<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418545/p7wr8wu7rx6wtebob8ol.jpg"></figure>By FRANCK MERCURIOIn 1913 the International Exhibition of Modern Art made its way to Chicago from New York. Popularly known as the Armory Show, the exhibition introduced Chicagoans to the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Brancusi, and Kandinsky—and in the process, scandalized the public and many in the city’s conservative art circles.Shortly thereafter, several arts organizations were formed, either in support of “the moderns” or in opposition to them. The Arts Club of Chicago, founded in 1916, had a decidedly modernist bent. The Renaissance Society, organized a year earlier in 1915 by a group of University of Chicago academics, was squarely in the other camp. The Society’s members aimed to “stimulate the love of the beautiful and to enrich the life of the community through the cultivation of the arts”—an idealized, 19th-century view of the function and societal role of art. During the first ten years, the organization reflected its scholarly origins by presenting a fairly sober roster of topics, such as “The Beginnings of Italian Sculpture” and “Chinese Paintings of the Tang, Sung, and Yuan Periods.”But the Modernist movement could not be avoided forever.&nbsp;Attitudes shifted in 1927 with the election of Agnes C. Gale, the Society’s first female president. She, along with succeeding president Eva Watson Schütze, brought modernism to the forefront of the Ren’s agenda. Writing in the Society’s 1929 bulletin, Schütze made her mission clear: “Part of the program of the Renaissance Society is to study the art of the present time, the new renaissance.”Since then, there’s been no turning back. Over the years, the Ren has made its reputation by exhibiting intellectually challenging works by vanguard artists. This included a commitment to international, national, and local artists working in a variety of genres, from conceptual art to improvisational music to spoken word. The Society’s curators often worked alongside these artists to commission new pieces, something that helped distinguish the Ren from other arts institutions.This fall, the Ren pays homage to its tradition of supporting cutting-edge art as it celebrates the Society’s 100th year with a program of special exhibitions and events titled Centennial. Included are shows featuring the work of Irena Haiduk, Wadada Leo Smith, and Paul McCarthy.&nbsp;“All of these exhibitions have a very special role in our Centennial program,” says Solveig Øvstebø, the executive director and chief curator of the Renaissance Society. “The last show, Paul McCarthy, I think is an incredible, exciting presentation of his works.”McCarthy is an LA-based multidisciplinary artist known mainly for his large-scale sculptures and installations. The Ren exhibition, titled Paul McCarthy: Drawings (opening November 8) will present two-dimensional works by the artist created for his White Snow project and subsequent installation, WS, exhibited at the Park Avenue Armory in 2013. The drawings reflect McCarthy’s intentions for his larger works and give insight into his creative process. The show is curated by Øvstebø along with guest curator Suzanne Ghez, the Ren’s former director.Kicking off the Centennial celebration will be Irena “Ika” Haiduk’s Seductive Exacting Realism (opening September 10), a collaboration with the Istanbul Biennial. “Ika will present a completely new piece,” says Øvstebø. “Her work is very directly linked to socio-political discussions of our times.” According to the Ren’s website, the Chicago-based artist’s work will explore contemporary global politics through a “discursive data stream carrying a song in the form of a debate between two melodic voices.”Indeed, the Ren has a long tradition of sponsoring and showcasing experimental music in addition to visual art. Ankrasmation: The Language Scores, 1967–2015 (opening October 11) features the work of musician, composer, educator, and artist Wadada Leo Smith. Curated by Hamza Walker (currently on sabbatical from the Ren) and John Corbett (of Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery), the show complements the MCA’s The Freedom Principle: Experimentations in Art and Music, 1965 to Now.In addition to its slate of exhibitions and programs, the Ren is using the Centennial as an opportunity to increase the Society’s visibility, especially here in the city.“The thing with the Renaissance Society is that it has such a strong voice on the international landscape,” explains Øvstebø. “But I think more people should know this institution in Chicago.”To that end, the Ren is unveiling a new graphic identity, new website, and even new signage that will help visitors better locate its home on the University of Chicago campus.“People tell me that the Ren is a hidden gem,” says Director of Communications, Anna Searle Jones. “And I’m glad people think of us as a gem, but I don’t want us to be hidden. One of the aims of the Centennial is to make more people aware of what we do, that we’re free, and that we’re open to the public.”CENTENNIAL EXHIBITIONS:&nbsp; • Irena Haiduk: Seductive Exacting Realism -&nbsp;September 10-October 8, 2015 •&nbsp;Ian Wilson: Discussions -&nbsp;October 1 and 4, 2015 •&nbsp;Wadada Leo Smith: Ankhrasmation: The Language Scores, 1967–2015 -&nbsp;October 11 to 29, 2015 •&nbsp;John Knight, Museotypes at the Art Institute of Chicago -&nbsp;October 23 to November 29, 2015 •&nbsp;Paul McCarthy -&nbsp;November 8, 2015 to January 24, 2016 &nbsp;The public is invited to celebrate the Ren’s anniversary on Saturday, September 19, at the “100th Birthday Bash”.&nbsp;Visit <a href="http://www.renaissancesociety.org">www.renaissancesociety.org</a> for more details.&nbsp;Top image: Paul McCarthy, Dwarf House, 2009, Pencil and collage on paper, 80” x 97”.&nbsp;Part of Paul McCarthy, on view November 8, 2015 to January 24, 2016</body></html>

The Ren: 100 Years of Cultivating the Arts

The annual art season storm is here. This issue was a lot of fun to put together, as we combed many calendars to plan ahead for openings, new exhibitions, art fairs, galas and celebrations.&nbsp;

Chicago has a youthful spirit, but as a few institutions celebrate major milestones, we can see how deep the city&rsquo;s cultural foundation really go: this fall the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago marks its Centennial, and the School of the Art Institute turns 150 years old - it&rsquo;s really something to see photos of architecture students at work at the school back in 1889. &nbsp;

While we are always mindful of history, looking towards the future is a theme in the art world this season, as the first Chicago Architecture Biennial launches October 3, running through January 3, 2016. Many of the world&rsquo;s top architectural minds will gather in our city to examine &lsquo;the state of the art of architecture.&rsquo; Amidst a building boom here at home, the discussions and exhibitions that will take place for the Biennial will consider architecture&rsquo;s role in not only beautifying our spaces but benefiting our citizens. Bringing this message to life, at the same time as the Biennial, is the first major retrospective of architect David Adjaye&rsquo;s work at the Art Institute, curated by Zo&euml; Ryan.&nbsp;

Franck Mercurio talked to several young art world leaders who are bringing our arts scene into the future; he spoke with the new director of the DePaul Art Museum, Julie Rodrigues Widholm, as well as the Renaissance Society&rsquo;s Solveig &Oslash;vsteb&oslash;, plus a few ambitious members of the Art Institute&rsquo;s Auxiliary Board.&nbsp;

History is always being made here, and this fall Chicago will welcome a large cast of international artists and galleries, as we host three art fairs within six weeks. EXPO returns to Navy Pier for its fourth iteration, September 17-20, and it welcomes its largest tally to date, when 140 galleries exhibit the best of what is happening now in contemporary art. The Harlem Fine Art Show, part of a group of four art shows around the country, comes to Chicago&rsquo;s Merchandise Mart for the second year, October 29-November 1, featuring work from the African Diaspora. The following weekend SOFA is back at Navy Pier for its 22nd year, as over 70 dealers feature sculpture, objects, functional art and design at the always-anticipated fair.&nbsp;

Chicago&rsquo;s unique brand of trail-blazing spirit is evident in these pages this issue. Kevin Nance interviewed veteran dealer Rhona Hoffman about her experience leading one of the most respected galleries in the country. Hoffman has paved the way for so many artists as well as other dealers. Nance also toured the collection of Helen Zell, who embraces collecting and the life-long pursuit of art with zest.&nbsp;

Cheryl Pope is an example of an artist who never stops looking within herself for ways to improve her art as well as the lives of others, particularly youths subjected to violence.&nbsp;

We have so many passionate figures contributing to our cultural community, and they are each building upon strong foundations to continue Chicago&rsquo;s reputation as the city that works, especially when it comes to art.

Fall 2015 Publisher’s Letter: Youth and History in the Art World

By&nbsp;FRANCK MERCURIO

Chicago&rsquo;s young cultural leaders are making their mark on the city&rsquo;s art scene. Meet some of the under-45 set&mdash;curators, museum directors, and philanthropists&mdash;who are taking Chicago&rsquo;s arts institutions to exciting new places.&nbsp;

The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now, open through November 22, marks a milestone in the career of Naomi Beckwith (age 38), the Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art. A kind of culmination of Beckwith&rsquo;s curatorial experiences at the MCA, the show presents the visual arts alongside music, performance, and other interdisciplinary expressions. It also reflects Beckwith&rsquo;s commitment to often neglected historical subjects, in this case, the black cultural nationalism of the 1960s and its continued influence on artists today.

<img alt="" data-caption="MCA Curator Naomi Beckwith" data-rich-file-id="740" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/740/original/beckwith.jpg" />

&ldquo;Contemporary artists have reached back to language, forms, terms, and concerns related to democratic possibilities that surfaced prominently in the 1960s,&rdquo; writes Beckwith in her exhibition catalog essay. &ldquo;In various ways, they seem eager to explore the legacy of the integrationist civil rights and the separatist Black Power movement by asking how art mattered in that moment of urgent political struggles.&rdquo;

This type of thoughtful linking of past and present&mdash;and questioning of conventional histories&mdash;places Beckwith within the vanguard of her peers. Since joining the MCA in 2011, she has expressed her distinctive point of view in large-scale installations, such as The Freedom Principle, William J. O&rsquo;Brien, and Yinka Shonibare: MBD, as well as in small-scale shows, such as MCA DNA: Richard Hunt. Each exhibition reflects Beckwith&rsquo;s passion for topics and artists that are often under-represented in museums.&nbsp;

Beckwith&rsquo;s is an interest shared by other young Chicago curators, including Julie Rodrigues Widholm (age 40) who recently left the MCA to become director of the DePaul Art Museum.

<img alt="" data-caption="DePaul Art Museum director Julie Rodrigues Widholm " data-rich-file-id="742" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/742/original/julie-rodgriques-widhom.jpg" />&nbsp;<img alt="" data-caption="Matt Siber’s Trapezoid, 2015, wood, plexiglass, flourescent lights, courtesy of the artist" data-rich-file-id="741" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/741/original/siber-trapezoid.jpg" />

&ldquo;Part of my personal mission as a curator is to make sure there is a plurality of voices and experiences represented in museums,&rdquo; Widholm says. &ldquo;So, I absolutely look forward to bringing [to DePaul] voices from all over the world&mdash;including Chicago&mdash;but also from Africa, Latin America, and Asia.&rdquo;

At the MCA Widholm organized several major exhibitions around socially inclusive themes, including Tropic&aacute;lia: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture (2005), Escultura Social: A New Generation of Art from Mexico City (2007), Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks (2012), and Unbound: Contemporary Art after Frida Kahlo (2014). She also displayed a commitment to Chicago artists by organizing 30 12 x 12 shows featuring emerging local talent.

Widholm now leads a university museum housed in a new state-of-the-art facility with a growing reputation for innovative exhibitions. &ldquo;Over the last few years, the DePaul program has become more interesting, exciting and connected to contemporary artists in Chicago,&rdquo; says Widholm. &ldquo;I feel it&rsquo;s on a wonderful trajectory.&rdquo;

Widholm&rsquo;s first exhibition as DPAM director will be Matt Siber: Idol Structures (opening September 10) featuring recent sculptural works by the Chicago-based artist. Concurrently, she will wrap up her final MCA exhibition, Kathryn Andrews: Run for President (opening November 21).

<img alt="" data-caption="Renaissance Society Director, Solveig Øvstebø. Photo: Kevin Nance" data-rich-file-id="743" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/743/original/solveig.jpg" />

Widholm joins the museum leaders&rsquo; club with another young director, Solveig &Oslash;vsteb&oslash; of the Renaissance Society. &Oslash;vsteb&oslash; (age 42) succeeded long-time director, Suzanne Ghez, in 2013. She also serves as the institution&rsquo;s chief curator and has organized important solo shows by Varda Caivano, Mathias Poledna, and Nora Schultz in just the past two years.

Keenly aware of the Ren&rsquo;s tradition of presenting new works by avant-garde artists, &Oslash;vsteb&oslash; understands the importance of keeping a finger on the pulse of the art world.

&ldquo;The institutional landscape of the contemporary art field has exploded,&rdquo; says &Oslash;vsteb&oslash;. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s completely different from where it was in the 80s or even the 90s. It&rsquo;s important to figure out where we can be the most relevant.&rdquo;

&Oslash;vsteb&oslash; directs an exhibition program centered on commissioning new work from artists. &ldquo;It is incredibly important for me to decide how this institution can best support artists,&rdquo; she says &ldquo;and to be in close dialogue.&rdquo;

With this in mind, &Oslash;vsteb&oslash; is looking forward to unveiling a brand new work by Chicago-based artist, Irena Haiduk. Titled Seductive Exacting Realism, the exhibition kicks-off the Ren&rsquo;s Centennial celebration on September 10. (See CGN&nbsp;for the story.)

*

It takes money to commission new works, organize exhibitions, and support curators; this is where Chicago&rsquo;s philanthropic leaders step in. The city&rsquo;s cultural institutions are generously endowed by the community, which includes members of local families who have a long tradition of serving on the boards of Chicago&rsquo;s museums.

The Art Institute of Chicago&rsquo;s Auxiliary Board is one such group. The Board, now 43 years old, is the oldest and most recognized charitable board of its kind in the nation, yet many of its members are younger. Under the leadership of Dustin O&rsquo;Regan, Board president, the organization has brought in new members&mdash;some in their 20s and 30s&mdash;and is cultivating a group of young philanthropic leaders.

&ldquo;The Auxiliary Board is one of my favorite organizations I&rsquo;m involved with,&rdquo; says board member Michael J. Patterson (age 24). &ldquo;I think it includes great people who are intelligent and passionate about the mission of the museum.&rdquo;

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s such a great board, because it really, truly works to benefit the museum,&rdquo; adds Daisy M. Wood (age 27). &ldquo;You can see first hand the effects that our fundraising efforts have had.

The Auxiliary Board supports a range of community outreach projects in an effort to expose &ldquo;new, young, diverse audiences&rdquo; to the museum, including the annual Holiday Treasure Hunt and Tea Party, which Patterson chairs. Since 2004, the Board has raised more than $1.5 million through events such as Uncorked: A Case for Wine.

JR Glenn (age 32) serves on the Board&rsquo;s Development Committee and is the chair of Uncorked. For him, joining the Board is not only a way to give back to the community, but also an educational experience, one that opens up the world of art and art history.

&ldquo;The more I learn, the more I appreciate it,&rdquo; says Glenn. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always loved the museum, but I want to learn more; and help others learn more.&rdquo;

This sentiment seems to be a major motivating factor shared by Chicago&rsquo;s young cultural leaders&mdash;a desire to work for the benefit of the community, to bring new ideas to light, and to engage the public with the power of art.

&nbsp;

Pictured at top of page: The 2014 Uncorked: A Case for Wine, sponsored by the Auxiliary Board of the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo credit: Robert Kusel Photography

Chicago’s young cultural leaders in Chicago institutions and museum boards are making their mark on the city’s art scene.

The Art World’s Next Generation of Leaders

KM Fine Arts is opening a fun summer show this Friday, July 31. Artist&nbsp;Carole A. Feuerman (b.1945) is a veteran of over four decades of creative work in many sculptural mediums, including resin, marble, and bronze, creates a range of monumental, life-sized, and smaller-scale sculptures that embrace her signature hyperrealist technique. Her best-known works are executed in painted resin and are finished with a meticulous detail. Viewers marvel at the realism, the beauty of her subjects and the calm they exude.&nbsp;Feuerman sculpts in a classical tradition, but her materials and subjects are distinctly contemporary - she makes you think everyone should don a Swarovski-encrusted swim cap.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="678" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/678/original/feuerman2.jpg" />

Feuerman has an international reputation, having been honored with&nbsp;six major museum retrospectives to date. Her work has been showcased in numerous exhibitions including the Venice Biennale, the State Hermitage, the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, the Kunstmuseum Ahlen, the Archeological Museum di Fiesole, and the Circulo de Bellas Artes. Her artwork is in public, private and corporate collections across the world.&nbsp;

KM Fine Arts is located on Oak Street in the Gold Coast - look for one of Feuerman&#39;s cool bathing ladies in the gallery window this Friday evening and stop in for a refreshing opening.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

KM Fine Arts

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/carole-feuerman-new-works">Carole Feuerman: New Works</a> - July 31 - September 16

Carole Feuerman: New Works at KM Fine Arts

<a href="http://www.360chicago.com/">360 CHICAGO</a>, formerly the John Hancock Observatory, recently renovated the Hancock&#39;s 94th floor observation deck. You can expect the same stunning 360 degree views overlooking&nbsp;Chicago, but visitors can also look forward to&nbsp;new and improved seating areas (125 people can enjoy sunset views on stadium-style seating), a modernized caf&eacute; and bar (for cocktails, artisanal snacks, or perhaps some gelato), and a new interactive concourse-level display that highlights the history and culture of nine Chicago neighborhoods.&nbsp;

&ldquo;360 CHICAGO and our parent company, Montparnasse 56, specialize in the operation of world-class cultural and tourist attractions. We strive to completely redefine the guest experience, from our observation deck to all the unique and compelling spaces and experiences throughout,&rdquo; said Nichole Williamson, general manager, 360 CHICAGO. &ldquo;The spectacular results of our most recent enhancements are part of a long-term investment we&rsquo;ve made in our space and in our city, and we couldn&rsquo;t be more pleased.&rdquo;

Bronzeville, Bucktown, Hyde Park, Lakeview, Logan Square, Old Town, Pilsen, Wicker Park and Wrigleyville are in the spotlight in the new concourse exhibition, depicted in part through the juried photography of nine local artists. Out of more than 1,200 entries, nine artists were selected as part of 360 CHICAGO&#39;s Neighborhood Focus Photo Contest, held in partnership with Chitecture and Choose Chicago, which launched in March of 2015.&nbsp;Browse the selected&nbsp;photos&nbsp;below.&nbsp;

Learn more about&nbsp;360 CHICAGO, its thrilling&nbsp;<a href="http://www.360chicago.com/tilt/">TILT</a>&nbsp;viewing experience, private event opportunities,&nbsp;and plan a trip soon to explore, at a glance, Chicago and its iconic neighborhoods&nbsp;from the ground up;&nbsp;way&nbsp;up.

&nbsp;<img alt="" data-caption="Bronzeville Photo WInner: Khabrim Diallo (31) of Buena Park/Uptown" data-rich-file-id="666" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/666/original/bronzeville.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Bucktown Photo Winner: Sal Ursino (25) of Park Ridge" data-rich-file-id="667" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/667/original/bucktown.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Hyde Park Photo Winner: Nick Ulivieri (30) of University Village" data-rich-file-id="668" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/668/original/hyde-park.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Lakeview Photo Winner: Cody Giguere (21) of Lakeview" data-rich-file-id="669" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/669/original/lakeview.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Logan Square Photo Winner: Danny Cantu (32) of Humboldt Park" data-rich-file-id="670" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/670/original/logan-square.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Old Town Photo Winner: Alina Tsvor (24) of Bucktown" data-rich-file-id="671" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/671/original/old-20town.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Pilsen Photo Winner: Chris Diers (44) of Pilsen" data-rich-file-id="672" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/672/original/pilsen.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Wicker Park Photo Winner: Edson Soares (26) of Andersonville/Edgewater" data-rich-file-id="673" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/673/original/wicker-park.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Wrigleyville Photo Winner: Ulysses Salcido (26) of Hermosa" data-rich-file-id="674" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/674/original/wrigleyville.jpg" />

BY LAURA MILLER METTAM

360 CHICAGO recently renovated the Hancock's 94th floor observation deck with new and improved seating areas, a modernized café and bar, and a new concourse-level display that highlights the history and culture of nine Chicago neighborhoods. Bronzeville, Bucktown, Hyde Park, Lakeview, Logan Square, Old Town, Pilsen, Wicker Park and Wrigleyville are highlighted through the juried photography of nine local artists. 

Here's Looking at You, Chicago 

BY FRANCK MERCURIO

&bull; Susan Giles: Points in Space&nbsp;at The Mission (through June 27) 
&bull; Susan Giles: Scenic Overlook&nbsp;at the Hyde Park Art Center (through July 26)

We tend to think of monumental architecture as solid, stable, and static&mdash;massive structures built to withstand weather and war and embody power and permanence. But in&nbsp;Scenic Overlook&nbsp;at the Hyde Park Art Center, artist Susan Giles takes that notion and turns it on its head&mdash;or more correctly, on its side.

<img alt="" data-caption="Susan Giles, Minarets 2015, concrete and paper, Courtesy The Mission" data-rich-file-id="652" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/652/original/themission001020.jpg" />

Entering HPAC&rsquo;s two-story gallery space, visitors are confronted by four large-scale sculptures. At first glance, they appear to be giant wooden telescopes mounted to steel tripods, all four pointed towards the same, distant star. In actuality&nbsp;they represent observation towers&mdash;Tokyo Skytree, Canton Tower (Guangzhou), CN Tower (Toronto), and Ostankino Tower (Moscow)&mdash;super tall structures that serve as architectural icons in their respective cities.

In a subversive move, Giles tilts each tower on its tripod; these vertical structures become horizontal; stable forms becomes mobile. Do these sculptures still represent buildings? Or have they been transformed into Saturn V rockets, or ballistic missiles?

The artist&rsquo;s intention seems to change depending on the viewer&rsquo;s vantage point. From the gallery&rsquo;s main level, the sculptures appear to be on a planned trajectory, aimed toward a specific point on the gallery&rsquo;s second-level balcony. Standing at this point (perhaps the &ldquo;scenic overlook&rdquo; referenced in the installation&rsquo;s title), visitors get a bird&rsquo;s-eye view of all four towers. But it&rsquo;s a somewhat menacing perspective akin to looking down the barrels of four guns, perhaps a reflection of our post-911 world where tall buildings take on new and somewhat threatening meanings.

<img alt="" data-caption="Susan Giles, Horizontal CN Tower, 2013, wood and wood veneer, 20 ft 9 in x 25 in x 25 in, Courtesy The Mission" data-rich-file-id="651" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/651/original/themission000656.jpg" />

In a smaller space, just off the balcony, three of Giles&rsquo; table sculptures are displayed. Here, the artist continues to manipulate architectural forms and explore ideas of permanence and instability, construction and destruction, by juxtaposing concrete with paper. Giles&rsquo; concrete forms are powerful in their minimalist simplicity and contrast with the detail and delicacy of the paper forms, each of which represents a different iconic structure, including the Arc de Triomphe and Tower Bridge.

More of the Giles&rsquo; small-scale sculptures are displayed at The Mission Projects in West Town. The&nbsp;well-curated companion show is&nbsp;titled&nbsp;Points in Space. Of these,&nbsp;Minarets&nbsp;(2015)&nbsp;showcases the artist&rsquo;s skill at balancing abstract concrete elements with more recognizable architectural forms. Giles places the decontextualized minarets onto two diagonally positioned bases, giving the piece a sense of movement and suggesting new interpretations of traditional Islamic structures.

All of Giles&rsquo; sculptures are meticulously constructed. The artist fabricates each with equal finesse, whether the material is wood veneer, cast concrete, or folder paper. But it&rsquo;s Giles manipulation of those materials and forms that give her works a conceptual richness, enabling viewers to extract different meanings from each piece.

Image pictured at top of page: Installation view from Hyde Park Art Center&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.themissionprojects.com">The Mission</a>,&nbsp;1431 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60642

<a href="http://www.hydeparkart.org">Hyde Park Art Center</a>,&nbsp;5020 S Cornell Ave, Chicago, IL 60615&nbsp;

Susan Giles art installations in Chicago at Hyde Park Art Center and The Mission Projects

Susan Giles: Exhibiting at The Mission and Hyde Park Art Center this Summer

Well-known member of Chicago&#39;s art community, Rodolfo &quot;Rudy&quot; Avi&ntilde;a, owner of <a href="http://creativoframing.com/">Creativo Framing</a> in River North, was tragically killed on May 30, 2015. A <a href="http://homicides.suntimes.com/2015/05/31/prosecutors-jealous-knifeman-slit-rudy-avinas-throat-in-pilsen-bar/">senseless crime</a> was committed in the&nbsp;Pilsen neighborhood that Rudy called home, and where he spent much time giving back to the community.&nbsp;

Rudy established relationships with many local artists, galleries, and museums through his professional framing business and his various artistic and collegial&nbsp;collaborations throughout the city.&nbsp;

Chicago Gallery News has worked with Rudy for much of his 20 years in the framing business, and we will remember him as a cheerful, kind neighbor. Our hearts go out to his friends and family. He will be missed by many.&nbsp;

A memorial service for Avina is scheduled for Saturday, June 6, at 7pm&nbsp;at Citlalin Gallery,&nbsp;2005 S. Blue Island Avenue, Chicago, IL.&nbsp;

Top image courtesy of the National Museum of Mexican Art&nbsp;and the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Remembering-Rudy/778926992214832?sk=timeline">Remembering Rudy Facebook Page</a>. Raquel Agui&ntilde;aga-Martinez of the&nbsp;NMMA writes &quot;On behalf of the Visual Arts / Permanent Collection departments at the Museo (NMMA) please accept our most sincere condolences. Even though Rudy was not a staff member, he was a valued part of our team for over 20 years. He was one of the few people in Pilsen who understood all the love and work it takes to put up an exhibition. He knew of the challenges and sometimes personal sacrifices that this kind of job requires. Rudy was one of the few non-staff members that we fully trusted when it came to caring for the Permanent Collection.&quot;

- - - - - -

<a href="http://www.gofundme.com/w3ugwy4">Rudy&#39;s Light Outshines the Darkness</a> - gofundme.com donations will help cover family and funeral expenses.&nbsp;

- - - - - -&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150602/pilsen/remembering-rudy-avina-he-found-way-connect-with-you">Remembering Rudy Avina: &#39;He Found a Way to Connect with You&#39;</a>&nbsp;- DNAinfo

<a href="http://extranews.net/pillar-of-pilsen-community-killed-over-the-weekend.html">Pillar of Pilsen Community Killed Over the Weekend</a>&nbsp;- Extranews.net

In Remembrance of Rudy Aviña

Summer may just be getting started, but many eyes are already on the fall in the art world. On Wednesday evening at the Public Hotel in Chicago&#39;s Gold Coast, EXPO&#39;s President and Director, Tony Karman, announced this year&#39;s list of international galleries who will be coming to Chicago in September.

<img alt="" data-caption="&quot;Seep&quot; by Erik Peterson, installed at the entrance to EXPO 2014" data-rich-file-id="462" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/462/original/photo-1.jpg" />

This year&#39;s list is the biggest to date; when the show began in 2012 100 galleries participated. Just over&nbsp;140 galleries made the cut this round, selected by a committee comprised of heavy hitting peers like&nbsp;Marianne Boesky, John Corbett, Chris D&rsquo;Amelio of&nbsp;David Zwirner, Rhona Hoffman, and David Nolan. Galleries hail from&nbsp;15 countries and 40 cities from around the world. Countries represented at the 2015 exposition include: Austria, Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.

In addition to the show taking place at Navy Pier, EXPO is part of Art Week, a varied collaboration with many of the area&#39;s art spaces and institutions playing&nbsp;host to art-focused tours, lectures, exhibitions and happenings&nbsp;throughout the city the week of September 14.&nbsp;

<a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/expo-chicago-2015-exhibitors-302235">Artnews.com</a> posted&nbsp;a recent write-up about this year&#39;s fair news, including remarks from dealers about 2014&#39;s strong sales as well as current booth cost figures.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

From Chicago, the list has several new additions from last year:&nbsp;

Aspect/Ratio

casati gallery

Corbett vs. Dempsey

Stephen Daiter Gallery

Douglas Dawson

Catherine Edelman Gallery

Richard Gray Gallery

Kavi Gupta

Carl Hammer Gallery

Rhona Hoffman Gallery

Alan Koppel Gallery

McCormick Gallery

moniquemeloche

THE MISSION

Richard Norton Gallery

ANDREW RAFACZ

Regards

Carrie Secrist Gallery

Volume Gallery

Western Exhibitions

Zolla/Lieberman Gallery

&nbsp;

Exhibiting from Chicago as part of EXPO Editions + Books:&nbsp;

Document

Imperfect Articles

No Coast

&nbsp;

On Wednesdat night among the crowd of collectors, dealers, fans and supporters, Karman was his usual enthusiastic self, mentioning more than once that a lot will be happening for the fair in the next three months. Stay tuned.&nbsp;

The International Exposition of Contemporary &amp; Modern Art takes place&nbsp;September 17&ndash;20, 2015 at Navy Pier&rsquo;s Festival Hall &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.expositionchicago.com">expositionchicago.com</a>

EXPO Chicago Announces its 2015 Exhibitor List of 140 Galleries

River North gallery owner Judy Saslow announced this week that she will be closing her eponymous gallery and retiring in August after 20 years in business. &nbsp;Her familiar gallery has been located at the corner of Superior and Franklin for the past two decades, and Saslow has made her name promoting work by mainly outsider artists, most notably Chicago&#39;s own Mr Imagination. The gallery also exhibits work by contemporary artists.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="640" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/640/original/photo-300x300.jpg" />

Saslow is opening a work of Japanese art on Friday, June 5 in conjunction with the neighborhood&#39;s monthly First Friday openings. &nbsp;The opening will also be the 76 year-old&#39;s retirement party and a celebartion of the gallery&#39;s artists. &nbsp;Following the opening, works from the gallery&#39;s inventory will also be on sale.&nbsp;

Read more about Saslow, as well as a recent article by Crain&#39;s, <a href="http://jsaslowgallery.com/gallery-news/">here</a>. Gallery information may be found <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/judy-a-saslow-gallery">here</a>.&nbsp;

Judy A Saslow Gallery Closing in August - Retiring After 20 Years

BY FRANCK MERCURIO&nbsp;

One of the stand-out paintings on display at the Art Institute of Chicago is David Hockney&rsquo;s American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman). Hockney pokes gentle fun at his subjects, while reinforcing popular notions about art collectors: older, affluent, and eccentric. Gazing at the painting, one can&rsquo;t help but wonder: Who were Fred and Marcia as a younger, greener couple? What inspired them to begin to collect contemporary art? A number of younger art collectors in Chicago are bucking the &ldquo;stodgy patron&rdquo; stereotype and assembling vibrant collections of contemporary works that reflect the interests and issues of their generation.

&nbsp;

<h4>Ian Gray + Peter Johnson</h4>

(pictured at top of page from&nbsp;left: Ian Gray and Peter Johnson at home. Artwork pictured in background: photograph by Matt Austin; painting by Elijah Burgher.)

What better place for art collectors to live than in the heart of a gallery district? Ian Gray (25) and Peter Johnson (24) reside in an industrial-style West Loop loft near some of the city&rsquo;s best-known galleries. Peter directs public relations at the Center on Halsted, while Ian helps run his family&rsquo;s 50-year old art business, Richard Gray Gallery (the founder is his grandfather). The couple met in college and started collecting seriously after moving in together in Chicago.

&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve only ever collected together&mdash;we didn&rsquo;t do any separate collecting before we started dating,&rdquo; says Peter.&nbsp;

&ldquo;There are a handful of staples that came from my parents, but most of the collection, the bulk of it, we found here in Chicago,&rdquo; explains Ian. &ldquo;It helps to have parents who collect; it helps to have grown up in a house that everyone else thought was a museum but for me was very much a home.&rdquo;

This background of living with art influences the installation of the couple&rsquo;s pieces. Despite the presence of dozens of works, their loft feels more like a home than a museum. Referencing an area containing large-scale pieces that can be rotated in and out, Ian states &ldquo;We wanted this spot in the house to be a space where we could show works, but I&rsquo;m edging away from the word &lsquo;gallery.&rsquo;&rdquo;

Adds Peter, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a place in our home where we can live among art.&rdquo;

Peter and Ian collect works from a variety of local artists, including Elijah Burgher, John Neff, Doug Ischar,&nbsp;Matt Austin, and&nbsp;Deana Lawson (Brooklyn-based but represented locally). Many of these artists reflect the couple&rsquo;s mutual interest in gender and identity politics, but other works reflect Peter&rsquo;s interest in &ldquo;art versus artifact&rdquo; and Ian&rsquo;s &ldquo;deep interest in the intersection of computers and logic.&rdquo;

&ldquo;I think we actually have very different tastes, but we&rsquo;ve been able to find these really interesting cross-sections,&rdquo; says Peter.

Most of the couple&rsquo;s pieces were purchased from local galleries, including Andrew Rafacz, Carrie Secrist, Rhona Hoffman, Fernway, and Western Exhibitions.

&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t work with just one gallery,&rdquo; says Peter. &ldquo;I think we try to get around and see a lot, and if it&rsquo;s something we like, then we usually get it.&rdquo;

&ldquo;There are a couple of artists whom we&rsquo;re quite fond of,&rdquo; says Ian. &ldquo;But Robert Burnier is probably the one I have the biggest obsession with.&rdquo; Indeed, the couple owns three works by the Chicago-based artist who models his sculptural works digitally before creating physical, three-dimensional pieces.

&ldquo;We both get a lot of pleasure from interacting with artists,&rdquo; says Peter. &ldquo;If an artist is accessible to us, and we&rsquo;re getting work from them, we have them come over, help hang the work and talk with them about it.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

*

&nbsp;

<h4>Ashley Galloway + Oren Lund</h4>

If you&rsquo;re a new collector, it helps to have a girlfriend who knows all about art. Ashley Galloway (33) serves as a kind of advisor, confidant, and &ldquo;collecting partner&rdquo; to Oren Lund (35) whose contemporary art collection fills his modern Bucktown townhouse. Ashley&rsquo;s resume is impressive&mdash;she studied photography as an undergraduate, attended Sotheby&rsquo;s Institute of Art in London, and later worked at the Tate. Oren began his professional life as a chef and now works as an attorney.

<img alt="" data-caption="Oren and Ashley in Oren’s home seated in front of Hyounsang Yoo’s photograph, &quot;C, LC, VM, VLM, Y, LK, LLK, PK and MK,&quot; (2014)" data-rich-file-id="558" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/558/original/orencollector.jpg" />

Both actively support the arts in Chicago, with Oren serving on the executive committee of the Steppenwolf Auxiliary Council and Ashley on the Museum Council of the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Together they&rsquo;ve become involved in several other arts organizations.

&ldquo;I started getting into the visual arts to impress Ashley,&rdquo; says Oren, half-jokingly. &ldquo;Since then I joined Filter and the Chicago Artists Coalition [Chartwell Collectors Circle] and am starting to get more involved with Threewalls. Most of the cool things that I&rsquo;ve collected have been in the past year since knowing her.&rdquo;

&ldquo;The community in Chicago is fantastic,&rdquo; says Ashley. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been fun for us, as we&rsquo;ve gotten to know each other, to explore [the community] together and learn about the different galleries and all the fairs. It&rsquo;s a part of our regular weekend activities.&rdquo;

The couple focuses mainly on Chicago artists. Oren started by buying smaller, more affordable pieces from online auctions, local art fairs, and directly from artists during studio visits.

The collection reflects a variety of works from an eclectic mix of artists. Included are Chicago Imagists-inspired works by the street artist Lefty, collages by Stephen Eichorn, a drawing by self-taught artist Lee Godie, and photographs by Alice Hargrave, Barbara Diener, and Hyounsang Yoo.

Given her background, Ashley is naturally drawn to photographic works. But for Oren, photography was more of a hard sell, at least initially. Instead, he is drawn to the immediacy of painting.

&ldquo;[Photography] tends not to be as visceral,&rdquo; says Oren. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s more of a separation between the art and the viewer&hellip;we&rsquo;re seeing things through a printer, through a lens, and through an artist.&rdquo;

Yet Ashley&rsquo;s and Oren&rsquo;s individual likes and preferences have influenced each other and what they collect. Case in point: Hyounsang Yoo&rsquo;s C, LC, VM, VLM, Y, LK, LLK, PK and MK (2014, pictured). It&rsquo;s a piece that Oren first discovered at the 2014 Filter Photo Festival and serves as an example of the couple&rsquo;s evolving perspectives as collectors. The clouds of colored pigment captured by Yoo give the work a strong graphic quality&ndash;almost painterly&ndash;that appeals to Oren, even though it&rsquo;s a photographic print.

For both, collecting has been a fun learning experience. Ashley&rsquo;s advice to new collectors: &ldquo;It always helps if you can talk to the artist and learn how they got there.&rdquo; Adds Oren &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been visiting artists studios to get some of that context.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

30-Something: Young Chicago Collectors 

BY KEVIN NANCE

As young collectors, Ellen and Richard Sandor started out slowly. &ldquo;We were kids, and we both have a collector gene in us,&rdquo; Richard recalls in a recent interview at their Gold Coast apartment. &ldquo;We bought lithographs for $10 or $15.&rdquo; His wife shrugs. &ldquo;To be honest, it wasn&rsquo;t anything more than a young couple who wanted something on the wall,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;The obsession did not occur until 1978, when we bought this apartment.&rdquo;

Obsession? A strong word, that.

&ldquo;Just look around,&rdquo; Ellen Sandor says. And you see what she means.

<img alt="" data-caption="Art seems to continue infinitely on up the winding staircase. Photo by Kevin Nance. " data-rich-file-id="556" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/556/original/sandor-staircase-copy.jpg" />

The Sandors&rsquo; Astor Street home&mdash;a 6,700-square-foot gallery-like space that features marble pillars from the old Palmer Potter mansion&mdash;is bulging with art, including about 1,600 works in photography, sculpture and new media. Photographs take pride of place, hung closely together, salon-style, in vertical arrays that almost reach the first floor&rsquo;s 18-foot-high ceiling.&nbsp;

There are images that represent the different eras of photography, from its beginnings in the mid-19th century to the golden age of photojournalism (including classic prints by Walker Evans, Margaret Bourke-White, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange and others) to 1970s celebrity portraiture (much of it by Richard Avedon) to postmodernism (Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman) to contemporary work by international artists such as Ai Weiwei.

At first glance, the display can feel dizzyingly chaotic, with sculpture and new-media work juxtaposed with the photographs. But there&rsquo;s method&mdash;and, yes, a certain obsessiveness&mdash;to the seeming madness. The photographs are grouped by subject: French; American history (including a print of the flag being put into place on Iwo Jima, signed by the survivors); Czech modern; African-American; fashion; science; architecture; and on and on.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Richard and Ellen Sandor standing among their Potter Palmer columns" data-rich-file-id="555" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/555/original/sandorcolumns.jpg" />

And the juxtapositions, which initially may have seemed arbitrary, begin to make sense. A photograph of Picasso by his lover, Dora Maar, is accompanied by another image in which subject and photographer switch roles; you can see Picasso&rsquo;s shadow creeping in from the side. There&rsquo;s not one but two prints of Rodin with his famous sculpture &ldquo;The Thinker&rdquo;&mdash;a silver print and a gravure, the latter more valuable&mdash;plus, of course, a Rodin sculpture. There are multiple images of the Italian sculptor Giacometti, including one by Cartier-Bresson in which the artist looks much like one of his famously elongated artworks. There are works by Toulouse-Lautrec as well as a rare photograph of the artist himself, diminutive and droll.&nbsp;

&ldquo;It all matches,&rdquo; Richard Sandor says with satisfaction. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all related.&rdquo;&nbsp;

&ldquo;The beautiful thing is that the photography is displayed with paintings and sculpture and new media,&rdquo; his wife adds. &ldquo;It took a while for Richard to get comfortable with it, but by the &rsquo;90s, we were juxtaposing everything. He loved clustering various things.&rdquo;

In the early years and even much later, the Sandors&rsquo; unusual way of displaying their collection struck some visitors as, well, odd. &ldquo;People looked at it and said, &lsquo;Jesus, you shouldn&rsquo;t be presenting it like this,&rsquo;&rdquo; Richard Sandor says. &ldquo;No one is going to do what we do,&rdquo; his wife adds with a shrug. &ldquo;Very few people, anyway. But the pairing of different media is what&rsquo;s happening now. Even the museums are starting to catch on.&rdquo;&nbsp;

*

This magnificent obsession, one of the most impressive and eclectic private collections in the world, is the result of the artistic passions of Ellen Sandor, an accomplished new-media artist in her own right, and the curatorial rigor of Richard Sandor, a leading economist at the University of Chicago.&nbsp;

&ldquo;When we started, I wanted Richard to share my passion for art,&rdquo; says Ellen Sandor, who received her degree in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has long been a pioneer in virtual photography and virtual-reality art. &ldquo;I knew that he had the historical research impulse inside him. I wanted him to be obsessed, and sure enough, it worked.&rdquo;&nbsp;

It worked in part because her husband, who knew a thing or two about undervalued investments, saw that photography was in the early stages of an upswing. It had struggled for years to gain acceptance in the art world&mdash;only a handfull of museums around the globe devoted space to the medium&mdash;but was beginning to appear in small auctions at Sotheby&rsquo;s and elsewhere.

&ldquo;Photography was not really considered fine art, and to us that seemed absurd,&rdquo; Richard Sandor says. &ldquo;But it was great value, so in 1980, I went to Sotheby&rsquo;s and publicly bought a bunch of things and paid top prices, like $2,000 to $5,000. I stood up and kept on paying, because I wanted to be a marked man. From that day on, every dealer said, &lsquo;There&rsquo;s a new collector, he&rsquo;s crazy, he&rsquo;s paying thousands for pieces as opposed to hundreds.&rsquo; So when every dealer would hit Chicago, I got first dibs. And during the 80s, we were probably the principal buyers of photographs at Sotheby&rsquo;s and Christie&rsquo;s.&rdquo;&nbsp;

In the end, his economist&rsquo;s insight served the Sandors well. &ldquo;Photography has grown about as fast as computers: 18 percent, compounded for 40 years,&rdquo; he says with a smile. &ldquo;We were fortunate.&rdquo;

It wasn&rsquo;t just the chance to invest in photography, or even his wife&rsquo;s urging him on, that appealed to Richard Sandor. It was the chance to amass a collection that, if not exactly encyclopedic, could encompass the entire history of the art form.

&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t see the span of art, but you can clearly see the span of photography, which began in the 1830s,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You get a grip on it. We didn&rsquo;t set out to do it this way, but the collection defined itself. There&rsquo;s a timeline to follow that leads you from one thing to the next. And if you&rsquo;re obsessive-compulsive, as we are, that&rsquo;s what you do.&rdquo;

Catherine Edelman, owner of her eponymous photography gallery in River North, calls the Sandor collection one of the most historically complete, and most uniquely displayed, that she knows of.&nbsp;

&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen another collector install in that fashion, but the Sandors have come to understand that when placed appropriately, the images start to tell a story about the history of photography,&rdquo; Edelman says. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll buy the same image in many different incarnations, including a vintage and then a modern print, because they like to see how the photographer sees that image over time. Or they&rsquo;ll have a famous image and then a print of the next frame on the photographer&rsquo;s roll of film&mdash;something that informs the well-known image. It&rsquo;s very informative and interesting, and they&rsquo;re very invested in doing this extra level of research. As a result, their collection is like no other I&rsquo;ve ever seen.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Over time, as the Sandors themselves realized just how unique their collection is, they&rsquo;ve begun to allow it to be seen by others. For years, Richard Sandor resisted, preferring to share the collection only with friends and small groups associated with the Art Institute. But as always, his wife wore him down. &ldquo;She said, &lsquo;We&rsquo;ve got stuff from 1840 to new media. We can&rsquo;t keep it all to ourselves. We have to open it up.&rsquo; And she was right. It&rsquo;s been a satisfying experience for us to share.&rdquo; Now the collection is frequently on display to groups organized by major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, as well as during EXPO Chicago, the city&rsquo;s annual international contemporary art fair.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a world-renowned collection with several very expensive pieces, so it shows the maturity of the Sandors when they open up their home,&rdquo; Edelman says. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re doing something at the level they&rsquo;re doing it, you realize you&rsquo;re the temporary owners of something much larger than yourselves and that you&rsquo;re obligated to share it. They&rsquo;re great citizens in that sense.&rdquo;

&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve met dozens of serious photo collectors, and Ellen and Richard are the most knowledgeable members of the species,&rdquo; says the Chicago photographer Art Shay, who has several images&mdash;including a print of his famous picture of Simone de Beauvoir standing nude in Nelson Algren&rsquo;s bathroom&mdash;in the Sandor collection. &ldquo;The walls of their vast Chicago apartment could serve as a history of the growth and burgeoning of the photographic art. The eye is caught by two historic Diane Arbuses, Cartier-Bressons galore, the most famous Dorothea Lange, etc. They are absolutely world class.&rdquo;

The Sandors, by the way, are not done collecting. Although nearly every inch of space in their apartment appears to be accounted for, &ldquo;They just keep adding,&rdquo; Edelman says. &ldquo;Which is just phenomenal.&rdquo;

And just a wee bit obsessive? Absolutely. The Sandors wouldn&rsquo;t have it any other way.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Follow Kevin Nance on Twitter @KevinNance1

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Ellen and Richard Sandor’s Art Obsession

BY GINNY VAN ALYEAThe heart of Michigan Avenue can be a chaotic, visually draining place, but nine floors up from the corner of Michigan and East Erie is an elegant space filled with hundreds of art history’s most important and valuable works. Testaments to human artistic achievement line the walls. In a coat and tie seated at a partner’s desk along the windows overlooking the Magnificent Mile is Stanley Johnson, the gentleman who has researched, collected and shared these works with the world, a vibrant intellectual who has led a life filled with language, learning, and art. From Northwestern University to travels throughout Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, followed by nearly a decade and a half in Europe, Mr. Johnson earned a reputation as a Renaissance Man. Mr. Johnson was formally recognized for his artistic contributions by France’s Minister of Culture as an Officer of Arts and Letters. He is the only United States art dealer who has been so decorated, and in the Midwest there’s only one other person who’s received the same honor, and that’s Douglas Druick, the current President of the Art Institute of Chicago. Johnson has placed art in more than 60 museums around the world, and he has published and mounted over 100 fine art exhibitions. In 2015 Mr. Johnson, with his wife Ursula, marks the 60th anniversary of the gallery his father started in 1955.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/561/original/mr-26-mrs-johnson-4-copy.jpg" alt=""></figure>Stanley Johnson always loved being a student, but his journey to becoming a renowned art dealer was a circuitous one. From a young age he loved to travel – in some cases by bus, truck or traded horse, encountering friends, mentors, foreign ministers and even lethal anaconda snakes and earthquakes.&nbsp;After a year studying art and architecture in Mexico City and a degree from Northwestern, Johnson ultimately arrived in Geneva, Switzerland in the mid-1950s to continue his study of art history. Following two semesters of art and philosophy in Geneva, Johnson went to France where he volunteered for the US Army; after basic training stateside, he was recruited to be a spy for the CIA in Vienna at the end of the occupation (his official title was Assistant Liaison Officer in Vienna), largely because of his extensive travels and language aptitude, something the army valued when they requested he attend cocktail parties to eavesdrop on foreign generals. Johnson says he was a total failure as a spy, but he was a very capable interpreter for the U.S. Commanding General in Vienna at the time. It was a wild time in his life and in the world.&nbsp;Not content to be fluent in just French and Spanish, Johnson wished to improve his German, as well as his archeology and history studies, citing the language as a big block in his learning to date. He even promised a Northwestern German professor that in exchange for accepting a passing grade, he would never take another German course, as the professor said he was not capable of learning it.&nbsp;His decision then to move to the University of Innsbruck in Austria would lead him to his future wife, Ursula, a beautiful young German girl who was doing post-graduate work in art history. Johnson’s German improved considerably – he says he spoke with his mother-in-law only in German, though he and Ursula communicated in French, which he still considers their best means of expression.&nbsp;Together, Johnson and Ursula returned to the University of Vienna, where Johnson moved on to study ancient Greek. From Vienna, they went to Perugia, Italy to study Dante for nine months. And From Perugia Johnson went to Florence while Ursula spent time at home in Düsseldorf.&nbsp;It was in Florence that art history truly began to permeate Johnson’s existence. Every morning he went to the Uffizi Museum and spent the next six hours, every day for 3-4 months, looking at each painting.&nbsp; He recalls, “I looked at each stroke. I became extremely familiar with the paintings there, and I always listened to what people had to say when they looked at those paintings.”&nbsp;&nbsp;Eavesdropping in this case offered insights into global perspectives floating through the museum. Johnson observed some key lessons in looking at art: “The French had important things to say, but they all had the same things to say. The Germans had interesting and profound ideas, but they were all the same ideas. The Americans, on the other hand, could stand in front of the same paintings, and though they might not have intelligent or sophisticated ideas, they were often ridiculously silly, it was people from the new world who from time to time would offer a discovery about why something was truly beautiful. They looked at the art with an open mind.”&nbsp;Johnson cites a Texas man’s blunt observation that a Michelangelo resembled a poster as an ‘ah-ha’ moment. Johnson had been trying to determine why he never really liked the work, and in fact it was as the man said – it lacked a third dimension. Today, Johnson says, “I’m still fighting for a freshness of vision. One of the reasons [the gallery has] one of the greatest art collections in the world, you see, is because I’ve been able to see things in advance.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/559/original/rembrandt-self-portrait-at-a-window-2014-copy.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Rembrandt's Self Portrait at a Window</figcaption></figure>Johnson’s father, S.E. Johnson, started the gallery in 1955, at 224 South Michigan Ave. when he bought a gallery that was for sale in the Roosevelt University building. In 1963 when the 645 N. Michigan Ave. building was built, the gallery moved north and took over half of the second floor. (Note: About a year ago the gallery moved to the ninth floor to a more intimate space largely due to the proportion of internet business the gallery now does.) Ursula recalls that the fall evening on which the gallery was first opening at the new address was on a Friday in November 1963; it was the night JFK was assassinated. “We were actually in Paris, and even from there we were shivering. It was a very bad November, and it was all quite memorable.”In the gallery’s early days, the elder Mr. Johnson came to visit his son in Paris. Stanley and Ursula were living in Saint-Germain-des-Prés on the sixth floor of a 17th century walk-up, then the Hôtel de Verneuil,&nbsp;and as Johnson notes, there was cold, running water only down on&nbsp;the second floor. He says, “It was total misery, except we could look down towards the Louvre. When my father asked what would happen if there were a fire, I said I’d never thought about that. He said, ‘Well I have. Let’s go downstairs and have a cup of coffee.’&nbsp;He didn’t want to be there one more minute.”&nbsp;In the building’s defense, Ursula points out that it had been standing since the time of Louis XIV, most likely because the cement over old wood didn’t burn more than anything else would have. She says the building is still there today, though not the hotel.&nbsp;Despite their transatlantic separation, Johnson began to work for the gallery from Paris, taking advantage of his proximity to some of the great minds and talents of the 20th century. When Johnson’s father said that he would love to show Jean Cocteau’s art in Chicago, he recalls, “I went downstairs to the corner café to use the phone, and I looked up in the telephone book: ‘Cocteau, Jean.’ When he answered, I told him my father had a gallery in Chicago and he wanted to do a show of his ceramics and drawings. He said, ‘I’d love to do it. But unfortunately today, morning, noon and night, I’m busy. Come to my house for tea tomorrow.’” The Chicago exhibition was quite successful, and it was just the first of several significant art dealings started from his neighborhood café.&nbsp;Johnson traveled next to Rome with his parents. The trio arranged to meet Giorgio de Chirico while there and spent an afternoon speaking to him in French and Italian along with his wife.&nbsp;Johnson says, “They just loved the three of us; we got along tremendously. My father bought 24 de Chirico paintings for $12,000. At the end of that whole thing,&nbsp;de Chirico said, ‘We love the three of you and would like to have you to dinner at our country house tomorrow. You must promise not one word about business – strictly friendship, friendship, friendship.’” It would be an important lesson for the younger Johnson on how to do business.&nbsp;Following the successful visit, the 24 purchased paintings were sent back to Chicago for the gallery exhibition. Not one was sold.&nbsp;Johnson admits, “That was a disaster. $12,000 at that time was a lot of money. My father wrote a letter to de Chirico, which I have, that said the reason nothing sold was because all the paintings had bad subject matter, so he wanted to exchange all 24 for new ones. de Chirico responded that it was not because of bad subject matter, it was because he was a bad art dealer. He did exchange six paintings, and one by one they sold for $950-$1,150 until finally all 24 were sold. Today the same ones at auction go for $300,000-$400,000. &nbsp;From Paris Johnson, selling art was not yet Johnson's primary pursuit; the majority of the time he&nbsp;continued&nbsp;studying art history and philosophy alongside Ursula, learning from academic stars like André Chastel, one of the greatest art history professors of 20th century, at the Institute of Art and Archeology at the Sorbonne, and under Jean Wahl, also at the Sorbonne.&nbsp;Mr. and Mrs. Johnson returned from Paris for good after Stanley’s father died suddenly in 1967. When I ask him if he had a different vision for the gallery than his father, he says, “It was a commercial gallery. [My father] did some terrible things and sold some junky stuff, but gradually we got some better things. Bad things could pay the rent for awhile.”&nbsp;Johnson reflects that his opportunity to be a student was very different from his father’s. “When I was in Florence, he wrote me a letter saying, 'We are your parents and we are paying for you. What are you doing? What’s keeping you there?'&nbsp;I wrote back that I’m doing absolutely nothing and I intend to stay for two more months doing absolutely nothing (I was also there because of the GI Bill.) When I came back to Chicago, I told him I’d been at the Uffizi from 10am-4pm each day; his reaction was, ‘That’s wonderful. I’d love to be able to do that but I can’t get away from my business.’ Ultimately he appreciated what I was doing.”&nbsp;Johnson’s language, travel and art knowledge were building blocks for the time when he would run the gallery.When he and Ursula took the helm following the senior Mr. Johnson’s death, they brought their scholarly, worldly perspective to art research, collecting and selling. Notably, in 1991 the gallery mounted a Cubist exhibition at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Dallas Museum of Art. In 1992 Johnson’s companion book, Cubism &amp; La Section d’Or: Reflections on the Development of the Cubist Epoch 1907-1922 was one of ten books nominated for the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for museum scholarship. Since 1991. He is currently close to submitting a revised version to publishers in London.Mr. Johnson’s gallery specializes in a range of art, but the focus has long been on Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Expressionism (though an exhibition of contemporary paintings by Milwaukee artist Bruce Dorow opens May 1.) Johnson says they are always acquiring works, “We have to take time to decide what we will acquire. We don’t acquire works because they’re saleable - we have no interest in that. We determine if they’re in an interesting category of works and if we would like to own those works. If so we can go to our best friends and say we bought this and think this is a wonderful thing. We think we’re pretty exceptional that way. That’s the way we’ve been running the gallery.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/560/original/picasso-head-of-a-faun-copy.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Pablo Picasso, Head of a Faun, 1962</figcaption></figure>He continues explaining why the gallery deals in say, Old Master prints vs. paintings, “Old Master paintings is a bad category for us because there aren’t any more great ones left. Our collection of drawings out of France, of Picassos, may be the greatest private collection of its sort in the United States. We reject the category of Old Master drawings when they go back to say, the 16th century or before, but when you get up to the end of the 17th century or into the 18th we still buy things in which we’re interested. Old Master prints are still fantastic and there’s still a possibility to buy things for relatively accessible amounts of money. We’re dealing more with European art than American art, and our competition is essentially European. As a result we have to outfox, out maneuver and out connoisseur European competitors, which is a fun challenge easily met, for the very reason I explained when I visited the Uffizi – the Europeans tend to have preconceived notions of what’s this and what’s that. They can’t conceive of some American knowing more about what they live with.”What else makes this market so appealing to Johnson? Camaraderie, knowledge and competition. Johnson excitedly explains, “The Old Master Print market consists of auctions in London - where it all started. You’ve got the round table with the green velvet top and the work is being offered - there are ten dealers seated and they are all European, except me. The winner is the one who got the best deals in buying those things, not he one who has the most money. It doesn’t have much to do with who has the most money but the one who has the best eye. The other thing is that for an individual to be brought into that world is a difficult thing. You also can’t just have anyone show up since it’s a rare thing. Much of it is about friendship, friendship, friendship.”Johnson attests that each work in his private collection has a story. He lists artists most of us encounter only in world famous museums: Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Jacques Villon and Matisse. So, where did they come from? Johnson is eager to tell the story of another friendship he forged in Paris, one with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Picasso’s art dealer. As a result of his place within an intellectual group in Paris, which included Kahnweiler and others, Johnson eventually became one of the direct dealers of Picasso. In 1970 Kahnweiler, in his 90s at the time, had 120 drawings, watercolors and pastels of Picasso’s to unload, and there were nine dealers from around the world, including Johnson, who had first choice. Johnson clearly recalls, “I arrived at Kahnweiler’s Paris studio about an hour before this sale. I said to him, ‘It’s wonderful to be one of these nine, but I’m the ninth one as well as the youngest. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to take any drawing I want?’ He responded, ‘Monsieur Johnson, if it’s that important to you, go in there and take any drawing you want, but don’t tell the other dealers, and don’t leave it in the room – put it in my office so they don’t see it. You must promise me two things: the drawing you pick today, you will never sell. And every time you look at that drawing you tell yourself what a great guy Kahnweiler was.’”Towards the end of our conversation, Mr. Johnson stops to ask me if I’m having fun. He continues, “I’m always having fun, and I enjoy the competition.”&nbsp;Johnson’s career as a world traveler, a student of art history and an art dealer has been filled with stories and great relationships. His greatest partner of all has undoubtedly been his wife, his intellectual as well as business companion and the reason he finally mastered German. About Ursula he shares, “She is quiet, but she is very, very knowledgeable. We have formed the collection. It’s been a whole life together.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

An interview with Ursula and Stanley Johnson on the gallery's 60th anniversary 

R.S. Johnson: 60 Years of Art and Learning

BY LAURA M. METTAMJudy Ledgerwood’s bold use of color and pattern transforms the spaces in which her art exists. She establishes a dichotomy between precision and abstraction, order and chaos, the vividly decorative and the subtly conceptual. Ledgerwood has received numerous awards from prestigious arts organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts and Artadia. Her work is held in international private collections as well as in many of the nation’s top art museums, such as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Currently a Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University, Ledgerwood lives and works in Chicago. She is represented by Chicago’s Rhona Hoffman Gallery, as well as by several other international galleries in New York, Los Angeles and Houston, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.Top image: Judy Ledgerwood, Chromatic Patterns for the Graham Foundation, 2014, Graham Foundation, Chicago, IL<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/613/original/judy-ledgerwood-sun-tide.jpg" alt=""></figure>LM: Do you remember when your interest in art first began?JL: My mother was in graduate school for education at Indiana State University. In her early childhood education class, she learned that kids would be more creative if they weren’t given coloring books but instead, made their own pictures. This early encouragement reached a crisis when I was seven and lost a coloring contest to a girl named Lori. I was disappointed that her Cinderella picture, neatly colored within the lines, was selected over mine, which I clearly thought was more artistic. I’ve been seeking attention for my art-making ever since.&nbsp;• You earned your BFA from The Art Academy of Cincinnati and your MFA from SAIC. Can you provide a brief background about where you grew up and then elaborate on your decision to study art through the graduate level? Any comments on your experience as an art student?I grew up in a tiny farming community in Indiana. I identified as an artist at an early age, so I understood that artists need to be a part of a larger community. I chose what I thought was the surest path to my success through education. I had studied the biographies of other artists whom I admired, and this was the path that they followed so I emulated them.I met my husband, Tony Tasset, in undergraduate school. He shared my ambition of becoming an artist and together we still make a strong team. We grew up together sharing successes and failures in a very difficult field. I’m his biggest fan and vice versa. It’s invaluable to have a person who believes in you and understands what you do.At SAIC, for the first time I met artists who were better than me.&nbsp;That’s the thing about moving from a small town to a larger one. The challenge to keep up was just the kick in the pants that I needed. That and a fear of truly becoming a starving artist pushed me to focus on what I needed to do to become a professional artist.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/614/original/judy-ledgerwood-crossing-over.jpg" alt=""></figure>• Were you always interested in teaching? What path led you to your current role as Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University?I didn’t teach until I was out of grad school for almost a decade. I got lonely working in my studio and I found that socially, artists wanted to network more than discuss art. I wanted to discuss the big questions; I missed that about school. I started teaching one class at SAIC, then soon after I began full time at Northwestern. Our students rarely self-identify as artists, but most go on to contribute to society. I am in the perfect position to proselytize for art. Many high schools no longer offer courses in art, but I think it’s the best way to learn critical thinking. There are no right choices when making art, only ones that work. Learning how to determine a working method and the criteria for judgment is something that I’ve only recently gotten good at. The icing on the cake of my job is working with graduate students. Northwestern fully supports the MFA candidates, so we get the cream of the crop in our graduate program since it is so competitive for top candidates.&nbsp;• How do you think today’s art students and art schools differ from when you were in school? What has changed? Where are things headed?The big change has been in the softening of disciplinary boundaries. Young people no longer say, “I’m a painter.” They say, “I’m an artist,” or maybe even something like, “I make things.” Art school in the 21st century focuses to a lesser degree on the artist as an individual author, and more on community solutions to aesthetic, political or even practical problems - a reflection of how the art world really is now. Of course some fields like painting will not change much pedagogically. And hopefully education can do more than train worker bees for artists like Jeff Koons.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/615/original/judy-ledgerwood-smart-museum-2.jpg" alt=""></figure>• Your work is vivid and energizing. Repetitive patterns are controlled but not exact. They are precise yet loose. When viewing the larger installations of repeat patterns, I think about the performative aspect of creating the work and how the physical act of painting is also repetitive and controlled. I find the thought of creating these wall paintings - such a time consuming, perhaps meditative process - as an almost comforting, contemplative change of pace from our culture’s digital age need for instant results. Can you comment on your work process for both large installations and smaller works on canvas?I think about creating experiences that must be seen first person - whether work on canvas or large-scale installations painted on the wall. Patterns suggest regular continuity, but life is not like that, even with many repetitive gestures that make up a day, like morning coffee or showering. Each moment is unique if you’re aware.I try to make paintings that not only breathe in the after-image created by visual color interactions that flicker visualy, but allow the performative act of painting to create a sense of time, especially through repetitive patterns. The drips suggest real time. I experience time as elastic. Moments spent on hold with the utility company are endless; moments spent with your young child pass in a heartbeat. I think my work functions well if the viewer’s experience brings about a greater self-awareness. This is not so different from the aims of all abstract painting.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/616/original/judy-ledgerwood-smart-detail.jpg" alt=""></figure>• I love the transformative environments that your installations and immense wall paintings create. The installations have the power to alter familiar spaces as seen in your recent&nbsp;Chromatic Patterns for the Graham Foundation, and Chromatic Patterns for the Smart Museum, among many other pieces you’ve done in the past. Can you talk about your use of such vivid colors and repeat patterns, and how the scale and content of your work has evolved over the years? Are you experimenting with any new methods or materials?I have shifted from a palette based on a response to decorative color in architecture that commented on Modernisms’ failures, to work that creates cast color or uses color interaction to leak out from the surface of the painting into the space in front of the canvas, the space where the viewer is. Each era develops a new model for describing space, and space reflects the age that produces those responses. Think of the Cartesian model of space developed during the Renaissance as a model of rationalism as just one example. When I started my career in the artworld of the late 80s at the moment of the first art boom, the thing that seemed most urgent to address was the increasing power of images circulating as reproductions. There are paintings that look good reproduced that are generally not very satisfying to look at in person. For me, an art experience is between a viewer and a work of art, not between a viewer and an electronic device. It’s even more of an issue now, so I still stand by my desires to make painting a first person experience.I started using enormous scale early in my career. Then, as now, I want to create immersive environments - to make paintings that act like architecture. Once I felt that the scale was becoming habitual, I had to learn to make smaller paintings that were effective. I discovered that making smaller paintings scaled to the human body and installed to emphasize that relationship helped to make a direct connection to the viewer. I still make a lot of 15 x 15" paintings to try out a new idea on a manageable scale.I tried encaustic painting recently. I wanted to see what happened when color was not contained within the edges of a shape and edges between figure and ground were more erratic. I like the object quality of these kinds of paintings, but the encaustic is limited because it has to be done on panels, which get too heavy at large scale. So now I’m trying to achieve a similar goal with more familiar painting materials and techniques.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/617/original/judy-ledgerwood-graham-detail.jpg" alt=""></figure>• Is there a way in which your work is displayed that you feel it has the potential to have the most impact on the viewer? For example, how might a smaller painting on canvas compare to a wall installation compared to something even larger like your 2014 collaboration with EXPO Chicago and The Beaches of Fort Myers &amp; Sanibel that resulted in a very public display of your artwork around Chicago during EXPO. Any comments on your experience with this particular public art project or others you may have been involved with in the past?For me the reason to make paintings is to address a viewer. I am always aware of the viewer when I make installation choices. Small paintings are hung to correspond to the viewers’ head, and the size of the shapes is at human scale, often in response to architecture, which is also built for bodies. The EXPO Chicago and The Beaches of Fort Myers &amp; Sanibel project was an opportunity to make a work outside a gallery or institution, which was new for me. Although one response to spending time at Rauschenberg’s studio in Captiva Island might have resulted in a typical Ledgerwood painting in a palette inspired by the light of Florida, I instead made work inspired by the light and space. For me the most profound experience of the place was the vast expanse of sand, sea and sky, and just as important this was conceived of as a project for everyone, not just your typical art going public.I wanted to work in a genre that most people understand, and landscape seemed appropriate to the site of presentation. I also liked the contrast between horizontal landscape in the billboards and their placement in an urban environment. These landscapes harkened back to the kind of paintings that I made twenty years ago at the start of my career. I know that I was very privileged to have the Florida experience to respond to. I wanted to create an image in the city for those that didn’t have that experience, to share a little of what that experience was like for me with everyone who encountered the billboards.&nbsp;• Do you have a favorite public art piece here in Chicago or elsewhere?I love the Picasso in Daley Square and the Dubuffet on the corner of the State of Illinois building.&nbsp;• Who are some of your favorite artists – older influences, or currently working artists?I grew up visiting the impressionist collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. I think that I learned color theory in those galleries. So I am indebted to Monet as much as I hate to admit it. Matisse, Blinky Palermo, Mary Heilmann, Harriet Korman, Pamela Fraser &amp; André Butzer are just a few favorite artists that come to mind.&nbsp;• Between your practice, your husband also being a prominent artist, and your teaching, do you ever reach a saturation point when it comes to art consumption? When you need to tune out, so to speak, what’s a favorite non-art interest of yours?We are busy just trying to keep up, so there is not enough down time, which I hope to address - as soon as I have time! Tony is very good at cooking, and I wish I could spend more time gardening. My garden it pretty Darwinian, but I grow mostly perennials, a few vegetables, and I have a tiny cutting garden every summer.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/618/original/judy-ledgerwood-installation.jpg" alt=""></figure>• You mentioned that you’d be traveling to Lustenau soon for an exhibition. Can you describe this exhibition or project? Do you have any other plans coming up this summer or fall?&nbsp;My show in Lustenau is with the same gallerist I have worked with in Europe since 2005, Wolfgang and Christa Hausler (<a href="http://haeusler-contemporary.com/">Häusler Contemporary</a>). They have galleries in Munich, Zurich and this newer one in Lustenau, Austria. My upcoming project for Lustenau is called Lose Loos in response to the influence of Adolf Loos on contemporary taste even though his seminal contribution, Ornament and Crime was written in 1908. Loos counseled against excessive pattern and advocated the use of only specific colors. His attitude was heavily influential for Le Corbusier, who of course is much admired. Chromophobia is shared by many people who think that colors limited to a few basics; black, white, ultramarine blue, grey, yellow ochre reflect a higher level of sophistication, with brighter colors relegated for children and people from ‘other’ cultures. Of course my work goes against all of this. Since the show is in Austria, it seems likely that many viewers will be aware of Loos position and see my work in opposition to his ideas.Over the summer I plan to devote concentrated time to finishing a body of new work that I’ll show in Houston at <a href="http://www.barbaradavisgallery.com/">Barbara Davis Gallery</a>. I am also working toward a show in New York at <a href="http://www.tracywilliamsltd.com/">Tracy Williams Ltd</a>. for her new space on the lower East Side, and in January 2016 I have a sort of retrospective opening at the Kennedy Museum where I’ll make a wall painting installation, and show a selection of paintings and drawings. Also in September I was offered a five-day lectureship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolbermoor near Munich. I am interested in the global exchange of ideas.&nbsp;• Would you share your thoughts on Chicago’s art community?Chicago has more great artists than a city this size has any right to. Many do not get the recognition they deserve because it’s Chicago I suppose. The audience is not as large as one would think for a city of more than two and a half million. I’m lucky to have access to world-class museums here. Galleries are good - I wish more people supported them so that young artists didn’t feel so pressured to move to New York or Los Angeles to find the support they need.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/619/original/judy-ledgerwood-sun-on-waves.jpg" alt=""></figure>

CGN interview with artist Judy Ledgerwood

Artist Insights: Judy Ledgerwood

BY MIA DIMEO

Anything can happen at auction. Maintain eye contact. Nod. Raise your paddle. Wait for the gavel to fall and - SOLD! You&rsquo;re the proud owner of a Chanel evening bag owned by Oprah Winfrey.&nbsp;

Or an early Lee Bontecou sculpture from the estate of philanthropist Claudia Luebbers. Or a signed manuscript by Mark Twain. Or a diamond lizard brooch. How about a pink Art Deco settee or a lock of Elvis Presley&rsquo;s hair?&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Lee Bontecou, (American, b. 1931), Untitled, 1959, canvas, wire and steel signed Bontecou and dated (lower right side), 16 x 12 x 14”. Estimate: $200,000-300,000. Property from the Claudia R. Luebbers Trust, Chicago, Illinois " data-rich-file-id="565" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/565/original/bontecou.jpg" />

Leslie Hindman has been in the auction business for more than 30 years, starting her career in the late 1970s at the Chicago branch office of Sotheby&rsquo;s. When the mega-house pulled out of the local market several years later, Hindman filled the gap by opening her own space in 1982. Prominent estate auctions and big sales like the $1.43 million dollar sale of a previously unknown Vincent van Gogh in 1991 helped establish her auction house&rsquo;s notoriety in the Midwest and beyond. By 1997 Sotheby&rsquo;s came back around, purchasing Hindman&rsquo;s auction house and giving her a principal management role with the company. She kept busy hosting two HGTV shows, authoring a book and opening a River North gallery space before starting a new auction house in 2003. This time she expanded her range to underserved cities ripe with potential consignments: Denver, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Naples and Palm Beach. Currently Leslie Hindman Auctioneers is the largest auction house in the Midwest, holding more than 50 auctions a year, including this spring&rsquo;s highly anticipated sale of Oprah&rsquo;s real favorite things: selections of furniture, decorative arts, fashion, 20th century prints and paintings from her Chicago estate. &nbsp;

With global art sales totaling $54.1 billion in 2014, it&rsquo;s no surprise that one of the areas with the most growth for Hindman is middle market contemporary art. The aforementioned Bontecou, for instance, is expected to fetch between $200,000-300,000 at auction in May. The untitled canvas, wire and steel wall piece from 1959 is an early example of the artist&rsquo;s characteristic oval voids. Its provenance is reflected in its price&mdash;the piece was exhibited in a major 2004 retrospective that toured the Hammer Museum, the MCA and MoMA.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Our firm has grown considerably since 2003,&rdquo; says Hindman. She notes that success in the market comes from being one of the largest auction houses in the country with access to good commissions. &ldquo;People know to call us. We are lucky to be a leader.&rdquo;

Of course, Bontecou lovers don&rsquo;t have to vie in person. LH Live allows for real-time online bidding, in addition to phone and absentee bids. As a result, some of the highest grossing sales can happen in nearly empty rooms. Hindman also created an online platform shared with several other auction houses called BidSquare, where shoppers can view items by category across several auctions.&nbsp;

How does stuff land at the auction house to begin with? Hindman cites the most common reasons for consignments are the three D&rsquo;s&mdash;Death, Divorce and Debt. After the seller shares information about the property in question, Hindman&rsquo;s team of specialists determines authenticity (no fakes allowed) and then estimates the value of a piece using prior auction records. Specialists will also make house calls, sifting through messy hoards, thoughtful collections and everything in between to identify the best property for an auction. In one case, a previously unknown Wassily Kandinsky watercolor, as well as an unsigned Oskar Kokoschka painting and several other exceptional pieces, was consigned after being stacked under a bed for decades.&nbsp;

Zack Wirsum, Director of Hindman&rsquo;s Fine Art Department, specializes in Post War and Contemporary Art, helped consign the Expressionist trove plus dozens of other artworks in the eight years he&rsquo;s worked at the auction house. Son of Hairy Who member Karl Wirsum, Zack experienced art from a young age and has developed his own practice of making abstract paintings (he is represented by Jean Albano Gallery.) Unlike many artists who recoil at the idea of auctions and the market, Wirsum feels a heavy responsibility towards artworks he works with, particularly those made by living artists.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Placing auction estimates on work by family friends and by my father tests my objectivity,&rdquo; Wirsum says. &ldquo;But I respect the process and the challenge. Right now we have an early skull piece by my dad from the last Hairy Who show, and a reverse Plexiglass painting by Barbara Rossi that was shown in the infamous Made in Chicago exhibit. I&rsquo;m glad to see both going back out into the world to hopefully join important collections.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Wirsum and Hindman agree there can be an intimidation factor for those less familiar with bidding at auction, particularly for younger collectors. One initiative to welcome new auction-goers and connect to the contemporary community surrounding the auction house is a West Loop gallery walk on May 16, 6-9 pm. Organized by Wirsum&rsquo;s department, the walk will align with previews for the Post-War and Contemporary sale, featuring work by Gilbert and George,&nbsp;

Amy Sillman and Nick Cave and the Carol H. and Richard M. Levin collection, which will include work by Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Robert Henri.&nbsp;

Wirsum&rsquo;s team is also curating Blank Space, a new concept taking its name from a Taylor Swift song, The auction on June 24, with most low estimates under $800, means buyers can dip their toes in the pool with affordable purchases of paintings, prints and sculptures. Not into bidding wars? LH Exchange (LHX), a new Craigslist-like platform, gives users a more direct method to sell less expensive property while working with Hindman&rsquo;s specialists to provide pricing and shipping assistance.

Contemporary art is a big category for younger collectors,&rdquo; says Hindman. &ldquo;We want to make sure they know that they can find interesting things under $1,000.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

Live and Online with Leslie Hindman Auctioneers

Summer is almost upon us - we promise! &nbsp;We have been organizing lots of lists of art destinations for our summer issue, and we wanted to share this handy list of monthly art walks and events so you can plan all your summer weekends from now through August. &nbsp;If drunken street festivals aren&#39;t your thing, this lineup is for you - stimulating art gatherings and happenings in many area neighborhoods througout the city as well as in the suburbs, even into Wisconsin.&nbsp;

Happy summer!&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>3rd Thursday</h3>

&bull; Smart Museum of Art

5:30&ndash;7:30pm &bull; Free

Extended evening hours every Thursday, 10am-8pm

5550 S. Greenwood&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu">www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu</a>

&nbsp;

<h3>1st Friday</h3>

&bull; Lakeside Legacy Arts Park&nbsp;

5&ndash;8pm &bull; Free/donations&nbsp;

401 Country Club Rd., Crystal Lake, IL

<a href="http://www.lakesidelegacy.org">www.lakesidelegacy.org</a>

&nbsp;

&bull; Orange Dot First Fridays

Wicker Park / Bucktown:&nbsp;1579 N. Milwaukee

5&ndash;10pm &bull; Free

<a href="http://www.wickerparkbucktown.com">www.wickerparkbucktown.com</a>&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&bull; River North First Fridays

5&ndash;8pm &bull; Free

Franklin/Superior streets

&nbsp;

<h3>2nd Friday</h3>

&bull; Chicago Arts District&nbsp;

6&ndash;10pm &bull; Free

S. Halsted + 18th St. (Pilsen East)

<a href="http://www.chicagoartsdistrict.org">www.chicagoartsdistrict.org</a>

&nbsp;

&bull; Fine Arts Building Open Studios&nbsp;

5&ndash;9pm &bull; Free

410 S. Michigan

<a href="http://www.fineartsbuilding.com">www.fineartsbuilding.com</a>

&nbsp;

<h3>3rd Friday</h3>

&bull; Bridgeport Art Center / Artists of Eastbank

6-10pm &bull; Free

1200 W. 35th St.

<a href="http://www.bridgeportart.com">www.bridgeportart.com</a>

&nbsp;

&bull; Bronzeville Trolley Tour

6pm &bull; Contact Gallery Guichard for details: 773-791-7003

&nbsp;

&bull; Oak Park Arts District (OPAD)&nbsp;

6&ndash;10pm &bull; Free

Harrison St.

<a href="http://www.oakparkartsdistrict.com">www.oakparkartsdistrict.com</a>

&nbsp;

&bull; Zhou B Art Center/Bridgeport Art Walk&nbsp;

7&ndash;10pm &bull; Free

1029 W. 35th St.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.zhoubartcenter.com">www.zhoubartcenter.com</a>

&nbsp;

<h3>2nd Saturday</h3>

&bull; LACUNA Artist Lofts + Studios

12&ndash;6pm &bull; Free

2150 S. Canalport

<a href="http://www.lacuna2150.com">www.lacuna2150.com</a>

&nbsp;

&bull; The Lost Artists Show

The Art Colony Studio Building: 2630 W. Fletcher

5-10pm &bull; Free

<a href="http://www.lostartistschicago.com">www.lostartistschicago.com</a>

&nbsp;

<h3>4th Saturday</h3>

&bull; Oak Park/Gallery Pink

11am-Noon &bull; Free

149 Harrison St.

<a href="mailto:jfeart@gmail.com?subject=4th%20Saturdays&amp;body=I%20saw%20your%20event%20on%20Chicagogallerynews.com%0A">jfeart@gmail.com</a> &bull; 708-524-2231

&nbsp;

<h3>Free Saturday Tours</h3>

&bull; River North: 11am&ndash;12:30pm&nbsp;

Starbucks: 750 N. Franklin.&nbsp;

Tours run weekly, year-round, except major holidays. For details and participating galleries see <a href="http://chicagogallerynews.com">chicagogallerynews.com</a> or call 312-649-0064

&nbsp;

<h3>Milwaukee, WI</h3>

&bull; Gallery Night and Day&nbsp;

Milwaukee, WI. Quarterly:&nbsp;July 24 and 25, 2015 (F 5-9 and Sa 10-4)

<a href="http://www.historicthirdward.org">www.historicthirdward.org</a>

A Summer of Art: Monthly Gallery Nights, Open Studios and Festivals

News from China is often front and center to many Americans these days, but in the art world in particular, much attention has focused in recent years on the career and political plight of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who has been living and working in Beijing under government restrictions since 1993. A prolific artist, architect, author and activist, Weiwei is a vocal critic of China&rsquo;s record on democracy and human rights. In 2011 he was arrested and held for 81 days without charge, prompting worldwide official and public protest.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Ai Weiwei, Iron Tree, Photograph by Dean Van Dis" data-rich-file-id="571" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/571/original/weiwei.jpg" />

This summer Frederik Meijer Gardens &amp; Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, MI, one of the world&rsquo;s most significant botanic and sculpture experiences, consisting of 159-acre grounds and a permanent collection including works by Rodin, Oldenburg, Moore, Serra, Bourgeois and Plensa, unveils the acquisition and permanent siting of a major work by Weiwei. The large-scale Iron Tree is the artist&rsquo;s largest and most complex outdoor sculpture to date, measuring more than 22 feet tall and 22 feet wide and composed of 99 unique iron pieces cast from individual tree elements from southern China.

The garden celebrates 20 years in 2015.

<a href="http://meijergardens.org">meijergardens.org</a>

Road Trip: An Ai Weiwei Tree Grows in Michigan 

BY GINNY VAN ALYEA, PUBLISHER

In our winter issue I wrote about giving up on the impulse to be overly enthusiastic about a quiet time of year: sub zero temperatures and a permanent frozen feeling should make us take advantage of the time to wind down and refresh in advance of spring.&nbsp;

Well, I&rsquo;m ready for the thaw. In fact, I&rsquo;d welcome a heat wave on all fronts about now. When the most exciting things we&rsquo;ve had to talk about are runoff elections, interest rates and how garish the new Wrigley Field scoreboard is, we need cultural and social inspiration so that we have interesting things to talk about again. Many dealers and artists understandably lament the lull in visits during January, February and March. Beyond the art world most of us are also eager for a quicker pace.&nbsp;

The arts calendar in Chicago has been shifting more heavily towards the fall during the past couple of years. I think as a result, many artists, dealers and institutions have had to summon greater creativity to compete with the season&rsquo;s other offerings. This summer I&rsquo;m particularly looking forward to multiple creative exhibitions, including several new collaborations. Douglas Dawson Gallery and Rhona Hoffman are teaming up for Keeping Secrets: Fetish in African Art, with art and artifacts from Dawson&rsquo;s Gallery on view in Hoffman&rsquo;s space. Dawson is also part of a triple showing of works from the collection of mega collector Ruth Horwich, who passed away in 2014. Together with Carl Hammer Gallery and Russell Bowman the three dealers will show various parts of Horwich&rsquo;s collection in new ways. The Zhou B Art Center is also working across town with the Ed Paschke Art Center to do an arts exchange between artists at both centers. All this shared brainstorming and teamwork will deliver new ways of seeing art in a season of vibrancy.&nbsp;

Summer group shows are opening around the city, while weekend art events pepper various suburban art centers and nearby Midwestern cities. Annual art festivals and fund raisers get the uninitiated out into the neighborhoods to meet artists as well as neighbors. Mainstays like the Randolph Street Market are refreshed when vendors set up outdoors. The return of the 57th Street Art Fair and the Old Town Art Fair means that another year has passed.&nbsp;

With all there is to do, collecting and living with art is of course on our minds. Kevin Nance talked to Ellen and Richard Sandor about how they came to be some of the most obsessive and knowledgeable photography collectors in the world. Franck Mercurio spoke with two young couples about how they manage to live a 20 or 30-something life while also making art a part of their environment. R.S. Johnson is still striving to both collect and sell important work after six decades in the business. Within these interviews, as well as an auction feature by Mia DiMeo, is the message that there are many inspirations and resources for collecting and sharing art, no matter the reason or season.&nbsp;

Spring&rsquo;s thrilling promise of new life can be frustratingly touch and go, but relishing a Midwest summer&rsquo;s full bloom sets us up for the fall marathon while giving us so much to enjoy.

May-August 2015 Publisher’s Letter: A Creative Thaw’s Promise of New Life

BY FRANCK MERCURIO

There was a time&mdash;back in the day&mdash;when Chicago&rsquo;s Loop was the place to buy art. Writing in the Encyclopedia of Chicago, Lynne Warren, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, states that in the 19th century &ldquo;Many [Chicago] artists set up ateliers or were associated with department stores, a phenomenon that continued well into the twentieth century, particularly with Marshall Field&rsquo;s, which featured a fine-arts gallery until early in the 1950s.&rdquo;

The gallery scene left downtown long ago for other neighborhoods, such as River North and the West Loop. But could the Loop, once again, support a concentration of galleries? The question is open to debate, and a few gallerists have recently opened on South Michigan Avenue, including LA transplant Bert Green, whose gallery features original works by contemporary artists, and Douglas Dawson who moved into the former Donald Young Gallery space in the historic Santa Fe Building.

The Chicago Loop Alliance is encouraging more arts-related businesses&mdash;such as Green&rsquo;s and Dawson&rsquo;s&mdash;to take up residence downtown. This past March, the Alliance unveiled &ldquo;Transforming Wabash,&rdquo; a plan that seeks to revitalize the historic Wabash Avenue corridor through a series of projects, including the establishment of an &ldquo;Art Street&rdquo; along Adams that would connect the Art Institute of Chicago with State Street and attract &ldquo;arts and arts-related tenants for first and second floor storefronts.&rdquo;

The Art Street would be one of several proposed &ldquo;districts&rdquo; along Wabash&mdash;including a hotel and nightlife district, a retail district, a makers district, and a university district&mdash;that would better link Michigan Avenue with State Street.&nbsp;

&ldquo;One of the big ideas in Transforming Wabash is connection,&rdquo; says Michael Edwards, president and CEO of the Chicago Loop Alliance. &ldquo;Right now Wabash, because of its design and conditions, tends to separate people from the energy of Millennium Park and from the energy of State Street.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Artist’s rendering of a “maker space” on Wabash Avenue, courtesy of Chicago Loop Alliance" data-rich-file-id="564" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/564/original/makerspace.jpg" />

The El tracks dominate Wabash, creating a dark, loud, and uninviting pedestrian zone. But the Transforming Wabash plan envisions improvements that could help make the corridor a must-see Chicago experience. Public art projects and arts-related businesses would play significant roles in the plan.

&ldquo;One of the great things about current economic conditions on Wabash is that the cost of entry is less [than other Loop areas],&rdquo; says Edwards. &ldquo;So there are spaces on Wabash that could be very affordable for different kinds of businesses that you&rsquo;re not going to find on State Street.&rdquo;

During the recession, the Alliance sponsored Pop-up Art Loop, which brought artists and art installations into vacant downtown storefronts. It became a way to show budding arts entrepreneurs what was possible within the context of the Loop.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Pop-up Art Loop was about activating vacant storefronts,&rdquo; says Edwards. &ldquo;Today, if you walk down Adams and look up one story, there appear to be underutilized and vacant second floor spaces that could be become homes for artists, or what we&rsquo;re terming &lsquo;makers.&rsquo;&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="562" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/562/original/activate.jpg" />

The Transforming Wabash report indicates that these &ldquo;makers&rdquo; are typically defined as high-tech businesses that specialize in electronics, robotics, and 3-D printing, as well as metal and wood working, arts and crafts, calligraphy, film making, computer programming, gaming, fashion, and graphic design.&nbsp;

The raw talent for these types of businesses already exists downtown, given the presence of the School of the Art Institute, Columbia College, and other university campuses. Development of a makers&rsquo; district becomes, in part, a matter of encouraging these students to stay in the Loop after they graduate.

&ldquo;As an incubator street, I think that&rsquo;s where the biggest value is,&rdquo; says Tristan Hummel, the Chicago Loop Alliance&rsquo;s program manager and curator, about the Wabash corridor. &ldquo;Certainly, there&rsquo;s a lot on the street that would suggest that we could attract [SAIC and Columbia College graduates] to stick around for a little while in an incubator-type setting.&rdquo;

Hummel points to the murals around the intersection of Wabash and Van Buren as an example of how public art projects enhance the area and signal to creative types that Wabash is a place to locate their businesses.&nbsp;

&nbsp;&ldquo;Columbia College has the WAC initiative&mdash;the Wabash Arts Corridor&mdash;they brought in Shepard Fairey, never2501, Retna, and all these great artists to create murals,&rdquo; explains Hummel. &ldquo;These are attractive pieces in their own right, but also appealing to people who start thinking about how they can work in that area when they see art like that.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Encouraging public participation in downtown arts events has been a recent goal of the Chicago Loop Alliance. They point to the success of Activate, a series of outdoor parties that the Alliance hosts in different alleys around the Loop.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great way to get new people engaged in the city,&rdquo; says Edwards. &ldquo;The Activate program engaged 143 artists&mdash;we paid them&mdash;and generated about $400,000 of economic impact over last season.&rdquo;

Artistic remnants or &ldquo;legacy pieces&rdquo; of the Activate events can still be seen in several Loop alleys, including murals by local artists and collaboratives, such as Chris Silva and Luftwerk. As this article goes to press, the Alliance is planning its 2015 Activate season and exploring the possibility of hosting one of its parties in an alley off of Wabash, drawing more attention to the Transforming Wabash plan and bringing the reality of a downtown &ldquo;Art Street&rdquo; one step closer.

&nbsp;

The next Activate event is Friday, May 15, in the alley on Monroe between State/Wabash. Art curated by Johalla Projects.&nbsp;

For information visit <a href="http://www.loopchicago.com/ACTIVATE">loopchicago.com/ACTIVATE</a>

&nbsp;

Is the Next Arts District The Loop?

Summer is known as group show season, but currently two veteran galleries are working together as a new &lsquo;group&rsquo;, teaming up to co-host a thematic exhibition of African fetish art that explores the complex role of fetish in traditional African culture.

Douglas Dawson Gallery and Rhona Hoffman Gallery present Keeping Secrets: The Fetish in African Art through May 30. This collegial exchange joins Dawson&rsquo;s reputation as an expert on ancient and ethnographic arts with Hoffman&rsquo;s status as one of the top contemporary art dealers in the world.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Power Figure (bocio), Fon Culture, Benin 16.5”H x 5.5” W x 5.0” D, Wood, Iron, Pigment Courtesy Douglas Dawson Gallery" data-rich-file-id="570" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/570/original/dawson.jpg" />

The show&rsquo;s approximately 50 objects and textiles are mainly from West and Central Africa and include both figurative and abstract sculpture, masks, ceramics, textiles and iron and copper alloy pieces used in divination. Interest in African art has evolved from the exclusive domain of anthropologists and African art historians to a much broader audience that includes those interested in contemporary art.&nbsp;

Fetish objects on view at <a href="http://rhoffmangallery.com">Rhona Hoffman</a>&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;

Fetish-related textiles are at <a href="http://douglasdawson.com">Douglas Dawson</a>

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

A Gallery Swap at Douglas Dawson and Rhona Hoffman

A new issue means lots of news and changes. We are always pleased to welcome new galleries and art businesses to CGN. &nbsp;We also enjoy sharing news about various artist exhibitions and happenings around the country. &nbsp;Read on to find out the latest!&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>ANNIVERSARIES</h3>

&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/r-s-johnson-fine-art">R.S. Johnson Fine Art</a> celebrates 60 years in business in 2015. The gallery was founded in Chicago in 1955 by S. E. Johnson, the father of the current owner, R. Stanley Johnson. The gallery is currently located at 645 N. Michigan Ave. and specializes in master prints.&nbsp;

&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/the-leigh-gallery">The Leigh Gallery</a>, founded by Jean Leigh in Lakeview, is celebrating 10 years. The gallery boasts that 90 local artists are showcased daily, from painting to glass to pottery.

&nbsp;

<h3>MOVES&nbsp;</h3>

&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/pagoda-red--2">Pagoda Red</a> moved from its long time Bucktown location to the West Loop to 400 N. Morgan. With an 18 year history in Chicago, Pagoda Red now occupies an exquisite bow truss building nestled in an Asian garden. Pagoda Red is the premier source for exemplary 18th &amp; 19th c. Chinese furniture + art with an expansive collection of Shanxi furniture, lanterns in the Ming manner, and ancient limestone. Also located in Winnetka.

<img alt="" data-caption="Pagoda Red has moved to an Asian-inspired location with a garden close to Fulton Market" data-rich-file-id="566" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/566/original/pagodarednews.jpg" />

&bull;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/evanston-art-center--3">The Evanston Art Center</a> is moving to a new location on June 8. Their new home at 1717 Central St. will be state of the art and handicapped accessible. Their annual spring auction and benefit will take place in the new space on Saturday, May 16.

&bull; As of May 1 Valerie Carberry, Valerie Carberry Gallery, has joined Richard Gray Gallery as a partner. More info <a href="http://goo.gl/xn8Hqx">here</a>.&nbsp;

<h3>WELCOMES</h3>

&bull; We welcome <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/berlanga-fine-art-photographs">Berlanga Fine Art &bull; Photographs</a> to River North. The gallery, founded by Paul Berlanga, known to many from his work at Stephen Daiter Gallery, opened in March at 230 W. Superior.&nbsp;

&bull; Judith Rivera Contemporary Fine Art opened in a new space at 501 N. Wells. The Mexican abstract artist has also exhibited in a showroom at the River East Art Center.

&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/mlg-gallery">MLG Gallery</a>, owned by Michael LaConte, has opened in the West Loop at 1046 W. Fulton Market. The gallery shows contemporary emerging art.&nbsp;

&bull; Kruger Gallery Chicago opened in Lakeview in the Southport Corridor at 3709 N. Southport this past January. The gallery, also located in Marfa, TX, is dedicated to an avant garde ideal that art can be an agent for political and social change. The gallery represents mainly emerging artists working in a variety of media.

<img alt="" data-caption="Kruger Gallery has moved to the Southport Corridor. They are also located in Marfa, TX" data-rich-file-id="567" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/567/original/krugernews.jpg" />

&bull; Art Post Gallery in suburban Northbrook is in its 35th year. The gallery exhibits work by 125+ national and international artists and features traditional, transitional, and contemporary work. They also offer fine framing and painting restoration services.

&bull; Fermilab Art Gallery in Batavia, IL is located at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. Fermilab&rsquo;s artist in residence program also seeks to stimulate interactions among scientists, artists and the public and is accepting applications for 2015/16. Tours, events and visitor programs at www.fnal.gov/pub/visiting/

&bull; We welcome back Cleve Carney Art Gallery at McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn at College of DuPage. The gallery will open a show featuring New Acquisitions from the Collection of Andree Stone in June.&nbsp;

&bull; Bruce Duncan&rsquo;s Northbrook-based Chicago Appraisers Association is new to our art services. Duncan has 49 years of experience.

&nbsp;

<h3>OTHER NEWS</h3>

&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/hyde-park-art-center-hpac">Hyde Park Art Center&rsquo;s</a> new Guida Family Creative Wing will house the Jackman Goldwasser Residency Program, the Thurow Digital Lab, artist studios, a teen learning center, and a flexible space for collaboration.&nbsp;

&bull; Several artists from <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/rhona-hoffman-gallery--2">Rhona Hoffman</a> are part of&nbsp;the Whitney Museum of Art in New York&#39;s&nbsp;first exhibition in their brand new space:&nbsp;Inaugural Exhibition:&nbsp;America is Hard to See from May 1 - September 27, 2015.&nbsp;&nbsp;Artists included: Vito Acconci, Huma Bhabha, Luis Gispert, Sol Lewitt, Gordon Matta-Clark.

Gallery artist Spencer Finch is exhibiting a public artwork:&nbsp;Sunset Soft Serve as part of &quot;Drifting in Daylight: Art in Central Park&quot; this summer,&nbsp;May 15 - June 20, 2015 in&nbsp;Central Park&#39;s North End in New York.

<img alt="" data-caption="Spencer Finch, Sunset Soft Serve, 2008, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO" data-rich-file-id="568" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/568/original/wqpr-icecream1.jpg" />

&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/zolla-lieberman-gallery">Zolla/Lieberman Gallery&#39;s</a> artist&nbsp;Deborah Butterfield is exhibiting her life-size contemporary horse sculptures at the Denver Botanic Gardens May 23&ndash;Oct 18.&nbsp;

&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/jean-albano-gallery">Jean Albano Gallery</a> artist Jules Feiffer was featured in a solo show at the Parrish Art Museum, NY with 150 original drawings from Kill My Mother, his recent graphic novel.

&bull; Photographer Art Shay will have a book signing at the Art Institute on May 2 from 4-5pm in&nbsp;Gallery 10 to mark a&nbsp;new installation in Gallery 10 celebrating the 93 year-old&nbsp;Shay&#39;s accomplishments and his recent generous gift to the Art Institute of Chicago of photographs from across his career. &nbsp;

Art Shay is one of Chicago&#39;s great photojournalists. With more than 25,000 published photographs&mdash;including more than 1,000 magazine covers&mdash;he has shaped the way we see the world on the printed page. For seven decades, Shay&#39;s camera has documented the famous and the downtrodden, the international and the local, the newsworthy and the intimate.

May-August 2015 News: Anniversaries, Moves and Welcomes

For years the public has regularly asked, &ldquo;Are gallery openings on First Fridays?&rdquo; As well known as the phrase is, in River North there has never been such an event, since most openings happen every six to eight weeks. The Museum of Contemporary Art has had such a program, and other art districts in the city have designated monthly public opening nights, but it is in River North that the &ldquo;First Friday&rdquo; myth has long persisted. Until now...

Most galleries in the River North gallery district will now stay open late on the first Friday of every month (times will vary for each gallery). See a list of participating partner galleries below. First Friday openings are free and open to the public. Celebrate each new month with art while visiting and supporting Chicago&#39;s local galleries!

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2014/12/january-april-2015-on-the-cover-first-fridays-at-the-rangefinder-gallery">Read more about the launch of River North&#39;s First Fridays... </a>

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/district/river-north"><img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Dozens of galleries are located in the River North gallery district.&lt;/i&gt;" data-rich-file-id="551" height="356" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/551/original/rivernorthmap.png" width="567" /></a>

&nbsp;

<h3>First Fridays in the River North Gallery District</h3>

participating galleries include... 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/addington-gallery">Addington Gallery</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/berlanga-fine-art-photographs">Berlanga Fine Art &middot; Photographs</a> 
 
&bull; Stephen Daiter Gallery 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/catherine-edelman-gallery">Catherine Edelman Gallery</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/josef-glimer-gallery-ltd">Josef Glimer Gallery</a> 
 
&bull; Hilton | Asmus Contemporary 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/alan-koppel-gallery">Alan Koppel Gallery</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/ann-nathan-gallery">Ann Nathan Gallery</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/jennifer-norback-fine-art">Jennifer Norback Fine Art</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/perimeter-gallery">Perimeter Gallery</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/printworks">Printworks Gallery</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/the-project-room">The Project Room</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/rangefinder-gallery-at-tamarkin-camera">The Rangefinder Gallery at Tamarkin Camera</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/ken-saunders-gallery">Ken Saunders Gallery</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/schneider-gallery">Schneider Gallery</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/vale-craft-gallery">Vale Craft Gallery</a> 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/david-weinberg-photography">David Weinberg Photography</a> 
 
&bull; Zg Gallery 
 
&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/zolla-lieberman-gallery">Zolla / Lieberman Gallery</a> 
&nbsp;

<h3>Upcoming 2015 First Fridays</h3>

May 1 
June 5 
July 3 
August 7 
September 4 
October 2 
November 6 
December 4

<a class="btn" href="https://www.facebook.com/1stFridaysRiverNorth?fref=ts">Like First Fridays on Facebook! </a>

First Fridays in River North

BY GINNY VAN ALYEA

Violence in Chicago, and beyond, adds up to&nbsp;a lot more than&nbsp;inspiration for campaign promises and&nbsp;content for the nightly news. It claims lives, unravels neighborhoods and families,&nbsp;crushes the&nbsp;dreams and stokes the fears of far too&nbsp;many&nbsp;people throughout our city and communities. Several city galleries and artists are trying to help those of us on the outside of most of these daily tragedies to comprehend their devastating depth as well as to start to pay more attention and be a part of the solution, whether by lending support through resources, iniatives or simply compassion. By looking at&nbsp;these issues from a personal perspective, whether it&#39;s gathering statements from affected youths or depicting the faces of prisoners, several artists are making the abstract more personal and real. &nbsp;

<h4>The&nbsp;Chicago Angels Project,&nbsp;The Forgotten: Chicago Youth Lost to Gun Violence&nbsp;(2011/13)</h4>

As part of The Chicago Angels Project at Josef Glimer Gallery, almost a hundred faces look out from the gallery walls - faces of young people whose lives were ended far too soon. ThinkArt&nbsp;in partnership with&nbsp;The Arts Palette&nbsp;and&nbsp;Josef Glimer Gallery presented&nbsp;Uplift Community High School&nbsp;student artists&rsquo; series of mosaic linoleum relief prints representing the spirits of deceased&nbsp;youths. The linocuts are displayed next to art by Chicago artists, at once elevating these images to the level of art while maintaining the colorful, art-class sensibility typical of young children still learning new conceptual and artistic skills. Behind the attractive display in the gallery is the sadness, grief and horror of living day after day with loss and fear, but there is also a collective effort to memorialize and remember.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Left: Marvin Tate, Schoolyard of Broken Dreams, 2014, 16” x 19.5” x 4,” Boxed assemblage with found objects &amp; LED light. Right: Lee Tracy, Hate Ruins Everything, 2012, 27.5″ x 20,” Archival ink print on cotton rag paper, Edition of 5." data-rich-file-id="545" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/545/original/glimer-2.jpg" />

On February 12 the&nbsp;show opened recently to a packed crowd of art world and civic figures alongside area high school students and&nbsp;family members affected by the loss of relatives, friends and neighbors.&nbsp;&nbsp;The brightly colored linoleum block prints&nbsp;are by former and current students of Laura Mullkoff, an art teacher in Uptown&rsquo;s&nbsp;Uplift Community High School. Each image&nbsp;memorializes&nbsp;a minor lost to gun violence&nbsp;from 2011-2013. Other victims of gun violence may have escaped with their lives, but their lives and physical or emotional capabilities may have been forever altered.&nbsp;

The show&#39;s organizers hope that through art, lives will be remembered and that&nbsp;violence prevention becomes a priority for Chicago&rsquo;s policy-makers.

Participating local artists include&nbsp;Susan Aurinko,&nbsp;Iwona Biedermann,&nbsp;David Gista,&nbsp;Doug Fogelson,&nbsp;Jean-Marc Giboux,&nbsp;Chris Hefner,&nbsp;Layne Jackson,&nbsp;Teresa James,&nbsp;Marvin Tate and Lee Tracy.&nbsp;

A portion of all sales will be donated to the following non-profit&nbsp;organizations:&nbsp;Alternative Schools Network,&nbsp;CeaseFire, and the&nbsp;Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.

On view through February 28 at <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/josef-glimer-gallery-ltd">Josef Glimer Gallery</a>

Additional information at <a href="http://www.chicagoangelsproject.org">chicagoangelsproject.org</a>

&nbsp;

<h4>Victims &amp; Villains&nbsp;at the New Kruger Gallery</h4>

<a href="http://www.krugergallerychicago.com">Kruger Gallery</a>, a gallery run by Mikelle Kruger, re-opened this past January on Southport in Lakeview (it was formerly in River North). The gallery is committed to showcasing a range of art dealing with issues of social justice, and the first solo exhibition in the space features work by Chicago-based&nbsp;Heather Green. I stopped into the gallery a couple of weeks ago to see the show and to meet Mikelle and Heather. In a short time I learned a great deal about the many issues concerning the justice system in the United States. Green&#39;s&nbsp;passion&nbsp;for&nbsp;justice issues is what she considers a sort of activist calling. After copious reading as well as viewing documentaries and other studies about subjects like the penal system in the US, solitary confinement, and&nbsp;recidivism rates, she attempts to unearth individual examples of the spectrum of human nature in our society. She looks at the people who have committed crimes as well as the&nbsp;system that she credits with compounding their already tenuous psyches and ultimately the broken state of their lives.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="544" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/544/original/krugertwo.jpg" />

Green sees her work &quot;as a means to share ideas with an audience that can facilitate change on a larger scale than I am personally able.&nbsp;At times, I feel like a conduit through which ideas and imagery can be filtered. While looking at disturbing things and teasing out their thought-provoking beauty can be spiritually difficult, I feel the higher purpose of the work requires me to grow a thicker skin.&quot;

The exhibition is divided into two sections. On one wall of the gallery are several large scale, painted portraits - of Marissa Alexander, George Zimmerman, and others. There is no identifying text or other clues. Green painted the portraits from publicly available mug shots and blew them up in order to maximize the impact and engagement for the viewer. One cannot help but meet each villian&#39;s gaze, depicted here as ultimately sad, troubled, lost.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="546" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/546/original/green2-2.jpg" />

The other part of the exhibition, #yesallwomen,&nbsp;deals with the&nbsp;2012 Steubenville&nbsp;rape case and the fervent social media response that went along with it. Here Green works&nbsp;scrutinizes rape culture&nbsp;and the subsequent conviction of&nbsp;Trent Mays and Ma&rsquo;lik Richmond in 2013. Green makes the case that much of the outrage, criticism and judgement during the trial was conducted more or less anonymously via social media. Responses were fervent and prevasive, perhaps because of the cover allowed by social media.&nbsp;Here Green&#39;s works on paper flutter in delicate layers, with cutout words lifted from case-related hashtags and online statements.&nbsp;

Victims &amp; Villians by Heather Green at <a href="http://www.krugergallerychicago.com">Kruger Gallery</a> through February 28.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h4>Try Youth as Youth at David Weinberg PHOTOGRAPHY</h4>

David Weinberg Photography&#39;s&nbsp;Try Youth as Youth is the second exhibition at the gallery devoted to social justice. The first, <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2014/8/we-all-we-got-art-supports-social-change">We All We Got</a>, brought together several area politicians and youth advocacy groups and&nbsp;spotlighted photographer Carlos Ortiz&#39;s experiences embedded in a south side community struggling to live with&nbsp;day-to-day violence in Chicago. For this latest exhibition the&nbsp;ACLU of Illinois&nbsp;and David Weinberg Photography examine the juvenile justice&nbsp;system in America&nbsp;through an exhibit of photography, sculpture and video installation aiming to shed light on the lives of incarcerated youth.&nbsp;Try Youth As Youth&nbsp;features works by four&nbsp;artists with a shared dedication to institutional reform of the systems that far too often dehumanize young people and fail to provide them with constitutionally adequate conditions and services.&nbsp;

&bull; Tirtza Even&#39;s video&nbsp;Natural Life, a two-channel projection installation, challenges inequities in the juvenile justice system by depicting the stories of five individuals who were sentenced to life without parole (&ldquo;natural life&rdquo;) for crimes they committed as&nbsp;youth. Even makes the case that it is not just the offender who is affected for life - families must deal with the reality of having a relative on the inside for life. Incarceration also doesn&#39;t close the book for victims either. Even&#39;s depiction provides a window into what life is like, day after day, in prison and what growing up in such circumstances can be like.

&bull; Steve Davis began work&nbsp;on&nbsp;Captured Youth in 1997 after participating as a visiting artist at one of Washington State&#39;s correctional facilities - commonly referred to as &quot;schools&rdquo;. These state-run facilities are the remnants of what were reform schools located on the outskirts of town, but what goes on within the security walls is far from educational or rehabilitative. This is where the subjects of Davis&#39; portraits restlessly reside. His images work to humanize the youth that have committed crimes or entered into the system by means of bad luck and accident of birth.

<img alt="" data-caption="Left: Richard Ross; Right: Steve Liss" data-rich-file-id="548" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/548/original/weinbergdue.jpg" />

&bull; TIME Magazine&nbsp;photojournalist Steve Liss spent 2 years photographing and interviewing detainees, their parents, correction officers and counselors in Laredo, Texas, eventually publishing&nbsp;his 2005 book No Place for Children. The youth in his black and white images suffer from drug dependencies, mental illness, depression, and violence. Liss has captured the heartbreaking realities of the youngest incarcerated children and the cruelties they face.

&bull; Richard Ross photographed and interviewed subjects in&nbsp;31 states and 200+ facilities over&nbsp;8 years,&nbsp;in&nbsp;a project that has yielded 10,000+ images and 1000+ interviews. His images and interviews illustrate the fact that no two inmates or their situation&nbsp;in any given place are the same. Viewers must contemplate life for a young person in solitary confinement, or what it must be like to&nbsp;being restrained, viewing the institutional instruments that hold prisoners down, implemented by guards and employees.&nbsp;

<a href="http://d-weinberg.com/tyay">Try Youth as Youth</a> at&nbsp;David Weinberg Photography

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Images at top of page, from left to right: by Steve Davis (at David Weinberg), by Heather Green (at Kruger), by Lee Tracy (at Josef Glimer)&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Three Shows Give Artistic Perspective on the Lasting Damage of Violence 

BY GINNY VAN ALYEA

The first-ever retrospective exhibition of the work of Columbian artist Doris Salcedo opened&nbsp;this weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art. &nbsp;

Unfamiliar with Salcedo&#39;s work in person, viewing the variety of&nbsp;installations at the media preview on Friday morning&nbsp;was an altogether powerful and somber experience that I will not soon forget. The exhibition gave me a personal way to connect to&nbsp;the scale and depth of&nbsp;tragedy that affects so many victims of political violence in a world far away from my own.&nbsp;The opportunity to see so many of Salcedo&#39;s works installed at the MCA also&nbsp;allowed me an appreciation of her comprehensive vision and&nbsp;an understanding of her unusual&nbsp;use of everyday materials.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="A Flor de Piel, 2014, rose petals and thread" data-rich-file-id="541" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/541/original/img-2816.jpg" />

The largest presentation of Salcedo&#39;s work to date, the exhibition is organized chronologically, giving the visitor a sense of how her works began and where they are today. While Salcedo&#39;s art has evolved over time, her subject matter has largely stayed the same, addressing the experience of loss, particularly due to political violence. Her subjects have witnessed&nbsp;the murder of family members. Victims have been marginalized or simply&nbsp;disappeared, their lives erased, but for Salcedo&#39;s efforts to&nbsp;remember them.&nbsp;Through sculptures and installations, she honors lives&nbsp;lost, revives memories denied, and speaks out against&nbsp;profound violations of the human condition.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Unland, 1995-98, human hair and raw silk" data-rich-file-id="542" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/542/original/img-2820.jpg" />&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" data-caption="Unland detail, 1995-98, human hair and raw silk" data-rich-file-id="535" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/535/original/img-2807.jpg" />

Salcedo&#39;s works are made more powerful through her use of materials. Concrete has been poured into old furniture, rendering items useless. Tables are joined with human hair and silk to represent homes and hearts broken by murder.&nbsp;Rose petals and thread&nbsp;(stitched&nbsp;by many, many assistants) become a rich red shroud to honor a tortured nurse who was then denied a funeral. 12,000 needles adorn an almost invisible shirt, creating a physical version of memory.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Untitled Works, 1989-2008, wooden furniture, concrete, and steel" data-rich-file-id="540" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/540/original/img-2818.jpg" />

Doris Salcedo is a major effort from the MCA to mount exhibitions of this caliber, particularly ones that travel (this will continue to&nbsp;Guggenheim in June), and it opens in conjunction with several significant announcements about the museum&#39;s future. The MCA has launched a $64 million capital campaign ($60 million of which has been raised already from the museum&#39;s board) so that it may further its commitment to featuring ground breaking art (Jeff Koons, Dan Flavin and Frieda Kahlo all had their first solo museum shows at the MCA.) The current museum will undergo some renovations, including the development of a new, ground-floor restaurant, but it will not gain any additional space through new construction. Instead it will commit more funds to exhibitions and to working artists.&nbsp;The MCA is also launching a new visual/graphic identity, with a friendly logo as well as a richer, more interactive website.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Thou-less, 2001-02, Stainless steel" data-rich-file-id="534" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/534/original/img-2809.jpg" />&nbsp; &nbsp;<img alt="" data-caption="Atrabiliarios, 1992-2004, shoes, drywall, paint, wood, animal fiber, and surgical thread" data-rich-file-id="536" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/536/original/img-2811.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Disremembered, 2014, Silk thread and sewing needles" data-rich-file-id="537" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/537/original/img-2812.jpg" />&nbsp;<img alt="" data-caption="Untitled Works, 1989-90, white cotton shirts in plaster and impaled by steel rebar" data-rich-file-id="538" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/538/original/img-2813.jpg" />&nbsp;<img alt="" data-caption="Plegaria Muda detail, 2008-10, wood, concrete, earth and grass" data-rich-file-id="539" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/539/original/img-2815.jpg" />

&nbsp;

Doris Salcedo&nbsp;

Feb 21&ndash;May 24, 2015

<a href="http://www2.mcachicago.org/exhibition/doris-salcedo/">Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago</a>

220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60611

&nbsp;

Top key image:&nbsp;Doris Salcedo, Installation view, Doris Salcedo Studio, Bogot&aacute;, 2013. Photo: Oscar Monsalve Pino. Courtesy White Cube. Reproduced courtesy of the artist; Alexander and Bonin, New York; and White Cube.

Doris Salcedo's Solemn Works Come to the MCA, Along with Major Museum News

Thursday evening when the temperatures were plunging and the wind was whipping between buildings in the Gold Coast, huge pools of flames stood tall and hot around the entrance to the Richard H. Driehaus at the blustery corner of Erie and Wabash. &nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Flaming urns outside the Driehaus Museum " data-rich-file-id="527" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/527/original/flames.jpg" />

The preview party to open the museum&#39;s latest exhibition,&nbsp;Maker &amp; Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry,&nbsp;was packed with eager jewelry admirers happy to brave the evening&#39;s elements for a first look at an unsual collection of&nbsp;artistic jewelry.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="The preview party crowd gathered in the Murphy Memorial Hall" data-rich-file-id="530" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/530/original/insidehall.jpg" />

About a year and a half ago, the museum began utilizing its impressive Gilded Age space to showcase related exhibitions. &nbsp;The first show was devoted to Tiffany glass, and the latest showcases more than 250 pieces of art jewelry, much&nbsp;of which was designed and made by women artists. The impetus for the show comes from Mr. Driehaus&#39;s own collection - he noted in his preview remarks that he personally owns over 500 pieces; the piece that sparked his passion during a trip to London was unfortunately already spoken for, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He&#39;s clearly done just fine since that initial loss, and many of his personal pieces are part of the show.&nbsp;Many others are on loan from other significant private and public collections, and many works have&nbsp;not been publicly displayed before.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="A distinctive creation featuring a spider-theme" data-rich-file-id="531" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/531/original/spider.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="529" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/529/original/group.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Mr. Driehaus has collective Mucha's work extensively, including both prints and associated jewelry." data-rich-file-id="528" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/528/original/mucha.jpg" />

The exhibition features more than 250 stunning pieces of art jewelry created between the late Victorian period and World War I. During this vibrant period, jewelry makers in the world&rsquo;s centers of design created audacious new styles in response to the growing industrialization of the world and the changing role of women in society. Their work&mdash;boldly artistic, exquisitely detailed, hand wrought, and inspired by nature&mdash;became known as art jewelry.

Viewers of the exhibition will recognize many&nbsp;design elements from the art, fashion and&nbsp;architecture hallmarks&nbsp;of the time, though when applied to jewelry, there is something both timeless and fresh about them. Stop into the Driehaus musuem to warm up in its rich, cozy rooms and admire these unusual and personal creations.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/maker-muse-women-and-early-twentieth-century-art-jewelry">Maker &amp; Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry</a>

February 14, 2015&nbsp;- January 3, 2016