The Chronicles of Professor Fliggins

Professor Fliggins, by way of Shawnimals, has just publicized his first discovery.... the Sausage Cadet. You can get your own limited handmade cadet here.

Other Goose

working on this, originally uploaded by J. Otto.

I really like this book cover, which is a work in progress, by J. Otto Seibold.

Going Postal

Tonight's the release party and art show for documentary photographer Martha Cooper's new book, Going Postal. The book features pictures of hand drawn postal stickers by various artists that she's encountered in New York and other cities. Tonight's show will showcase large scale art by artists in the book. There will also be a sticker exchange with sticker art by even more artists available for trade or sale.

Friday, February 20th, 7:30 to 10:30 pm
The show runs through Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
Ad Hoc Art
49 Bogart St
Buzzer 22 Unit 1C
Brooklyn, NY
"L" train at Morgan

Mad Science

Artists Paul Nudd and Nick Black are joining forces to create some sorta biomass, robotic, gelatinous, artsy, thingamabob show of work too horrific to talk about but tantalizing enough to make you want to come down to Pilsen to see. The exhibit opens this Friday, February 20th at Antena from 6 to 10 pm.

Antena
1765 S Laflin (1/4 block north of 18th street and a block east of Ashland)
Chicago, IL

Permanent Vacation

Opening this Friday at The Novem Store, Permanent Vacation will feature new work by Morgan and The Viking. After years of putting work up on the streets of Chicago, they're bringing it indoors. "Free things, beer, and art" are promised.

Friday, February 20th, 2009 6 to 10 pm
The Novem Store
1104 N. Ashland Ave
Chicago, IL

Richard Colman at Phaiz

Richard Colman will have a show, Opera Pink, opening in Chicago this Friday at Phaiz. I enjoyed viewing his creepy/folksy paintings at Foundation Gallery a few years back and am looking forward to see what he'll serve up this week.

The opening reception is this Friday, February 20th from 7 to 10 pm and will be up through March 22, 2009
RSVP at phaizphaiz@gmail.com

Phaiz
673 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60622

Happy Birthday Mess Hall

Chicago's Mess Hall is now 5 years old. Mess Hall is an independent art center in Rogers Park that provides space for art shows, talks, workshops, and community based events. They're celebrating their anniversary today with an exhibit of their show archives as well as proposals for their next 5 years.



The Justseeds 2008 Portfolio Project will be on display. Justseeds is a politically active screenprint collective that produces artwork championing social issues. The amount of quality work they put out is amazing.



There'll be work by Burtonwood and Holmes and Bloc Artist Studios will also have their This is Not a Truck mobile gallery parked outside the space.



And on top of all that there'll be piñatas, a photobooth, an Art Swap where you can exhange your extra handmade stuff for other people's handmade stuff, and DJ Aay Preston-Myint will be spinning as well.

Everything kicks off at 7pm tonight!

Mess Hall
6932 North Glenwood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60626

Mess Hall is 1/2 block south of the Morse CTA Red Line train station
Tel: 773-465-4033

"Black Is, Black Ain't" at MoCAD

I missed seeing this show last year in Chicago at the Renaissance Society but now it's opening this weekend in Detroit. Organized by curator Hamza Walker, the show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit includes work by over 20 artists like Carl Pope (whose letterpressed poster is pictured to the left), Andres Serrano, and Paul D'Amato.

This is a description of the show from the Renaissance Society...
Taking its title from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, this exhibition will explore a shift in the rhetoric of race from an earlier emphasis on inclusion to a present moment where racial identity is being simultaneously rejected and retained. The exhibition will bring together works by 26 black and non-black artists whose work together examines a moment where the cultural production of so-called “blackness” is concurrent with efforts to make race socially and politically irrelevant.


There'll also be an exhibition called I Repeat Myself When Under Stress opening the same night. It'll consist of work by contemporary artists who focus compulsively on repetition. Chicago's The Sea and the Cake will perform at the opening this Friday, February 13th and the shows are both up through May 3rd, 2009.

MoCad
4454 Woodward Ave
Detroit, MI

Lydia Fong

Viewing Barry McGee's (TWIST) installation at the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh last month I noticed some paintings that looked different from his earlier work. It turns out that he's been working in another style under the name Lydia Fong. He had a show under that name at Ratio 3 Gallery in San Francisco last fall, which is where the following interview was filmed. The video gives you a great view of everything he had on display at their space.

La Famiglia

I have no idea what this German video is about but I find it weirdly funny nonetheless.

Joseph Yoakum

Chicago's Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, has recently opened a show of Joseph E. Yoakum's landscape drawings. Yoakum was an African-American artist who worked as a showbill poster for 5 different traveling circuses when he was younger. After he had retired he began drawing pictures based on places he had both seen and imagined. His rolling hills and distinctive drawing style were championed by and influenced many Chicago artists including Roger Brown, Jim Nutt, and Ray Yoshida.



This show catalog is available through Intuit's gift shop. The Picture Tells the Story: The Drawings of Joseph E. Yoakum will be on view through June 27th, 2009. Admission is free.

Intuit
756 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL
1/2 block south of the CTA Blue Line's Chicago Ave station

Run Around Chicago

Thanks to Mr. Brooks Golden for pointing out this great video. "Run Around" by Jason Tyler, featuring Sam I Am, depicts parts of Chicago that a lot of people may not know. You've got Jo Jo Baby whose studio in the Flat Iron Building has brightened as well as upped the weirdness level of Wicker Park for years. There's the Rat Patrol, the custom bicycle posse who always appear out of nowhere when I'm out in the street, and best of all the video animates the Goons population that's hidden all over Chicago. And on top of that the song just has a fun vibe too.

Under New Management

Philadelphia's Print Liberation has this wonderful shirt out celebrating our new administration. They're a Philadelphia creative agency that does design work, ad campaigns, clothing, and street art. They've also published a how-to-book on screen printing entitled Print Liberation. The book is very clear and well laid out and also covers how artists and designers use screen printing to communicate their message.




Check out their other clothing designs here and their blog as well.