<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/bkwg2d2m9wlhttq9cjoi.jpg"><figcaption>Pictured on the wall of the author’s apartment: found signs hung as a diptych.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By BIANCA BOVAThe art you love and the art you wish to live with—the art you are capable of living with—are not promised to be the same. I learned this working as a gallery officer at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago about a decade ago. I was posted in Warhol and Marisol, an exhibition examining foundational works in the museum’s permanent collection by the two luminary artists. The small space was filled with sculptures and paintings that continually rewarded the sort of slow, deliberate looking that long days working on the museum floor allowed for, and I was genuinely happy with the assignment. One work by Marisol in particular, Andy, a portrait of Warhol that included a worn-out pair of his shoes, delighted me above all else. The bodily immediacy of the leather, retaining a broken-in contour of the artist’s feet lent, for me, a sense of sacredness to the space.&nbsp;One evening, working an overnight shift, I was surprised to find myself hesitating to enter the exhibition, suddenly overcome by uneasiness. Its locus was another Marisol sculpture, Self-Portrait. Self-Portrait features seven heads, some bearing partially-cast faces, and a disproportionate number of limbs and breasts distributed across a long, shared block of a body. It also contains an element that may be interpreted as a sort of profane counterpoint to the sanctity I saw in Andy’s shoes. The sculpture’s materials list has the startling inclusion of “human teeth,” which are indeed visible in at least one of the heads’ open mouths. A member of the preparatory staff had shared with me an (unconfirmed) piece of trivia, that Marisol had, unaided by a dental professional, extruded some of her own teeth for incorporation in the work. Alone in the dark with the sculpture, my only thought was: How could this have come from a private collection? Who has the equanimity to encounter pulled teeth in art on the way to the bathroom, in the middle of the night?&nbsp;Until that late night encounter with Self-Portrait, I had never given the motivations of art collecting any serious thought; but from then on, it has remained for me a point of obsession. When you look past mere personal taste, there is a spectrum of collecting practices, ranging from the rigid policy of “40 artists and 100 works” famously adhered to by mega-collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson, to the more freewheeling approach I got to know during my years in the orbit of Lawrence &amp; Clark, the beloved Chicago collection gallery. Add to these the oft-cited 30/30/30 rule: that when building a collection, one should hedge their bets and aim for 30% of the art to rise in value, 30% to retain a stable value, and accept that 30% may lose value. Regardless of the theories and formulas and forecasts collectors may rigidly adhere to, one prevailing principle seems universally true: you don’t choose the art, the art chooses you.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/ed85hcucoyygwoimpcgc.jpg"><figcaption>An editioned print by Jeremy Deller</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Despite or in spite–I don’t know which–of my preoccupation with collecting, I decided from the start that I would not buy art myself. In what I’ve come to think of as a kind of payoff for not having any life outside of the art world, as well as a testament to the astonishing generosity of artists, I have somehow still managed to build a modest collection. Two paintings, by Sarah Leuchtner and Michelle Grabner, hang on the wall above my bed, mirroring the pillows below and their suggestions of bodies, while an early typographic work in stainless steel by Jacqueline Surdell occupies the floor between the windows and the radiator. In the dining room, which doubles as my home office, a large-scale photograph by Alan Cohen depicting the Illinois–Wisconsin border occupies the most prominent wall. Prophetically, the work was obtained on a long-term loan from a friend’s private collection shortly after I moved into my current apartment, and well before my curatorial practice came to include working remotely to produce several large exhibitions in Milwaukee. Also in the dining room hangs a collage by Jason Pickleman. Bestowed upon me as a gift on my 30th birthday, it is work that I had openly coveted for years, since my first visit to his studio, and which I can hardly believe I now have the privilege of living with. Flanking one side of the front door are two found lawn signs advertising bankruptcy liquidation services, hung as a diptych; visually compelling in their own right, they also serve as a daily tongue-in-cheek reminder of my own professional relationship to the affairs of auctions. On the other side hangs an anonymous black and white photograph of a woman bathing while her laundry dries above her, a era–less image that feels totemic of my twenties. On my bookcase among the exhibition catalogs is a small print by Matthias Neumann, an artist I have admired and worked with since I was a teenager, and a minimalist ceramic ghost by Polly Yates that was thoughtfully delivered to me in the thick of the pandemic, “for company,” under the pretense that you’re not alone if you have a ghost in your house.&nbsp;Notably, none of the above works were acquired from a gallery–most came straight from the artists’ studios. Many are from exhibitions jointly mounted, particularly memorable studio visits, or gifts on occasions of personal significance. And for a long time, I was certain that art collecting would remain for me an incidental practice.That changed on the last day of this year’s edition of EXPO CHICAGO. I was in an upstairs office chatting with an acquaintance about her and her wife’s art collection, when the conversation turned to a work on the show floor by an artist we both admired. I admitted that, uncharacteristically, I had been considering acquiring the work for several months, by which I meant I’d been torturing myself about spending a relatively modest sum of money on something that I wanted, but could not convince myself there was any reason I should own. At her urging–and with about 25 minutes left before the fair closed–I walked down to the booth to view it again. While I was deliberating its merits, another work in the booth caught my eye. It was a small Xerox copied monochrome on silver paper, an editioned print by the British artist Jeremy Deller.&nbsp;The print features an enlargement of an excerpt from the classified ad section published in The Guardian on Valentine’s Day 1996. Entitled 14/2/96, the ad itself was originally commissioned from the artist by curator Matthew Higgs, as part of Imprint 93, Higgs’ experimental mail art-focused publishing venture that was active in the mid-1990s. The print was produced under the auspices of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, and released by Printed Matter on the occasion of an archival exhibition focused on Imprint 93, which Printed Matter produced in partnership with Whitechapel Gallery in 2018. At the time, I knew none of this. All I knew was that I vaguely recalled Jeremy Deller was a recipient of the Turner Prize at some point, that the print cost more than the work I had come downstairs to look at, and that I absolutely had to have it. It now hangs above my nightstand.&nbsp;“Once you start buying art, you’ll never be able to stop,” is something I have been told, verbatim, by every serious art collector I know. A member of the newly converted, I believe them. The exhilaration of acquisition unfolds across time from the heat of the moment when you recognize that a work belongs in your collection, through the anxiety of availability, the gravity of transaction, and finally the perpetual satisfaction of seeing the work on your wall day after day. The greatest collectors are those who allow themselves to be guided by these forces, and the greatest collections those which are allowed to flourish as a record of a life well-lived in the art world.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/amatyrbrrng4ttblo1pm.png"></figure>&nbsp;</body></html>

Notes on Collecting: A Young Collector Shares Her Serendipitous Acquisitions

&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://meltwater-apps-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/5e38472c6c3a3a00184b210f/image_34726430731664467397275_1664467397678.jpg" alt="Gertrude Abercrombie
Self-Imprisonment
"><figcaption>Gertrude Abercrombie, Self-Imprisonment, 1949, Price Realized: $281,250</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Via PRCHICAGO – On September 28, Laura and Gary Maurer’s renowned collection of paintings by the late Chicago Surrealist artist Gertrude Abercrombie realized more than $2.8 million in total. With a captivated crowd packed into Hindman’s West Loop headquarters, bidders were ready to eagerly compete for the widest offering of Abercrombie paintings to ever come to market from the most distinguished collectors of her work. Remarkable prices were achieved for works that exemplified this hometown heroine’s wit and talent.“As I stepped onto the podium, the energy in the room was undeniable,” commented Hindman Vice President and Senior Specialist for Fine Art Joe Stanfield. “The opportunity to present a collection as significant as the Maurers’ was truly amazing, and the extraordinary response and results reflect how carefully it was curated.”Over the past decade, the genius of Abercrombie’s work has been discovered, and Chicago-based collectors Laura and Gary Maurer’s collection was the most impressive display of her talent. Emerging as the top lot of the sale was the supernatural self-portrait Self and Cat (Possims) (lot 14), which sold for $375,000. Celebrated for her self-portraits, this painting is exemplary of Abercrombie’s magical world, with her beloved cat Possim positioned as an important character.“It was pure magic to work with such a charmed collection and such charming collectors,” commented Zack Wirsum, Hindman Director and Senior Specialist for Post-War &amp; Contemporary Art. “Sharing Gertrude’s unique vision with so many new eyes is what auction dreams are made of.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://meltwater-apps-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/5e38472c6c3a3a00184b210f/image_8378573741664467397279_1664467397602.jpg" alt="Self and Cat (Possims)
Gertrude Abercrombie
"><figcaption>Gertrude Abercrombie, Self and Cat (Possims), 1953, Price Realized: $375,000</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Emerging as the second top performer of the day was Abercrombie’s 1949 Self-Imprisonment (lot 10), which sold for an incredibly strong price of $281,250. This painting conveys the artist’s feelings of isolation and self-doubt that show up continuously throughout her body of work. Abercrombie scholar Susan Weininger notes that it is “a powerful statement about how one’s internal deficiencies can limit external actions.” Bidders were clearly struck by the work and drove the price up to far above its $60,000-80,000 estimate. Reflecting a similar theme of insecurity, Abercrombie’s witty Blue Screen from 1945 (lot 8) grabbed the attention of bidders, ultimately realizing $225,000 against a $50,000-70,000 estimate.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://meltwater-apps-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/5e38472c6c3a3a00184b210f/image_19966083651664467397281_1664467397710.jpg" alt="Gertrude Abercrombie
Blue Screen
"><figcaption>Gertrude Abercrombie, Blue Screen, 1945, Price Realized: $225,000</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Strong prices were also achieved for Abercrombie’s beloved cats, owls and winding paths. Owl and Tornado (lot 16) sold for $187,500, more than four times its presale estimate, and her Siamese Cat (lot 17) also sold for $187,500, well above its $15,000-25,000 estimate. Highlighting the offering of landscapes was Abercrombie’s somber Visit at Midnight (Road Leading Home) (lot 3), which sold for 162,500, more than double its presale estimate. Alone (The Stroll) (lot 6) was another highlight which far surpassed its $30,000-50,000 estimate to sell for $150,000.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://meltwater-apps-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/5e38472c6c3a3a00184b210f/image_84551262761664467397282_1664467397723.jpg" alt="Gertrude Abercrombie
Owl and Tornado
"><figcaption>Gertrude Abercrombie, Owl and Tornado, 1956, Price Realized: $187,500</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Bidding for the September 28th auction was available in-person at Hindman’s Chicago saleroom, via absentee bid, telephone and online via Hindman’s Digital Bid Room and additional online bidding platforms.&nbsp;Additional information about the collection and auction results can be found <a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flink.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com%2Fls%2Fclick%3Fupn%3DhnPLvXwoDtjwatEtUAiy3kbEarr97QLH7FctEJGC8n5QAvR4kWaRRet6UA3j0X3jfMHsN2tAuHkJw5y7NjJyqad2YEDehljOsptrjyuF3LZg-2FVb3dCd1uQScgDRO29VpdQVH05Jqrc-2BjJ3OpjfuFpMpSvyXpRKJ6jNiw8ExyU9E-3D77pW_hnd-2FXc6XhLHhXCXuLbhA-2Bc8r4ZIA1Iue9CCiG8pjbmv6STIj7kzOOAkY2KgCOqyTu7HfK6ULddaW-2BI-2BSJRKc60Zh50usCZZNGpwjcdof7dE6Cr8Kr3xL-2FxrmXe-2ByxImy7eO-2BnA-2FxitCGebHF6gK7cBK0ufnB-2BSlLfxt7YH4CnVjvXBrn-2Fd5L9lkFFTDHHEassyZ2ovQjP5fhYXNcT35CPzkFFd6-2Fz-2BXRtv5kT8f4yCXuKhpmS8wnkuBzKvOBBgFDw1gc7tszTV2tO5zFu8-2Bf3yL0lsB8yrlwqWkLEZvfVz9QZE4U-2F6jncqh3Bcm6geoFVd1O6JU4kdpTiNqsJHVTaZtzumwI94tpIv82DklPVhOtuF8uIsJomYlFLZyHbFJR6-2BQ8w-2FaN2jlySiCcki0KhUEZxoli-2BYGKNehZ39xoqUc-3D&amp;data=05%7C01%7Channacunningham%40hindmanauctions.com%7Ca03d504dd13a46b7b9a908daa2e4a301%7C5db5b6d911b04ad795dba54a1de3a9b8%7C0%7C0%7C638001400123502175%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=C701c1axpay5fI%2BVkU%2Bz%2Fqd%2FgoX7alF5bb3jyJhdgS0%3D&amp;reserved=0">here</a>.Read CGN's feature on the Abercrombie sale and Hindman's 40th Anniversary <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2022/8/hindman-celebrates-four-decades-in-chicago-beyond">here</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

Hindman's Gertrude Abercrombie  Sale Realizes Close to $3 Million – Double the Estimate

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/w4rlltuwzp0zgvz0g8zz.jpg"><figcaption>Joan Blaeu, Pernambco North (Praefecturae Paranambucae pars Borealis, una cum Praefectura de Itamaraca), 1662 edition. Engraving with hand coloring on paper. Museum Purchase through the Robert and Sonia Carringer Art Acquisitions Fund, Art Acquisition Fund, and funds given by Maureen Warren and Allison Hansen. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By JACQUELINE LEWISPolitical cartoons and memes and misinformation are not modern inventions. Though fake news and political satire seems like a product of today’s fraught newscycle, this type of media is grounded in the 17th-century Dutch Republic, and you can witness the proof this fall, when Krannert Art Museum explores these themes through their collection of Dutch Political Prints in <a href="http://kam.illinois.edu">Fake News &amp; Lying Pictures: Political Prints in the Dutch Republic</a>, an exhibition highlighting the visual strategies that early modern printmakers used to record historical events as well as comment on political leaders and policies, artistically executing sometimes subversive strategies to form general consensus as well as action.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/en7bnewicxcugrdu3lrt.jpg"><figcaption>Jan Wierix, The Shield of Wisdom (Le Bouclier de la Sagesse), ca. 1577. Engraving on paper. Museum purchase through the Robert and Sonia Carringer Art Acquisition Fund.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The exhibition displays over 100 prints and illustrated books, each full of allegories, satires, cartoon strips, maps, portraits, and newsprints from Krannert’s collection as well as national and international loans. The prints in particular depict scenes of Dutch naval power, trade, crime, war, and even the relative independence of their women. Laid out in six distinct sections, the exhibition explores the continuity and development of tactics and themes used to picture political beliefs and events, including: Dutch Lions and Other Political Animals (animal satire); Founding Fathers/Fallen Fathers (murdered politicians); Spoils of the Seas (Dutch East and West India Companies, seafaring, naval warfare) and more.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/cs5dbai2n0z1doijm7ls.jpg"><figcaption>Theodor de Bry, Pride &amp; Folly, from Design for Richly Ornamented Dish with Medallion, 1577-1578. Engraving on paper. Museum purchase through the Robert and Sonia Carringer Art Acquisition Fund.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The Dutch Republic, with its increasingly diverse ideas stemming from the flow of refugees and global trade, cultivated the perfect climate for this rise in political imagery. The decentralization of the United Provinces led to an inability to censor media and chronic infighting amongst various groups. Differing opinions and unprecedented artistic freedom led to this new form of expression, and as a result printmakers subverted artistic conventions from the past to create imagery full of puns and visual humor that utilized satire and parody to inform their viewers and lead them to take action. This highly visual form of media meant that even those who were illiterate could remain informed about current events and criticisms through the prints.After recently acquiring over 100 new pieces, Krannert Art Museum holds one of the best collections of Dutch political prints outside Europe, works which are primarily held in private collections or libraries. Krannert’s public exhibition of a wealth of visual political commentary allows us to observe how the past may still influence how we see our present.#&nbsp;<a href="http://kam.illinois.edu">Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL</a>Exhibition on view thru December 17, 2022&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419115/owdrf4gnxtdnvvobo1ex.jpg"><figcaption>Romeyn de Hooghe, Arlequin sur l’Hyppogryphe a la Croisade Lojoliste. Armée van de Heylige Ligue voor der Jesuiten Monarchy, 1689. Engraving and letterpress on paper. Museum purchase through the John N. Chester Fund. de Hooghe the Propaganda Master&nbsp; has been called arguably the most important political printmaker in seventeenth-century Europe). &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;</body></html>

Fake News & Lying Pictures: Krannert Art Museum's Extensive Collection of Dutch Prints Reveals  a History of Creative Liars

<a href="https://www.christies.com/about-us/press-archive/details?PressReleaseID=10647&amp;lid=1">Christie's Launches Entirely New Department Devoted to Streetwear</a>Via PR &nbsp;Christie’s is thrilled to announce Department X – Sneakers, Streetwear &amp; Collectibles, a new department focused on this emerging collecting space, led by a team dedicated to auctions and private sales. Department X offers rare collectibles across a number of genres - music, fashion, art, and sports history – bringing the best of this exciting category to a new generation of collectors.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/arts/design/documenta-15.html?action=click&amp;algo=identity&amp;block=editors_picks_recirc&amp;fellback=false&amp;imp_id=10496306&amp;impression_id=41afbdc0-3bb1-11ed-b4c1-c165bc0acf4b&amp;index=0&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;pool=editors-picks-ls&amp;region=ccolumn&amp;req_id=144678003&amp;surface=home-featured&amp;variant=0_identity&amp;action=click&amp;module=editorContent&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;region=CompanionColumn&amp;contentCollection=Trending">The World’s Most Prestigious Art Exhibition Is Over. Maybe Forever</a>It began with a calumny, it ends with a crack-up.Twice a decade, for exactly 100 days, the world of culture turns its eyes to this midsize German city for Documenta, a giant exhibition whose intellectual ambitions and hefty budgets have ensured its reputation as the world’s most prestigious show of contemporary art. This year’s edition got off to a dreadful start in June, when its most prominent artwork, an agitprop mural incorporating unmistakable antisemitic caricatures, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/arts/design/documenta-antisemitism.html">had to be withdrawn</a> amid national outcry. The 15th Documenta now comes to a close on Sunday — not before another controversy that has seen artists, scholars and politicians trade accusations of antisemitism and racism, harassment and incompetence.Via New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/26/style/andres-valencia-art-paintings.html">Six-Figure Artworks, by a Fifth Grader</a>The contemporary art world has had more than its share of young talent, but it’s tough to recall an artist who has generated as much early-career recognition as Andres Valencia.In the last year, he has gone from a relative unknown to a bona fide art phenomenon. His surrealist-style paintings were acquired by deep-pocketed collectors like Tommy Mottola and Jessica Goldman Srebnick during Art Basel Miami Beach. In June, he had a solo exhibition at the Chase Contemporary gallery in SoHo, where all 35 works were sold, the gallery said, fetching $50,000 to $125,000.&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/charities-act-museums-repatriate-2182298">A New U.K. Law Gives Museums Unprecedented Power to Deaccession Art and Repatriate Objects in Their Collections</a>A new law in England and Wales will give national museums significantly more power to deaccession works and make progress on restitution cases.The Charities Act 2022, which is expected to come into force this fall, allows charities—including national museums—to dispose of objects where there is a compelling moral obligation to do so. Museums had previously been limited by the National Heritage Act 1983.Via Artnet&nbsp;

What We're Reading 9/27/22

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/tcrq4qxife1ka6uesoxi.jpg"><figcaption>Keith Haring, Self Portrait. Photo: Jason Pickleman</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By Jason PicklemanOn November 22, 2019, a flat-bed trailer delivered a 30-foot tall sculpture to Chicago’s lakefront. Keith Haring’s iconic work, titled Self-Portrait, would, in two short days, be assembled and installed and act as visual anchor to a new memorial public park: AIDS Garden Chicago. Just east of Lake Shore Drive, and just south of Belmont Harbor, the artwork’s arrival was nothing short of a miracle. For a city known for its public art, the stealth addition to our Picasso, our Calder, and our Miro (not to mention our Kelly, Kapoor, Oldenburg, Ono, Serra; our many Hunts, di Suvero, and over-looked LeWitt) was reason for celebration. Then, the pandemic arrived. The Park was closed. Fences went up. The Lake was off limits. Chicagoans were put on lockdown. And the just-installed Haring stood silent guard along an eerily quiet stretch of what had, until recently, been one of the busiest roadways in all the city.Self-Portrait’s torso, limbs and head measure 7¾-inches thick, and are finished in a glossy, grassy green with a linear aliphatic polyester urethane—an airplane-grade exterior paint. The sculpture is set back but visible from LSD. It is approached from the west by a series of winding concrete walkways, positioned 110-feet away from the concrete embankment that separates Lake Michigan from the Park. The sculpture can also be approached easily from the east via the lakefront. Black metal benches and an oval lawn surround the sculpture.&nbsp;Prior to 2003, and specifically in the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s of the previous century, the area was referred to as ‘the Belmont Rocks’ and was a popular public gathering place for Chicago’s gay communities. Haring, whose short creative life was filled with both political outcry and childish joy, died of AIDS-related complications in 1990 and is often set up as emblematic of his era. Thus the choice of a Haring sculpture to stand as the artistic face of AIDS Garden Chicago is on-point, if obvious.But obvious doesn’t come easily. The acquisition of Self-Portrait was fraught with logistical hurdles: from financing to construction, a multitude of conflicts could have, and almost did, derail the project. It is testament to 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney, art dealer Dennis Rosenthal, Chicago Parks Foundation Executive Director Willa Iglitzen Lang, and Manager of Art Initiatives at Chicago Park District Michael Dimitroff that the project was successfully realized.AIDS Garden Chicago is the brainchild of Alderman Tunney. Originally conceived in 2003 when the Army Corps of Engineers deemed the Lake Michigan shoreline that contained the Belmont Rocks to be in need of renovation to safeguard against further erosion, the razing of the Rocks sparked the idea for a permanent memorial to the AIDS epidemic. Taking nearly 20 years, the project had its stops and starts. The financial crash of 2008 nearly killed the project, as did COVID-19 in 2020. Tunney’s persistence is Chicago’s gain.&nbsp;The sculpture is commanding. Depending on one’s proclivities, the depicted faceless figure is either marching, stomping, playing, or protesting. People will see whatever they want within the reductive humanoid form. Haring, in his brief career, excelled at both direct messaging and vague graphic suggestion. To wit, someone suggested to me that the right out-stretched arm of the green figure, when seen in profile, resembles an erect penis. You see what you are ready, or want, to see.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/omk73tl2atadnyzy3xgw.jpg"><figcaption>The sculpture as seen in profile</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Self-Portrait is dated 1989. According to Rosenthal, a small, cardboard maquette by Haring was used as the model for the sculpture, which was fabricated in Rhode Island by Amaral Custom Fabrication—a vendor recommended by the Keith Haring Foundation. ACF, as Amaral is often abbreviated, has produced more than 400 sculptural works assigned to Haring. Self-Portrait, itself, has been fabricated in multiple sizes. My research indicates a 2-foot tall version exists (in an edition of 10, with 2 APs), as does a 4-foot version (in an edition of 7, with 2 APs), an 8-foot version (in an edition of 5, with 1 AP), as does a 12-foot version (in an edition of 3, with 1 AP). And now a 30-foot version in, I’m told, an edition of 1 (without an AP). Along with Haring’s name, the date “1989”, and a cryptic circle within which is drawn “+” (a graphic symbol deployed by Haring on many of his signed works), ACF has placed its own lower-case initials on the circular base of the sculpture—a well deserved signature of communal authorship.According to my crack-pot analysis, the figure leans forward at a 75-degree angle from the ground, necessitating an incredibly complex internal engineering that is all but invisible in the finished work. The reductive and planar simplicity of Self-Portrait is one of the sculpture’s greatest accomplishments. The left leg, torso, downwardly curving left arm, neck, and oddly rounded head all reside on a single plane. The sculpture’s right arm, arching up most phallically, creates a modest seam to the vertical plane of the torso, the intersection of which is technically visible by two bolts in the underside of the arm. The figure’s raised right knee appears to be secured similarly, although I’m sure the architecture of the figure’s internal structure belies a deeply impressive, although unseen, set of joinery.&nbsp;ACF is known for their quality workmanship. The smoothness of their finished surfaces is often cited as the pinnacle of the craft. Roy Lichtenstein has been quoted as greatly admiring the spectacularly slick outer layers that ACF produced for many of his large-scale brush stroke sculptures. Claes Oldenburg is noted as being the first visual artist to commission ACF’s services. Lore has it that Oldenburg showed up with a small maquette for his (now) iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry (Minneapolis Sculpture Garden) and asked if Paul Amaral could produce it to a grand scale. At the time Amaral was only producing custom aluminum racing boats, not sculptural objects. In an oft quoted response with prophetic implications, and no hint of irony as to what the future was to bring, Amaral replied to Oldenburg, “What’s a maquette?” [ed note: A maquette is a sculptor’s small preliminary model or sketch]. Amaral, the master ship builder, knew nothing at the time of contemporary art. All of that changed with Oldenburg’s visit. Amaral caught the art bug and (mostly) ditched the boats. His Rhode Island-based shop now fabricates work for artists such as Jeff Koons, Richard Woods, and Hank Willis Thomas, among many others.&nbsp;----------------------------“It is hard to control the thing once it has come out and entered the world. But only I can bring it to the world. The world doesn’t want these things and doesn’t need these things, but when they are here, they are here. Their importance all comes from what other people do with them. If these things are put into a situation they add something to it.”—Keith Haring, 1982As quoted in Keith Haring Journals, Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, ©1996, page 103.----------------------------&nbsp;Haring noted, before he died, that Self-Portrait was to be a steel sculpture. A 30-foot steel sculpture leaning at an odd angle presents an enormous engineering challenge, so much so that ACF recommended that the sculpture be made of polished and painted aluminum joined to an internal steel armature: aluminum AND steel—thus honoring Haring’s technical description. The engineering conversations around this issue nearly ended the project. Paul Amaral told me that the hidden engineering of Self-Portrait is one of his finest contributions to the sculpture’s realization.The logistics of transporting a sculpture so large and heavy were also significant. Examination of road load-limits and bridge heights (with the occasional police escort) were necessary to bring the work half-way across the U.S. Even the location of the work, just off the lakefront, proved an engineering challenge with issues of ground water and extreme wind projections off Lake Michigan influencing the final site. Lawyers, engineers, and politicians were all instrumental in realizing the sculpture. It is probably safe to say that Haring had little of this in mind when he created his small cardboard version.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419115/wgy70upefgiqgexexyuz.jpg"><figcaption>Clockwise from top left: Detail of installation hardware and construction (Nov 22, 2019); a detail of the figure’s extended right arm and up-lifted right leg creating the only visible seams, along with a detail two exposed bolts (lower left): lower right: haring signature, date, personal insignia and “ACF” fabricator’s initials</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Questions of ownership inevitably come up when discussing public art. Who owns Self-Portrait? The City of Chicago? The Chicago Park District? The Chicago Parks Foundation? AIDS Garden Chicago? I’ve received conflicting answers, but my money rests on the Chicago Park District as the final custodian. That said, the Chicago Parks Foundation was instrumental in securing funding for the project and is in the process of securing ongoing operating funds, with a Board in development, to keep AIDS Garden Chicago tidy and Self-Portrait in perpetual good shape.&nbsp;Questions of cost float around as well. No one would give me a straight answer as to what Self-Portrait cost, or what it is worth. A 12-foot tall version sold at Christies in 2014 for $785,000.00. A person connected to the art trade suggested to me a number north of five million dollars, and maybe even closer to ten, as a realistic value for Chicago’s 30-foot version.Costs and headaches aside, it’s worth asking what does public art do? It can commemorate. Self-Portrait does that. It can demarcate or activate space. Self-Portrait does that as well. It can decorate or animate. Self-Portrait certainly does both. Some art world snobbery might suggest that displaying a Haring sculpture at AIDS Garden Chicago is an obvious choice, an easy choice, and one that leaves the potential of a more avant-garde, or more risky, artwork on the table. I say PHOOEY. As any designer knows: Sometimes you need to play to the crowd. The iconic quality of the marching green figure screams HARING to many, and joy to most.As of this writing, Self-Portrait does not have a conventional plaque noting its creator, materials, date or size. A testament to Haring’s genius is that one may not even be necessary.#&nbsp;For more information visit <a href="https://www.aidsgardenchicago.org/design">AIDSgardenchicago.org</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

Sculpture Report: Keith Haring’s Self-Portrait

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/plmoizzy0aaej99idfua.jpg"><figcaption>Sara Dulkin. Photo by Candice Cusic</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By JACQUELINE LEWISThousands of people see Sara Dulkin in her gallery. Dulkin touts that she actively posts multiple times a day <a href="https://www.instagram.com/chicagotruborn/">@CHICAGOTRUBORN </a>as a way to promote artists as well as genuinely engage with her clients, fans and (more than 21K) followers. When she’s not posting Instagram reels, making clever time lapse videos, or cheekily rolling her eyes about how easy and affordable it is to buy art, she’s running an in-person space, an online storefront and a mural consultancy. Before social media consumed a large part of her day, Dulkin forged a relationship with Chicago as a city through its street art.When I asked Dulkin, who opened Chicago Truborn in West Town years years earlier than other galleries did, how she decided to start the gallery she said it was in order to create a space for art in which she personally felt comfortable and where the art was affordable, a mission she continues today.&nbsp;CGN: Tell us about how Chicago Truborn came to be?Sara Dulkin: When I was a 20-something Columbia College student graffiti and street art helped me to better understand and connect with the city. The gallery itself arose because, as I was learning about art and attending galleries for the first time, I felt extremely intimidated in that particular type of space. Also when social media was just beginning, I was paying close attention to the tags and wheatpastes going up in Chicago. I became more familiar with what the artists creating them were doing and I was able to connect in person. Suddenly I was watching artists paint and getting an inside look at the entire process and culture. It didn’t take long before I realized graffiti and street art really wasn’t being represented here and honored in a gallery setting. At the same time I wanted to create a space that made sense for people like me – those who want to collect art, within financial reason!&nbsp;In 2011 when I first started Chicago Truborn we were vending at street festivals and pop-up shows, utilizing other retail spaces. I used that time to meet artists and grow a collector base. In 2013 the gallery became an official brick-and-mortar storefront. The rest is history.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Chicago Truborn has been considered a sort of “anti” gallery. Can you explain what that means?SD: The term “anti-gallery” was actually meant to encapsulate a feeling of community and inclusivity. In all of my previous experiences in galleries–whether it was self-inflicted or otherwise–I felt unwelcome (and often still do!). In most cases I barely even got a welcome nod, let alone any information on the exhibit. And I definitely couldn’t afford anything.&nbsp;“Anti-gallery” is representative of a space that’s inviting and accessible–one that goes against standard norms. It’s everything a “traditional” gallery isn’t. No white walls, no price sheets, no pretense. Just come on in, enjoy yourself and fall in love with some art. We offer prints from $25, smaller artisan collectibles, even pins and sticker packs starting at $10. On average pieces here are going to be in the $350–$1,500 range. I really stress affordibility, and it’s one of Chicago Truborn’s core values. We have a special section on our website dedicated to art under $150.No matter if you’re looking for a massive focal piece or just a small starter work, I want to help.&nbsp;CGN: You have coined the phrase, “Become a Collector.” Do you have stories about new collectors where that term really made an impact?SD: I have countless stories of first time customers who’ve evolved into die hard collectors. Over the last decade many, if not most, of my customers have similar stories to mine where they felt they could never afford art in galleries or, in some cases, had never visited one. It’s the most rewarding experience to be an integral part of someone’s journey as an art lover and a collector. It typically starts with something small, like a print. From there, via social media or frequent visits, our collectors are able to learn more about the artists they like while at the same time figuring out what they want their collection to look like. Price points become a bit less intimidating once a collector learns about the person and process behind the artwork. No matter what the entry point is, the result is they can’t wait to build their collection. &nbsp;One story is about a Chicago collector who was vacationing in Mexico and got talking with a woman about a shared love of art and a subject that coincided with a show we were having. Through this encounter, a piece was purchased and shipped to Calgary to a new friend and collector. Word of mouth is just as valuable as an actual sale. This story really resonated with me and I am so grateful for the loyalty of my collectors.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/ml7roaouesmvm1nvqj72.jpg"><figcaption>A work by JPO &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: Do you find that most of your sales are in person or virtual? How does Chicago Truborn handle both experiences for the collector?SD: Throughout the last decade, the majority of our sales were in-person at the gallery. Opening nights are historically the busiest time for us. Of course since the pandemic everyone had to a pivot a bit. I’ve always been dedicated to building an online presence via social media, while also providing a seamless, easily navigated, online storefront. If you’re not providing your collectors the ability to purchase work online that’s clearly a missed opportunity. Before COVID we were 70/30 in-person/online, and now I would say we’re 50/50. I love the surge in online business. It’s incredible that this small gallery ships pieces all over the world. Utilizing social media continues to be a large part of my success; I can’t emphasize enough the importance of speaking to and connecting with your client base directly in that way.&nbsp;CGN: How has your day to day business adapted since the onset of the pandemic?SD: One common denominator between any small business who is lucky enough to have survived the pandemic is that, yes, changes were made! I started producing virtual openings immediately upon news of the shut downs. Our first virtual show was April 2020. I had my exhibitions already scheduled for the year, and my artists had worked so diligently creating all the work. I was determined to find a way to show it. By utilizing Matterport technology we were able to do a 3D scan of the gallery and provide an online experience that opened our doors to collectors all over the world. Viewers can actively participate in an exhibit however and whenever they see fit, zooming in on specific pieces, “walking” around the installation spaces, and even purchasing art through the tour. After two years I still continue to produce a virtual tour for each show (in addition to in-person). I’ve even received feedback from out-of-town artists who become interested in working with me solely based upon discovery of our virtual shows.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/c0wbtfvyd40y5s7mozl2.gif"><figcaption>The exterior of Chicago Truborn, with the mural by Eelco Van Den Berg</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: Tell me about Chicago Truborn’s work with so many muralists and local public art projects.&nbsp;SD: Seeing as Chicago Truborn is dedicated to exclusively showing the work of street and graffiti artists, mural production has been a very natural progression. My artists love to paint big walls, and I love to make it happen. As a collector myself, I find it exciting to love a piece of public art and then be able to collect a piece or version of that artwork for my home. I’ve curated and produced dozens of murals over the last decade in Chicago. Our murals–some ephemeral, many permanent–can be found all over the city, from West Town and Lakeview to Evanston, Berwyn and beyond. One of my favorite murals can be seen on the facade of the gallery itself. In 2017 Eelco Van Den Berg painted a three-story piece on the building; it is still one of my favorite pieces in the city. I see people stopping to photograph it every single day.&nbsp;CGN: What are some of the differences between managing gallery exhibitions and murals?&nbsp;SD: Both are extremely hands-on, of course. The exhibitions in the gallery are always different, but the recipe is the same. I have a schedule and a groove that works for me. I know when I’ll be prepping the walls, when I’ll be hanging the work, when I’ll prepare the online catalogue. &nbsp;When I’m preparing for a mural, there is a recipe too, but there are different factors at play. We’re examining wall textures and looking out for safety hazards like traffic and electrical lines. I’m arranging lifts and large amounts of paint –we’re usually battling with some type of extreme weather, from rain and snow to brutal heat. We’ve done it all. I’ve learned that there is no forcing anything, and that flexibility is the key to success.At this point I have years of experience working with corporate entities as well as neighborhood groups and private commissions, and no wall is too big, or too small.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: What is next for Chicago Truborn?SD: I’m so pleased to share that Chicago Truborn’s 9 year anniversary show takes place this September. Although the gallery began in 2011, the actual storefront wasn’t opened until 2013. The anniversary show will feature nine artists near and dear to Chicago Truborn – artists who have played a significant role in our past, as well as a few who have debuts with the gallery in 2023. The opening spans two days, September 23 and 24, and coincides with the West Town Art Walk. Everyone can find details and a show lineup on our website and social media.&nbsp;Chicago Truborn • 1741 W. Chicago Ave. (60622)&nbsp;<a href="http://chicagotruborn.com">chicagotruborn.com</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/chicagotruborn/">@chicagotruborn</a></body></html>

Chicago Truborn: Sara Dulkin is a Dealer on a Welcome Mission

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/cq5zbhxxoyo7w4mmwfdv.jpg"><figcaption>Barbara Kasten &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>By ALISON REILLYAs an accomplished artist with more than 50 years experience, Barbara Kasten is used to traveling back and forth to Europe for her work. But during these past two years, due to the pandemic she stayed close to home in Chicago. Fortunately, she had the space to create a home studio, and when it was safe, she started working again at her Mana Contemporary studio. This fall there are plenty of opportunities to see the fruits of her labor. She has two solo exhibitions opening: the first on September 15 at Sammlung Goetz in Munich and the second on November 4 at <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/barbara-kasten">DOCUMENT</a> in Chicago.&nbsp;CGN: Could you tell me about the show at DOCUMENT? I know you are still working on it.&nbsp;BK: I’m working with Aron [Gent] on a new body of work, and it has to go through a lot of experimental phases to be where I want it to be. I can’t tell you exactly what it’s going to be except there will be unique pieces printed on linen or canvas, I’m not sure which one at the moment. It’s something that I actually entered into photography to do, back in the ‘70s. I really was looking for photography to be a tool in my painting practice. At that time, people weren’t thinking that way, but I started working with photograms&nbsp;and cyanotypes, because it was still a painting process. Everything I’ve done since has been either a combination of painting, sculpture or some sort of interdisciplinary gesture, because I’m not trained as a photographer, and I don’t think of myself as a photographer. I use photography, but I use it like you’d use a brush or paint. I think that is evident when you look at the 50 years I’ve worked.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Were you trained as a painter?&nbsp;BK: Yes, more as a painter. In my graduate days at California College of the Arts (at the time it was California College of Arts and Crafts), I was in textiles and fiber, but I used that as a material to make sculptures– again, not a traditional kind of fiber approach but one where I used the materials of a discipline in an entirely different way than was intended.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/yk1jtiibd8dbjm49d4hx.jpg"><figcaption>Barbara Kasten, PLAN 1-B, 2022. Archival pigment on raw linen, 56 1/8 x 42 1/8 in (142.6 x 107 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Bortolami, NY. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: Right. I was looking at some of the photos of the sculptural chairs that you wove. Those are pretty incredible.BK: I did those when I was on a Fulbright scholarship. That’s an indicator of what I was thinking when I was doing textiles. But then I made some photographs–called diazotypes–they look like cyanotypes but are really a blueprint that architects used. In fact, I did a book on those, when I had my show at the Graham Foundation in 2015. They published all the images I created in a book. We just called it The Diazotypes. It was limited edition, which completely sold out and really surprised me, because now it’s going for like $500, who knew! But it was an important step along the way for me. I never really did anything with figures, this was an abstraction of a figure to go along with the abstract chair.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: With a few exceptions your work has been abstract through and through.&nbsp;BK: Right. We are creating a book with Skira, an Italian publisher. Stephanie Cristello is the producer/designer/editor of the book. It features only the sculptures and videos that I did from 2015 to 2020.&nbsp;And so that’s in conjunction with the upcoming exhibition at DOCUMENT.&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp;Some of your works are photographs of installations that you’ve done. When you approach an exhibition, is documentation important to you?BK: No, maybe that needs to be clarified. I don’t make installations to photograph per se. I work in a three-dimensional, sculptural manner and use that as the subject matter of the photographs. It’s not intended to be a documentation of an installation.&nbsp;They’re joined together by the interaction of my creating something in space and then stepping out of that role to go behind the camera and record that space on a flat plane. The word “documentation” is true, but it’s not true, which is kind of like my work. Is it real or not real, you know?&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/fi0vhvytsp7ofkbsjvd1.jpg"><figcaption>Barbara Kasten, SHIELD IV, 2022&nbsp; Cyanotype on raw linen, steel, 24 1/2 x 24 1/8 x 4 in (62.2 x 61.3 x 10.2 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Bortolami, NY.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure> &nbsp;CGN: Did you grow up wanting to be an artist? Was it something in your childhood that you thought about?BK: Yes, I’d say pretty early on. I grew up in Chicago. This is my home town. I went to a Catholic school, and there was a nun who was a painter and within the church she had a great reputation for painting. She wasn’t an art teacher, she just happened to be teaching second grade. She took notice of me, and I started taking art lessons through her tutelage. She instilled this concept in me of being an artist, because I came from a really normal, middle class family, and I didn’t have any dreams based on family history of being an artist.&nbsp;So she really instilled that. I’d say since second grade I thought of myself as an artist, because she told me I could be.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: You went to a Catholic school in Chicago—was that through elementary school and high school?&nbsp;BK: Yes, both. I went to a Catholic, at the time, girls school. My dad was a policeman, and he was shot on duty. He was injured, so he went on a medical leave, and then my parents decided to move to Arizona for his health. I was already out of high school, and I said you’re not moving without me, I’m coming!&nbsp;That was my move out of Chicago.&nbsp;In 1959 I finished at the University of Arizona, and then I went to California for grad school, with a lot of time in between. In 1998 I came back to Chicago at the invitation to teach at Columbia College. I had been in New York for almost 20 years, and I didn’t expect to leave, but the circumstances were that my elderly mother was by herself and my brother was here. Family circumstances and this job offer made it possible. In New York, I was living off the sales of my work.&nbsp;CGN: How long did you continue teaching?&nbsp;BK: I taught at Columbia from 1998 to 2010. I was mostly involved in the graduate program there. And of course, my work was different from that of most of the photography faculty and the direction of the program, but that’s what the chair wanted—somebody to work in a different way—so it was actually a very great experience. In fact, I’m still in touch with some students that I taught in my very first year. I just had my 86th birthday, and a couple of students from my first class celebrated with me. I made good friends, and I had a better time teaching than I thought I would.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: I’m interested in how you source the industrial material for your work. I’m also wondering how your access to those materials has changed over the years.BK: I like going to hardware stores (before they grew into big box stores like Home Depot.) When I was in LA I lived near Venice and&nbsp;the boat industry. I would go poking around in different places to look at the apparatus the [boaters and builders] used–there were pulleys and wires and things like that that they used for the sails and such. I would take those and make some sort of sculpture. Not to replicate anything like a sailboat, or any identifiable thing, but as a material.&nbsp;Different materials became really important to me. I did a lot of cyanotypes, and I found a fiberglass screen that was used to keep bugs out of windows, and I used that to create flat forms that then could be manipulated into three-dimensional forms. In using that I began to see all the possibilities when light is used with screen material. I could get different layers of moirés with different lights and shadows. Again, it’s a matter of being curious about materials and hanging out and looking in places where you might find something unique. It was also the time of the light and space movement. There was a lot of plastic around, and people working in resin. I never poured in any resin, but I did use plastic. Once I find the material that has possibilities I really push looking into all it can produce. It’s a curiosity with materials.&nbsp;Maybe that’s why I don’t do any digital work. I really have to have a hand on whatever it is that I’m creating. It’s not just a visual, it’s definitely my being in the set, my moving and touching and manipulating, it’s more of a sculptural energy than it is a visual one. You can do all these things on the digital screen but it’s a different experience.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419115/ayqe8oqwkygrfakpamld.jpg"><figcaption>Barbara Kasten, Figure/Chair: 12, 1973, Diazotype, 16 x 20 in &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: Yes, that’s interesting. I didn’t realize that, but it makes sense given your interests. Could you talk about your relationship with theater and performance? It seems like it’s been important to you to collaborate with performers or bring that aspect into your work.&nbsp;BK: It was really more inspired by the Bauhaus than it was by any real desire to work as a collaborative effort with performers. That came about because, in the Bauhaus, they accepted so many different disciplines and forms. [Oskar] Schlemmer made wonderful, very bizarre costumes—I love that kind of thing. I was moving in those three-dimensional environments, and it became a static image. I wanted to move away from that into something where motion was added. One step leads to another and so that’s how the video pieces came into play. Just like I used the sculpture in front of the view camera to make an image, I actually incorporate a kind of sculpture in the set of the video. The video is not just a projection on the wall, it actually is an extension of the image into the space. And I incorporate sculptural elements into it.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: At this stage in your career, what are your goals? What are hoping to achieve with your work?BK: I hope I live long enough to do some more work! I did have a modicum of acknowledgment and reputation back in the eighties in the photo world but it turns out that the ICA Philadelphia show (Barbara Kasten: Stages) and the examination that the curator Alex Klein gave to my work opened up the eyes of a lot of public and curators.&nbsp;That’s why the book–Barbara Kasten: Architecture &amp; Film (2015–2020)–is interesting to me because I’ve really developed a lot of ideas that I had when I was younger but I didn’t have the opportunity to show. Unless you can put the work out there—if it stays in your head or in your studio, it’s not the same growth. I’m fortunate to be recognized enough to have opportunities and to still be healthy enough to be making art.&nbsp; &nbsp;CGN: That’s great. And to have that recognition during your lifetime and be able to grow and learn from it.BK: For me it’s not the recognition as much as the ability to grow. I did a public mural in Toronto right before COVID. Those are things I always wanted to do but that’s an expensive project; you don’t get to do those things unless you can prove that you can or people will take a chance with you. That’s the best part about getting old and still working—lots of opportunities.&nbsp;#&nbsp;This interview appears in the Fall 2022 40th anniversary issue of CGN. To subscribe in print <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/print-subscriptions">click here</a>.&nbsp;</body></html>

After 50 Years Barbara  Kasten Still Finds a New Perspective  

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/nwuwvbcyjvplowmd5d2w.jpg"></figure>By GINNY VAN ALYEAI am a person who prefers objects with a past. I always have. So I have watched with delight, and a little panic, as droves have started to snap up furniture and things that were once deemed unstylish or witheringly described only as “brown.” Supply chain issues and staffing shortages have led to all sorts of maddening limits on sourcing furniture, but the renewed attraction of older furniture and objects is more than just what you can find right now: beneath their surface the appeal of antiques–as well as the best vintage furniture–is in the design and workmanship, borne from utility, resourcefulness, or simply pride of skill. Inherent character, combined with a story, can truly make a particular piece–whether table, chair, cabinet or light fixture– special, and therefore worthy of admiration and ultimately collecting.&nbsp;This October, <a href="https://www.chicagoantiquesartdesign.com">The Chicago Show: Antiques &amp; Art &amp; Modern</a>, renamed and reimagined and produced by Dolphin Promotions, is returning to a fall timeslot at theMart, just in time to meet the moment and making a splash in the process.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/ohsszv9minokfgs4cada.jpg"><figcaption>Furniture from Arica Hilton's FLOW collection debuting at The Chicago Show</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;At a time when prices for nearly everything second-hand (and instantly available) are soaring, The Chicago Show presents an opportunity for design fans old and new to participate in a gathering that is part trade show but also part treasure hunt. The show brings together over 60 premier national and international dealers of fine antique furniture, jewelry, silver and decorative and fine arts, from ancient to 20th century. Spread throughout theMart’s 7th floor, the event is the largest antiques and modernism fair in the Chicago area. This year there will be a concentration on 20th century design, focused on mid-century modern, with the return of Studio Sonja Milan (Chicago) and Glen Leroux Antiques (Connecticut), along with the addition of Modern State Atelier (Chicago) and The Art of Time (Versailles, France and Pembroke Pines, FL). There will also be pieces that are new. Debuting at the show is the Arica Hilton Collection® called FLOW, a line of limited edition bespoke furniture by Arica Hilton of Hilton-Asmus Contemporary (Chicago), which pays homage to the mid-century Modernist movement and was sparked by a painting series of Hilton’s.&nbsp;*<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/xqfvppohbvwuhympy5ib.jpg"><figcaption>Left: Alessandra Branca; right: Bronson van Wyck</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Event Chairs Suzette Bulley, Beth Hughes, Keevie Silvay and Heather Webster are planning a not-to-be-missed benefit preview party with honorary chair and internationally recognized interior designer Alessandra Branca on the evening of October 6, 2022. Attendees will enjoy cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and an exclusive opportunity to be among the first to see and shop the world-class collections before the show opens to the general public. Branca is sure to make her mark on the fair, partnering on SHOP THE SHOW, where those who purchase a higher-level ticket can shop early with Branca herself, as well as splashy event planner Bronson van Wyck, Master of Celebrations and also a featured guest for Thursday evening’s opening night gala. Vogue called van Wyck “The Wizard of Oz of party planning.” His 2019 book is titled Born to Party, Forced to Work: 21st Century Hospitality. Proceeds from gala tickets benefit the programs and patient care initiatives supported by The Woman’s Board, such as the COVID-19 Relief Fund and the study of collaborative mental health care in Northwestern Medicine’s primary care clinics in Chicago.&nbsp;On Friday, the public opening day of the fair will feature a keynote luncheon and lecture with both Branca and van Wyck. Guests of the show will be able to learn about antiques and design in multiple ways, through expert-centered programming as well as in-person access–the first opportunity in quite some time–to many of the finest examples of period furniture, jewelry and objects available in the market today.Art fair exhibitors, and the pieces they bring, must be vetted, with prices set and usually only the very best examples making the trip from a dealer’s home base. An antiques fair like this one is a showcase compressed into little square footage over the course of a weekend. First impressions are critical, you never know what you will find, and a lot of it isn’t as Instragram-worthy when compared to more contemporary cousins, but it’s important to take your time and look closely at what each booth offers, particularly those that have small items on display. Don’t forget to try on the jewelry!&nbsp;*&nbsp;Though they may be old in years, antiques don’t stay the same. Pieces and periods that are considered popular are a moving target. Quality is always sought-after, but buyers now are open to mixing styles, textures and scale, while solid pieces meant for every day use can be updated with contemporary fabrics and finishes. From the ‘80s into the early 2000s you bought a ticket to an antiques fair to see the best of the 17th, 18th and 19th century. After the turn of the millennium more pieces from the middle of the 20th century, still classified as vintage and not actually antique, captured the tastes of a younger audience of buyers. In fact the popularity of vintage and modernism almost ran antiques out of mind for awhile. Ultimately while fair organizers and dealers continue to chase younger disposable income, there is thankfully still a balance of both antiques and modern as a new collecting base grows up and becomes educated about older furniture, art and design. It doesn’t hurt that antiques are also very sustainable, something scores of dealers have long known, but their message has only recently begun to sink in. Antiques are downright on-trend now in ‘grandmillennial’ circles.&nbsp;It can take awhile for people to get the message some times. Generations, in fact.&nbsp;#&nbsp;The Chicago Show: Antiques &amp; Art &amp; Modern runs October &nbsp;6–9, 2022 at theMart.&nbsp;&nbsp;• Opening Night Party – Thursday, October 6– VIP Shop the Show with Alessandra Branca: 4:30–6pm– Opening Night Party, Presented by HINDMAN: 6–9pm– Young Collectors After Party: 8:30–10pm&nbsp;• Keynote Design Lecture and Luncheon – Friday, October 7– With Alessandra Branch and Bronson van Wyck: 11am–1:30pm&nbsp;• Additional Design Events– Designer and Trade Breakfast: Friday, October 7, 8–10am– Lecture and Tea: Saturday, October 8, 2–3pm. CHRISTIE'S CONVERSATIONS: Celebrating the Legendary Ann and Gordon Getty Collection to be sold at CHRISTIE'S October 20–23&nbsp;Information and tickets at <a href="https://www.chicagoantiquesartdesign.com">chicagoantiquesartdesign.com</a>&nbsp;<h3>A Closer Look</h3>Of the 60 participating dealers in The Chicago Show: Antiques &amp; Art &amp; Modern, many are traveling to Chicago from around the world–from Florida and California to London. Below are a couple notable ones to watch.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419115/vpmuhvirj6qckaogv9c3.jpg"><figcaption>Left: Martha Walter, Tuck’s Point Massachusetts; Right: Kyu Hak Lee, Degas Dancer at the Barre, &nbsp;c. 2018. Courtesy Guarisco Gallery Washington DC</figcaption></figure>Guarisco Gallery – Washington, DCGuarisco Gallery’s collection includes Impressionist, Academic, Modern and Contemporary paintings and sculptures, with works by artists such as Renoir and Cassatt.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419116/ngtql7x2con7w0euojr7.jpg"><figcaption>Nally Jewels presenting Van Cleef &amp; Arpels earrings</figcaption></figure>Nally Jewels – New York CityNally Jewels is a 4th generation jeweler located in New York City, catering to a wide clientele with a focus on “one of a kind” estate and signed jewelry pieces.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419117/kf7mdswjuxol0jk727aj.jpg"><figcaption>Cizhou Vessel, Yuan Dynasty (271-1368 CE) &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>TK Asian Antiquities – VirginiaThis Williamsburg, Virginia–based gallery specializes in ceramics, jewelry, furniture, textiles, metal and more.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419117/qlebcdyprhxmrkvei04u.jpg"><figcaption>5 piece blue and white garniture set, Kangxi period, 1622-1722. Imperial Fine Books and Oriental Art</figcaption></figure>Imperial Fine Books and Imperial Oriental Art – New York CityWoman-owned and operated, Imperial is an established leader in the fields of collectable, rare and fine books as well as fine quality Chinese ceramics and works of art. Leather-bound sets and fine bindings span all fields. A vast selection of fine Chinese art covers a range of various dynasties, in particular Ming and Qing.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

A Chicago Fair's Fall Return: A New Generation Appreciates Antiques +  Modern Design

<a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/news/features/announcing_the_cab_5_artistic_team">Chicago Architecture Biennial Announces Floating Museum to Lead Artistic Team for CAB 5</a>The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is excited to announce&nbsp;that the Chicago-based collective Floating Museum will take the helm as the artistic team of CAB 5, the fifth edition of North America’s leading architecture and design exhibition, opening September of 2023. Co-directed by Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Faheem Majeed, Andrew Schachman, and avery r. young, Floating Museum is a collective of artists, designers, poets, and educators focused on building connections between art, community, architecture, and public institutions. Under Floating Museum’s artistic direction, the Biennial will continue to push its exhibition and program model to prioritize presenting innovative ideas that imagine and shape the future of architecture and design.Key image: Floating Museum on the Chicago Riverwalk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/downtown-nascar-race-worries-chicago-museums?utm_source=breaking-news&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=20220915&amp;utm_content=article1-image">Don't shake the art, please: NASCAR race worrying Chicago's museums</a>Concern is rising fast among Chicago’s big downtown museums about the impact of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s planned NASCAR race next Fourth of July weekend&nbsp;on their operations and safety.The city’s Sports Commission says in a statement that any concerns will be resolved in upcoming meetings. But it’s been weeks since the cultural institutions first met with the city and Chicago Park District to air the issue, and they’re still awaiting promised details about which streets will be closed for how long and whether there will be any risk to priceless but fragile objects in the Art Institute from vibrations and loud noises from racing stock cars.Via Crain's Chicago&nbsp;<a href="https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/calatrava-returns?utm_source=OnMilwaukee.com+Newsletters&amp;utm_campaign=78c097bbbc-EMAIL_DAILY_DIGEST&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_ecd5e3eef5-78c097bbbc-200932933">Calatrava returns to celebrate 20th birthday of his Milwaukee masterpiece</a>We call the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Quadracci Pavilion “The Calatrava” so much that it’s perhaps easy to forget that Santiago Calatrava is a living, breathing person.Twenty-one years after the opening the striking pavilion – the Spanish architect’s first building in the United States – Calatrava returned to Milwaukee on Wednesday for a 20th anniversary moment delayed by the pandemic.Via OnMilwaukee&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagobusiness.com/residential-real-estate/frank-lloyd-wright-house-near-racine-sale">Frank Lloyd Wright house near Racine for sale for first time ever - Owner was also owner of Perimeter Gallery</a>A house that Frank Lloyd Wright designed in 1954 for a member of the family that owned Johnson Wax is for sale for the first time since it was built.The low-slung six-bedroom house, part of which is cantilevered over a bluff beside the Root River in Mt. Pleasant, Wis., came on the market Saturday at $725,000. By Sept. 13, the listing agent, Anthony Veranth of Re/Max Newport Elite, already had about a dozen showings scheduled.Via Crain's Chicago&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

CGN Art World Recap: 9/20/22

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/cjlmn67f6fcmkbftoznz.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/mary-rousseaux">Connie Noyes &amp; Mary Rousseaux</a>Opening: Thursday, September 15, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmgallery 1871 (Chicago Art Source Gallery)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/be91v59al0239gjmtmee.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/new-works-by-michael-hedges">New works by Michael Hedges</a>Opening: Thursday, September 15, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmMcCormick Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/jvaa1uxgl5lfwvqbs9ic.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/parallels-and-symmetries">Parallels and Symmetries</a>Opening: Friday, September 16, 7 – 10&nbsp;pmBridgeport Art Center&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419115/muoswhrvv9wwxvyvqpdz.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/the-magnetic-north-east-paintings-drew-harris-solo-exhibition">The Magnetic North Paintings. Drew Harris Solo Exhibition</a>Opening: Friday, September 16, 7 – 10&nbsp;pm33 Contemporary Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419116/sjwqdiiu65j02mteq1mp.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/sam-stewart">Sam Stewart, Daisy Chain</a>Opening: Friday, September 16, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmVolume Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419117/htipiddp9uyxjqcpuoc8.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/landscape-of-entanglement-azadeh-hussaini">Landscape of Entanglement: Azadeh Hussaini</a>Opening: Friday, September 16, 5 – 9&nbsp;pmOliva Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions September 15 - 18 (Part 1)

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419113/wmlyjwaji8w2vcizgxvq.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/jessica-labatte">Jessica Labatte: Knee-deep in the cosmic overwhelm</a>Opening: Friday, September 16, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmWestern Exhibitions&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/pibjmgspufo4wal9v8rd.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/zachary-a-design-end-of-summer-party-and-new-product-preview">Zachary A. Design end of summer party and new product preview</a>Opening: Friday, September 16, 6 – 9&nbsp;pmZachary A. Design&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419114/psyycxfvgs5dzuink1jn.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/boris-osterov">Boris Osterov: Welcome To the Party</a>Opening: Saturday, September 17, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmBert Green Fine Art&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419115/su4p1wlmxknwsrqhuacg.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/raeleen-kao-270cdfb7-31de-4774-a98d-4ab39621931e">Raeleen Kao: Vital Signs</a>Opening: Saturday, September 17, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmBert Green Fine Art&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419116/aoafjqpszdojmhwmnsvm.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/gordon-hall">Gordon Hall: Turn Back</a>Opening: Friday, Sep 16, 2022 5 – 8&nbsp;pmDOCUMENT&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419117/eklwa4hg4m5duu3xowca.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/peter-lenzo-sculptures">Peter Lenzo: Sculptures</a>Opening: Sunday, Sep 18, 2022 2 – 3&nbsp;pmTerra Incognito Studios&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions September 15 - 18 (Part 2)

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419107/jgmj7mo2hmiqxo9llzdn.jpg"><figcaption>Chris Levine,&nbsp;Lightness of Being (2004). Photo courtesy of Sotheby's London. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/three-things-about-chris-levines-famous-portrait-of-queen-elizabeth-ii-2119652?utm_content=from_artnetnewsbar&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Sunday%209%2F11%20AM&amp;utm_term=Daily%20Newsletter%20%5BALL%5D%20%5BMORNING%5D">Think You Know the Queen? These 3 Facts About Her Most Famous Portrait Will Make You Think Again</a>In terms of art history, Queen Elizabeth II is undoubtedly one of the most captured visages of our time. She has sat for more than 200 official portraits and been snapped in photographs by countless photographers. While images of the royal family are smattered across contemporary media, royal portraiture is, itself, an ancient art: Monarchs since the days of ancient Egypt have sent their likenesses to the farthest corners of their empires, and to foreign dignitaries as well, in highly choreographed propaganda campaigns. In England, courtiers often commissioned commemorative paintings to underscore their devotion to the ruler, particularly in the first Elizabethan era.&nbsp;Via Artnet, June 2022&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/queen-elizabeth-ii-paintings-photographs-portraits-11662760389">How Queen Elizabeth II Used Art to Shape Her Image</a>Queen Elizabeth II was one of the most visually scrutinized and recorded people in history, and she shrewdly used that to manage her image over her 70-year reign—even though a handful of artists sought to subvert it.&nbsp;When Britain’s longest-serving monarch died Thursday, she left behind a museum’s worth of photographs and painted portraits. London’s National Portrait Gallery catalogs at least 1,000 images of the queen in its collection, nearly all reflecting the way she wanted to be seen as a modern-day royal.Via Wall Street Journal&nbsp;<a href="https://hyperallergic.com/759540/bird-photographers-of-the-year-2022/">Bird Photographer of the Year Winners Capture Feathered Wonders</a>Despite much Internet speculation to the contrary, birds exist. If you can’t find proof of this by looking out your window, the results are in for the 2022 Bird Photographer of the Year awards, and these bird images should set the controversy to rest. From purple-crested Turacos that appear to be kissing or maybe fighting (or both?) to peacefully sleeping penguins and curious owlets, this year’s honorees have captured moments in avian life that also speak to us, their human admirers.Via Hyperallergic&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading 9/13/22

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419107/lwv35c1oodzinuv4fpvc.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/citing-black-geographies">Citing Black Geographies</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmGRAY West Town&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419108/epvtbmthxr4y1q2gvj9x.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/richard-anuskiewicz-the-final-works">Richard Anuszkiewicz: Interconnections - The Final Paintings - 1986-2020</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmRosenthal Fine Art, Inc.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419109/fzgq5rmmnoxpo6h5fadj.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/doug-delind-genesis">Doug DeLind: Genesis</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmVale Craft Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419109/whkyic3rknmvxapz0o1o.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/small-neon">Small Neon</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmKen Saunders Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419110/fsfuwfkcjdzsajgwviby.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/neil-goodman-through-a-different-lens-new-sculptures">Neil Goodman: Through a Different Lens, new sculptures</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmCarl Hammer Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419111/mk070snq4mkojev3yfuw.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/zack-wirsum-going-hard-in-the-paint-water-based">Zack Wirsum: Going Hard in the Paint (Water Based)</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmJean Albano Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions September 9 (Part 2)

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419107/fiwvy1u6q0irsem4da9q.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/saic-faculty-sabbatical-triennial">SAIC Faculty Sabbatical Triennial</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmSAIC Galleries&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419108/pup2zsqcdhedan51gbkm.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/spencer-hutchinson">Spencer Hutchinson</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmARC Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419109/po9l8itudayi1dgeozpg.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/solo-s">Solo(s)</a>Opening: Thursday, September 8, 6 – 8&nbsp;pmDePaul University Art Museum (DPAM)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419110/vlytu8shfmdtdusts6zt.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/autumn-maximum">Autumn Maximum</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 6 – 9&nbsp;pmMu Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419110/thae6xodvgeocbhywu9z.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/robin-denevan-new-encaustic-paintings">Robin Denevan: New Encaustic Paintings</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmAddington Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419111/fjaxsxktsxraibatvxvh.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/william-blake-a-great-battlefield">William Blake: A Great Battlefield</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 5 – 9&nbsp;pmGallery Victor Armendariz&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419112/h1bp9tpuxzabdhluuo1f.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/john-fraser-00c9b6d0-10f2-4c33-9cce-67b138485804">John Fraser</a>Opening: Friday, September 9, 4 – 7&nbsp;pmZolla / Lieberman Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions September 9 (Part 1)

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419107/ssl9vrpgj5nxhnlkbh7v.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;Via PRRago/Wright is pleased to announce that Chicago auction house <a href="https://toomeyco.com">Toomey &amp; Co.</a> will join the brand, building on the company’s continued momentum and growth in the industry. As with Rago/Wright’s 2021 partnership with LA Modern Auctions (LAMA), Toomey &amp; Co. will maintain its name while all four houses work together to share technology, expertise, and marketing efforts. Based in the suburb of Oak Park, IL, the Toomey &amp; Co. office and galleries will relocate to Wright’s Chicago headquarters at 1440 W. Hubbard St. in the fall of 2022.“The business I began 40 years ago has evolved significantly in the last four decades, and we’re proud to be embarking on an exciting new chapter, which we are confident will benefit our brand as well as the industry and its clients,” says John Toomey, President of Toomey &amp; Co. “Joining forces with Rago/Wright expands our ability to serve our clients, extends our competitive advantage, and positions us for future growth,” Founded in 1987, Toomey &amp; Co. is a leading and trusted presence in the art and design markets. Now under the leadership of LucyToomey and John Walcher, Toomey &amp; Co. offers several auctions per year with departments including early 20th century and modern design, fine art, jewelry, silver, and timepieces.A renowned specialist in objects of the Arts &amp; Crafts Movement, John Toomey will join David Rago, who is a preeminent authority in 20th century decorative ceramics and design, in a formidable merging of knowledge and talents. Bolstering Rago/Wright’s capacity in this field, this new partnership perfectly complements Wright’s focus on Modern design, strengthening the combined brand’s ability to offer strategic opportunities for buying and selling works from a wide range of eras and movements.Further, Toomey &amp; Co. specialist Riley Humler will contribute to the reputation that Partner David Rago has built for Rago/Wright as a leading auction house for early 20th century American ceramics and art pottery. With more than 30 years of auction experience, Humler is President of the American Art Pottery Association, has appeared regularly on Antiques Roadshow, and, in 1991, curated and sold the Glover Collection, considered the most important sale of Rookwood pottery to date.“Joining forces with John Toomey and Riley Humler is a decades-long dream,” says David Rago. “With this merger, we are launching an American Arts &amp; Crafts team unlike any other in the industry.” Rago/Wright Partner Suzanne Perrault echoes the sentiment, “It is incredibly exciting to grow our expertise and expand our repertoire. We are delighted to finally come together with Toomey &amp; Co. and to collaborate in 20th century design.”Richard Wright will remain in his role as CEO of the combined company, which will continue to offer curated auctions of art, design, ceramics, glass, jewelry, and watches with bespoke digital presentations and state-of-the-art bidding technology. The knowledge and experience of Toomey &amp; Co.’s team will broaden the combined brand’s service to buyers and sellers on an expanded national and international scale, and will consolidate reputable sources for an even stronger voice in the art and design market.“Through the merger with Toomey &amp; Co., we are delivering on our vision to combine the strongest independent auction houses with a shared database and web platform,” says Wright. “Our combined expertise, client service, and technology is unrivaled.”So far in 2022, with a team of 95 across Chicago, Lambertville, New York, and Los Angeles, Rago, Wright, and LAMA have presented 44 auctions with sales totaling more than $60 million, setting world records in multiple categories. Rago/Wright has an exciting fall schedule, including their first auction with Toomey &amp; Co. in October.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419108/hkspnhsoai3dwjdad45z.png"></figure>About Toomey &amp; Co.Toomey &amp; Co. Auctioneers is considered one of the premiere specialty auction houses in the country and has been conducting auctions since 1987. In addition to carefully curated Art and Design auctions, they have featured collections from Governor Jim Thompson, selected works from the Roy and Sarita Warshawsky Collection, The Paul and Terry Somerson Collection, and, most recently, The Ira Simon Collection to benefit the Art Institute of Chicago, with many rare and notable examples of art and design from the Art Nouveau, Aesthetic Movement, Arts &amp; Crafts, and Art Deco periods. Since rebranding in 2018, Toomey &amp; Co. has nearly doubled annual sales.About RagoRago auction was founded in 1984 by David Rago, the preeminent expert in the field of American ceramics and art pottery. With more than five decades of experience handling 20th and 21st century works, David Rago and Suzanne Perrault are nationally recognized experts appearing frequently on PBS’ Antiques Roadshow. Rago handles a broad range of material and its close proximity to New York makes it a favorite destination for many East Coast collectors.About WrightRichard Wright founded Wright auction in 2000. An innovator and pioneer in the auction world, The New York Times called Wright the “maverick of design.” Wright is known around the world for its creativity and quality of presentation. From the sale of the iconic Four Seasons Restaurant interior to Marcel Breuer houses, Wright has successfully produced hundreds of auctions of art and design.About LA Modern AuctionsLA Modern Auctions was founded in 1992 by curator and trusted consultant, Peter Loughrey, and was the first auction house to specialize in the selling of 20th century modern art and design.Together, Peter and Shannon Loughrey quickly established their firm as a trusted authority in the fields of art and design offering quality, vetted material at a variety of price points.&nbsp;</body></html>

Toomey & Co. Auctioneers Joins Rago/Wright

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image image-style-side"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419107/eqjeg99a1rma3mfvsxls.jpg"><figcaption>Photo of Vanja Malloy by Katie Carmickle</figcaption></figure><a href="https://news.uchicago.edu/story/vanja-v-malloy-appointed-dana-feitler-director-smart-museum-art?mc_cid=5be3c3cfc7&amp;mc_eid=a6ad3ea4a5">Vanja V. Malloy appointed the Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Museum of Art</a>Vanja V. Malloy, an accomplished museum director, curator, scholar and community builder, has been appointed as the Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Museum of Art, effective Oct. 1. She will lead the University of Chicago’s fine arts museum and its exhibitions, public and arts education programs, and student and faculty collaborations.Via Smart Museum PR&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artic.edu/articles/981/i-paint-pictures-too-kerry-james-marshall-on-paul-cezanne">I Paint Pictures Too!: Kerry James Marshall on Paul Cezanne</a>I am driven by some of the same ambitions Cezanne expressed when he exclaimed his desire to “make of Impressionism an art that is solid and durable, like the art of the museums.”Via the Art Institute of Chicago websiteKey image: Portrait of the Artist with Pink Background, about 1875. Paul Cezanne. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, donation de M. Philippe Meyer, 2000. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. Photo: Adrien Didierjean&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thechicagoshow.net">The Chicago Show Returns this October, with a New Name and Boldface Honorary Chairs</a>After a two-and-a-half-year hiatus, the Chicago Show – formerly the Chicago Antiques + Art + Design Show put on by Dolphin Productions – welcomes the return of nearly 60 premier national and international dealers of fine antique furniture, jewelry, silver, and decorative and fine arts, from ancient times to the 20th century. The Woman’s Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital is planning a series of events to celebrate the art and antiques show’s return to Chicago, including a not-to-be-missed benefit preview party with honorary chair and internationally recognized interior designer Alessandra Branca on the evening of October 6, 2022.The following day will feature a lunch and lecture with Branca and the evening of October 7 will see the debut of a Young Collectors Night with special guest and event party planner extraordinaire Bronson van Wyck. Additional events will take place throughout the weekend of the show, October 6-9. For the most up-to-date schedule of events with ticket pricing, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thechicagoshow.net/">thechicagoshow.net</a>.&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Art World Recap: 9/6/22

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419107/d8fgf2iqqaeknfh8acyg.png"><figcaption>Claire Ashley,&nbsp;Raging Expletives,&nbsp;acrylic and spray paint on tyvek,&nbsp;2022, Oak Park, IL. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>Via PR Chicago, IL. Over&nbsp;100&nbsp;artists nationwide are participating&nbsp;in the relaunch of ART-IN-PLACE (AIP), &nbsp;a collaboration between <a href="https://cortneylederer.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=209edfd3257df90385f531e52&amp;id=210472d8d8&amp;e=a71d7765a5">CNL Projects</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://cortneylederer.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=209edfd3257df90385f531e52&amp;id=bee967ec22&amp;e=a71d7765a5">Terrain Exhibitions</a>&nbsp;September 1-October 15, 2022. AIP invites&nbsp;artists to display a&nbsp;public&nbsp;performance or artwork in&nbsp;response to the violence epidemic in the United States.Over two years after the first iteration, ART-IN-PLACE continues its efforts to bring people together and call us to action through the experience of public art.&nbsp;This summer, our teams at CNL Projects and Terrain Exhibitions once again felt compelled to respond to the state of our country. We invited artists to consider the relentless, ongoing violence epidemic —not only overt gun violence, but the continued multifaceted violences of anti-Blackness and racism, transphobia and homophobia, gender-based violence, violence and harm done to Disabled people, and the exploitation of the environment.&nbsp;ART-IN-PLACE provides a structure to amplify artists' voices in public space around&nbsp;these urgent, complex topics. We look to public art as a tool to engage us in thoughtful dialogue, community connection, and much-needed action to promote change. We are using art as a means to reclaim our human rights.Artists of&nbsp;any medium and experience level were invited to respond to the current state of our country by exhibiting an original work of art or performance in public. Over one-hundred&nbsp;artworks/performances are displayed outside a home, on a lawn, from a window visible to the public, or through an artist-formed partnership with a local business across the globe.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419108/f5dyvw5v8tg68rcdg74e.png"><figcaption>Mayumi Lake,&nbsp;Onomatopoeia ( Ladies U/Nite #1),&nbsp;33 (H) x 45(w) x 2(D),&nbsp;Pigment print on canvas, Acrylic paint, glitter, and wood, 2022, Austin Neighborhood, Chicago &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The ART-IN-PLACE initiative began with three goals in mind:&nbsp;<ul><li>Create opportunity to connect artists with each other around a collective action;</li><li>Use art as a way to build community for people walking around the area; and&nbsp;</li><li>Serve as a catalyst for conversations&nbsp;in response to the violence epidemic&nbsp;using art and performance as a tool to drive impact.</li></ul>Artists across the country were invited to submit to ART-IN-PLACE and represent all skill levels—from hobbyists to trained professionals. Participating artists documented their installations locally and shared images with organizers digitally. While a majority of the 100 submissions came from Chicago neighborhoods, the project’s organizers were pleased to have participation outside of the country, including in Ireland and Jamaica.&nbsp; The spotlight on local artists creates an immediate platform for communities to engage with art and to use it as a lens through which to understand culture, especially a culture in crisis, while the international participation points to the interconnected and global nature of our struggle.&nbsp; Final images have been published at<a href="https://cortneylederer.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=209edfd3257df90385f531e52&amp;id=a8f297f9d3&amp;e=a71d7765a5"> www.artinplace.net</a>.&nbsp; The organizers intend&nbsp;to partner with a local political organization to print a series of postcards featuring a selection of the exhibited works to make available for purchase and/or distribution&nbsp;locally to use as a platform to encourage folks to vote in the midterm 2022 elections. &nbsp;Original artwork is available for sale with proceeds benefitting participating artists and organizations identified by each artist.&nbsp; Visit&nbsp; <a href="https://cortneylederer.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=209edfd3257df90385f531e52&amp;id=ba05d47e5b&amp;e=a71d7765a5">www.artinplace.net</a>&nbsp;to view all participating artists and to learn more about the project. &nbsp;<a href="https://cortneylederer.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=209edfd3257df90385f531e52&amp;id=cf4b88c3c9&amp;e=a71d7765a5">View 2022 Artists</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

Over 100 Artists Part of Relaunched Art-in-Place

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419107/f5mgkx946jkqw5gb8ets.jpg"><figcaption>Just a few of CGN's 120 issue covers to date. Top row: The Sept–Dec 1991 cover of CGN in its slim format; The Spring 1994 issue was the first ‘large format’ edition, featuring Richard Gray Gallery artist Antony Caro; Vedanta Gallery (now Kavi Gupta), 1998, when the West Loop was a new gallery destination; Rashid Johnson at G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, 2002; Second row Carrie Secrist Gallery, 2004; Catherine Edelman Gallery/Julie Blackmon, 2008 (Ginny Van Alyea’s 1st issue as publisher); McCormick Gallery, ; Ed Paschke Art Center, 2014; Bottom row: Women in the Arts; 1st issue of annual CGN Arts Guide, 2017; Monique Meloche Gallery/Ebony G. Patterson, summer 2020; Tony Fitzpatrick, fall 2021</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEAIn the early 1980s Natalie van Straaten was running a gallery with her husband, William van Straaten, in an up-and-coming neighborhood. Fortified by a Journalism degree from the University of Michigan, Natalie was a sort of “gallery mother” and natural organizer serving the changing needs of a small, but rapidly growing, community of peers in Chicago. She founded the Superior/Huron Gallery News as a means of centrally promoting local art openings. It didn’t take long for the art guide to expand and evolve alongside the spaces it listed, ultimately becoming Chicago Gallery News, the publication of record that today has covered four decades of local and regional culture and art history.&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;I started working with Natalie in late 2002. A few months before graduating from Hamilton College that year with an English major and art minor I decided I wanted to work in publishing. Hamilton’s career office, and perhaps a little divine intervention, connected me to alumna Tracy van Straaten, a Chicago-native who was then overseeing PR for children’s books at a major publishing house in New York. When I decided to move to Chicago after graduation, I let Tracy know, and she connected me to her mother, CGN founder Natalie van Straaten. She hired me sight-unseen to work for her four days a week until I figured out what I wanted to do. I was thrilled.&nbsp;Natalie took me under her wing, a 22 year-old with no job experience, other than as a camp counselor and canoeing instructor. Soon I was immersed not only in the local art community but in Chicago itself. Four days a week turned into five years, chatting in the basement office at 730 N. Franklin in River North, working on each issue of CGN and running the Chicago Art Dealers Association. Mostly we traded stories and had a terrific time, me with a front row seat to Chicago’s art world, from the friendliest dealers and most eccentric interns, to watching the drama of a storied art fair’s devastating implosion and rapid rescue in real time. I loved CGN’s mission to be supportive of the artistic and cultural community as well as informative and reliable for the general public. Our work was never just one thing, and no day was ever the same. It was all of it.&nbsp;Natalie and I used to talk about any number of topics while working to publish three print issues a year and familiarize ourselves with CGN’s first website. This 40th anniversary issue is a chance to revisit some of the conversations and history lessons I received from 2002-2007 as well as review changes that have taken place, both within CGN as well as the art world at large, since I became publisher 15 years ago.&nbsp;Natalie always said that she would write a book someday about the history of the art world in Chicago, and I hope she still does. In the meantime, as always, it continues to be a privilege to record in these pages this important history of a creative community in one of the world’s cultural centers.&nbsp;*&nbsp;Ginny Van Alyea: Please share how CGN first came to be as well as what it was first titled.&nbsp;Natalie van Straaten: In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, several galleries were making a mark on Chicago’s small but mighty art scene. The city of course had long been regarded as a center of international culture, thanks in large part to the reputation of the Art Institute of Chicago and its school, not to mention its architecture bonafides and theater reputation.&nbsp;But the commercial art scene was still small at the time. By the early 1980s that relatively small scene would phyiscally need more space. What quickly followed some notable gallery moves was a publication created to share with the public all that was happening in area galleries. That four-page guide to the galleries and their openings eventually became Chicago Gallery News. It’s been 40 years and nearly as many changes, but the CGN of today comes from the Superior/Huron Gallery News of 1982.&nbsp;&nbsp;GV: What was the energy like in Chicago at that time?&nbsp;NvS: It was 1981, and the entire art world was coming to the city! The 1st Chicago International Art Exposition at Navy Pier was the magnet, and there was now a dynamic art gallery community eager to welcome them. The energy was infectious; established galleries were discovering loft spaces in a new district that gave them extraordinary space for large-scale works of art; new galleries were popping up; and a couple of visiting galleries were so impressed with Chicago when they came to see “Art Expo” that they made plans to move here.Within a year, 16 galleries opened within a block of one another. A local art critic called the new district 'SuHu' (Superior and Huron streets were the geographic center). Of that original 16, only two galleries remain today in Chicago all these years later: Rhona Hoffman (originally Young Hoffman) and Zolla/Lieberman (now directed by William Lieberman, the second generation). The original list is on the front over of the first issue issue cover (pictured below).&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419108/zahea2r9dx5t7mohwwyl.jpg"><figcaption>The CGN of today comes from the Superior / Huron Gallery News, published first in the winter gallery season of 1982/83 &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;GV: How did you come to publish the first gallery guide?&nbsp;NvS: The galleries agreed their new community needed a printed guide to celebrate and publicize their exhibitions, locations and coordinated opening nights. I was in a unique position of being a freelance writer on art-related subjects and a co-owner of one of the 16 Galleries in the new Superior/Huron district (which later became River North). I offered to put the guide together and the galleries shared the expenses of printing and distribution. The Superior/Huron Gallery News was born!As the publication grew, I established the guide and magazine as my own business, expanding it beyond its original mission.&nbsp;GV: Obviously the term 'SuHu' didn’t stick, for the magazine or the neighborhood.&nbsp;NvS: Very quickly, what became the River North Gallery District grew, ultimately housing more than 65 galleries within a two-block radius. And the Gallery News grew with them. The publication included so many exciting exhibits that drew casual art enthusiasts as well as serious collectors, that galleries in other Chicago neighborhoods wanted to be included. So the publication became The Chicago Gallery News to expand its coverage and celebrate all the art throughout the city and beyond. Maps, art services, and news items were added–and by the mid-1990’s the slim “guide“ turned into a full-color magazine.&nbsp;GV: Was there anything else out there that you were aware of that was like CGN?NvS: Art Now Gallery Guide was the closest thing to CGN, but they weren’t local, and it was hard for them to keep up-to-date with what was going on, especially as so many new galleries opened in those early years. And we were more than a guide. We were the information center for the galleries–we helped coordinate opening nights, led gallery tours, and served as an interface with the rest of the city, especially the international art fairs.&nbsp;GV: “The art fair” at the time was of course Art Expo. That seemed to really ramp up the boom in the local art scene.&nbsp;NvS: The CIAE (Chicago International Art Exposition) or Art Expo was transformative for the Chicago art community and gallery scene. The art world came to Chicago and they were wowed. John Wilson’s idea of a U.S. art fair at Navy Pier was brilliant. The rotunda; the views; the welcoming city with great restaurants, hotels and culture made Chicago an international destination. And there had been nothing like it in the United States. &nbsp;After a few years, inevitable problems, politics, and egos challenged the fair. Other organizers staged simultaneous events to compete with it, and a new fair, Art Chicago, took over under the leadership of Tom Blackman. That, too, eventually faltered, and the current EXPO CHICAGO under Tony Karman continues to draw the art world to Chicago annually. CGN has continued to coordinate gallery events in conjunction with the art fairs and has long been an art concierge of sorts for visitors.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419109/egftcgwcrdmfq3ky1qd9.jpg"><figcaption>The Fall 1983 issue of the Superior/Huron Gallery News listed area galleries and their seasonal exhibitions. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;GV: How did you decide to print three times a year?NvS: Our printing schedule was guided by gallery activity.&nbsp; September was the opening of the big fall season; January was the next big coordinated time after the holidays and New Year. April celebrated the annual Art Expo, and most galleries mounted special exhibits for local and international visitors. Summers were relatively quiet with lots of “group exhibitions” and vacations.&nbsp;GV: CGN has had to adapt at an even more rapid pace, it seems, in the past couple of years, particularly due to the twin forces of the pandemic as well as online viewing and consumption. I think you and I talked years ago about how chicagogallerynews.com would become like a fourth issue. I laugh when I remember when the website was brand new, and we would put all the current issue information online and into the listings, and then it would sit there for 3–4 months before we’d change any of it again.&nbsp;NvS: Well, you have added tremendously to the scope of editorial coverage in print as well as online, and you’ve expanded to include national and international art news. Plus CGN now sends twice-weekly newsletters and uses social media to reach readers much more often.&nbsp;&nbsp;GV: CGN’s gallery coverage has continued to expand over time to accomodate more spaces in various neighborhoods, even beyond Illinois. I think the digital presence is a double edged sword. It’s essential, but it’s also replaced some in-person engagement the long-time dealers still miss.&nbsp;What have been some other notable changes?&nbsp;NvS: Chicago Gallery News did recognize changes in technology along the way, first adding FAX numbers, then email addresses and gallery websites in its listings. It has managed to stay a print resource as well as become a comprehensive online presence that is constantly updated. Another major update I saw you do was to replace the slower winter issue with the annual guide, starting in 2017.&nbsp;There have been so many funny stories and memories, but the most important change was when young Ginny Berg came seeking a job with photography or children’s books!&nbsp; After 5 years you took the reins and brought it into the 21st century.&nbsp;GV: Thank you! It’s always felt like it was meant to be. I still draw on many of the lessons you taught me. Most of all I try to keep up CGN’s position of support and optimism, which I think is extra important today, and in the future.#&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/print-subscriptions">Please consider subscribing to CGN for $25 for 3/issues a year&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Turns 40: Charting Four Decades of Art and Changes

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419101/zw6a7gfjofe3pvmtqqk9.jpg"><figcaption>From left: CGN publisher Ginny (Berg) Van Alyea, Nancy Berg, Chuck Berg, founding CGN publisher Natalie van Straaten, John B. Hirsch. pictured at CGN's 25th anniversary party at the Arts Club, fall 2007</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEAFor CGN’s 40th anniversary issue, in addition to being the publisher, I feel especially like the steward of a vital resource that has withstood time and many tests–expanding throughout the booming 80s, going lean after the 2008 recession, introducing an annual guide in 2017, rebounding following a pandemic, and building a solid reputation and many, many relationships over the course of four decades.&nbsp;An anniversary is a time to look back as well as forward, and this issue tries to do that in celebratory ways that are both personal as well as reflective of CGN’s history.&nbsp;It’s been a priority of mine, especially in recent years, to continue to print CGN, despite seeing other publications slash their schedules or abandon print entirely. One reason I see this as so important, especially for a magazine covering visual art, is that each issue is one you can hold in your hand, dog-ear, annotate, stash away and reread. We’ve preserved our own art history in these pages for all these years. How could we stop now?&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-side"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419101/xz1b4iyw16yxciuxrgzm.jpg"><figcaption>The Cover: The fall 2022 cover reflects our 40th anniversary. Usually we feature an artist or work of art but we chose a solid red as a nod to our ‘ruby’ anniversary. See past CGN covers in our article about CGN's history.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>There is always more to write about and share. In this issue Alison Reilly interviews Barbara Kasten, who at 86 is still creating inspiring and innovative work. Jason Pickleman reports on a the installation of the long-awaited lakefront AIDS Garden sculpture by ‘80s icon and AIDS activist Keith Haring. Bianca Bova takes a personal view of art collecting at a time when many wonder what the next generation of collectors will be drawn to. Sara Dulkin of Chicago Truborn discusses her model for selling art in person, online and via social media in the name of making art not only affordable but accessible. And we hear from Hindman team members about four-decades in business, as well as an upcoming fall auction of works by the overlooked-no-more Surrealist artist Gertrude Abercrombie.&nbsp;Of course we are fortunate to hear from CGN founding publisher Natalie van Straaten, who passed the torch to me 15 years ago when CGN turned 25. In this issue we also share some really wonderful and enlightening recollections and photos from many who have been in the arts as long as CGN, or even longer. Read Where Were You in the ‘80s? for a trip down memory lane.In the midst of an anniversary, we’re thrilled to fully welcome <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events?filter=upcoming">a fall art season</a> that frankly feels, well, like a fall art season should! It feels good to celebrate and be a part of so much, and this energetic return of shows and events this season makes me especially thankful for the exciting years before I arrived at CGN, and of course the years since. Challenges included, we wouldn’t have gotten here any other way.&nbsp;Thank you, and happy anniversary to all of us!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Note: We will be posting articles and interviews from the 40th anniversary issue online in the coming weeks.&nbsp;Please consider <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/print-subscriptions">subscribing to the print edition today for $25/year</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Fall 2022 Publisher's Letter: 40 is the New 25

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419107/ged5hkoqqqynk1tqeumq.webp"><figcaption>Photo:&nbsp;National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; portraits by Amy Sherald (L) and Kehinde Wiley (R) &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/obamas-official-portraits-set-white-house-unveiling-after-trump-snub?utm_source=breaking-news&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=20220831&amp;utm_content=article1-readmore">Obama Portraits Coming to White House After National Tour</a>President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will host former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama next week for the unveiling of their official White House portraits.The Sept. 7 ceremony, which the White House announced Wednesday, is typically an occasion for a president to honor his immediate predecessor. But Obama’s unveiling did not occur during Donald Trump’s presidency, given the animus between the two men.&nbsp;Via Crain's&nbsp;Art Design Chicago Returns This Fall<a href="https://artdesignchicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=267a08a7bec1f099f2207f0ac&amp;id=cb25267494&amp;e=ed2e5b3048">Art Design Chicago Now</a> is a series of public conversations and digital storytelling amplifying the voices of Chicago's diverse community of makers―past and present. Featuring archivists, academics, artists, and curators, Art Design Chicago Now programs deepen understanding of the essential role the city’s creatives continue to play in shaping the now, in Chicago and beyond. Programs include Sustainable Sustenance on September 13, 7:00 PM at 6018North, Chicago Murals: An online Discussion with Artists Meg Duguid and Bernard Williams on September 14, 6:00 PM, and Pilsen Mural Tour with Sam Kirk September 18, 11:00 AM or 1:00 PM at16th Street and Paulina Street&nbsp;<a href="www.hydeparkart.org/gala">Hyde Park Art Center hosts its 83rd Annual Gala in November</a>Hyde Park Art Center hosts its annual Gala that activates its entire building on Friday, November 18, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., with an after party that goes till midnight. The lively event is packed with hands-on art activities, performances, open studios, art auctions, and a DJ set, offering a unique and interactive experience while benefitting the art center’s various programs supporting Chicago art and artists.Art Center Director of Development, Aaron Rodgers, says: “This year’s Gala celebrates Open Arts, the Art Center’s groundbreaking contribute-what-you-can model launched in 2021 that removes financial barriers to arts education for artists of all ages and stages. We are also toasting Chicago art, artists, and the people who love them with an evening full of art experiences, personal connections, and fun. We are especially excited to bring back the vibrant after party, returning for the first time since 2019. Support generated from Gala will make 2023 programming possible, including major solo exhibition Casas/Islas by Edra Soto and other initiatives.”The Gala is co-chaired by Rachel Conant, Laura Letinsky, Kim + Jim Taylor, and Satannia + Sylvester Williams, with funds raised to deepen the impact of the Art Center’s programs for Chicago art and artists, including exhibitions, residency programs, free public programming, Artists Run Chicago funding for independent art spaces, Open Arts and other educational programs, and more. Hyde Park Art Center’s Gala 2022 is presented by Lead Sponsors Rachel Conant and Julie and John Guida of The Guida Family Foundation.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hydeparkart.org/gala">www.hydeparkart.org/gala</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419108/j23apmppnfrbpxjiqyd8.png"><figcaption>Art by Judy Ledgerwood</figcaption></figure>Judy Ledgerwood Partner Exhibition Event at University Club of ChicagoTuesday, September 20, 2022&nbsp; University Club of Chicago | 76 E.&nbsp;Monroe St. <a href="https://expochicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=feab88d1702b05fff44372e88&amp;id=3ac2ac5701&amp;e=b25d02ccd1">Tickets $25</a> –&nbsp;Limited Spots AvailableThe University Club of Chicago will showcase a solo presentation of paintings and ceramics by Judy Ledgerwood, in partnership with&nbsp;Rhona Hoffman Gallery. For this exhibition, Ledgerwood’s selection of work was inspired by the architectural elements present throughout the Club’s historic gothic skyscraper – the quatrefoil.In contrast to an architectural quatrefoil, Ledgerwood’s forms take shape through the imperfect gesture of her own hand. Within the canvases, subtle and bold color interactions collide, curving lines zigzag and droop, paint drips off, and edges become fluid.&nbsp;Chicago-based painter and Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Illinois State University, Andreas Fisher joins Ledgerwood to discuss the work on view as well as speak to her larger art making practice.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Art World Recap: 8/31/22

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419101/hh4mv1vanrlxff7np68h.jpg"><figcaption>David Hockney. 5th March 2020, No. 2. © David Hockney.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020Two years ago—at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic—the ever-versatile and inventive artist David Hockney traveled to France with the express intention of capturing the emergence of spring.&nbsp;The Art Institute of Chicago&nbsp;Thru Jan 9, 2023<a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9705/david-hockney-the-arrival-of-spring-normandy-2020">artic.edu&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419101/exuy60fszfrxmf3c3xnx.jpg"><figcaption>Yinka Shonibare at Frederik Meijer Sculpture Gardens in Grand Rapids, MI</figcaption></figure>Yinka Shonibare CBE: Planets in My HeadThis exhibition presents works by Shonibare from the past three decades, many of which have never been shown in the U.S.&nbsp;Frederik Meijer Sculpture Gardens&nbsp;Thru Oct 23&nbsp;<a href="https://www.meijergardens.org">meijergardens.org</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419102/qfiifggk11xwd9cmhifh.jpg"><figcaption>Tavares Strachan, Meleager, 2022. Oil, enamel and pigment on acrylic; two panels, 84 x 84 x 2 inches (213.4 x 213.4 x 5.1 cm)</figcaption></figure>Citing Black GeographiesCiting Black Geographies presents the work of 15 artists —including Dawoud Bey, Amanda Williams and Rashid Johnson— whose practices examine “black space”—a term describing the topographies, zones, scenes, and structures that portend black cultural experience.&nbsp;GRAY, West Town.&nbsp;Sept 9–Oct 27<a href="https://www.richardgraygallery.com">richardgraygallery.com</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419103/om2ncgkkpxns47uygk2r.jpg"><figcaption>Sentrock</figcaption></figure>Sentrock: The Boy Who Wanted to FlyThe exhibition features new work by the rising artist that reveals for the first time the origin story of his distinctive Bird City&nbsp;Saint character, which appears in prominent murals in Chicago and other cities.&nbsp;Elmhurst Art Museum&nbsp;Sept 9–Jan 15, 2023<a href="https://www.elmhurstartmuseum.org">elmhurstartmuseum.org</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419104/lreo40stinwiqkfc8b7g.png"><figcaption>Raheleh Filsoofi</figcaption></figure>Raheleh Filsoofi: Debated NarrativeBorn in Iran, living in the United States, and working in between, Filsoofi contemplates the psychological effects of marginalization and the occupation of geographic and socio-political liminal space. Filsoofi’s work oscillates between the literal and figurative concepts of land, ownership, and border.&nbsp;ENGAGE ProjectsSept 10–Oct 15engage-projects.com&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419105/mdhbdgedzgh5w0dnzfic.jpg"><figcaption>Suzanne Jackson</figcaption></figure>Suzanne Jackson: Listen’ N HomeThrough a selective representation of pivotal works from the past 20 years, as well as a newly made monumental installation, the exhibition presents Jackson’s turn to environmental abstraction, marking the territory and trajectory of her late-life breakthrough paintings.&nbsp;The Arts Club of Chicago&nbsp;Sept 14 – Dec 23<a href="https://www.artsclubchicago.org/exhibition/suzanne-jackson/">artsclubchicago.org</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419105/xehd5gixwxdy5tlm6c7m.jpg"><figcaption>Michiko Itatani</figcaption></figure>Michiko Itatani: Celestial StageChicago-based American artist Michiko Itatani (b. 1948, Osaka, Japan) has grappled with the mysteries of the universe in her work throughout her prolific career.&nbsp;Wrightwood 659Oct 1–Dec 17<a href="https://wrightwood659.org">wrightwood659.org</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419106/ww93qxbojmdbbhds3m4v.jpg"><figcaption>Courtesy Randolph Street Market</figcaption></figure>Randolph Street Holiday MarketsThree markets take place this fall, in the West Loop and on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile!Sept 24-25, Nov 12-13, and Dec 17–18. 10am–5pm&nbsp;<a href="https://randolphstreetmarket.com">randolphstreetmarket.com</a>&nbsp;#&nbsp;To view CGN's full calendar <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events">click here.</a>&nbsp;To subscribe to our free newsletters, <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/contact/newsletter">click here.</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

The Season's Highlights: Fall 2022

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419107/yctwzu3ajvj74y5ull4v.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/fake-news-lying-pictures-dutch-political-prints">Fake News &amp; Lying Pictures: Political Prints in the Dutch Republic</a>Opening: Thursday, September 1, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmKrannert Art Museum, University of Illinois&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419108/ea0idoz91cdt2rsqxikj.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/ellen-berkenblit">Ellen Berkenblit: Umberville</a>Opening: Thursday, September 1, 2022 6 – 8&nbsp;pmCorbett vs. Dempsey&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419109/am51jfgam9c0ulu3hn1b.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/thank-you-goodbye">Thank You Goodbye</a>Opening: Friday, September 2, 2022 6 – 9&nbsp;pmEpiphany Center for the Arts&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419110/tsstrsac11kilto6cdbb.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/forward">Forward</a>Opening: Friday, September 2, 2022 5 – 9&nbsp;pmLily Pad | West&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419110/gbqtldd1vzm9corek66o.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/helene-smith-romer">Helene Smith-Romer</a>Opening: Saturday, September 3, 2022 5 – 8&nbsp;pmStola Contemporary Art&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions September 1 - 3

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419101/dcngdvok7ussph1oj7hj.jpg"><figcaption>&nbsp;Chicago Design Through the Decades by Chicago Design Archives – Photo courtesy of Art on theMART &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Via PR<a href="https://artonthemart.com">Art on theMART</a> continues to celebrate The City of Chicago's Year of Chicago Dance with artists&nbsp;Yuge Zhou and&nbsp;Jasmin Taylor.&nbsp;Enjoy this never-before-seen footage below of each artists' upcoming works that will debut on the façade of one of Chicago's most iconic buildings, theMART.&nbsp;"As a large-scale, centrally-located platform, Art on theMART is a new kind of stage for performing artists and shows the world the breadth and&nbsp;depth of Chicago's creative talent."– Cynthia Noble, Executive Director, Art on theMART&nbsp;Love Letters, Yuge ZhouLove Letters is a video projection by Chinese-born, Chicago-based artist Yuge Zhou that portrays a lively courtship dance between two urban dwellers searching for each other through a labyrinth of colorful geometry with growing curiosity, electricity and affection.Choreography:&nbsp;Hannah SantistevanPerformers:&nbsp;Rebecca Huang and Joffrey dancer Xavier NunezComputational Animation:&nbsp;Mary Franck and Patrick SteppanSound: Ori Zur&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419102/jw6pjs2d4o36c26l0ahh.png"><figcaption>&nbsp;Chicago Design Through the Decades, Daria Tsoupikova – Photo courtesy of Art on theMART &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>Trap Moulin Rouge, Jasmin TaylorTrap Moulin Rouge by Jasmin Taylor, in co-production with Motion/Pictures Dance Project, takes audiences to Chicago's South Side to showcase the vibrant Black culture and dance that emanate from it. Taking sonic and aesthetic inspiration from the 2001 film "Moulin Rouge," Trap Moulin Rouge combines classical, R&amp;B and jazz melodies with a variety of dance styles with the aim of creating and promoting equity in Chicago through the performing arts.Co-producer: Motion/Pictures Dance ProjectAssistant Composer: Atticus LazenbySound: Friends of Friends Recording (Book Mende and DeAnna Doersch)Design: India Wilson and Icy Nails&nbsp;The Art on theMART Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit created to advance Art on theMART's mission to provide free access to compelling and contemporary moving-image artwork projected onto the façade of theMART. The Foundation's objective is to expand funding for artist commission fees and other art production costs.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Art on theMART Fall 2022 Program Announced

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419107/te3gymsi2pg0jvigq4tn.jpg"><figcaption>Image: Scott Fortino,&nbsp;Jenner School, Alphabet,&nbsp;1998</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Via PRAs students head back to school at Columbia College Chicago and beyond, education remains a primary pillar of the museum’s focus.Museum of Contemporary Photography is providing <a href="https://www.mocp.org/education/schedule-a-visit.php">educational resources</a>, including custom print viewings, educational guides, and more.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mocp.org/education/exhibition-tours.php">Exhibition Tours</a><a href="https://www.mocp.org/education/tours-and-print-viewings.php">Collection Print Viewings</a><a href="https://www.mocp.org/exhibitions/2020/10/mocp-education-brochure.pdf">Read MoCP's brochure on School &amp; Teacher Programs here</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419108/ol1nn3nxfpyhoksnmv9a.jpg"><figcaption>James Iska,&nbsp;First Day of School, Hans Christian Anderson Elementary School, from Changing Chicago, 1988.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The Museum of Contemporary Photography aims to promote a greater understanding and appreciation of the artistic, cultural and political implication of the photographic image in our world today. As a college art museum with a teaching mission, the museum provides a wide range of educational opportunities for students, educators, and the general public including: public programs, free docent-led museum tours, viewings of works from the museum’s collections, community engagement initiatives, and curricular resources for educators.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>