Democratic Camera

I had a chance to quickly go through Williams Eggleston's beautiful retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago that opened yesterday. I'm familiar with his work but there were a lot of images on display, especially from his Los Alamos series, that he'd shot in the 1970's but had never shown to the public 'till now.

Eggleston is known for his early explorations in color photography and his penchant for capturing views that were previously thought of as banal and not worth shooting. This exhibition has many examples from the various series he's photographed, including ones in Memphis, Tennessee and Athens, Georgia. There's humor in his work but there's also a lot of serious observations of people and the everyday places they inhabit. I know I've been influenced by his world view.



He made a rare public appearance at the museum yesterday. There must've been several hundred people in line, most with the show's catalog in hand, which I thought was a great turnout. I'll definitely be back to spend more time with the images.



William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961–2008
Art Institute of Chicago
Michigan at Adams
Chicago, IL

This show will be on view through May 23, 2010.

FAIR: Two-day Local Maker and Publisher Fair

UIC's Gallery 400 sponsors this two-day event organized by Temporary Services. Info from their site...

Please join us for two days of art, books, talks, things for sale, things for free, and more from the following people, groups and organizations:

ACRE
Antena
AREA Chicago
Bad At Sports
CAFF
Gallery 400
Esteban Garcia
Golden Age
Green Lantern Press
Half Letter Press
Terence Hannum
Harold Arts
www.incubate-chicago.org
Clifton Meador & guests
David Moré
No Coast
Onsmith Dog Stew & Monkey Nudd Wine
Pros Arts Studio
Proximity Magazine
Radah & Team
Spudnik Press
Bert Stabler
threewalls -
WhiteWalls

Talks from some of the makers/publishers will happen both Friday and Saturday -

FRIDAY

1pm Half Letter Press makes a short intro to the FAIR concepts and about us
2pm InCUBATE
3pm - AREA
4pm Whitewalls
5pm - Esteban Garcia

SATURDAY

1pm - Pros Arts Studio
2pm - Bad at Sports
3pm - Terence Hannum
4pm ACRE
5pm - Spudnik Press

Organized by Temporary Services in conjunction with ART WORK: A NATIONAL CONVERSATION ABOUT ART, LABOR, AND ECONOMICS

FAIR: Two-day Local Maker and Publisher Fair
February 26 & 27, 2010
Noon-6 PM Both Days
Gallery 400
Art & Design Hall
400 S. Peoria St.
Chicago, IL

TYPEFORCE

Friday the 26th, is the opening of TYPEFORCE: The Annual Chicago Show of Emerging Typographic Allstars. There's a lot of great people showing work here including Matthew Hoffman of Multipolar Projects, Chad Kouri of The Post Family, and Nick Adam, who has been producing a really interesting series lately exploring hand drawn letters...

LLL, originally uploaded by Nick Adam (Nicky Dieter).

Here's the full list of participating artists...
Jeremiah Chiu, Renata Graw, David Weik, Billy Baumann, Matthew Hoffman, Chris Eichenseer, Chad Kouri, Ryan Thurwell,Luke Williams, Tnop, Andy Luce, John Pobojewski, Darren McPherson, Lora Fosberg, Margo Harrington, Greg Calvert, Aaron Pedersen, Duncan MacKenzie, Will Miller, and Nick Adam.

Typeforce
Opening reception Friday, February 26, 2010
7pm to midnight
Co-Prosperity Sphere
3219 S Morgan St
Chicago, IL

The show will be up through March 14, 2010

KLTA

Riding the Howard/Dan Ryan CTA Line (now the Red Line) in the 80's, I remember seeing patterns of white lines painted on the black tar rooftops. They'd pop up here and there like mysterious crop circles taking over the entire roofs of buildings. I always wondered who was doing them and what they meant. They definitely stood out amongst all the other graffiti on view at the time.

Several months ago graff writer and photographer FLASH ABC became in contact with KLTA and conducted an interview with him which is posted here, along with a Chicago Tribune article about KLTA written in 1984. In both the interview and the article KTLA, aka Keith Lawrence Turner Alexander, talks about how he grew up and began to paint in the midst of the drug and gang problems prevalent in Logan Square in the 80's.

He first painted a white patterned mural on a wall he coated with a black background. Realizing that this was causing him to use a lot of paint, he conceived of using just white paint on the many black tar roofs visible from Chicago's train lines. He ended up painting nearly 70 murals along all the CTA lines before leaving for California in 1989.


This Friday there will be an art show at the Congress Theater building featuring KLTA, as well as work by FLASH, ROME, DEF-ROCK, UNEEK, T-SEL, FINE 39, B-BOY B, MENIZ, FESS, and SOME1. KLTA will have prints of his work available.


Back 2 Da Basics Art Showcase
Friday, February 26, 2010
6 to 11 pm
Corner of the Congress Theater Building
2131 N Rockwell (at Milwaukee Ave)
Chicago, IL

Vorab Fabrik

Printmakers extraordinaire, Nadine and Nick of Sonnezimmer have a show opening this Friday night at The Post Family.

Info from the Post Family site...

As Sonnenzimmer, Nadine Nakanishi and Nick Butcher have created screen printed posters for clients as varied as Throbbing Gristle, Andrew Bird, The Newberry Library, and Human Rights Watch. Using a mixture of chance abstraction, modernist typography, and representational imagery, the duo has created a unique aesthetic that pulls from various movements in art history while remaining distinctly forward thinking.

Vorab Fabrik or “Beforehand Factory” is the duo’s first exclusive solo gallery show focusing on their non commissioned art work. Pulling from such influences as minimalism, arte povera, and abstract expressionism, the two are creating work that forgoes the functionality of the poster yet retains the graphic quality found in their commercial work. Vorab Fabrik features new paintings, prints, and installations.

Vorab Fabrik
Opening reception, Friday, February 26, 2010
7 to 11 pm
The Post Family
1821 W Hubbard St, 2nd floor
Chicago, IL

This show will be on view through March 19, 2010.

A Love Letter For You

Steve Powers, aka ESPO, collaborated with Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program late last year to produce A Love Letter for You, a series of 50 rooftop murals along Market St between 45th st to 63rd st in West Philly. Designed to be seen from the Market-Frankford elevated SEPTA train, the murals highlight the phrases and wordplay that ESPO has become known for. As an ode to his birth city and to growing up in Philadelphia in the 70's and 80's the series looks to be a great success.



In conjunction with A Love Letter for You, ESPO conceived a series of tattoo flash that was available for February.

Also, Free News Projects has just published a catalog of all the murals in the series which is available through their site.

Disco Stranger

I'm really digging this 1976 song, Stranger, by C. Henry Woods Troupe...


This version is available through Stones Throw Records. Info from their site...

The Syracuse, New York, label ENYX is well known within the deep funk world as the label that launched Bad Medicine’s “Trespasser” upon the world in 1974. Two years later and the label took a stab at disco – with dynamite results. Both sides of the C Henry Woods Troupe’s solitary seven inch are superb examples of funky, jazzy, soulful disco – complete with breakdowns and excellent sax and flute solos atop a churning rhythm section.

For this 12” release, we’ve paired the original version of the song (edited together from parts one and two on the 45 rpm single) with an extended edit of the track on the B-sdie.

Written by Charles Woods, Jr. (Lymonlee Music - BMI).
Produced by Eddie Hines, Bill Armstrong & Arthur Lane.
Recorded at Pyramid Sound, Ithaca, NY.
Originally released in 1976 on Enyx Records 6011-12A/B, Syracuse, NY.

More Art for Haiti

By coincidence there'll be another art fundraiser in Evanston for the people of Haiti. I went to the one last night and it was pretty successful and well attended. The one tonight will definitely have a lot of great work available as well. Info from the organizers...

Enigma Cafe will be hosting a fund raiser to help the people of Haiti. It will be an all day family event with story telling, live art, and music. There will also be a large installation of paintings from Chicago artists. The artists featured are: Rex Flodstrom, Scott Richardson, Christine Mendosa, Esteban Alcozer, Dense83, Paul Khun, Joe Mills, Mike Paro, Janie Gorges, Madeline Goldman-Rohm, PHICKS, Angel Pelipada, Olegario Flores, Erin Rembert, Peter Wiess, Eric Iverson, and more!

A portion of the proceeds raised will go to Doctors Without Borders. Also we will be having a doctor that has been to Haiti talk about their experience. This event will end at 11 pm. Hope to see you there!

Art Benefit for Haiti
Saturday, February 20, 2010
All day until 11 pm
Enigma Cafe
1620 Orrington (2 blks east of the Davis Purple Line CTA station)
Evanston, Illinois

Just got word of this interesting event for tonight. Info from their site...

FLAT 5 will feature new sculpture, painting and performative work by Bj Vogt, Brett Williams, Catie Olson and EC Brown, creating a cosmology which guests may engage at different levels by means of a bartering system (see below).

Brett Williams (St. Louis) has utilized a shaman character and word-salad performances (influenced by Kurt Schwitters and Hugo Ball) as an investigation into the (mal)functions of communication, as a reflection upon the willful barriers of communication employed in imperial foreign policy. For this event, Brett's speech performance will be accompanied by an Urdu translation of Joy Division's "Isolation", and he will be the cosmological center of the evening.

Catie Olson (Chicago) will be recreating the drinking bird toys in large scale – often as disembodied heads and tailfeathers to be worn by guests. They will be "humandynamic" rather than self-propelled by thermodynamics, and an adult-sized rocking-spaceship will be available to assist in the collective repetitive movements.

Bj Vogt (St. Louis) will serve as "Finance Minister" during the bartering/performance, as an arbiter between chaotic and orderly operations – based upon his ongoing work about the conflict between scientific and religious ideologies. In his role, he will be managing a cosmology of space and participation during the shaman-centered group performance, and regulating the mediation through which guests may witness (through binocular stands) or become absorbed.

EC Brown (Chicago) will be creating multiples to serve as currency in the bartering process. Stick-like paintings of Olympians with a bioplasmic residue of wood structures will perpetrate wands. Images of deceased pets with wooden effluvia will decorate CDR-mix-packages offered as amulets.

The Bartering System
Guests may acquire artwork, spiritual appointments, temporary costuming and responsibilities depending on their (non-monetary) offerings. Suggestions:

* Food
* Drinks (Brett likes Goose Island)
* CDR copies of cool, rare albums (2 copies please)
* etc.

Bj Vogt, as Finance Minister for the evening, will make appraisals of offerings and negotiate all exchanges. If you are curious as to the value of a potential offering, you can email him ahead of time: b.j.vogt@gmail.com

FLAT 5
@ Floor Length and Tux
Saturday, Feb. 20, 7-10pm – one night only!
2332 W. Augusta #3 front
Chicago IL 60622

Help Art Heal Haiti

There'll be an auction of artwork by a lot of great artists to raise money for Haitian relief. Info from their site...

All proceeds of artworks will go to UNICEF. All cash bar proceeds will go to the Andrew Grene Haiti Foundation.

Including works by: Angel Otero, Justin B. Williams, Alex Lukas, Alyssa Doren. Sean Keenan, Thomas Stavnes, Max Roseglass, Maureen Gubia, Ben Bauman, Jordan Nickel, Moira Connelly, Osvaldo Budet, Thomas Roach, Mario Martinez, Jason Lazarus, Garrett Munski, Elisa Harkins, Aislinn Jefferies, Zebadiah Arrington, Joshua Abelow, Nina Hartmann, Candida Alvarez, Nick Jaskey, Michael Gerkovich, Bobby Burg, Jeremy Bolen, Derek Erdman, Cody Hudson, Evan Robarts, Aliza Nisenbaum, Tisch Abelow, Aleksander Hardashnakov, Scott Keightley, Ames Gerould, Coleen Self, Thomas Cowan, Matias Arganaraz, Ryan Ingebritson, Marion Ramos, Orion Martin, Diego Leclery, Judith Geichman, Dana DeGiulio, Nina Rizzo, Matt Ostroff, Doug Huston

Curated by Tessa Perutz

The Foundation is named in memory of Andrew Grene who perished in Port au Prince with so many thousand others in the earthquake of January 12th 2010. His belief in the joy, spirit, and potential of all people was an inspiration to those who knew him. www.andrewgrenefoundation.org Here's an article from the Evanston Now site talking about both Andrew Grene and the fundraiser.

Friday, February 19th, 2010
Early viewing 4pm
Auction bidding 6-10 pm
518 Davis (Chicago and Davis)
Three blocks east of Davis St. Purple line
Evanston, Illinois

You Can Lose Your Balance

Chicago artist Scott Wolniak has a show opening tomorrow Friday at 65Grand. He'll have paintings up as well as a new video (pictured above).

Scott Wolniak: You Can Lose Your Balance
Opening reception, Friday, February 19, 2010
7 to 10 pm
65Grand
1378 W Grand
Chicago, IL

The show will be up through March 20, 2010.

Outlaw Graffiti

The Renaissance Blackstone Chicago Hotel is kicking off their Outlaw Graffiti exhibit tonight with a reception for Brooklyn graffiti artist Michael McLeer, aka KAVES. Being held in the Blackstone's Art Hall...


... tonight's event will also feature DJ ADM of Lordz of Brooklyn, Survive 185, and special guests graffiti culture writer Sacha Jenkins and David Villorente who have just published Piecebook Reloaded, a sequel to Piecebook, which featured drawings from graffiti writer's sketchbooks.

Outlaw Graffiti
KAVES
with special guests DJ ADM
Survive 185
Sacha Jenkins
and David Villorente

Opening reception Thursday, February 18, 2010
6 to 10 pm
The Art Hall at the Renaissance Blackstone Chicago Hotel
636 S Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL

SHAG at Rotofugi

Southern California artist, Josh Agle aka SHAG, has a show of paintings opening at Rotofugi this Friday night. His new "Shriner" toy will be available as well.

Info from Rotofugi's site...
The new Shriner "Gallery Prototype Edition" figure will be available at Rotofugi beginning at 7pm. Josh will be signing in the gallery from 7pm until 8pm. Thanks!

Artist Bio
Josh Agle (probably better known as Shag, a contraction of the last two letters of his first name and the first two letters of his last) is a painter, illustrator and designer working in southern California. His intention to establish a career as an illustrator-for-hire was sidetracked when his original paintings began to garner considerate attention from galleries and collectors. Since his first gallery show in 1997, Shag has had successful solo exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia.

The paintings themselves celebrate consumerism and consumption on vividly colored, sharply rendered panels; the characters drink, smoke and eat in lavish, stylish surroundings. But Agle sees the visuals of his work as window-dressing or stage scenery. He's more concerned with the narrative of the art. "Most of my paintings are set in the middle of a story or situation — characters are interacting and reacting to each other and to outside events." Agle doesn't offer too many clues about the stories, preferring that the viewer create his or her own narratives to fit the situations.



Red Star, Black Eye
New Works by Josh (Shag) Agle

February 19-March 14, 2010

Opening Reception, Signing and Toy Release
Friday, February 19, 2010, 7-10PM

Music by DJ Sean Doe

The (Con)Temporary Art Space

The folks behind Lumpen and Proximity magazines have been given the opportunity to open an art space in downtown Chicago. The Chicago Loop Alliance has a new program called Pop-Up Art Loop where they're working with artists to utilize empty storefronts. Proximity has been given the old Ritz Camera space on Wabash and Adams. I think it's awesome that the old neon camera signs are still installed in the store as seen at the top of the flier above.

I'm happy by what they plan to offer in the space. Info from their site...

The former retail space will be used as a working studio by cultural workers, producers, artists and designers for projects they are working on collectively and individually. The Public will be able to absorb these presentations as well as share their ideas about contemporary art. The (Con)Temporary Art Space will function as a information center and a place to learn about Chicago’s diverse art ecology.
Read more about the space’s mission here.

We are opening up a shop to sell what we think are the best artist publications around. There is also a co-working space/studio, a reading lounge, and the (An)Other Chicago Mapping project. Every Thursday night we will feature a new exhibition and opening showing work by various groups, spaces and individuals that represent the variety of Chicago’s art worlds.

Why don’t you join us Thursday, February 18 4:30pm to 8:30pm for our grand opening and inaugural exhibition showing work by the founding members? Stop by and find out how you can have a show in our Display Case Gallery or participate in the space, or help us create a collaborative map of the city’s Other Culture. If you put out a publication or zine, bring that to us for us to consign and sell!

The (Con)Temporary Art Space
Opening reception, Thursday, February 18, 2010
4:30 to 8:30 pm
208 S Wabash (Under the Pink, Brown, Orange, and Green Line Adams/Wabash CTA station)
Chicago, IL

The space will be open 11:30 - 5:30 pm, Tuesday through Sunday and later on Thursday nights.

Gilbert and George by CUPCO

Australia's CUPCO decided to produce several pairs of Gilbert and George dolls after viewing a documentary on the British artists. Soon after making these handmade figures, he heard they were coming to Australia, so he was able to present them with a pair of their very own. The dolls come with one poop each, in honor of Gilbert and George's portrayal of bodily fluids in their artwork.

Gilbert and George are a pair of British artists who have been producing work together since they first met in art school in the late 60's. They're well known for their large scale photo-based artworks composed of grids of black and white pictures painted over with solid colors.

These are some examples of their work...





Here are Gilbert and George with their plush likeness...


And here's an article on the whole encounter from the Sydney Morning Herald...

ART DUO’S ‘CRAP’ GIFT

ENGLISH artists Gilbert & George, famous for their ”crap art”, pose an interesting challenge in the gift-giving stakes. What does one give such eccentric artists, brought to Sydney by the arts patron John Kaldor, and whose work features many – ahem – unseemly elements?

However, for the Sydney artist Luke Temby, who has created something a cult following for his plush dolls, depicting everyone from suicide bombers to Kevin Rudd, it wasn’t a challenge at all.

”I was watching a documentary about Gilbert & George towards the end of last year … and was really inspired by how funny and crazy and weird and fun they were,” said Temby, who went on to create a series of dolls in their honour, complete with their own mini piles of replica poo made of felt.

Gilbert & George received their gift yesterday, just ahead of Valentine’s Day.

Check out more from the world of CUPCO here and examples of great pieces from his recent show at Pennsylvania's Metropolis Gallery here.

Light: On the South Side

I've been meaning to write about this book since I first saw it at Quimby's several months ago. In the mid-70's, photographer Michael Abramson explored and documented black nightclubs on Chicago's South side. As a young, white IIT student newly arrived in Chicago and living in Evanston, Michael enthusiasticaly photographed patrons of various blues clubs and other predominantly black venues.

Fast forward to the present and Chicago's Numero Group, a music reissue record label, has published a large, hardcover book of his black and white photographs. The images are beautiful and full of life. The book is packaged with a 2 LP set of music you would've heard on the jukebox in those clubs during the period these pictures were taken including the great, "Is It Because I'm Black?" by Syl Johnson...


Here's a promo video for the book produced by Numero Group with another song from the album as the soundtrack...



And here's a selection of photographs by Abramson from this series...






The book and record set has received a lot of attention in the past few months including this interview on Chicago Public Radio, this article in the Chicago Sun-Times, a selection of more images in Vice Magazine, and an article in this week's Chicago Reader, which details how one of Abramson's photographs led to the telling of the amazing story of Helen Wooten and the circumstances behind the picture he took of her.

Although she looks fine in the picture above (she's sitting on the right side) she had just been shot 3 days before and was at the club that Valentine's night because she had invested $8,000 in that evening's show. You can read her story here.

Light: On the South Side is available at Quimby's, among other places, and through the Numero Group's site. The book also contains several pages of really interesting ephemera like fliers and club membership cards from the clubs Abramson photographed at.

Look into the Light

Pilsen's No Coast collective has now expanded their space and renamed it No Coast Exhibitions and Editions. They're kicking things off tonight with a show titled, Look into the Light.

Look into the Light
Saturday, February 13, 2010
6 to 9 pm
No Coast Exhibitions and Editions
1500 W 17th St
Chicago, IL

Mahjongg, Icy Demons, & Love Concept

I had a great time at the Icy Demons show last month. Tonight should be fun.

Mahjongg
Icy Demons
Love Concept
Saturday, February 13, 2010
9:30 pm
Subterranean
2011 W North Ave
Chicago, IL
$10

Darkroom Madness

A benefit show tonight for the Alternatives Darkroom Project.

Artwork will be auctioned off to benefit the building of a darkroom at the Alternatives youth center in Uptown. This show will be held in Logan Square near Milwaukee and California.

There'll be artwork available by Tom Randpa, Billy Danze, ZEB, Marven Gutierrez, and more!

I donated a couple of prints as well...

Purse Cat by Oscar Arriola


Do You Really Want This? by Oscar Arriola


"Darkroom Madness"
February 12th, 2010
7pm-2am
2340 N Milwaukee Ave, 2nd floor (around the corner from the California Blue Line station)
Chicago, IL

Featuring DJ Jesse aka the Dishwasha
and Sharkula!
$5 suggested donation at the door but no one will be turned away.

DIPSTK

Chicago's Goons and Brooks Golden unveil DIPSTK tonight in Milwaukee. The band may be imaginary but the artwork and characters they've inspired are kickass. The first issue of their zine will be available as well!

Goons & Brooks Golden
DIPSTK: Art Show & World Tour
Opening reception Friday, February 12, 2010
6 pm to close
Jackpot Gallery
825 E Center St
Milwaukee, WI

By George

Jim Zimpel, one of my favorite Chicago artists, has an exhibition opening tonight at Bridgeport's Second Bedroom space. His installation is based on items collected, stored, and displayed by his grandfather.

Jim Zimpel - By George
Opening Friday, February 12, 2010
7 to 11 pm
Second Bedroom
3216 S Morgan Apt 4R
Chicago, IL

Second Bedroom will also unveil a show titled, "Non-Prescription", an installation by Christa Donner in their petite Medicine Cabinet exhibition space.

1000 Miles Shy

Photographer Jay Lawrence Pearson has a show opening tonight of large scale photographs shot on the Appalachian Trail with a 4 x 5 camera.

Jay Lawrence Pearson
1000 Miles Shy
Opening reception Friday, February 12, 2010
6 to 10 pm
Elephant Room, Inc
704 S Wabash Ave (Harrison CTA Red Line station)
Chicago, IL

This show will be up through March 24, 2010
Elephant Room, Inc is open on Saturdays from 11 am to 6 pm

AfriCOBRA and the Chicago Black Arts Movement

Northwestern University's Dittmar Gallery has a show titled, "AfriCOBRA and the Chicago Black Arts Movement" opening tonight. Info from the Dittmar Gallery site...

In 1968, a group of artists, many of them either from or residing in Chicago, came together to discuss the premise that Black visual art has innate and intrinsic creative components that are characteristic of the culture. They called themselves AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists.) The artists who were present at the meeting consisted of painters, printmakers, textile designers, dress designers, photographers and sculptors who felt that their visual expression was definitely affected by the fact that they were Black and that their Blackness contributed a specific quality to their visual expression.

Once the artists concluded that they had specific visual qualities intrinsic to African American culture, the following aesthetic principles were agreed upon: bright colors, the human figure, lost and found line, and the lettering and images which they agreed identified the social, economical and political conditions of African Americans. These AfriCOBRA artists felt that a collective effort was possible under a common philosophy and a common system of aesthetic principles. They all noted that their work had a message: it was not fantasy or art for art's sake, it was specific and functional by expressing statements about their existence as Black people.

One of the goals of this exhibition is to demonstrate how AfriCOBRA is just one of the many artistic organizations with connections to Chicago that has influenced African American visual artistic production on the national level.

Dittmar Winter 'AfriCOBRA' Exhibition Opens to Public Feb. 12 from Northwestern News on Vimeo.

AfriCOBRA and the Chicago Black Arts Movement
Opening reception Friday, February 12, 2010
6 to 8 pm
Dittmar Memorial Gallery
Nortwestern University
1999 Campus Dr.
Evanston, IL

Admission is free and the show will be up through March 17, 2010

Translating Revolution

The National Museum of Mexican Art has a show opening tonight detailing the influence of the Mexican mural movement on American artists over the years. This exhibition will feature work by a wide range of artists including painter Jackson Pollock, muralist José Clemente Orozco, Milton Rogovin, Ben Shahn, photographer Tina Modotti, sculptor Isamu Noguchi, photographer Edward Weston, Elizabeth Catlett, and more.


Translating Revolution
Opening reception Friday, February 12, 2010
6 to 8 pm
National Museum of Mexican Art
1852 W 19th St ( between the 18th St and the Damen stations on the CTA Pink Line)
Chicago, IL

Admission to the museum is free and the exhibition will be up through August 1, 2010

The Treasure of Ulysses Davis

Chicago's Intuit is opening a show tonight dedicated to Georgia artist Ulysses Davis. Ulysses was a barber from Savannah, Georgia who created artwork out of wood. There'll be a variety of work on display including canes, furniture, and a series of busts he carved of every U.S. president through George H.W. Bush.

The Treasure of Ulysses Davis
Opening reception Friday, February 12, 2010
5 to 8 pm
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
756 N Milwaukee Ave (Chicago Blue Line CTA station)
Chicago, IL

This show is free and will be on display through May 15, 2010

Italics

There's three days left to catch the Italics show at the MCA. This show was curated by Francesco Bonami and features work produced in the past 40 years by over 75 Italian artists. One of the highlights is this All piece by Maurizio Cattelan (picutred above). Carved out of marble, the work convincingly depicts bodies laid out under sheets.

There's a huge variety of work in the show including a great series of photographs of the seats of various types of chairs paired with photographs of the indentation marks they leave on a bare bottom. I was also intrigued by a recreation of an installation by Lucio Fontana which climaxes with a large gash in the wall. I've only seen individual canvases of his slashed paintings before.

Italics: Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution 1968–2008
Ends Sunday, February 14, 2010
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 E Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL

$14 V-DAY TATTOOS

$14 V-DAY TATTOOS, originally uploaded by markmarkmarkmark.

Thicker Than Water Tattoo Studio in New York is offering any of these tattoos for $14 for that special Valentine. The Homer Simpson one at the bottom cracks me up.

Thicker Than Water Tattoo Studio
181 Ave B @ 11th
NYC

ANTEXSPAGNA

Ryan Travis Christian will have a show opening Friday night at Ebersmoore in the West Loop. He'll be showing drawings based on stories from his life that he tells to entertain friends.

Ryan Travis Christian
ANTEXSPAGNA
Opening reception Friday, February 12, 2010
6 to 9 pm
Ebersmoore
213 N Morgan #3C
Chicago, IL

The show will be up through March 13, 2010

On The Daily

Chicago's SOLO RM has started posting a new weekly web-comic called On The Daily, chronicling the "daily lives of four friends living in Chicago on their never-ending search for the next cool thing".

I love how he mixes great detailing and even photographs into his illustrations...



Click on the illustration above for a larger view and check out the On The Daily site weekly for new episodes.

Sweet Tooth

Info from the Chicago Urban Art Society site...

Get Your Sweet On This Valentine's Day: SWEETS + MUSIC + ART
Sweet Tooth: A Charity Bake Sale + Art Exhibition benefiting The Chicago Urban Art Society (CUAS) and Friends - Urban Gateways, Chicago Public Art Group, HIGH JUMP, Chicago Art Department - during a one-of-a-kind bake sale fundraising event! RSVP Strongly recommended.

Raffled art donations by Hector Duarte, Chris Silva, Maria Gaspar, Mike Genovese, Jeff Zimmerman, Juan Angel Chavez, Detour Studio, Ray CRO Noland, Dzine, Doug Fogelson, James Casper Jankowiak + Cody Hudson.

Art installation by James Casper Jankowiak. Art on display by Sue Zola.
More info here.

Sweet Tooth: A Charity Bake Sale & Art Exhibition
Thursday, February 11, 2010
6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
2003 South Halsted Street @ Canalport Street
Chicago, Illinois
$20 door donation

Juiceboxxx, Pooper, and Pizza Dog at Ottoman Empire

Milwaukee's Juiceboxxx is headling a show with Pooper, Pizza Dog, and Tomtomtomboy at Ottoman Empire tomorrow night. Juiceboxxx put on an amazing show at Berlin last year, diving right into the crowd and getting everyone hyped. Pooper and Pizza Dog were a lot of fun too with their projected animations and live drumming.

Juiceboxxx
Pooper
Pizza Dog
Tomtomtomboy
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
9:30 pm to 12:30 am
at Ottoman Empire
2820 W Lyndale (1/2 blk west of the California Blue Line station)
Chicago, IL

$5 donation

VIEW

Sculpture Studio, Chicago, by Oscar Arriola

I've got a show of photography up right now at Uprise in Wicker Park. There's a mix of recent images as well as some old favorites involving squishy cats, vampire graffiti, and more.


THOR, Michigan, by Oscar Arriola

Oscar Arriola: VIEW
Opening reception, Monday, February 8, 2010
4 to 7 pm
Uprise
1820 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL

Stop by and say hello on Monday or come to the afterparty later that evening at Danny's because it's also my birthday! Danny's is at 1951 W Dickens Ave, just east of Damen Ave.

The show will be up through February 28, 2010 (minus Feb 17 & 18 for another event)
Uprise is open Mon - Sat from noon to 7 pm and Sundays from noon to 5 pm.

Nathaniel Russell: NOWS

Hyde Park's Home Gallery presents an exhibition of drawings by Nathaniel Russell. Info from Home's site...

Nathaniel Russell makes drawings, prints, and paintings of mysterious figures, inspirational imagery, new age posters, primitive character study, dream thoughts, and references to our common subconscious connections.

His work is closely affiliated with the group of artists and designers associated with Mollusk Surf Shop in San Francisco, California. He has been a part of numerous art shows at the Mollusk Gallery and designed many of the shirts and graphics for the shop.

Nathaniel Russell: NOWS
Opening reception Saturday, February 6, 2010
6 to 9 pm
Home Gallery
1407 E 54th Place
Chicago, IL

There will also be a closing reception and brunch on Sunday, February 28, 2010 from noon to 3 pm.