angel wrapping their wings around me and creating calm.&quot; - John, image courtesy of the National Veterans Art Museum" data-rich-file-id="1661" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1661/original/john-veteransmuseum.jpg" />

The introductions become a way for participants to bond and reflect on their personal experience, choosing to respond by directly addressing their own trauma or by speaking in metaphor to express their feelings. As the archivist for the project, I have been working with participants who volunteered to share their reflections on audio or video recordings in order to build an oral history surrounding the project. Carol, a woman from The Mather, a senior living community, reflected on her selection: &ldquo;I like this stone because it has within a very small space a geography of rough spots and smooth spots&hellip;it has both difficulty and the working through of difficulty right here in your hand.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Cairn Project workshop participants from an Iraqi refugee group doing a walking meditation around their finished rocks and tokens." data-rich-file-id="1660" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1660/original/iraqirefugeeworkshop.jpg" />

Following introductions, the workshop leader guides a meditation to calm emotions and re-center the group. Participants are then asked to work in silence while shaping two forms: a rock from stoneware clay that embodies their inner experience of pain and loss, and a small white porcelain token that represents their inner light and hope. The tactile experience of working with clay becomes a way to communicate emotion and experience. As one teen reflected:

<blockquote>
Obviously my rock is in the shape of a heart. I used three different hearts to make it. The first one was perfect. It represents how I was very loving when I was little, and I didn&rsquo;t know hurt. The second was ruined and had lots of damage. It represents me giving up. I was less na&iuml;ve and recognized hurt and pain, and at some point in my life that was all I felt. Then I used a mix of both of them, a bit damaged, but also loving. I mashed them all together and it&rsquo;s a big heart now, still learning so it&rsquo;s still a bit na&iuml;ve, it&rsquo;s been through pain so it&rsquo;s damaged, but it&rsquo;s still big and loving.
</blockquote>

After firing the clay, Peterson uses the stoneware and porcelain forms that embody individual experience to build an installation that celebrates the collective community, titled Cairn &amp; Cloud. A cairn is a man-made heap of stones constructed as a monument or landmark. The Cairn &amp; Cloud takes inspiration from examples of this type of stone memorial, which are found across the world and can be dated back to prehistoric times. For the installation, trauma stones are arranged in a circular mound on the floor, and the porcelain tokens of hope (painted with gold lacquer to recall Japanese kintsukuroi pottery to relate the objects to the metaphor that that which has been broken is more beautiful) are suspended above the mound.

The memorial cairn continues to grow with each workshop, and the installation is currently around six feet in diameter. In addition to the upcoming exhibition at Citlalin Gallery, Cairn &amp; Cloud has been installed at the Oak Park Art League, Lillstreet Gallery Annex, National Veterans Art Museum, Zhou B Art Center, Art on Armitage, and Wicker Park Lutheran Church. Following the exhibition in Pilsen, Peterson is looking to find a permanent location where Cairn &amp; Cloud could be installed as a public memorial for the Chicago community to visit and reflect upon.

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Cairn &amp; Cloud&lt;/i&gt; installation at the Oak Park Art League, photograph by Cindy Trim" data-rich-file-id="1659" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1659/original/cairncloud-oakparkinstall.jpg" />

As part of the Cairn Project, Peterson is also working on establishing a platform for the growing archive of works and reflections. Peterson maintained a record of each participant&rsquo;s piece by photographing the un-fired clay at workshops, and I have been working with her to photograph each individual rock and token, and to pair images with collected audio, video, and written reflections volunteered by participants. The archive will give prominence to each ceramic piece as a valuable object worthy of individual appreciation; just as each person and their life experience is worthy of attention and respect.

The website hosting the archive, scheduled to be launched on November 18 in conjunction with the exhibition opening, will act&nbsp;as an illustrated history of the lives of hundreds of Chicagoans. As the website expands it will include not only the record of each ceramic piece created, but it will also aspire to create a platform for understanding, inspiring online audiences beyond Chicago. The archive will exist as a forum for those who don&rsquo;t pen our history per-se, but instead, are the reason for its writing.&nbsp;

Top image: Detail of&nbsp;Cairn &amp; Cloud&nbsp;installation

The Cairn Project, conceived by artist Corinne D. Peterson, provides an exemplary model of art’s power to create a unified sense of community.

Th­e Cairn Project: Chicago Communities Share Stories of Trauma and of Hope

By SHELBY BEASLEY

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) presents a new exhibition of work by Los-Angeles based artist Diana Thater. The&nbsp;Sympathetic Imagination&nbsp;utilizes&nbsp;LED lights and projectors to display large-scale film and video installations. Thater&nbsp;explores ideas related to&nbsp;shared public spaces and critiques the human tendency to misuse&nbsp;them.

Incorporating visuals from &ldquo;a range of natural phenomena-such as the weightless, seamless, underwater world of dolphins; honeybees who communicate through dancing; and the surprising fortitude of animals in Chernobyl in the aftermath of the worst nuclear meltdown ever- her works explore the subjectivity of animals and the complex relationships humans have constructed with nature.&rdquo;[1] In doing so, Thater brings to the forefront of her viewers minds the reality of the harm humans are causing to the natural world. She exposes what has previously been overlooked in our day-to-day lives and forces the public to investigate further their impact on the planet.

Thater&rsquo;s installation at the MCA allows visitors to experience the subject matter in an enveloped hyper reality, existing within the work itself. &ldquo;Thater&rsquo;s dynamic, immersive installations challenge and invert accepted positions and realities through the deployment of color, movement, scale, and architecture.&rdquo;[2] The extensive imagery subtly alters physical, emotional, optical, and investigative senses.

Photographs below taken by Shelby Beasley. All are installation views of Diana Thater&#39;s&nbsp;The Sympathetic Imagination at the MCA Chicago. Exhibition on display October 29, 2016-January 8, 2017.

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;knots + surfaces&lt;/i&gt;, 2001" data-rich-file-id="1645" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1645/original/untitled-8.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Untitled Videowall (Butterflies)&lt;/i&gt;, 2008" data-rich-file-id="1640" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1640/original/untitled-2.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Delphine&lt;/i&gt;, 1999" data-rich-file-id="1642" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1642/original/untitled-4.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;knots + surfaces&lt;/i&gt;, 2001" data-rich-file-id="1644" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1644/original/untitled-7.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Oo Fifi, Five Days in Claude Monet's Garden, Part 1 and Part 2&lt;/i&gt;, 1992" data-rich-file-id="1646" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1646/original/untitled-9.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;knots + surfaces&lt;/i&gt;, 2001" data-rich-file-id="1648" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1648/original/untitled-10.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Six-Color Video Wall&lt;/i&gt;, 2000" data-rich-file-id="1641" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1641/original/untitled-3.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;A Cast of Falcons&lt;/i&gt;, 2000" data-rich-file-id="1643" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1643/original/untitled-5.jpg" />

&nbsp;

[1] <a href="http://www.lacma.org/diana-thater#about-the-exhibition">http://www.lacma.org/diana-thater#about-the-exhibition</a> 
[2]<a href="https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2016/Diana-Thater">https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2016/Diana-Thater</a>

Top image: Diana Thater, Life is a Time-Based Medium, 2015. Photo: Shelby Beasley

A photo essay featuring Diana Thater's The Sympathetic Imagination now on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA).

Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination in Photos

By MADELINE HAPPOLD

Clusters of people descend down colorfully painted stairs at the 18th Street&nbsp;Pink Line stop in Pilsen. Walking west wrapped in scarves and light fall jackets, they are greeted by humming sounds of street music and warm October sun.

It&rsquo;s mid-afternoon and store doors are open, displaying shelves of fresh conchas, antique trinkets and vintage clothing. Weaving down the street, vendors sell small prints and handmade jewelry, chatting idly with customers. Bright yellow, pink and blue papel picado wave lightly overhead in the autumn air. Some stores and residential homes are marked with large, bullseye numbers. Pedestrians cannot help but take a peek inside and are met with an array of color, paintings, sculptures: art.

Continuing down 18th Street&nbsp;visitors are tempted to window shop for art.&nbsp;Prospectus Gallery&nbsp;with its large, glass windows brings art to the people, asserting its presence in the community. People continue to flow in and out of the space as an #18 Bus boards.

Across from the gallery stands Thalia Hall with a tall, black tour bus parked in front for a night show. Next to the venue, an ominous flyer is plastered to a streetlight: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll buy your property!&rdquo; with a number listed below.

On Saturday, October 22&mdash;23, Pilsen held its 14th annual Pilsen Open Studios, a community art walk organized by local artists and volunteers. Started in 2003, the event opens up studio spaces to allow the public to see how and where art is made in Pilsen. The art walk extends beyond artist studios to include community spaces and cafes displaying artwork and tours of the neighborhood&rsquo;s infamous murals.

The event was originally organized by a group of Pilsen artists who wanted to independently feature the neighborhood&rsquo;s artwork, outside of commercialized spaces.

&ldquo;Little by little [neighbors] warmed up to come into the studios to look at art and see what we were doing,&rdquo; said Mark Nelson, an artist and Pilsen resident who has been involved with Open Studios since 2003. &ldquo;They were surprised there were&nbsp;so many of us creating art and culture in the community.&rdquo;

The annual event features a variety of artists, some with their own studios while others showcase artwork in local community spaces and cafes. &nbsp;

&ldquo;I think Pilsen is a great place where you can see&nbsp;established artists, rising artists, outsider artists, all of these different labels that are there,&rdquo; said Victor Monta&ntilde;ez, an artist who has been affiliated with Pilsen since moving to the community in the 1980s. &ldquo;Once they&rsquo;re in Pilsen you see, well, they are artists.&rdquo;

The Pilsen area has been receiving increased attention recently, even outside of the realm of art. For the community, it&rsquo;s a give and take: with increased exposure comes increased interest. Art and artists in Pilsen are being recognized, but rent is rising. Where attention goes, money, and the opportunity to make money, follows.

&ldquo;It&#39;s always good and bad,&rdquo; said Monserrat Alsina, Colibri Gallery owner and local artist who helped originally organize Open Studios. &ldquo;The bad would be the artists having to move away because of the raises in prices of rent. The other thing is that people are coming in, and they&rsquo;re looking at art, and maybe they&#39;re buying more than before. It&#39;s not like we sell tons of stuff, but its exposure. It&#39;s exposure for us, it&#39;s exposure for the neighborhood, for the businesses, it&#39;s like the whole economy is&nbsp;better for.&rdquo;

With its proximity to the University of Illinois at Chicago&rsquo;s (UIC) campus and short &ldquo;L&rdquo; commute to the Loop, Pilsen has become a hotspot for students and young professionals. &nbsp;

&ldquo;There are a lot of young students moving into the area. The new residents aren&rsquo;t interested in fine art, they&rsquo;re more interested in the hip places.&rdquo; said Israel Hernandez, owner of Prospectus Gallery. Hernandez opened the gallery in 1991 as a &ldquo;social hub&rdquo; for the community.

<img alt="" data-caption="Prospectus Art Gallery in Pilsen" data-rich-file-id="1614" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1614/original/prospectus-key.jpg" />

Pilsen&rsquo;s homely appearance is getting an urban makeover, though. The area has had three record stores open in the past year. Housing developers like Property Marketing Group (PMG) are pushing to build new housing units in the area (a project to build 500 new housing units was recently stopped this past June). Bow Truss Coffee Roasters opened in 2014 with some backlash; the storefront was repeatedly vandalized with anti-gentrification messages such as &ldquo;white people out of Pilsen&rdquo; and &ldquo;wake up and smell the gentrification.&rdquo;

&ldquo;The neighborhood has changed, that&#39;s obvious,&rdquo; said Alsina. &ldquo;There&#39;s a lot of gentrification going on.&rdquo;

With talk of gentrification, longtime residents like Hernandez and Alsina worry for the future of the community.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s becoming like Wicker Park or Bucktown,&rdquo; said Hernandez. &ldquo;It will lose its charm, if you want to call it that.&rdquo;

Pilsen has a history of being a hub for immigrants. In 1940s, Pilsen was home to a large community of Polish immigrants, until younger Czechs began moving to western suburbs in the mid 50s. Mexicans and Latinos were moving west, too, pushed by the construction of the UIC campus in the 1960s. By the 1970 census the area recorded its first Latino majority, acting as a gateway for first generation immigrants and families.

&ldquo;The thing that I&#39;ve always liked about Pilsen is that it&#39;s a family neighborhood and the one thing that it seems to have over a lot neighborhoods is that families seem to stick together here,&rdquo; said Mark Nelson, an artist and Pilsen resident since the mid 80s. &ldquo;I mean, it&rsquo;s not&nbsp;Mayberry R.F.D.&nbsp;but who would want that, right?&rdquo;

Yet, Pilsen&rsquo;s family-centered community is shifting. Based on census and annual American Community Survey data, a study by UIC professor John Becantur and graduate student Youngjun Kim found that while Pilsen remains largely Hispanic, the number of Hispanic residents is decreasing as wealthier, single whites move in. The largest decline was in the number of Mexican families in the area, a 41 percent decrease from 2013 census, continuing the downward trend from the 2000 census.

As of 2000, more than 10,300 Hispanics have left the area, a 26 percent decline. The latest number from&nbsp;2013 report&nbsp;an estimated 28,835 Hispanic residents living in Pilsen. &nbsp;

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a beautiful place to be, but, unfortunately, that attraction tends to draw investors,&rdquo; said Nelson. &ldquo;If it drew more families in that would be one thing.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Stickers containing anti-gentrification messages are stuck to a vacant storefront window on 18th Street by the 18 Pink Line &quot;L&quot; Stop. " data-rich-file-id="1618" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1618/original/pilsen2.jpg" />

Both Alsina and Nelson admit they frequently receive mail from realtors offering to buy their property. According to Alsina, her current tax payment was double her previous bill, and she predicts the trend will continue.

&ldquo;They raise taxes, raise insurance, homeowner&#39;s insurance, to make it difficult for people like us who are middle class and trying to make it,&rdquo; said Alsina. &ldquo;It&#39;s tough. So many people opt to sell because they can&#39;t afford taxes when its double.&rdquo;

In August of this year&nbsp;Cultura in Pilsen, a non-profit arts organizations located at 1900 S. Carpenter, was forced to move when their landlord doubled their rent. The building manager gave them the ultimatum of moving out by August, or paying month-to-month rent of $2,500, double their current payment. The organization now temporarily resides in La Catrina Caf&eacute;.

Owner Salvador Corona claims the caf&eacute; expanded from a business to a &ldquo;community center,&rdquo; hosting community meetings and displaying artwork from featured artist each month. La Catrina hosted the Pilsen Open Studios&nbsp;kick-off event on Friday October 21.

&ldquo;I think we tend to flock where there&#39;s artists because you relate to them, and they become your friends,&rdquo; said Corona. &ldquo;Pilsen has been like that for a long time. There has really been like a little nest of artists, always, and everyone else just becomes stronger because there are more people.&rdquo;

In Pilsen, art and community coincide, from street murals to local galleries and open studios.

&ldquo;There is no art world,&rdquo; said Monta&ntilde;ez. &ldquo;There is one world, and we all live in the same world. It&#39;s an artist community, and I think that that&#39;s very important about the open studios, that at least for one weekend out of the year in this community everybody sets aside their differences and says &#39;OK, we are all part of this together.&#39;&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption=" Artwork by Victor M. Montañez on display in an artist tent located alongside 18th Street for Pilsen Open Studios." data-rich-file-id="1619" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1619/original/pilsen1.jpg" />

Yet culture and community are always fluctuating, as urban landscapes begin to change. People are moving in as others are moving out, and with new community members comes a variety of cultures. For Pilsen, culture now includes a much steeper price tag.

&ldquo;People tend to think that culture is something that gets handed down from generation to generation and that the community&#39;s culture does that too,&rdquo; said Monta&ntilde;ez. &ldquo;But culture is constantly in conflict, constantly in a struggle for becoming something else.&rdquo;

East on 18th Street, vendors sell fresh produce and bagged chicharones from pop-up shops and pick-up trucks. Groups congregate in Harrison Park, playing in the open field and greeting neighbors as they pass down the street. A family huddles around a steaming pot of tamales at a picnic table. Plastered to a vacant storefront window another flyer responds, &ldquo;Pilsen is not for sale.&rdquo; In the background a Pink Line train rumbles from the tracks above as more visitors walk onto the street.

&nbsp;

Top Image: Mural located outside of La Catrina Caf&eacute; on 18th Street.&nbsp;

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CGN talks with local artists, dealers, and business owners about the changing landscape of the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago.

Pilsen’s Changing Landscape has Mixed Effects on Longtime Artist Community

By ALISON REILLY

CGN is excited to announce a new online series called Eye For Collectors. Each month, we talk with dealers and artists to get the inside scoop on affordable artwork for those interested in starting a collection, seasoned collectors who want to discover new artists, or anyone who wants to learn more about purchasing a work of art. Our goal is to pull back the curtain on the process of buying contemporary art while highlighting some of the most exciting artists showing work in Chicago.

Overtaking the walls of the Hyde Park Art Center&rsquo;s main hallway this past summer was Tina Tahir&rsquo;s expansive installation Botany of Desire. Tahir painted several species of orchids on the walls and floor to create an immersive experience for viewers. The winding vines reference the deceitfulness and trickery of orchids that can imitate different smells in order to attract insects for pollination.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Tina Tahir, &lt;i&gt;Shifting Frames Shifting&lt;/i&gt;, 2015, beeswax, dimensions variable, $1,200. Courtesy Kasia Kay Art Projects" data-rich-file-id="1571" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1571/original/tahir-shifting-frames-02.jpg" />

Tahir&rsquo;s interest in vegetal forms can be found in a number of her projects, including Shifting Frames Shifting from 2015. Like Eva Hesse&rsquo;s Hang Up, Tahir focuses attention solely on the frame itself, removing any material from the center of the work. Inspired by Baroque frames, she creates intricate sculptures made of beeswax, a material that is certain to transform over time. While the frames are based on floral patterns, the result, much like Botany of Desire, is an overgrowth&mdash;a barnacle-like formation that at once exudes beauty and decay.

Tahir is represented by <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/kasia-kay-art-projects">Kasia Kay Art Projects </a>and sculptures from the Shifting Frames Shifting series can be purchased for $1,200. Kasia Kay also has a line of fine art wallpaper, and Tahir recently created a number of patterns under the name Tapisseries.

Last fall at the Lillstreet Art Center, Chicago based artist Amanda Gentry presented works from her Brother John series. Seventeen hollow ceramic pillows hung side by side on the gallery wall. In order to make the sculptures, Gentry instructed individuals to lay their heads on the wet clay to make a unique impression on the square clay block. The repetition of the simple, yet haunting forms speaks to the heart of Gentry&rsquo;s practice.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Amandra Gentry, &lt;i&gt;Ranch Study 4&lt;/i&gt;, 2016, unglazed raku clay with silicon carbide and copper oxide wash, gas fire reduction, 4” x 7” x 2.5”, $350. Courtesy Matthew Rachman Gallery" data-rich-file-id="1570" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1570/original/amandagentry-1.jpg" />

More recently, Gentry has been experimenting with additives and oxide washes in her ceramic works. In Ranch Study 4, she mixed silicon carbide into raku clay. The artist then added a copper oxide wash to the unglazed piece to emphasize the textured surface. The smooth lines of Ranch Study 4 are contrasted by the uneven marks, as if Gentry had etched directly into the surface of the clay.

Gentry is represented locally by <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/matthew-rachman-gallery">Matthew Rachman Gallery</a> and Ranch Study 4 is available for purchase for $350. The piece will be included in the upcoming holiday show Peace on Earth, which features a range of works by Chicago artists priced under $2,000.&nbsp;

At EXPO Chicago in September, Chicago painter Anna Kunz installed Warp, a large, billowing tapestry that hung from the ceiling of the immense exhibition hall. The latex on fabric composition represents Kunz&rsquo;s aesthetic and material interests well. Her canvases, layered with fabric, often emerge from the wall and expand into three-dimensional space. The installation was part of EXPO Projects, which featured a number of prominent artists including Magdalena Abakanowicz and Alfredo Jaar.

<img alt="" data-caption="Anna Kunz, &lt;i&gt;Untitled&lt;/i&gt;, gouache on Sakamoto paper, 2008, 12 3/4&quot; x 14 1/4&quot;, $1,500. Courtesy McCormick Gallery" data-rich-file-id="1572" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1572/original/annakunz.jpg" />

Along with her experiments in painting, Kunz also creates small-scale works on paper. Untitled from 2008 demonstrates her ongoing exercises&nbsp;using contrasting blocks of color. The gouache is applied thickly and bleeds onto the sturdy Sakamoto paper. Fluorescent pinks are contrasted by stokes of soft browns and rich purples. Kunz&rsquo;s abstract work is evocative on both the large and small scale.

Kunz is represented by <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/mccormick-gallery">McCormick Gallery</a>. This past summer, she was included in the recent exhibition How Much Land, which was curated by Jessica Cochran. Untitled is available for purchase for $1,500.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Top image: Tina Tahir,&nbsp;Botany of Desire, 2016, installation view. Courtesy Hyde Park Art Center

CGN is excited to announce a new monthly series, Eye for Collectors.

Eye for Collectors: A New Monthly Series

<h3>Clarissa Bonet’s newest exhibitions City Spaces + Stray Light explore the connection between humans and the surrounding urban environment</h3>By MADELINE HAPPOLDIt’s a cool, late fall morning. The lakefront breeze turns the city air frigid and harsh. Clarissa Bonet steps into the Chicago Loop to begin one of her “wanderings.” No earphones, no text alerts, no companion, not even her camera. She has no plan, no map, and no agenda. Just a couple of free hours to absorb the beauty—and chaos—of the surrounding world.It’s rush hour, and the downtown area is buzzing with life. The Metra trains are unloading as hoards of passengers swarm the streets. It’s just another Chicago workday.The young photographer follows the crowd, which squirms like bugs towards a distant light. People seem to move like a unit rather than individuals. Bonet lets herself get swept up in the city’s commuting commotion, the ebb and flow of workers retracing their morning routine. Constantly, new faces pass, lives flashing before her eyes only to disappear just as quickly. She attempts to pinpoint a face, hold onto that individual image before it is replaced with someone else. She tries, focusing on faces, on the people, but each one fades.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1543/original/unnamed.jpg" alt=""></figure>This is just one of Bonet’s many “wanderings.” These explorations are her source of inspiration, this experience spawning the idea for her 2011 piece, In the Crowd. In the photograph, faceless commuters blend into the surrounding city, becoming lost in black and grey monotony.“I’m really paying attention to my viewpoint as an individual and how I experience the city on foot, and then how to make images recreating that experience, the pedestrian-inspired experience,” said Bonet.Bonet currently has two photography series, City Space&nbsp;and Stray Light, on display at the Catherine Edelman Gallery in the River North neighborhood. The two exhibitions are actually separate but work cohesively, offering unique insight to urban life, space and its interaction with the physical world.Bonet started the ongoing project City Space&nbsp;formally in 2011, but has been experimenting with urban images since moving to Chicago in 2009. Making the move to pursue a graduate degree at Columbia College, Bonet didn’t switch from shoreline to skyline with the snap of a lens.“I remember feeling all of these conflicting emotions at once,” said Bonet. “I felt like I had to relearn how to navigate the city. I had to relearn how to photograph in the city... I was so overwhelmed by the amount of visual chaos.”Turning her surroundings into art, the series focuses on the different kinds of spaces that comprise city life.“All the images from City Space&nbsp;come from experiences of life, either personal experience or things I see happening on the street,” said Bonet. “I think about them, I make notes, I take sketches with my iPhone, and then I go back and recreate this performance for the camera.”In her 2014 work Sweeping Traces, Bonet uses the mundane image of a man sweeping trash off a deserted sidewalk to display this lingering effect of human presence. The trash thus embodies the notion of human life beyond what the image displays. With her 2015 piece Removal, Bonet was inspired by a man who constantly washed the exterior of a glass building, only for it to be smudged again by passerbys, coming and going. The man continually erases these traces of life, only for them to reappear.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1544/original/sweeping-traces-2c-20142.jpg" alt=""></figure>“With the City Space project I was thinking about the psychological and both physical space,” said Bonet. “I was really interested in these traces that were left behind in the urban environment and how we can feel the presence… of people when they are not actually physically present.”Bonet keeps these themes prevalent in the Stray Light series as well.“There’s a thread that pulls along into the Stray Light work in a really tangible way,” said Bonet. “Light is the traces of people and the human environment.”Started in 2012, the project is comprised of nocturnal images from buildings in the major U.S. cities Chicago, L.A. and New York. The optical term stray light simply refers to unintended light.In astronomy, stray light can arise from sky glow, the presence of artificial light in the sky. Sky glow is a form of light pollution that limits the ability to see faint objects, such as stars in a night sky.Bonet likes to consider her images as compilations of stray light, too. Stitching together light from windows contrasted against the dark of night, Bonet creates an urban sky, or what she refers to as “man-made cosmos.”“The windows I’m capturing are this kind of stray light, it’s this light that isn’t really intended for anyone but the user of the space… but then it’s also acting as this beacon of presence,” said Bonet. “This is a constructed environment, this is one of our byproducts, which is this beautiful thing but it also in a way is destroying the thing that I’m referencing.”Walk through the gallery exhibition and Bonet’s photographs flow with cohesion. Concrete-greys mix with skyline slate blues and monotone hues, turning into pitch-black shadows. The urban cosmos add a pop of color, highlighting vibrant hues of illuminating greens, blues and fluorescent yellow. &nbsp;The artist likes to think of her images like a television series: each image has a theme that can stand on its own, but the whole series also contains an overarching narrative embedded in each episode.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1546/original/city-space-and-stray-light.jpg" alt=""></figure>“I think the project as a whole has these overarching ideas that go behind it,” said Bonet. “These I feel like are a little chapter in a longer book.”While the show may be her first solo exhibition with the gallery, Bonet has been associated with the Catherine Edelman Gallery for almost four years. As a recent graduate from Columbia College in 2012, Bonet entered a show juried by gallery owner Catherine Edelman. Edelman then invited Bonet to be a part of The Chicago Project, an online gallery devoted to rising photographers in the Chicago area. The pair built a relationship from there, until Bonet became a represented artist in 2015.For Bonet, though, photography as an art form is less about the image and more about the experience.“I think there’s something that falls short between an image of something and an experience of something,” said Bonet. “By constructing the works I’m able to get closer to that feeling because in essence I’m trying to photograph something that is almost not existent, invisible.”Bonet’s City Space&nbsp;and&nbsp;Stray Light&nbsp;exhibitions are&nbsp;on view at the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/catherine-edelman-gallery">Catherine Edelman Gallery</a> through Saturday, October 29.For more information about Clarissa Bonet visit: <a href="http://www.clarissabonet.com">clarissabonet.com</a>&nbsp;Top image: Catherine Edelman Gallery, Clarissa Bonet stands with her exhibitions,&nbsp;City Space&nbsp;and&nbsp;Stray Light.&nbsp;

 Clarissa Bonet’s newest exhibitions City Spaces + Stray Light explore the connection between humans and the surrounding urban environment.

Navigating Chicago’s Urban Chaos: Photographer Clarissa Bonet’s New Work 

By MADELINE HAPPOLD

With the heated 2016 presidential election weeks away, artists are using their talents to&nbsp;turn&nbsp;the political&nbsp;personal. From creating unofficial voting stations to commenting on social justice issues, these exhibitions allow artists to&nbsp;share their voices, opinions, and hopes for the&nbsp;future.

<h3>Official Unofficial Voting Station: Voting For All Who Legally Can&rsquo;t at Jane Addams Hull House Museum</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of Sara Pooley/JAHHM " data-rich-file-id="1526" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1526/original/sara-20pooley-vox-pop-aram-han-sifuentes-204.jpg" />

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/jane-addams-hull-house-museum">The Jane Addams Hull House Museum</a> presents&nbsp;artist Aram Han Sifuentes&rsquo; rebellious&nbsp;project <a href="http://www.hullhousemuseum.org/vox-pop-the-disco-party/">Official Unofficial Voting Station: Voting for all who legally can&rsquo;t</a>. Sifuentes, who has permission to&nbsp;be in the United States but cannot vote,&nbsp;wanted to create a unsanctioned voting process for the upcoming election to honor the voices of those who cannot participate in the election. Other non-legal voters can cast their own unsanctioned ballots at Unofficial Official Voting Stations located throughout the country and in parts of Mexico.

Sifuentes&rsquo; project explores questions about participation, citizenship, and exclusion in the United States. Ballots from other stations will be collected and returned to the Jane Addams Hull House to be counted, then repurposed and featured as an installation at the museum.

Official Unofficial Voting Station is on display through November 8.

&nbsp;

<h3>Power and Politics at Filter Photo</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Rebecca Sittler, &lt;i&gt;Resolute Reflection&lt;/i&gt;" data-rich-file-id="1514" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1514/original/power-and-politics.jpg" />

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/power-and-politics--3">Power and Politics</a> questions the idea that &quot;the personal is political&quot; and challenges those that influence the voting decisions&nbsp;of citizens. Juried by Barbara Tannenbaum, curator of photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the exhibition features the work of 30 artists and coincides with the galleries&rsquo; other featured exhibit, On the Shelf.

The participating photographers explore current issues addressed by candidates while also highlighting those neglected by current political discourse. Tannenbaum notes, &quot;Whether working in documentary or other modes, they all continue the noble goal of social documentary photography: they urge viewers to analyze, understand, and act.&quot;

Power and Politics is&nbsp;open at<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/filter-photo"> Filter Photo</a> through October 22.

&nbsp;

<h3>Sapphire at Weinberg/Newton Gallery</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Anna Elise Johnson, &lt;i&gt; Blue Suit &lt;/i&gt;, 2016. " data-rich-file-id="1506" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1506/original/sapphire.jpg" />

Coinciding with the heated 2016 presidential election, <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/weinberg-newton-gallery">Weinberg/Newton Gallery</a> and Common Cause Illinois are partnering to showcase the group exhibition <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/sapphire">Sapphire</a>. The exhibition features collages, paintings, sculptures highlighting issues such as voting, money in politics, and media ethics.

Weinberg/Newton Gallery is an exhibition space dedicated to social justice issues and providing an environment for both artists and attendees to engage in contemporary political topics. &nbsp;Sapphire&nbsp;is open to the public&nbsp;October 7 through January 14, 2017.

&nbsp;

<h3>100 Years of Women in Government&nbsp;at the Dole</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Diana Zipeto, &lt;i&gt;Malala Yousafzai&lt;/i&gt;, acrylic on canvas. " data-rich-file-id="1528" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1528/original/malala.jpg" />

In 1916, the state of Montana elected Jeannette Rankin into the House of Representatives,&nbsp;making her&nbsp;the first woman sworn into Congress. This monumental achivement happened four years before the 19th amenendment was ratified, guaranteeing women the right to vote in the United States.&nbsp;Next month <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/lakeside-arts-park-at-the-dole">Lakeside Arts Park at the Dole</a> will celebrate Rankin&rsquo;s accomplishment and those of other women in political office&nbsp;over the past century.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/100-years-of-women-in-government">100 Years of Women in Government</a>&nbsp;highlights the past, present, and possible future of women in politics.

The exhibition&nbsp;is sponsored by Illinois State Representative Barbara Wheeler and is&nbsp;open to the public from November 4 through November 18.

&nbsp;

Top image:&nbsp;Danh Vō, Pao Soft, 2010. Courtesy Weinberg/Newton Gallery.

With the heated 2016 presidential election weeks away, artists are using their talents to turn the political personal.

Let's Talk Politics

By ALISON REILLY

The fifth edition of EXPO Chicago took place this past weekend at Navy Pier, and we&rsquo;re already looking forward to the next iteration in 2017. Alongside the major gallery exhibitors were a number of non-profit organizations, institutions, publications, and emerging galleries. Here are highlights from some of CGN&rsquo;s favorite booths.

<h3>Black Athena Collective at Threewalls (Chicago)</h3>

Embracing their transitory state, Threewalls partnered with the Black Athena Collective to showcase the group&rsquo;s research on migration, mobility and architecture in the Red Sea region (Eritrea to Egypt). Founded by Heba Y. Amin and Dawit L. Petros, the experimental collective presented photographs, videos, and a large wooden structure. Most notable was an accordion style artist book documenting their archival research thus far. In a time of political turmoil over border control and the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Amin and Petros poetically pose the question, &ldquo;Can our art practice and methodology allow us to achieve more complex and definitive ways of thinking and interacting with land?&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Black Athena Collective, “Nowhere is a Place”, 2016, Art Book, Archival Digital print on Hahnemühle Museum Etching Paper, 301.4” x 9.4” (Book detail)" data-rich-file-id="1508" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1508/original/bac-expo1.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<h3>Tony Orrico at Marso (Mexico City)</h3>

At first glance, Tony Orrico&rsquo;s work Prepare the plane appears to be an exercise in geometric abstraction. A textured piece of white paper with rows of indentations covers the outside wall of Marso&rsquo;s booth. The composition, however, is an artifact from Orrico&rsquo;s ongoing performance series in which he systematically chews the entire sheet of paper. When first performing the piece in 2012, Orrico believed it would be a two-hour process; instead it took eight and a half. On display at EXPO was the gnawed paper from his 2015 performance at Defibrillator in Chicago. Orrico, who was once a member of the Trisha Brown Company and Shen Wei Dance Arts, has a special condition in which his jaw dislocates without his control. Through physical therapy and his own techniques, Orrico has learned to control it but his orifice continues to play a major role in his artistic practice.

<img alt="" data-caption="Tony Orrico, Detail from &lt;i&gt;Prepare the plane&lt;/i&gt; (DfbrL8r, Chicago, IL) 2015, 2012, Dental occlusions on paper, performance (8.5 hours), 96” x 96”" data-rich-file-id="1515" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1515/original/tony-orrico-prepare-the-plane.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<h3>Margo Wolowiec at Jessica Silverman Gallery &nbsp;(San Francisco)</h3>

Jessica Silverman Gallery&rsquo;s well-curated booth at EXPO Chicago featured an impressive roster of emerging and established female artists including Judy Chicago, Tammy Rae Carland, and Margo Wolowiec (see top image). Hung side-by-side, Wolowiec&rsquo;s two abstracted canvases reference the historical relationship between weaving and computing. Wolowiec searches for images using hashtags like #landscape, #blackandwhite, and in this case: #floodwater. After collecting a number of images, she collages them together and uses a dye sublimation process to transfer the images onto polyester and linen thread, which are then woven onto the canvas. The result is a mesmerizing image full of slight irregularities that continuously capture the viewer&rsquo;s attention.

<img alt="" data-caption="Margo Wolowiec, &lt;i&gt;Floodwater I&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Floodwater II&lt;/i&gt;, 2016, Courtesy Jessica Silverman Gallery" data-rich-file-id="1511" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1511/original/jessicasilvermman-wolowiec-floodwater-i-26-ii-2c-2016.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<h3>Laura Letinsky and John Paul Morabito at Document (Chicago)</h3>

Laura Letinsky and John Paul Morabito, an artistic duo who have been collaborating since 2013, also explore the complex relationship between weaving and photography. The Chicago based gallery and printmaking studio Document installed a heavy tapestry from their series Telephone Game. Letinsky supplies the digital photographic collages while Morabito weaves and abstracts the images into the final composition. Trying to discover the origin of the initial images, which were taken by Letinsky while traveling throughout India, proves to be a futile task. The rough handling of the materials results in a textured and uneven canvas with stray threads dangling from the top and bottom of the piece.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Laura Letinsky and John Paul Morabito, &lt;i&gt;vereVereAslipFlowers&amp;haneemoon(payforthelie)&lt;/i&gt;, 2016, Cotton and wool, 41&quot; x 71&quot;" data-rich-file-id="1509" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1509/original/laura-letinsky-and-john-paul-morabito-verevereaslipflowers-26haneemoon-payforthelie-2c-2016.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<h3>Matthew Craven at ASHES/ASHES (Los Angeles)</h3>

Matthew Craven&rsquo;s collage compositions are a nod to the recent past, a time when students and scholars learned about the world&rsquo;s treasures through the printed page. The artist sources his images from discarded school textbooks and collages them onto vintage paper, giving the appearance of forgotten archival materials. Craven insists that there are no social or political overtones to his work: he organizes the archaeological objects loosely according to aesthetic similarity. Buried within Craven&rsquo;s two-dimensional cabinet of curiosities are his own hand-drawn objects. At EXPO, Los Angeles based gallery ASHES/ASHES presented six of Craven&rsquo;s collages in a grid alongside a large-scale geometric ink drawing.

<img alt="" data-caption="Matthew Craven, &lt;i&gt;TimeLINE (outlines)&lt;/i&gt;, 2016, ink and found images on found paper, 28” x 22&quot;" data-rich-file-id="1507" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1507/original/matthewcraven-timeline1j.jpg" />

&nbsp;

Top image: Jessica Silverman Gallery, Installation view, &nbsp;EXPO Chicago, September 22-25, 2016.&nbsp;Courtsey of Jessica Silverman Gallery

CGN shares highlights from EXPO Chicago 2016

Digital Collage, Meditations on Migration & Gnawed Paper: Highlights from EXPO Chicago 2016

By FRANCK MERCURIO

Walking through Sabina Ott&rsquo;s grotto-like installation, because the mountains were so high, I ran into the artist herself as she applied finishing touches of white paint to the work&rsquo;s polystyrene and spray foam walls.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not quite done yet,&rdquo; she said matter-of-factly.

Ott had borrowed a security guard&rsquo;s stool, using it as an improvised ladder while she touched-up the edges of a video monitor embedded into one of the installation&rsquo;s walls. The Thursday afternoon crowd of art collectors and journalists had just begun to filter through EXPO Chicago&rsquo;s maze of booths. Some people ventured into Ott&rsquo;s installation as the artist continued to work.

&ldquo;I think I hear my gallerist,&rdquo; said Ott, as Jefferson Godard of Aspect/Ratio appeared from around the corner.

&ldquo;Sabina, let&rsquo;s take a walk and see some art!&rdquo; said Godard.

But Ott was having none of it&mdash;at least not for the time being&mdash;as she worried over the details of her latest immersive environment. Her perfectionism is understandable. Because the mountains were so high provides the artist with a huge potential audience for her work. The installation is poised to greet thousands of EXPO visitors&mdash;including gallery owners, curators, and collectors&mdash;as they enter the building from Navy Pier&rsquo;s outdoor promenade.

Ott&rsquo;s EXPO installation is a follow-up (and smaller cousin) to an earlier piece, titled&nbsp;who cares for the sky?, a mammoth installation exhibited this past winter and spring at the Hyde Park Art Center [pictured above]. That particular installation put Ott on Chicago&rsquo;s cultural map. Now, EXPO promises to deliver an even larger, international audience for the artist&rsquo;s work.

Ott&#39;s installation is&nbsp;one of several by Chicago artists displayed inside EXPO&mdash;and each work presents its respective artist with the possibility of garnering attention far beyond Chicago itself.

The installation receiving the most attention&mdash;by far&mdash;on Thursday evening at Vernissage was Leonard Suryajaya&rsquo;s Bunda located inside the Chicago Artists Coalition booth. Suryajaya was born in Indonesia, and his work addresses aspects of his southeast Asian heritage. Educated in the United States at Cal State and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the young artist is currently a resident in the BOLT program for 2015/2016&mdash;his installation proposal&nbsp;for EXPO&nbsp;was selected among his fellow residents by Yesomi Umolu, the exhibitions curator at the University of Chicago&rsquo;s Logan Center for the Arts.

<img alt="" data-caption="Leonard Suryajaya, &lt;i&gt;Mandarin&lt;/i&gt; (detail), 2016" data-rich-file-id="1501" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1501/original/leonardsuryajaya.jpg" />

Like Ott, Suryajaya created an immersive environment for EXPO, inviting viewers to occupy and participate in an imagined world. But where Ott&rsquo;s installation is somewhat cool and ethereal, Suryajaya&rsquo;s work explodes in a riot of color, pattern, and large-format photographic images featuring the artist&rsquo;s female relatives, including his mother. A hilarious, tongue-in cheek video serves as a focal point among the installation&rsquo;s array of disparate elements.

Suryajaya&rsquo;s installation could easily have strayed into chaotic territory, but under the expert guidance of his curator, Umolu, the artist&rsquo;s ideas and intentions shine through in a clear and exhilarating way.

Other installations at EXPO explore heavier topics centered around notions of social justice&mdash;and injustice. Not far from Suryajaya&rsquo;s installation, the Human Rights Watch booth presents 34,000 Pillows, an installation by the Chicago-based collaborative D&iacute;az Lewis. In this work, Alejandro D&iacute;az&nbsp;and Cara Lewis explore the federal government&rsquo;s mandated &ldquo;bed quota&rdquo; which requires that 34,000 immigrants be housed&mdash;per day&mdash;in 250 detention facilities throughout the United States. In an effort to humanize these statistics, the couple is working with a group of volunteers to fabricate 34,000 pillows made from used clothing. The collaborative is selling each pillow for $159, the amount of tax-payer money spent per bed per day on detainees&mdash;amounting to a staggering $2 billion per year.

D&iacute;az Lewis&rsquo; team is fabricating the pillows in a public studio located at the Chicago Cultural Center. (You can visit it through November 12.) Here, visitors can participate in the creation of pillows by either donating clothing or helping to stuff pillows. On Thursday, 150 pillows filled the Human Rights Watch booth&mdash;and more than 30 were sold to EXPO visitors that evening. Funds raised from their sale will go directly to local and national immigrants rights groups combatting the injustices of the detainment centers.

<img alt="" data-caption="Díaz Lewis, &lt;i&gt;34,000 Pillows&lt;/i&gt;, 2016 -ongoing" data-rich-file-id="1502" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1502/original/diazlewis.jpg" />

One gallery in particular stands out in terms of art that carries activist messages. Entering into Monique Meloche&rsquo;s booth, visitors are greeted by Cheryl Pope&rsquo;s WHEN I GET OUT, Voice of Incarcerated Youth (2015), an eight-by-six-foot carpet woven with the words &ldquo;When I get out, I&rsquo;m going to start by beating someone up.&rdquo; This provocative piece&mdash;sized to the dimensions of a typical youth jail cell&mdash;immediately sets the tone of the booth, one that is curated more like a museum exhibition rather than a gallery showroom.

Just beyond Pope&rsquo;s carpet, Ebony G. Patterson&rsquo;s 17 (&hellip;when they grow up&hellip;) (2016), serves as an arresting focal point for the booth. Standing nearly six feet in height, a portrait of an anonymous African American adolescent is adorned with beads, appliques, fabric, glitter, feathered butterflies, and even a toy car. The piece speaks of the innocence of youth, while simultaneously projecting an image of a memorial altar to the dead. It&rsquo;s a powerful anchor for this space featuring works by Carlos Rolon/Dzine, Joel Ross, Amy Sherald, and Nate Young&mdash;all of which are skillfully curated to create a cohesive installation.

<img alt="" data-caption="Installation view, Monique Melouche, EXPO CHICAGO, 2016" data-rich-file-id="1503" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1503/original/moniquemelouche.jpg" />

The evening of Vernissage wrapped up with a performance piece by Cheryl Pope. Red, white, and blue balloons were dropped from the ceiling (political convention style) in front of the entrance to the exposition hall. Guests spontaneously popped the balloons, which had fallen to the floor&mdash;making noises that sounded eerily of gunfire&mdash;and released messages printed on bits of black paper. Each &ldquo;message&rdquo; was stamped with a quote from a prisoner overheard by the artist on a visit to Illinois&rsquo; Stateville Prison. The performance piece was both exuberant and sobering&mdash;and it accomplished what all successful works of art do: it engaged emotions and intellect, making the EXPO visitors both feel and think. It was a powerful moment in the career of this young Chicago artist.

For more information about EXPO CHICAGO visit <a href="http://expochicago.com/">expochicago.com</a>

Top image:&nbsp;Sabina Ott,&nbsp;who cares for the sky,&nbsp;2016, installation view at Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago

Highlights from local artists at EXPO Chicago 2016

Local Artists Create Immersive Environments at EXPO Chicago

By KEVIN NANCE 
 
On October 3 it will have been a year since the Stony Island Arts Bank, one of the most remarkable new cultural projects on Chicago&rsquo;s South Side in memory, opened its doors to the public. As the Arts Bank&mdash;the brainchild of the multimedia artist Theaster Gates&mdash;prepares to celebrate its first anniversary, the hybrid visual arts gallery, music venue and African-American heritage institution can pride itself on a solid start to a long life of service to its neighborhood and beyond. 
 
The handsome granite Arts Bank building, designed by the prominent architect William Gibbons Uffendell and constructed in 1923 at 6760 S. Stony Island Ave., was once a stately savings-and-loan institution serving the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood. But by the time Gates acquired the building in 2012, just weeks before it likely would have been demolished by the city, the bank was in shambles.&nbsp; 
 
Abandoned for nearly 30 years, the 17,000-square-foot structure had suffered decades of rain pouring in through holes in the ceiling; in the basement-level vault, where rows of metal safe-deposit boxes still gleamed, storm water stood chest-high. Nearly a third of the ornate coffered plasterwork on the ceiling of the first-floor great hall had crashed to the floor below.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Rusted safe-deposit boxes" data-rich-file-id="1411" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1411/original/stony-island-6-dxo.jpg" />

&ldquo;People who live in this neighborhood walked past this building for 30 years, and saw it literally falling apart at their feet and above their heads,&rdquo; says Amy Schachman, director of strategic operations at the Rebuild Foundation, the nonprofit group that oversees the Arts Bank and other Gates projects. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a legacy of neglect but also a legacy of possibility.&rdquo; 
 
To keep that legacy clearly visible to visitors, Gates and his team of architects chose not to restore the building to its original pristine state, but rather to leave much of the damaged surfaces&mdash;including the coffered ceiling, interior columns and inner walls of the first floor&mdash;essentially untouched. Intermixed with those areas are several newly designed and constructed spaces, such as the high-ceilinged second-floor room that now houses the 16,000-volume Johnson Publishing Library, complete with a shelving system built in part with reclaimed railroad ties from the nearby tracks that give the neighborhood its name. 
 
&ldquo;By showing what was lost and what was salvageable, by keeping this mixture of old and new, we made an intentional decision to say, &lsquo;Something can be this far gone and you can bring it back,&rsquo;&rdquo; Schachman says. &ldquo;You can make it beautiful, and you can make it an amenity for the people who live in the neighborhood as well as those who come from farther away. If you can take a building this big, and this far gone, and bring it back, that&rsquo;s a pretty strong testament to the work that we&rsquo;re able to do across this neighborhood and that Theaster is doing throughout the South Side.&rdquo; 
 
Although the renovation is still not complete and may never be&mdash;&ldquo;Never,&rdquo; Schachman repeats, noting that the building is in a &ldquo;constant state of reinvention&rdquo; in response to Gates&rsquo;s elastic vision, the capacity of the 12-person staff and the needs of the neighborhood&mdash;the Arts Bank has now settled into something like a comfortable routine. Open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from noon until 7 p.m., the Arts Bank offers a regular schedule of activities that include live music on Thursday afternoons and, on Fridays, House Tea, during which DJs spin music from the Frankie Knuckles collection of vinyl house music recordings housed on the third floor as visitors are treated to home-brewed tea.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="A second-floor reading room features a collection of books on black culture and history recently donated by the DuSable High School Library. Photo: Kevin Nance" data-rich-file-id="1377" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1377/original/stony-island-4.jpg" /> 
 
Patrons can view an ongoing rotation of outside exhibitions &ndash; such as a recent show of photographs by Ghanaian street photographer and portraitist James Barnor &ndash; as well as shows drawn from the various in-house collections, including over 60,000 glass lantern slides of art and architectural history, inherited from the University of Chicago; the Edward J. Williams collection of &ldquo;negrobilia,&rdquo; often mass-produced objects and artifacts with sometimes stereotypical images of African-Americans; and a collection of older books on black culture and history, recently decommissioned and donated to the Arts Bank by the DuSable High School library.

<img alt="" data-caption="Slides in the archive" data-rich-file-id="1410" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1410/original/stony-island-5-dxo.jpg" />

The Arts Bank features regular orientation sessions exploring the Johnson Publishing Library, which includes, among other things, bound editions of Ebony and Jet magazines. As Schachman puts it, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re always having people come in to look up the 1972 Ebony because their uncle&rsquo;s picture was in it.&rdquo; 
 
What&rsquo;s it like to work at the Arts Bank every day? &ldquo;Wonderful,&rdquo; says Demecina Beehn, outreach and engagement manager. &ldquo;To be surrounded by such beauty and such amazing collections, to be able to meet the enthusiastic people who come in every day&mdash;it&rsquo;s just breathtaking.&rdquo;&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="1409" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1409/original/stony-island-dxo.jpg" /> 
Special activities to commemorate the Bank&rsquo;s first anniversary are in the works. These were not firmed up at press time, but Schachman promises &ldquo;a lot of music and a lot of late nights.&rdquo; She adds, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to sum up concisely what we&rsquo;re all about&mdash;hybridity is key,&rdquo; Schachman explains. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s not a single answer that captures everything we&rsquo;re trying to do. So when people ask that question when they&rsquo;re right outside, we just say, &lsquo;Come in. Figure out for yourself what&rsquo;s interesting to you.&rsquo;&rdquo;

Top image:&nbsp;The first-floor main hall of the Stony Island Arts Bank features a mix of partially restored as well as newly designed spaces such as the Johnson Publishing Library (above). Photo: Kevin Nance

<span style="border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: bold; font-size: 11px; line-height: 20px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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); 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October 3, 2016 marks one year since the Stony Island Arts Bank, one of the most remarkable new cultural projects on Chicago’s South Side, opened.

Stony Island Arts Bank: One Year Later

By FRANCK MERCURIO&nbsp; 
 
What happens when a 1957 Cadillac de Ville is encased in 16 tons of concrete? In short, it doesn&rsquo;t go anywhere. And that&rsquo;s the point of Concrete Traffic, a public sculpture created in 1970 by German artist Wolf Vostell. This important conceptual work&mdash;commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, during its early years&mdash;will be re-installed on the University of Chicago campus this September. 
&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Installation view of Wolf Vostell’s Concrete Traffic, January 1970. Courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Library and Archives. Photo © MCA Chicago." data-rich-file-id="1416" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1416/original/installation-view-2c-concrete-traffic-with-cars-historical-photographs-2c-mca-archives-.jpg" />

In an absurdist gesture, Vostell (1932&ndash;1998) took a vehicle that&rsquo;s designed to move and rendered it immobile. It is the type of 1960s conceptual art exemplified by Fluxus, a group of international artists that included (at one time or another) Vostell, Joseph Bueys, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, and Fluxus founder George Maciunas. 
 
Given its intentionally loose parameters, a succinct definition of Fluxus is difficult to pin-down, but the Tate Museum provides a coherent description of what united these artists and their disparate practices: &ldquo;[Fluxus] characterised itself as a shared attitude rather than a movement&hellip;it valued simplicity and anti-commercialism, with chance and accident playing a big part in the creation of works, and humour also being an important element.&rdquo; 
 
To this end, the artists of Fluxus created highly conceptual pieces, often ephemeral, that employed performances and other &ldquo;happenings&rdquo; involving the participation of viewers. The irony is that Vostell created monumental works using these same strategies. Concrete Traffic is a fixed statement, seemingly in direct contradiction to the constantly changing (i.e., &ldquo;in flux&rdquo;) ideals of Fluxus itself. 
&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="David Katzive, view of Wolf Vostell’s Concrete Traffic as it moves down I-90 to the University of Chicago, June 1970. Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Photo © MCA Chicago." data-rich-file-id="1415" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1415/original/david-katzive-2c-concrete-traffic-on-i-90-mca-archives.jpg" />

The MCA&rsquo;s first director, Jan van der Marck, commissioned Vostell to create Concrete Traffic. No stranger to controversy, van der Marck (1929&ndash;2010) championed the work of several provocative artists during his tenure at the fledgling museum. He provided Dan Flavin with his first solo museum exhibition (Dan Flavin: Pink and Gold, 1967&ndash;1968) and displayed Barnett Newman&rsquo;s notorious Lace Curtain for Mayor Daley (1968). Van der Marck also gave Christo and Jeanne Claude their first major U.S. commission, Wrapped Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1968&ndash;1969). 
 
In true Fluxus fashion, the performative aspect of Concrete Traffic was as important as the object itself. On January 16, 1970, more than 100 people gathered in a parking lot at the corner of Ontario and St. Clair to witness the spectacle of Vostell&rsquo;s assistants pouring concrete into a wooden framework surrounding the Cadillac. A few days later, the mold was removed, revealing a car-shaped, concrete form with white walled tires peeking from underneath. The sculpture stayed &ldquo;parked&rdquo; in this space for nearly five months, accumulating masses of parking tickets. (Exactly who ended up paying for the tickets remains unclear.) 
 
A flatbed truck finally hauled Concrete Traffic to a more permanent site on the University of Chicago campus next to Midway Studios. The sculpture stayed in this spot for nearly 40 years until 2009 when it was moved into storage to make way for the new Logan Center for the Arts. 
 
In June 1970, when Concrete Traffic journeyed from&nbsp;Streeterville to Hyde Park, down the Dan Ryan expressway,&nbsp;the Chicago Tribune quoted van der Marck as saying,&nbsp;&ldquo;[the sculpture] gives us a glimpse of the fantastic traffic jam in which the world may someday come to a standstill.&rdquo; 
 
And, indeed, Vostell&rsquo;s sculpture served as an obvious commentary on the drawbacks of American car culture. The newly created interstate system&mdash;built largely of concrete&mdash;was meant to alleviate traffic congestion in inner cities and enable unobstructed travel between communities. Yet, as commuters became more dependent on cars, freeways became virtual parking lots during rush hours. 
 
Concrete Traffic can also be interpreted as a response to growing consumer frustration with the American car industry and its declining product quality in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This frustration was epitomized by Eddie Campos, a Californian who (in spectacular fashion) set fire to his brand new Lincoln Continental in front of a Ford automobile plant in 1971 after repeated repair attempts failed to fix his recently acquired &ldquo;lemon.&rdquo; 
 
Concrete Traffic anticipated the oil embargo of the 1970s in which the nation&rsquo;s cars literally came to a standstill, as drivers sat in long lines to purchase gasoline. The sculpture resonates with today&rsquo;s audiences, as voters and politicians debate how to repair the country&rsquo;s crumbling transportation infrastructure and get America moving again&mdash;literally and metaphorically. 
 
Deterioration was also an unfortunate hallmark of Concrete Traffic. Nearly 40 years of outdoor exposure took a toll on the sculpture. The University of Chicago&rsquo;s Neubauer Collegium funded an extensive conservation program to prepare the work for its re-installation. Chicago-based Methods and Materials conducted the conservation treatments in consultation with outside experts to repair and preserve the concrete, internal steel structures, and the automobile&rsquo;s undercarriage and tires. 
&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Digital rendering of Wolf Vostell’s Concrete Traffic, 1970, in its new location at the entrance to the University of Chicago campus north parking garage." data-rich-file-id="1414" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1414/original/concretetraffic-siting-mockup.jpg" />

After conservation work is complete, the sculpture will be installed inside the University of Chicago&rsquo;s main parking garage&nbsp;adjacent to the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art. The sculpture&rsquo;s new home is in keeping with Vostell&rsquo;s original intention to place Concrete Traffic within an automobile context, challenging drivers to contemplate the piece and question the continued reliance on cars. The covered site will also help protect the piece from damaging weather. 
 
Honoring the Fluxus tradition of happenings and audience&nbsp;involvement, the reinstallation of Concrete Traffic kicks-off&nbsp;with a public procession&mdash;appropriately, through city&nbsp;traffic&mdash;on Friday, September 30. The event begins at Methods and Materials, making stops at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Arts Club of Chicago, and the Logan Center for the Arts before reaching its final destination on the University of Chicago campus.

The University of Chicago&nbsp;will continue to celebrate Concrete Traffic after its installation through a series of special programs and exhibitions.&nbsp; 
 
For details on how to participate in this neo-Fluxus happening,&nbsp;visit <a href="http://arts.uchicago.edu/concrete-happenings/programming">arts.uchicago.edu/concrete-happenings/programming</a>

Top image:&nbsp;David Katzive, installation view of Wolf Vostell&rsquo;s Concrete Traffic, January 1970. Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Photo &copy; MCA Chicago. 
&nbsp;

Concrete Traffic by German artist Wolf Vostell is reinstalled on the University of Chicago campus.

Concrete Traffic Gets Moving Again

By FRANCK MERCURIO 
 
Earlier this year, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) announced that Kavi Gupta Gallery will represent the estate of artist Roger Brown (1941&ndash;1997) on behalf of the School. The announcement was received with some surprise given that Brown&mdash;a Chicago Imagist who died nearly 20 years ago&mdash;seems outside the typical profile of Gupta&rsquo;s &ldquo;of the moment&rdquo; contemporary artists. But with a presence in both Chicago and Berlin, the gallery is poised to expand Brown&rsquo;s reputation internationally and encourage new interpretations of his work.&nbsp; 
 
&ldquo;We really want to put [Brown&rsquo;s art] out there in new and relevant ways and increase awareness by curators, critics, artists, and the public,&rdquo; said Lisa Stone, curator and director of the Roger Brown Study Collection. &ldquo;We hope his works find their way into the world and into important collections.&rdquo;&nbsp; 
 
The Study Collection is owned by SAIC and located in Brown&rsquo;s former Chicago townhouse and studio. Brown willed the building to the School upon his death in 1997, along with his personal collections and much of his artwork. The residence now serves as a museum, archive, and study center for scholars and SAIC students.&nbsp; 
 
As the estate&rsquo;s new representative, Kavi Gupta Gallery will manage Brown&rsquo;s creative output: his paintings, sculptures, and other works of art, which were previously housed at the Study Collection. The gallery&rsquo;s practical responsibilities include the proper storage of these works and the facilitating of loans to outside institutions. Kavi Gupta is also tasked with selling some of Brown&rsquo;s works, in consultation with the Study Collection. 
 
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no &lsquo;fire sale&rsquo; or anything like that,&rdquo; assured Stone. &ldquo;The Study Collection and the Roger Brown New Buffalo, Michigan, property are supported by&mdash;but not dependent on&mdash;proceeds from the estate. So there isn&rsquo;t pressure to sell.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;The gallery&rsquo;s staff have strategies about sales and representation,&rdquo; continued Stone. &ldquo;We respect their work; they are very savvy in terms of estate management.&rdquo; 
 
Kavi Gupta Gallery is also partnering with the Study Collection to conceive new ways of presenting and interpreting Brown&rsquo;s pieces. Case in point: a major fall exhibition at the gallery&rsquo;s Elizabeth Street space will pair works by Brown with those of Andy Warhol. When it opens September 23, Roger Brown &amp; Andy Warhol: Pop Artists, Subversive Politics will place Brown within the Pop art movement.

<img alt="" data-caption="Roger Brown, &lt;i&gt;Gulf War&lt;/i&gt;, 1991, Oil on canvas, Two 36” x 24” canvas panels. © The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brown family. Courtesy of Kavi Gupta. Photo: James Connolly " data-rich-file-id="1382" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1382/original/rogerbrown-kavigupta-gulf-war.jpg" />

&ldquo;This exhibition will, for the first time, draw together works by artists&nbsp;Roger Brown and Andy Warhol,&rdquo; wrote Rachel Gonzalez, spokesperson for Kavi Gupta Gallery, in an email to the author. &ldquo;While these two artists were contemporaries and dealt with much of the same visual language and subject matter, their geographical distance precluded their work from being viewed as related during their lifetimes, which this exhibition seeks to rectify.&rdquo; 
 
Geography wasn&rsquo;t the only barrier separating Warhol&rsquo;s and Brown&rsquo;s works during their careers. There was also a general neglect of contemporary American art that wasn&rsquo;t &ldquo;of New York&rdquo; by critics and art historians during the decades after the war. Important art movements in Chicago and California were routinely ignored or marginalized. In turn, the Chicago Imagists fiercely rejected New York art trends, further distancing themselves from the Pop artists. 
 
 
Yet despite their independent ways,&nbsp;the Imagists keenly followed developments in New York. In a 1981 video interview conducted by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Brown acknowledged an attraction to Pop art and revealed the impact of the movement on his own work: 
 
The Pop artists interested me tremendously, as I think they did most of my friends. I consider them an influence on what I did. 
 
But Brown went on to articulate the dissimilarities between the two schools&rsquo; perspectives: 
 
The thing that I see that&rsquo;s different&hellip; is the kind of attitude they [the Pop artists] had to what they were doing. I think they chose things as sources and then presented them in a very refined, traditional representational manner&hellip; and I think our approach was not to use those things as sources, so much, but to try and parallel the kind of energy that existed in them as art&hellip;instead of painting pictures of them and cropping them in certain ways so that they look very aesthetic, I think our intention was to say &lsquo;These things are beautiful in themselves. Can I make art that equals that?&rsquo; 
 
Despite these differences in intent, commonalities existed. Brown and Warhol both drew from popular culture and explored a number of similar themes in their work. Gonzalez cites &ldquo;religion, queer desire, politics, violence, and advertising&rdquo; as some of the topics each tackled. Both artists commented on the political and social issues of their day; Brown addressed these subjects in a more overt manner through the use of a satirical, narrative painting style. Warhol, generally, took a more subtle approach, often reproducing and manipulating a single image&mdash;such as his (infamous) electric chair or portrait of Mao&mdash;to emphasize his point. There was also a kind of queer sensibility shared between these two gay male artists, one in which coded visual elements often conveyed meaning to a knowledgeable audience. 
 
Given the strong, traditional definitions that still separate the Imagists from the Pop artists, the exhibition at Kavi Gupta is guaranteed to generate controversy&mdash;not everyone will accept Brown as a Pop artist. But the exhibition promises to push descriptive boundaries and &ldquo;subvert&rdquo; (to borrow the gallery&rsquo;s language) long held notions of what separates and connects the work of these two iconic artists.

Roger Brown &amp; Andy Warhol: Pop Artists, Subversive Politics&nbsp;opens on September 23 at 219 Elizabeth St., Chicago&nbsp;and runs through November 22.&nbsp;For more information, visit <a href="http://kavigupta.com">kavigupta.com</a>

Top image: &nbsp;Roger Brown, Aha! Heterosexuals Fuck Too, 1991, Oil on canvas, 72&rdquo; x 72&rdquo;&nbsp;&copy; The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brown family. Courtesy of Kavi Gupta. Photo:&nbsp;James Connolly&nbsp;

Earlier this year, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) announced that Kavi Gupta Gallery will represent the estate of artist Roger Brown.

Roger Brown Goes Pop! at Kavi Gupta

By&nbsp;GINNY VAN ALYEA

The internet has been on my mind lately, or more to the point, I cannot seem to get it out of my head. I know I am not alone; many of us have come to unconsciously inhabit an intangible, mobile place that&nbsp;dramatically determines how we see and interact with the physical world. Having both feet on the ground but a head in the &lsquo;cloud&rsquo; has altered the speeds at which we seek and digest information, and it has shifted our ability to make decisions about that information.&nbsp; 
 
I make fewer guesses than I used to; why guess when you can ask Alexa or Siri? I also experience fewer chance encounters and conversations. In an effort to try to always do and find out more, I&rsquo;m often reading a screen on&nbsp;the go &ndash; on the bus, in the crosswalk,&nbsp;up the elevator. I should remember to look out the window at the wind, or up the street to see the changing daylight.&nbsp; 
 
There are those who, maybe unconsciously, believe there&rsquo;s always something better out there, from everyday shopping, to collecting art, even in romantic relationships. This internet-enabled always-searching but never-deciding mentality can be stressful, not to mention debilitating.&nbsp; 
 
We also never get a break. Going offline for a little while is much harder than it sounds. It&rsquo;s not only disconnecting from information, but also from our networks of friends. For anyone who encounters art, it&rsquo;s tempting &ndash; practically second nature to anyone under 25 &ndash; to want to share what you see with others. But sharing doesn&rsquo;t mean what it used to; it&rsquo;s also become a means of soliciting praise and validation. What we see is registered immediately and then broadcast perhaps before we&rsquo;ve taken the time to think about it. Our friends respond with likes and comments, but not so much in a dialogue. How can we be present in one place when we&rsquo;re drawn to be everywhere at once?&nbsp; 
 
This fall edition of CGN is <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2016/8/preview-cgn-s-fall-issue">packed with things we hope you will share</a> in person: openings, show schedules, events, news, profiles, and of course images. Several art world players here are very skilled at doing real things that largely depend on personal interaction: Tony Karman has built a world class art fair. Jason Pickleman has amassed 1,000 works of art. Lisa Wainwright teaches her artistic worldview to SAIC students. PATRON is working with new artists after a year in business.

This season, try some form of self-imposed digital freedom, whether it&rsquo;s turning your phone off in one studio or for an entire art fair. See art up close and in person. Think about what it says to you, at least for a minute before you share it with someone else.&nbsp;

This fall edition of CGN is packed with things we hope you will share in person: openings, show schedules, events, news, profiles, and of course images. 

Publisher’s Letter: Going Offline and In Person

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="1417" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1417/original/cgnsept16cover.jpg" />

The Jeffrey Breslow Gallery opened in the West Loop at 1015 W. Fulton Market on September 19, 2015. The gallery, dedicated to permanently showing the abstract sculptures of Jeffrey Breslow, rotates work by 2-D artists three to four times a year. Currently on display are realistic figurative sculptures made out of recycled newspaper by Japanese artist Chie Hitotsuyama. Previously the gallery has shown the collaborative works of Meg Frazier and Morgan Winter, cityscape paintings by Chicago painter Sam Rosenthal, and photographs by Chicago artist Laurel Feldman. Future exhibitions feature: Polish fairytale artist Lidia Wylangowska, Dominican artist Byram Bueno, and installation artist Lucy Slivinski.

Breslow is a lifelong Chicagoan, born and raised in Albany Park. He began his artistic journey in high school, building his own pottery wheel and kiln at the age of 15. His obsession with forms and their fabrication led to his discovery of creative dimensions beyond shaping and making designs. He received his BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois, spending 41 years as a renowned toy designer and former president and CEO of Chicago&rsquo;s Big Monster Toys. Breslow left the toy design world in 2008 to devote himself to his passion for sculpture.

He first began making bronze figurative work but decided that it was not creative enough for him, as it emphasized execution. At a transitional point, Breslow recalls: &ldquo;I was out for an early morning run along Lake Michigan, and I could see in the distance the water touch the sky. A particularly colorful burst of clouds stopped me in my tracks. Watching the birth of a new day was glorious. When I turned around there was a fallen tree next to some stones, which I wouldn&rsquo;t have run by if I hadn&rsquo;t stopped for the sunrise. It was an epiphany for me. Next, I began to create abstract sculptures with small stones affixed to the ends of the branches. I was open and ready for a new direction, and there it was.&rdquo;

An avid hiker, Breslow is constantly curious, adventuring in the woods and wilderness. His abstract sculptures kindle a conversation between human creativity and the natural world, while his artistic intention is to inspire smiles and invite contemplation. His creative combinations of stones and boulders with shaped steel ultimately balance his love of nature with joy in design, creating a playful and inviting energy in his work.

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gS6lmVDFfm8" width="420"></iframe>

In 2015, Breslow showed 26 steel and stone sculptures at the first ever indoor and outdoor exhibit at Willis Tower. This fall, Breslow is a featured artist at the outdoor West Loop Arts Festival; he is participating in ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan and in SOFA at Navy Pier. In 2017 he will have an exhibition in the sculpture garden of The American University in Washington, D.C.

Top image: Jeffrey Breslow, Street Talk II; Steel, stones, granite boulder, 168&rdquo; x 96 &ldquo;x 48&rdquo;, 4,000 lbs, 2012

The Jeffrey Breslow Gallery, which opened on year ago, features the work of sculptor Jeffrey Breslow along with a rotating selection of sculpture from 2-D artists.

On the Cover, Fall 2016: Jeffrey Breslow

The Arts Club of Chicago is marking its centennial with a three-part exhibition September 20-December 17, which includes projects by Chicago-based, internationally-recognized artist collectives Sonnenzimmer and Luftwerk, as well as a reinstallation of the Club&rsquo;s permanent collection. Programming is part of The Arts Club&rsquo;s yearlong celebration, The Arts Club of Chicago at 100. A public exhibition opening takes place Sept 20, 6-7:30pm. &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://artsclubchicago.org">artsclubchicago.org</a>

A series of events as well as specially created videos, invite the public to be a part of this significant anniversary and to follow the Club&#39;s remarkable timeline, highlights of which are summarized below.&nbsp;

The Arts Club was founded following the controversial exhibition of modern art known as The Armory Show, and the club&#39;s first headquarters was located on the fifth floor of the iconic Fine Arts Building on South Michigan Ave. They then moved to&nbsp;the Wrigley Building, where the Arts Club began to mount&nbsp;increasingly ambitious exhibitions of international artists. Marcel Duchamp famously organized&nbsp;an exhibition of Brancusi sculpture in 1927.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="610 S Michigan, The Fine Arts Building where the Arts Club was first located" data-rich-file-id="1398" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1398/original/screen-20shot-202016-08-23-20at-2011-22-40-20am.png" />

In 1942, club president&nbsp;Rue Shaw commissioned&nbsp;Red Petals&nbsp;from Alexander Calder and then, after a rough period that leads to a temporary closure, convinced Mies van der Rohe to design new rooms to house the Club. The Mies space at 109 E. Ontario St. opened in 1951 with a landmark lecture by Jean Dubuffet entitled&nbsp;Anti-Cultural Positions, and hosted artists including Marc Chagall and Louise Nevelson.

<img alt="" data-caption="Harry Callahan, Mies van der Rohe, ca. 1952. Collection of The Arts Club of Chicago." data-rich-file-id="1401" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1401/original/screen-20shot-202016-08-23-20at-2011-24-58-20am.png" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Alexander Calder, Red Petals, 1942, installed at 400 N. Michigan Avenue." data-rich-file-id="1399" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1399/original/screen-20shot-202016-08-23-20at-2011-24-45-20am.png" />

In the late nineties, establishing a permanent home at 201 E. Ontario St. designed by John Vinci, The Arts Club begins to focus&nbsp;on world class exhibitions while continuing to cultivate a society of arts professionals, collectors, artists, and critics. Under Executive Director Kathy Cottong, the exhibition program included such highlights as Marcel Broodthaers, John Baldessari, Alighieri e Boetti, Yayoi Kusama, Paul Thek, Lawrence Weiner, and Maya Lin. Important additions to the permanent collection include paintings by Peter Doig, Alex Katz, and Sigmar Polke.

<img alt="" data-caption="Peter Doig, Purple Jesus (Black Rainbow), 2006. Collection of The Arts Club of Chicago." data-rich-file-id="1402" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1402/original/screen-20shot-202016-08-23-20at-2011-25-39-20am.png" />

Today&nbsp;The Arts Club returns to its history and foundations, rededicating itself to its mission to inspire conversations around the arts. With expanded public programs, experimental performances, and garden installations by Chicago artists, the Club looks to support lively discussion while maintaining the ambiance for which it is celebrated. At the same time, it commissions new projects by such artists as Simon Starling and Josiah McElheny that bring attention to the specific modernist legacy of the Club.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="1403" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1403/original/screen-20shot-202016-08-23-20at-2011-25-47-20am.png" />

This interdisciplinary history will be celebrated on October 22, 2016, when the new music ensemble&nbsp;eighth blackbird&nbsp;performs a commission by Oscar-nominated composer David Lang in an environment conceived by visual artist Mark Dion.

<img alt="" data-caption="Installation view of Two Clubs at The Arts Club of Chicago, 2013." data-rich-file-id="1404" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1404/original/screen-20shot-202016-08-23-20at-2011-28-59-20am.png" />

All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.&nbsp;Events will be added throughout the rest of 2016.

The Arts Club of Chicago is marking its centennial with a three-part exhibition September 20-December 17.

The Arts Club at 100

By DAISY FORNENGO

The Chicago Artists Coalition is an institution aimed at supporting local artists and curators, with both artist residency programs and educational workshops to offer. It&rsquo;s a beautiful, fresh space with creaky, white floors, and I was immediately drawn in when I walked through the door. The exhibition in the main gallery vibrates;&nbsp;posters composed of bright blues and pinks contrast the large, white walls.&nbsp;A Fine Line, the group exhibition featuring three residents in the Coalition&rsquo;s &ldquo;Hatch&rdquo; program (Austen Brown, Alex Calhoun, and Angela Davis Fegan), employs contrasting methods of representation and subversion, while testing the viewer&rsquo;s perception of what&rsquo;s before him or her.

A brief digression: In the foreground of the poster-covered wall were small installations by both Calhoun and Brown, works that certainly fit into the category of what many people think simply isn&rsquo;t art. Of course, the question of &ldquo;what is art?&rdquo; is an eternal one, especially to an artist, or one who&rsquo;s studying art history, like myself, so I&rsquo;ll stop there. Let&rsquo;s just say that nearly all of the pieces placed around the gallery had a note on them saying, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t throw away, this is art!&rdquo;

Alex Calhoun installed various configurations of wooden planks and hardware in the exhibition, while Brown included rubber gloves, towels, and enlarged construction project proposals, both of which served to &ldquo;draw attention to the ways in which standards, norms, and policy permeate and condition our daily lives,&rdquo;&nbsp;as the exhibition promised. However, I found that Angela Davis Fegan&rsquo;s part of the exhibition resonated most with me.

Fegan chose to present the&nbsp;Lavender Menace Poster Project, a display of hundreds of colorful posters including variations of 20 different common human rights phrases. These phrases are printed and displayed in the hope of serving as a catalyst to a public discussion of queer politics, women&rsquo;s rights, and self love. They are meant to be taken, displayed, photographed, and circulated in order to reach the widest audience possible, allowing the project to extend beyond the isolated gallery space.

<img alt="" data-caption="Installation view, &lt;i&gt;A Fine Line&lt;/i&gt;, Chicago Artists Coalition, 2016. Photograph by Daisy Fornengo," data-rich-file-id="1322" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1322/original/cac.jpg" />

Not only is a wall filled with vibrantly colored texts like &ldquo;pushing the aesthetics of resistance and periphery&rdquo; and &ldquo;when we unite you call us separatists&rdquo; extremely powerful, but the ability to be a part of the project was thrilling, too. The posters are loud, and they present words that are so often silenced in a way that incorporates an appealing visual aesthetic. The viewer plays a huge role in the success of the&nbsp;Lavender Menace Poster Project, which is synonymous to the viewer&rsquo;s role that he or she may (or may not) choose to play in the development of these rights among the human population.

After walking along the wall and reading various posters, I sat down and sifted through piles and piles of them on the ground (I didn&rsquo;t want to take one off the wall and alter the presentation). After originally intending to bring a poster with one phrase on it to a public space, I chose a unique one that had many different phrases printed over one another in different hues of purple, pink, and blue. This poster was particularly interesting to me because, although it looked haphazardly done, I knew that every single print was intentional. The chaos of the words going every which way made me think of how long these various rights have been discussed, struggled with, and fought over, only to be left still unclear among society. Something as simple as words cause tension, and make people either uncomfortable or empowered, a strong but interesting duality presented. I felt that by posting an image of the wall on social media, I played a small part in this captivating project and that I could bring the poster I&rsquo;d chosen home with me instead of displaying it. It&rsquo;s still being circulated, but instead of reaching a very wide audience, everyone who enters my bedroom sees it, is able to sit down and read it, and I&rsquo;m there to tell them about the project personally.

So how does&nbsp;A Fine Line&nbsp;unfold into a cohesive exhibition from my perspective? All of the elements of the show are composed almost entirely of household objects, yet they are configured in such a way that makes them special. Paper, wood, a tennis ball, and rubber gloves- not very riveting on their own. However, what these objects have to say in a formal gallery setting and what they can conjure up in an individual&rsquo;s mind is both fascinating and unique.

Brown&rsquo;s attention to space and how it affects people&rsquo;s actions is drawn from his on-site gatherings from both Marina Towers and the Raymond Hilliard Tenement Homes. The excavation of these two historical structures in Chicago, both built in the 1960s by the same architect, suggests a sense of togetherness and community that the buildings provided to the people living in or around them. &nbsp;

Calhoun focuses her work on the balance between humor and seriousness, and in presenting, for example, wood planks balancing on one another, she is doing just so. Her viewers might not take her work seriously, suggesting that she has simply put one piece of wood up against another, but so what? Now all of a sudden the viewer is not judging the artwork, but the artist herself. Also, what she has put before the viewer might make one think of the importance of balance itself, not only physically, but mentally and spiritually, or however else balance might play a role in one&rsquo;s daily life.

These three artists come together in&nbsp;A Fine Line&nbsp;to put physical objects and words in front of a viewer out of their original contexts, allowing them to be internalized as ideas rather than things. We are conditioned to think of these objects as &ldquo;not art&rdquo; because they are so present in our daily lives, yet the space in which they&rsquo;re experienced, like Brown hopes to suggest, changes everything. &nbsp;

I highly suggest a visit to this group exhibition and that you take the time to grapple with the connection between the various works of these three Chicago artists. Let the posters sink in, start a conversation, and spread the word to keep the&nbsp;Lavender Menace Project&nbsp;alive. The exhibition is on display until August 11, 2016.

Top image: Alex Calhoun, Lavendar Menace Poster Project, 2016. Photograph&nbsp;by Daisy Fornengo.

CGN Intern Daisy Fornengo reflects on the Chicago Artists Coalition's current exhibition, A Fine Line.

A Fine Line at the Chicago Artists Coalition

By THE CONSERVATION CENTER

Whether a corporate collection adorning an office building, public artwork exhibited in municipal buildings, or heirlooms on display in a historical home, special attention should be paid to artwork at high risk of bumps, splashes and natural disasters. Worst-case scenarios for collections involve disasters such as a fire or flood; not only is there the primary cause of damage, there will likely be additional exposures &mdash; for example artwork with fire damage&nbsp;will often also have water damage from the efforts of first responders working to save the building. Unless the art collection is specifically included an emergency evacuation plan, the collection will likely remain in the damaged building until it can be reached by restoration crews. However, precautionary steps in framing, storage, and display can mitigate the extent of the damage.

<img alt="" data-caption="Custom Plexiglas vitrine" data-rich-file-id="1183" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1183/original/5-art-in-vitrine.jpg" />

When The Conservation Center was called in to rescue and preserve LaSalle Bank&rsquo;s extensive photography collection following a fire in 2004, the benefits of precautionary steps were obvious. Though a few photographs too close to the core of the fire were irreversibly charred, the majority of the collection was repairable in part due to the professional matting and framing. Without proper housing, those photographs which had escaped the fire itself might have been water damaged by fire hoses, or marred by soot and smoke.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="1180" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1180/original/2-frame-package.jpg" />

The method and materials of an artwork&rsquo;s housing correlates to its longevity and safety. The housing materials that the artwork is in direct contact with can have detrimental effects, such as discoloration from an acidic mat: in addition to darkening, this can cause embrittlement to the piece. If an artwork was framed more than twenty years ago, it&rsquo;s likely that acidic supplies were used. The availability of archival materials has improved over the last two decades, thus the archival quality of the framing supplies used can vary greatly with the framer and when it was framed. Appropriate hinging that is reversible can allow for the removal of damaged materials without altering the work. Even the choice of framing glass makes a difference; the use of UV glazing can help prevent fading, and choosing acrylic glazing instead of glass can provide more security for some pieces since it does not shatter. An encapsulated, sealed assembly can further protect the piece from potential water exposure and contamination.

<img alt="" data-caption="Mat burn" data-rich-file-id="1181" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1181/original/3-mat-burn.jpg" />

Once suitably housed, the piece should be stored or displayed appropriately and carefully. Proper storage solutions, not just for transporting artwork but also for those works that are not currently displayed, are an integral part of maintaining a corporate collection. In the case of businesses with large art holdings or with archives that are not displayed, a large proportion of their collection might be in storage at any point in time: pieces should be stored securely, in archival housing and monitored regularly. Items should be stored on appropriate racking, flat files, or shelving, and should not stand directly on the floor. They can also be packed to prevent dust accumulation and additional handling. Artwork in long term storage should be checked regularly.

<img alt="" data-caption="Custom storage" data-rich-file-id="1182" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1182/original/4-custom-storage-boxes.jpg" />

For an object or artwork on display, care should be taken to ensure against possible damage, especially in situations where the art is displayed in busy public areas. Framed pieces should be equipped with adequate hanging and security hardware,&nbsp; so that the piece cannot be easily removed from the wall. Sculptures and objects should be attached to a stand, while smaller objects should be secured and protected with a vitrine. Well-housed artwork should be able to survive an accidental knock or fall while on display without damaging the piece. With the right precautions taken, a collection can be safely maintained and displayed for future generations while maintaining the organization&rsquo;s art assets.

&nbsp;

If you need professional help, contact a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services">professional</a> or someone at the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/the-conservation-center--2">Conservation Center&nbsp;</a>

How to minimize risks of damage and take preventative steps

On Display: How to Guard Against Damage to Art Collections

By ALISON REILLY

Michael Rakowitz&rsquo;s latest exhibition spans two prominent Chicago spaces: the Graham Foundation in the Gold Coast and Rhona Hoffman Gallery in the West Loop. The Flesh Is Yours, The Bones Are Ours designates architectural ornamentation as a starting point for exploring the broader social and cultural histories that become legible in the facades of buildings. The body of work was first presented as part of the 2015 Istanbul Biennial: Rakowitz installed the work in two adjacent rooms at the Galata Greek Primary School in the Karak&ouml;y neighborhood of Istanbul. With its relocation to Chicago, Rakowitz embeds new meaning into his extended study of the relationships of designers to their larger social strata.

<img alt="" data-caption="View of Michael Rakowitz, &lt;i&gt;The Flesh Is Yours, The Bones Are Ours&lt;/i&gt;, 2016, Graham Foundation, Chicago. Photo by: RCH | EKH." data-rich-file-id="1259" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1259/original/rch-ekh-gf-rakowitz-051616-022.jpg" />

The concurrent exhibitions weave together the complex histories of Armenian artisans, specifically Art Nouveau mold-maker Garabet Cezayirliyan, with the built environments of modern-day Istanbul and Chicago. Rakowitz collaborated with Kemal Cimbiz, an apprentice of Cezayirliyan who now operates the atelier, to create a series of plaster casts of architectural ornaments from Cezayirliyan&rsquo;s original molds. These casts, made from a plaster aggregate of ground animal bones, fill the ground floor galleries of the Graham Foundation. The stark-white molds are arranged directly on the floor, inches from each other, with some casually stacked against the walls, imitating the layout of <a href="http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/5301-the-flesh-is-yours-the-bones-are-ours">Cezayirliyan&rsquo;s atelier</a>. The molds are pristine&mdash;immune to the passing of time and unlike the weathered facades of the buildings that house their designs. In these rooms, similar to the installation at the Galata School, Rakowitz leaves no path for visitors to walk&mdash;the decorative frames and flourishes can only be observed from a distance.

<img alt="" data-caption="View of Michael Rakowitz, &lt;i&gt;The Flesh Is Yours, The Bones Are Ours&lt;/i&gt;, 2016, Graham Foundation, Chicago. Photo by: RCH | EKH." data-rich-file-id="1258" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1258/original/rch-ekh-gf-rakowitz-051616-020.jpg" />

Alongside the ornate replicas are Rakowitz&rsquo;s own delicate designs, inspired by Cezayirliyan but with a darker twist: these molds are made from the bones of dogs that were banished from Istanbul in 1910 in an effort to modernize the city. With this decision, Rakowitz highlights the use of animal bones as strengthener for plaster casts while calling attention to the expulsion of an estimated 80,000 dogs from Istanbul to the island of Sivriada. Further, Rakowitz uses the banishment of the dogs as a metaphor for the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, a tragedy that the Turkish government still fails to recognize. Through his poetic use of materials and metaphor, Rakowitz revives the legacy of Armenian craftsmanship that is built quite literally into the skeletal system of the city.

<img alt="" data-caption="Michael Rakowitz, &lt;i&gt;The Flesh Is Yours, The Bones Are Ours&lt;/i&gt;, Installation view, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, 2016. Photograph by RCH|EKH art documentation. " data-rich-file-id="1256" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1256/original/rch-ekh-rhona-hoffman-052016-008.jpg" />

At Rhona Hoffman Gallery, a few miles away, the walls are draped with frottage rubbings of architectural fragments designed by Armenians like Cezayirliyan. Rakowitz, with members from the Armenian community still living in Istanbul, traced over the actual facades in order to create permanent reminders of the influence of Armenian craftsmen on the development of modern Turkish society. Through the process of isolating, tracing, and replicating these forms, Rakowitz generates new historical narratives about the relationship of Turkey to its minority ethnic populations. He identifies the influence of Armenian design on the tapestry of an ancient city as it moved towards modernization, and he acknowledges the presence of this distinct aesthetic that still haunts the city.

The rubbings installed on the walls at Rhona Hoffman surround several large glass vitrines filled with pieces of bones, newspaper clippings, and postcards &ndash; Rakowitz&rsquo;s own collection of found artifacts are used to illustrate the complex relationships between the physical infrastructures of cities and the people who occupy them. The vitrines also reference Chicago directly: Rakowitz places two newspaper clippings side-by-side and describes, in black marker directly on the glass, how the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the Great Fire of Pera (a district in Istanbul now known as Beyoğlu) in 1870 both contributed to the use of stone in place of wood for future buildings. Rakowitz notes that with this change architects like Louis Sullivan, who moved to Chicago in 1893, redesigned cities with Art Nouveau facades.

<img alt="" data-caption="Michael Rakowitz, &lt;i&gt;The Flesh Is Yours, The Bones Are Ours&lt;/i&gt;, Installation at Rhona Hoffman Gallery. Author's image." data-rich-file-id="1257" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1257/original/michael-rakowitz2.jpg" />

At times, Rakowitz&#39;s idiosyncratic historical parallels seems to strike a false note; one might rightly question the slipperiness of associating the removal of 80,000 dogs from Istanbul with fin-de-si&egrave;cle Armenian design. However, the poetry of his imaginative pairings quietly honors those that have died while pushing his audience to consider the hands that build their own cities. &nbsp;

The Flesh Is Yours, The Bones Are Ours is on display at <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/rhona-hoffman-gallery--2">Rhona Hoffman Gallery</a> and the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/graham-foundation-for-advanced-studies-in-the-fine-arts">Graham Foundation</a> until August 16, 2016.

Top image: Michael Rakowitz,&nbsp;The Flesh Is Yours, The Bones Are Ours,&nbsp;Installation view, Graham Foundation, 2016. Photograph by RCH|EKH art documentation.

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Michael Rakowitz's latest exhibition spans two prominent Chicago spaces: the Graham Foundation and Rhona Hoffman Gallery.

The Flesh Is Yours, The Bones Are Ours

By THE CONSERVATION CENTER

There are few rites of spring more satisfying than the annual clean. And while spotless living spaces make a house a home, many of us unfortunately have to use harsh chemicals and solvents to achieve that goal. The application of products found under the kitchen sink can lead to chemical reactions on the surface of art objects that can prove to be quite serious, resulting in detrimental losses that are usually so much greater than the reward of a home cleaning approach. When it comes to caring for your art and antiques while freshening up around the house, we at The Conservation Center strongly advise collectors to adhere to the &ldquo;DDIY&rdquo; rule&mdash;Don&rsquo;t Do it Yourself&mdash;and leave the job to professional art conservators.

Time and time again&nbsp;at The Conservation Center&nbsp;we see instances where a beloved piece or family treasure has been accidentally damaged due to well intentioned, but ill-advised, attempts of at-home repairs. The treatment and care of art objects is a skill set that is beyond most people&rsquo;s general scope of knowledge, which is why these problems are always completely accidental and performed with the best of intentions, so it is falls to our role as conservators to educate on the importance of prevention.

The standards of high-quality art and heirloom conservation call for reversible materials and processes, so that anything added to a piece beyond original content can be identified by another professional and undone in the future for whatever reason. Fine art conservators apply an in-depth working knowledge of various solutions, chemicals, adhesives, and techniques to actively preserve a piece in a laboratory setting. This knowledge isn&rsquo;t found through a quick web-search, but from years of applied experience. In this sense, there is no easy fix, which is why it is so important to leave any art related problems in the hands of trained conservators.

&nbsp;

<h4>Exhibit A: The Infiltrator</h4>

The Conservation Center sees a lot of ceramics due to their fragility in comparison to other mediums. This is also a type of object that people often attempt to repair at home using fast-drying, instant adhesives, most containing cyanoacrylate. This adhesive is much better known by its brand names: Super Glue, Instant Bond, Super Bond, or Loctite. While this adhesive may be reversible in a few different solutions, it is not considered safe to use on art objects.

For example, a ceramic plate came into our lab that had previously shattered into multiple fragments, which the owner had carefully reassembled using cyanoacrylate. The owner had actually made satisfactory repairs that held, as the pieces were re-adhered at the correct orientation and angle. However, after about a year, the adhesive started to discolor, leading to major concerns for the owner. The fissures in the plate slowly yellowed, and then turned an unappealing brown. Upon noticing the degradation in appearance, the client brought the plate to The Center, where we were able to reverse the chemical processes that bonded the fragments together with little issue. Unfortunately, because ceramic is a very porous material, the adhesive had spread underneath the glazing on the surface of the piece. While we were able to remove the adhesive around the edges, the area underneath the glazing could not be accessed to remove the adhesive without damaging the integrity of the piece itself. None of our poultice techniques to draw the adhesive out could reach that far into the material, despite several attempts from our conservators. So while we were able to put the pieces back together creating a unified whole with a conservation-grade adhesive this time around, at each break point there were yellow and brown lines that remain visible underneath the glazing where the adhesive had previously bonded and discolored.

<img alt="" data-caption="Repair in progress" data-rich-file-id="1174" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1174/original/1-repair-in-progress.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<h4>Exhibit B: The Exploding Vase</h4>

A client brought in to The Conservation Center an ornate, antique vase that had been repaired with a polyurethane glue, an extremely strong adhesive that expands as it dries. Polyurethane adhesives include brands such as Gorilla Glue, Titebond, and Bolder Bond. These are great for fixing many objects, but are unfortunately not good options for repairing art. &ldquo;The problem with adhesives like Gorilla Glue is that they expand as they dry,&rdquo; commented Josh McCauley, the conservator who examined the piece. &ldquo;Because the glue expanded, it displaced the negative space within the vase, placing additional strain on the undamaged parts. This led to further cracks developing.&rdquo; When it was eventually brought in to The Center, repair options became much more problematic, as polyurethane adhesives are not reversible. The Gorilla Glue was mechanically removed, and the pieces then had to be painstakingly reconstructed by hand using a proper conservation-grade adhesive. The losses were filled and inpainted.

<img alt="" data-caption="A &quot;do-it-yourself treatment&quot; using Gorilla Glue on an antique ceramic (top); and post-treatment (bottom)." data-rich-file-id="1175" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1175/original/2-poor-repair-and-after-treatment.jpg" />

<h4>Exhibit C: The Clean Slate</h4>

Often under-the-sink household cleaners have concentrated chemical components that are highly abrasive. Even cleaners that are made from 99% natural ingredients should still be avoided when attempting to clean artworks. A client brought to us a beautiful, hand-painted porcelain box that he had attempted to clean using a multi-surface cleaner at home. Unfortunately, the paint used by the original artist contained the rare and expensive pigment, lapis lazuli, amongst other sensitive pigments. The chemical smeared, and in some places, stripped the paint completely off the piece while the client unknowingly lightly applied the solution to the surface. We were unfortunately not able to offer any beneficiary treatment options, as almost none of the original paint layer was left to save.

Beware of products that advertise safe use on ceramics or porcelain&mdash;your bathtub is made of a far different type of ceramic than antique Chinese pottery. Conservators understand the correct types and relative strengths of solutions to use so that a piece will be cleaned of dirt and grime, but neither stripped nor harmed. Considerations concerning the materials are always made first, based on how they will interact with certain chemicals. The materials our conservators use are specifically formulated for their intended projects, and align to a specific set of museum and archival standards.

&nbsp;

<h4>Exhibit D: The Scotch Tape Massacre</h4>

Surprisingly enough, a strip of tape can be just as harmful as a polyurethane or cyanoacrylate adhesive. &ldquo;A client brought in a cracked porcelain piece that had been taped together to show where all the pieces fit in place. She was trying to prepare the piece to be glued once it got here to The Center. By the time the tape was removed, its glue had already stripped the pigments off the piece,&rdquo; said Josh, reflecting on another item that had been accidentally damaged at home. Luckily, this only occurred in limited areas, allowing our conservators to inpaint the areas of loss with reversible paints after properly gluing the pieces back together with conservation-grade adhesives. We often see fragmented works of art, so our conservators are experts at puzzle-piecing objects back together. While we appreciate the help this particular client was trying to offer, it unfortunately didn&rsquo;t work out as she had hoped.

<img alt="" data-caption="Strips of tape can have harmful effects on your cherished art objects" data-rich-file-id="1176" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1176/original/sculptureb-26a.jpg" />

All of these examples stem from people trying to take care of their objects and keep them in good condition. It is difficult to advise letting a valuable piece gather dust rather than be self-cleaned, but these case studies are hard to ignore. The fact is that all of these mishaps were completely preventable. Conserving fine art, much like creating it, takes years of honed practice and education&mdash;our conservators themselves are always learning new techniques from colleagues and the conservation community at large.

&nbsp;

If you need professional help, contact a professional <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/specialties/conservation-restoration">conservator</a> or someone at the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/the-conservation-center--2">Conservation Center&nbsp;</a>

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background-size: 14px 14px; background-color: rgb(189, 8, 28); position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; border: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-position: 3px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Save<span style="border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: bold; font-size: 11px; line-height: 20px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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); background-size: 14px 14px; background-color: rgb(189, 8, 28); position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; border: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-position: 3px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Save

Reasons why you shouldn't try to DIY valuable art and antiques 

Don't Do It Yourself: Cautionary Tales of At-Home Art Treatments

By BETSY NATHAN

From German Bauhaus designers to Scandinavian and American mid-century makers, modernists have always been inspired by Asia. George Nakashima apprenticed in his ancestral Japan to learn &ldquo;the finest traditions&rdquo; of woodworking. Hans Wegner paradoxically helped to define Danish design with his Ming-inspired China Chairs for Fritz Hansen. And art historian Sarah Handler has drawn clear connections between Marcel Brauer&rsquo;s Wassily Chair&mdash;an icon of industrial modernism&mdash;and 17th century Qing and Ming Meditation Chairs.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="1172" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1172/original/first-floor-hallway.jpg" />

Although Japanese and Chinese designers were minimalists centuries before the mid-century modernists, unearthing the Eastern roots of Western modernism isn&rsquo;t just an exercise in accreditation. It&rsquo;s a way to bring craft and modernism back together again, breathing new life into old objects. Asian craft offers an alternative to the steel-and-glass rigidity of Western minimalism. Before Sam Maloof, Ming makers had perfected the art of mortise-and-tenon joinery. Strong joints were designed to hold chairs together without adhesives, so that they could be disassembled, packed and re-assembled at will&mdash;outlasting anything built with nails that would rust or glue that would crumble.

Chinese and Japanese craftsmen also saw their trade as a kind of humble, hard-won religion. George Nakashima knew this, believing&mdash;as the Shinto tradition does&mdash;that &ldquo;there is a spirit&hellip;in the grain of a tree.&rdquo; Despite the pressures of the prevailing industrialism that defined American postwar design, he maintained a handcrafted element and an appreciation for joinery in everything he did. In keeping his business purposefully small and simple, he was a modern echo of the Japanese toryo, or master temple carpenter.

Stories like these aren&rsquo;t just entertaining historic anecdotes. They can, and should be, carried into today&rsquo;s maker movement. Design houses like Knoll and Herman Miller are recognizing this. Knoll Textiles works with small fashion studios like Rodarte to adapt their hand-dyed ombr&eacute;s into upholstery fabrics, while Herman Miller handcrafts Eames Chairs in its Zeeland, Michigan factory. Craft is a way to reconnect modernism to its roots, and the further back we go, the more we have to learn.

There&rsquo;s a conversation to be had between ancient and modern objects. It&rsquo;s a dialogue made richer and more human when east and west talk with one another. Chinese and Japanese craft are cornerstones of modern and contemporary design, just as the Western world exports its cultural influence. In the words of George Nakashima, &ldquo;One borrows from another, which is the way I think a culture should be.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

Betsy Nathan is the owner of <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/pagoda-red--2">Pagoda Red</a>, which has two locations: 400 N Morgan in Chicago&#39;s West Loop, and&nbsp;911 Green Bay Rd. in Winnetka

Pagoda Red owner Betsy Nathan on importance of Asian design on craft

Under The Influence: Modern Design’s Debt To Asian Craft

By ALISON REILLY

In 2014, Andrew Holmquist presented a video titled Painting, Time and Space at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)&rsquo;s MFA Show. In the video, he translates painting to a three-dimensional space and reveals the process of constructing a complex composition. Ribbons of color unfold across the screen and layer on top of each other. As the camera moves backwards in space, more stage props &ndash; a cart here, a ladder there &ndash; come into view. At the time, Holmquist was working for the facilities management department at SAIC, so he had access to a collection of objects that assisted him in creating the final product.

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Locker Room&lt;/i&gt;, 2015, oil, acrylic, spray enamel on canvas, 72” x 84”" data-rich-file-id="1110" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1110/original/aholmquist-locker-room-binderx-.jpg" />

In his recent exhibition at Carrie Secrist Gallery, Holmquist experimented with many of the same themes that Painting, Time and Space brings forward. The show, STAGE LEFT featured a series of new paintings &ndash; Holmquist is known primarily as a painter &ndash; but in the latest iteration of his work, he moved more confidently into film and sculpture. He noted, &ldquo;In the past I&rsquo;ve had shows that have a sculpture in them in addition to paintings, or I&rsquo;ve shown the comic books independent of the paintings, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to present these works as pieces of the same whole.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Accompanying the paintings in STAGE LEFT was a collection of small-scale ceramic sculptures that Holmquist made with the help of his parents who run a pottery business in northern Minnesota. &ldquo;The sculptures,&rdquo; Holmquist said, &ldquo;they initially started off as action figures from the paintings, or taking specific gestures or moves that appear frequently in the paintings, and plucking them out and plopping them into the three-dimensional space to see what that actually does and what it&rsquo;s like to actually be able to walk around to the backside of something rather than just imagine it.&rdquo;&nbsp;

For the exhibition, Holmquist situated the sculptures on pedestals of varying heights and arranged them on a large plinth. He said, &ldquo;It seemed like an elaborate stage, a Broadway stage setup or back to [Hollywood film director and musical choreographer] Busby Berkeley&ndash;these figures emerging from water. Their grand entrance!&rdquo; The monochromatic sculptures reiterate much of the aesthetic vocabulary found in his paintings. In one sculpture a ribbon (or is it a red carpet?) cascades over a ribbed cylindrical form. In another sculpture a pair of four pale pink legs are poised, ready to descend a staircase.

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Suit of Armor&lt;/i&gt;, 2015, oil and acrylic on canvas, 60” x 50” " data-rich-file-id="1109" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1109/original/aholmquist-suit-of-armor-binder.jpg" />

Like the sculptures, Holmquist&rsquo;s paintings move fluidly between the worlds of abstraction and figuration. He layers bodies and perspectives on top of each other to create a tense space full of sideways glances and hints at eroticism. In Suit of Armor, a yellow hand emerges from a chaotic tumble of black brushstrokes as if to ground the viewer in space. Holmquist insists that the use of hands in his paintings allows, &ldquo;the audience pivot backwards into the painting. The audience can recognize a part and spin themselves into this world that I&rsquo;m presenting.&rdquo;

He continues, &ldquo;These hands waving you on in, they&rsquo;re friendly waving, &lsquo;Hello! Come on!&rsquo; but then this yellow one &ndash; it&rsquo;s waving hello but also blocking you from entering. Because that&rsquo;s the experience of looking at painting - you can imagine these spaces in these paintings opening up but clearly you can&rsquo;t ever go in them. That&rsquo;s fun because if you could it&rsquo;d probably be disappointing anyways - this kind of half imagined world is better than the full story.&rdquo;

Growing up, Holmquist participated in small-town theater productions, but he never studied the discipline formally. Nonetheless, the idea of a staged production &ndash; a space that exists at a particular time and for a particular audience continues to inform his work. &ldquo;These places that I depict,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;they go back only a handful of feet rather than miles.&rdquo;&nbsp;

David Hockney, Holmquist said, is a major influence on his work, because &ldquo;he uses that same idea of the stage in his paintings.&rdquo; In particular, he appreciates Hockney&rsquo;s painting at the Art Institute of Chicago, American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman).&nbsp; &ldquo;The painting uses this isometric perspective that doesn&rsquo;t exist in reality. It&rsquo;s really tangible &ndash; it&rsquo;s three-dimensional but it&rsquo;s not realistic three-dimensions, it&rsquo;s a pictorial depiction of three dimensions. And the space of that painting specifically, that blue sky, which is infinite space in reality, it reads more like a tarp or a plastic scrim that&rsquo;s behind these characters and these stage sets than an actual infinite space.&rdquo; Holmquist follows in this notion: he experiments with multiple perspectives, creating spaces that look somewhat familiar but could not exist in reality.&nbsp;

As an artist, Holmquist benefits from what he calls &ldquo;low-tech magic,&rdquo; meaning that he can pull off &ldquo;pretty dazzling special effects&rdquo; within the four corners of a canvas. Recently, he extended his philosophy to film. He collaborated with filmmaker Alexander Stewart to create Magic Hands, a 16mm film that, like his paintings and sculptures, fluctuates between figuration and abstraction. Holmquist had previously created video works but chose film in this case because of the high stakes of the medium. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t do a reshoot because it&rsquo;s too expensive. You get one shot at it. And that&rsquo;s the same way with painting. You can certainly wipe something off but with this kind of painting it&rsquo;s these fresh, seemingly spontaneous gestures that need to hit their mark. I like that drama.&rdquo;

Holmquist was also attracted to the potential of color with 16mm film. A few years ago at the Gene Siskel Film Center, he saw a rare print of Hitchcock&rsquo;s Vertigo and was overwhelmed. &ldquo;It was the most colorific experience I&rsquo;ve ever had. [The film] was so vivid, the emerald greens and the purples were traumatic, they&rsquo;re so, so intense.&rdquo;&nbsp;

The final component of Holmquist&rsquo;s exhibition at Carrie Secrist Gallery was an impressive publication flooded with warm yellows, shades of teal, and rich pinks. Part comic book, part catalogue, the publication weaves together pieces of Holmquist&rsquo;s paintings, sculptures, and film to create an absurdist narrative about a group of superheroes who transform from casually sunbathing at the beach to performing the greatest rendition of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers&rsquo; &ldquo;Islands in the Stream.&rdquo; For Holmquist, the publication was one of many ways viewers could interpret the work in STAGE LEFT. &ldquo;It gives people permission to concoct their own strange narrative.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Looking forward, Holmquist is excited to be included in the group exhibition, Drama Queer, curated by art historian Jonathan D. Katz. The exhibition is part of the Queer Arts Festival opening June 2016 in Vancouver, BC.

&nbsp;

<a href="http://andrewholmquist.com">andrewholmquist.com</a>

&nbsp;

Top image: Andrew Holmquist, Stage Left, Installation view, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, January 29 &ndash; March 12, 2016, Photo: Robert Chase Heishman

&nbsp;

Andrew Holmquist: Theatrical Abstractions

By FRANCK MERCURIO

Seeing Laurie Tennent&rsquo;s botanic photographs in person is a completely different experience than viewing them online. Nothing quite prepares you for the scale of the artist&rsquo;s physical works, some of which extend eight feet in length. Approaching these images of flowering plants up close, the viewer becomes immersed within the intriguing world of plant anatomy.

&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very interested in the architecture and design that is in nature,&rdquo; said Tennent. &ldquo;The intricacies of [plant] structures are amazing to me.&rdquo;

More than 20 of Tennent&rsquo;s large-scale works can be seen in Botanicals: Intimate Portraits at the Chicago Botanic Garden through September 25.

<img alt="" data-caption="Red Velvet Echeveria" data-rich-file-id="1106" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1106/original/red-velvet-echeveria.jpg" />

Digital technology enables the Michigan-based artist to enlarge her photos of small, flowering plants to a monumental size. She fuses the images onto aluminum substrates, which allows the works to be displayed indoors or outdoors without need of protective glazing.&nbsp;

&ldquo;With photography, works are usually 15 by 20 inches, behind glass, matted and framed,&rdquo; said Tennent. &ldquo;I was always striving to get out of that mold and have the surface become more like a painting.&rdquo;

And, indeed, Tennent&rsquo;s images reflect the stylistic conventions of 17th-century Dutch still life paintings. Dramatically lit and set against black backgrounds, these works by the &ldquo;Old Masters&rdquo; captured the vibrancy and decay of nature&rsquo;s bounty: the food and flowers found inside prosperous Dutch homes.

<img alt="" data-caption="Calliandra" data-rich-file-id="1105" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1105/original/calliandra.jpg" />

To achieve a similar visual effect, Tennent photographs individual plant specimens set against dark backgrounds inside her studio. She uses a shallow depth of field where only the first plane of the object is lit and in focus.

&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really accentuating the foreground,&rdquo; explained Tennent about her photographic technique.&nbsp;

&ldquo;The black background really makes the structure come out and brings [the viewer] into the image.&rdquo;

Her resulting images recall the works of the great botanic illustrators of the 18th and 19th centuries, some of whom were women. Artists such as Barbara Regina Dietzsch (German, 1706&ndash;1783) and Mary Delany (English, 1700&ndash;1788) rendered plant specimens in vibrant color&mdash;and accurate scientific detail&mdash;set against stark black backgrounds. It was one of the few artistic fields where women could flourish alongside their male counterparts; the subjects (flowering plants and other botanicals) were considered appropriately feminine.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="The artist at work (on left)" data-rich-file-id="1107" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1107/original/lt-and-selena.jpg" />

But as Tennent points out, there are dualities in flowering plants that can be read as both male and female.&nbsp;

&ldquo;I really love the masculine/feminine qualities that flowers and other botanic structures have,&rdquo; said Tennent. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s the strength of the [plant] architecture and the delicacy of the petals&mdash;I love that duality.&rdquo;

Tennent&rsquo;s exhibition at the Chicago Botanic Garden is part of a larger project, one that the artist hopes will create greater appreciation for a variety of plants, as well as raising awareness of endangered species.

&ldquo;My plan is to travel to different botanic gardens and create portfolios that are site specific,&rdquo; said Tennent. &ldquo;Every garden has certain species that they grow that are important or unique to their collection.&rdquo;

The conservation of plants is a major research focus at the Chicago Botanic Garden. In an effort to fight plant extinction, the Garden&rsquo;s scientific staff is studying and propagating many species that are endangered, such as the golden fuchsia (Deppea splendens). Native to Chiapas, Mexico, this flowering plant is thought to be extinct in the wild and is now only grown in greenhouses. It is one of the subjects of Tennent&rsquo;s photography and featured in the exhibition alongside other plants from the Garden&rsquo;s expansive collections.

&ldquo;Tennent&rsquo;s work is spectacular,&rdquo; said Exhibitions and Programs Production Manager Gabriel Hutchison of the Chicago Botanic Garden. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s incredible to see the flowers on such a grand scale.&rdquo;

You can experience the immersive qualities of Tennent&rsquo;s large-scale photographic images. Botanicals: Intimate Portraits is on display through September 25 in the Garden&rsquo;s Krehbiel Gallery located in the Regenstein Center. For hours and admission, visit <a href="http://chicagobotanic.org/visit">chicagobotanic.org/visit</a>

&nbsp;

Pictured at top: Laurie Tennent, Deppea Splendens

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Photographs by Laurie Tennent at Chicago Botanic Garden 

The Artistic Intimacy of Flowers

BY GINNY VAN ALYEA

When I was in college my father advised me to try to do two things every day: drink milk, and read a major newspaper. At the time, the newspaper reading was the easier of the two tasks. Fifteen years later the news landscape has gotten a great deal more crowded, while at the same time it is much less&nbsp; connected to the printed page. Now I read headlines on my iPhone in the dark when I&rsquo;m up early with a baby. I try to put my hands on a hardcopy front section over breakfast, and by the time I&rsquo;m at my desk I&rsquo;ve scanned a more few stories in the car via email and social media. The advice my father gave me was wise, but in 2016, when I I have a lot more than two things to try to do each day, it seems like I could spend all day just trying to keep up with all the news out there. &nbsp;

While it&rsquo;s easier than ever to have your questions answered, to stay up to date, and to feel widely connected to the world, it is also universally exhausting. There are days when I long to read a book without worrying I&rsquo;m missing out on something important happening in the world. I wonder if I could take a digital vacation? The pressure of being overwhelmed permeates many areas of our lives, and I have recently started to wonder about how it&rsquo;s affecting the art world in particular.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Seeing art up close and in person is crucial to our understanding" data-rich-file-id="965" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/965/original/openings1.jpg" />

Art buying has been slow to move online compared to many other purchases, perhaps because art is visual and physical, and therefore best appreciated, and purchased, in person. However, the internet age moves along rapidly, and so many of us have become accustomed to buying things online that we previously wouldn&rsquo;t have, art included. We now choose speed and convenience in many cases. We try just to keep up with all there is to see and consume.

There have been rumbles in Chicago about a slow winter and a subsequently sluggish spring in the galleries. I recently read a New York Times article (on my phone, at 4am) titled <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/t-magazine/is-staying-in-the-new-going-out.html?_r=0">Is Staying In the New Going Out?</a> This wasn&rsquo;t about staycations, or taking a break after a busy week; it argued that there is so much to do online at home - streaming, socially, even romantically, that people figure, why go out?&nbsp;

Well, for galleries, museums and artists this is a problem. Art is made to be seen and experienced. You can visit websites and facebook pages. You can scroll Instagram feeds. But when we reach the point where we only view art through a third party, or you&rsquo;re only seeking out the hits you&rsquo;ve seen on social media, we forget what it&rsquo;s like to see works of art in person or at full scale. We have dismissed the power of the physical in favor of an illuminated screen and a high rate of likes and favorites. We may have even forgotten, in our ditigal age when nothing truly goes away online and things can go viral, that a work of art may be unique and that the viewing experience can be entirely individual. You can&rsquo;t go to a gallery opening from your couch.&nbsp;

After the sluggishness of the past few months and a bumpy start to spring, Chicago is starting to blossom. There are many reasons to go out. Whether you travel or stay close to home, hopefully this summer you have a chance or two to read a book or page through a newspaper or magazine. Take some time to visit a museum, learn from a dealer in their gallery or meet an artist in their studio. The experience will stay with you longer than a retweet.

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Pictured at the top: people going outside (on the MCA lawn)

Letter from the publisher of Chicago Gallery News, summer issue 2016

Publisher's Letter: Summer 2016

On May 13, 2016 Zolla/Lieberman Gallery will present the work of artist Deborah Butterfield. The show is the gallery&rsquo;s 15th solo exhibition for the sculptor. It also marks four decades of Butterfield and the gallery working together. Of the enduring collaboration, William Lieberman, gallery director and son of founder Roberta Lieberman, says, &ldquo;I am honored to recognize Deborah&rsquo;s forty year association with Zolla/Lieberman. She has remained true to her art, investing her sculptures with unique skill and breathtaking presence.&rdquo;

In 1965, Roberta Lieberman and Bob Zolla first opened their gallery in a coach house in Chicago&rsquo;s South Shore neighborhood, with the goal of showing important abstract artists. Friend and art critic Harry Bouras (also known as &ldquo;Hairy Who?&rdquo;) introduced Roberta and Bob to art colleagues who had acccess to the work of New York abstract artists Franz Kline, Philip Guston and many others. In 1975 Roberta and Bob travelled to New York where they befriended renowned SoHo art dealer Leo Castelli. Back in Chicago, Roberta and Bob rented space at 368 W. Huron &ndash; a loft building in a desolate industrial district almost a mile west of Michigan Avenue. In March 1976 Zolla/Lieberman opened with an inaugural exhibition featuring work from Castelli&rsquo;s gallery, which included major New York School artists such as Frank Stella, Donald Judd and Robert Morris. To this day, William can recall the exact placement of what would now be a multi-million dollar Andy Warhol painting. However, nothing sold. When the James Rosenquist show that followed fared no better, Roberta and Bob had to face a hard fact: serious Chicago art collectors still went to New York to purchase works by these prominent artists. &nbsp;

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4QoIjoPQLTU" width="420"></iframe>

With the realization that local collectors were not coming to the gallery to buy New York School artists, they decided, boldly, to pursue their own vision and seek out emerging talent. They travelled to Roberta&rsquo;s alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, where they visited the studio of Deborah Butterfield, an art instructor at the university and a promising sculptor. By the time they had finished lunch plans were set for a July 1976 exhibition of Butterfield&rsquo;s life-sized mud-and-stick horses. These works would have an immediate national impact. &nbsp;

Zolla/Lieberman and Butterfield built on this success with three annual exhibitions of Butterfield sculptures. The gallery began representing other young artists, such as Michelle Stuart, Deborah Remington and John Buck. Fostering the careers of emerging, midcareer, and established artists &ndash; an equal mix of women and men &ndash; became Zolla/Lieberman&rsquo;s guiding principle. &nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="1169" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1169/original/img-6792.jpg" />&nbsp;<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="1170" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1170/original/img-6793.jpg" />&nbsp;

Zolla/Lieberman was the first art gallery in Chicago to open so far off the beaten path. It did not take long until other art galleries understood the benefits of the available, empty space. River North was born, and the energy of a vital art community blossomed. Enjoying success from their hard work, Zolla/Lieberman made the decision in 1980 to move to a 10,000-square foot loft in the Adler-Sullivan building next door at 356 W. Huron. That year Zolla/Lieberman exhibited Butterfield and other artists at the very first &ldquo;Art Chicago,&rdquo; an event that drew dealers, collectors, curators and critics from around the world. Though Chicago&rsquo;s international art exhibition has since undergone several iterations, Zolla/Lieberman&rsquo;s booth has always had a Butterfield work on display.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Deborah Butterfield, &quot;Lemon Drop&quot;, 2014, found steel, 38” x 44” x 16.5”" data-rich-file-id="1091" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1091/original/lemondrop.jpg" />

On April 15, 1989 the gallery was dealt a devastating blow after a fire swept through the Adler-Sullivan building, ravaging not only Zolla/Lieberman but the building&rsquo;s many other galleries as well. Butterfield&rsquo;s unique copper and bronze sculpture, Louis, awaiting shipment to collectors John and Mary Pappajohn in Des Moines, melted. Despite the enormous setback, Zolla/Lieberman reopened six months later at 230 West Huron.&nbsp;

In 1991 the gallery moved to its current location at 325 West Huron. Four years later the gallery was grateful for the unique support of the building&rsquo;s owners, Jerry Meyer and Buzz Ruttenberg, who helped to keep the gallery&rsquo;s rent affordable during another challenging period.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Cascade, on view through August 2016 at the gallery" data-rich-file-id="1171" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1171/original/cascade.jpg" />

Zolla/Lieberman Gallery has made West Huron Street its own, spanning four decades and four different addresses (368, 356, 230, and 325). Six months after Roberta passed away in 2004, Chicago&rsquo;s City Council voted to name the corner of Huron and Franklin &ldquo;Honorary Roberta Lieberman Way.&rdquo; This intersection, and Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, continue to be landmarks in Chicago&rsquo;s contemporary art scene.

 
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery | 325 W Huron, Chicago, IL 60654 | 312.944.1990 | <a href="http://zollaliebermangallery.com">zollaliebermangallery.com</a>&nbsp; | Deborah Butterfield runs May 13-August 20, 2016

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May-August issue of Chicago Gallery News cover feature on Deborah Butterfield and Zolla/Lieberman Gallery