Photo by Kevin Shelton / Chicago Loop Alliance
The Chicago Loop Alliance (CLA) is at it again. The organization behind Tony Tasset’s memorable EYE and CARDINAL (2010) and Kay Rosen’s interactive GO DO GOOD (2011) is bringing a whole lot of color to Chicago this summer. Chicagoans have been watching the initial phases of Jessica Stockholder’s Color Jam installation slowly start to transform the loop during the install process for the past few weeks, and tomorrow, June 5 is the official opening date for the third installment in the CLA’s award-winning Art Loop series.
Visitors will be immersed in the bright, new installation at State and Adams as they walk on, in, and through the canvas of renowned multi-media artist Jessica Stockholder. Commissioned by CLA, Color Jam saturates building façades, sidewalks, and crosswalks in bold colors in Chicago’s largest art installation. Color Jam is also the largest contiguous vinyl project in the U.S., composed of over 76,000 square feet of colored vinyl – think the equivalent of 50,000 vinyl records, or enough material to wrap 130+ city buses or cover 1.5 football fields!
Photo by Kevin Shelton / Chicago Loop Alliance
In creating Color Jam, Stockholder envisioned a “three-dimensional painting”, spilling out of windows, through doors, and into the surrounding landscape.
“The fictive potential of surface, so thoroughly cultivated through the history of painting, is always ready to burst, spilling forth imagined richness, full of emotional, subjective resonance, and wandering focus is here woven together with the more mundane everyday surface of the street corner. [“Color Jam”] celebrates and demands that the evocative surface of this Chicago street corner be expanded. The corner is canvas, stage, pedestal, and frame against which the public can view a parade of shifting color relationships.”
Photo by Kevin Shelton / Chicago Loop Alliance
On display through September 30, Color Jam invites the public to participate in a series of programs - or “jams” - taking the form of concerts, talks, and happenings throughout the Loop. In addition, several Loop businesses are offering Color Jam-themed specials, ranging from color-tinis to hotel discounts. For more information about the artwork, public programs, and special offers from Loop restaurants, retailers, and cultural institutions, visit www.ColorJamChicago.com.
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The CLA also coordinates monthly First Thursdays Gallery Walks. For the third summer, Pop-Up Art Loop galleries stay open late and invite the public to their spaces for open houses and receptions on the first Thursday of each month. Walks are free and open to the public, running from 5-8pm. Mark your calendar for upcoming walks this summer on June 7, July 12, August 2, September 6 + October 4. For more details and a list of participating spaces, visit popupartloop.com.
Photo by Kevin Shelton / Chicago Loop Alliance
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