<html><head></head><body>Fall is a busy season of art, offering new gallery and museum exhibitions. the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes give us so much to look forward to. we spoke to five (technically six this time!) art community figures about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.The following preview is one of five conversations that appear in our fall 2024 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition&nbsp;<a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com/">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092759/xaieeyz5sb6wxyz7a5fc.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;Lisa Key – Director, <a href="https://driehausmuseum.org">Driehaus Museum</a>“There’s so much we’re looking forward to—and much of it involves capitalizing on our recent addition of the Murphy Auditorium building to our campus. On October 24, we open Photographing Frank Lloyd. The exhibition focuses on the lesser-known role photography played in Wright’s work and success as an architect and includes his own photography and that of esteemed artists like Chicago’s own Hedrich-Blessing.&nbsp;Our Free Third Wednesday Nights series has been a big hit, too, and we anticipate its continued success this fall.&nbsp;Finally, this holiday season we’re turning the Murphy Auditorium into a holiday market that will be a delight for children of all ages!”#&nbsp;Read Fall 2024's 5 to Talk to with:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/8/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jessica-cochran-and-angee-lennard-process-process">Jessica Cochran and Angee Lennard – Process/Process&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/8/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jake-troyli">Jake Troyli – Artist</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-anne-loucks">Anne Loucks – Anne Loucks Gallery</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-emma-mckee">Emma McKee – Chicago Dir., Mariane Ibrahim</a></body></html>

Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to – Lisa Key

<html><head></head><body>Fall is a busy season of art, offering new gallery and museum exhibitions. the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes give us so much to look forward to. we spoke to five (technically six this time!) art community figures about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.The following preview is one of five conversations that appear in our fall 2024 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition&nbsp;<a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com/">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092759/k6qq16gq2huyvbzm1ttm.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;Anne Loucks – <a href="http://loucksgallery.com">Anne Loucks Gallery</a>“We are incredibly excited for the fall season – both in our Glencoe and Winnetka galleries, and with all that’s going on around us in the Chicago art scene. (Don’t miss Lost and Found at the Chicago Botanic Garden and Every Brilliant Thing at our neighbor, Writers Theater).In Glencoe, we have an exhibition of paintings by artists Sara MacCulloch and Hannah Bureau, alongside a collection of Fairfield Porter lithographs from 1969–1975,&nbsp; on view through Oct 15. This will be followed by a show of new paintings by northern Michigan artists Melanie Parke and Richard Kooyman Oct 25–Dec 31.In our newly opened Winnetka space, we continue our series of solo exhibitions featuring Madeline Denaro’s abstract paintings in September, Stephen Dinsmore’s figurative work in October, and ending the year with an exhibition of work by celebrated photographer Rodney Smith (1946-2016).Art is more important than ever in today’s world. As we approach our 25th year, we continue to be inspired and energized by the artists we represent and the vibrant, creative and supportive community that surrounds us.”#&nbsp;Read Fall 2024's 5 to Talk to with:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-lisa-key">Lisa Key – Director, Driehaus Museum</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/8/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jessica-cochran-and-angee-lennard-process-process">Jessica Cochran and Angee Lennard – Process/Process&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/8/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jake-troyli">Jake Troyli – Artist</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-emma-mckee">Emma McKee – Chicago Dir., Mariane Ibrahim</a></body></html>

Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to – Anne Loucks

<html><head></head><body>Fall is a busy season of art, offering new gallery and museum exhibitions. the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes give us so much to look forward to. we spoke to five (technically six this time!) art community figures about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.The following preview is one of five conversations that appear in our fall 2024 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition&nbsp;<a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com/">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092759/wgevpsvusznavk31sf9p.jpg"><figcaption>Photo by Z. Najeebah Dumas-O’Neal</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Emma McKee – Chicago Dir., <a href="https://marianeibrahim.com">Mariane Ibrahim</a>“While enjoying the summer, we were preparing for our busiest months of the year, September and October. We wrapped up an important group exhibition, Palimpsest, which brought together our gallery artists with renowned Chicago-based artists McArthur Binion, Bethany Collins, Michael Rakowitz, and Edra Soto—pillars of the local art scene. Their associated galleries—Rhona Hoffman, PATRON, and GRAY—have graciously contributed works to the show. At the opening, someone remarked that Palimpsest is a true love letter to the city, a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with.In late August we unveiled a solo exhibition by Chicago-based artist Leasho Johnson, on view through the end of October. Johnson’s show will be part of Chicago Exhibition Weekend (CXW), hosted by Gertie and EXPO Chicago, an event we are eagerly anticipating for another year. Last year’s CXW was a beautiful moment for the city, and I am confident this year’s program will be even more robust.”#&nbsp;Read Fall 2024's 5 to Talk to with:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/8/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jessica-cochran-and-angee-lennard-process-process">Jessica Cochran and Angee Lennard – Process/Process&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/8/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jake-troyli">Jake Troyli – Artist</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-anne-loucks">Anne Loucks – Anne Loucks Gallery</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-lisa-key">Lisa Key – Director, Driehaus Museum</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to – Emma McKee

<html><head></head><body>Fall is a busy season of art, offering new gallery and museum exhibitions. the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes give us so much to look forward to. we spoke to five (technically six this time!) art community figures about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.The following preview is one of five conversations that appear in our fall 2024 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition&nbsp;<a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com/">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092759/nd82gyngkisv9io904g9.jpg"><figcaption>Headshot courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery. Photo: Raphael Lugassy.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Jake Troyli – Artist“For me, 2024 has already been incredibly productive and demanding but also super exciting. I just finished (in collaboration with the amazing team at Gertie) my first public art commission, a 30-foot-tall mural for the new westside location of SkyArt, a west-and-south-side-Chicago-based organization that uses art to provide new avenues of generative thinking for young people in the city. I’ve wanted to do a large-scale mural project for a while, and this felt like the perfect first step into the possibilities of community-facing art. In the studio, I just finished paintings for a group show that opened in August in Düsseldorf, Germany, and I will have work in another group show opening in NYC later this year. I’ll also make my San Francisco debut as part of the expansive group show, Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture which opens at the San Francisco MOMA in October. And finally, I’m most excited about my upcoming solo show with Monique Meloche Gallery, opening November 9th (mark your calendars!) which I’m working on right now in my studio.”#&nbsp;Read Fall 2024's 5 to Talk to with:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/8/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jessica-cochran-and-angee-lennard-process-process">Jessica Cochran and Angee Lennard – Process/Process&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-anne-loucks">Anne Loucks – Anne Loucks Gallery</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-lisa-key">Lisa Key – Director, Driehaus Museum</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-emma-mckee">Emma McKee – Chicago Dir., Mariane Ibrahim</a></body></html>

Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to – Jake Troyli

<html><head></head><body>Fall is a busy season of art, offering new gallery and museum exhibitions. the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes give us so much to look forward to. we spoke to five (technically six this time!) art community figures about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.The following preview is one of five conversations that appear in our fall 2024 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition&nbsp;<a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com/">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092759/sgwzn3id7sdhau3cra8k.jpg"><figcaption>Left: Jessica Cochran; right: Angee Lennard</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Jessica Cochran and Angee Lennard – <a href="https://process-process.com">Process/Process</a>“As a new print publishing venture, this is our very first fall art season! Process/Process will launch five editions on September 5 at Filter Space, with prints by Zarouhie Abdalian, Selva Arapicio, Barber, Michelle Grabner, and Matthew Metzger. Later this fall, we’ll release works by Selina Trepp and Alice Tippit, whose solo exhibition opens September 14 at PATRON.&nbsp;Chicago’s incredible tempo makes it the perfect city for our work with artists. We won’t miss November’s Staple and Stitch Art Book and Print Fair at the 21c Museum Hotel. And this September 6, Barber–one of our collaborating artists–opens a solo exhibition at Ignition Project Space.”#&nbsp;Read Fall 2024's 5 to Talk to with:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/8/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jake-troyli">Jake Troyli – Artist</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-anne-loucks">Anne Loucks – Anne Loucks Gallery</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-lisa-key">Lisa Key – Director, Driehaus Museum</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/9/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-emma-mckee">Emma McKee – Chicago Dir., Mariane Ibrahim</a></body></html>

Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to – Jessica Cochran and Angee Lennard – Process/Process

<html><head></head><body>*This interview is CGN's fall 2024 cover feature. To subscribe to the print edition <a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com">click here</a>.*&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092759/fqcasmvf5trm4cvwhwdo.jpg"><figcaption>Caroline Kent. Photo: Evan Jenkins. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By ALISON REILLYWhen Caroline Kent and I spoke in late July, she was attending a writing workshop at Northwestern University. Working from what felt like a Victorian-era study at Scott Hall, she cherished the opportunity to sit with her ideas, without interruption. By the third day, she said she was hitting her stride and started writing as soon as she arrived in the morning. An athlete who found art as an undergraduate student at Illinois State University, Kent uses writing to gain clarity about her visual art practice. She trusts the process of making, values hard work and practice, and has an acute understanding of herself. Her compelling abstract paintings, works on paper, and installations showcase her own visual language. This fall, through a collaboration with Amtrak, Kent will present her work in a large-scale public installation at Chicago’s Union Station.&nbsp;CGN: Could you tell me about your own writing?&nbsp;Caroline Kent: My relationship to writing comes out of having kept a journal for a long time and using it as a creative space, even in how I once documented my days. I don’t have that practice anymore. But when I get time to write, I try to always write about my practice, always thinking of it having legs and arms that can go in different directions.&nbsp;CGN: How does your writing affect your visual art?CK: My practice has painting as its center but branches off into text-based works or ideas around language. And more recently, I’ve been using this writing workshop at Northwestern to work on a one-act play, to write expanded ideas around different projects like Victoria/Veronica. Writing helps deepen and bring breath to the work that then can move outside of painting and speak to other mediums, whether that’s installation or considering an entire room as opposed to an art object.Right now I’m working on a project for La Trienal with El Museo del Barrio (New York) that’s coming up this fall. I was invited to present some of my work, and they gave me a wall. Am I going to hang an art object on it? Am I going to paint something on it? The writing ends up helping me make formal decisions and choices about how I want the work to function in the presentation of the exhibition, whether it’s the abstract language painted on a large canvas or whether it needs to be reduced down to simple shapes on Belgian linen. Those kinds of distinctions are interesting for me to be really selective about when I am presenting the work– what kind of narrative do I want to build in the work and what do I want to say this time?&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: When you’re in your studio, how do all the different media that you’re working with come together?&nbsp;CK: In the studio, what I really appreciate is that I can work on the wall on something large and then I can move immediately and look over to the table. They’re all in the same room. And even when I’m making works on paper, I like to have them sit out in the room together, because they start to speak to one another. What happens on a larger canvas ends up happening on a work on paper. They all end up getting influenced.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092759/zl1dez682so8wuvm6t6m.jpg"><figcaption>Caroline Kent: Space | Shadow | Script, PATRON Gallery, Chicago, September 2022. Photo: Evan Jenkins. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>CGN: What is a typical day in your studio?&nbsp;CK: My studio is in my home. In the morning, once I get in there–I learned this trick from someone I don’t remember where, but they told me, if you have a problem when you first go into your studio in the morning of knowing where to start, it’s always good to leave something for yourself to do the day before so that you can go in and start without having to think and make decisions, but continue something. I always try to leave some painting for myself to do.It’s my warmup. It gets me into it.I’ve got headphones on, and typically I’m listening to / watching a BBC crime drama. I’m not always looking at the screen, but I’m listening to the dialogue and it gives my mind something to grab onto while I’m working. I usually work until lunch, then I break and come back and check email and things like that, but I get back into the studio. I would say on average, it’s about a five- to six-hour day. Then it goes back to kids, husband, life. All the other stuff that’s so easy to get distracted by when you’re in your house. I try to stay pretty focused.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What are some of your earliest memories making art?&nbsp;CK: This is a funny question because there are two things that stick out to me from my childhood. One of them is that I used to leave writings around the house–just scribbles on a notepad. Recently, my mother has been sending me these as she’s been combing through boxes and bins of things. We had a typewriter at one point, and I remember typing up these conversations about my sister’s boyfriend and asking what his intentions were. I read them now and I’m thinking, this is exactly somehow related to what I’m doing now.&nbsp;And then another thing while I was growing up–this is much more abstract. I didn’t have a name for it. There were moments like during a car ride across the flat land of driving from Sterling, Illinois to Rockford, staring out at cornfields and bean fields. I would have the strangest ideas about things I would do. And I can’t give you an example because they’re so weird for me now, but I remember later on in life, recognizing a lot of these abstract ideas I had really fit into the language of art. Those are some of my earliest memories.&nbsp;CGN: You grew up in Sterling?&nbsp;CK: I went to elementary and high school in Sterling,and my parents still live there.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: And Rockford, you visited?&nbsp;CK: My grandparents lived in Rockford, and so my father would drive us there all the time. There were six of us in a station wagon, four girls in my family. And we would all drive to and from Rockford.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092760/u0z9wshojjf4gfqlxggl.jpg"><figcaption>Caroline Kent, A witness comes, beckoned from beyond, 2024, Acrylic on canvas. Photo: Evan Jenkins, Courtesy PATRON Gallery.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: You said leaving notes for yourself relates to what you’re doing now. Could you talk more about that?&nbsp;CK: The notes were these small scenarios. They’re little snippets of theatrical descriptions of life. Some of the things that I’ve even been working on more recently–I have a series called Typewriter Works, where I pair different descriptions of characters with abstract paintings on paper. I make a painting, and it dries on the paper and then I feed it through the typewriter. In this way, I am synthesizing a character that I have seen in a film or in my imagination. I think that’s the connection I can see clearly. When I was younger, I was inventing a lens on how I was perceiving myself, my teachers, how my parents viewed me, writing about my sisters’ lives and making these funny, inflated, idealistic writings.&nbsp;CGN: When did you start identifying as an artist or make the decision to be an artist?&nbsp;CK: I feel like I was late in the game in some ways. Art didn’t awaken in me until I was in college. I was at university, and it was there that I walked into a gallery. My twin sister and I, we would go around and check everything out from the theater department to watch plays, to the art gallery, coffee shops. It was the nineties, the alternative scene. I remember the nineties aesthetics in art. Collage was big. I have such a clear idea of going back to my dorm room and starting to work in collage. That was the moment when I was like, this is the thing I want to do, but I didn’t know how to get there until a mentor friend of mine guided me to really consider making art my major. And I remember thinking, but I don’t know how to draw, I don’t know how to paint, and just telling myself, okay, I guess I’m just going to be the artist who learns when they’re 20.That kind of confidence, I would call it confidence looking back because it was such a big decision to tell yourself, when you feel there’s a deficiency, maybe I should have been doing this since I was three or four. But I think it came out of athletics and being able to push my body and know what pain was, getting to the other side of physical challenges. I think because of track and field, it helped me decide, well, I guess I’m going to do it in a non-traditional way.&nbsp;CGN: I love that. How long do you think it took you to get confident in your own skills? Was it something you picked up immediately?&nbsp;CK: I invited it immediately and it brought a satisfaction, but I don’t think that I felt confident in art making. I wasn’t thinking about it because I did feel such a freedom with it. I finished up my undergrad degree and I had taken a lot of intro classes, but after that I took seven years off before I went to grad school. In that interim time I ran into a charming professor from Illinois State, Harold Boyd, who I really adored. I ran into him on the street in Minneapolis. I said, I’m about to go to the Peace Corps, and what do I do with art? How do I continue making it if I’m doing this completely other thing? And he said, well, you need something to make art about. You need some depth, you need experience, you need life, and so don’t consider this not conducive to your art practice. That was so helpful. The confidence came probably after graduate school. That’s when I felt confident and understood what I was doing. And to be honest, I wasn’t pursuing confidence, but I was getting confident by really understanding my own practice and developing it and getting legs under it.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092761/qsfbqtisv98k9gp8y9en.jpg"><figcaption>Caroline Kent: This Space for Correspondence, Casey Kaplan, New York, November 2023.&nbsp; &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: How was your experience being part of the Peace Corps in Romania?&nbsp;CK: It was a super interesting time because it was such a contrast to American life. I knew that I was feeling a certain way about American culture, and I wanted a kind of diversity that I only saw watching international films. Going [to Romania] gratified this desire to have a very different kind of experience other than an American one, though it also was very challenging. It was hard to be away from the familiar, but it helped me grow and experience a lot of really wonderful things, not only the foods and the culture and the people I met and the children I taught, but the landscape was incredible, as was visiting monasteries and learning another language and going to these Romanian Orthodox churches where most people stand the entire service. Going through the forest and traveling with friends for an hour, and then running into an old woman there who’s gathering up pussy willows, giant ones – I was like, ‘Where am I?’&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: How did you decide to pursue an MFA and go to graduate school?&nbsp;CK: I had been living in Minneapolis for a while and I had traveled, lived abroad. I’d come back home and had a temp job to reintroduce myself back into American life. I knew I needed something more. That was the moment when I was like, okay, what do I want to do? I’m at another kind of crossroads. I liked art, but I had been out of any connection with the contemporary art world. I ended up taking advanced painting and drawing at the University of Minnesota. I was really incredibly zealous. I was excited, and I overproduced. My professors saw something in that and were like, you really should consider the MFA program. So I put together my portfolio. Three people were accepted that year for painting and drawing, and I was one of them. That was the most encouraging and exciting news. I still remember to this day the phone call I received when they told me I was chosen out of 130 applicants. I really felt it marked a moment in my life that illuminated a path forward.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: How long have you been in Chicago, and how has living here affected your practice as an artist?&nbsp;CK: I’ve been in Chicago since 2017. I was living in Minneapolis, and it had a rich art community, but I was ready for more. I think any artist that works in a smaller city, at some point, you either make a commitment to be there for the long term or you start getting the itch to move. My husband was offered a position here at UIC in the art department. It expanded our practices in many ways. Part of that was more visibility, connecting to a larger network of artists. It took me a couple of years before I really got comfortable here in Chicago and maybe even longer. I moved to Garfield Park and the intensity was of high contrast. It took me a while, but there are so many great things that I love about Chicago. It was great to see such diversity having come from Minnesota. And the city has a kind of energy, seeing Lake Michigan, there’s nothing like it. The cultural history here, there’s still so much for me to discover in Chicago.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092762/cbfzayzmwu0nwp1ckr1k.jpg"><figcaption>Caroline Kent: A short play about watching shadows move across the room, The Queens Museum, Queens, NY. December 2023. Photo: Hai Zhang&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: You mentioned the upcoming triennial with Museo del Barrio. What else are you working on?CK: I’m working on a project for Amtrak right now, and it’s going to debut at Union Station in the fall. It is a vinyl mural project that I’m designing for interior windows in their downstairs space. I feel like it’s really going to transform Union Station. I’m also working on a commission with the U.S. Embassies Project, a program where artists are commissioned to make work for different U.S. embassies around the world. Then I’m making work for my own practice. Sometimes as an artist, my artwork leaves my studio so fast. I don’t live with it. If I have an exhibition coming up, and there’s some really lovely works that I want to live with for a while. Well, it goes to the exhibition. And if it does get placed with a collector or an institution, it never comes back. And so what did I have? Six months with that piece, that’s it. It’s nice to always be making work that will live with me, that will stay in the studio, that I can keep, that I can continue to think about and be inspired by. I’m often making work for my own personal archive.&nbsp;CGN: Do you keep an archive of your work?&nbsp;CK: It can be tricky. But I’m just getting better at learning to save things and hold on to them. Not only for myself, but thinking about what I will leave to my children. I have three children and I want them to keep the archives of their parents’ work.&nbsp;CGN: Are they interested in art at all?&nbsp;CK: My daughter, Nina is eight, my son, Kent is ten, and Ysabella my stepdaughter is the oldest, she’s 19. They were each very creative when they were young. We definitely are a home of makers. They’re always making something, gluing something, whether it’s my son making a contraption for Legos, or my daughter is making bookmarks, painting or gluing something together. She’s a sewer. My youngest, Nina, is really in a creative moment with sewing, crochet, drawing, making, all of it.&nbsp;CGN: That’s great to kind of watch them experiment with all those things.&nbsp;CK: It’s helpful being parents that are makers, because when your kids are like, ‘Oh, I want to do this thing.’ We just go into our studios and we’re like, ‘All right, let’s do it. What do you need? We’ll do it this way. We’ll build it.’ Those are really great teaching moments.&nbsp;CGN: What about teaching at Northwestern? How has that affected your art practice?CK: As an artist, it can be such an isolating, singular path. When you’re making in your studio and you’re trying to exhibit, it can feel like your peers aren’t always on the same path with you. Teaching is such a great balance for my soul, because it gives me opportunities regularly to give back and pour into other students and share with them and break bread with them. In a way, that feels counter to thinking about the art market. It’s a hard topic for a lot of artists to talk about, because it’s about money in exchange for art. What can be rewarding is when I have an exhibition–for example, I have a mural up at the Queens Museum right now–and I can talk about that experience and share what I learned and gained from working with an institution and be able to share that with graduate students. When I can give in a way that can plant seeds and inspire something alongside academia, that is really a rich and holistic piece of my life.&nbsp;*This interview is CGN's fall 2024 cover feature. To subscribe to the print edition <a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com">click here</a>.*&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1731092762/jzkab2jvty5uwxfpoa7y.jpg"><figcaption>Subscribe to the print edition&nbsp;<a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com"> here</a>.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;</body></html>

Caroline Kent: Confidence On Canvas

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419409/ak3y128hf1hyfe33ujtw.jpg"><figcaption>Collin van der Sluijs's latest wall in Laon, France, 2024</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;BY ANNA DOBROWOLSKII caught up with Collin van der Sluijs as he put the finishing touches on a four-story-tall rooster in a small town in France. "I'm baking from the heat, so it's a good time for a break," he tells me.While some artists shy away from graffiti, dismissing it as a mere teenage fling with urban art, Collin van der Sluijs raises it to new heights, literally. His style blends formal academic art training with illustrative boldness. Drawing inspiration from unexpected sources like Michelangelo and Da Vinci (yes, the cartoon characters), he has spearheaded a graffiti renaissance. On July 5th, he returns to Vertical Gallery in Chicago for his fifth solo show, Observer.&nbsp;CGN: Observer is a clever title for the exhibit - it tows the line between perception and attention to something or someone, and surveillance. What prompted this show? Did you build it with a question in mind?Collin van der Sluijs: I’m always asking questions. Who am I, what am I doing here?&nbsp; I am always looking around for answers, observing my surroundings.&nbsp;When I’m walking through a city or cycling through the landscape, I’m also looking at walls. I think, “That would be a nice one to paint.”&nbsp; I will stop and paint watercolors en plein air. I try to make an interpretation of whatever it is I’m looking at. When I’m in the studio – my studio is in my hometown in Maastricht. I can just go there by bike like a typical Dutch guy and in ten minutes I'm there – I’m working on paintings about things that I’ve experienced or things I’ve seen. We are all observers.&nbsp;CGN: Yet not all of us are equipped with that ability to pay attention, especially to something as familiar as a wall on our commute. Maybe this sounds basic, but what makes a wall interesting to you? &nbsp;CvdS:&nbsp;The wall doesn’t have to be downtown. The building itself can be along an interesting route. It’s almost always a portrait, not a landscape wall. I don’t know why. If it's a tall surface, I see it and think, “That’s a pretty good spot for a painting. It's a feeling of sport, too, in a way."&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419409/xw550yehmw4l3uzp6xnm.jpg"><figcaption>Collin van der Sluijs, a Maastricht, Netherlands wall in progress, summer 2024</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: Sounds challenging. Can you tell me more about how graffiti ended up in your art practice?CvdS: “When I was about 10 or 11, I went grocery shopping with my mom and dad. I saw a group of guys in the city painting graffiti. I thought, “Wow, this is like drawing outside your little bedroom and into the wild. Before that I was always drawing the classics, like the Ninja Turtles and cartoons. When I came back home from that I started sketching – and to be honest it looked like shit. But I always stuck with it.My parents sent me to art school because they thought it would be better for me to learn something there. They were always supportive.While being in the art academy I tried to find a way to get that graffiti feeling into my art. I combined spray paint with oils and acrylics, which they didn’t like. It took some time to master that combination. I still haven't mastered it, but that’s fine because otherwise it would be boring.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: It used to be a sort of unspoken rule to not get caught tagging buildings, etc. but it seems like graffiti is picking up in the mainstream art world – I’m thinking of a certain famously anonymous graffiti artist, for example -- but you embrace it and make it a part of your gallery work, which is refreshing. Did you ever get caught?&nbsp;CvdS: No, never. I also never would cover people’s houses or whatever. If it’s an abandoned building that’s about to get torn down anyway, that’s ok.In art, there is – or maybe was -- a tendency to hide it. Some artists will say “I’m not 16 anymore.” There were times when I tried to hide it, but it didn’t work out. For me it is how everything started. It’s a thing from the past that will always haunt me in a positive way. Now I travel everywhere because of it.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419410/baqrnvxv4qg1zmjo8p8c.jpg"><figcaption>Collin van der Sluijs</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: This is your 5th show at Vertical. How is this show different from the others to you?How did you scale-down?&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419411/f2btgod8z6eh0tjonbyf.jpg"><figcaption>Collin van der Sluijs</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CvdS: The way I work hasn’t changed over the years, but what I observe. I started with gallery work around 1990—growing from small shows to bigger shows. I see how things change. Like murals going mainstream. More artists working out of the box.[...]Growing as an artist doesn't necessarily mean 'growing up' from the things that fascinated us as children. Sometimes, it just means finding a bigger wall to scale.&nbsp;“If I were to give my younger self advice, I'd say to believe in yourself. It won't be easy; there will be unsafe and crazy situations, but when the project is completed, you'll often leave with a laugh. If you don't take a risk, you'll never know."&nbsp;#&nbsp;Collin van der Sluijs Observer July 5 - 27, 2024 Opening reception: Friday July 5th, 5:00-8:00pm <a href="https://verticalgallery.com/blogs/news/collin-van-der-sluijs-observer">Vertical Gallery</a> – 2006 W Chicago Ave #1R<a href="https://www.instagram.com/collinvandersluijs/">@collinvandersluijs</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419412/gnrayzf9x6hnasdltoun.jpg"><figcaption>Collin van der Sluijs</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;</body></html>

Collin van der Sluijs Elevates Graffiti to New Heights

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419401/smp8yheaxkcbbkdwwtje.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;By BIANCA BOVAWilliam J. O’Brien is a world-maker. Working across a range of media that spans ceramics, bronze, drawing, painting, fiber, and steel, his ability to collate the output of his vast practice into a single coherent narrative that engulfs the physical spaces it occupies and hints at the psychic spaces of its inhabitants holds a singular power unrivaled by his similarly prodigious contemporaries.A prolific artist, O’Brien has already enjoyed a decades-spanning career that has included solo exhibitions at institutions including the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; the Renaissance Society, Chicago; KMAC Museum, Louisville; MAD Museum, New York; Witte De With, Rotterdam; and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City. His first major museum survey came in 2014 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, curated by Naomi Beckwith. His work resides in the permanent collections of museums including The Art Institute of Chicago; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and KMAC Museum, Louisville, among many others. He also holds a post as professor and former Chair in the Fine Arts department at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419402/vxbfquolaxuifrqzfnwj.jpg"><figcaption>WILLIAM J. O’BRIEN, Freak Flags, 2024, Installation view, ACKERMAN CLARKE, Chicago, IL USA &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;With this laundry list of accomplishments behind him–and having overcome a catastrophic studio fire in 2012 that destroyed hundreds of pieces of his work–O’Brien not only continues to pursue his practice, but to expand it. In 2023, he partnered with the Chicago Park District to install the exhibition Earth, Water, Fire, Wind &amp; Space at the historic Lincoln Park Conservatory. ​​The multimedia exhibition spanned both the Palm Room and the Show Room of the Victorian greenhouse, and featured over one hundred ceramic and papier-mâché sculptures integrated throughout the plant life, infrastructure, and water features therein. Reflecting on the exhibition, O’Brien notes, “The show at the conservatory was me thinking about where art can exist more outside of a traditional gallery or museum context.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419402/tckthnzrubkgjg1zilzy.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;This embrace of nontraditionalism extends into the latest expansion of O’Brien’s practice with the founding of Shadow Work Press, and the subsequent publication of the artist’s debut novel, Nighttime Kingdom.&nbsp;“The decision was, ‘If I'm going to publish a book, I want it to be on my terms, so I'm just gonna do the press,’” says O’Brien, “It was about reclaiming a sense of expression and of autonomy.”The novel, which features a foreword by T. Cole Rachel and cover design by Ben Tousley, marks O’Brien’s first foray into fiction writing. Its narrative arc follows protagonist Ted Krieger’s heart-wrenching journey as he navigates the haunting secrets of the small-town America in which he was raised, the tumultuous city of New York in which he lives, and the discovery that healing can only begin with the confrontation of the ghosts of the past.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419403/ys1sxoqnrchl2ioz5faf.jpg"><figcaption>WILLIAM J. O’BRIEN, Freak Flags, 2024, Installation view, ACKERMAN CLARKE, Chicago, IL USA &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;“The novel is a form of experimentation,” acknowledges O’Brien, “I have always had a relationship with language in some form or another within my practice. In my early career, and also recently this summer, I worked on zines, poetry, and self-published works that straddled the art, literary, and alternative comics audiences. For the recent novel Nighttime Kingdom, I approached writing the novel in the same way that I approach making my artwork. I view the embodiment of emotional and psychological states as a current core of what I do in my practice and approached writing the character development and plot for Nighttime Kingdom in the same way. Although the creative fields like to create tight lines between disciplines, I have never thought of my work as fitting neatly into one classification. The book is a story that incorporates drawings, and I view it in the same vein as how I sculpt clay and make drawings. It just so happens that it fell this time with this novel into a formal book."When asked about any biographical elements to the story, O’Brien clarifies, “There is a town called Burton, Ohio that has an Apple Butter Festival, and I did structure the novel's setting based on their town square–on my childhood memory of that town square. But the whole story is a total fictionalization. I was thinking about the emotional story arc. It’s about exposing the reality of the vulnerability of what it's like to be a queer person growing up in rural America, and what that feels like. I think the book is also about power, masculinity, violence, inherited expectations and tropes of masculinity. These can be heavy and personal topics. It’s not a light piece.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419404/q2cwvsch8apzkprshxrv.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;Buoying up the heaviness of the narrative is the suite of drawings that appear throughout the novel’s pages. Neither explicitly illustrative nor tied directly to the storyline or to the characters of Nighttime Kingdom, these drawings (many of them hauntingly spare and gorgeously gestural) serve as a kind of ancillary punctuation, a means of emphasizing the atmosphere created in the book.&nbsp;“The drawings were a way of reclaiming a sense of imagination over a story that is very heavy,” says the artist, “I looked through twenty years of my sketchbooks and pulled the [drawings] that felt right, and placed them throughout the text. And that's what I liked so much about having them in, was that including them didn't feel like a device. It was not like these are drawings that are in service to this story in a particular way. It’s a form of straddling that I'm interested in. If someone reads the novel, and they have an emotional response, I'm like, ‘Oh, good. It's successful.’ They might not like it or they might not relate to the story, but if there is an emotional response that is elicited, in the same way they might have an emotional response looking at a sculptural work or a painting, then that to me that’s–well, it's the best I could ever expect.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419405/nxnt8qy6jnnomzlsjpls.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;On the heels of the successful releases of both hardcover and paperback editions of Nighttime Kingdom, Shadow Work Press is now set to release a series of three zines by O’Brien over the course of the summer of 2024.&nbsp;“I'm really excited about the zines,” O’Brien says,” I would say that on some level, I feel like I'm reclaiming more of my creative autonomy that was lost along the way of my going from an emerging artist to, I guess you’d say, an established artist. I feel like I’m in what is actually a nice chapter, where I've kind of started to do more projects that are more in line with things that I'm just interested in doing.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419406/ap6fdnak6rlxnzqgudob.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;This sensibility was palpable in O’Brien’s recent exhibition Freak Flags at Chicago’s Ackerman Clarke Gallery. The exhibition, which to the credit of gallery owner John Schmid was surprisingly reserved in both tone and volume, consisted of just four colored pencil and ink on paper drawings by the artist, each roughly 80 inches by 60 inches in size. Their monumentality and wall power unequivocally held the space, and created an environment that rewarded the kind of long, slow, deliberate looking that best benefits the depth and complexity of O’Brien’s drawings, but which many prior exhibitions elsewhere containing a higher volume of his work typically sacrifice in service to including a more definitively representational survey of the wide range of media he employs.“I would say that drawing is the foundational language of my practice,” O’Brien says,&nbsp; “It is the core that allows me to extend and experiment with other types of materials.&nbsp;Of his influences, he adds, “I grew up in rural northeastern Ohio, where there is a rich history of craft and folk art, and I feel a certain affinity to the Imagist artists of Chicago. I see no hierarchies between traditional academic artists and self-taught artists, and I personally have connected more with visionary artists because of their use of embodiment as the material center of making and creating art.”It is perhaps this nonhierarchical attitude, with its attendant egolessness and its openness to experimentation and acts of personal interpretation, that characterizes what might be (in less thoughtful hands) a disparate practice as not only a coherent one, but one which is so richly developed as to always leave those who traverse its output wishing they could remain within its confines, and press forward to reach the furthest recesses of its great depths.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419407/ovhlgsawmhwkarpr0sqn.jpg"><figcaption>WILLIAM J. O’BRIEN, Maze, 2018, Colored pencil and ink on paper, 60h x 75w in, 152.4h x 190.5w cm, Unframed; 65 1/4h x 80w x 2.75d in, 165.7h x 203.2w x 7d cm, Framed</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://williamjobrien.com">williamjobrien.com</a>Purchase O'Brien's new book at <a href="https://williamjobrien.bigcartel.com">williamjobrien.bigcartel.com</a>View O'Brien's exhibition at <a href="https://ackermanclarke.com/William-J-O-Brien-Freak-Flags">Ackerman Clarke</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

The Prolific William J. O’Brien is a World-Maker

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419385/fjmf74mwo0duwczlcvgn.jpg"><figcaption>Suzette Bross</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Suzette Bross thought she had come up with an idea for an art project that would span one year. That idea turned into an organization, CPS Lives, that is celebrating its 6th anniversary this May. Bross’s organization has expanded and undergone several changes in just a few years, all while finding an artistically civic purpose and developing many connections along the way. Following is CGN’s conversation with Bross as she prepared for a booth at EXPO CHICAGO, as well as some exciting collaborations and celebrations this summer.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;– GV&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What inspired you to found CPS Lives? &nbsp;Suzette Bross: I am a photographer, and during my career&nbsp; I have seen the power of groups of artists gathering to raise awareness and make a difference. When I started CPS Lives I envisioned a group of Chicago artists working for one year to make art and highlight the city’s public schools. I was inspired by artist collectives like AfriCOBRA in the ‘70s, which focused on black art movements and racial injustices, and the City 2000 photo project, a yearlong group photography project I was part of, that was formed to document the city of Chicago at the beginning of the new millennium.Initially I thought of CPS Lives as a yearlong project that would pair Chicago artists with various public schools, giving opportunities to both of these communities. CPS Lives was formed post internet and in the social media age, allowing audiences to see projects as they were created, lending a transparency and excitement to the way work was made. Artists would have the opportunity to make work, engage with students and share stories of area public schools. At the end of the year the artists, teachers, students and families would come together to celebrate the collaboration at a huge party in Millennium Park.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: So how did the first year go?SB: Little did I know what I was proposing to accomplish! Chicago is the third largest school system in the country, with around 330,000 students and 650 schools. Our goal is still to be in all schools, but now I realize it will take many years to tell the stories of all our public schools. After six years we have worked with 70 artists and been in 86 schools across 61 neighborhoods. It has been an incredibly interesting and rewarding journey.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419386/bsyowfmyiqcmrw1thr56.jpg"><figcaption>Ludvig Péres, Mozart Elementary School, 2023 &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: How many schools and photographers are you currently working with?&nbsp;SB: The 2023-2024 residency class is made up of 19 amazing artists working with 21 schools.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: After six years what has impacted your programming the most since you got started?&nbsp;SB: We have become a nonprofit. Not only does our organiation provide opportunities for students and artists, we provide a visual historic record about public schools. This became very important when the pandemic hit. Artists such as Matt Siber and Ludvig Péres created work that was specific to that pandemic history, working in empty schools when classes went online and also working with students at home and over zoom to share their experiences. We were able to create a book, Resilience: Chicago Public Schools in a Time of Quarantine, that will forever be a record of this historical time in education.&nbsp;In 2020 we worked with BMO Harris Bank to create one of the first murals made with the plywood used to protect the building’s windows during the protests. Lead artists Jeff Phillips and Dorian Sylvain worked with students from over 20 different public schools at the Hyde Park Art Center to create a photographic collage. Marzena Abrahamik’s joyful Michele Clark High School graduation images were the center of the piece, celebrating the accomplishments of these students during this difficult time for them and their families.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419387/parkhazyiq9ladhb7jbk.webp"><figcaption>CPS Lives selected Denise Waite (top left) and Chang-Ching “Casper” Su (top right) as 2024 EXPO Chicago Artists</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: What do you hope CPS Lives can do for the individual schools, as well as Chicago artists?&nbsp;SB: If you look at what our artists have seen and are communicating in their work, you can really start to see what public education looks like today. There are the proverbial warts of course, but there are also stories of joy and hope and day to day life in public schools in Chicago.&nbsp;When you give students the opportunity to work with professional artists, it can encourage the next generation of designers, photographers, artists and creative thinkers. Many of our artists are CPS alumni–for example: Denise Waite, Bob Thall and Norman Teague–and welcome the idea of giving back to their alma mater, or they are artists interested in giving back to the schools in their neighborhood. Many credit a teacher who inspired them to pursue the career they have today.Encouraging students to think creatively will help them succeed in any career path and confidently address future challenges. Students have a choice about where they go to high school, so many CPS schools must compete for students. Each school has a unique culture, and our artists can help schools understand, define and thus promote what makes them unique.CPS Lives provides local artists with opportunities to make great work with their communities and exhibit around the city, something that’s been very important after the pandemic. CPS Lives also provides schools with the opportunity to be connected to the art world in a meaningful way.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Tell us what CPS Lives has planned this season?SB: We are thrilled to participate in Expo Chicago April 11–14. Our booth will highlight the work of Denise Waite, who worked in her alma mater, Lincoln Park High School, and Casper Su who worked in Haines Elementary. One of the joys of participating in the fair is working with EXPO to bring the students and their parents to the fair and see the students’ expressions as they see their own faces reflected in the art hanging on the walls.&nbsp;Our 6th Anniversary benefit party is May 22 at the Arts Club. The public is invited to meet our artists and many of the teachers and principals from our participating schools and bid on unique art.We are also looking ahead to the 2025. Remember I said one of my original goals was to have a big party with our artists and schools? We are going to do that on the 606 / Bloomingdale Trail to celebrate their 10th annivesary. There are four public schools on the trail, and the 606 connects many Chicago neighborhoods. CPS Lives also provides a way to connect with and see our city, so we’re excited to have fun with them. Stay tuned and join us this spring!&nbsp;#&nbsp;Visit <a href="https://cpslives.org">cpslives.org</a> for information&nbsp;</body></html>

Recording a Day in the Life of CPS:  Artists in Schools

<html><head></head><body>This spring and summer there will be art fairs, new gallery and museum exhibitions and many creative endeavors taking place.the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes give us so much to look forward to, and we spoke to five art community leaders about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.&nbsp;The following preview is one of five that appear in our spring/summer 2024 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition <a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419386/ty9grn7fph3j54ckds5x.jpg"><figcaption>Photo credit: Steph Murray</figcaption></figure><a href="https://edrasoto.com/home.html">Edra Soto</a> – Artist“2024 will be a year to remember. I continue to travel and develop new projects. I will be in Mexico for the first time, as part of the Lit &amp; Luz Festival, with presentations in Museo Universitario del Chopo and SOMA. As a 3Arts Lucas Artist Fellow, I will be in residency at the Montalvo Arts Center in California. Another longer term residency takes place in Kohler, Wisconsin. In commemoration of 50 years of the Kohler Co.’s Arts/Industry program, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center has organized a series of exhibitions featuring residency alumni. I also look forward to&nbsp;Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape&nbsp;at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburg, opening May 11, and&nbsp;Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico and The Survival of a People&nbsp;at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in East Lansing, Michigan, opening August 31. Both exhibitions will travel nationally.&nbsp;Solo exhibitions are planned for the ICA at Maine College of Art &amp; Design and at Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York. But I am most excited about a commission of my ongoing project “Graft” as part of the Public Art Fund 2024 exhibition program at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park, New York, opening September 5th.”#&nbsp;Read 5 to Talk to with:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jonathan-higgins-manneken-press">Jonathan Higgins – Manneken Press</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-kimberly-oliva-oliva-gallery-and-alma-fine-art-interiors">Kimberly Oliva – Oliva Gallery, and Alma Fine Art &amp; Interiors</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-claudine-ise-goldfinch">Claudine Ise – Goldfinch</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-aron-packer-potter-potter-auctions">Aron Packer - Potter &amp; Potter Auctions</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to – Edra Soto

<html><head></head><body>This spring and summer there will be art fairs, new gallery and museum exhibitions and many creative endeavors taking place.the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes give us so much to look forward to, and we spoke to five art community leaders about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.&nbsp;The following preview is one of five that appear in our spring/summer 2024 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition <a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419377/yfzgdnsqhiqgoqtrnqtx.jpg"></figure>Claudine Ise – <a href="https://goldfinch-gallery.com">Goldfinch</a>“This year I’m especially excited for the Spring/Summer season because in April (through April 20th), we’re presenting a pair of really superb solo shows by two longtime Chicago painters: Leslie Baum (in Gallery 1) and Andreas Fischer (Gallery 2). Both Leslie and Andreas engage abstraction in really different and equally compelling ways, and the gallery is going to draw out that discourse via a public conversation on painting with Leslie and Andreas that will be moderated by Justin Witte, Director and Curator at Cleve Carney Museum of Art, College of DuPage (on Saturday, April 13th at 2pm in conjunction with EXPO Art Week).&nbsp;On deck after that are solo shows by Sherwin Ovid and an emerging Taiwanese artist named Tsai-Ling Tseng, and in summer, our first solo show with Chicago artist Jessie Mott that will focus on Jessie’s new paintings. I can’t wait!”#&nbsp;Read 5 to Talk to with:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jonathan-higgins-manneken-press">Jonathan Higgins – Manneken Press</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-edra-soto">Edra Soto – Artist</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-kimberly-oliva-oliva-gallery-and-alma-fine-art-interiors">Kimberly Oliva – Oliva Gallery, and Alma Fine Art &amp; Interiors</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-aron-packer-potter-potter-auctions">Aron Packer - Potter &amp; Potter Auctions</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to – Claudine Ise,  Goldfinch

<html><head></head><body>This spring and summer there will be art fairs, new gallery and museum exhibitions and many creative endeavors taking place.the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes give us so much to look forward to, and we spoke to five art community leaders about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.&nbsp;The following preview is one of five that appear in our spring/summer 2024 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition&nbsp;<a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com/">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419385/gjxzt7pb37mk9uvzz81c.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;Aron Packer – <a href="https://www.potterauctions.com">Potter &amp; Potter Auctions</a>“As the Fine and Outsider Art Specialist at Potter &amp; Potter, I never know exactly what will come through our doors. To a certain extent, auction houses play the cards they’ve been dealt - which keeps the entire team on its toes. As an example of “I never knew this would happen,” we recently acquired an important collection of Edward S. Curtis works.Named the “Best Auction House in Chicago” for 2024 by the&nbsp;Chicago Reader, Potter &amp; Potter looks forward to burnishing that hard-won award, especially in its rapidly growing art department. Our art sales occur in June and December and offer pieces in all genres, from all time periods, spanning the categories of Outsider, Folk, Contemporary and Fine Art. We accept consignments on a rolling basis.&nbsp;For the fall season I will organize&nbsp;A Cabinet of Morbid Curiosities: The Collection of Richard Harris.&nbsp;This all-encompassing death-related collection addresses this serious and precarious topic in a continuum from humor to tragedy and beyond.”#&nbsp;Read 5 to Talk to with:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jonathan-higgins-manneken-press">Jonathan Higgins – Manneken Press</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-edra-soto">Edra Soto – Artist</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-kimberly-oliva-oliva-gallery-and-alma-fine-art-interiors">Kimberly Oliva – Oliva Gallery, and Alma Fine Art &amp; Interiors</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-claudine-ise-goldfinch">Claudine Ise – Goldfinch</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to – Aron Packer, Potter & Potter Auctions

<html><head></head><body>This spring and summer there will be art fairs, new gallery and museum exhibitions and many creative endeavors taking place.the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes give us so much to look forward to, and we spoke to five art community leaders about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.&nbsp;The following preview is one of five that appear in our spring/summer 2024 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition&nbsp;<a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com/">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419385/gcspo1az9ktuucji4dez.jpg"></figure>Kimberly Oliva –&nbsp;<a href="https://www.olivagallery.com">Oliva Gallery</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.almaartandinteriors.com">Alma Fine Art &amp; Interiors</a>“Each spring, I’m thrilled to launch new projects uniting Chicago’s arts community. A highlight this season is our partnership exhibition of CSI x ALMA, where my co-owner, Gosia Korsakowski, and I will spotlight national talent and foster connections across art forms.&nbsp;Looking forward, our August Arts and Culture Summit aims to ignite dialogue and engagement on Chicago’s west side. Joined by El Schomburg’s Brenda Torres Figueroa and Agitator Gallery’s Gretchen Hasse, we strive to cultivate a vibrant, inclusive cultural hub.Additionally, I would like to highlight “Liminal Space: Bethany Cordero and Deborah Newmark,” opening May 10 at Oliva Gallery. These two emerging artists are ones to watch in 2024.”#&nbsp;Read 5 to Talk to with:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-jonathan-higgins-manneken-press">Jonathan Higgins – Manneken Press</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-edra-soto">Edra Soto – Artist</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-claudine-ise-goldfinch">Claudine Ise – Goldfinch</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-aron-packer-potter-potter-auctions">Aron Packer - Potter &amp; Potter Auctions</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to – Kimberly Oliva, Oliva Gallery and Alma Fine Art & Interiors

<html><head></head><body>This spring and summer there will be art fairs, new gallery and museum exhibitions and many creative endeavors taking place.the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes give us so much to look forward to, and we spoke to five art community leaders about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.&nbsp;The following preview is one of five that appear in our spring/summer 2024 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition <a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419385/jshwxikss7vi8yect7qf.jpg"></figure>Jonathan Higgins – <a href="https://mannekenpress.com">Manneken Press</a>“2024 marks Manneken’s 24th year as an independent fine print publisher, and it is shaping up to be a busy and exciting one. We kicked off the year by exhibiting in the International Fine Print Dealers Association’s spectacular Print Fair, which took place in February at New York City’s iconic Park Avenue Armory. We are also releasing our first published prints of 2024 – a suite of three color aquatints by Matt Magee which mix taxonomy with minimalism, and our online exhibition series on Artsy continueswith a new show - “Infinite Guile” - featuring ethereal, abstract monotypes by Sarah Smelser, inspired by her travels in Greece.We just came back from EXPO CHICAGO where we showcased new and recent prints by a diverse range of artists, including Chicago favorites Richard Hull, Anna Kunz and Judy Ledgerwood, all published by Manneken Press. Looking ahead, we will be hosting NYC-based painter Jason Karolak, an SAIC alum, in our Bloomington studio where he will begin work on a new group of etchings. Stay tuned for our additional projects as the year progresses.”#&nbsp;Read 5 to Talk to with:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-edra-soto">Edra Soto – Artist</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-kimberly-oliva-oliva-gallery-and-alma-fine-art-interiors">Kimberly Oliva – Oliva Gallery, and Alma Fine Art &amp; Interiors</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-claudine-ise-goldfinch">Claudine Ise – Goldfinch</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/5/anticipating-a-season-of-art-five-to-talk-to-aron-packer-potter-potter-auctions">Aron Packer - Potter &amp; Potter Auctions</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to – Jonathan Higgins, Manneken Press

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419368/wf9icuqksmgfbv3ee2ef.jpg"><figcaption>Sundeep Mullangi and Trissa Babrowski in their entrance hall. Wall mural painted by Patrick Rouillier. All photos by CGN.&nbsp; &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>By BIANCA BOVAStepping into Trissa Babrowski and Sundeep Mullangi’s home for the first time is an unforgettable experience. Situated on a quiet block in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood, the Italianate Victorian house’s rather staid exterior belies the profusion of color, pattern, and artwork that greets visitors as soon as they cross its threshold. Upon entering it is immediately evident that each element has been thoughtfully selected and flawlessly integrated into a truly original environment reflective of the shared vision of its two creators, and the culturally and socially rich life they have built there.&nbsp;Babrowski, a vascular surgeon, and Mullangi, the head of fixed income research at an investment management firm, met as students at Illinois Wesleyan University. While art collecting has always been a shared endeavor, their personal interests in art were developed independently. For Mullangi, it came about through an internship at the McLean County Arts Center in Bloomington, Illinois during college.&nbsp;“They needed to digitize their financials, and I was hired as an intern to input all their paper records into QuickBooks. One day, I got out of the back room and walked around, and I realized how incredible the place was. I started working there on Saturday afternoons, because they needed someone to open the doors. That’s when I started meeting artists and saw the process of putting together the shows. That was my first real foray into art, and I loved it,” he explained.&nbsp;For Babrowski, her explorations began at an earlier age. “When I was a child–probably five or six–my local public library had a lending program that allowed you to check out small reproductions of art masterpieces. There was an old pegboard wall full of all these little reproduction oil paintings, in this industrial brutalist-like library setting. I remember looking up at that and being overwhelmed by the amount of beauty contained in that space. I thought it was the most remarkable thing, that you could have an actual piece of art, and that it was something that could change according to your mood or whims. It had this transient, really beautiful quality about it,” she noted, before adding with a laugh, “My sister and I shared a bedroom, and we’d have competing walls and argue about whose installation looked better.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419369/f3wuisu9edlbyq4774sf.jpg"><figcaption>Seen through the doorway on the left is a Cabinet of Curiosities by Norman Teague. Photograph, center, by Irena Haiduk. glass objects by Anne Wilson.&nbsp; &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The house itself, which the couple shares with their three sons, who range in age from eleven to sixteen, bears a certain historical importance to the neighborhood. Built in 1873, it is the oldest residence in Kenwood, and one of only a few remaining wooden houses in the city. Having been constructed prior to the annexation of Hyde Park and Kenwood by the city, it was not subject to the ban on such construction materials that was implemented in the wake of the Great Chicago Fire.&nbsp;Inside, its Victorian character remains legible in the high ceilings, tall windows, grand fireplaces, and washes of sunlight that fill the rooms on the ground floor.&nbsp;“We want the architecture, and the bones of the house, to be able to speak for themselves,” Babrowski says, “I think there’s something unexpected and something really fun about having very contemporary art within this setting. Houses aren’t static and houses shouldn’t be museums; they shouldn’t be strictly adherent to their past. They grow and evolve, just like any sort of living creature does.”Mullangi adds, “Trissa has an incredible eye, and we’ve created this kind of layering. Art on top of wallpaper, wallpaper on ceilings, rugs we’ve hand-picked from all over the world, which has been fun as well, when we travel. The house is a visual memory of our life together. It is very much a family home, and we enjoy having people over, sharing the space, and opening people’s eyes to living with art in a way that maybe they haven’t seen in the past.”One especially striking element is a mural by Patrick Roullier that begins just past the entrance of the home and extends along the two walls that follow the primary staircase up to the second floor. With its lush depictions of the flora, fauna, and landscapes of India in a muted palette, one could easily be forgiven for mistaking it for vintage wallpaper at first glance.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419370/nel8oxkkxmzo9axxoavj.jpg"><figcaption>A view into the living room. On the right, a work by Michael Rakowitz. In the fireplace an installation by Jason Pickleman. Sculpture by Jeffrey Gibson. Painting above the fireplace by Hugh Kappel. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;“I imagined what the people who built the house in 1873 might have covered these walls with”, says Babrowski, of the mural, “During that time those who were fortunate enough to go on grand tours of Europe, often returned home with these beautiful painted wallpaper panels. I thought about how we could update that idea, and make it relevant for us. So it’s these scenes from India that are particularly important to us. Sundeep’s family had mango plantations, and so the mango tree motif is an essential element of the design. It was a way to stay in keeping with the house but still, at the same time, make it modern and fresh and a backdrop for our life as a family.”&nbsp;Art can be found in nearly every room of the home, with works by artists ranging from Derrick Adams, Bethany Collins, Julien Creuzet, Beverly Fishman, Vanessa German, and Jeffrey Gibson, to Claire Sherman, SoiL Thornton, Martha Tuttle, Kehinde Wiley and Jonas Wood. Chicago artists are also well-represented in the collection, including Dabin Ahn, Roger Brown, Theaster Gates, Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Judy Ledgerwood, Laura Letinsky, Angel Otero, Jason Pickleman, Michael Rakowitz, Tony Tasset, and Amanda Williams, among others. &nbsp;&nbsp;<blockquote>“Organic while simultaneously intentional, our collection serves as an ongoing love letter to Chicago. We believe in fostering a rich arts ecosystem as philanthropists and patrons, convinced that a vibrant cultural milieu is the most effective mechanism to facilitate societal change and evolution. We consider ourselves keepers of this art rather than collectors, and especially seek to support the stories and practices of artists traditionally excluded from the historical cannon. While objecthood is central to any collection, we are most interested in how art serves as a vehicle for bridging cultural divides.”&nbsp;- Trissa Babrowski &amp; Sundeep Mullangi</blockquote>&nbsp;“It’s not that we don’t go outside of Chicago to buy art, because we absolutely do,” says Mullangi, “but we really believe in supporting the art community here, both artists and galleries. We’re not just buying art to own it, to possess it, we’re buying art to be supportive of this whole ecosystem that it all rests upon. We’ve always had the feeling of, ‘If not us, then who’s going to do that?’ Because you need the support of the people who are embedded here to really make a difference.”&nbsp;For the couple, that support extends well beyond art collecting. Both are also active philanthropists and supporters of many cultural and educational organizations in the city.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419371/enm06umypracejejrvfe.jpg"><figcaption>A family room features an eclectic selection of art. A triptych by Beverly Fishman is pictured on the right.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;“I’m passionate about volunteer work,” says Mullangi, “I serve on boards at the University of Chicago, through the Lab School; at the Hyde Park Arts Center; and at Illinois Wesleyan University. I really like to be at the intersection of community, education, and art. I find that these three institutions are right at that intersection, trying to help develop programs and leadership and see what the way forward looks like.I grew up in Macomb, Illinois. It was classic small town USA. When I was in high school, it was all about sports, it was about football. It was about Friday night games, and varsity letters, and wearing your sports jacket, and then potentially giving that jacket to a girlfriend,” continues Mullangi, “We all grew up with that being the norm, that’s just what you do, but in the art world you don’t do that. You don’t get a varsity letter for painting well. I’ve always wanted the equivalent memento available for artists, to make the way we emphasize art in our culture not so dissimilar to how we emphasize sports. The Hyde Park Arts Center especially does a phenomenal job in this way, with their fundraising to allow individuals, both kids and adults, the ability to take classes for free, or for whatever they can pay. That work I’m so proud of to be a part of, because that is what we need to do much more of. In Chicago, in other urban areas, we need to allow individuals to find their niche, and, importantly, to then go figure out how to improve upon that. Then maybe they’re on their way to do something pretty significant.Trissa, as a surgeon, she helps people every day in ways that literally change their lives. My professional life is much different, so I’ve tried to effect change in an alternative way,” he adds, “What Trissa does is also actually very creative, and beautiful too. Of course, we don’t all get to see it, because all of her work is inside the body.”&nbsp;“As a vascular surgeon, what I do does involve a lot of creativity,” Babrowski says, “You have an area that’s diseased, and you have to figure out a way to circumvent that. I always tell the residents, ‘it has to be perfect and it has to be beautiful, and unless it’s beautiful, it doesn’t count.’ I think that’s also kind of evocative throughout our collection as well. There’s a lot of what might be called traditional women’s work in it. I think women’s creativity, the way that women express themselves, has traditionally been undervalued. Everybody deserves to be seen and felt and heard, and through the collection we try and ensure that’s true because everybody has creativity, it’s just about the way that you express it. And that’s different for everybody.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419372/yxuljyl2a6i4pux7xbbo.jpg"><figcaption>Pictured above, from left: a work on paper by Soil Thornton, photograph by Laura Letinsky, painting by Martha Tuttle, ceramic piece by Melissa Weber, drawing in frame by Nate Young. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>In bringing these creative voices together in their collection, Babrowski and Mullangi create space for dialogues to develop between the works themselves, which in turn have the ability to spark meaningful conversations between their viewers.&nbsp;“Clearly there are a lot of problems within the world today. I think art gives us a language and an opportunity to think about it, and have civil discourse about issues that may not be so easy to talk about,” says Babrowski, “Simply having the opportunity to look sometimes gives you greater compassion and understanding of other people’s perspectives.”&nbsp;Many are fortunate enough to have that opportunity, as Babrowski and Mullangi’s hospitality is well-known. Gatherings of family, friends, and artists, along with social events for the art community are frequent occurrences in their home.&nbsp;“I always say when the house is full, there is a very particular vibe. It almost feels like the house itself is happy to be full of people,” says Babrowski.&nbsp;Their generosity extends beyond making the collection accessible through visits and parties, as the couple are frequent lenders to institutional exhibitions as well.&nbsp;“I think it’s the saddest thing when a work disappears into a private collection, and nobody else gets to see it,” says Mullangi. &nbsp;“Artists do this incredible work–and incredibly important work–where they’re translating a message into a visual medium, and that should be shared and projected, and shouldn’t just live in isolation for only a handful of people to see, in our opinion,” adds Babrowski, continuing, “We’re fortunate that we’re able to acquire these works, and that we are their caretakers. But, just as with this house, we really feel that we’re just their guardians for a period of time. You know, the human lifespan is very short. We aren’t going to be the ones who have any of this for that long of a time, really. In the meantime, why not share that with people while we’re still able to, and while we’re here to enjoy that as well?”#&nbsp;To read more about collecting what you love, <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2024/4/collecting-inspiration-how-to-find-what-you-want-to-live-with">click here</a>.&nbsp;This interview is featured in the spring/summer 2024 issue of CGN. To subscribe to the print edition <a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com">click here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

A Living Collection: Sundeep Mullangi and Trissa Babrowski Support Their City Through Art

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419368/jsedp2pbh9exo2qc3j6k.jpg"><figcaption>Lucca Colombelli, Founder, Povos (photo by Travis Barron) &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By BIANCA BOVALucca Colombelli speaks quickly, with a cavalier manner that suggests that even if he doesn’t—by his own admission—know what he’s doing, he certainly knows what it is that he is going to do next. On a recent visit to his gallery Povos’s Chicago Avenue location, which is currently under renovation, Colombelli walked me through the space while rattling off the forthcoming improvements to everything from the baseboards to the lighting. We then sat down for a conversation about the gallery’s simple beginnings, its rapid expansion, and the multi-hyphenate future Colombelli sees for himself as a young person in the art world.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, Lucca. Let’s begin with how your gallery, Povos, got its start.&nbsp;Lucca Colombelli: I’m an artist first. I didn’t necessarily like the way that the [gallery] system was set up. I have been in those ‘rooms’ in the commercial art world and thought, ‘This doesn’t feel like it’s about art at all.’ I wanted to make [a space] that was beautiful and celebratory and inclusive.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What did you feel like the art world was about, if you didn’t feel like it was about art?LC: To me the commercial art world [from galleries to art fairs], especially as an artist, felt very much like it was about money and about creating an exclusive culture that discouraged [most] people from getting involved, so [the main players] could maintain the power over both what’s being shown and where the money is moving. I try to convey [to my artists] that ‘this should be about you.’ That’s how I feel and I want them to feel too.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Even about art fairs? Which are inherently commercial spaces?&nbsp;LC: it’s like the artist almost has no place at an art fair.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: I like to say, “An art fair is no place for an artist.” Often it can feel like they’re the last person you want in the room when you’re doing a deal.&nbsp;LC: The artist might not want to be there either. An artist I know, who is established, once said to me, ‘Going to the fair as an artist is like watching your parents have sex.’&nbsp;Starting the gallery became this very difficult and involved learning process through which I can see how the system actually happens and can also work. EXPO CHICAGO this April will be my first fair [as a participating gallery]. With a seat at the table, what are we going to do with it? Who’s going to come and support it? How can we make it about the artist? &nbsp;CGN: How, in practice, are you implementing that paradigm shift?&nbsp;LC: I am not sure I can quantify how it’s working, but if you come to our gallery openings–there’s a good feeling. To me I think that’s largely because it’s been a grassroots gallery.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Is it still grassroots?LC: This started as shows in an apartment, and then eventually shows on Milwaukee Avenue. It was a passion project. We were fortunate people came to support it and feel involved. There’s such a strong culture built around [Povos]. The people working here now, including me, are still practicing artists, but now we’re understanding how to do this. I’m bringing in a full time director, a manager and support staff. We have had a run of funding, and we’re opening a second location and doing the fairs. We’re also getting attention – from institutions, the press, and some major collectors. I’ve become friends with the heads of several national institutions and found mentors in the local art world as well.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419369/t3iinalkrl39xkiednoo.jpg"><figcaption>Povos x blackpuffin, Conflicts of Freedom, August 2023. Photo: Jake Ellerbrake &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: You’re a young dealer, and you seem invested in pushing back against the art establishment, in creating your own model. The more transparent you can be the better, if you want others to be able to learn from what you’re doing.&nbsp;LC: I didn’t know what the hell I was doing at all. I went to art school for two semesters and dropped out. The idea was to develop a sustainable online gallery model.&nbsp;CGN: When you say sustainable, do you mean economically, ecologically, or in some other way?&nbsp;LC: I’m talking about economics. Instead of 50/50 between the artist and the dealer, and putting a lot of money into real estate or rent, online it could be 70/30. A portion of that 30% would go to social work partners. I was interested in this idea of a low-overhead, online gallery that could also better the community. I worked with Chicago Social Change; Save Money, Save Life; and Simple Good, where I’m on the Associate Board. We did fundraisers, and I did a guest teaching spot last year. We’re looking at doing it again in the spring with after school programs.&nbsp;So, initially the idea was to bring the digital to the physical as much as possible with popup events. We were doing it in restaurants, in houses, wherever. Then we got the space [on Chicago Avenue], and people started to notice us. A big advocate has been Abby Pucker [of Gertie]. She reached out in fall 2022, and we have become good friends. She’s helped elevate the project and put it on the map for new people. This went from an artist run project, to two locations, doing fairs and finding funding.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Can you share more about your funding model? Fairs don’t get cheaper year over year, and neither does real estate, for that matter.&nbsp;LC: In year one, with the popup online model, I didn’t make any money. Year two, on Milwaukee Ave., going in we didn’t have even a year’s worth of overhead, let alone funds for staffing, events, and marketing. It was just me running it. It didn’t start going well until maybe August 2022, where we had a show with Will Schaeuble, a young SAIC graduate. We sold out opening night. We had never had anything like that happen.&nbsp; CGN: What accounted for the difference?&nbsp; LC: We started marketing [the show] really early. We seemed to do everything right. I thought, ‘Maybe this could work.’ Just a little earlier I thad hought, ‘Oh my God, how are we gonna pull this off?’ While there was a growing culture of artists hanging out, I didn’t think it was sustainable. I think this is a problem young galleries can face. You can approach it with a lot of passion, but it’s not necessarily going to make economic sense.&nbsp;August happened and it worked. Then in September 2022 we sold out Ashkon Haidari’s opening night. After that I wanted to reorganize and to create new systems and bring in help. A big part of my philosophy has been: say yes, then figure it out. I saw the opportunity and the potential of [a physical] space, but when I got it it was a nightmare. It took a serious amount of work, but I knew we could turn this into something cool, and the price was right, even though I didn’t have the money until I did a little fundraising.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Was that primarily through private donations, or were you seeking grants?&nbsp;LC: All private, mostly collectors who support my vision of this artist-utopic gallery.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Do any of the backers have equity in the gallery? &nbsp;Yes, some of them have ownership stakes, but the majority are involved in a cultural or infrastructural way.&nbsp;CGN: Do you intend to retain majority ownership long term?&nbsp;LC: I’m more interested in building something sustainable and beautiful than maintaining my vision for it.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Do you feel that those are mutually exclusive?&nbsp;LC: No, not necessarily. If someone wants to come in and do this or they have an idea for 10 locations, it can’t just be me making the calls on that. We’re building an advisory board and an internal board with the new equity members–local curators and multiple artists who I’ve contacted and who have said, “Yes, I’d love to be part of this.” It’s so rewarding to come from not knowing who any of these people were two years ago, to having my–I keep calling it, the Avengers Board. &nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Frankly, it’s uncommon to see that level of support being offered to someone who–as you put it yourself–knew no one and had no idea how the industry even worked just a year or two ago. What has helped you most in establishing that base of support?&nbsp;LC: I think it has a lot to do with the feeling of the space and our philosophy. It’s not about closing the door or opening it selectively. It’s about, “Hey, we got the foot in the door. Everybody come check this out.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419370/yy5tl6w8ibl4whutlv5i.jpg"><figcaption>Ashkon Haidari “Under the Cherry Moon” September 2023. Photo: Jake Ellerbrakes &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: Do you feel that that’s an ethos that makes you distinct from other galleries in the city?&nbsp;LC: I know there are a lot of really inclusive, cool people in Chicago. It’s easy to be a young artist and think, “Oh, I don’t want to work with them,” or “Screw the man!” It’s an immature attitude that I had, and now I realize that all these people are very smart and great and also work in some similar ways.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Who are other dealers that you admire?&nbsp;LC: Mariane Ibrahim–I think she’s a rock star. I also really like Patron’s program, and they’re very friendly to us as well. You could throw a rock and hit a good gallery on this street.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Can you tell me more about what informs Povos’ program?&nbsp;LC: To begin with it was just people I liked. We’re evolving towards the space being spearheaded by smart and interesting collaborations with other people, not necessarily just my vision.&nbsp;CGN: Do you represent artists? Do you have a stable?&nbsp;LC: We don’t currently represent people exclusively. I never thought I had enough to offer. But now we’re going to try to sign people locally for representation, about eight artists.&nbsp;CGN: Can you tell me about the gallery’s second location?&nbsp; LC: Last year I exhibited my paintings with Winston Guo, who ran W. Gallery in the South Loop on Van Buren. I haven’t shown in years and never really in Chicago. We threw a big opening. It was really fun, we sold some work. Winston and I talked about our gallery practices and differing strengths and challenges. This year he will come on as a full time director with me, primarily based out of his original space. We’re calling it “Povos Downtown.”&nbsp;CGN: Do you plan on running two simultaneous programs, or will it serve as an extension space?&nbsp;LC: It’ll be staggered. So yes to two programs, five shows each a year, for one year.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What is happening in the meantime?&nbsp;LC: We’ve stepped into an advisory network of secondary market dealers who are also young and ambitious. I’m doing some interesting work with 20th century art. I also met a guy in Mexico and we’re considering forming an international advisory with a Latin American and Italian masters focus. That’s not technically Povos, but that’s me. Also, I’m possibly curating a museum show in Japan this year at the Kyoto City Art Museum.&nbsp;CGN: Is the Kyoto City Art Museum an institution you have an existing relationship with? How did that opportunity come about?&nbsp;LC: There’s an arts government program in Kyoto. You take corporate tax money and turn it into something art related. The companies get a write-off, and the city gets a cut. A friend from art school has a connection to one of these programs, and that brought about the opportunity.&nbsp;I hope I can do a lot more for artists and in this industry if I can fulfill every role. I can be a curator, I could be an advisor, I could be a gallery, I could be an institution. If we have all the moving parts, we can accomplish a lot.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What do you see as the advantage to that approach over selecting a role, and devoting yourself to it?&nbsp;LC: I think you don’t have to be at the mercy of a system when you can fulfill multiple roles within it, and create new systems with that.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Do you ever worry that could potentially be a disservice to your artists? That if you’re successful in creating these new systems, you risk divorcing them from the conventional art world at an early stage?&nbsp;LC: No, I don’t think we’re divorcing them from the system at all. We just are becoming more involved in the system. Instead of just fulfilling the role of the gallery, we can go and make other kinds of deals and opportunities for them.&nbsp;CGN: There’s a rich history in Chicago of artist-run spaces that have gone on to achieve great commercial success. Take for example, many of the galleries that have participated in both editions of the Hyde Park Art Center’s Artists Run Chicago exhibitions, or going back even further, the spaces profiled in the the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago’s 1984 catalog Alternative Spaces: A History in Chicago. I’m hearing that you feel you’re subverting that standard developmental model, and that you’re successfully breaking boundaries. I’m trying to parse out what it is that makes you and your gallery different. Can you help articulate that for me?&nbsp;LC: I think keeping this glass door policy with the people we work with is different. Also our local cultural presence is a big thing, because it is inclusive.&nbsp;CGN: You acknowledged earlier that many Chicago galleries’ cultures are inclusive, so what sets Povos apart?LC: It’s the only space where I’ve seen the interaction between the billionaire and the bartender. Everyone walks in here and no one knows who anyone is, but they’re there and “Hey, what’s up?” is a very approved action at Povos.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Programmatically, where do you feel that your gallery fits into the context of Chicago?&nbsp;LC: I think we have a unique vision, which is the artists that I think we represent locally largely are, I call it, folkloric surrealism. It is an ongoing theme, and I think that’s what I enjoy. Some artists are self-taught, some are trained. All of our artists are young and working in this kind of magical way.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Chicago has deep historical associations with certain movements in the art world, and you can see the legacies of those movements in contemporary galleries’ programs today. I’m curious where you see Povos’ program in that context, if at all?&nbsp; LC: I never thought about it much. I am kind of new, and even new to the [art] scene. I’ve been [in Chicago] about seven years, and it has been a learning process. As far as historically, I don’t know if I’m informed enough to place the gallery anywhere. I think right now, it feels like we’re the new generation.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What brought you to Chicago, and what made you want to stay?LC: Yes, I spent two semesters at SAIC, where I met some of my best friends. I had a really good professor who said “You seem like you know what you want to do. You want to go paint, go paint. You want to open a gallery? Open a gallery. You don’t have to be here to do that.” And he was right, ultimately.&nbsp;I’m grateful to Chicago for letting me get away with this. I don’t think I would have been able to do it anywhere else. Buckle up, and let’s see what happens with the real version of this, because I think it hasn’t realized its full potential. I’m excited to see where it goes.<a href="https://povoschicago.com">povoschicago.com</a>#This interview is featured in the spring/summer 2024 issue of CGN. To subscribe to the print edition <a href="https://835ba3.myshopify.com">click here.&nbsp;</a></body></html>

A Young Gallerist Imagines the Future: Povos's Lucca Colombelli

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419360/ndrpl9ffkex1puyuhqlh.jpg"><figcaption>Photo by Etienne Frossard</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;BY ALISON REILLYSalvador Andrade Arévalo calls himself a printmaker who paints. Born in a rural area of Jalisco, Mexico, he immigrated to Chicago with his family at a young age. Inspired by his parents and older sister, he took art classes in high school and studied printmaking at Yale University. After graduating from college, he resisted the instability of life as a working artist, and instead worked as an admissions officer for Yale, a staffer on Obama’s reelection campaign, and a Master’s student in Latin American studies at the University of Cambridge. Eventually, he moved to Mexico City and spent five years painting in his living room while working remotely to support himself. Now, after completing his MFA at Yale in 2022, he is back in Chicago and currently a Bolt Resident at Chicago Artists Coalition. His solo show, Olvido, is on display at CAC until April 25, and his work will also be included in CAC’s EXPO Booth.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What are your earliest memories of making art?&nbsp;Salvador Andrade Arévalo: Edwidge Danticat, the author, has stated in talks and interviews that all immigrants are artists. In order for immigrants to survive in the US, they must create an entirely new life by pulling from their own internal creativity. They have to have the inspiration, the drive, and the will to survive in a country that isn’t necessarily accommodating to them. For me that spirit, that essence, is an influence in my work. That thriftiness, the frugalness, the need to just make something out of nothing has always been a part of my life, especially as someone that grew up as an immigrant.&nbsp;My parents didn’t complete high school or college. They only went up to sixth grade. But they’re the most brilliant people I know because they work with their hands. My mom knows how to make clothes. She can look at any knit pattern and she can fashion and replicate it. My dad, before retiring, worked setting up sprinkler systems. for massive corporations, storefronts, and skyscrapers in and around the Chicago-land area. He’s always been crafty. He knows how to use any tool. Growing up in a household with two creative people made me want to work with my hands. In this way, I found art as a logical avenue to pursue in school.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419361/vnz2n0ytvxohzsqjv3su.jpg"><figcaption>Salvador Andrade Arévalo, Doble mirada 1 / Double gaze 1, 120 x 100 cm, oil on canvas, 2023 &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: When did you decide to pursue art formally?SAA: Well the funny thing is that I don’t think I was necessarily drawn to art classes themselves. I was drawn to the markers and the materials. I was the kid that could color within the lines while everyone else was drawing scribbles. I also grew up with an older sister who was super into art. She studied art in college, and she’s a curator. Naturally it made sense for me to take a lot of art classes, too, without thinking I was going to be a full-time artist later on. I took so many art classes in high school, and I majored in art in college. But it took me five years after I graduated from college to fully decide, okay, I want to pursue art full-time.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: How has your training as a printmaker influenced your current painting practice?&nbsp;SAA: The way I paint is a transposition of printmaking in the sense that I work with screens of color. In my paintings and my mixed media pieces, I’m always thinking about building up screens of color. That’s what adds dimensionality to my oil painting. A lot of my paintings are very detailed and meticulous, and they seem like I’m using hard edges, rulers, or tapes, but they’re free drawn and painted. This attention to detail comes from my training as a printmaker, in which I had to be very assiduous about everything. And, even though I don’t necessarily print anymore, I still consider printmaking to be a cornerstone of my practice. Having been formed, artistically, with such rigidity allows me to make moves with much more freedom now, because of my technical foundations. It’s much easier to make art with a strong foundation in technique, rather than starting with a baseline of no skills and trial and error.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Could you talk about the importance of flowers and other motifs in your paintings?SAA: Whenever I introduce my work right now, I say it’s about plastics and flowers. But there’s a lot of meaning behind both of those things. I’ll start with the flowers. I grew up around gardens. Over the summers when I was in high school, I would set up sprinkler systems with my dad. My family is from a very rural part of Mexico in the state of Jalisco. I was born there. You can imagine a rural place with plants everywhere. I’ve always been in some way, shape, or form, surrounded by plants. I made the connection between farming, warehouses, and my family, and I realized the economic exploitation of plants has kept my family in the labor class.The flowers are also there as a visual trap because they’re so beautiful and seductive. I also depict flowers that I find around Mexico or connect to my Mexican heritage. Some of them may not necessarily originate from Mexico; some were brought to Mexico and became popularized and common in folkloric imagery. Flowering plants themselves have also been so genetically modified that they have their own legacy of exploitation and extraction by human touch to be more attractive.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419362/zcyqqs0s8pruleslholz.jpg"><figcaption>Salvador Andrade Arévalo, Lenticular, 19” x 17”, hand stitched produce packaging from family’s consumption, 2023</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: And the plastics?&nbsp;SAA: In conjunction with flowers, I use a lot of single-use, disposable plastics, like food packaging or things used to wrap what you order online. Anything plastic that’s simply thrown away, I use in my work. The first thing you do every day is throw some piece of plastic away. If you think about it, have you ever gone through a day without throwing away a piece of plastic? And the plastics themselves come from petrol, and petrol is fossilized organic material. I’m interested in the concept of extraction and what we consume as Americans in the U.S. is stripped of its origins. The plastic that’s used to tape up an Amazon box, where does that come from? Which country in the global south packed this or made it, and where was it taken from and how cheaply and exploitatively was it removed from its origins?&nbsp;My family has been migrating between Chicago and Mexico for over 100 years. But always as laborers. This gives you a sense of my family and how these exploitative systems keep people in their same class forever.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419362/cqzrhnyq0hboex9rrqbu.jpg"><figcaption>Salvador Andrade Arévalo, Pasos / Paces, 31.5 x 25 in, found single-use plastics, thread, paper, pressed flowers, textiles, acrylic, gesso, and sequins, 2023 &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: Are you collecting these materials, the food packaging and discarded items, in your everyday life or sourcing them?SAA: Right now, most of the plastics in my work are from my family’s consumption. I recently completed a piece that was made from collected food stickers. The stickers name almost every country in Latin America. In a way, the piece was a map of the places that grow our food. And since my family in Mexico grows tomatoes, limes, corn, and agave, making this piece was a full circle moment. The food my family members in Mexico grow and sell, could very well be the food that I consume in the US.&nbsp;So where is our food coming from? Who’s growing it, who’s touching it, who’s packing it, who’s shipping it?&nbsp;My family members who grow limes have to sell a crate of limes that weights several kilos for pennies. When we buy limes in Chicago, we buy three limes for a dollar. Imagine the markup value of that food source as it passes through the system of wholesale buyers and distributors to the U.S. &nbsp;<blockquote>“Thriftiness, the frugalness, the need to just make something out of nothing has always been a part of my life.”&nbsp;- Salvador Andrade Arévalo</blockquote>&nbsp;CGN: What’s a typical day in your studio like?SAA: I get up, have coffee, and decide which part of my practice I’m going to devote my time to, especially since I paint by daylight. I’ll set up my oil paints when the sun comes up and then I paint for the entire day. That’s my super concentrated, most intense work mode. But that’s why I also have the other side of my practice, which is more amorphous. The plastic pieces allow me to have more freedom, and not necessarily be strict with a pencil, a brush stroke, or the color choices that I’m making. I bounce between working fast and slow, and I need one to get into the other. The printmaker within me can get so fixated on tiny details. To break myself free from that rigidity, I need the other side of my practice to give me more freedom to play. I never really feel that I complete a piece. I think I can always go back to a piece and have something to fix. I usually just give myself deadlines and say, “Okay, after this day, you see the mistake, but you’re going to have to live with it.”&nbsp;CGN: Oh no.SAA: For example, the pieces I’m making for my show at CAC, the March 1st deadline was the hard deadline, and I forced myself to never ever touch those pieces again.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419363/nggynj7hv0ymmqldbx0j.jpg"><figcaption>Salvador Andrade Arévalo, Nudos / Knots, 12” x 9”, oil pastel on paper, 2022</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: Would you touch them after the show? Or you let it go at that point?&nbsp;SAA: No, I tell myself, it’s done. Even though I know in my deepest heart that it’s not done, it’s done. Because I have to stop at a certain point, you know? I get finicky about details. It always goes back to the printmaker within me, who wants everything to be perfectly aligned with no mistakes whatsoever. But a big part of being an artist is moving past&nbsp;that rigidity and letting the work do what it needs to do. What I think is a mistake might not necessarily be a mistake for the audience.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What are you exhibiting for your show at CAC?SAA: I’m including one oil painting and two plastic installations. You know the big potato sacks that grocery stores unpack the food in? I’ve gone to grocery stores, and as people are unpacking them, I ask, “Can I have these?” They look at me like I’m crazy. I’ve selected a ton of them, and I knit them together. It’s a quilt of these food sacks from grocery stores.&nbsp;Plastics are super light, so I kind of work like a clown car. I can fit an entire installation of just plastic into one normal sized box. They’re so light and airy and flimsy and probably will degrade over time. I can travel with them. I can put up a big installation in a day and take the installation down in the same day.&nbsp;Then I have a piece that’s a new venture for me. I’m dethreading my old clothes, reversing what a machine can do. I have entirely dethreaded pants and shirts. It’s humorous in the sense that why would I spend hours and hours dethreading my clothes? They do feel very bodily like they had a past life. It also harkens back to the fact that I don’t like to throw things away. The clothes I have ripped or that I no longer use I repurpose in my art now.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419364/klpzg9qczjni4dopaexq.jpg"><figcaption>Salvador Andrade Arévalo, Pensamientos / Thoughts, 24 x 20 in, oil on canvas, 2022</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: I’m excited to see how those turn out.&nbsp;SAA: I’m excited about those, too, because I hold onto things. That attachment to disposable things comes from being low income and being raised by family members that didn’t necessarily have a ton of wealth, but they were able to create an entire world, an entire childhood out of the most basic necessities.I will start a piece and let it sit there for two or three years. Then once I find or stumble across the material that is needed to complete it, I circle back to that piece and I add the missing things that I felt they needed when I first began the piece.&nbsp;That’s happened with these clothes. I could have donated them, but no one’s really going to want them because they have holes and paint stains. The only other option for these clothes is the dumpster. In the U.S. there isn’t a system to reuse or repurpose things that no longer have a functional use.&nbsp;But I found the loose strands in my jeans so poetic and beautiful. I just started pulling out the threads. That’s actually how a lot of my practice works. I see something and I touch it and I look at it, and then I’m like wait, it’s doing something that visually is compelling. If I get stuck I will go through my boxes, and I’ll start touching things and looking at them and then seeing what new projects can arise out of the things that I’ve already collected.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419365/czfh8addtyh8m9p9goxd.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;This interview is featured in CGN's spring/summer 2024 magazine. To subscribe and receive a copy by mail <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/magazine">click here</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Plastics and Flowers: the Art of Salvador Andrade Arévalo

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419272/z7u55ufcvkeocopxumyk.jpg"></figure>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;By ANNA DOBROWOLSKIIf we click our ruby heels three times and return to a pre-pandemic world, the ‘Dark Ages’ had a bright future. Medieval art influence was everywhere in pop culture, from&nbsp;Vogue&nbsp;to video games. Maybe you remember the Met Gala’s ‘medieval’ theme in 2018, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”? That same year&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2018/6/cgn-interview-series-sandra-hindman-of-les-enluminures">CGN interviewed</a>&nbsp;the medieval expert and founder of Les Enluminures, Sandra Hindman, who shared the same optimism in light of an exhibition with the Art Institute featuring nearly 30 manuscript illuminations from her collection.&nbsp;Within a year, there was another parallel: COVID-19 to the 14th-century bubonic plague. People then and now turned to art not only as a response to but also as a reprieve from not understanding the world around them.&nbsp;Perhaps the closest thing Chicago has to the medieval world is hidden in the collection at the Newberry Library, housed in a neo-gothic building adorned with gargoyles that allude to the ‘Old World.’ &nbsp;I visited Sandra Hindman in her office in the One Mag Mile building in downtown Chicago to ask some questions. How can we bring that world of scribes and illuminated manuscripts into our buzzing world of instant messaging and AI? What can that world teach our own—and what light can art advisors like Hindman shed on the Dark Ages for their clients?Somehow the pages from manuscripts on the wall – spawned from another world centuries ago – seem right at home next to the view of Lake Michigan. Hindman’s screensaver is of a miniature of Italian-French poet Christine de Pizan sitting in her study. As we start talking it’s clear that I’m not the only one who feels that there’s much more to appreciate about medieval art. In September, Hindman unveiled a soft rebranding of LE, and launched a parallel art advisory, the first of its kind. Both endeavors are intended to help others bring medieval art home. Below is our conversation about the challenges and creative solutions of keeping medieval art alive.&nbsp;*&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/viaisooiip2yymrsegdv.jpg"><figcaption>Sandra Hindman</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp; How has the market changed in recent years, and what does that mean for you?&nbsp;Sandra Hindman:&nbsp;I think it might have changed more in the last five years than in the last several decades. There has been a dramatic shift. In the early '90s there was the rise of art shows. But now there’s a new king and queen: auction houses and art advisors.&nbsp;Technological advances in general, and the pandemic and lockdown in particular, increased the importance of the internet, including the presence and outreach of big auction houses. Simultaneously there is more money for art in more hands, but the ‘hands’ are too busy to be on the hunt themselves. If the king is the auction house, the queen is the art advisor. Except, there are probably ten times as many art advisors and art advisory ventures than ever before.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/zmvbfwwoimfh5akzqlkb.jpg"><figcaption>A selection of objects and jewelry&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: What are some challenges you face running a business of medieval art today?&nbsp;SH: The expected answers would be: Finding inventory, funding it, finding clients, having enough money to pay all expenses, and purchasing inventory. But in fact, the biggest challenge is different. The Middle Ages seem more distant now than ever before, what with iPhones, iPads, computers, and now Al.I haven't done even an informal survey, but I wouldn't be surprised if most people, even very "qualified" buyers, are not sure when exactly the Middle Ages was* and what happened during it, not to mention why they should care. I think that teaching people why a connection with the past is important and how (and why) they can live with medieval art in the present is the most challenging part of my business now.*In case you need a refresher: the Middle Ages in Western Europe were roughly bookended by the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and the fall of Constantinople in 1453.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: How are you overcoming that challenge of making medieval art more accessible to more buyers? Do you have any advice for those learning how to appreciate these objects?SH:&nbsp;Learn to live with them at home and feel comfortable about them. Christopher de Hamel, author of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.abebooks.com/9781594206115/Meetings-Remarkable-Manuscripts-Twelve-Journeys-1594206112/plp">Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts</a>&nbsp;once wrote “No one can claim understanding of the late Middle Ages who has not read a Book of Hours in bed." Even if you can’t read the physical book in bed, you can read about it – it doesn’t take as much time as you would think!&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419274/yrqxt4fb3yy1kkhz7b8g.jpg"><figcaption>"This ring is round and hath no end/ like my love for thee my friend"</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp;Can you provide an example from your collection (like this Posy ring) and walk us through it?SH:&nbsp;A posy ring originates in the sixteenth century and they appear to be exclusively English (though there are some Latin, French, or Italian ones out there). Shakespeare incorporates them into his Hamlet:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Hamlet: Is this a prologue or the posy of a ring.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ophelia: Tis brief, my Lord&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Hamlet: as a woman’s love”&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp;What can we learn from a single leaf when the rest of a compendium might be missing?&nbsp;&nbsp;SH:&nbsp;There is much to glean from a single page. Art is art. The beauty of the page, even a single page that has survived from a compendium, can give us access to great art by world class artists – some of whom remain anonymous forever – that is otherwise not accessible or financially unachievable in a complete codex.&nbsp;CGN: What piece in your collection has left a deep impression on you lately?SH:&nbsp;Sydrac’s manuscript. The copy I have*, which has been deaccesioned from an Imperial Russian collection&nbsp;has about 600 questions and answers between Christian philosopher Sydrac and ancient Babylonian king Bokkus to explain the natural world. It contains questions like “How do fish sleep?” “Why don’t the stars fall from the sky,” “Where does fire go when it burns out?” “Can we prolong life?” People are thinking about that one now. There’s another, “Will there always be war?”&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419275/gpwcxo19tq0a41g4olcn.jpg"><figcaption>From the book of Sydrac, &nbsp;"Will there always be war?"</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: *The Book of Sydrac&nbsp;(Le Livre de Sydrac) Sandra mentions is a imagined dialogue between Christian philosopher Sydrac and ancient Babylonian king Bokkus to explain the natural world in over a thousand questions—a kind of rhymed encyclopedia. It was originally written for the French king in the 13th century. While ‘bad science’ might not make for good literature (answers range from quirky and moralizing to poetic), as art and as an object that survives today, it shows us that how we (mis)understand the world relates to what we read and what we see.&nbsp;**<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419276/m4espa2rskiz33dbmmbz.jpg"><figcaption>Sanguini/ Fra Angelico, Manuscript cutting, Children of the World</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: What are you looking forward to?SH:&nbsp;Two things in particular. The first is: we are engaged in a soft rebranding photography project – using new photos in space with people – through which we are trying to show how you can live with medieval art in the modern world.In addition to the soft launch, I’m launching a parallel business called Sandra Hindman Art Advisory LLC, which puts in place functions I’ve been doing for decades anyway. But this is a real gap in the art market internationally. Medieval art is a highly specialized field with few experts and the learning curve is simply too steep for most collectors in this busy world. The client who knows modern and contemporary art, or the museum with a manuscript collection but no specialized curator, they often don't know where to turn. I will advise museums on accessioning as well as deaccessioning projects, where there are special needs. A client who wants to gift their collection, I can find them the appropriate outside IRS appraiser and, equally importantly, advise them on what museum or library would be most appropriate as a gift-home.In other words, one antidote to this fast-paced world is to use these pieces to enter a world previously unknown to us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419277/tc1uxebpirev1d7qkotc.jpg"><figcaption>Hindman with a book from her collection&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;#</body></html>

The Art of (Medieval) Living in Chicago

Building a Next Gen Collection: Zach Smith

<html><head></head><body><blockquote>The start of fall means new exhibitions and fresh endeavors, and it’s the Art world figures working hard behind the scenes who give us so much to look forward to. we spoke to five art community leaders about what they’re excited about now and looking forward to next.</blockquote>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419263/lbr9u8769ash3fibgkvw.jpg"></figure>Erin Harkey –Chicago Deptartment of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE)&nbsp;“At the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, also known as ‘DCASE,’ we serve as a collaborative presenter, arts funder and advocate for creative workers throughout Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. Chicago is one of the greatest cities in the world for arts and culture—and our working artists generate billions in economic revenue for the city. There is so much to look forward to this fall—from the return of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the launch of a new theater season and the citywide World Music Festival Chicago, to name a few.&nbsp;Taste of Chicago in Grant Park celebrates the diversity and culinary talent of our city this September. The landmark Chicago Cultural Center is a must-see, always brimming with free visual art exhibitions, performances, films and more programs by DCASE and our partners. Then my favorite start to the holiday season is the City’s annual Tree Lighting in Millennium Park followed by skating at the McCormick Tribune ice rink.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419264/jtjxepq3lhkdcffv9sj8.jpg"></figure>Patrick Hull –&nbsp;Vertical Gallery“My interests continue to expand, both as a collector and as a gallery owner. I’m loving the surrealist resurgence, especially work in the pop-surrealism category, and adding new pieces to my personal collection. Several upcoming Vertical Gallery shows are focused on pop surrealism: in September, we have “Leopard Brains,” the first solo show from Danny J. Martinez (a.k.a. Van Dam One), an emerging artist at the vanguard of the pop surrealism movement, followed by two group shows: “New in Town” is curated by Blake Jones, and “Ode To” is curated by Joseph Renda Jr. We’re also returning to SCOPE Miami Beach Art Fair in December to present a solo show featuring another pop surrealist, the French artist Flog.Vertical recently celebrated its ten-year anniversary and moved to a new location within West Town (just a half-mile from our previous location), and we want to thank everyone for their continued support. We’re keeping our format of monthly exhibitions and introducing new artists to the Chicago market, and in 2024 we’ll branch out via exhibits in other U.S. cities and by increasing our participation in international art fairs.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419264/vxxnsfbrospqxajhxzhk.jpg"></figure>Roberta Kramer –&nbsp;Heritage Auctions“This season Heritage Auctions brings fresh energy, creative curation, and new partnerships into the gallery. Our auction previews in River North are becoming more dynamic with cross-category curation, and we’re making natural and thoughtful connections by showing stunning photographs with iconic prints &amp; multiples. Unexpected combinations, such as sneakers paired with modern &amp; contemporary art, are playful and equally on point. Shaking things up in the gallery invigorates our team and introduces Heritage Auctions guests to categories they may have otherwise passed over.&nbsp;Beyond an opportunity to see rare and precious items up close before bidding, we take pride in creating a welcoming setting where friendly experts are available to build relationships. With this in mind, Heritage is deepening our Chicago connection by supporting the River North Design District, participating in Design Chicago, and expanding our reach at EXPO CHICAGO.&nbsp;&nbsp;Heritage Auctions Chicago continues growing, with specialists available to support the Midwest in more than 50 collecting categories. It’s a pleasure to evolve with our community and enjoy these enduring relationships.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419266/f6vidpxck0vhwnsjq2bf.jpg"></figure>Floating Museum –CAB5: This is a Rehearsal“Floating Museum’s creative leads – Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Faheem Majeed, Andrew Schachman, and avery r. young – have brought their vision for multidisciplinary, community-driven, and site-responsive projects to the Chicago Architecture Biennial for this year’s CAB5: This is a Rehearsal. At the helm of CAB5, Floating Museum has invited 90 contributors from across the globe to experiment, coact, and collectively reimagine what a resilient, equitable, and thriving city might look like in an era of superimposed crises. With horizontality as foundational to Floating Museum’s conception of “rehearsal,” the team is excited to ideate and fabricate in community with artists, architects, builders, designers, educators, municipal departments, non-profit organizations, activists, innovators, and attendees, all as equal contributors to this year’s Biennial. Though CAB5: This is a Rehearsal will close in early 2024, Floating Museum hopes the myriad connections fostered through the event will act as new beginnings for further experimentation towards the compassionate urban futures we so critically need.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419267/mtuei6zlqjra9oigsejf.jpg"></figure>Kavi Gupta –Kavi Gupta Gallery“The Kavi Gupta team is celebrating a landmark year of growth. Our publishing arm and bookstore, Kavi Gupta Editions, designed and published a dozen new artist books, spotlighting Tomokazu Matsuyama, Arghavan Khosravi, Alfred Conteh, and Michi Meko, among others, including a major hardcover catalogue published with EXPO CHICAGO documenting Skin + Masks, our philanthropic collab with rapper and activist Vic Mensa. We helped produce Beyond the Horizon, a hardcover book documenting two Jeffrey Gibson exhibitions: Beyond the Horizon at Kavi Gupta and Sweet Bitter Love at the Newberry Library. We also helped realize multiple new public sculptures, including Dancer, a large-scale work by Matsuyama in New York’s Flatiron Plaza.&nbsp;We’re celebrating our first solo show with Seneca artist Marie Watt, open through Sept. 30. It debuts a long wished-for project we helped produce: ambitious new hanging sculptures Watt made from traditional Indigenous jingle cones, which relate to healing. We brought in multiple internationally recognized Indigenous dancers to activate the works. We’re excited for our fall exhibition with Chicago artist Nikko Washington. And we’re gratified Jeffrey Gibson will represent the US in the Venice Biennale. We’ve fostered Jeffrey’s practice for five years, producing his most important and ambitious performances and projects. All this growth signals that our mission to support marginalized voices by encouraging and amplifying their ideas is impacting the culture.”&nbsp;</body></html>

Fall 2023 – Anticipating a Season of Art: Five to Talk to

<html><head></head><body>Note: This is the fall 2023 CGN Cover Feature from our Sept–Dec magazine. To subscribe to the print version <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/print-subscriptions">please click here.</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419263/mei8pgfz9l8pjomj1qlm.jpg"><figcaption>In-Reflection, Luftwerk 2023 &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>By ALISON REILLYIn advance of their exhibition Light Over Light opening at <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/volume-gallery">Volume Gallery</a> in West Town this November, I spoke with Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, who make up the artistic duo, Luftwerk. The two generously shared insights about their history as artistic partners, their process for designing large-scale interventions at architectural icons like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and Farnsworth House, and how they have moved from using electric to ambient light in their installations.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: How did you become collaborators and what, as artists, attracted you to each other?&nbsp;Petra Bachmaier: We met many, many years ago at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.&nbsp;Sean Gallero: Nearly 25 years ago. It was 1999.&nbsp;PB: We were both in the performance art department, so the idea of experiencing art as life was really prominent. We started to collaborate almost immediately.&nbsp;SG: We were drawn towards the installation component of performance art, creating environments for people to experience. Whether moving images through Super 8 or a still image through side projectors, we created these environments.&nbsp;PB: Transformative environments—taking over familiar spaces and transforming them temporarily—became our mode of operation. We removed ourselves as a live element within these scenarios and created spatial takeovers. Because we are in Chicago, we were inspired by architecture and worked closely with two Frank Lloyd Wright buildings for installation-based work. We also ventured into a dialogue on the architecture of Mies van der Rohe. Doing these temporary interventions with architectural landmarks informed how we think of shaping spaces, shaping sculpture. It informed what we do in our studio practice.&nbsp;SG: Our work evolved from performance to performance installation. We’ve done a lot of video in the past, so these engagements with architecture always had this element of projected light, whether it’s video lighting or slides. We always transformed the environment through either a moving image or static image. And then the building became the canvas, transforming that whole philosophy of the architecture into a bridge between the historical context, whether it’s Frank Lloyd Wright or Mies van der Rohe, to more contemporary media, projection, moving image. Now we’ve taken all that and started creating our own environments through color and lighting. We’re constantly shifting. The show at Volume is capturing light and color but also projecting it and not using any sort of direct lighting, using ambient light and sculpture to capture the essence of what these buildings feel like.&nbsp;PB: While we’ve been working on all of these architectural projects, we got interested in the Light and Space movement. We felt very much akin to it. For us a video projector became a light source. From this idea of illumination, we focused on using light as both a pure tool and material.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419264/sl0lrbl7u0rucggcdhhu.jpg"><figcaption>Circular model study for light and color, Luftwerk 2023</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: What were your own individual artistic practices like before you met during graduate school?&nbsp;&nbsp;PB: I enjoyed the idea of Dada and Fluxus. I grew up in Germany, and I was intrigued by non-traditional art practice and very interested in sculpting with materials and light in installation-based forms. I studied predominantly in Hamburg, which is a conceptual art school where there were Fluxus-based instructors. When I got to SAIC I began to ask, “How do you reduce material use? How do you work with material in a minimal way?”SG: We’re always learning new things within our practice. We’re not afraid to jump into the void to be more creative. I come from more of a fine arts background, painting and drawing, but at SAIC I also jumped around, starting in Visual Communication, then working my way to the digital realm, then printmaking, and finally in performance art. It was very exciting in the ‘90s and early 2000s, when performance art was hot in Chicago. We did ad hoc guerrilla performances everywhere. That’s how we crossed paths—I came from a visual standpoint and Petra from the more experimental. Even in the studio, those two converge and we bring our own skill set to a project or piece of artwork. We each have our pluses and minuses, but we always reach a harmonious conclusion after some debate and some tension. Especially with color, there is a very democratic way of choosing color in our studio. We have our favorites and dislikes.&nbsp;CGN: What has been one of your most rewarding experiences working with an institution? And most challenging?&nbsp;PB: The Chicago Cultural Center has been a home base for us for over a decade. It’s a Chicago-based curatorial program and that has helped our practice really grow.SG: One of our highlights was Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. That was our second step into Wright, and experiencing Fallingwater is breathtaking. How do you create an intervention within architecture that’s already a masterpiece? We had the wonderful challenge of celebrating the form, function and natural landscape of Frank Lloyd Wright. For six nights we had the house to ourselves to be explore be intimate with and create our art.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419265/dnrw7uwlctcdvmybtz6x.jpg"><figcaption>Cone model studies for light and color, Luftwerk 2023</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: For a big, ambitious project like that, how do you get started and work through that? &nbsp;PB: Usually it starts with a site visit. The curator hands over site plans, and we dive into the story. We want to inform ourselves where are we sited, the context of the place, and ask, “How does the work we do find a dialogue within that framework?” Working with institutions, it’s a collaborative exchange. “What does the institution stand for? What are they preserving? And how does our work live in dialogue to that mission or vision for a place?” It’s often about how do we draw new ways of looking at these places that actually hold valuable cultural assets. Everybody knows Farnsworth House, for exampe, but when you try to see it in a very different way you can read a totally different context. So we create a new way of experiencing something that we think we might know because it’s been written about for 50 years.&nbsp;SG: There’s a lot of research involved, whether it’s scholarly research or even just asking the groundskeeper, “What do you notice? What do you see? What’s this detail? What’s the overall experience of a place?” We look at details, then the whole philosophy, and we ask what was there before. These environments hold so much information and knowledge that we could be inspired by a river or by a set of trees.&nbsp;CGN: Could you talk about your study of the passage of light, your effort to capture light throughout a day? How did you become interested in that and how is it present now in your work?&nbsp;PB: Oh, it’s very present in our work.&nbsp;SG: For the longest time we worked in artificial light—projected, electronic, digital light. We did an exhibition at the Garfield Park Conservatory at their greenhouse. We wanted to create an installation that was experienced throughout the day.PB: And activated by the sun. Learning how sunlight travels, observing it far more closely became an interesting phenomenon to be more aware of. It happens every day, but how do we play with it? How do we shape with that phenomena and also the qualities of light and color, the intensity of different colors in the sky. All of that informs of how we work with color and light.&nbsp;SG: One piece at Garfield Park Conservatory dealt with plants and how they absorb light in the color spectrum. We used the green and red ends of the color spectrum. One signifies movement and growth. We had a canopy of blue and red acrylic gels. The sun would move throughout the day and the pattern would be reflected on the floor. And so we physically saw how the sun affects color and movement. That informed how we could create work that uses ambient light, natural light, as well.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419266/dslzuakt4hyylgttygrf.jpg"><figcaption>Curved surface model study for light and color, Luftwerk 2023</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: An installation you did at Cheekwood Estate and Garden in Nashville included colored light and canvases together in the room. To me it brought together different artistic practices and art histories. How did you start using canvases in your installations?&nbsp;&nbsp;PB: For our previous exhibition at Volume in 2020, we experimented by using color as a canvas for the light. How does light impact the way you perceive color? As Josef Albers explains, if you illuminate the color red, it’s more red than if it’s not illuminated. And so the exhibition in 2020 was based on this idea of color as a canvas.SG: We’re distilling our process here. We’ve come from the digital realm, where even sometimes the canvas is digital, but now we’re looking at how do we achieve the purity of color through paint and pigment? How do we apply gradients to canvas or apply solid material that’s textural onto canvas? We’ve done the process of creating pigment through powder and then using hide glue and all these emulsifiers to create the paint. We experimented with airbrushing and how we get gradients of color that are affected through light. Now we love color, we love light. How can we use the pure sense and source of lighting to create our own canvas of color? We’re stocking up on paint and pigment to create that experience.&nbsp;PB: It does feel a little bit like color field painting, but it’s actually about the interaction of color with light. What we set up in the studio is very much the interaction of how those two create an interesting tension or visual field that can shift your perception. The canvases that you’re referring to, they’re titled Meadow, have a gradient from yellow to green based on the idea of bringing the outside in. It was informed by the green and the garden, the light. It was a very simple color field, a smooth gradient. Once we illuminated the light from the yellow, the dark of the green, they have an ebb and flow where they shift. All of a sudden the whole canvas is dark and then it kind of emerges into light again. It’s very perceptive. You need patience with these works. They ask you to take time and look.&nbsp;SG: We need patience because we’re actually cultivating the color. We’re collecting grass, botanic material. We dry them out, crush them, pulverize them, bring them to a powder, and then we create paint or ink from that and apply it to the canvas. There’s another level of the art making process where paint sometimes comes out of a jar, but we also create the paint, create the texture, and create the canvas through this organic material.&nbsp;CGN: You’ve talked and written about the taxonomy of colors and your own studies of Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours. How did you start looking into that? And why has that continued to capture your attention?&nbsp;&nbsp;PB: We stumbled upon it, though we have always been interested and informed by color theory. Most artists cannot avoid it.SG: To Albers it was color with emotion and intellect. But with Werner it was about creating a system of finding colors in nature and determining how we put it into a nomenclature, a code, a dialogue that connects it to the natural environment. It was very interesting to see this pre-Pantone system based on nature that you could find–plant material, mineral and animal —feathers, petals and rocks.PB: Then you dive into the artistry of painters who created their own paint from these materials. They still carry the name, for example, burnt sienna. We’re building a relationship with the actual material. We’ve become enamored with this nomenclature and going back into history when color was not numbered and was not a marketing language, but actually developed by someone who created a system for us to understand the visual world around us. People were more connected to, “Oh, it’s sky blue!” It sounds different than cyan.&nbsp;CGN: Tell me about your show at Volume Gallery in November and how you’re thinking about it now.&nbsp;PB: This is our third exhibition with them. For the first two, in 2018 and 2020, the exploration was all about the phenomena of color and interaction with electric light.SG: But this show coming up is about the pure property of color and how it interacts with ambient light. We’re still designing the room. We’re looking at more minimal sculptures but with these subtle hints of color that reflect onto the wall, onto the environment. It’s about getting accustomed to a space and getting your eyes readied and then looking for those subtleties or vibrant reflections. It’s about sculptural material that reflects color.&nbsp;PB: The color itself bounces or reflects its light quality. It’s like sculpting as if we would sculpt light, but it’s actually for the color. It’s a departure for us to think that nothing within the main gallery will be plugged in. It will be all sculptural and wall-based. It’s kind of like chasing an aura for color.&nbsp;&nbsp;#<a href="http://wvvolumes.com/upcoming/">Light Over Light: Petra Bachmaier &amp; Sean Gallero of Luftwerk Studio</a>At Volume Gallery, Nov 3 – Dec 16, 2023&nbsp;To subscribe to the CGN Fall issue in print <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/print-subscriptions">click here.</a><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419267/wz0w5nfmf8lip5dusuah.png"></figure>&nbsp;</body></html>

Light Over Light: Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero of LUFTWERK

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419192/if8j6raw7jw9oglwmw1n.jpg"><figcaption>Pictured: Left: Jim Lutes (on wall), Deborah Butterfield; center: Dan Ramirez, Roxy Paine, Bruce Nauman; Right: Susanne Doremus. Photos by Tom van Eynde</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEAWhen I spent an afternoon this winter with William Lieberman, owner of Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, it was not to discuss his role as an art dealer. Instead, it was to see his personal collection, which he had recently installed in his new Streeterville condo overlooking Lake Michigan.Lieberman had just moved from a house in East Ukrainian Village and was eager to highlight hundreds of works in a fresh setting. Taking in the abundantly-filled walls, I asked him how he chose the art that he lives with, knowing that every day at the gallery he strives to build other people’s collections. Lieberman shared that he began to collect art while studying studio pottery at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.&nbsp;At first, Lieberman did what artists often do with their peers: he traded art. Trading helped him meet other artists, get to know their work, refine his own practice and, of course, learn to negotiate. After moving back to Chicago, he continued to develop both his pottery and trading skills in Northeastern Illinois University’s ceramic studio.Art collecting is a highly personal pursuit, undertaken with as much emotional as financial investment. Collectors can spend years acquiring and curating their collections which hold personal meaning as well as reflect their particular tastes. Some may have significant cultural and historic value, and provide a window to the evolution of artistic movements.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419193/wyx5chkctmljrf8mmqfr.jpg"><figcaption>Pictured: Left wall, Top: Conrad Bakker, Middle: Vernon Fisher, lower Right: Ed Paschke, Roger Brown; Middle wall, clockwise from top left: Claes Oldenburg, Xiaoze Xie, Lora Fosberg, Donald McFayden, John Buck; right: Jane Hammond</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;In Lieberman’s case, he grew up surrounded by art. While he was a college student, his mother Roberta Lieberman, together with Robert Zolla, opened a contemporary gallery in 1976 that specialized in paintings, drawings and sculpture. Three years later, while still intent on becoming a professional potter, he began working part-time at the gallery.&nbsp;By the 1980s, Lieberman worked at the gallery full time, although some of his compensation came in the form of art. His mother and Zolla would have him pick a piece, pay the artist as much as if it had sold, and forgo the gallery’s portion. Not only did this practice support individual artists, it also allowed Lieberman to start his collection and refine his own eye. Later, he began to make yearly trips to New York, where he stayed with artists, fed himself on the gallery’s $25 per diem, and “pounded the pavement” as he went to studios, galleries and museums.Gradually, Lieberman built a personal, thoughtful and carefully acquired collection. It would not, however, last very long. On April 1, 1989, he stored his entire collection at the gallery while he moved from one apartment to another. On April 15, the building on Huron Street, housing Z/L and many other galleries, burned to the ground. Though works by artists such as Susanne Doremus, David Nash and Michael Nakoneczny could never be replaced, some offered pieces to Lieberman to begin a new collection.&nbsp;With insurance money that he received, Lieberman bought a 1,400-square foot house in 1990 and, as he recalls, “I started to buy a lot of art. Nothing too expensive but I started over.”&nbsp;Hanging works vertically, salon style, he quickly filled his home. He commissioned Paul Coffey to paint a mural on the 35-foot high atrium over the dining area. The six-month project used Rand McNally map color schemes to depict an ambiguous location in Ireland. The mural even incorporated the atrium skylight. Over time, Lieberman’s home became an inviting artistic destination, serving as a bridge between white exhibition walls and a residential setting. “I brought people to see how I lived in East Ukrainian Village,” he explains, “and they liked the environment that I created.” As his life at work and at home continued to meld, he hosted dinners to promote gallery artists like Deborah Butterfield, John Buck, Josh Garber and Jay Strommen. A few times, says Lieberman, he had as many as 50 guests, with four Weber grills going in the backyard and people enjoying their meal in every room of the house.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419194/vyyveqhnngjbanbplmix.jpg"><figcaption>Above: Left: Stephen De Staebler, Jim Nutt, David Kroll, Ernesto Neto; Middle: Xiaoze Xie; Right: Both works by Jim Lutes</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Following these dinners, clients often bought or commissioned art, though Lieberman emphasizes that he never sells pieces from his personal collection. Lieberman actually found his current condo thanks to a client relationship that emerged from gatherings in the East Ukrainian Village house. When collector Anne Finkelman learned that a unit in her building was up for sale, she passed the tip along to Lieberman who made a swift decision to buy it.&nbsp;The move from a house to a condo meant leaving behind site-specific and other large-scale pieces. However, the new space is more than twice as big (3,000 square feet) and many works have found a new pride of place. Collector and friend Arlene Richman gifted Claes Oldenburg’s Bat Spinning at the Speed of Light, published by Landfall Press, to William for his 60th birthday. Oldenburg’s 100-ft. tall sculpture has graced Chicago’s skyline since 1977 and, given William’s love of softball and baseball, Richman says she delights in seeing this print now prominently displayed. &nbsp;Lieberman does not have lot of furniture in his new home yet, and the clutter from living in one place for years hasn’t taken hold, but the presence of so many vibrant works of art imbues the condo with a lived-in feel. The placement of several sculptures of varying scale also add levels of dimension, including two by Butterfield, one cast bronze and the other welded copper, indicative of Lieberman and Butterfield’s 45 years of working together.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419195/ytqbclaocba5ggswixcx.jpg"><figcaption>Pictured: Top and bottom: Enrique Chagoya, middle, left: Lora Fosberg, Right: Robert Arenson</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;A row of painted Artforum covers by artist Conrad Bakker, bordering a doorway, speaks to Brian Gillham’s role in finding just the right place for each work of art in Lieberman’s collection as well as in the gallery. At home he applied his signature skill of bringing order to chaos, singlehandedly rehanging the entire collection. Gillham has worked for Z/L since 2004.&nbsp; “Brian didn’t guess,” says Lieberman when asked about the Artforum covers and other groupings. Discerning ties between concepts – from Herman Aguirre’s paintings to Jay Strommen’s ceramics – and taping out arrangements on the floor, Gillham placed works without disrupting the charm and affection that they generate as a whole. &nbsp;Lieberman has already begun to plan for the future, as Nathan Kemler, Director of Galleries and Collections at Grand Valley State University, points out. “William works endlessly to maximize the role of art in our lives and has enabled us to acquire an incredible contemporary collection to share with our community.” Among many contributions to his alma mater, Lieberman has promised GVSU – which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2014 – the gift of his ceramic vessels, platters, teapots and sculpture.&nbsp;Often after decades of buying art, a collector slows down. So far, Lieberman has not taken his foot off the pedal and doesn’t want to part with anything that gives him so much comfort and joy. Recently, he says that he’s been prompted to buy more. “It diversifies my collection as well as ensuring that it has a higher level of museum quality. And as far as my relationships with artists, it helps that I continue to invest and believe in their work. It’s my life.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419196/c3y9eja9m4rf3wk6r3ye.jpg"><figcaption>Lieberman is pictured in a room in his new home with the following works: Left: Leslie Wu, top; Jim Lutes, bottom; Above ceramics: Herbert Murrie, left; David Lozano, right; ceramics by William Lieberman, Bottom: Glenn Wexler</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

The Art Dealer as Collector and Connector: William Lieberman

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419192/skugnb4ps3lbijfmhx1o.jpg"><figcaption>Portrait of Richard Hunt by Sandro Miller.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By Anna DobrowolskiEncountering Richard Hunt’s monolithic sculptures around Chicago is much like running into an old friend, someone you recognize no matter how much time has passed. Hunt’s large-scale public works are out in the elements, soaring into the skyline. Each one signifies you’re in the presence of something distinctly from Chicago, with characteristics that mirror the city’s famed architecture – structures are imposing yet delicately rendered, sturdy but changeable, familiar as well as innovative, raw but refined. The artist’s vision plus hard work is manifested in wrought steel that is put on display to stand the test of time.&nbsp;Millions of people glimpse Hunt’s sculptures regularly when arriving at and departing from Midway Airport. Additional commissions have been installed on the campuses of the University of Chicago, Divinity School and the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), as well as on the rooftop of the Art Institute of Chicago. Many have become landmarks in their own right. The creator of these magnificent sculptures has been hard at work since 1955. He isn’t slowing down. There is still more to imagine and to make real.&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;Hunt has said about his work, “Public sculpture responds to the dynamics of a community, or of those in it, who have a use for sculpture. It is this aspect of use, of utility, that gives public sculpture its vital and lively place in the public mind.” He has contributed a great deal to Chicago and its legacy of public art. Other cities and towns around the country each bring a little bit of Chicago to their own community when a Hunt sculpture is installed. &nbsp;When we sat down this winter, inside his Lincoln Park studio that was once a transit power station, the stage was set for an industrial fireside chat about his nearly 70-year career. Warming up beside a space heater – like the ones used for outdoor cafes – in our periphery a massive steel bird manages to materialize from the pages of an open book. Titled “Book Bird,” he explains, the work will join the long list of Hunt’s sculptures in Chicago when it is installed&nbsp; in a courtyard reading space at the Obama Presidential Center, slated to open in 2025. “Book Bird” illuminates how reading and learning allow readers to enter new places and fly free. The work was the first commissioned piece of art for the Obama Center.&nbsp;Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett said, “Mr. Hunt’s personal story and creative vision embodies the uplifting experience visitors will find at the Center. Having known Richard most of my life, we are so proud to honor his work here.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419193/onocbfzpdt018arz3rj3.jpg"><figcaption>Richard Hunt at work in his Lincoln Park studio. Photo courtesy Richard Hunt Studio.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419194/mv3bazdju8kguk9sw0q6.jpg"><figcaption>Richard Hunt, Flight Forms</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Born and raised in Chicago, Hunt says he was greatly influenced by his mother, an artist and librarian, and he spent much of his childhood enjoying museums and opera performances, fostering his passion for the arts. “I grew up with my parents on the Southside, near Woodlawn and Englewood,” Hunt notes. “When I was around 13 I would go down to the Junior school, as they called it, of the Art Institute on Saturday to take classes.” He was soon captivated by sculpture, even building his own bedroom art studio where he could sculpt with clay long before he discovered wax and soldered wires, and eventually sheet metal and found objects like automative scrap that he could transform into abstract magic.Hunt went on to pursue an Art Education degree at the Art Institute, and it was here as a student that he began his groundbreaking career. While he undoubtedly found his love for art in Chicago and received his formal education there, the decision to remain in his hometown, despite the pull of the art world nucleus forming in New York in the 1960s, did not come without sacrifices. Hunt reflects, “I investigated the possibilities I had, or ‘should have had’ in New York. Along with friends of mine in art school we asked ourselves, ‘What would we have in New York that we don’t have here?’ I ultimately decided not to move there.” Instead, he was successful taking his works on paper, prints and sculpture to local exhibitions and Chicago galleries. Eventually Hunt says he was interested in gallery representation in New York, and he notes he still travels there, but it’s clear that his life, work and artistic inspiration has thrived in Chicago.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419195/dymhhu8l9ebidkh9jyvt.jpg"><figcaption>Richard Hunt, Light of Truth: Ida B. Wells National Monument, unveiled in 2021 in Bronzeville, Chicago. History far, CC BY-SA 4.0</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Hunt's work has been exhibited in more than 100 solo shows around the country, and he has received numerous distinctions and accolades, including being the first African-American artist to have a major solo exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The impressive breadth of Hunt’s work is not just the result of a very long career but also a remarkably prolific work ethic and a seemingly endless well of material. In Hunt’s studio, paging through catalogs of his work I come across a photograph of a young Hunt, climbing a mountain-high pile of scrap metal in Lincoln Park where General Iron’s metal shredding and recycling facilty once was. Hunt’s cavernous studio houses similar maze-like collections of metal, with dead-ends stacked with metallic sheets, inroads leading to maquettes, tools, papers filled with notes. It is both an archive and treasure trove.&nbsp;Recently, approximately 50 of his monumental works (a dent in his 130 and growing oeuvre) went on view at KANEKO in Omaha, Nebraska. Hunt explains that with such a vast number of works to his name, each piece comes with a unique set of challenges: one needs a larger base, another needs to be sanded smooth, and yet another must be engineered to hang on a wall. Today, at 87, Hunt continues to meet artistic challenges and work on a range of notable commissions, following variable paths to creating art. He tells me that no matter what a certain piece may require individually, a strict timeline to delivery or space to develop organically, each one becomes what it is intended to be. Hunt explains “I tend to have several things in some stage of development, and others that move forward in a chain. Art is something that starts to grow until it reaches maturity. It just becomes what it is.” Much like a career that started with clay sculptures in a bedroom art studio, Hunt has become the artist he was meant to be.&nbsp;#&nbsp;</body></html>

Hard at Work at 87: Richard Hunt

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419183/tmrkyv9gacl0agawau1r.jpg"><figcaption>Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By ANNA DOBROWOLSKIMadeleine Grynsztejn is a leader on a mission. Since starting her tenure at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2008, Grynsztejn has been committed to presenting art ‘you don’t yet know you love.’&nbsp;&nbsp;Today as she enters her 15th year as MCA director, she says she is ready to prove that contemporary art is entering a golden era, and Chicago is its crucible.When the MCA’s doors were shut in 2020 due to the onset of the pandemic, the museum joined the mass migration to digital programming out of a commitment to stay connected to audiences locked out of physical institutions and stuck at home. The three years that followed left the world craving reconnection that Grynsztejn strongly believes can be facilitated not only through the art found in institutions, but also through the institution itself. Criticism that bubbled up in 2020 – from outside as well as within – was ultimately a catalyst for real change.During a recent candid conversation, Grynsztejn tells us some of the most significant lessons she gleaned from steering the MCA through a pandemic amid local and global unrest, from how she listened to and genuinely responded to criticism while embracing collaborative opportunities. Each is a lesson she says will not be forgotten.&nbsp;CGN: Where do you see the biggest shift between then (pre-pandemic) and now? Is it in the type of art on view, differences in programming and exhibition themes, or something else?&nbsp;MG: The biggest shift has actually been consistency. Artists and audiences continue to care deeply about creating and presenting art. Not only can they enlighten our learnings about issues such as systemic racism, but they have also shown us how attuned they are to whether our back of the house is as ethical as the messages of the works of art on the walls and on our stage. Where there were differences, there were credibility gaps.&nbsp;CGN: So artists acted as a voice of consciousness and a kind of auditor? What happened behind the scenes? It was important for the MCA to listen and respond.&nbsp;MG: Much of our work since COVID has been very important but relatively invisible. We have intentionally put a DEI lens on our institution. We launched our first fully bilingual major exhibition, “Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today.” It’s what Chicago should do, especially since we have a population that is 18% Spanish-speaking.&nbsp;What we do administratively and systemically is part of what it means to be a good contemporary art museum. It’s not just how we show up on the outside; we are only as good as our people.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419184/gh74edlh19jekh31qh4v.jpg"><figcaption>”Marton Robinson, La coronación de la Negrita (The Coronation of La Negrita), 2022, chalkboard paint and chalk on canvas, sixty parts. Installation view. Photo: Michael David Rose.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: At the time of writing, MCA’s staff is at 40% BIPOC, which is a 5% increase over the last year.&nbsp;MG: On the public side, since 2020, nearly 70% of our collection acquisitions have been by women-identified or BIPOC artists. We have actually been 50% women-represented in all of our programs since 2015. We are part of this new wave and generation of feminism that is starting to finally be able to make permanent–not cosmetic–material differences, changes that are a part of our daily practices and will continue to be.&nbsp;This is the same with many of the MCA’s changes implemented during the pandemic. [Artists] have become much more attuned to wanting to be with institutions that reflect the learnings that we have all taken in. They want to support those institutions that want to change internally as well as externally. That’s the answer.&nbsp;CGN: You noted that the MCA is acquiring women-identified and BIPOC artists’ work at 7 times the rate of any other museum in the country (according to the Burns Halperin report). This is happening in Chicago. What drives you to continue being invested in this city?&nbsp;MG: What I’ve always said about Chicago is that it is a flash point and a flashlight. Which means that it’s a leader, and it is incumbent upon us to set the terms by which a great contemporary museum is defined. Chicago is currently experiencing a Golden Age specifically for black art, on a par with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. It’s also a Golden Age of what might be considered socially engaged art, which is one of the most important art movements since the 1990s. There is no other city that can boast the likes of Theaster Gates, the Rebuild Foundation, Emmanuel Pratt and the Sweet Water Foundation, Amanda Williams, Michael Rakowitz, Faheem Majeed and the Floating Museum, and so many others the world has noticed. There is no other city that can boast a community of artists at that level of excellence. This community lives at the intersection of art, architecture and design. We really celebrate that.&nbsp;CGN: Borrowing your flashlight metaphor here, what is something you want to illuminate for visitors returning to the MCA?A welcome. There is no single word to capture the past 36 months. I guess there was the overused ‘unprecedented’ but there’s not really a word for what we all have gone through and are still emerging from. We are now seeing people coming back together ‘post-COVID’, and it is the most beautiful, heartwarming and important thing.&nbsp;The MCA wants to reward our community’s courageous return with wonder. Our offering is to first make you curious, then facilitate that understanding, which naturally leads to bridging differences, and that naturally leads to change. And when you ask me that question, it really comes down to: we want to be the place that catalyzes art. I think that’s when it becomes an act against the worst part of the last 36 months: the divisive black and white ideology structure we are actively against.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Looking back on 2022, for instance thinking back to Nick Cave and “Forothermore”, what were some of the challenges you faced then, even with some stunning programming? How did you overcome them?&nbsp;MG: Well, I can speak to the challenge of maintaining pre-COVID level programming momentum and audience engagement.&nbsp;We continue to see the benefits of a museum that is as strong online as it is onsite, because we did learn that it clears economic, geographic and ability hurdles in ways that the physical museum space does not.You always have to ask yourself, not only what extraordinary art offering will change people’s lives and hearts and minds, but what is an ethical way in which you execute that exhibition or program? Since COVID what we’ve learned is that it is an extraordinary, and much more welcome, way of working when you partner and collaborate with an institution on an exhibition like Nick Cave or a full day symposium in partnership with DEEM journal, a biannual print journal and online platform focused on design as social practice.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419185/pc2p8nwmuq2elyoi8wpq.jpg"><figcaption>Installation view from&nbsp; “Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: What have been some proud moments?&nbsp;MG: Creating gorgeous exhibitions, like launching our first major bilingual exhibition with “Forecast Form” or making an extraordinary show by Chicago-based artist Nick Cave happen and see it travel to New York. Hosting an unbelievable performance festival called Chicago Performs.&nbsp;I’m also proud of how we do it – so often we do this in partnership with other organizations we are honored to work with and mutually elevate.&nbsp;Our mindset has shifted very productively in the wake of the last 36 months. At the same time we have always been connected – as a contemporary art museum – to emergent thinking, doing and being.Looking forward, our exhibition this summer is a retrospective of the great artist Gary Simmons curated by our Chief Curator René Morales and Assistant Curator Jadine Collingwood. It is gorgeous work and its subject matter focuses on those hidden histories, particularly around race, that permeate our culture and that we need to continue to talk about. The first survey show Simmons ever did as a young artist was at the MCA in the early ‘90s.In August the MCA will open a show called “Entre Horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico” that examines the intersection between art and social justice movements between the Puerto Rican diaspora and Chicago.&nbsp;CGN: It’s clear that no institution is an island. Ongoing public discussions about institutions call for critical review of the communities involved in their existence: Who can take part? Who is it serving? You’ve mentioned that some artists have recently returned to the MCA. They are actively a part of MCA’s history, present, and future. What can you tell us about the partnerships and collaborations?&nbsp;MG: You’re so right. Another example I love is that the MCA gave Lorna Simpson her first survey show in 1992. Today she is one of our trustees, actively influencing the organizational direction of the museum.We also did this wonderful exhibition with the DuSable Museum recently, a relationship that will continue. The MCA enters into such partnerships with humility. We try to always go about our work in the right way in Chicago, as a cultural and civic agent. Part of that responsibility is to remain internationally significant and cosmopolitan.&nbsp;[For example, we recently] negotiated the gift of a historic collection of installation art from the 1990s to the present from the collection of Dimitris Daskalopoulos, which we are co-owning with the Guggenheim in NYC.Obviously this is not accomplished alone. We are in a moment when I believe the MCA is having a huge impact locally, nationally and internationally. And it’s thanks to a magnificent alignment between staff and board that is committed to fully manifesting this museum on behalf of its artists and its public.We are here to welcome every person that comes in the door and to learn with and from them. Chicago is a full partner in MCA’s growth, in heart and mind.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;#&nbsp;</body></html>

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