Proximity Release Party

Proximity magazine will release issue 003 tonight at the Post Family's space The Family Room in the West Loop. Proximity is a Chicago-based art and culture magazine covering artists, issues and spaces worldwide. If the first two issues were any indication this new one should be just as great.

Friday, December 12, 2008,
7:00 PM - 12:00 AM
At The Family Room
1821 W Hubbard St #202
312.265.6406
$5 cover ($10 gets you an issue of Proximity issue #003 and a complimentary drink).

Santa's Village Part 2...New and Improved! Now with More Santas!

I know nothing about this but it looks like it'll be fun.

Opening Friday, December 12, 2008 6 to 10pm
The Compound
1914 S Jefferson
Chicago, IL

Sacrificial Love Society

Stephen J & M Palmer (the J & M stand for Jesus and Mary) spent the last years of his life in the 1950's creating devotional works portraying Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and illustrations of Christian symbols and saints.

From the gallery's site: Stephen Palmer produced a massive record of Christian faith in the guise of roughly 400 known and recently discovered gouache paintings on paper. As private devotional works, the demonstrate the layered complexity and subversive potential of religious imager. As artifacts uncovered, they speak about an era. As a collective effort, they hold clues to reconstructing the psychology and motivations of an individual driven by an obsessive-compulsive mysticism.



You can see images of the other pieces here.

There'll be an opening reception tonight Friday, December 12, 2008 from 5:30 to 8pm at
Carl Hammer Gallery
740 N Wells
Chicago, IL

The exhibition runs through January 31st, 2009

Ulf Puder at Kavi Gupta Gallery

German artist Ulf Puder has an art opening tonight at Kavi Gupta Gallery in the West Loop. Paintings of partially destroyed structures and roadways suggest the aftermath of floods and other natural disasters.

Opening reception 5 to 8pm
Friday December 12, 2008
Kavi Gupta Gallery
835 W Washington
2nd floor
Chicago, IL

The show runs through January 31, 2009

No End In Sight

Curatorial Practice students from the School of the Art Institute have put together a show of work by artists who are working on projects without definite endings.

This exhibition explores works that are perpetual in nature, including works that have an undefined or unreachable endpoint; series composed of multiples the artist is compelled to continue; and projects that incorporate viewer participation as a way to continue regeneration of the piece. Blurring the borders between life and artistic practice, selected artworks provoke the audience to consider art as an ongoing process, as opposed to a static event.

Some of the artists include Sighn, presenting his ongoing "IT'S OK" wood pieces which he is creating in an edition of one million, Josue Pellot Gonzalez, who will have a coin operated machine displaying mini representations of his family as "Boricuas" in toy form, Burtonwood and Holmes, who create art based on war and consumerism, and Tim Pannell's gun project where he's been making one woodblock print of a handgun to represent each murder victim in Philadelphia.




The show is being held in the SAIC's Sullivan Galleries which is their new space downtown in the former Carson, Pirie, & Scott building on State St. Check out the show's comprehensive site here.

No End in Sight
From December 13, 2008 to January 10, 2009,

Exhibition Reception:
Friday, December 12, 4:30 p.m.
Performance of ks rives and Nicole Kenney’s Before I Die I Want To…

Public Event:
Saturday, December 13, 2 p.m.
Folding party and “Infinite Change” panel discussion

Sullivan Galleries
Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
33 S. State Street, 7th Floor
Chicago, IL
312.629.6635

Just Ain't Gonna Work Out

I'm really digging this new track by Michigan's Mayer Hawthorne & The County on Stones Throw. And it's on a red heart-shaped vinyl record! LImited to 1,000 copies, it's currently still available here.

Tambourine Solo: Take One

Cody Hudson, aka Struggle, Inc, has a new installation opening this Friday at Andrew Rafacz Gallery. Intended as a preview of his two-story exhibition coming up in 2009 at the Hyde Park Art Center, this show features a sculptural piece made up of tambourines and found objects entitled Too Late to Keep the Change, Too Late to Pay. There will also be two video screens to complete the show featuring "themes of hopefulness, euphoria, and doom" backed by a music piece by Caural (Zachary Mastoon).



















Cody Hudson - Tambourine Solo: Take One
Opening reception 5 to 8 pm, Friday, December 12, 2008
Andrew Rafacz Gallery
835 W Washington (in the West Loop)
Chicago, IL

The show will be up through January 24, 2009

Under the Boardwalk

Chicago artist Andrew St. Lawrence has been out in California this month working on some new paintings. Here's a selection of his recent nautical themed work.

Collage of four different glacier paintings, by Andrew St Lawrence.

Other recent paintings include this piece from his Coney Island series...

Sam's Red Hots, by Andrew St Lawrence.

....as well as this new still life.


You can check out more of his work at www.andrewstlawrence.com

Have Yourself a Very Skullphone Christmas

I was happy to see that The Upset's Nicky Dieter caught a picture of a huge Skull Phone wheatpaste by Spazmat in Chicago as well as a Pegasus piece. I've enjoyed seeing Skull Phones in New York the past few years ranging in size from small stickers on store rolldown gates to huge street pieces so it's great to see his presence here.

The photo at the top is of a series of glass ornaments Spazmat had available on his site. It looks like they're sold out but there's plenty of other goodies to be had on there for the streetart nerd in your life.

2333 Skull Phone, Photographed in LA by speedgrafer.

There's an interview with Skullphone/Spazmat here.

El Diablo Loves You

NY-based artist and DJ Robbie Busch, aka McBoingBoing will have a show of new paintings and resin figures opening tonight at Rotofugi.







Robbie Busch El Diablo Loves You
Opening reception Friday, December 5, 2008 6 to 9pm at
Rotofugi
1953-55 W Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL

The show runs through December 20th, 2008.

MIreya Acierto at Looseleaf Lounge

Photographer Mireya Acierto will have an opening tonight at the Looseleaf Lounge. Mireya has an excellent eye for portraiture and photojournalism. I've been really happy to see her work pop up all over the place over the years including in URB, XLR8R, and Time Out Chicago magazines.







Mireya Acierto
6:30 to 9pm Friday, December 5, 2008 at
Looseleaf Lounge
2915 N Broadway
Chicago, IL

BFF & Pizza Dog in Miami

Chicago's Pooper will be performing with her BFF project tomorrow Saturday in Miami. Art Basel is going on out there right now and with it are a million fun side events.

BFF & Pizza Dog
11pm Saturday, December 6th, 2008
at White Room
1306 Miami Ave
Miami, Florida

32nd & Urban moves forward

Bridgeport based gallery 32nd & Urban, in Chicago's south side, is feeling the pressure from the new police station being built across the street from their space on Halsted. After two years full of many great art shows they've decided to move on. From the words of the gallery...

This doesn't mean 32nd&urban is dead. We are very much alive. Peter Kepha and Lauren Pacheco will be keeping Urban alive. They have been scouting alternative locations and playing around with non-traditional gallery exhibition opportunities among other special projects like publications and arts programming.

In the mean time there'll be a closing party at their space this coming Saturday, December 6th, 2008 from 10 pm to 3 am with live art painting. DJ's TREW, INTEL, and PICKEL will perform.

Mess Hall gets Organized

Mess Hall, in Rogers Park, has a show opening tonight called Collections and Archives as a Creative Practice. Mess Hall is an arts space that's been open for several years now hosting all kinds of lectures, exhibitions, workshops, and events.

Info from Mess Hall...

The collecting and/or archiving of objects and information has emerged as a vital creative cultural practice. "Collections and Archives as a Creative Practice" presents the final projects of grad students from this University of Illinois at Chicago seminar that was team taught by Marc Fischer and Randall Szott.

Included are works in a great variety of formats and themes by:

Adam Farcus, Adam Trowbridge, Alejandro Borsani, Andrew Oleksiuk, Erica Moore, Erik Peterson, Faheem Majeed, Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Jesse Mclean, Jose Velazco, Maria Gaspar, Maria Jonsson, Mary Robnett, Michael Sirianni, Nicholas Wylie, Olivia Ciummo, Orson Panetti, Rachael Stine, Rebecca Grady, Ryan Murray, and Yuko Kato.

Among the many subjects of these collections, archives and projects: video store identification labels on old used VHS tapes, concert set lists, artists' stamps that have made it through the mail, documentation of empty Chicago storefronts that are available for lease, a massive trove of KISS concert and TV appearances on VHS, examples of "The End" title screens from a large array of old films, documentation of crushed "Crush" cans, African-American G.I. Joe toys, collected regrets by numerous mail respondents, and dozens of representations of Geishas.

An extensive free publication will be available at Mess Hall to accompany the exhibition.



Mess Hall
6932 N Glenwood, 1/2 block south of the Red Line Morse station entrance
Chicago
(773) 465-4033

Royce at the Hideout, Chicago

Just a few days ago I was thinking that I hadn't heard Royce play live in a long time. Then whaddaya know, I get word that they're performing tonight at The Hideout with Psalm One, Yeabig + Kid Static. Maker and the Galapagos4 dj's will spin as well. I've seen most of these acts play before and they all put on a good show. And the Hideout is a great little place. It always feels like you're hanging out at the hippest basement party in town. It should be fun.

The Hideout
1354 W Wabansia (1 blk east of Elston, 2 blocks north of North Ave)
Chicago, IL
9pm Friday, November 28, 2008
21+ $8 w/flyer, $10 w/out

Street View Intervention

Artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley recently unveiled an interventionist collaboration they did with Google and Pittsburgh's Mattress Factory entitled, Street with a View. The Mattress Factory, which specializes in showing installation art, and its surrounding neighborhood were the backdrop for this project. Pittsburgh residents staged situations along area streets while Google's Street View team photographed them for inclusion into their Google Maps Street View function. Incorporating various scenes including a marathon, a garage band practicing in a garage, and a parade, I think the most hilarious ones were the firemen rescuing a cat piñata from a tree on Fireman Way , and two men fighting with medieval swords in an empty lot. I also liked this view of a bedsheet escape ladder from a bedroom window.

This giant chicken also made it down for a visit from Milwaukee.

After Turkey Jam at the Hideout, Chicago

Hideout After Turkey Jam,

DJ Logan Bay's sets resemble the flyer designs he makes for his shows. If that doesn't help just know that if you want to dance like this trio at his last Hideout show then make sure you're there Saturday night.

After Turkey Jam
Saturday, November 29, 2008
at The Hideout
1534 W Wabansia
Chicago, IL

Art School Girls - Ninjasonik

My friend Anthony introduced me to Jahstar/Rev. McFly a couple years ago in Brooklyn. I only met him briefly but that was enough to see that he was a cool person. That's why I've been happy to see his career jump off this past year with his band Ninjasonik. Their music is dope and hilarious and I've heard their live show is a lot of fun as well. I hope to see them play live soon. Art School Girls is their ode to uh, art school girls. It name checks Pearl Art Supply too.



This second video is for Tight Pants, which came out last year. It's worth checking out for the minimalist beats and one-line lyric but I wouldn't recommend playing it at work.

Before There Was Us And Them There Was We

Joseph Lapppie has a new show of prints, drawings, and paintings at Bucktown's Believe Inn opening tonight from 6 to 10 pm. His portraits on wood are really well done. I really enjoyed his previous work on view in the last few months at The Architrouve and at Tony Fitzpatrick's Big Cat Press.

Joseph Lappie Before There Was Us And Them There Was We
at The Believe Inn
2043 N Winchester
Chicago, IL

Saturday, November 22, 2008 6 to 10 pm
Closing on Sunday, December 7, 2008 Noon to 4 pm.

Get Your Smoke On

KAWS has just released this set of ashtrays through his OriginalFake label. Entitled Your Pleasure is My Pain, they feature his iconic Mickey Mouse skull character laying in the ashtray waiting to receive cigarette butts. If I smoked I would only use these.

Available here.

Chris Silva remix

Chris Silva, currently living the good life in the wilds of Puerto Rico, has a remix track in contention for the Roots. The first round of this contest is basically one of internet popularity. The top 25 vote getters will proceed to Round 2 where they will be judged on the merits of their remixes. Won't you be a good person and help Mr. Silva on his musical quest?
Listen to his remix and vote for him here.

City of Charcoal

Mary Livoni's City of Charcoal show closes tonight at The Architrouve from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

The Architrouve
1433 W Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL

Gray Matter

Gray Matter, originally uploaded by bootlegflyers.

Gray Matter


Two great events going on down the street from each other on Chicago Ave tomorrow night Wednesday. The first one is Gray Matter at Sonotheque.

While supplies last each paid admission will get you a free copy of Gray Matter a compilation of 80's electronic music put together by DJ Logan Bay.

For the event Djs Logan Bay and LeDuce will play the finest in New Wave, Wave and vintage Analog Electronic music.

With live performances from like minded live acts Gate Keeper and Casual Encounter.

Vj Brunerd will burn your retinas with the finest in spaced out sewer visuals. It's a night to dance and vogue while feeling dark gritty and uncomfortable. Eyeliner is optional.



Gatekeeper
DJ Logan Bay

The second shindig is going on at Darkroom. BFF will be performing as part of the Cease to Resist night.

Cease to Resist
w/resident DJ's Michael Flavor & Dr. Drase
w/special guests
Clique Talk and BFF
9pm $7 21+

Darkroom
2210 W Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL

The new Chicago Novem store

Chicago's Novem Studios are in the midst of the grand opening celebration for their first store. Located down the street from Dusty Groove Records at 1104 N Ashland Ave, the new Novem shop carries the full line of their well designed t-shirts as well as special limited edition shirts.

Some of my favorite recent Novem designs include this totem pole shirt honoring all seven major Chicago sports teams...













...and this 8-bit pixelated version of their octopus logo.




































Here's the schedule for the daily live painting and other events going on at Novem Studios this week...

Todd James/REAS cover for Clark Magazine

Todd James aka REAS has an interview and some new art on the cover of French art and music magazine Clark.

Todd has been utilizing his unique style lately to portray the fetishization of instruments of war. Transforming planes and bombs into fun loving characters, his work is even more engaging to view when animated. Like the Blood & Treausre video he did for the recent show London gallery Lazerides presented in NYC.

Here's a brief excerpt of the video.

Lazerides also put out this Blood & Treasure catalog recently.

Select Media Fest 7 - night 2

Tonight begins night 2 of Select Media Fest. Last night was a lot of fun. I may have lost some hearing but it was worth it. TRS-80 and video genius Eric Fensler flew in from L.A. to perform. Live drumming paired with electronic beats and video projections equaled a mini dance party. We were partying 'till 2 am. The art on hand was really well designed. Large scale work from artists and designers around the world presenting info in visually interesting ways. Logan Bay's installation had some pretty trippy and bleak pages from the old Choose Your Own Adventure series imbedded in it. I enjoyed the green laser beam pentagram in the dark basement as well.

Lumpen DVD #11 will be released tonight. Here's the info from their site....



INFOPORN VIDEO
Saturday November 15, 2008 8pm
Co-Prosperity Sphere • 3219 S Morgan St Chicago, IL
$10 suggested donation

Tonite we release our latest DVD project, Select DVD #11 the Infoporn Edition, containing works by Eric Fensler, Dungeon Magesty, Telefantasy Studios, Thunderhorse, Ola Vasiljeva, Peter Skvara, Jenni Rope, Rand Sevilla, a taste of the Dave The Lightbulb Man Show, TRS-80, and other awesome stuff. Get a complementary copy while supplies last.

The Infoporn Exhibition will be open for viewing all nite.

9pm: Screening: Select DVD #11 screening with! The Dave the Lightbulb Man Premier!!!

Afterwards: Not to miss Performances by DJ Douggound (of Tim and Eric fame),Eric Fensler (of Tim and Eric and Eric Fensler fame!), Pure Magical Love, DJ Shoulders and The Bearries.

ABOVE: Cover art for DVD designed by Logan Bay


The rest of the schedule is available at www.selectmediafestival.org.

Xavier Jimenez: Full Quality Beige Without Pink Red, But Blue Gray

Opening tonight at New York City Gallery. Now I've never been to this space before but it's curated by my friend Kevin Gallagher, who has never steered me wrong, so I'm going to go check it out. New York City Gallery is a space with two locations that alternate shows. There's one location in the Pilsen neighborhood and there's one in the Gold Coast, which is where tonight's show is at. The title of the show alone is intriguing.

Saturday November 15th, 2008
7 to 10 pm
New York City Gold Coast
55 W Delaware #2205
Chicago, IL

Ketih Haring's Ten Commandments @Deitch Studios

Keith Haring's Ten Commandments is something I always thought I'd have to travel to France to check out. But now it's on display at Deitch Studios in New York. Deitch Studios is the new Long Island City (Queens, NYC) outpost of Deitch Projects, which is one of my favorite galleries in NYC. They always work big and encourage their artists to fully utilize their spaces.

In 1985 Keith was invited to show at the Bordeaux Museum in France. They let him take over the entire building with his drawings and paintings. He requested the lower level as well, which is a huge space with five arches. He asked them to build canvases back to back that would fit into the five arches which he would then paint on site. He couldn't think of anything to paint on them until the weekend before the show when he realized it would be ten canvases so he decided to paint the ten commandments. By the time he finished installing his show he only had three days to paint all ten huge paintings. The following is from his biography...

Finally, I concentrate on the ten panels. It's three days to the opening. The museum personnel get nervous. I begin on my Ten Commandments--and I worked like crazy, longer than I ever worked before. I knew I could do it physically. The problem was staying awake! At the end, I was taking amphetamines--it was the only thing that kept me going. Well, by the third day, the ten paintings were done. It was a major accomplishment but I was a wreck!

A view of him painting it in 1985...


And here's an interview with Keith Haring by Sylvie Couderc, at the time of his show in Bordeaux.

Haring's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is also on display at Deitch.


ON VIEW THROUGH DECEMBER 21, 2008

DIRECTIONS:
Deitch Studios can be reached by taking either the E or V Train to the 23rd Street/Ely,
the G train to LIC/Court Square or the 7 train to 45 Road/Court House Square.
Walk down 44th drive to the water's edge.
Deitch Studios is located on the left hand side.
They are open Thursdays - Sundays 2-8 pm

Select Media Festival 7 - INFOPORN

Tonight's the kickoff for the annual Select Media Festival in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood. Here's the schedule for tonight...

Friday November 14, 2008 8pm
Co-Prosperity Sphere • 3219 S Morgan St

Infoporn Opening Night
We open up the festival with the group exhibition, Infoporn. The exhibition explores the art of information design by artists from around the world. It is curated by Gregory Calvert and Ed Marszewski. The opening night of the fesitval also features performances from Chicago ex-pats, Eric Fensler and TRS-80.

Featuring the work of

Catalog Tree
Univerité Tangente / Bureau d'etudes
Eric Fensler
Jonathan Harris
An Atlas of Radical Geography*
Dave Bowker
Nicholas Felton
Edward Marcotte & Alex Adai
Stephanie Posavec
Logan Bay
Yunchul Kim
Aaron Koblin
Jean Livet
John Duda
Jude M.C.
Ryan Scheidt
Lumpen (The Subjective Atlas of Bridgeport DWNLD it now)
Jonathan Petersen
Alison Haigh
Benjamin June
Peter Skvara
Gregory Calvert
Logan Bay

The exhibtion now runs through December 13, 2008. Hours are during festival hours and by appointment. (773-837-0145)

* An Atlas of Radical Geography (featuring An Architektur | the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) | Ashley Hunt | Institute for Applied Autonomy with Site-R | Pedro Lasch | Lize Mogel | Trevor Paglen & John Emerson | Brooke Singer | Jane Tsong | Unnayan)


8:30pm Video Screening

The music videos of EricFensler
A collection of Fensler's hot stuff from recent years featuring Arial Pink, Daniel Johnston, Flyin Lotus, TRS-80, Cold and Golden and others.

9:30pm: Performances by:
Meah, TRS-80, DJ Jamm Sammich, Club Spouse, and 2 Dollar Cockroach

$10 suggested donation

TRS-80 puts on a great live show with video projections.

Eric Fensler is resposible for videos like this G.I. Joe PSA...

An Associate Degree in Science @Finch

An Associate Degree in Science opening tonight at the Finch Gallery. There'll be films and art by 32 artists including Salem Collo-Julin, EC Brown, Caleb Jones Lyons, Edra Soto, Paul Nudd and Lilli Carre.

DJ Capn' Crunk spins
Opens Fri. Nov. 14, 7-10pm
Also open Sunday Nov. 16, 1-5 pm
Finch Gallery
2747 W. Armitage
Chicago, IL