CGN's weekly roundup of local, national and international art world news.


News from Around the Art World: September 25, 2017

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

If you attended EXPO CHICAGO or the opening of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial&nbsp;last&nbsp;week&nbsp;you knew that things were busy. EXPO and the City of Chicago both&nbsp;announced just how busy things were &ndash;&nbsp;8,500 people on opening night for EXPO&#39;s Vernissage, and 40,000 people over the course of the fair &ndash;&nbsp;and the news is positive on all fronts. Early sales wrap-ups from participating galleries have been healthy and encouraging, and the overall attendance numbers set records.&nbsp;

&ldquo;This is the first year that L&eacute;vy Gorvy participated in EXPO CHICAGO and we were thrilled by the reception that we received from collectors, curators and a very enthusiastic public. Chicago has a personal significance for me, and a phenomenal history as a pioneering city for art, architecture and collecting. We were very pleased to see old friends and to enjoy the revitalized energy of this fair. In particular, we were happy that works by Pat Steir, Carol Rama, Senga Nengudi and Dan Colen found new homes in the Midwest.&rdquo; &mdash; Brett Gorvy | L&eacute;vy Gorvy

&ldquo;Participating in EXPO CHICAGO for the first time, we wanted to show a dynamic selection of works. We were delighted with the level of engagement with the art from private collectors, as well as from representatives of major institutions.&rdquo;&nbsp;&mdash; Millicent Wilner | Gagosian&nbsp;

&ldquo;EXPO CHICAGO brings a wonderful audience of patrons and museum groups every September. Over the years, this has allowed us to debut major exhibitions, in addition to an ambitious presentation at the fair. We were thrilled to prominently feature work by artists in both the booth space as well as a part of IN/SITU. We also featured modernist and blue-chip contemporary work for the first time and are beyond happy to place these works in prominent collections.&rdquo; &ndash; Kavi Gupta | Kavi Gupta

&quot;The fair had and strong international representation of galleries this year and we continue to do good business with both known and new regional collectors. If a consensus can be achieved, and more top galleries join, EXPO CHICAGO is on it&#39;s way to being the dominant date and meeting point for American collectors West of the East Coast.&quot;&nbsp;&mdash;Christopher D&rsquo;Amelio | David Zwirner

<img alt="" data-caption="Visitors to EXPO Chicago 2017" data-rich-file-id="2349" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2349/original/img-3160.jpg" />

The opening of EXPO&nbsp;CHICAGO, the International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art,&nbsp;and the simultaneous launch of the second edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial were also very good for the City of Chicago, since the city&nbsp;welcomed more than 100,000 visitors from around the world last week,&nbsp;a figure&nbsp;reported by Mayor Emanuel himself,&nbsp;&ldquo;Renowned exhibitions at both the Chicago Architecture Biennial and EXPO CHICAGO bolstered Chicago&rsquo;s reputation as the vanguard of architectural, art and design innovation on the national and international stage and underscores the city&rsquo;s important convening power,&rdquo; said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. &ldquo;I want to thank all of the architects, organizers, and residents of Chicago who made this week such a tremendous cultural, educational and economic success for our city.&rdquo;&nbsp;

EXPO&nbsp;presented 135 leading international galleries from 25 countries and 58 cities. Additional special projects in collaboration with both CAB and EXPO CHICAGO took place at Navy Pier with Nick Cave&rsquo;s&nbsp;Here Hear Chicago&nbsp;performances as well as&nbsp;at the DuSable Museum of African American History&rsquo;s Roundhouse for the Palais de Tokyo&rsquo;s first-ever off-site exhibition in the United States, in partnership with the Institut fran&ccedil;ais.&nbsp;

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) expanded to include over 140 practitioners from 20 countries at exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center hub, as well as at six neighborhood sites across the city. The estimated attendance at CAB was over 30,000 at opening festivities.&nbsp;The&nbsp;Biennial runs through January 7, 2018, and is free and open to the general public at the Chicago Cultural Center and sites across the city. EXPO returns to Navy Pier September 27-30, 2018.

It&#39;s hard to believe EXPO CHICAGO 2017&nbsp;is already over, but the 2018 dates have been set and we will look forward to once again seeing what&#39;s next for the fair as well as the contemporary art world. In the meantime, there is still so much to see around the city that is part of the Architecture Biennial as well as the city&#39;s programming for the Year of Public Art.&nbsp;Congratulations to EXPO, the MCA, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the City of Chicago&nbsp;and all who participated during the weekend! &nbsp;&ndash; GV

&nbsp;

EXPO CHICAGO&#39;s&nbsp;press release regarding opening night&nbsp;is below:

<h3>SIXTH ANNUAL OPENING PREVIEW OF EXPO CHICAGO AND&nbsp;THE MCA&rsquo;S VERNISSAGE WELCOMES MORE THAN 8,500 PEOPLE AT NAVY PIER&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
The Opening Night benefit for EXPO CHICAGO, Hosted by the MCA&nbsp;Women&rsquo;s Board, Raises $300,000</h3>

(Chicago, IL)&nbsp;EXPO CHICAGO, The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art, opened its sixth edition to more than 8,500 people during&nbsp;Vernissage, the opening night event benefiting the&nbsp;Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago. A vast crowd of the city&rsquo;s business, civic and cultural leaders, as well as artists, collectors and art enthusiasts filled Navy Pier&rsquo;s Festival Hall Wednesday, September 13 as they were treated to a special preview of more than 135 of the world&rsquo;s leading galleries from 25 countries and 58 cities.&nbsp;

Notable guests included&nbsp;Lena Baume,&nbsp;Allison Berg,&nbsp;Bruce&nbsp;and&nbsp;Barbara Berger,&nbsp;Marlene Breslow&nbsp;and&nbsp;Berle Blitstein,&nbsp;Fred Bidwell,&nbsp;Neil Bluhm,&nbsp;Barbara Bluhm-Kaul&nbsp;and&nbsp;Don&nbsp;Kaul,&nbsp;Pierre Boulais,&nbsp;Gwen Callans&nbsp;and&nbsp;Biff Ruttenberg,&nbsp;Larry&nbsp;and&nbsp;Marilyn Fields,&nbsp;Caryn&nbsp;and&nbsp;King&nbsp;John&nbsp;and&nbsp;Sharon Hoffman,&nbsp;Bill Gautreaux,&nbsp;Helyn Goldenberg&nbsp;and&nbsp;Michael Alper,&nbsp;Rod Lubeznik&nbsp;and&nbsp;Susan Goodman,&nbsp;James Gordon,&nbsp;Paul&nbsp;and&nbsp;Linda Gotskind,&nbsp;Ken Griffin,&nbsp;Jack&nbsp;and&nbsp;Sandra Guthman,&nbsp;Anne&nbsp;Kaplan,&nbsp;Susie Karkomi&nbsp;and&nbsp;Marvin Leavitt,&nbsp;Liz&nbsp;Lefkofsky,&nbsp;Nancy Lerner&nbsp;and&nbsp;David Frej,&nbsp;Jennifer&nbsp;Litowitz&nbsp;,&nbsp;Susan Manilow,&nbsp;Eric McKissack,&nbsp;Gary Metzner,&nbsp;Bob Munch,&nbsp;Lewis&nbsp;and&nbsp;Susan Nerman,&nbsp;Claire&nbsp;and&nbsp;Mike O&#39;Grady,&nbsp;Randall&nbsp;and&nbsp;Shelia Ott,&nbsp;MK Pritzker,&nbsp;Alan&nbsp;and&nbsp;Rebecca Ross,&nbsp;Cathy Ross&nbsp;and&nbsp;Chris Liguori,&nbsp;Lyn Segal,&nbsp;Amir Shariat,&nbsp;Irving Stenn,&nbsp;Kristin Binder Stevens&nbsp;and&nbsp;Stan Stevens,&nbsp;Carl&nbsp;and&nbsp;Marilyn Thoma,&nbsp;Lucas Walton, and&nbsp;Helen Zell, among others. 
&nbsp; 
This unique celebration, co-chaired by MCA Women&rsquo;s Board members&nbsp;Tonya Geesman,&nbsp;Christine Poggianti&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ellen Wallace, began with a patron reception at 5:00 pm in the VIP Collector&rsquo;s Lounge, presented by Northern Trust, featuring food by some of Chicago&rsquo;s top restaurants and food providers including: 20E, Talbott Hotel, BellyQ, Chicago Raw, Marisol, Big Star, Riva Restaurant, Tanta, The Windsor, Yusho, Eli&rsquo;s Cheesecake and Skinny Pop and Nude Dude Food. Featured beverage sponsors include Lagunitas and Terrazas de los Andes. 
&nbsp; 
At 6 pm President | Director of EXPO CHICAGO&nbsp;Tony Karman&nbsp;took a humbling moment to thank the crowd for their tremendous support for the fair&rsquo;s sixth year. He then called on MCA Chicago&rsquo;s Pritzker Director&nbsp;Madeleine Grynsztejn&nbsp;to speak to the incredible partnership between the MCA and EXPO CHICAGO. &nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
&ldquo;We have been collaborating with the art fair since the inception of Vernissage and we are especially proud of that partnership this year because we are celebrating the 50th&nbsp;anniversary of the MCA Women&rsquo;s Board. Thank you to the Women&rsquo;s Board and all of you for making the MCA the preeminent contemporary art museum in Chicago and beyond for 50 years.&rdquo; She added, &ldquo;Collaborations like this are so important, and I am proud to debut another collaboration between the MCA, world-renowned artist Kerry James Marshall and fashion brand MZ Wallace. Together, we debut a gorgeous bag based on a painting by Kerry James Marshall in our permanent collection, and all proceeds go directly to our education programs.&rdquo; 
&nbsp; 
Northern Trust Wealth Management Central Region President&nbsp;Mac MacLellan&nbsp;then took the stage stating, &ldquo;We are thrilled with the growth of the art fair and the major impact it has had on our entire city. Northern Trust remains the only financial services firm based in the U.S. to sponsor a modern and contemporary art exhibition of this scale and size, showing our firms commitment to the art community.&rdquo; He continued, &ldquo;The entire art world will have its eye on Chicago the next couple of days and that is entirely because of the unique collaborations that EXPO CHICAGO has made possible. Collaboration between the City of Chicago, Navy Pier, Corporate Sponsors, arts organizations, artists and galleries&mdash;and in this day in age, when we have so much dissonance between so many despaired groups, it&rsquo;s nice to see collaboration come together and be successful. EXPO CHICAGO is a great example not only for the City of Chicago but for the rest of the country.&rdquo; 
&nbsp; 
MacLellan then introduced Navy Pier&rsquo;s Chief Program and Civic Engagement officer&nbsp;Michelle T. Boone, who welcomed everyone to Navy Pier stating, &ldquo;Tony and his vision for EXPO CHICAGO has really paved the way for establishing Navy Pier as one of the most exciting cultural districts in the city of Chicago,&nbsp;and I am just thrilled and honored to continue this tradition and partnership.&rdquo; She reiterated MacLellan&rsquo;s sentiments by adding, &ldquo;This is a tremendous demonstration of the power of partnerships and collaborations between private, public and non-private sectors pulling together to make this the most exciting arts week not only in Chicago but in the nation.&rdquo; 
&nbsp; 
Chairman of the Chicago Architecture Biennial&nbsp;Jack Guthman&nbsp;also took a moment to thank Tony Karman for his vision. &ldquo;I told the Mayor we had to align the Biennial with EXPO CHICAGO because no one promotes Chicago the way Tony Karman promotes Chicago. I wanted the biennial, my little ship, to follow in his wake, and the Mayor got it right away.&rdquo; 
&nbsp; 
The City of Chicago Commissioner of Cultural Affairs and Special Events&nbsp;Mark Kelly&nbsp;concluded the remarks, perfectly encapsulating the unique collaborations of the night and throughout the city. &ldquo;This year is the 50th&nbsp;anniversary of the MCA and the sixth year of EXPO CHICAGO. 50 is the most perfect number in numerology, and six is the most harmonious of the single digit numbers so what we have is major good karma here today. Congratulations to the MCA and to EXPO CHICAGO. On behalf of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, I want to thank Tony Karman and his staff for lighting a fuse, making Chicago on fire with the visual arts. This is a civic event that reaches out into the entire city including artists, museums, galleries, cultural organizations and more. We are not only the center of visual arts in the country but in the world. When you take EXPO CHICAGO, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the upcoming Art Design Chicago, the Year of Public Art and all the great work going on in the city, right here and now, this is the epicenter of great visual arts in the world.&rdquo; 
&nbsp; 
A bottle of&nbsp;Ruinart Champagne&nbsp;was popped and all gathered together for a celebratory toast before making their way onto the show floor. &nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Guests mingled throughout the show floor until&nbsp;Nick Cave&rsquo;s&nbsp;Up Right Chicago&nbsp;commenced on the show floor, featuring a processional of dancers in soundsuits making their way through Festival Hall. The performance, a part of&nbsp;Here Hear Chicago&nbsp;and a unique collaboration between Cave and architect&nbsp;Jeanne Gang, continued in the Aon Ballroom welcoming guests of Vernissage in addition to the general public. 
 
EXPO CHICAGO 2018 will return September 27&ndash;30. For more information on EXPO CHICAGO and&nbsp;EXPO ART WEEK&nbsp;visit&nbsp;<a href="http://expochicago.com">expochicago.com</a> 
&nbsp;

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A wrap-up of EXPO chicago attendance and the Chicago Architecture Biennial opening

Impressive Numbers From Opening of EXPO CHICAGO 2017 and 2nd Chicago Architecture Biennial

We received the following press announcement from the MCA regarding the smashing success of Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg.&nbsp;The exhibition and artwork by Murakami were featured on the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/5/publisher-s-letter-summer-s-fresh-take-on-art">summer 2017 issue</a> of Chicago Gallery News. The show also inspired our summer post about <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/6/who-s-ever-heard-of-a-pink-octopus-enjoy-art-with-your-family-this-summer">seeing art as a family</a>.&nbsp;

The news was also a timely reminder that the show closes this coming Sunday, September 24. Don&#39;t wait to get timed-entrance tickets before it&#39;s too late.

Congratulations MCA! &ndash; GV

<img alt="" data-caption="The Summer 2017 CGN featured Takashi Murakami's &quot;ZuZaZaZaZaZa&quot;, 1994." data-rich-file-id="2345" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2345/original/cgn-cover-summer2017.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Visitors in Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg. Photo: Nathan Keay." data-rich-file-id="2348" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2348/original/murakamicrowds.jpg" />

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

September 20, 2017

<h3>NEWS ALERT | Murakami Breaks Attendance Record Today</h3>

The&nbsp;Takashi Murakami&nbsp;exhibition officially broke the David Bowie attendance record of 193,000, making it the&nbsp;all-time highest attended exhibition&nbsp;in the MCA&#39;s 50-year history. Visitors&nbsp;still have five days to see the exhibition, it runs through Sunday, September 24. 
&nbsp; 
Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg&nbsp;features the art and culture icon&#39;s immersive paintings, including several never-before-seen works. Murakami is widely known for both his fine art and commercial output -- including collaborations with pop icons such as Kanye West and fashion house Louis Vuitton -- and his ability to straddle high and low, ancient and modern, eastern and western, commercial and fine art. The exhibition is curated by MCA Chief Curator Michael Darling, who said in regards to setting a new attendance record for the museum, &quot;The audiences for this show have been amazing, incredibly youthful and diverse with an enthusiastic thirst for all that Murakami produces.&quot; 
&nbsp; 
Tickets are still available to see the exhibition, but visitors will need timed tickets on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Saturday, in addition to regular museum hours, the exhibition will be open from 7 - 11 pm during the museum&#39;s late-night Prime Time event (21+, special ticket required). Tickets are at&nbsp;<a href="http://mcachicago.org">mcachicago.org</a>

<img alt="" data-caption="Installation view, Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats its Own Leg, MCA Chicago, June 6 – September 24, 2017. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago." data-rich-file-id="2347" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2347/original/murakami-20170601-119.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Takashi Murakami, Dragon In Clouds—Indigo Blue, 2010. Acrylic on canvas mounted on board, 143 x 708 5/8 in. (363 x 1,800 cm). Collection of Larry Gagosian. © 2010 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Photo: Gavin Ashworth." data-rich-file-id="2346" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2346/original/mca-takashi-murakamin.jpg" />

Top Image:&nbsp;Takashi Murakami,&nbsp;Photo: Maria Ponce Berre, &copy; MCA Chicago.

The MCA's Takashi Murakami exhibition smashes attendance records 

MCA's Takashi Murakami Exhibition Breaks Museum's All-time Attendance Record

CGN&#39;s weekly roundup of local, national and international art world news.

&nbsp;

<h3>Chicago Architecture Biennial: 10 things we loved</h3>

Artistic directors, architects, and educators Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, of L.A.&rsquo;s&nbsp;Johnston Marklee, invited more than 140 participants from around the world to interpret the exhibit&rsquo;s theme, &ldquo;Make New History.&rdquo; Based on the myriad of architectural history, design, and urban planning displays, it appeared to be a wide-ranging prompt. Here are some of the exhibitions and events that stood out during a tour of the main display and many of the&nbsp;off-site exhibitions&nbsp;opening weekend. &nbsp;--Via Patrick Sisson, Curbed Chicago

<a href="https://www.curbed.com/2017/9/18/16317224/chicago-architecture-biennial-2017-must-see">Read More</a>

&nbsp;

<h3><img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of EXPO CHICAGO" data-rich-file-id="2340" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2340/original/expo-20sold.jpg" /></h3>

<h3>What Sold at EXPO Chicago</h3>

Gupta credited Tony Karman, EXPO Chicago&rsquo;s director since 2011, with helping revitalize the city&rsquo;s art scene. Chicago has, for decades, had some of the world&rsquo;s most prestigious art institutions and a sophisticated group of collectors, but Karman, Gupta noted, has brought everyone together in support of the city&rsquo;s cultural scene&mdash;from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose photo and personal note appear in the fair&rsquo;s promotional materials, to the institutions, collectors, universities, and even non-profit organizations from the U.S. and abroad.

&ldquo;He&rsquo;s using [the fair] as this thing that&rsquo;s beyond a trade show,&rdquo; Gupta said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s using it as a catalytic moment to shift the cultural makeup of the city.&rdquo; &nbsp;--Via Anna Louie Sussman, Artsy Editorial

<a href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-sold-expo-chicago">Read More</a>

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of Co-Prosperity Sphere" data-rich-file-id="2342" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2342/original/cardboard.jpg" />

<h3>Cardboard Art Show At Bridgeport Gallery Seeks Submissions</h3>

BRIDGEPORT &mdash; Think you have the next oil-and-cardboard masterpiece? Now is your chance to submit it for a special, cardboard-only art show happening at Bridgeport&#39;s Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The&nbsp;Art on Cardboard Show&nbsp;is seeking submissions for its 15th annual exhibit in October. Described by organizers as an art show &quot;by the people for the people,&quot; the exhibit features pieces from dozens of artists guided by just one rule &mdash; use cardboard.

Most pieces are art paintings or drawings on cardboard, and artists of varying skill levels are encouraged to submit works to the show. &nbsp; --Via Joe Ward, dna info

<a href="https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20170919/bridgeport/cardboard-art-show-gallery-co-prosperity-sphere-lumpen-radio-birdhouse-museum">Read More</a>

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of &quot;Chicago Tribune&quot;" data-rich-file-id="2341" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2341/original/chicaog-trib.jpg" />

<h3>A visit to the art-filled Lakeview tavern that is Ten Cat</h3>

There are few more pleasant places than a neighborhood saloon on a late afternoon and so it was at the Ten Cat Tavern one day last week.

A couple of men played pool on one of the two ancient and magnificent Brunswick tables that occupy the middle of the long rectangular tavern and walking past them, careful not to bump their cue sticks, you would have passed a jukebox that still contains 45s (an amazing selection of them too), a room with a fireplace and comfortable chairs and a couch before eventually finding a small and peaceful garden dotted with a few tables. &nbsp;--Via Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune

<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-ten-cat-tavern-art-0919-story.html">Read More</a>

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of &quot;The New York Times&quot;" data-rich-file-id="2343" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2343/original/nytimes.jpg" />

<h3>It Might Have Been a Masterpiece, but Now It&rsquo;s a Cautionary Tale</h3>

AMSTERDAM &mdash; When the cultural historian and Piet Mondrian biographer L&eacute;on Hanssen visited the Bozar Center for the Arts in Brussels in the spring of 2016, a painting stopped him dead in his tracks.

It looked remarkably similar to an untitled 1923 Mondrian that the Nazis had displayed as an example of &ldquo;degenerate art&rdquo; in a famous 1937 Munich exhibition. It was thought to have been destroyed in the Berlin air raids at the end of World War II. But could this be it? &nbsp; --Via Nina Siegal, New York Times

<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/arts/fake-mondrian-stedelijk-bozar.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=arts&amp;region=rank&amp;module=package&amp;version=highlights&amp;contentPlacement=2&amp;pgtype=sectionfront&amp;_r=0">Read More</a>

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of &quot;Wall Street Journal&quot;" data-rich-file-id="2344" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2344/original/wsj-art.jpg" />

<h3>Art Collectors, Pay Your Taxes</h3>

States are cracking down on art collectors who aren&rsquo;t paying taxes owed on their purchases.

States don&rsquo;t release details about investigations into evasion of taxes on art purchases. But according to lawyers representing defendants in such cases, state attorneys general and revenue departments around the country have stepped up their investigations and prosecutions for failure to pay sales and use taxes on art purchases. &nbsp; --Via Daniel Grant, Wall Street Journal

<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/art-collectors-pay-your-taxes-1505095500">Read More</a>

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<span style="border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: bold; font-size: 11px; line-height: 20px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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); 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CGN's weekly roundup of local, national and international art world news, Sept 19-24, 2017

News from Around the Art World: September 19, 2017

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418587/h31gtneupgnhhci8mhjg.jpg"></figure>Each week CGN interviews a local art dealer to discuss the ins and outs of running a gallery in the city of Chicago.This week we caught up with Andrew Bae of <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/andrew-bae-gallery">Andrew Bae Gallery</a>.&nbsp;Gallery:&nbsp;Andrew Bae GalleryName: Andrew BaePrevious occupation: Research chemist&nbsp;Chicago Gallery News:&nbsp;How did you become an art dealer?&nbsp;Andrew Bae:&nbsp;I came to America when I was 23 years old from Korea with a Bachelor’s degree in science. I worked as an analytical research chemist at Kellogg's company for seven years. I yearned to travel the world to see beautiful things I have always admired. I left my job as a scientist and became an importer of many beautiful things from around the world. I engaged in furniture making for a while, fascinated by its aesthetic and function. &nbsp;Some years later I found myself as an art dealer. Today, I still believe that nature and art are the ultimate beauty of all existing things.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp;Please describe your gallery’s program in one sentence.AB:&nbsp;This gallery introduces a very small group of select artists from Korea and Japan to the mainstream art scenes in America for long-term bases.&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp;What's the first thing you do each morning when you get to the gallery?&nbsp;AB:&nbsp;Enjoy my walk to the gallery more than two decades and think about communication with all parties according to our priorities.&nbsp;CGN: Thumbs up or down on art fairs?AB:&nbsp;Thumbs down. Those are fun places for consumers of art but not good for the artists and collectors for its long-term effects.&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp;Who are artists you admire but don't represent?AB:&nbsp;Anselm Kiefer, Peter Doig, Shoichi Ida, Michal Rovner, Ai Wei Wei and Do Ho Suh, to name a few.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp;What is the best sale you ever had?AB:&nbsp;A sale to a young couple from Moscow, who had previously failed to find their art collections from Miami art fairs. They chose five of the eight artists in my gallery for their two homes in Moscow. They knew exactly which works would go where in their home.&nbsp;Also, to an elderly artist from California who wanted to buy a small painting for $900. She paid installments of $100 each month. After five payments, I sent her the painting with a letter 'paid in full'.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What advice would you share with new or young collectors?AB:&nbsp;Trust your own instincts. You don't need to ask around for other opinions. It’s like finding a good friend. You are the best person who knows what is best for yourself. It is an exhilarating experience to discover something you love and never knew before. It comes only with some courage.&nbsp;CGN: Which artist that you represent or work of art you have recently acquired are you most excited about? Why?AB:&nbsp;Jungjin Lee is the photographer I discovered 15 years ago. &nbsp;I never thought about having a photographer in my gallery until I saw the works in her Seoul studio. I was absolutely thrilled and convinced she was the perfect artist for ABG.&nbsp;She has since been selected as an artist of the year in 2017 by Paris Photo.&nbsp;She is one of our most recent partners to the gallery.&nbsp;CGN: What major successes have you had this year? What about challenges?AB:&nbsp;I have encountered several new collectors this year. A young man from San Francisco known to this gallery for several years acquired a major work for the first time. He took time to learn about the artist and I took time to answer all he wanted to know. I hand delivered the work for him and he is exuberant of his new collection.&nbsp;Instantaneous gratitude becoming fashionable in the art world. This is the most challenging trend for our current and future program.&nbsp;CGN: How do you view working as an art dealer in Chicago?AB:&nbsp;Chicago is one of the metropolitan cities that draws people from all over the world with interest in art and culture. In this regard, Chicago is a favorable city to be engaged in as an art dealer. Although, it is definitely a challenging time of change for all art galleries.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What is your favorite interest outside of the art world?AB:&nbsp;I have broad interest in environmental issues and social science. (I hope the city of Chicago engages more effectively in environmental protection policy-- especially the recycling program.)&nbsp;I also enjoy&nbsp;listening to classical music and new Jazz from Korea.&nbsp;CGN: What is your favorite work of public art in Chicago?AB:&nbsp;SoundCloud&nbsp;by Harry Bertoia and&nbsp;Agora&nbsp;by Magdalena Abakanowicz.&nbsp;Andrew Bae is the owner of&nbsp;Andrew Bae Gallery&nbsp;located in River North in Chicago. For more information about his&nbsp;gallery visit: <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/andrew-bae-gallery">Andrew Bae Gallery.</a>&nbsp;*Editor's Note: This interview&nbsp;has been updated from its original posting on September 29, 2017</body></html>

An Interview with a Dealer: Andrew Bae

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

The sixth edition of EXPO CHICAGO,&nbsp;the International Exposition of Contemporary &amp; Modern Art, opened last night at Navy Pier. The crowds were humming from the earliest opening at 3pm, and the energy continued to build all evening, as art enthusiasts streamed through the doors, eager to see the best of the world&#39;s contemporary art all under a single, massive roof. Many prominent collectors, artists and art world figures&nbsp;were in attendance as expected,&nbsp;giving a boost to the fair and making many connections all evening, ensuring that the fair&#39;s vitality and reputation will continue to grow in years to come.

Overall the art in the show looked very strong, and the enthusiasm and excitement of the crowd overflowed positively all night. The evening concluded with Nick Cave&#39;s&nbsp;remarkable Up Right Chicago&nbsp;performance, which featured dozens of participants, some wore his famous Soundsuits, some helped dress the performers live on stage, and others played music and sang songs. Architect Jeanne Gang&#39;s custom objects, designed to be part of the performance, were irrisistably playful and touchable for all who walked through the atrium on the walk to the Aon Ballroom.&nbsp;

EXPO&#39;s sterling exhibitor list and offering of art, combined with outstanding and dynamic art programming, has made EXPO ART WEEK a cultural centerpiece of Chicago, and its effects will long be felt and remembered.&nbsp;

A few highlights from the show are pictured below, but properly&nbsp;viewing&nbsp;this show will take more than one party-filled evening, as much of the work displayed requires time and attention&nbsp;to truly see&nbsp;and understand. Lucky for us, EXPO added an extra day to the show this year!&nbsp;&ndash;GV

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To read other EXPO 2017 coverage, click <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/9/expo-art-week-september-11-17-2017--2">here</a>.

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<img alt="" data-caption="Visitors to Galerie Gmurzynska, New York" data-rich-file-id="2338" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2338/original/img-6493.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Luftwerk's booth with the NRDC" data-rich-file-id="2326" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2326/original/img-3218.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Liat Elbling at Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago" data-rich-file-id="2319" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2319/original/img-3150.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Anna Kunz at McCormick Gallery, Chicago" data-rich-file-id="2336" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2336/original/img-6489.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Eduardo Terrazas at Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City" data-rich-file-id="2318" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2318/original/img-3139.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="The Haas Brothers, Fruit Stripe, hand woven carpet in wool, R &amp; Company, New York" data-rich-file-id="2321" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2321/original/img-3154.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Manish Nai, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, part of IN/SITU" data-rich-file-id="2322" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2322/original/img-3157.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Faheem Majeed, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago (artwork is on cover of fall 2017 CGN!)" data-rich-file-id="2323" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2323/original/img-3169.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="John Seal at Konig Gallerie, Berlin " data-rich-file-id="2325" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2325/original/img-3216.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Faig Ahmed at Sapar Contemporary, Handmade wool carpet" data-rich-file-id="2328" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2328/original/img-3223.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Jean-Francois Razzier, Musee d'Orsay, Waterhouse &amp; Dodd Gallery, London" data-rich-file-id="2327" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2327/original/img-3219.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Luring Augustine's all video booth" data-rich-file-id="2329" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2329/original/img-6475.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Robert Therrien, No Title (drops), stainless steel, at Gagosian Gallery" data-rich-file-id="2330" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2330/original/img-6477.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Wang Du's IN/SITU installation, Psychiatrie et Cardiologie, courtesy Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris" data-rich-file-id="2337" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2337/original/img-6492.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Lucas Simoes at PATRON, Chicago – concrete, glass, plastic and foam installation" data-rich-file-id="2333" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2333/original/img-6488.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Ed Ruscha at Gagosian" data-rich-file-id="2324" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2324/original/img-3214.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Judy Ledgerwood at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago" data-rich-file-id="2320" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2320/original/img-3146.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Adam Parker Smith at The Hole, New York, resin, fiberglass, preserved mylar, steel" data-rich-file-id="2332" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2332/original/img-6479.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Lara Schnitzers installation, Suffragette City, courtesy Anton Kern Gallery, New York" data-rich-file-id="2335" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2335/original/img-6480.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Nick Cave's Up Right Chicago concluded the evening in the Aon Grand Ballroom" data-rich-file-id="2339" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2339/original/img-6517.jpg" />

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To see more images from CGN all weekend, follow us on Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/chigallerynews/">@ChiGalleryNews</a>

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A wrap-up of the 2017 EXPO Chicago's Vernissage opening

EXPO CHICAGO 2017 Vernissage Visual Wrap-Up

A summary of highlights of EXPO ART WEEK and the 6th edition of EXPO CHICAGO

EXPO Art Week – September 11-17, 2017

<h3>The growth of Chicago&#39;s Super Loop: So much building, so little architecture</h3>

A flock of construction cranes fills the sky. Downtown&#39;s population is soaring. The skyline is changing and so is the texture of city life.

A generation ago, West Madison Street was Chicago&#39;s Skid Row home to winos and flophouses. It is now a chic strip of sushi joints, cycle studios, preschools and a gourmet ice cream shop. But the architectural fare consists of bland apartment high rises that have drawn complaints of monotony. &ndash; Via&nbsp;Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune

<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kamin/ct-chicago-building-boom-kamin-met-0903-20170908-column.html">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="Salvador Dali. Photo by Kammerman/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images." data-rich-file-id="2304" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2304/original/dali.jpg" />

<h3>DNA Tests Debunk a Psychic&rsquo;s Claim to Be Dal&iacute;&rsquo;s Daughter, and a Surreal Saga Comes to an End</h3>

A Spanish tarot card reader&rsquo;s quest to be acknowledged as the daughter of Surrealist painter&nbsp;Salvador Dal&iacute;&nbsp;may have come to an anticlimactic end.

The Court of First Instance no. 11, in Madrid, has ruled out&nbsp;Pilar Abel Mart&iacute;nez&rsquo;s claim&nbsp;to be descended from the artist, based on DNA samples from her and from the artist, analyzed by the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences.

The artist&rsquo;s body&nbsp;was exhumed in July&nbsp;in&nbsp;a dramatic ceremonyat the Dal&iacute; Theater-Museum, located in his hometown of Figueres, Spain. &ndash; Via Artnet

<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/dna-tests-debunk-psychic-claim-dali-1072697#.Wbarm5za0LM.twitter">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="Gallery owner Kavi Gupta with Roger Brown's &quot;Hollywood With the Stars.&quot; Photo by Manuel Martinez " data-rich-file-id="2307" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2307/original/gupta.jpg" />

<h3>On a Mission to Make Roger Brown a Household Name</h3>

The late Imagist Roger Brown is one of the most underappreciated artists to come out of Chicago. Gallery owner Kavi Gupta wants to change that.&nbsp;&ndash; Via Crain&#39;s Chicago (subscription required)

<a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20170908/ISSUE03/170909916">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="Site Design Group" data-rich-file-id="2309" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2309/original/dusable.jpg" />

<h3>Chicago&rsquo;s DuSable Museum reveals new terrace, timeline for historic Roundhouse</h3>

Late last week, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel helped cut the ribbon on a new outdoor event space at the DuSable Museum of African-American History. Created by local architecture firm Site Design Group, the addition replaces an underused parking lot with new grass, flowers, fencing, and pavers. The&nbsp;$582,000 project&nbsp;is aimed at not only boosting attendance, but also creating a new revenue stream for the museum at 740 E. 56th Place through hosting private events such as weddings and corporate functions. &ndash; Via Curbed Chicago

<a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/9/5/16255038/dusable-museum-historic-roundhouse">Read More...</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of Getty Images" data-rich-file-id="2306" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2306/original/paris.jpg" />

<h3>Out With the Old, and in With La Biennale Paris</h3>

Global competition has brought some big changes to the latest edition of the venerable art fair&nbsp;La Biennale Paris.

Think of it as an old-school Citro&euml;n with a brand-new engine. &ndash; Via New York Times

<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/arts/design/la-biennale-paris-art-fair.html?action=click&amp;contentCollection=arts&amp;region=rank&amp;module=package&amp;version=highlights&amp;contentPlacement=7&amp;pgtype=sectionfront&amp;_r=0">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy Chicago Architecture Foundation" data-rich-file-id="2308" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2308/original/caf.jpg" />

<h3>Architecture Foundation moving to Wacker on the Chicago River</h3>

After more than 25 years at the Railway Exchange Building, the Chicago Architecture Foundation is moving to a new location in the heart of the city. The new Chicago Architecture Center will be at&nbsp;111 East Wacker Drive, just above the dock for the&nbsp;Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise aboard Chicago&rsquo;s First Lady Cruises. It will occupy 20,000 square feet, providing the foundation with expanded space for its growing program and education initiatives. The center will open in summer 2018.&nbsp;&ndash; Via Architecture.org

<a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20170907/NEWS07/170909927/chicago-architecture-foundation-building-new-center">Read More</a>&nbsp;

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Top Image: Courtesy of Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune

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A round-up of news from around the art world for the week of Sept 11, 2017

News from Around the Art World: September 11, 2017

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

EXPO Chicago is bringing the global art community to the city this week, and for the fair&#39;s sixth edition, which&nbsp;opens on Wednesday evening, EXPO&nbsp;is introducing a host of new initiatives that specifically address architecture, as the fair coincides with the launch of the second Chicago Architecture Biennial.

One of the most highly anticipated exhibitions happening offsite during the fair is part of a&nbsp;partnership with Palais de Tokyo, a self-proclaimed &quot;dynamic place for the artists of our time,&quot;&nbsp;and &quot;the largest center for contemporary artistic creation in all of Europe, as well as a one-of-a-kind exhibition space and a&nbsp;rebellious wasteland with the air of a Palace, an anti-museum in permanent transformation.&quot;

<img alt="" data-caption="Palais de Tokyo in France" data-rich-file-id="2303" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2303/original/palais-.jpg" />

The&nbsp;exhibition,&nbsp;Singing Stones, curated by Katell Jaffr&egrave;s, brings together 11 emerging artists from both the French and Chicago art scenes&nbsp;as part of the first&nbsp;Hors les Murs (beyond the walls)&nbsp;exhibition in the United States,&nbsp;in partnership with the&nbsp;Institut fran&ccedil;ais and&nbsp;Chicago&#39;s&nbsp;DuSable Museum of African American History.&nbsp;The exhibition has a strong contemporary architecture&nbsp;focus&nbsp;and is also possible in part because of&nbsp;a partnership with Chicago&#39;s Graham Foundation as well as&nbsp;guest designer Andrew Schachman.&nbsp;

This&nbsp;group&nbsp;exhibition, which will coincide with EXPO Art Week (September 13-17, 2017) and the&nbsp;opening of the second Chicago Architecture Biennial&nbsp;(September 16, 2017-January 8, 2018),&nbsp;will be on view&nbsp;at the DuSable Museum&#39;s Roundhouse on the South Side at 56th Street.&nbsp;

Famed Chicago architecture firm Burnham and Root designed the Roundhouse in 1893 as horse stables for the&nbsp;World&rsquo;s Columbian Exposition. Singing Stones&nbsp;begins a return for the Roundhouse to active use, though different of course from its original purpose. Fifty six years ago&nbsp;the DuSable Museum began as a small gallery in the home of Charles and Margaret Burroughs. In 1971, the Museum moved to the original wing of its current facility and then expanded in 1993.&nbsp;In 2005 the DuSable Museum acquired the Roundhouse, and since then they have been fundraising in order to recontruct the structure to its original state. Earlier this month the Museum&nbsp;unveiled a new outdoor event space, a&nbsp;15,000-square-foot plaza&nbsp;next to the Roundhouse, that would be open in time for the Architecture&nbsp;Biennial. Since the space has not been completely restored, it is in a more raw state now, something that curator Jaffr&eacute;s will use to his advantage for the exhibition as he showcases the raw artistic talent of Chicago and France&nbsp;today.&nbsp;

The exhibition partnership program is an extension of the French-American Curatorial Exchange initiated in 2013 with the Cultural Services of French Embassy in the United States. It ties together this year&#39;s focus in Chicago on art and architecture through a global lens.&nbsp;

The DuSable Museum&#39;s mission is to promote understanding and inspire appreciation of the achievements, contributions, and experiences of African Americans through exhibits, programs, and activities that illustrate African and African American history, culture and art.

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<h3>Singing Stones&nbsp;</h3>

Curated by Katell Jaffr&egrave;s (Palais de Tokyo)

September 12-October 29, 2017 
Opening Reception: 8&ndash;11pm |&nbsp;Tuesday, September 12, 2017&nbsp;

The Roundhouse 
740 E&nbsp;56th Pl.,&nbsp;Chicago (60637) 
FREE

Artists: Wilfrid Almendra, Daniel G. Baird, Floating Museum, Dorian&nbsp;Gaudin, Lola Gonz&agrave;lez, Bouchra Khalili, Guillaume Leblon,&nbsp;Florian Pugnaire &amp;&nbsp;David Raffini, Cauleen&nbsp;Smith, Thomas Teurlai,&nbsp;Rapha&euml;l Zarka, and&nbsp;Andrew Schachman

Extended hours during EXPO ART WEEK 
Wednesday, September 13 &mdash; 10:00am&ndash;7:00pm 
Thursday, September 14 &mdash; 10:00am&ndash;7:00pm 
Friday, September 15 &mdash; 10:00am&ndash;7:00pm&nbsp; 
Saturday, September 16 &mdash; 10:00am&ndash;7:00pm 
Sunday, September 17 &mdash; noon&ndash;7:00pm

Exhibition Hours during run of show 
September 18&ndash;October 29 
Mondays Closed 
Tuesday&ndash;Saturday &mdash; 10:00am&ndash;5:00pm 
Sunday &mdash; 12:00&ndash;5:00pm

More information is at <a href="https://www.expochicago.com/programs/palais-de-tokyo-hors-les-murs">expochicago.com</a>

To read CGN&#39;s original article on the partnership announcement, click <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/3/expo-chicago-palais-de-tokyo-announce-new-partnership-with-dusable-museum">here</a>.&nbsp;

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Singing Stones as part of EXPO Chicago and Palais de Tokyo 

Palais de Tokyo at EXPO Chicago

By GINNY VAN ALYEA&nbsp;

If turning 50 means you&#39;re showing your age, then 50 sure looks good if you&#39;re the Museum of Contemporary Art.&nbsp;

Three quarters of the way through its 50th year in 2017, the MCA just unveiled the new building redesign by architects Johnston Marklee as well as opening of the highly anticipated restaurant Marisol, featuring the first US restaurant commission by British artist Chris Ofili.

Below are details from the museum&#39;s press release:&nbsp;

&quot;Today&nbsp;Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, officially opened the dynamic new building redesign by Los Angeles-based architects&nbsp;Sharon Johnston&nbsp;and Mark Lee&nbsp;of&nbsp;Johnston Marklee.&nbsp;Grynsztejn says, &quot;Johnston Marklee understands the strength of our Josef Paul Kleihues-designed building, and they carry a deep respect of history throughout their architectural practice. Their legacy of stellar work-increasingly referenced as a leader in the field-resonates strongly with our interest in making thoughtful interventions to our building, including a new restaurant called Marisol. With this redesign, our distinctive space becomes even more welcoming and flexible for our audiences.&quot;

Johnston Marklee (JML) redesigned select public spaces of the museum to create three major new offerings: Marisol, the ground-floor destination restaurant with an immersive art environment by international artist Chris Ofili; a social engagement space called the Commons on the second floor with an installaion by Pedro y Juana; and a new third floor with classrooms and a flexible meeting space that puts learning at the very center of the museum. These new public spaces are connected by a dramatic new staircase that honors the MCA&#39;s original iconic staircase, and an elegant new vaulted ceiling that recalls the barrel vaults in the fourth-floor galleries. JML&#39;s design of these welcoming and vibrant new spaces reflects the changing needs of a 21st-century contemporary art museum while maintaining the integrity of the Josef Paul Kleihues-designed building opened in 1996. This major $16-million renovation converts 12,000 square feet of interior space and coincides with the MCA&#39;s 50th anniversary.&quot; 
 
<img alt="" data-caption="Photo: Kendall McCaugherty, © Hall+Merrick" data-rich-file-id="2302" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2302/original/jml-marisol-with-mural.jpg" />

Also today, Grynsztejn&nbsp;revealed&nbsp;Turner Prize-winning British artist&nbsp;Chris Ofili&#39;s first restaurant commission in the United States. For this commission, Ofili designed an immersive art environment for the MCA&#39;s new restaurant Marisol with a&nbsp;site-specific art mural as the centerpiece, carried through to every surface&nbsp;of the restaurant -- from line drawings on the walls and etchings on the glass, to all of the colors, fabrics, and textures in the restaurant. Grynsztejn says, &quot;This is not simply putting work from the collection on our walls. This is a&nbsp;full-scale, all-in, immersive art environment&nbsp;that&nbsp;surrounds you&nbsp;when you enter into the restaurant, for which Chris Ofili has&nbsp;decided on every surface.&quot;

The mural, called&nbsp;The Sorceress&#39; Mirror&nbsp;is exemplary of Ofili&#39;s incorporation of the imagined and the real in his paintings, and his unifying of these into a singular, vibrant, and sensuous visual narrative. Inspired by the vaulted ceiling designed by Johnston Marklee for the restaurant, Ofili has leaping figures arcing across the night sky, with two figures riding a beast in flight as it leaps over a red cave and into the stars. Beneath them, the sorceress in her cave seems to emerge from the water as she hunches over her mirror, observing the figures and canopy above.&nbsp;The sorceress&#39;s cave re-imagines the landscape of Trinidad, where the artist lives and works. Ofili drew from trips he made to Paria Bay on the north of the island, where a rock at the edge of the shore has been carved by the sea to create a natural arch through which the water flows. The transition of the sky from saturated black pigment to lighter washes punctuated by colorful glittering stars refers to the sense of an instant captured on the threshold between night and day.&nbsp;

Marisol features local chef&nbsp;Jason Hammel&nbsp;at the helm and&nbsp;re-imagines the relationship between food, art, and design in an immersive art environment created by&nbsp;Ofili.

Chef&nbsp;Hammel&#39;s menu is inspired by the muse of the new MCA restaurant, spirited French/Venezuelan artist&nbsp;Marisol --&nbsp;a star of the New York art scene in the 1960s with her friend Andy Warhol, whose artwork,&nbsp;Six Women&nbsp;(1968), became the first work in the MCA&#39;s collection of contemporary art.

<img alt="" data-caption="Marisol in Venice during the 1968 Biennale Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty " data-rich-file-id="2301" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2301/original/marisol-2.jpg" />Built upon a twenty-year relationship with Midwestern farmers, chef Hammel&#39;s menu incorporates vibrant vegetables and handmade pastas, alongside meticulously sourced meat and seafood. Hammel has created a playfully designed menu that varies with the seasons, filled with imaginative, thoughtful, and contemporary flavors inspired by the artistic surroundings that fuel the mind, body, and soul. The menus reflect not only the seasonal availability of local ingredients, but the creative open environment of the restaurant and the museum. Further, a new area called the Street with the space&#39;s counter service offers coffee, pastries, and inventive small-bites welcoming both passers-by as well as destination travelers. 
&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Dry aged beef with spring onions and black currant vinaigrette Photo: Carolina Mariana Rodriguez, © MCA Chicago" data-rich-file-id="2300" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2300/original/cmr-mca-hires-111.jpg" />

The dinner menu showcases imaginative dishes including the&nbsp;Marisol Salad&nbsp;(apple, dill, macadamia nut, pecorino, Marisol&#39;s natural food salad dressing),&nbsp;Crispy Eggplant&nbsp;(roasted grapes, pistou, sweet and sour pork) and&nbsp;Steamed Swordfish&nbsp;(cauliflower, cherry tomato, uni hollandaise).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Lunch offerings include lighter plates of vegetables and sandwiches, full-bodied entrees, and signature sweets. Standouts on the lunch menu include the&nbsp;Marisol Sandwich&nbsp;(grilled skirt steak, spring onion jam, runny farm egg, avocado),&nbsp;French Omelet&nbsp;(cured salmon and cr&egrave;me fraiche, sourdough toast) and&nbsp;Fried Trout Sandwich&nbsp;(cherry tomatoes, bacon, bibb lettuce, gribiche).&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/takashi-murakami-at-the-mca">The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg</a>, Japanese artist&nbsp;Takashi Murakami&#39;s show at the MCA, closes on September 24. A new show featuring work by Michael Rakowitz opens on September 16.&nbsp;Stop by the museum to see both shows as well as to experience the new restaurant for yourself.&nbsp;

More info on the MCA is <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/museum-of-contemporary-art-chicago-mca">here</a>.&nbsp;

To read about more Chicago restaurants with an artistic environment, click <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/8/eat-more-local-see-more-local-discovering-art-in-chicago-s-restaurants">here</a>.

&nbsp;

Top photo: Kendall McCaugherty, &copy; Hall+Merrick

The MCA's building redesign and a new restaurant, Marisol

Enticing – And Appetizing – Changes Come to the MCA

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418586/r1xthx09upko1lrdbllv.jpg"></figure>Each week, CGN interviews a local art dealer to discuss the ins and outs of running a gallery in the city of Chicago.This week we caught up with Tom McCormick of McCormick Gallery.Gallery:&nbsp;McCormick Gallery &nbsp; Name:&nbsp;Tom McCormick Age:&nbsp;68 Previous occupation(s):&nbsp;Drummer, Drifter, Antiques picker, Carpenter/Plumber/Electrician, Oriental rug guy Hometown:&nbsp;Kansas City, Missouri&nbsp;Chicago Gallery News: Please describe your gallery’s program in one sentence.Tom McCormick:&nbsp;Terrific artworks offered by nice people.&nbsp;CGN: How did you become an art dealer?&nbsp;TM: First and foremost I was a collector, with a budget of about $10. In 1971 with a new BFA I got a job with John Wilson (of Chicago Art Fair fame) as an itinerate print peddler. I traveled the eastern two-thirds of the country selling original prints in one-day shows on college campuses while living at the Holiday Inn. I lasted two years before going back to school for my MFA. Back in school I started selling off the prints and antiques I had collected while employed. After graduate school I roamed the country buying and selling antiques, folk art and textiles, often lugging 300 pound wardrobes out of barn lofts for a $50 profit. (That’s a much younger me above, in my trusty Ford pickup out on the antiques trail.) One day in 1978 I bought an old painting for $75 and sold it immediately with a phone call for $800. The next day I was an art dealer.&nbsp;CGN: What's the first thing you do each morning when you get to the gallery?&nbsp;TM: We start planning lunch.&nbsp;CGN: Thumbs up or down on art fairs?TM: I’ve done art (and antique) fairs since the late 1980s. They used to be fun and profitable. Now there are too many, they are too expensive, and not much fun to do.The big exception is EXPO CHICAGO… Tony Karman has really done a great job with our hometown art fair.&nbsp;CGN: Who are artists you admire but don't represent? &nbsp;TM: Francisco Goya, Odilon Redon, Richard Diebenkorn and Willem de Kooning.&nbsp;CGN: What is the best sale you ever had?TM: In September of 1971, on my very first outing as a print dealer at Ball State University I sold an Albrecht Dürer engraving to a student for $4,200. I was stunned. I didn’t actually believe anyone had that kind of money, much less spent it. I thought this art selling gig was going to be a breeze… needless to say I didn’t sell another expensive print for months!&nbsp;CGN: What advice would you share with new or young collectors?TM: Don’t pay any attention to your friends, or the “experts.” Listen to your stomach and look for something you can afford that really reaches out and grabs you by the throat. Find a dealer who is more interested in you being happy than in selling you something.&nbsp;CGN: Which artist that you represent or work of art you have recently acquired are you most excited about? Why? &nbsp;TM: I just bought a&nbsp;Classic Mexican Saltillo Sarape, c.1825, for my personal collection. I’ve been a textile junkie for nearly 50 years and a Saltillo collector since 1978. These works of art are incredibly rare and very expensive, and I have been waiting a very long time to find one I could afford. It is pinned to the wall of my office and I just can’t stop eating it up with my eyes. This, of course, has nothing to do with the gallery business, but I appreciate the open-ended nature of your question.&nbsp;CGN: What major successes have you had this year? What about challenges?TM: This has been an unexpectedly good year for the gallery. Our summer show of work from the estate of Perle Fine has sold extremely well. I have been slowly changing the focus of the gallery away from the vintage, estate works of mid-century painters over to more emphasis on our terrific group of contemporary artists. This is a bit of a challenge but one I’m excited about.&nbsp;CGN: How do you view working as an art dealer in Chicago? &nbsp;TM: Let’s face it, the traditional (old school) gallery scene in Chicago is a skeleton of what it was 20 years ago. Maintaining a retail presence in Chicago is expensive. We are blessed with certain advantages but still must rely on Internet traffic, out of town clients and the art fairs in order to remain profitable.&nbsp;CGN: What is your favorite interest outside of the art world?TM: We have a wonderful place in Sawyer, Michigan where we have been working on a native prairie project.&nbsp;CGN: What is your favorite work of public art in Chicago?TM: I don’t know who the artist is, but I love this crazy sculpture&nbsp;on South Lakeshore Drive at about 48th Street in Hyde Park. It is a very tall, skinny figure in some shiny silver material, who is staring up at the sky. Very whimsical but thoughtful.&nbsp;&nbsp;[Turns out it's&nbsp;<a href="http://www.luhringaugustine.com/news/tom-friedman-s-looking-up-to-be-installed-on-chicago-s-lakefront">Tom Friedman’s&nbsp;Looking Up</a>]&nbsp;CGN: What are your 5 favorite art spaces to visit?TM:1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Naoshima in the Seto Islands of Japan2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; MassMOCA, North Adams, Massachussetts3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Smart Museum at the University of Chicago4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Musée&nbsp;des Beaux-Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada&nbsp;&nbsp;Tom McCormick is the owner of McCormick Gallery,&nbsp;located at 835 W. Washington Blvd. in the&nbsp;West Loop. For more information about his gallery visit:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/mccormick-gallery">McCormick Gallery</a>.&nbsp;Image: Tom McCormick c. 1978 in New Mexico&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN interview with Chicago art dealer Tom McCormick

An Interview with a Dealer: Tom McCormick

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418573/cz0zovj3fk1nvh2vyhaz.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEAA year ago this past summer, Michelle T. Boone left a high-profile position as head of the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and took on a newly created role at Navy Pier as Chief Program and Civic Engagement Officer, with the goal of getting everyday Chicagoans to come to the Pier for its cultural offerings, not its food court. Classified as a nonprofit as of 2011, Navy Pier, now referred to as Chicago’s Mission Driven Cultural District, is host to contemporary art installations and a range of public programming set against the backdrop of Lake Michigan. CGN spoke with Boone about the importance of public space and how the city is supporting artists in ways no other city can.&nbsp;CGN: What were your expectations when you began your work with Navy Pier?Michelle T. Boone: For me, the best part was that I didn’t have any expectations, because it was a totally new position. To walk into a place that is so iconic, with a long Chicago history, and be charged with redefining how people think about Navy Pier in the 21st century, was really exciting. In particular I was thrilled to have the opportunity to lay the foundation for what art and cultural programming at the Pier would be. Other people may have had expectations of me, but I walked in the door with the vessel totally empty, ready to fill it with ideas and inspired by the opportunity.CGN: In 2016 Navy Pier marked its 100th anniversary. Its more recent reputation among locals has been as a place to go only if you have to, or with out-of-towners.MB: Personally, I was absolutely one of those people. I did not see it as an option for cultural programming, or even for entertainment. The times that I did come to the Pier were for very deliberate purposes – for EXPO CHICAGO or SOFA, for Shakespeare Theater. These were one-offs. I even surprised myself in accepting this position because of that, but that was a major attraction to the job. If I could be a part of helping to change those perceptions because of the new ideas and the new programming here, then that was going to be the real test, starting with myself first.CGN: It sounds like your primary challenge is to offer programming that makes everyone – locals as well as tourists – want to come back again and again, and to enjoy high-quality programming put on by the Pier.MB: Navy Pier is misperceived as a tourist trap, but close to 70 percent of the people who come here are actually Chicagoans. We have to do a better job telling that story. What’s the reason for Chicagoans to come? How many times can you ride the Ferris wheel? The philosophy for me in developing artistic programming is leveraging collaborations and partnerships with Chicago artists and cultural organizations, because they bring the reputation and the quality work; hopefully they bring the audience, too. It’s a great vehicle to introduce those audiences to the new Navy Pier, and it’s an excellent way for us to enhance the visitor experience for the guests here. They may not have come to Navy Pier for a cultural program, but how great to be surprised by some really moving experience that you didn’t think was going to be here?CGN: The Pier itself, with its spectacular backdrop, has the potential to be the ultimate public space.MB: It’s an oasis in the city. It’s the happiest place in town. Everybody’s in a good mood because they’re here with their family, they’re here on vacation, or they love showing it off to visitors or guests. For hardcore urban dwellers that are surrounded by concrete, buildings and limited green space, to be reconnected to the water is a tremendous asset that is also part of reminding Chicagoans the value of the Pier. You can’t find a bad view out here.CGN: People living in the city don’t have much space of their own.MB: Right. These public spaces become that much more important. We don’t have the city squares of Europe. What we do have are public spaces that are populated all over the city. I think people are paying more attention to and investing more resources into reclaiming abandoned space as public space for programming, for gathering or for just plain respite.CGN: I think that what you’ve just said provides insight into the year of public art and the valuable opportunities public space offers working artists.MB: Not every artist will have their work in a museum, and not every singer can be on stage at the Lyric Opera. That’s another great thing about public space – the potential to create more circumstances, for emerging artists especially, to showcase their work and to find new ways to be employed and to showcase work locally. It can help sustain the ecosystem of artists living in the city of Chicago and keep it vibrant.CGN: These public opportunities allow artists a great deal of freedom to do what they want to do, while removing some of the financial pressure.MB: Because it’s free public programming at the Pier, we’ve got this huge platform for artists to think about us almost as a test kitchen for trying out new ideas and collaborations, risk free. I think, overall, you can try ambitious, creative ideas in Chicago, and if something fails it’s not going to kill your career in a way that it might in New York City. In Chicago if a bold idea doesn’t work, the community is supportive enough to allow you the space to come back with something new. You can learn from it, you improve it, you find new ways to do things, and you come back even stronger. For an artist, the more critical risks of, ‘Oh my God, are we going to sell tickets?’ are removed here.CGN: This fall the Pier is hosting a packed lineup of arts programming. Can you talk about the thought behind bringing high-caliber contemporary art to this space regularly?MB: I think one of the motivating forces in inviting, for example, Nick Cave and Jeanne Gang to be at the Pier in September, was to have the Pier itself be a site as well as a participant, and to enhance what happens during the week of EXPO CHICAGO. Nick will continue to curate at least three other performances, and he’s going to work with a local performance curator to invite community based art groups to perform here at Navy Pier. Up until the middle of November or so, community performance companies have an opportunity to interact with the Jeanne Gang designed objects as well. It will carry beyond just these two sort-of signature performances that happen in September, but that will serve as inspiration for what will also happen in the fall. There will be at least three more performances. As part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial programming, the Jeanne Gang-designed objects used in Nick Cave’s performances will remain on site as visual art sculpture installations when not used for the performances.We’re working to have another two or three public conversations with thought leaders around the Architecture Biennial. Lee Bey is also doing a photography exhibition, called Lakeshore Vibe: The Architecture of Streeterville, at the Pier that will debut as a part of the Biennial.CGN: How do you think a place like Navy Pier can make Chicago standout from other cities?MB: I think in general Chicago is becoming a city that is really a model for demonstrating the value of public space. The City of Chicago is showing many ways of animating and activating our public space in a way that invites residents to reconnect to one another, to art and to nature.The history and the legacy that we have with our park system, the vision of keeping the lakefront free and clear, the transformation that you see happening with the River Walk, the addition of the 606 – I think there’s a movement happening where people are really valuing what public space is and how it can improve the quality of life.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2235/original/roger.jpg" alt=""></figure>&nbsp;Photo of Michelle T. Boone, Heidi Zeiger Photography / Navy Pier.SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave</body></html>

CGN interviews Michelle T. Boone, Chief Program and Civic Engagement Officer, of Navy Pier. 

Navy Pier Hosts Art for All: The Ultimate Public Space Welcomes Artists

By BRIDGET BROWNLEE AND JAYCEE ROCKHOLD

&nbsp;

Chicago is not lacking in two things these days: food and art. Whether you&rsquo;re grabbing a quick bite to eat or sitting down for a twelve course meal, Chicago is home to a number of restaurants that feature tasty cuisine alongside local art.

ALINEA

You don&rsquo;t have to just look at art, you can eat it, too. In this immersive restaurant that celebrates dining as an artistic experience, enjoy an avant-garde inspired menu, with everything from green apple flavored balloons to lily bulbs, all while admiring new renovations to the space itself, as well as paintings by artist and dealer Thomas Masters.

1723 N. Halsted, alinearestaurant.com

3 ARTS CLUB CAFE AT RH

In a Gold Coast building built in 1914, which was once home to female artists living at the Three Arts Club, the ground floor space has been converted to offer casual dining in an airy artistic setting. The popular cafe is located in the historic courtyard space where artists used to enjoy abundant light by which to paint, sculpt and sketch.

1300 N. Dearborn, 3artsclubcafe.com

THE ALBERT

The Albert, an Albert Einstein themed restaurant, was designed to showcase the intersection between art and science, and it features work by local artists, including murals from cartoonist Jonathan Plotkin, and Art Institute of Chicago Mathematician Dr. Eugenia Cheng&rsquo;s colorful chalkboard musings.

228 E. Ontario, hotelemc2.com/eat-drink

<img alt="" data-caption="GT PRIME, A RIVER NORTH steakhouse, FEATURES PHOTOGRAPHIC MURALS BY JEFF KAUCK. PHOTO: ANTHONY TAHLIER" data-rich-file-id="2246" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2246/original/gtprime-0916-4365.jpg" />

GT PRIME

GT Prime takes food appreciation to the next level with striking culinary-focused murals. Created by artist Jeff Kauck, these larger than life photographs, along with fur-topped bar stools and taxidermy displays, set GT Prime apart from your typical steakhouse.

707 N. Wells Street, gtprimerestaurant.com

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Photo courtesy of Alinea.&nbsp;

CGN highlights art-oriented, locally based restaurants around the city of Chicago. 

Eat More Local, See More Local: Discovering Art in Chicago's Restaurants

Hot on the heels of the busy September 8 opening of the fall art season, more openings take place on Saturday, September 9 and throughout the week leading up to and through EXPO Chicago. Part II of our September preview gives you the highlights so you can plan ahead.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>September 9</h3>

&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/ass-grass-or-gas">Ass Grass or Gas</a> at Tiger Strikes Asteroid &ndash; Sparked by an interest in vanning culture, curators Josue Pellot and Robin Dluzen explore the aesthetics of the sub-culture with this exhibition that encompasses wider ideas about taste, the vernacular, and the psychedelic.&nbsp;The opening reception on&nbsp;Saturday September 9&nbsp;will also feature a mini-vanning convention with Chicago-based vanners showing off their vehicles to the public. To read our fall interview with the artists behind TSA click <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/8/tiger-strikes-asteroid-anna-kunz-michelle-wasson-on-artist-run-spaces">here</a>.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="From Ass Grass or Gas at TSA" data-rich-file-id="2275" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2275/original/grass.jpg" />

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&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/jose-lerma-nunquam-prandium-liberum">Jos&eacute; Lerma: Nunquam Prandium Liberum</a>, the artist&#39;s solo show,&nbsp;opens at Kavi Gupta Gallery. Gerald Williams also opens on the 9th. Both shows are on view&nbsp;at the gallery&#39;s second location at 219 N Elizabeth.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="José Lerma at Kavi Gupta" data-rich-file-id="2279" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2279/original/lerma.jpg" />

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&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/lilli-carre">Lilli Carr&eacute;</a> opens at Western Exhibitions in a two part show.&nbsp;It&#39;s the artist&#39;s third solo show at the gallery, featuring new ceramic sculptures, animation, and prints. It&#39;s&nbsp;a great reason to visit the gallery group in the 1709 W Chicago Ave. building, as other openings are also happening this evening&nbsp;from 5 to 8pm. Check out some fancy shiny 1980s chairs while you&#39;re at <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/krueck-sexton-reflections-from-there-to-here">Volume Gallery</a>...

<img alt="" data-caption="Like a Lantern, 2012, Handbound artist book of a portion of the animation frames that compose the film 8 1/2 x 11&quot;, closed 8 1/2 x 20&quot; open edition of 10 " data-rich-file-id="2277" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2277/original/carre.jpg" />

&nbsp;

&bull; James Greco is exhibiting tarp paintings at <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/james-greco-tarp-paintings">Bert Green Fine Art</a> on South Michigan Ave. across from Millennium Park.&nbsp;The&nbsp;Brooklyn-based painter&#39;s&nbsp;newest works are paintings on unstretched, flat tarps on which he rapidly and intuitively applies color from punctured spray paint cans, in a contemporary iteration of action painting.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2274" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2274/original/zgreen.jpg" />

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&bull; Chris Silva&#39;s fall show at <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/linda-warren-projects">Linda Warren Projects</a> takes up two galleries. Open Source is a&nbsp;solo exhibition of new works and installation by the Chicago-based artist, who is showing for the first time at LWP.&nbsp;Silva will present an assortment of 2D collage sculptures and paintings in Gallery Y and a large-scale multi-sensory, multi-media, video animation installation in Gallery X. In LWP&#39;s third gallery space (O)&nbsp;Go Figure is&nbsp;a curated group exhibition of female artists from the gallery&rsquo;s roster:&nbsp;Loretta Bourque, Megan Euker, Lora Fosberg, Paula Henderson, Michiko Itatani, Judith Mullen and Jennifer Presant.

<h3><img alt="" data-caption="Chris Silva, Little Suggestion, 2017, reclaimed signage/wood, spray paint " data-rich-file-id="2282" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2282/original/silva.jpg" /></h3>

&nbsp;

<h3>September 12</h3>

&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/the-arts-club-of-chicago">The Arts Club of Chicago</a>&nbsp;will have a public opening on Sept 12 to celebrate the centennial of Marcel Duchamp&rsquo;s&nbsp;Fountain, welcoming&nbsp;an exhibition by acclaimed Slovak artist Roman Ondak. Known for a conceptual oeuvre that draws on both participatory and object-based processes, Ondak interrogates the peculiarities of daily life in a post-Soviet and increasingly global context. For The Arts Club, Ondak gathers four sculptural installations that have never been shown in the United States along with an ongoing series of paintings begun in the 1990s, most of which were produced expressly for this exhibition. Taken as an ensemble, this work deploys found materials to reflect on aspects of memory and place&ndash;indicating Ondak&rsquo;s rather ambivalent stance toward the legacy of the readymade.

<img alt="" data-caption="Roman Ondak at the Arts Club" data-rich-file-id="2278" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2278/original/escape-circuit-detail3-1140x430.jpg" />

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<h3>September 14 and 15</h3>

&bull; On Thursday, September 14 <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/david-hartt-in-the-forest">The Graham Foundation</a> opens&nbsp;David Hartt: in the forest.&nbsp;Borrowing his title from Claude L&eacute;vi-Strauss&rsquo; 1955 memoir&nbsp;Tristes Tropiques,&nbsp;in the forest&nbsp;continues Hartt&rsquo;s investigation into the relationship between ideology, architecture, and the environment. Consisting of a film, a suite of photographs, and a series of sculptures, the installation revisits architect Moshe Safdie&rsquo;s unfinished 1968&nbsp;Habitat&nbsp;Puerto Rico&nbsp;project through a contemporary lens.

<img alt="" data-caption="David Hartt, &quot;Carolina I,&quot; 2017, archival pigment print mounted to Dibond, print size 36 x 54 inches. Courtesy of Corbett vs. Dempsey and commissioned by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts." data-rich-file-id="2276" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2276/original/hartt.jpg" />

&nbsp;

&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/richard-gray-gallery-gray-warehouse">Gray Warehouse, Richard Gray Gallery&#39;s</a> west side location that opened this past April with a show of Jim Dine&#39;s paintings, presents new work by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.&nbsp;At Gray Warehouse,&nbsp;Secret Garden&nbsp;presents recent sculptures in wood, stainless steel, and bronze in conjunction with a new suite of drawings. The exhibition continues at Richard Gray Gallery&rsquo;s John Hancock Center space with a portrait series carved in alabaster, as well as a second exhibition of historical works titled One Thought Fills Immensity. Featuring works from 1989 to 2002,&nbsp;One Thought Fills Immensity&nbsp;offers a deeper view into the artist&rsquo;s prolific career. The two exhibitions open with a public reception for the artist at Gray Warehouse on Thursday, September 14 from 6-8 pm.&nbsp;An exhibition walk-through and Q&amp;A with Jaume Plensa and curator Brooke Kamin Rapaport will take place at&nbsp;Gray Warehouse on Friday, September 15 at 10:30am.

<img alt="" data-caption="Jaume Plensa (b. 1955) Isabella, 2016 Stainless steel" data-rich-file-id="2281" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2281/original/plensa2.jpg" />

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&bull; Part of <a href="http://www.expochicago.com/programs/expo-art-week">EXPO </a><a href="https://www.expochicago.com/programs/expo-art-week">Art Week</a>, Art After Hours&nbsp;is a citywide open gallery night inviting EXPO CHICAGO visitors and the Chicago community to experience the city&#39;s vibrant art scene, including alternative exhibition venues and performance spaces,&nbsp;during extended hours on&nbsp;Friday,&nbsp;September 15,&nbsp;6:00&ndash;9:00pm. The list of participating galleries and related exhibitions is <a href="https://www.expochicago.com/programs/expo-art-week/art-after-hours">here</a>.

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&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/glenn-kaino-sign">Glenn Kaino&#39;s</a> second solo exhibition at Kavi Gupta Gallery,&nbsp;Sign,&nbsp;opens&nbsp;on Friday, September 15 from 5-8pm at the gallery&#39;s 835 W. Washington location.

<img alt="" data-caption="Glenn Kaino, In Search of New Systems (Celestial..., 2016. Wood, plexiglass, plastic, wire, metal, 6’ diameter x 6”" data-rich-file-id="2283" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2283/original/kaino.jpg" />

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&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/patron">PATRON Gallery</a> features work by gallery artist&nbsp;Nick van Woert on Friday, September 15

<img alt="" data-caption="Nick van Woert at PATRON" data-rich-file-id="2285" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2285/original/patrongallery-2515-1501260705.jpg" />

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&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/carrie-secrist-gallery">Carrie Secrist Gallery</a> opens their new season with a show of Anne Lindberg&#39;s work on September 15. walking as I stand, features six new monumental drawings that embody the seamless relationship between the pace of Lindberg&#39;s step and the evolution of the drawing. Citing a long tradition ranging from Henri Rousseau to William Wordsworth, Robert Walser and Immanuel Kant, the work in this exhibition&nbsp;expounds&nbsp;the relationship of deep thinking and composing with time spent walking. As thousands of lines are pulled across a pliant mat board while walking, an under-layer of graphite builds a matrix into which color is overlaid and embedded. Lindberg&rsquo;s work has a highly atmospheric inclination towards the rhythmic layers of luminous colors. To read CGN&#39;s interview with Secrist for the gallery&#39;s 25th anniversary, click <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/8/carrie-secrist-turns-25-chicago-gallerist-makes-the-old-school-new-again">here</a>.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2287" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2287/original/lindberg.jpg" />

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There is a LOT of great art to see, and there&nbsp;are just a few&nbsp;highlights&nbsp;around the city. View the entire&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar?what-type-of-event">calendar here</a>.&nbsp;

To read&nbsp;Part I&nbsp;of our Fall Preview. featuring shows opening September 8, <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/8/fall-preview-part-i-september-8-openings-annual-river-north-design-district-art-walk">click here</a>.

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Top image: EXPO Chicago&#39;s Vernissage opening night party takes place Wednesday, September 13

A second summary of opening highlights in Chicago art 

Fall Preview Part II: September 9, 14 + 15 Openings + EXPO Art Week

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418572/yvxkqlsk6y7crdykrz6b.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;This fall the&nbsp;Chicago Architecture Biennial&nbsp;returns for its second edition with an exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center and a number of off-site installations and performances. With so much to see and do, CGN asked&nbsp;Gibran Villalobos, Public Programs and Partnerships Coordinator, to highlight the programs he’s excited about.&nbsp;<h3>white wanderer: creating a Climate Change Soundtrack</h3>Luftwerk, the renowned artistic collaboration of Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, will discuss White Wanderer, an immersive public art installation that takes inspiration from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica. Using real life recordings of the sounds and frequencies of melting and moving glaciers, the artists will create a haunting and contemplative soundtrack of climate change. The panel discussion features collaborators Rob Moore, a Senior Water Policy Analyst at NRDC and Doug MacAyeal, Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. It will be moderated by Neil Stevenson of Ideo.&nbsp;Sep 26, Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center<h3>LAMPO Performance: MARK FELL</h3>Mark Fell premieres his new multi-channel project for the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Lampo. The UK composer will position 24 speakers around the hall and manipulate electronic sound in dialogue with the acoustic and architectural space—a conversation of geometries. This interplay forms a framework within which Chicago bassoonist Katherine Young performs Fell’s score.Sep 29, Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center<h3>Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle &amp; Hannah Higgins</h3>In conversation with art historian Hannah Higgins, author of The Grid Book (MIT Press, 2009), the artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle discusses his use of the grid and its impact on contemporary practice.Oct 3, Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center<h3>VAN ALEN INSTITUTE: VARIETY SHOW</h3>In a medley of music, provocation, and presentations, the Van Alen Institute will reflect on hangouts defined by both personal experiences and physical spaces. How do communities appropriate urban space? How is the experience of hanging out different for different people? The group explores a series of questions in a night of fast-paced performance and conversation.Oct 23, Garfield Park Conservatory<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2234/original/gilla.jpg" alt=""></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Photo: Anjali Pinto; Luftwerk, white wanderer, 2017SaveSaveSaveSave</body></html>

CGN highlights some of the events at the Chicago Architecture Biennial. 

Making New History: Chicago Architecture Biennial

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418573/so7pjr59dggzahripbh8.gif"><figcaption>The Stenns’ home features a variety of works by blue chip artists, such as Fred Sandback, Larry Bell, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, and Alexander Calder.</figcaption></figure>By GINNY VAN ALYEAThree years ago Irving Stenn Jr. significantly changed the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection of Minimalist art and works on paper by gifting 105 drawings to the museum. Growing up, Stenn would have never imagined that he would come to love art and pursue and acquire such a significant collection in his lifetime. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, with parents who were products of the Depression, he says he didn’t visit many museums as a child, outside of a few school trips. Today, at age 86, he is a Trustee Emeritus of the Art Institute.Stenn lives in a recently renovated, 13th floor Streeterville condo with his wife Judi. Seated in a brown leather Le Corbusier chair, with a view of the park that is just east of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Stenn reflects, “I was so fortunate to have attended the University of Michigan and live with a group of young men who were very interested in the arts.” It was because of these friends that he was inspired to take art survey courses while he was a student, and when he returned to Chicago as a young lawyer, he made time to attend the symphony, art exhibitions and to visit museums.Soon he married Marcia Sachs, with whom he had three children. Together they bought a Victorian rooming house in Lincoln Park that the city claimed was uninhabitable, due to prior flood damage. Referencing old photographs of what the building looked like originally, the couple undertook an extensive renovation with their friend, architect, Harry Weese.&nbsp;Stenn describes the process, “It was a crazy thing to do with three little kids running around at the time, but it was also really an exciting thing to see the house come together.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2247/original/img-2559.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>A narrow hallway is lined with dozens of framed drawings by artists such as Fred Sandback, Martin Puryear, Kazimir Malevich and Yves Klein. At the end of the hall is Roy Lichtenstein's Lighting bolt banner, 1966, Serigraphy on felt, 100 2/5 × 46 in, Edition of 20</figcaption></figure>When everything was complete, the couple was living in a home filled with white walls. The architect suggested to them that the house was a perfect place to display art.&nbsp;On a trip to San Francisco, they visited Gumps Department Store, a well-known store in the city, which had an art department. One vivid, geometric print caught the couples’ eye. Stenn recalls, “The artist’s name was not familiar to us at the time. My wife liked the color and design, so we sent it home.” The piece was titled River of Ponds and the artist was Frank Stella. It was the first work of art they purchased together, and it is still in Stenn’s collection. Over time that Stella print has proven to be seminal in the focus of his collection.Back in Chicago, the couple continued collecting prints by artists of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s with the help of dealer William van Straaten. They continued their quest by beginning relationships with Donald Young, Rhona Hoffman, Richard Gray and many other gallerists, relying on them for guidance.&nbsp;Stenn says, “Under the thoughtful tutelage of Donald and Rhona – and as our confidence, eye and pocketbook grew – we began to acquire paintings, and sculpture as well.” They sought out artists such as Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Josef Albers and Sol Lewitt.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418575/jap1q5njrzwmrytvfrr5.gif"><figcaption>Stenn's bar features a reinstalled wall design by Sol Lewitt&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>Over time Stenn says that through their collecting they met many interesting people, gaining insight into what contemporary art was about. They became an active part of the art community, and eventually Stenn was asked to be a Trustee of the Museum of Contemporary Art. He spent time studying exhibitions and engaging with other supporters of the museum. He explains, “In my law practice I was introduced to Gerry Elliott, a premier Chicago collector who put together collections of several periods of art during his lifetime, a number of which were gifted to the Museum of Contemporary Art and to the Art Institute in Chicago. The three of us would often meet at our house, where we discussed art and artists, and it was through Gerry that we gained in-depth familiarity with the artists whom we began to collect, such as Donald Judd, Barnett Newman, Brice Marden and Robert Ryman.”While Stenn’s engagement with art increased, he still viewed himself as just an art enthusiast. He and Marcia were occupied raising their children, and he was busier than ever working as a lawyer. He remembers clearly, “One day, I don’t know how many years went by, someone called and asked to visit to see our collection of contemporary art&nbsp; That was the first time I’d ever heard anyone say, ‘You have a collection’. I’d never thought of it that way.”Marcia passed away in 1999. About a year later, in early in 2000, Mark Pascale, The Janet and Craig Duchossois Curator of Prints &amp; Drawings at the Art Institute, called and introduced himself. He proposed a visit to an exhibit of contemporary drawings from the Collection of Werner Kramarsky, an internationally respected contemporary drawings collector, that was to be shown at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art on the Northwestern Campus.&nbsp;“I was fascinated with the material," Stenn says, "because the intimate nature of the drawings and works on paper gave me insight into the process of this art. I was hooked!”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418576/ykb2c3p8uiixdlesxzda.gif"></figure>Stenn and Pascale continued to talk regularly, and Stenn found himself with a new mentor in a new genre in the period he so loved. They traveled together in search of drawings by Ellsworth Kelly, Mel Bochner, Josef Albers, Agnes Martin, Fred Sandback, Jasper Johns, James Turrell, and so on. The collection that resulted was exhibited at the Art Institute in 2014, and the museum acknowledges that the bequest was one of the most significant bodies of works on paper given to the museum. It has meaningfully enlarged the Department of Prints and Drawings’ collection.During these years of collecting, Stenn became a Trustee of the Art Institute. In addition he stepped up his commitment to the University of Michigan Museum of Art by naming a gallery in the contemporary wing in 2007. He is also a member of the school’s National Leadership Council.Five years ago, Stenn’s wife Judi came into his life. As a designer, she worked with the architects to accommodate as much of the art as possible, placing works that once filled his large Lincoln Park home in a fresh new space in their downtown apartment. Here, art is everywhere, behind the bar, as well as on the sitting room floor. The installations show each piece’s individual attributes as well as the interesting ways they speak to one another.&nbsp;A small-scale, cubed Sol LeWitt sculpture has been placed atop a glass coffee near a vibrant Ellsworth Kelly painting, not far from a small bar, where a large LeWitt wall drawing has been installed for the second time, since it was formerly in his Lincoln Park home.&nbsp;A narrow hallway –– lined with dozens of framed drawings by artists such as Fred Sandback, Martin Puryear, Kazimir Malevich, and Yves Klein –– leads to a floor-to-ceiling, dark blue Roy Lichtenstein felt banner entitled Lightning Bolt.&nbsp;An Alexander Calder mobile floats near a steel-tiled Carl Andre floor installation. Says Stenn, “We love living with as much of the collection as possible.”For Stenn, “The collecting of art has not only been an education, it has broadened my life in so many ways. I’ve met and become friends with wonderful people in Chicago and around the globe. There have been many gallerists and curators who have been instrumental in building the collection over the years –– too many to mention –– and I am eternally grateful. Art has expanded my world. While there have been some bumps along the way, it’s been a good life. I’m a lucky guy!” &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2232/original/stennsidebar.jpg" alt=""></figure>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Chicago Gallery News interviews local art collector Irving Stenn Jr. 

Collector Irving Stenn Jr.: A Lifetime of Relationships Through Art

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

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Walking through the glass door into Carrie Secrist&rsquo;s eponymous gallery on a summer afternoon, the calm inside is a welcome respite from the frenzy that has encroached on the West Loop, an arts district that used to feel more removed from the traditional heart of the city, but which is now booming with new restaurants, hotels and condos on nearly every available corner. The gallery offers open space that is in short supply these days. At least 70 of Dannielle Tegeder&rsquo;s framed, abstract works are hung salon-style, filling the west wall with various colors and shapes that invite closer viewing &ndash; an unconventional arrangement and an appealing style indicative of Secrist&rsquo;s lively program, which she has honed over 25 years.

Seated at a large table in an office area filled with art books, Secrist looks at once like a laidback farmer, clad in a pair of overalls she loves to wear while gardening, as well as like the bright and chic art dealer she is, donning her signature short blond hair and a wide grin.

<img alt="" data-caption="Carrie Secrist, Photo: Clare Britt" data-rich-file-id="2241" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2241/original/071117-secrist-046bw.jpg" />

25 years in the gallery business have flown by. Secrist got her first job after college while wandering through the Whitney Museum in New York. After chatting up a curator, she was offered a position, on the spot, in the museum&rsquo;s education department. That encounter was a serendipitous start to her career, one that would be filled with connections, as well as risks, in the pursuit of art.

After a short time in New York, once she experienced the challenges of surviving in Manhattan on an intern&rsquo;s salary, Secrist&rsquo;s path led back to her hometown of Chicago, where she soon found herself directing a gallery when she was just 23. Secrist had been charting a professional art course since before she started college, when she and her parents discussed the importance of balancing her focus on art and business. In Chicago she was introduced to Natalie van Straaten &ndash; then publisher of Chicago Gallery News and Executive Director of the Chicago Art Dealers Association &ndash; who connected her with Steve Berkowitz and Kathy Cottong at the Center for Contemporary Art (CCA). They hired Secrist as an art handler, a role which remains to this day her favorite part of her job. She says, &ldquo;Actually hanging exhibitions and working with the artists is what I like best.&rdquo;&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Dannielle Tegeder installation, spring 2017" data-rich-file-id="2244" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2244/original/dannielle-tegeder-installation-turbulent-constellations-2017-image-rch-ekh-.jpg" />

From there, she says, she quickly ascended the ranks to become the assistant director at CCA, only to see the gallery close its doors in the early 1990s. Soon, her next opportunity knocked when collectors she had met through CCA wanted to open a new space, and they asked Secrist to be the director. She recalls, &ldquo;I was 23 and na&iuml;ve, so I said, &lsquo;Yes! I can do that!&rsquo;&rdquo; The space, known initially as Gallery A, launched in River North in November 1992. Within a year Secrist found that she and the gallery owners wanted to pursue different directions for the program, and her family ended up buying the gallery outright. She says, &ldquo;At that time that basically meant buying the office computer. Everything kind of went from there.&rdquo;

Secrist was fortunate to receive valuable advice from a group of dealers who helped her understand fundamentals about operating a gallery, from using transparencies to the importance of sending hand written letters. She says, &ldquo;I owe a great deal to people like Rhona Hoffman, Paul Gray of Richard Gray, Donald Young, and River North neighbors such as Phyllis Kind, Roberta Lieberman of Zolla/Lieberman, Catherine Edelman, and Ann and Roy Boyd.&rdquo; Secrist was the youngest of the dealers at that time, and she was grateful for the support for her program early on. Prominent collectors, including Susan and Lew Manilow, Donna and Howard Stone, and Linda and Paul Gottskind, also took interest in the burgeoning program. Secrist admits she still does many things the old school way, a trait she owes to the group that mentored her when she got started.

Continuing to learn from colleagues, Secrist had settled into a routine of running the gallery when she realized she was ready to change the name from Gallery A to Carrie Secrist Gallery. She explains, &ldquo;For a long time I wasn&rsquo;t ready to put my name on the door, and so many galleries, especially in Chicago, start with a name that is not their own. The transition from being a person with a name to having that name become a physical place remains, to this day, strange for me.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="The gallery’s booth at Untitled Miami 2016, featuring work by Andrew Holmquist" data-rich-file-id="2242" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2242/original/carrie-secrist-untitled-art-fair-miami-2016.jpg" />

Many changes have taken place during Secrist&rsquo;s 25 years running a gallery, including a relocation to her current space in the West Loop at 835 W. Washington in 2003, but she cites two shifts that are universally acknowledged among those in the gallery world, &ldquo;There are two truly double-edged swords: the Internet and art fairs. Art fairs are now where I begin relationships with new collectors &ndash; probably 80 percent or potentially more, and it begins a relationship that we really count on.&rdquo; By keeping up with the art fairs, Secrist says she also has the chance to connect with colleagues from all around the world and stay abreast of what everyone is doing, despite the expense of participating in and shipping to the fairs.

The downside of the art fair frenzy can be laborious as well as expensive. Secrist shares, &ldquo;I might have an impressive, monumental sculpture that I know this collector will love and want, and they live maybe 20 minutes from the gallery. I urge them to come in, but they&rsquo;ll say, &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll see it in Miami!&rsquo;&rdquo;

Secrist credits early local support as critical to getting her start, but today she also values the unique and dynamic art community of dealers in Chicago such as Monique Meloche, Julie and Shane Campbell, John Corbett and Jim Dempsey of Corbett vs Dempsey, Scott Speh of Western Exhibitions, and 835 W. Washington neighbors Andrew Rafacz, Tom McCormick and Kavi Gupta among others. She says it&rsquo;s also exciting to see the new generation coming up&nbsp; &ndash; Regards, PATRON, Aspect/Ratio, and DOCUMENT &ndash; and she hopes to be supportive to them the way her colleagues were to her early on.

But keeping up with others does not mean following the crowd. Secrist says, &ldquo;One thing that has remained constant for me is that I tend to show art that is a slow look. Work tends to have a very strong artist hand in it, and it can look very different in person than a quick in and out of a fair booth.&rdquo; Secrist&rsquo;s art fair booths tend towards the immersive and conceptual, so visitors are compelled to participate in her installations and spend more than a few seconds looking at it. She explains, &ldquo;Especially over the last few years, every booth we&rsquo;ve designed, and each gallery exhibition, we&rsquo;ve tried to have the production value feel like a museum installation. We have also been doing more solo booths, where we give an artist a challenge, for instance, showing an entirely new medium, or creating a standout presentation that will linger. No matter how the actual sales go, it&rsquo;s a curatorial experience that will make people stop and remember.&rdquo;

<blockquote>
I tend to show art that is a slow look. &ndash;Carrie Secrist
</blockquote>

She acknowledges, &ldquo;One reason why we do this has to do with the other biggest change to our business since I started &ndash; the Internet. It&rsquo;s fantastic that people, every minute of every day, in every country, can look up online what our current exhibition is and see new work, but we don&rsquo;t want them to stop there. People feel they have seen the exhibition online, but they haven&rsquo;t. And pardon my French, so often what I show appears like shit online [laughs], and you can&rsquo;t begin to get the nuances digitally.&rdquo; Secrist confesses, and her staff concurs, that she is not technologically savvy, which may motivate her to try to impress visitors with what they can see in person rather than on a screen.

Secrist has seen the Chicago art scene boom and evolve over the years. She remembers, &ldquo;When I opened there was really one contemporary art fair and that was Art Chicago. People anticipated it all year long, it was such an event. Now there are 2-3 significant fairs around the world every quarter.&rdquo; The complexities of a strong market-focus, which has largely come out of the proliferation of art fairs, are apparent in a story she recalls about encountering a collector who once bought several works by an artist solely because they were told the value of the artist&rsquo;s work would greatly multiply after it was part of a museum show. Secrist says her aim is to be able to help people understand and love art for many reasons that go beyond art market factors.

<img alt="" data-caption="Joe Adamik and Diana Guerrero-Maciá, Drum set, 2016. from A TRANSFORMATION OF THINGS, November 11 2016-January 14, 2017 at Carrie Secrist Gallery" data-rich-file-id="2245" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2245/original/dgmacia-jadamik-atot-drums-2016-full-.jpg" />

Secrist embraces art that is equally weighted between a visual experience and a richer conceptual connection, and she likes to reference the open atmosphere of early 19th century salons. The participatory productions she hosts at the gallery are designed to motivate people to show up and see art together, bringing a changing collective perspective to each show. Secrist explains, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve done a lot of different performative things, like when artist Diana Guerrero-Maci&agrave;, with her musician husband, Joe Adamik, created a series of artist made drum sets. Throughout the whole exhibition of her other work, which were mostly tapestries, we had a call and response session with other famous drummers. When we opened the show and held the sessions last fall, the week after the [presidential] election, all sorts of people &ndash; from children to seniors &ndash; came together to listen to the drums. It really felt like a gathering and an exchange.&rdquo; Incorporating these performances and backdrops are a way to bring people into Secrist&rsquo;s space to participate in art, and it&rsquo;s a means to help artists expand their practice as well as their thinking.

Secrist is celebrating the gallery&rsquo;s 25th anniversary in several ways. For the gallery&rsquo;s EXPO CHICAGO booth (Sept 13-17) she explains, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re presenting a curated exhibition of select artists who will create work to commemorate this milestone. The comprehensive installation will include a wide range of media and each artist will be represented with art work that includes, or relates to, a metallic motif. We are also considering creating a reflective wall treatment in the booth to literally and figuratively include visitors within the experience. This offers a contemporary twist on a tradition, dating back to the Roman Empire, of exchanging symbolic elements for specific anniversaries. In this case, the element of silver will honor the interactions of the gallery, its artists and its audience in present time as well as over a quarter century of evolution.&rdquo; There will be an expanded presentation of the fair booth concept in the gallery in November for the actual anniversary.

Though art is with her every waking hour, Secrist has one other passion she gravitates to often. She shares, &ldquo;I am a crazy gardener. I paint with flowers. My husband and I acquired the property next door to us, and I&rsquo;m turning it into a fantastic secret garden, and eventually a small artist residence.&rdquo; Catching Secrist at an art fair in towering shoes and her unique couture choices is a chance to admire her sense of style, but she admits, &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m not in art clothes, I am basically in overalls. And sometimes I&rsquo;m in both, because I have like 20 pairs, including the dress ones. Getting in the mud makes me happy.&rdquo; 25 years after diving into gallery life, Secrist indeed has weathered the floods as well as the droughts, but she has found her calling as one who passionately tends to artists, as well as collectors, and helps them all thrive in her garden.

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Top image: CARRIE SECRIST GALLERY BOOTH AT EXPO CHICAGO 2016, featuring an installation by Shannon Finley

CGN interviews Chicago art dealer Carrie Secrets on 25 years in the business

Carrie Secrist Turns 25: Chicago Gallerist Makes the Old School New Again 

<h2>As Harvey Hits Texas, Art Museums Shutter</h2>

&quot;On Friday morning, as Hurricane Harvey approached the Gulf Coast of Texas, museums in the region closed, saying that they would keep their doors closed for the weekend... Among the institutions that closed early or completely on Friday were the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Galveston Arts Center, the Menil Collection in Houston, the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, and the Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi, which is near where Harvey made landfall on Friday evening.&quot; &nbsp; -ARTnews

This post <a href="http://www.artnews.com/2017/08/27/as-harvey-hits-texas-museums-shutter-082717/">(Via ARTnews)</a> is being continuously updated with details about Harvey&rsquo;s effects on Texas&rsquo;s art community.

<a href="http://www.artnews.com/2017/08/27/as-harvey-hits-texas-museums-shutter-082717/">Read More...</a>

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<h2>Here&rsquo;s the latest site plan for the Obama Presidential Center</h2>

The Obama Foundation has just released the most detailed look at its plan for Jackson Park yet. An aerial illustration depicting the Obama Presidential Center has been sent along with a formal announcement regarding the&nbsp;planned parking garage&nbsp;for the new South Side campus. The new site map is a refinement to the original which was&nbsp;unveiled&nbsp;in May. &nbsp;-Curbed

<a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/8/23/16190550/obama-presidential-center-parking-garage-site-map">Read More...</a>

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<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2249" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2249/original/design.jpg" />

<h2>Ettore Sottsass:&nbsp;The Met Breuer looks back at the colorful work of the late postmodern designer.</h2>

&quot;Serious fun. That&rsquo;s what the disruptive design genius Ettore Sottsass was up to with his furniture, ceramics, buildings, glassware, textiles, jewelry, and photographs&mdash;in other words, with his life, which ended on New Year&rsquo;s Eve in 2007, at the age of ninety. For all the sensuous whimsy and nose-thumbing irreverence of his best-known work&mdash;the lipstick-red plastic&nbsp;Valentine&nbsp;typewriter for Olivetti, from 1968; the more-is-more pile on of color and form of the&nbsp;&ldquo;Carlton&rdquo; Room Divider, from 1981&mdash;Sottsass was at heart a philosopher, with a deep faith in the power of objects. As he told Charlie Rose in 2004, &ldquo;If you have good design, you will have a better society.&rdquo;&quot; &nbsp;-4Columns

<a href="http://4columns.org/scott-andrea-k/ettore-sottsass">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2250" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2250/original/hyperallergic.jpg" />

<h2>Four Uncompromising Finnish Women Artists</h2>

&quot;The story of the Finnish modernist painter Helene Schjerfbeck is a fascinating one, which was first told in America in 1992, 25 years ago, when she was the subject of an exhibition at the National Academy of Design. Writing for&nbsp;The New York Times&nbsp;(November 27, 1992), Roberta Smith characterized the exhibition of this neglected artist as &ldquo;revelatory [and] bittersweet.&rdquo; Smith&rsquo;s observation still holds true, perhaps even more so, in the exhibition&nbsp;Independent Visions: Helene Schjerfbeck and Her Contemporaries&nbsp;at Scandinavia House (April 29 &ndash; October 7, 2017), which fleshes out a story of independence and perseverance that keeps needing to be told, if only to remind us how complicated and chaotic history is.&quot; &nbsp; -Hyperallergic

<a href="https://hyperallergic.com/397644/independent-visions-helene-schjerfbeck-and-her-contemporaries-scandinavia-house-2017/">Read More...</a>

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<h2>STEINBERG: &lsquo;Wall of Respect&rsquo; less remembered but more&nbsp;significant</h2>

&quot;The Wall is important, not as enduring artwork &mdash; the building burned in 1971, the murals are gone &mdash; but as a statement that people who are routinely ignored can still manifest themselves, at least in their own neighborhood. The Wall was influential; hundreds of similar displays of pride went up in cities across the country.&quot; &nbsp; -Sun Times

<a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/steinberg-wall-of-respect-less-remembered-but-more-significant/">Read More...</a>

Top Image: A satellite view of Harvey as it neared Texas on Thursday. COURTESY NASA

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The CGN weekly roundup of local, national and international art world news.

News from Around the Art World: August 28, 2017

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418273/icm2dzxn65wdad7cb5ax.jpg"></figure>By GINNY VAN ALYEA&nbsp;On a summer morning, when the sky over Millennium Park is nearly black with storms, I notice several small, strange creatures perched among the high walls of Mark Kelly’s 3rd floor office in the Chicago Cultural Center. After Kelly introduces himself, he tells me that when he accepted the position of Commissioner of the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in 2016, he first looked to&nbsp; the Visual Arts team for help hanging past public art proposals and exhibition posters salon-style around his office, since it needed, of all things, some art on the walls. Realizing I was still checking out the winged, dragon-like figures suspended in flight in the conference room, he tells me that they are actually part of his personal collection and were created by the Linares family (Mexico) and Erin Cramer (Chicago). They serve as the inspiration for the Wabash Avenue Flying Creatures project, which will soon feature many more of them, created by local teens, around the Loop. Kelly, it seems to me, is a man who can dig up forgotten treasure and summon exotic beasts, especially if he happens to be in the right place at the right time. For a moment I wonder if I am talking to a City administrator or a wizard.Kelly’s frenetic creativity is driving his overhaul of all things cultural in the City of Chicago. He came to the job almost by accident, after decades embedded in a more or less deliberate and predictable academic life at Columbia College. He says he has never felt more untethered in his professional life, but that presiding over DCASE has given him surprising professional freedom, in a government position no less, to easily change the direction of a given project and to be nimble in the pursuit of creativity on behalf of the City and its citizens. One year into this unexpected job, he is embracing a host of initiatives , all in pursuit of giving art and culture to the public.CGN: You’ve been [Commissioner of DCASE] for one year. How have things changed for you from your time at Columbia working with students and academics?&nbsp;Mark Kelly: The world of academia and committees is a very laborious process. Here, of course, I have to live within a budget...It’s incredibly tight, and [with] some of the rules of engagement in the City you would say it’s hard to be nimble, but I feel like we, the DCASE staff, working with our partners, can think and do pretty freely. It’s actually a lot of fun.CGN: Much of your past work has focused on youth and education. How has that influenced the directions you’ve taken at the City so far?MK: I didn’t know it, but my time at Columbia was 32 years of preparation for this job. I became very knowledgeable and connected to the creative and cultural life of the city. And I’ve always been interested in, intrigued by and determined to create creative and cultural environments that inspire and demand one’s attention. If anything, this job now is just an extension of that idea, but with a canvas, if you will, that is huge.CGN: You were working from the inside out before, and now you have to work from the outside in and take all those things and expand them for a wider audience.MK: Well, the scale is different, but the thinking and the possibilities are quite similar. So, here I was, the architect for the Wabash Arts Corridor, and then I come into the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. They’ve declared it’s the Year of Public Art, and it’s fair to say that when I entered, they were still figuring out plans for all the elements of the year. I’m a practitioner, not just an administrator, so it was like a gift to bring a little more focus and energy to the concept, and then to quickly start to try to energize a city; it was a fascinating beginning for me.CGN: A lot has already taken place in the first half of 2017 for the Year of Public Art, but the second half sounds even more engaging.MK: Several major cultural, public art and art initiatives are all coming together. There’s EXPO at Navy Pier, the Nick Cave Jeanne Gang mash up, if you will, at the Pier as well, and then of course the second edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial opens at the same time. I’m very impressed with our curators and that we get to host an international event like this. Finally, we can’t share details yet, but by early fall we will announce a stunning new permanent public art piece in the Loop by a renowned Chicago artist.CGN: What else is coming up?MK: We launch our public art festival in October, as well as a public art symposium October 26-27, and our Flying Creatures will take over Wabash under the El. At the same time we’ll be celebrating the majority of Mayor Emanuel’s 50 x 50 neighborhood arts projects that will have been completed – we are literally putting new public art in every ward of the city by artists who are respected and esteemed. On top of all of that, we’re going to be releasing an ambitious and focused public arts plan. Hopefully we are setting our compass going forward so that public art is not celebrated for just a year. We hope we’ve grabbed everyone’s attention and laid the path to ensure that public art, which is always changing, becomes a defining characteristic of the city.CGN: What do you think is significant about public art continuing to evolve and change and be created for a city?MK: I want to reverse that question. The idea that the art should be anywhere but with the public, to me, is crazy. So much of our thinking about art takes us to the wall, or the screen, or the stage. It’s relegated to static places. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that art, that creative impulses may be one of the definitions of what distinguishes us as a species. It needs to be present in our lives, all the time and everywhere. So public art becoming a defining characteristic means it’s no longer relegated to somewhere over there, it’s centered. Does it save us? Does it necessarily make us a safer city? No. But it’s just fundamental. It brings things to light, and it brings surprises in our daily lives. The most powerful example of it is Millennium Park. None of us ever imagined the power of that space and the interactive public art at the highest level. I mean look at [Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate] “The Bean” – the public is not saying ‘Oh look at this great public art piece,’ they’re pulled into the vortex of the images; it’s a funhouse mirror as well as a selfie zone that always changes. I love the [Jaume Plensa] Crown Fountain in that it was intended to be a place of contemplation. The artist saw it as a place for serene moments of private reflection. And then the kids grabbed it, and it’s the coolest, most energizing, fun space. Even the Picasso – once they removed the barriers it became a slide for kids. So this is a long-winded answer, but art needs to be public. Art is now defined as part of what makes a city great. The artistry and the design around us, that built environment takes us somewhere.CGN: It seems that it’s not just putting art in the public space, it’s really turning it over to the public.MK: Well, that’s the other part of this. The definition of what we consider to be public art has so radically changed from the carefully placed monuments of the past. All of those still have their place, and should continue, but now the graffiti artist and the street artists grow a movement. They raise the question, ‘Why should walls have art on them?’ and ‘Who said the barren landscape couldn’t be remade?’ Now many people love the power of street art. Ten years ago, 15, 20 years ago it was the scourge of this city and all cities. The “urban wasteland” actually just inspired artists, and then they were schooled on the street, and they taught us something.CGN: What was the inspiration for the year of public art in Chicago?MK: The idea came from Mayor Emanuel, who announced it along with Yoko Ono’s Skylanding sculpture in 2015. 2017 is also the 50th anniversary of the Picasso, as well as the Wall of Respect mural, so he said ‘This is going to be the year of public art’, and then it was sort of out there. How fortuitous that’s when I just happened to arrive here. I’m a little insane and wrongheaded, and we committed to this idea and ran hard with it. It’s the power of a phrase or a unifying principle.CGN: How do you continue the unity that has come out of the Year of Public Art?MK: Next year is going to be the Year of Creative Youth, because we are rallying all of our organizations that can engage young people in creative ways in order to encourage more youth to go down an artistic path. Obviously this flows right from public art. What better way to engage young adults? They don’t want to be in non-violence programs, what is that? They want to be inspired and engaged, period. One of the most powerful ways to do that is through creative forms and practice.CGN: That must bring in a whole other circle of cultural institutions, beyond the visual arts.MK: In Millennium Park we’re going to have Chicago’s first ever Creative Youth Festival; I hope it becomes an annual event. It’s going to be all forms – fashion, design, performance, spoken word, music and dance. The tagline is going to be “Born Creative.” I’m going full circle to my work at Columbia, because the heart of my efforts there was to inspire young adults who have decided to pursue a creative field to be fearless. Now we also want to encourage all young adults to be creative somewhere in their life.CGN: Is there a plan for how these organizations will get more youth involved in their programs? How do you bring in people who have not done something like this yet?MK: We haven’t quite figured that out, but I’ve been amazed at the strength of organizations here supporting creative youth, whether it’s Louder Than a Bomb, Marwen, After School Matters, YOUMedia, SkyART – it’s amazing. We need to better appreciate them. Let’s put a spotlight on them – celebrate it and make it known. Then we can draw more youth into these programs. We will it figure out.CGN: Are you ever not connected to this job? Or is this twenty-four hours a day, everything that’s on your mind?MK: It’s twenty-four hours a day, everything that’s on my mind. Everything here in the city is a giant new canvas.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Photo by Patrick Pyszka. Paintings by Phyllis Bramson.</body></html>

Chicago Gallery News interviews Mark Kelly, city commissioner, participant of the Wabash Flying Creatures project, and advocate for youth exposure to art. 

Commissioner Mark Kelly: Chicago's Out-of-the-Box Culture Wizard on Public Art

By FRANCK MERCURIOWhat happens when one of the country’s most renowned artists collaborates with one of the nation’s preeminent architects? The result is&nbsp;Here Hear, a series of performances combining the unique talents of artist Nick Cave and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang, debuting this September at EXPO Chicago and during the Chicago Architecture Biennial.The joining of forces during such a key time in the city’s cultural calendar was the brainchild of Michelle T. Boone, the current Chief Program and Civic Engagement Officer for Navy Pier, home of EXPO, and former Commissioner of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE).“Michelle felt this was a good way to partner two artists and also tie together the Biennial and the fair,” says Cave.According to Gang, the opportunity to team up with Cave was destined to be, “We have these parallel worlds, and every once in awhile they intersect.” She adds, “We knew each other before, but we’ve never done a project together. Michelle made it happen.” Over the past couple of years, EXPO and the Biennial have brought renewed international attention to Chicago’s vibrant art and design scenes, and&nbsp;Here Hear&nbsp;will help celebrate the opening of both exhibitions this fall in a fantastic way.EXPO CHICAGO, now in its sixth year, and building on a steady rise in prominence on the international art fair circuit, will see 135 exhibitors representing galleries from 25 countries. The Chicago Architecture Biennial, in its second edition, features 141 participants from 20 countries. Architects’ work will be displayed at the Chicago Cultural Center through the end of the year, as well as in several satellite venues around the city.Here Hear,&nbsp;premiering the evening of September 13, during Vernissage, EXPO’s kick-off party on the Pier, will be performed at the start of the Biennial on September 16 and promises to be a showstopper.“The introduction to the festivities will be led by the South Shore Drill Team, with a group of 30 performers in Soundsuits,” said Cave. “This is really the piece that will be engaged with Jeanne’s work.”Cave is best known for his performance pieces featuring dancers dressed in his signature Soundsuits – wearable works of art that are colorful, textured, and sometimes unsettling in their forms. The pieces are often exhibited in static museum displays, yet they come to life in exciting and unexpected ways when presented in motion to an audience, while inhabited by performers.Complementing Cave’s works will be “dynamic custom-fabricated objects” designed by Gang and her team of architects that will define the spaces where Cave’s performances take place.“These sculptural/architectural forms can be moved around the pier, creating various spaces to perform in,” said Cave. “The idea is organic enough that you can create this sort of environment to play within. The dancers will have the ability to dictate whether it’s a square box, or a long rectangular space, or a line with performances happening on both sides of the objects.” The space-defining objects themselves will be kinetic, and Gang’s inspiration for their design centers on the wave action of Lake Michigan, which of course surrounds the Pier on three sides.“The performance site is on Navy Pier, so there’s this idea of water and the movement of water and how things bob up and down in the water. This inspired how the objects move and their balancing properties,” said Gang. “Dance is so much about balance, and human movement is so much about that as well. The objects should have a nice relation with the performance.”Gang is known for some very high-profile buildings, including Chicago’s Aqua Tower (completed in 2009), Vista Tower (currently under construction), and the Gilder Center at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (scheduled for completion in 2020). But she is also known for her socially conscious and environmentally friendly projects, such as the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (2014), the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo (2010), and perhaps most notably, proposals for the sustainable redevelopment and resilient design of riverfronts in Memphis, Milwaukee, and Chicago (the latter published in&nbsp;Reverse Effect: Renewing Chicago’s Waterways).“More and more, people are focused on their virtual world and not as aware of the space they’re in or the people&nbsp;around them,” explained Gang. “I feel that in architecture and public space we have to work to get people to engage each other. It’s the biggest challenge and the most important thing we can do right now for our environment, for our politics—for everything. We need to get people to talk to each other and have empathy and have a conversation.”This goal, to help generate greater social awareness, is something that Gang shares with Cave. In previous interviews, Cave has said that his intention as an artist is to make an imprint on his audience, rather than just an impression. In many of his works, the audience participates, rather than just observes. Cave’s&nbsp;HEARD, to be performed at both EXPO and the Chicago Architecture Biennial, explores the collective power of people working together.&nbsp;Up Right,&nbsp;also slated for multiple performances, focuses on the challenges of being young and black in America. To perform these larger than life pieces, Cave needs to recruit dozens of people from across the city. His troupe of participants will be made up of creative professionals, but also everyday people—perhaps as many as 150 in total—including adults who work in public service and kids from the Chicago Children’s Choir, reflecting the variety of experiences from so many citizens in our city.“I’ve been performing all over the world, but this is really my first performance piece in the city,” said Cave. “We’re very excited about working with young people and as well as professionals, creating opportunities for individuals interested in performance, dance, the arts. It’s nice to be able to create a platform of possibility, and so&nbsp;Here Hear&nbsp;is really all about that.”“I’m thrilled to be working with Nick and to see a glimpse of what inspires him and what he’s thinking,” added Gang. “It’s been really great so far. I’m looking forward to everything coming together.”&nbsp;<h3>September Performance Schedule:</h3>Wed, Sep 13, 9-10pm – Aon Ballroom, Navy PierNick Cave’s&nbsp;Up Right Chicago, 8pm. The performance will start with a procession from EXPO CHICAGO, beginning at 8:30. Free; limited, ticketed seating avail. to the public.Sat, Sep 16, 1pm and 3pm – Navy Pier, Polk Bros ParkHEARD,&nbsp;Includes live music by Kahil Elzabar and Chicago Children’s Choir. Soundsuits activation at Navy Pier Wave Wall at 2pm. Here Hear Film Festival at Polk Bros Park Performance Lawn, Lake Stage, 5pm (runs approx. 2 hours).Note: The Sep 16 performances are free and open to the public.&nbsp;No tickets necessary.

Nick Cave and Jeanne Gang collaborate in Chicago fall 2017

Nick Cave & Jeanne Gang: An Interactive Collaboration Between Artist & Architect

<html><head></head><body>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417691/iedjuj1hxhm8a6egxivo.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;By ALISON REILLY“I had a roll of duct tape, and I would make my G.I. Joe into 20 other types of G.I. Joes,” Faheem Majeed says. “I was always making but I didn’t understand that as an art practice. In high school, I had an art teacher who said, ‘You’re really creative.’ I’m like, ‘Nah, that’s not real. That’s not work.’ I always assumed that work had to be something that you didn’t enjoy. I didn’t understand that you could love your work. Art was not something I took seriously, but it was something I did all the time.”Majeed, who grew up in Minneapolis, continued art classes throughout high school but ultimately had plans of becoming a veterinarian. It wasn’t until his art teacher took one of his paintings and sold it for $75 that he understood that something he loved could also support him.“The spark for me was my art teacher,” he says. “And then my mother supported my impulse and understood the value of art production and making. She was very happy, because she saw I had a passion.”Today Majeed’s practice extends well beyond a two-dimensional canvas. For each installation of his ongoing series, Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden, Majeed builds a room made of cedar planks that serves as a platform for other artists to meet, interact and perform. The walls, inspired by Margaret Burroughs Gallery at the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC), pay tribute to the woman and community who supported him when he first moved to Chicago in 2003.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2238/original/majeed-11.jpg" alt=""></figure>Majeed eventually became Executive Director of SSCAC and served the organization from 2005-2011. He speaks often of Margaret Burroughs, a co-founder of SSCAC (1940) and the founder of the DuSable Museum (1961), whom he befriended. “Margaret Burroughs was a teacher who was frustrated about the lack of diversity in the Chicago Public School art curriculum. She complained, and it fell on deaf ears, so she gathered a group of people who had objects, some were valuable and some not so much, but they all had a story. She assembled the objects in her home and invited the community, her kids and neighbors to come in,” Majeed explains. This collection in Burroughs’ home eventually became the DuSable Museum of African American History. “The community started calling it a museum, and she realized that there was a need.”Tuning into the concerns of the local community now defines Majeed’s art practice. His work often acknowledges the dynamics of the space in which it exists and the changes that happen when the installation moves from one community to another. Around 2013 he built a shack in an empty lot on his street in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. When one of his neighbors asked him, “Why are you making this ugly shack in my neighborhood?” Majeed started to explain, “Hold on, I live here,” but the man interrupted and said, “Well, that’s not what I asked you.”“This was a defining moment of understanding for me,” Majeed explains, “that when I build a shack in my neighborhood, it is connected to all the artists and the organizations in the city that support me. Those people are going to come to that shack but not necessarily to the neighborhood. When they visit, they might discover that area and see different types of potential, but that may or may not be of interest to the people who live in proximity to where I build.”As he talked with his neighbor, Majeed not only recognized the effect of building a sculpture in his neighborhood, but also the perception of his body in space. “When I walk down the street as a black man, in a neighborhood that is predominantly black, I disappear. I realized that my art body is different than my physical body. I’m personally invisible in one way, but my art body sticks out because of what I draw in.”The first shack that Majeed built became part of an ongoing series called Shacks and Shanties, in which he creates structures for both artists and organizations to utilize as a community and performance spaces. Because of the prevalence of empty lots across the city, Majeed wants to reimagine them as areas of potential.Not blind to the controversy of his practice, in response to his own work as an artist engaged with local communities, Majeed started another series called My Socially Engaged Protest. “Basically, I protest my own art in the communities that I work in,” he says. “If I understand the problems of what it means to build a shack in a vacant lot in my neighborhood and what comes with that, then I can then ask, ‘What are the tools I can create to protest that action at the same time?’”<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2237/original/majeed-19-v2.jpg" alt=""></figure>By protesting his own work, Majeed calls attention to the complex relationships artists can have with the communities they serve. While some in the neighborhood may welcome art installations, others might be hostile or simply uninterested. “The real work happens with the people on the fringes who don’t want to engage with what I’m doing, because they think they’ve seen this before,” Majeed says. “But that’s where the work should happen.”Majeed’s self-awareness recently took the form of a 10-foot high inflatable balloon. Inspired by the fat cats and rats one might find at a union picketing strike, Majeed’s balloon is a Mario Brothers-like caricature of a black artist holding a palette in one hand and choking an adolescent with the other. “It’s hard to look at,” he admits. “It’s a complete, cartoony hot mess.”But for Majeed, both the content and the form are significant. The balloon protests against “the role of artists as first wave gentrifying agents in under-resourced neighborhoods,” he explains. “And it’s mobile. I can have it up and running in five minutes, because it’s designed for people to put up and break down quickly for protests on the fly.”This fall, for the first time, he will bring Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden to a commercial space. Supported by the Chicago Community Trust, Majeed will install a new iteration of his cedar gallery in a booth at EXPO CHICAGO. He has invited four local organizations and previous grantees of the Chicago Community Trust, including SkyART, Project Onward, Hyde Park Jazz Festival and Gwendolyn Brooks Centennial Celebration, to activate the space.For Majeed, who identifies both as an artist and an arts administrator, it is essential to bring local artists from organizations like SkyART and Project Onward into dialogue with EXPO. “It’s really thinking about leveling value and saying, ‘Yes, you have this space, and there’s this type of monetary value but there’s also another type of value.’ When these groups respectfully meet each other then they can see how their relationship can be mutually beneficial.”Along with his own work, Majeed is one of the founders of the Floating Museum, which operates without a permanent physical space. This summer, the Museum took on the literal embodiment of its name and organized an expansive project to float an industrial barge from southeast Chicago to the new Riverwalk in downtown Chicago. The barge, which is now installed at Navy Pier, serves as a mobile gallery for an impressive roster of cultural institutions, community organizations and artists including Maria Gaspar, Pope.L, Edra Soto, Cauleen Smith and Amanda Williams.&nbsp;“It’s just a different way of thinking about a networked museum,” Majeed says. “We’re making the city into a museum, and its neighborhoods are the galleries. Its partners are museums and community organizations. The Floating Museum is the city of Chicago.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2231/original/faheemsidebar.jpg" alt=""></figure>Top image: Artist Faheem Majeed in his studio in Chicago. Photo: Devin MaysPublisher's note: The Fall 2017 print version of this interview misspelled Margaret&nbsp;Burroughs's name as BurrowsSaveSave</body></html>

CGN interviews local artist Faheem Majeed about his history with art and his upcoming projects. 

Into the Neighborhoods: Faheem Majeed's Artistic Evolution

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418571/kh2w7e0szd2hu9cpdpun.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;By JAYCEE ROCKHOLDEven though the city of Chicago may be on the map, its photography community isn’t— which is exactly what Jennifer Murray, executive director of Filter Photo Festival and Filter Space, is trying to fix. A grad student turned Loyola University professor, Murray has always had her toes dipped in the Chicago photography community.Still currently the only photography festival in the Midwest, Filter Photo Festival (running September 21- 24, 2017) was founded by Sarah Hadley as a small operation in 2009, but now encompasses hundreds of participants, in-depth portfolio reviews, artist talks and interactive events. “Filter actually began about nine years ago as an annual festival,” said Murray. “This upcoming September will be our ninth annual Filter Photo Festival taking place at the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel, just a short walk away from the Museum of Contemporary Art.” The festival draws both a Chicago centric and national crowd, as well as a few international photographers eager to get their work reviewed.Even though there are multiple facets of the festival, portfolio reviews make up a majority of the festival. Gathering a wide variety of artists and resources for both students and the public is one of the goals that solidifies Filter Photo Festival. It’s a high concentration of well-known artistic individuals in one area made available at a fair price.“The portfolio reviews happen with professionals like gallerists and curators,” said Murray. “We invite them to come from across the country. We usually have around 30 and about 10 of those are Chicago based. We really want people to take advantage of the fact that you have all of these professionals in one specific location as opposed to thinking that you needed to go to San Francisco, New York and different cities around the country in order to have your work looked at.” &nbsp;This year, Matt Austin, founder of Candor Arts, and Teresa Silva from Chicago Artists Coalition are among the Chicago-based reviewers.Murray’s background in teaching urged her to place a heavy emphasis on portfolio reviews (she currently teaches photography at Chicago’s own Loyola University). Proud of the fact that she could practically talk about a piece and workshop it all day long, part of her drive for reviews stems from her experience working in A+D Gallery, a non-photo gallery at Columbia College Chicago. “Teaching photography but running a non-photo gallery really helped me understand the place photography has in the art world,” said Murray. “I think we tend to think of photography as the subset or separate thing and it’s really not.”The public can purchase portfolio reviews in bulk, allowing the individual to spend 20 minutes discussing their work with multiple professionals, and runs on a first come first serve basis. Whoever submits a list of artists they wish to meet with quickly has more of a chance of speaking with the artists on their list.For Murray, the Filter portfolio reviews emphasize that photographers are artists, and should consider themselves so. Ranging from still life to street photography, each photographer has their own artistic value.Besides the public, portfolio reviews also attract plenty of students, who actually have an advantage for portfolio reviews. Not only do they get the chance to have their work reviewed by well-known artists, but they also can participate at a lower cost. Students who are faced with a tight budget can purchase single portfolio reviews versus the require bulk buy for others.&nbsp;“A lot of our local faculty will bring students and classes,” said Murray. “That’s really the goal; to create a festival, to create these four days of programming in Chicago that’s just not for people that can afford this. We really want it to be open to anybody. We want to provide opportunities to students.”Hand-in-hand with portfolio reviews, Filter Photo Festival also organizes artists talks. Topics range from searching for and finding photography opportunities to discussing and showcasing a particular artist’s work. Some talks implement tours or other interactive aspects, such as the Leica Camera walk organized by Chicago’s Tamarkin Camera, in which participants are lent a Leica camera to take photos while walking around the city. This free activity allows people to step out of their own specific area of photography and experience something they wouldn’t have been able to before, especially students who may not be able to afford a Leica camera.“It’s street photography and film based. It doesn’t have to be film, but it certainly could be,” said Murray. “It’s a nice community building opportunity. It’s a way to sample some gear but it’s also a way to be with other folks that want to walk around and take pictures.”Some of the artists speaking at the event this year include photographer Jeffrey Wolin and Catherine Edelman, owner and director of Catherine Edelman gallery in Chicago, both of which will lead a gallery tour of Wolin’s exhibition Pigeon Hill: Then and Now, which includes his photographs taken in a housing project in southern Indiana. Photographers Sara J. Winston and Terry Evans will also lead their own talks as well. Even though the content of each talk will differ, one can expect healthy discussions of what it means to take contemporary photographs, as well as an enlightening method to learn about the artist and their work.In addition to artist talks, Filter Photo also presents numerous opportunities for workshopping photographers. Following a similar formula to that of the portfolio reviews, some, like Filter Photo members and those who sign up when registration opens, get first pick on these workshops. Even though the workshops will give guidance like the reviews, they also take time to pose heavy questions to spur discussion. The workshop Getting Seen, Getting Shown: Professional Practices for the Fine Art Photographer With Sasha Wolf and Jess T. Dugan not only points out skills that a photographer should have to keep their head above water, but also questions when a photographer knows if when their work is ready to be shown, how to connect with others in the art world, and how social media intertwines with this all.“People that take those workshops have the opportunity to develop a peer group with the other people that are there and develop a relationship with that artist,” said Murray. “Most of the time people will bring their own work to the workshop, so they not only hear what the artist has to say about their own practice and how to move forward in this particular area, but also have the opportunity to have the artist look at their own work. [The artist] provides really direct one-on-one feedback.”Overall, the Filter Photo Festival, highlighted by portfolio reviews, artist talks, and workshops, bolsters a photography community. Murray, who hopes the festival continues to attract people from both Chicago and around the world, also intends the festival to stay around the same size as it is now in order to maintain the small, tight-knit community feel. The festival has definitely grown since its conception in 2009, but for now, it fill its own niche in the Midwestern photography community. At the end of the day, for Murray, the main concern isn’t the size of the festival, but the individuals that make it up. From amateur photographers to those who have decades of experience, from still life photographers to student photographers snapping pictures for their own personal project, Filter Festival provides a platform to aid them all.“We know you’re serious and that this isn’t just a passing fad for you,” Murray said. “We know that you’re genuinely interested in being a part of this community and that this is really a career for you. We want to nurture those people.”Photo: Courtesy of Filter Festival&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN interviews Filter Festival director Jennifer Murray.

Putting Chicago on the Map: How Filter Festival Builds Photography Community 

Each week, CGN interviews a local art dealer to discuss the ins and outs of running a gallery in the city of Chicago. This week we caught up with&nbsp;Jayson Lawfer&nbsp;of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/the-nevica-project">The Nevica Project</a>.

Name: The Nevica Project 
Dealer: Jayson Lawfer 
Age: 43 
Previous occupation: Director of a nonprofit 
Hometown: Freeport, IL

Chicago Gallery News: Please describe your gallery&rsquo;s program in one sentence. &nbsp;

Jayson Lawfer: Selling and promoting art and artists in both the primary and secondary markets&mdash;international in scope, personal in nature.

CGN: How did you become an art dealer?

JL: Long before I opened my gallery, I started collecting art and spending quality time with artists, collectors and dealers. Over time I saw an opportunity to create an interesting and fulfilling business. In 2008, while living abroad in Italy, I created the The Nevica Project and set it up as an online gallery working off of images and contracts. NEVICA is an Italian word that means &ldquo;it snows,&rdquo; and my idea was to build a small gallery business that would snowball into something bigger and bigger every year.

CGN: What&#39;s the first thing you do each morning when you get to the gallery?&nbsp;

JL: I mentally pinch myself, because I feel fortunate to do what I enjoy each day.

CGN: Thumbs up or down on art fairs?

JL: Thumbs up. Anytime you can corral millions of dollars worth of art and the population that can afford it, you create a win-win situation.

CGN: Artists you admire but don&#39;t represent?

JL: Jonas Wood, Theaster Gates, Kerry James Marshall and Richard Serra. But the great thing about collection management is that my gallery has work by all these artists within our secondary market situations.&nbsp;

CGN: Best sale you&rsquo;ve ever had?

JL: One of the most profitable was a Viola Frey 9-foot sculpture but one of the most exciting was a Magdalena and Michael Frimkess vase I sold to Jonas Wood.

CGN: What advice would you share with new or young collectors?

JL: I really believe one should buy what touches his or her soul. But I also feel like making investments with artwork is underrated, exciting and smart. I always inform young collectors that when they support artists and buy their artwork, they have a position in the success of that artist.

CGN: Which artist that you represent or work of art you have recently acquired are you most excited about? Why?

JL: I recently acquired a Ruth Duckworth wall mural.&nbsp; It was an interesting story because I was picking up a rare Duckworth we just sold (from a Wilmette private collection) and transporting it back through Evanston.&nbsp; I saw an estate sale, so I decided to stop for a second. I couldn&rsquo;t believe there was a Ruth Duckworth sculpture hanging on the wall in front of me.&nbsp; I made an offer and next thing I knew I was transporting two pieces of historic art back to Chicago. I have only been to a few estates sales in my life, and it just seemed like something told me to stop there.

CGN: What major successes have you had this year? What about challenges?

JL: In this day and age, if you can keep your doors open, then that is a success in itself.&nbsp; We have definitely reached a more global audience this year with sales happening in England, Holland, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Japan and Australia. That being said, The Nevica Project does about 95% of all our sales online and to people outside of Chicago. I do feel it is a bit of a challenge to keep paying rent for a brick and mortar space.&nbsp; But it is our gallery&rsquo;s dedication to the public that we keep a physical space and make art available. We want people to have opportunities to personally see the artwork by great artists such as Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, Richard Tuttle, Peter Voulkos, Neha Vedpathak, Jun Kaneko and Warren MacKenzie.

CGN: How do you view working as an art dealer in Chicago and Kansas City? &nbsp;

JL: In Kansas City when you have an exhibition and an opening, people come. In Chicago it is different, because there is so much going on that we end up competing with other spaces. We recently had an exhibition of Magdalena and Michael Frimkess&mdash;two artists that are getting great press right now. We sold work to major collectors and other artists such as KAWS and Jonas Wood (we even had interest from Reese Witherspoon), but we only had a handful of Chicago residents come and see the show.

CGN: What is your favorite interest outside of the art world?

JL: Food and vintage motorcycles.&nbsp;

CGN: What is your favorite work of public art in Chicago?

JL: I would say Richard Serra&rsquo;s Reading Cones. I do wish it were one of his larger pieces so viewers could lose themselves in the space and be intimidated by the scale. But I am still grateful our city has one.

I also love looking at Theaster Gates&rsquo; house in Dorchester. I know it is technically private, but it is there for the public to see. To me, it really does stand for his roots in social art practices by creating a space and bringing communities together in it. He once said, &ldquo;The word artist has been too small for too long&hellip; And I think I am just trying to fill the word up again so that it means more.&rdquo; I feel like that house is a gift to Chicago and has graciously invited myself, collectors, investors, supporters, neighbors and friends to have a memorable art experience.

CGN: What are your five&nbsp;favorite art spaces to visit in Chicago?

JL:

<ol>
	<li>Rhona Hoffman Gallery</li>
	<li>Shane Campbell Gallery</li>
	<li>Peanut Gallery</li>
	<li>Marilyn and Larry Fields Private Collection</li>
	<li>Museum of Contemporary Art</li>
</ol>

Jayson Lawfer is the owner of The Nevica Project located in Ravenswood&nbsp;in Chicago. For more information about his gallery visit: <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/the-nevica-project">The Nevica Project. &nbsp;</a>

CGN interviews local art dealer Jayson Lawfer. 

An Interview with a Dealer: Jayson Lawfer

CGN&#39;s weekly roundup of local, national and international art world news.

<h2>We Need to Move, Not Destroy, Confederate Monuments</h2>

&quot;The art historian in a critic wants to preserve Confederate images in&nbsp;museums, not trash them. At a crime scene, you don&rsquo;t destroy evidence.&quot; -New York Times

<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/arts/design/we-need-to-move-not-destroy-confederate-monuments.html?referer=">Read More...</a>

&nbsp;

<h2>Not To Be&nbsp;Sniffed at: Long-Lost Banksy Artwork Is Rediscovered</h2>

&ldquo;A Banksy painting that appeared on a public toilet block in east London, only to disappear after it was vandalised, spray-jetted by the local council and then painted over, has been rediscovered over a decade later.&rdquo;

-The Guardian

<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/aug/18/banksys-snorting-copper-east-london">Read More...</a>

&nbsp;

<h2>Singapore Art Museum Names June Yap as New Curatorial Director</h2>

&ldquo;June Yap has been named the new curatorial, programs, and publications director for the Singapore Art Museum, according to the Chinese newspaper Today. Yap was a curator of new-media exhibitions at the museum in 2003 and 2004, and she has remained involved since as a member of the institution&rsquo;s acquisitions committee as well as the Singapore Biennale 2016 Advisory Committee. From 2012 to 2014, she also served in a two-year curatorial residency at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.&rdquo; -ARTnews

<a href="http://www.artnews.com/2017/08/22/june-yap-joins-singapore-art-museum-as-new-curatorial-director/">Read More...</a>

&nbsp;

<h2>That Norman Rockwell Poster on the Wall? It&rsquo;s Actually a $300,000 Original, One Family Discovered</h2>

&ldquo;A long-lost work by&nbsp;Norman Rockwell&nbsp;has been discovered by&nbsp;Heritage Auctions&nbsp;Texas. The owners, who mistakenly identified the piece as&nbsp;a signed print, presented it to Heritage auctions experts to assess its value. However, after careful inspection,&nbsp;the work, showing three umpires standing in the rain during a baseball game,&nbsp;is actually an oil-on-paper study for the final piece&nbsp;titled&nbsp;Tough Call. Its value is estimated at $300,000, but based on past auction results, it could go for considerably more.&rdquo; -artnet News

<a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/newly-discovered-norman-rockwell-1031546">Read More...</a>

&nbsp;

<h2>Who is Really Making &ldquo;Chihuly&rdquo; Art?</h2>

&ldquo;More than 40 years later, Jeffrey Beers still vividly remembers what it felt like to have Dale Chihuly call up to convene a pre-dawn glassblowing session. You felt flattered and inspired, he said, jazzed by Mr. Chihuly&rsquo;s caffeinated freight train of energy and the idea of making art with him while most of the world slept in.&rdquo; -New York Times

<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/arts/design/chihuly-glass-bipolar-court-moi.html">Read More...</a>&nbsp;

Read the August 14, 2017&nbsp;roundup&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/8/news-from-around-the-art-world-august-14-2017">here</a>.

Photo: Julia Rendleman/Associated Press

CGN's weekly roundup of local, national and international art world news.