BY GINNY VAN ALYEA

The first-ever retrospective exhibition of the work of Columbian artist Doris Salcedo opened&nbsp;this weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art. &nbsp;

Unfamiliar with Salcedo&#39;s work in person, viewing the variety of&nbsp;installations at the media preview on Friday morning&nbsp;was an altogether powerful and somber experience that I will not soon forget. The exhibition gave me a personal way to connect to&nbsp;the scale and depth of&nbsp;tragedy that affects so many victims of political violence in a world far away from my own.&nbsp;The opportunity to see so many of Salcedo&#39;s works installed at the MCA also&nbsp;allowed me an appreciation of her comprehensive vision and&nbsp;an understanding of her unusual&nbsp;use of everyday materials.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="A Flor de Piel, 2014, rose petals and thread" data-rich-file-id="541" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/541/original/img-2816.jpg" />

The largest presentation of Salcedo&#39;s work to date, the exhibition is organized chronologically, giving the visitor a sense of how her works began and where they are today. While Salcedo&#39;s art has evolved over time, her subject matter has largely stayed the same, addressing the experience of loss, particularly due to political violence. Her subjects have witnessed&nbsp;the murder of family members. Victims have been marginalized or simply&nbsp;disappeared, their lives erased, but for Salcedo&#39;s efforts to&nbsp;remember them.&nbsp;Through sculptures and installations, she honors lives&nbsp;lost, revives memories denied, and speaks out against&nbsp;profound violations of the human condition.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Unland, 1995-98, human hair and raw silk" data-rich-file-id="542" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/542/original/img-2820.jpg" />&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" data-caption="Unland detail, 1995-98, human hair and raw silk" data-rich-file-id="535" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/535/original/img-2807.jpg" />

Salcedo&#39;s works are made more powerful through her use of materials. Concrete has been poured into old furniture, rendering items useless. Tables are joined with human hair and silk to represent homes and hearts broken by murder.&nbsp;Rose petals and thread&nbsp;(stitched&nbsp;by many, many assistants) become a rich red shroud to honor a tortured nurse who was then denied a funeral. 12,000 needles adorn an almost invisible shirt, creating a physical version of memory.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Untitled Works, 1989-2008, wooden furniture, concrete, and steel" data-rich-file-id="540" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/540/original/img-2818.jpg" />

Doris Salcedo is a major effort from the MCA to mount exhibitions of this caliber, particularly ones that travel (this will continue to&nbsp;Guggenheim in June), and it opens in conjunction with several significant announcements about the museum&#39;s future. The MCA has launched a $64 million capital campaign ($60 million of which has been raised already from the museum&#39;s board) so that it may further its commitment to featuring ground breaking art (Jeff Koons, Dan Flavin and Frieda Kahlo all had their first solo museum shows at the MCA.) The current museum will undergo some renovations, including the development of a new, ground-floor restaurant, but it will not gain any additional space through new construction. Instead it will commit more funds to exhibitions and to working artists.&nbsp;The MCA is also launching a new visual/graphic identity, with a friendly logo as well as a richer, more interactive website.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Thou-less, 2001-02, Stainless steel" data-rich-file-id="534" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/534/original/img-2809.jpg" />&nbsp; &nbsp;<img alt="" data-caption="Atrabiliarios, 1992-2004, shoes, drywall, paint, wood, animal fiber, and surgical thread" data-rich-file-id="536" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/536/original/img-2811.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Disremembered, 2014, Silk thread and sewing needles" data-rich-file-id="537" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/537/original/img-2812.jpg" />&nbsp;<img alt="" data-caption="Untitled Works, 1989-90, white cotton shirts in plaster and impaled by steel rebar" data-rich-file-id="538" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/538/original/img-2813.jpg" />&nbsp;<img alt="" data-caption="Plegaria Muda detail, 2008-10, wood, concrete, earth and grass" data-rich-file-id="539" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/539/original/img-2815.jpg" />

&nbsp;

Doris Salcedo&nbsp;

Feb 21&ndash;May 24, 2015

<a href="http://www2.mcachicago.org/exhibition/doris-salcedo/">Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago</a>

220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60611

&nbsp;

Top key image:&nbsp;Doris Salcedo, Installation view, Doris Salcedo Studio, Bogot&aacute;, 2013. Photo: Oscar Monsalve Pino. Courtesy White Cube. Reproduced courtesy of the artist; Alexander and Bonin, New York; and White Cube.

Doris Salcedo's Solemn Works Come to the MCA, Along with Major Museum News

Thursday evening when the temperatures were plunging and the wind was whipping between buildings in the Gold Coast, huge pools of flames stood tall and hot around the entrance to the Richard H. Driehaus at the blustery corner of Erie and Wabash. &nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Flaming urns outside the Driehaus Museum " data-rich-file-id="527" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/527/original/flames.jpg" />

The preview party to open the museum&#39;s latest exhibition,&nbsp;Maker &amp; Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry,&nbsp;was packed with eager jewelry admirers happy to brave the evening&#39;s elements for a first look at an unsual collection of&nbsp;artistic jewelry.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="The preview party crowd gathered in the Murphy Memorial Hall" data-rich-file-id="530" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/530/original/insidehall.jpg" />

About a year and a half ago, the museum began utilizing its impressive Gilded Age space to showcase related exhibitions. &nbsp;The first show was devoted to Tiffany glass, and the latest showcases more than 250 pieces of art jewelry, much&nbsp;of which was designed and made by women artists. The impetus for the show comes from Mr. Driehaus&#39;s own collection - he noted in his preview remarks that he personally owns over 500 pieces; the piece that sparked his passion during a trip to London was unfortunately already spoken for, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He&#39;s clearly done just fine since that initial loss, and many of his personal pieces are part of the show.&nbsp;Many others are on loan from other significant private and public collections, and many works have&nbsp;not been publicly displayed before.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="A distinctive creation featuring a spider-theme" data-rich-file-id="531" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/531/original/spider.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="529" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/529/original/group.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Mr. Driehaus has collective Mucha's work extensively, including both prints and associated jewelry." data-rich-file-id="528" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/528/original/mucha.jpg" />

The exhibition features more than 250 stunning pieces of art jewelry created between the late Victorian period and World War I. During this vibrant period, jewelry makers in the world&rsquo;s centers of design created audacious new styles in response to the growing industrialization of the world and the changing role of women in society. Their work&mdash;boldly artistic, exquisitely detailed, hand wrought, and inspired by nature&mdash;became known as art jewelry.

Viewers of the exhibition will recognize many&nbsp;design elements from the art, fashion and&nbsp;architecture hallmarks&nbsp;of the time, though when applied to jewelry, there is something both timeless and fresh about them. Stop into the Driehaus musuem to warm up in its rich, cozy rooms and admire these unusual and personal creations.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/maker-muse-women-and-early-twentieth-century-art-jewelry">Maker &amp; Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry</a>

February 14, 2015&nbsp;- January 3, 2016

Bright Jewels Warm up February at the Driehaus

<img alt="" data-caption="Worlds of Chesley Bonestell features Bonestell’s most iconic work, Saturn from Titan, first introduced to millions of Americans over 70 years ago in the May 29, 1944 issue of Life magazine." data-rich-file-id="514" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/514/original/adler-key-image.jpg" />

Your next visit to the venerable Adler Planetarium just got arty.

This winter, stop by the star-gazing center to see 1940s depictions of the world beyond our own planet. American painter, designer and illustrator Chesley Bonestell&rsquo;s images transported visitors into the future through his rich images printed in Life magazine at a time when the concept of space travel was really still just a dream. The new temporary exhibition at the Adler, Worlds of Chesley Bonestell, explores how, through popular culture, Bonestell reached millions and inspired generations of astronomers, engineers, astronauts and artists.&nbsp;

Free with general admission. Thru April 26. <a href="http://www.adlerplanetarium.org">www.adlerplanetarium.org</a>

Worlds of Chesley Bonestell at the Adler Planetarium

<img alt="" data-caption="Rembrandt, Self-Portrait Drawing at a Window (3rd State), 1648. Part of R.S. Johnson Fine Art’s RIC benefit exhibition" data-rich-file-id="520" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/520/original/rembrandt-self-portrait-by-window.jpg" />

Art offers healing powers in a variety of ways. In Chicago, an important gallery exhibition of rare etchings by the Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijns benefits the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

The special show at R.S. Johnson Fine Art, established in 1955 and specializing in works ranging from Old Master works on paper to 19th and 20th Century paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture, is gallery owner Stanley Johnson&rsquo;s way to draw attention to RIC&rsquo;s work and to thank the Institute for helping him get back on his feet following a stroke.&nbsp;

Last fall Johnson told friends in a letter, &ldquo;Eighteen months ago, as the result of a stroke, I suddenly was paralyzed from head to foot and was brought by ambulance to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago...Today, thanks to the RIC, I am back on my feet: working, traveling the world and walking one to two miles daily.&rdquo;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Rembrandt - Major Graphic Works features 31 works of art, with the exception of two, from Johnson&rsquo;s own and other private collections. The exhibition runs through January 31, 2015.

&nbsp;

645 N. Michigan, Ste. 990 (60611) &nbsp; &bull; &nbsp; Tel 312-943-1661 &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <a href="http://www.rsjohnsonfineart.com">www.rsjohnsonfineart.com</a>

Rembrandts for the Rehabilitation Institute

<img alt="" data-caption="Emmanuel Evzerikhin (1911-1984) Stand Until The End, 1944, gelatin silver print, 15 1⁄2 x 11 1⁄2 inches, Gift of Teresa and Paul Harbaugh, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado Boulder, 2010.13.21 Photo: CU Art Museum © Emmanuel Evzerikhin / PhotoSoyuz" data-rich-file-id="513" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/513/original/3-evzerikhin.jpg" />

The Illinois Holocaust Musuem and Education Center in suburban Skokie is always considering new and varied ways to communicate the many complicated perspectives of one of the 20th Century&rsquo;s defining attrocities. A new exhibition coming to the museum examines images captured by Soviet Jewish photojournalists. Although World War II is one of the most documented conflicts of that century, western audiences know very little about these photographers who captured some of the most riveting and powerful images of the war. These wartime photographers were the first liberators to bear witness with cameras to Nazi atrocities, three years before Americans arrived at Buchenwald and Dachau. Photographers merged documentary photography with avant-garde sensibilities to create works that had a profound influence on 20th century art and beyond. Here art meets history.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, and the Holocaust is curated by David Shneer and Lisa Tamiris Becker, and is organized by the CU Art Museum, University of Colorado Boulder.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

February 22 &ndash; September 7, 2015 &nbsp; <a href="http://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org">www.ilholocaustmuseum.org</a>

Holocaust Photography  Exhibited in 2015

BY MARY DEYOE<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/518/original/flatsstudio3.jpg" alt=""></figure>In Uptown, one block off the Wilson red line El stop, is the old Wilson Avenue Theatre - a former vaudeville theatre and site of one of Charlie Chaplin’s early performances. It was recently a TCF Bank. Today it is FLATS STUDIO, an arts center associated with FLATS apartments, based on a simple hope that art can build community.&nbsp;The grand foyer of the space has a high arched ceiling, and stark white walls are framed by Corinthian columns. With bare bones lighting and temporary walls that are more like large signboards, FLATS STUDIO possesses a raw, rustic feeling that strikes an appropriate aesthetic balance for the neighborhood.&nbsp;Uptown itself is a mix of million dollar homes and run down or abandoned spaces. You see a Starbucks on one block and a Dollar Store on the next. “We really wanted to use this space,” said Jay Michael, co-founder of FLATS, “as a means of bridging the gap between development and gentrification.” Since the first show in September 2014, the gallery has attracted a diverse audience including members of the community, SAIC professors and students, artists, and tenants from FLATS apartments. “We did not create FLATS STUDIO for our tenants, but it has been exciting to see them at the events,” said Michael. FLATS STUDIO hosts an opening for each show on the third Friday of each month.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/517/original/flatsstudio4.jpg" alt=""></figure>The gallery’s December show, Playtime, featured work by roughly 10 artists, all of whom explored a different approach to the idea of play. In the center of the room was a small plastic slide and other playground structures. Nearby was work by artist and FLATS STUDIO co-curator Edward Muela: two orange paper mache rifles with arms and fingers poised in a gun shape (the thumbs up) for the barrels. And in a back room, on the bars of a defunct bank vault door, was a nice blue neon light bent into an elegant flourish.The next show planned for FLATS STUDIO will be a collaboration with Chicago Public Schools, featuring work by high school juniors and seniors. SAIC graduate and co-curator Audra Jacot has a Bachelor’s degree in sculpture and a Masters in Art and Technology. Jacot is also a substitute teacher for the CPS Advanced Arts Program. “I am very excited about this show, and the students are extremely excited to show their work outside of the classroom.”While art was not the focus when FLATS was formed, Michael said the desire to incorporate art into the business was natural, “and we’re only moving forward.” Prior to FLATS STUDIO, the company used vacant ground level commercial space in their buildings for exhibitions. For a year, JC Steinbrunner hosted his Salon Series at the FLATS 1325 Wilson Ave. location. Before that, Chicago artist and Bravo’s Work of Art contestant, Young Sun Han, curated pop up shows featuring work by other local artists.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/515/original/audrajay.jpg" alt=""></figure>Artists for the FLATS STUDIO are selected by an application process. “In general, what we are looking for is a show theme,” said Jacot. All of the artists featured are local, which is important to Michael and Jacot, in order to keep the program centered on Chicago. “We want all aspects of our business to be hyper-local.”In January the FLATS offices will move to Uptown’s former Salvation Army building, where they will display photography from Chicago-based Co-Edit Collection, a website that sells work by professional commercial photographers. Co-Edit was founded by Chicago-based photographer Tim Klein. “We just let Tim take over the space,” said Michael. Michael has also curated a section of work on Co-Edit’s site.&nbsp;FLATS residential spaces are also filled with original art, each building featuring the work of one artist. At 4875 Magnolia photographs by Bob Rehak adorn the walls. In the 1970s Rehak lived and worked in Uptown and photographed residents. “Rehak’s work is almost the precursor to the site ‘Humans of New York,’” said Michael of the popular website that features portraits of everyday people on the streets of New York City. Hanging Rehak’s work in Uptown is a subtle way of connecting current residents with the past.&nbsp;“We have had a lot of fun meeting all of the artists,” said Jacot, and with such a large number of artists applying to show in the space, she is excited about all of the possibilities.In addition to supporting the arts through exhibitions, FLATS offers artists reduced rent to live in the studio apartments. To apply artists must demonstrate a commitment to their work and be below a certain annual salary. “This is another way we can support the arts,” said Michael. In the future, FLATS will include work space for artists, including a metal shop, woodworking facilities, and other amenities.FLATS STUDIO may not have been in Michael’s original company design, but it has certainly made a strong impression.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://flatsstudio.com">flatsstudio.com</a>

Art Builds Community in Uptown FLATS

BY LAURA MILLERAlibi Fine Art is a young gallery dedicated to photography - one of the few in Chicago that focuses exclusively on the medium. Located in Ravenswood on the city’s north side, Alibi is owned and operated by Lisa Janes. New to gallery ownership as of spring 2014, Janes continues to push the photo-centric mission of the gallery forward while aiming to highlight the work of often overlooked artists. Janes shared some insight with Chicago Gallery News about her new role at the gallery as well as her own interest in photography. - LM<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/510/original/installation-1.jpg" alt=""></figure>Q: Tell me about your background and your interest in art.&nbsp;A: I am originally from Alaska, but I have lived all over the country since I left for college. I studied art at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. After receiving my BA, I completed the professional photography program at the New England School of Photography in Boston. I arrived in Chicago to take over the gallery last spring.&nbsp;&nbsp;Q: Are you an artist?A: I am an artist myself, though I rarely exhibit my own work. &nbsp;&nbsp;Q: Alibi Fine Art was established in July 2010 by Adam Holtzman (now one of Alibi’s represented artists), and you took ownership in the spring of 2014. How did this transition come about?&nbsp;A: Before I took ownership of Alibi last spring I was curating at a small gallery in Urbana, IL. Adam and I are old friends from school, and I had asked him to consign some of Joseph Sterling’s work to the gallery for an exhibit. During our collaboration he came up with the idea to turn Alibi over to me before he moved his family back to the east coast. It was something I had always wanted to do, and it was an opportunity I could not pass up.&nbsp;&nbsp;Q: The gallery has focused on photography. Will you continue to feature photography exclusively moving forward?&nbsp;A: I intend to continue to exclusively concentrate on photography. It is the medium I know and love best, and currently there are very few galleries in Chicago dedicated solely to it. I took Alibi on because I liked Adam’s selection of artists and the direction he had taken the gallery in up to that point. Deviations are inevitable, especially as I add new artists to the Alibi roster and explore potential collaborations with other organizations, but I aim to maintain the core characteristics established early on. &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/509/original/other-pictures-installation-8.jpg" alt=""></figure>Q: The CGN office regularly receives questions from artists about how they can get dealers to look at their work. Do you also get this question often, and are you open to reviewing new submissions even if you’re not seeking additional artists?A: I do get this question frequently, and I am sympathetic to it. Unfortunately I do not have time to respond to the numerous inquiries I receive, so I am not open to looking at unsolicited art, especially not in person. I jury and review portfolios through events such as Filter Photo Festival, and I encourage artists to take advantage of similar opportunities if they want their work to be seen by gallerists and curators. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Q: You recently moved the gallery from Montrose to your current Ravenswood address. How is your new space?&nbsp;A: The new location is working out well. Most of Alibi’s regulars have found me by now, and I have gotten a lot of new foot traffic from events such as the Ravenswood Art Walk. Sharing space with Manifold Chicago provides good cross-disciplinary traffic and the closer proximity to Lillstreet Art Center has benefited us as well. &nbsp;&nbsp;Q: How important is foot traffic to you and the gallery?A: I place slightly more importance on those who seek the gallery out because they tend to be the most loyal enthusiasts for the medium, however, I have had a lot of luck with repeat visitors who began as walk-ins.&nbsp;&nbsp;Q: What new shows do you have scheduled this spring?A: Coming up is David Akiba’s homage to Harry Callahan in the spring, followed by Dan Farnum’s color photographs of urban youth in Michigan. Plans are in the works to participate in more art fairs in 2015. Farther down the road I would like to work with artists from disadvantaged backgrounds to provide a way for them to show work that would otherwise go unseen.&nbsp;&nbsp;Q: Do you have any big plans for the year ahead?A: A current professional goal is to find interesting ways to spotlight my artists through social media, events, and collaborations.&nbsp;&nbsp;Alibi Fine Art 4426 N. Ravenswood (60640) Tel 773-454-1512 F-Sa 12-6; and by appt. <a href="http://www.alibifineart.com">www.alibifineart.com</a>

CGN interview with dealer Lisa Janes of Alibi Fine Art

Dealer Profile: Lisa Janes, Alibi Fine Art

BY PATRICIA ANDREWS-KEENANThe story of the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) is best told through the gallery walls of its 1892 Gustav Hallberg designed building. The walls of the main gallery show every nail hole from every exhibit ever hung there. The inaugural exhibition of the Center, held in December 1940, featured works by Charles White, Bernard Goss, William Carter, Eldzier Cortor, Frank Neal and Archibald Motley, Jr.. Those first nail holes tell a story of a community committed to self-improvement and the belief that the arts hold a transformative power to enhance lives. &nbsp;&nbsp;In 2015, SSCAC enters its 75th year and stands as one of the last surviving&nbsp;Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Arts Project&nbsp;(FAP) Centers and the oldest African American community art center in the country. Today the Center continues in its original mission to preserve, conserve and exhibit African American art and showcase African American artists. &nbsp;In its early years the Center was a hive of activity, as well as a who’s who of the Chicago Renaissance. In addition to a series of frequently changing exhibitions, renowned artists George Neal, William Sylvester Carter, Charles Sebree, Katherine Bell, Joseph Kersey and Sylvester Britton taught art classes. Inez Cunningham Stark, the editor of Poetry magazine, taught a poetry class; her students included future Poet Laureate of Illinois Gwendolyn Brooks, as well as Margaret Danner, and Robert Davis.Brooks, author Richard Wright, and Willard Motley attended a regular writers’ forum; on weekends musical legend Nat “King” Cole played jazz. Photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks kept a studio at the Center. Lessons offered for free at the Center included oil painting, drawing, composition, watercolor, sculpture, lithography, poster design, fashion illustration, interior decoration, silk screening, weaving, and hooked rug making. By March 1941, nearly 13,500 people had attended classes, exhibitions, and events at the Center.&nbsp;SSCAC even received recognition from the White House when first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt dedicated the Center on May 7, 1941 in a ceremony that was broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. A gala celebration followed and featured national luminaries like singer Bessie Smith and actress Ethel Waters. The First Lady chronicled her visit to Chicago in the May 9, 1941 edition of her column “My Day.”&nbsp;Below is a portion of the entry:&nbsp;At 3:15 (May 7, 1941) we went to the South Side Community Art Center to dedicate their building. … Chicago has long been a center of Negro art.&nbsp;Many Negro artists have had a hard time getting their training and have starved as many artists do, even when they have achieved a certain amount of recognition. With the aid of federal money it (The Center) has been converted to its present purposes.&nbsp;Many people were influential for the Center over the years. When the Center opened Dr. Margaret Goss Burroughs was one of its youngest board members; she continued her active involvement in numerous capacities until her death in 2010. A prolific fundraiser for SSCAC, she is often remembered for her “miles of dimes” fundraising campaign that was instrumental in SSCAC’s purchase of the Bauhaus remodeled building.Today the SSCAC maintains its status as an active community resource under the leadership of Executive Director Maséqua Myers, a former student of Dr. Burroughs, and a committed board of directors, some with nearly 50 years of service. To mark the 75th anniversary SSCAC has developed a year of programming and events, including a revival of Off The Wall, Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green, which returns to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on April 11. Green, a student at the Art Institute of Chicago, was a habitué of the Center and continues as a supporter.&nbsp; The Ballet is a collaboration of still art and dance and was first conceived by the Columbia City Ballet’s Executive and Artistic Director William Starrett after meeting Green in 2002. It debuted in Chicago in 2010 during the SSCAC’s 70th Anniversary celebration.&nbsp; As in 2010, there will be a special performance for Chicago Public School students. Mayor Rahm Emmanuel will serve as Honorary Chair of this 75th Anniversary event.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/490/original/pat-s-i-pod-photos-through-july-2010-094.jpg" alt=""></figure>The Center will also host its 50th Annual Art Auction, as well as a recreation of its storied Artist and Models Ball, a showcase of the ‘avant garde’ that sometimes featured works on human canvases and was dubbed provocative for the time. Exhibitions for 2015 will include Black Comic Book Heroes, exhibits that pay homage to the Center’s founders as well as up and coming artists, and an exhibition partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art. &nbsp;Myers refers to SSCAC’s 75th as “soaring towards our diamond anniversary.” She says, “I look forward to bridging SSCAC’s legacy of historical excellence in traditional art with the brilliance of the artists of today. Our goal is to attract art lovers from all over the world.” Her vision is borne out as art historians and researchers have traveled to view the Center’s archives from as far away as England, Paris, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire. &nbsp;&nbsp;To learn more and support the center’s GoFundMe Campaign visit <a href="http://www.gofundme.com/dcw4pk">www.gofundme.com/dcw4pk</a>Historical data sourced from the SSCAC archives, ChicagoHistory.org, Wikipedia, Mapping the Stacks, WTTW.com, GWU.edu&nbsp;Key image at top:&nbsp;Renowned artist Jonathan Green, fourth from left, poses with local students in front of his art work at the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) in 2010 when the Ballet based on his artwork,&nbsp;Off The Wall Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green, debuted at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.&nbsp; It returns to Chicago on April 11, in celebration of SSCAC’s 75th Anniversary.&nbsp;&nbsp;

South Side Community Art Center Turns 75

By FRANCK MERCURIO

On a quiet section of Lill Street overlooking Jonquil Park, a one-time CTA transformer station stands anonymously among its more gentrified Lincoln Park neighbors. Unassuming from the outside, the 1910 structure boasts an impressive three-story-tall interior space illuminated by rows of cathedral-like windows. Within this building (that once housed giant rotary converters powering Lincoln Avenue&rsquo;s trolley car system), resides the studio of Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt.&nbsp;

Hunt purchased the old transformer building from the CTA in the early 1970s and relocated his studio there. The atelier contains a diverse array of &ldquo;stuff&rdquo; bearing witness to Hunt&rsquo;s vocation. Mountains of scrap metal stand next to large-scale works in-progress. Dozens of maquettes line tabletops alongside random pieces of African art. Rows of archival boxes and filing cabinets overflow with the memorabilia of Hunt&rsquo;s 60-year artistic practice.

Chicago is celebrating the artist&rsquo;s long and highly successful career&mdash;and his 80th birthday&mdash;with two new exhibitions: Richard Hunt: 60 Years of Sculpture at the Chicago Cultural Center (through March 29) and MCA DNA: Richard Hunt at the Museum of Contemporary Art (through May 17).

<img alt="" data-caption="Eagle Columns, 1989, Jonquil Park, Chicago. © Richard Hunt. Photo: Franck Mercurio." data-rich-file-id="493" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/493/original/img-20141120-095217-259.jpg" />

Best known for his monumental works of public art, Hunt has completed numerous commissions throughout the city and the nation. Chicagoans are perhaps most familiar with Hunt&rsquo;s Flight Forms (2001) at Midway Airport, We Will (2005) on Randolph Street near the Chicago Cultural Center, and Eagle Columns (1989) in Jonquil Park. But Hunt has also created public works in nearly a dozen other states, including significant commissions in Michigan, North Carolina, and Washington, DC.

Yet his prominence as a public sculptor often obscures Hunt&rsquo;s thriving studio practice. &ldquo;I make things from coffee table-sized to plaza-sized,&rdquo; said Hunt during a recent interview. Indeed, the compact exhibition at the MCA focuses attention on eight of the artist&rsquo;s more modestly-scaled works.

&ldquo;People know Richard from his public projects, but I think it is really important to address that he has been laboring in his studio making studio work as well,&rdquo; says Naomi Beckwith, MCA curator. &ldquo;There is this humbler-scaled, yet no less significant, practice in his studio that&rsquo;s ongoing.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Richard Hunt, Small Hybrid, 1964. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morton A. Sterling. © 1964 Richard Hunt. Photo: Nathan Keay, © Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago." data-rich-file-id="491" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/491/original/8e010smallhybrid02-copy.jpg" />

Hunt became famous at an early age through these &ldquo;humbler-scaled&rdquo; works. Arachne (1956) was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art when the artist was still in his twenties. Hunt created this and other early sculptures using found objects, such as discarded automobile parts and other detritus of industrial production.

&ldquo;It was about creating something from found material and the industrial waste that we&rsquo;ve been producing as a society,&rdquo; explained Beckwith. &ldquo;You have artists starting to make things out of waste [in the 1950s]. I can&rsquo;t help but think about it as a kind of commentary on excess production.&rdquo;

As a young artist, Hunt displayed a talent for imbuing obsolete, static objects with life and movement. &ldquo;Some of the earliest works that Richard created were figural. They&rsquo;re all humans or humanoids or little robots,&rdquo; says Beckwith. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s about reactivating&mdash;or literally reanimating&mdash;some of this stuff that seemed lifeless and pulled apart and wasted.&rdquo;

Hunt himself cites Julio Gonz&aacute;lez (1876&ndash;1942) as a major influence on his early work. &ldquo;Gonzalez talked about sculpture being the marriage of material and space&mdash;drawing in space&mdash;you know, that kind of thing,&rdquo; says Hunt. &ldquo;It got my attention.&rdquo;

Gonz&aacute;lez and other modernists pursued a more &ldquo;constructed&rdquo; way of producing sculpture, often assembling or welding separate components together to create three-dimensional compositions. It was a method that inspired Hunt. &ldquo;I started out modeling, but then I saw this constructed stuff and was very excited by it,&rdquo; explains Hunt. &ldquo;I wanted to move in that direction. So that&rsquo;s what got me started doing metal work, first soldering little things, then going on to weld.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Richard Hunt in his Lill Street studio. Photo: Thomas McCormick, 2012." data-rich-file-id="494" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/494/original/richard-hunt-photo3-by-thomas-mccormick.jpg" />

Although Hunt still uses this technique today, the idea of modeling isn&rsquo;t entirely absent from his mature work&mdash;often, he welds together modeled components to create his sculptural constructions. Hunt works out his initial ideas using wax slabs that he shapes and solders to create maquettes. Guided by these initial models, he then models larger pieces from steel or bronze and welds these together to fabricate the finished work.

The final product is consciously abstract, yet reflects an underlying figural quality. Hunts sculptural compositions suggest wings, waves, body parts, and other moving, flowing, curvilinear shapes. Says Beckwith, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d always been amazed by his practice that is abstract, but borrows from these kind of surreal, biomorphic forms.&rdquo;

In the Cultural Center exhibition, 60 of Hunt&rsquo;s signature sculptures are displayed from different periods of his career, including two new works never before exhibited in public. Along with the MCA show, the Cultural Center exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to view some of the best pieces created by Chicago&rsquo;s prodigious dean of sculpture.

&nbsp;

&bull; At the Chicago Cultural Center Thru March 29, 2015

Richard Hunt: Sixty Years of Sculpture

<a href="http://www.cityofchicago.org">www.cityofchicago.org</a>

&nbsp;

&bull; At the Museum of Contemporary Art Thru May 17, 2015

MCA DNA: Richard Hunt

<a href="http://www.mcachicago.org">www.mcachicago.org</a>

&nbsp;

MCA Talk: Naomi Beckwith on Richard Hunt, Tu, Feb 10, 12&ndash;1 pm

&nbsp;

Image pictured at top of page: Gathering scrap in a junk yard at Clybourn and Sheffield Avenues, Chicago, 1962. Photo courtesy Richard Hunt

Richard Hunt: Chicago’s Dean of Sculpture

By KEVIN NANCE

The artistic sensibility of Chicago architect Carlos Martinez&rsquo;s collection is best described as &ldquo;eclectic.&rdquo; Within the 3,000-square-foot Gold Coast condo he shares with his partner, Michael Tirrell, Martinez has amassed a significant modern and contemporary art collection that juxtaposes abstract and figurative work, often hung in pairings that emphasize the contrast. The art, in turn, exists in a kind of creative tension with the highly traditional interior architecture of the building, an upscale 1897 Holabird and Roche apartment complex that was one of the first of its kind in Chicago&rsquo;s Gilded Age. &nbsp;

A native of Cuba and a resident of Chicago since 1982, Martinez is now a principal at Gensler, a leading architecture firm, specializing in interior design. His taste for mixing periods and styles is evident at the couple&rsquo;s Astor Street condo (which, they were happy to discover, was once occupied by L&aacute;szl&oacute; Moholy-Nagy, the Hungarian painter and photographer who founded the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology). Rich wood paneling, molding and floors, a massive mantelpiece and bookshelves form a striking old-world backdrop for the art, much of it by Chicago Imagists Ed Paschke and Roger Brown. &nbsp; &nbsp;

Chicago Gallery News recently sat down for an interview with Martinez, his dog Blue snuggling beneath a blanket at our feet. Here&rsquo;s an edited transcript of our chat.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Q: How did you get started as a collector?

A: It all started 28 years ago, which is when I made my first &ldquo;serious&rdquo; purchase&mdash;the first time I went into a gallery and bought something. It was a drawing by David Kotker, a young, up-and-coming sculptor here in Chicago who was doing some really big pieces. Zolla/Lieberman had a show of his studies for the sculpture, which were really wonderful, almost de Chirico-ish. A lot of David&rsquo;s pieces were sort of perverted&mdash;the line drawing I bought has a kind of S&amp;M quality. It&rsquo;s really beautiful.

&nbsp;

Q: You still have it?

A: Yes. I&rsquo;ve never decommissioned a single piece. And then one day, David decided to get married, have a kid, and stop doing art. He was very well-known at the time&mdash;he was a darling of the art community here&mdash;but he&rsquo;s not so well known now because he quit. I think I paid $600 for the drawing.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Q: Which was a lot of money then.

A: Oh yes. But it was a birthday present to my partner, Michael. So from that point, for every Christmas and every birthday, I would buy a new piece, occasionally more than one. We&rsquo;ve been together for 28 years, so that&rsquo;s how the collection happened.

&nbsp;

Q: Had you been single, would you still have been collecting art?

A: Yes, for sure. I would have bought it for myself. (Laughs.) I&rsquo;ve always loved art. My mother used to say when I was a kid, &ldquo;When you grow up, I think your house is going to be like a museum.&rdquo; (Laughs.)&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Q: And so it is.

A: Yes, although I don&rsquo;t think of it as a museum. (Laughs.) The other thing that happened was that around the time I bought that first piece, I did a project here in Chicago with a wonderful curator and art consultant, Emily Nixon. She&rsquo;s extremely knowledgeable and has her own company, Nixon Art Associates. I told Emily, &ldquo;Christmas is coming up and I want to buy a present for Michael. He has heard of this guy here in Chicago, Ed Paschke. Can you help me get a Paschke?&rdquo; She said yes, she knew of a great piece by Paschke at a gallery in Michigan. I went to see it and loved it, but then she said, &ldquo;Let me show you these other pieces also.&rdquo; They were these two black-and-white drawings, &ldquo;Hubert&rdquo; and &ldquo;Tudor&rdquo; [1976]. And there they are [points to the drawings over the mantelpiece]. And then she said, there&rsquo;s another piece, which I also loved. And I told her, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to buy them all.&rdquo; So that was the beginning of the whole Paschke thing. Michael and I really love his work, and over the years, when something comes up at auction, I often bid on it. Roger Brown was the other artist who Michael liked in particular.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="496" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/496/original/martinez-copy.jpg" />

Q: You have several pieces by both artists, I see.

A: I think there are about a dozen Paschkes and nine Roger Browns. We also have several other classics&mdash;a Motherwell, a Nevelson, a couple Picassos. There&rsquo;s an Ellsworth Kelly, which is one of my favorites. It&rsquo;s funny, because everything is either highly abstract or completely figurative. Michael says, &ldquo;If we go into another room with faces looking at you&hellip;&rdquo; Paschke is always a face, you know.

&nbsp;

Q: What was it about Paschke&rsquo;s work that appealed to you?

A: Michael had met Paschke, and one of the things he really liked was how down-to-earth Ed was. I started reading about him, and I liked the story behind the art. When Ed did one of his early pieces of a female entertainer, he got some criticism for &ldquo;exploiting&rdquo; women. The story I was told was that the next year, he came out with this series of &ldquo;Hubert&rdquo; and &ldquo;Tudor&rdquo;&mdash;there was a third piece, which I&rsquo;m tracking&mdash;about male entertainers, some of whom were transgendered. Ed was having a dialogue with the art community and its narrative around his work. I thought that was wonderful. I was on a panel recently and somebody asked me, &ldquo;What inspires your work?&rdquo; As an architect I look to the social construct of the time&mdash;what&rsquo;s happening in the world, in popular culture. That was also the lens Paschke used in his art. The fact that he was a Chicagoan was also important, and that he was part of this school, the Imagists, with Roger Brown.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Q: What was the connection with Brown? Did you meet him?

A: I never met Ed Paschke, and Michael never met Roger Brown. Part of what we like about Brown is that many of his paintings are about buildings and the people in them. Everybody thinks, &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;re an architect, so of course you like Roger Brown.&rdquo; It was Michael who was mesmerized by his depictions of glowing windows in the black-box buildings. He really connected with that, and I loved it too, because I love Mies van der Rohe, and we lived in a Mies building on Lake Shore Drive at the time. I also like how Brown depicts the sky.

&nbsp;

Q: Those pillowy skies&mdash;

A: Pillowy, yes. Or they look like drapery. He was even more outrageous than Paschke with his critical commentaries. We went to a Brown show at the Phyllis Kind Gallery and saw the piece &ldquo;The Jim and Tammy Show.&rdquo; I loved it, in part because here again we are dealing with popular culture in the context of fine art. I can&rsquo;t say I understood it; in fact I wondered, &ldquo;What the hell does it mean?&rdquo;

&nbsp;

Q: You knew who Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were?

A: Yes, although politically, I had absolutely no affiliation with their mission. I showed it to Michael and said, &ldquo;We should get this, it&rsquo;s so cool.&rdquo; He said, &ldquo;That is the most horrible thing I&rsquo;ve ever seen in my life.&rdquo; (Laughs.)

&nbsp;

Q: It has a camp sensibility.

A: Super-camp. It&rsquo;s about religious fanaticism, of course, but also the scandal they had. So about three years ago, that piece came up at auction, I think at Leslie Hindman, and I said, &ldquo;I have to get it. I was destined to have that piece.&rdquo; I gave it to Michael as a Christmas present. He got a big laugh out of it.

&nbsp;

Q: I see you also have a print by Le Corbusier, which makes sense given the architecture connection.

A: Yes, I bought a book about his lithographs in 1979 when I was an architecture student. I bought it at the Le Corbusier Foundation in Paris, and probably paid $20. The book now is worth $800, which is what a copy sold for recently at auction. I loved the lithographs.

&nbsp;

Q: He&rsquo;s not so well-known for those, is he?

A: No, but they&rsquo;ve become very collectible. The Peninsula Hotel has six of them. When one of the lithographs came up for auction at Leslie Hindman, I said, &ldquo;I need to have this piece.&rdquo; I had a business trip and had to be out of town, so I told Michael, &ldquo;Could you please go to the auction and bid on this piece?&rdquo; The day of the auction, I called home and Michael said, &ldquo;I feel terrible. I got to the auction a couple minutes late and didn&rsquo;t get to bid on the piece. I&rsquo;m really sorry.&rdquo; I was so disappointed. A few months later, Christmas Eve comes, and we were going to have dinner with Emily Nixon. We got in the car to go to dinner, and Michael said, &ldquo;I forgot something,&rdquo; and went back inside. He took a long time and I was getting upset. Finally we went to dinner and came home and were having tea. I said, &ldquo;Wait a minute, there&rsquo;s something different.&rdquo; There was the Le Corbusier piece, framed and hanging on the wall. That was really nice of Michael.

&nbsp;

Q: And kind of wicked, also.

A: Absolutely.

&nbsp;

Q: Your architecturally traditional apartment sets up an interesting dynamic with contemporary art hanging on the walls.

A: I always loved the idea of the contrast between classical architecture and modern furniture and art. In Spanish, the word for furniture is mueble, and the word for real estate is inmueble. Literally, what&rsquo;s movable is mueble and what&rsquo;s fixed is inmueble. The terminology clarifies the fact that some things you take with you, and other things stay behind. To me, architecture is designed for the ages, but furniture and art reflect where you are in time. So coming to this classical apartment was about creating a tension between the two things.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Kevin Nance is a Chicago-based freelance writer and photographer.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/kevinnance1">Twitter @KevinNance1</a>

&nbsp;

Image picture at top: Martinez shows off works by Paschke and Roger Brown alongside various artifacts.

&nbsp;

A collector interview with Carlos Martinez

A Classic Setting for Eclectic Art

BY TONY FITZPATRICK<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/508/original/miley14.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Miley Cyrus's concert during Art Basel in 2014. © Patrick McMullan, photo Paul Bruinooge/PatrickMcMullan.com</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;There is a grim irony surrounding the art extravaganza in Miami this past December. Ten or 12 international art fairs call this mecca of tit-jobs, rhinoplasty, and spray-on tans home for about seven days each year, and in those days they waltz along Collins Avenue surprising each other with great thoughts about the presence of Miley Cyrus, Jeffrey Deitch, and Jay-Z. Whoo Ha!I followed all this on Twitter from Chicago, where it’s cold like it’s supposed to be. When one reporter breathlessly tweeted about being ‘tucked in’ at one fair’s nap station by Marina Abramovic, I thought, Oh Joy. Though I suppose it’s better to have her tuck you in than to wake up with her staring at you. That would give me the willies.The hookers, male and female, must do a brisk trade, while the celebrity crowd zips everywhere in ‘courtesy’ cars furnished by Audi, or BMW, or whomever paid for the franchise. There are a lot of 70 year-olds there with 30 year old wives. I, for one, love rolling up on those guys and telling them how elegant their daughters are, just to make them get so pissed.And in the booths? The big world turns: The Clueless Oaf pays the Stiff-jawed Fraud a fortune for a meaningless accoutrement.It’s prom night for the swells, who dress to the nines just to watch their money fuck other money.Meanwhile...back in civilization? The Midwest town of Ferguson, MO burned. A grand jury’s decision regarding a white policeman’s killing of 18 year-old Michael Brown tore the scab off of the illusory and non-existent ‘Post Racial’ America.&nbsp;In another part of the country, in New York City, five Staten Island policemen walked free after choking 34-year-old Eric Garner to death on the street for selling ‘loosies’, or loose cigarettes.&nbsp;The combined national outrage at these tragedies erupted onto American streets in a way I have not witnessed since the bloody protest era of the Vietnam War. Watching in Chicago I was oddly proud of those who stopped traffic and created snarls in order that the world pay some attention to the class war that has seemingly snuck up on them. That Michael Brown and Eric Garner were poor should surprise nobody. In America? Cops can ONLY get away with killing poor people.I was reminded that these were the kind of events that used to motivate artists into civil discourse, civil disobedience, and dissent. There was a time when artists spoke to the county’s conscience and were part of the discourse, rather than another variety of mere ‘entertainment.’This is where the marketplace mentality has led many of us. The conversation about what art is and does used to be the intellectual real estate that artists occupied.Now? Every Jerk worth eight figures has the public hanging on their every idiotic word, including artists, and believing that dollar bills equal brain-cells.&nbsp;All over Miami Beach. Dopes, Dim-Wits, and Dullards are staring at their iPhones, passing by a full gorgeous view of the Atlantic ocean, with its schools of porpoises and flying fish, and they’re watching for the latest tweet, text, or e-mail to arrive with earth-shattering news of where the Gagosian party is, pondering which dinner can they insinuate themselves into?Part of my own problem with this milieu is the worry that this is now how young artists think this is supposed to be done - art career via social-suction. It’s about who you know and all manner of horse-shit that has nothing to do with being an artist or making art. I want to shake them and tell them to wake the fuck up. The art fair circle-jerk is a celebration of the market, not the art. It is an environment where everyone knows the cost of everything and the definition of nothing.Admittedly my last art trip to Miami was two years ago; while there were some glimmers of hope in the margins of this rolling goat-fuck, the news this year that there was a ‘nap-station’ for those who were tired from shopping and exchanging great thoughts made me think about just how twee and vacuous this whole enterprise is.Wake up.&nbsp;Tony Fitzpatrick is an independent artist, writer and actor living in Chicago.&nbsp;He is the author of This Train and the upcoming Dime Stories, to be published in June 2015 by Curbside Splendor.<a href="https://tonyfitzpatrick.co/pages/about">https://tonyfitzpatrick.co/pages/about</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

Tony Fitzpatrick on the state of the art world

While America Burns...the 1% Gets a Tan

My daughter recently learned how to walk. Constantly watching out for her safety has helped me see the world with a new perspective: while I now anticipate a range of new dangers, I can also freshly see more wonder in the everyday. Toddlers are innately curious; their inexhaustable delight in exploration is charming to a busy adult. Shiny objects and novel experiences can entertain grown ups too, but most of us are a little harder to truly impress.&nbsp;Each winter when I write this letter for our January-April issue, it’s a tough assignment. How can we get people to see things in a new light? Is it possible to be excited about the cruelest stretch of the year in one of the coldest cities in the country? Many people just want to flee until spring arrives. But instead of trying to force my enthusiasm on others, maybe the middle of winter just isn’t a time to be all abuzz. Instead, it may be a reprieve from the frenzy. We have a chance to relax and slow down. The calendar is no longer a blur, and for most of us, if we’re going to venture outside, it had better be worth it. This is not to say that nothing happens when the temperature is below zero. As we come out of our post-holiday fog, the area’s cultural momentum builds each month, starting with winter season openings and continuing until we gratefully reach April. Just like a confident toddler who has mastered baby steps, soon we’ll be running again. Savoring these quieter times is a gift. Before we know it time will have passed us all by.Eight decades have passed for Richard Hunt. Long a sculpture star, as Hunt celebrates his 80th birthday, two institutions are reflecting on this prolific, resourceful artist’s career. Franck Mercurio visited Hunt’s studio to take a look back and to see what’s new.What’s new can be quite at home in an old space. Kevin Nance has a conversation with architect and contemporary art collector Carlos Martinez, whose collection began with a birthday present and snowballed from there. Martinez looks to art and architecture to inspire many aspects of his life.&nbsp;Art has the power to inspire us all, but it can also offer a safe haven for at-risk youths in the city. Even in the slower winter months, there are day-to-day dangers that exist for many kids. Several area art programs are designed to offer a creative escape. Frank Mercurio talks to three Chicago nonprofits making a difference.&nbsp;While we are most often focused on art at&nbsp;CGN, we of course are aware that there are other events happening the world. Arist Tony Fitzpatrick candidly shares his (strong) opinions about artists’ reponses to current events as well as the art fair market and celebrities.&nbsp;A new year can bring a singular freshness to discover, no matter what your age, and even when we feel as if we can’t bear to go outdoors. Out there is undoubtedly something to explore and delight us, just as if we’ve never seen it before. You might just be impressed.&nbsp;Happy new year!&nbsp;

Publisher’s Letter: Baby Steps Through Winter

<h4><img alt="" data-caption="Pictured from top left: Allen Bourgeois, Dennis Chamberlin, David Tepper, Phillip Tawanchaya" data-rich-file-id="487" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/487/original/rangefinderjan1576.jpg" /></h4>

<h4>First Fridays in River North are Here</h4>

For years the public has regularly asked, &ldquo;Are gallery openings on First Fridays?&rdquo; As well known as the phrase is, in River North there has never been such an event, since most openings happen every six to eight weeks. The Museum of Contemporary Art has had such a program, and other art districts in the city have designated monthly public opening nights, but it is in River North that the &ldquo;First Friday&rdquo; myth&nbsp; has long persisted.

Now, one of the district&rsquo;s newest galleries is taking advantage of the &ldquo;First Fridays&rdquo; name and of the public&rsquo;s desire for a regular opening night schedule. The Rangefinder Gallery&rsquo;s Dan Tamarkin is always full of energy and ideas. Often buzzing around the gallery rearranging furniture for the next opening or meeting with artists about future exhibitions, now he&rsquo;s set his entire schedule for 2015 and has committed to having an opening reception the first Friday of every month (beginning January 9th to give everyone a chance to recuperate from New Year&rsquo;s Eve festivities). He anticipates that a regular schedule will be popular with his own clients, but he also hopes that the energy catches on in other area galleries. When the whole neighborhood is involved, First Fridays will cease to be a myth and will become an engaging reality, giving new life to an historic arts district.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/rangefinder-gallery-at-tamarkin-camera">The Rangefinder Gallery</a> is part of Tamarkin Camera, the largest Leica Camera showroom in the Midwest, and one of the largest in the world. The gallery is dedicated to showcasing un-retouched film and digital photographs from the legendary Leica M camera.&nbsp;

Rangefinder&rsquo;s first four months of 2015 feature a variety of photographers. The program changes regularly, so please visit often. See you on First Fridays!

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="488" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/488/original/rfg-2.jpg" />

<h4>Upcoming First Fridays:&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</h4>

January 9: At The Lake, Phillip Tawanchaya

February 6: Connected, David Tepper

March 6: Spontaneous Relationships, Allen Bourgeois

April 3: A Time That Was - Poland in the 1980s, Dennis Chamberlin

&nbsp;

<h4>The Rangefinder Gallery at Tamarkin Camera</h4>

300 W. Superior, Ste. 202, Chicago, IL 60654

Tel 312-642-2255

<a href="mailto:focus@rangefindergallery.com?subject=Rangefinder%20in%20CGN">focus@rangefindergallery.com</a>

<a href="http://www.rangefindergallery.com">www.rangefindergallery.com</a>

M-F 9-5:30; Sa 10-2; or by appt.

&nbsp;

Key image and image below: photograph by Dan Tamarkin&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="486" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/486/original/l1070209-small-copy.jpg" />

January/April 2015 On the Cover: First Fridays at The Rangefinder Gallery

The first Chicago retrospective for Mr. Imagination (Gregory Warmack, 1948-2012), a celebrated artist whose career spanned more than thirty years, is coming to Intuit.&nbsp;As the third of nine children growing up on Chicago’s Southside, Warmack spent his free time making small works from found objects for spending money. Following a 1978 mugging when he was shot and left to die, he had an out of body experience during his recovery that led him to dedicate himself to a new regenerative art for the people.&nbsp;Mr. Imagination is well-known in Chicago, especially in folk and outsider art circles. His own image is hard to forget, especially in his signature self-styled bottle-cap art hats. While his art was popular, the man himself attracted attention from other artists, particularly photographers.&nbsp;Intuit’s Study Gallery will feature an exhibition of photographs of Mr. Imagination taken by Ron Gordon, dimitre, Link Harper, Cheri Eisenberg, Mark Hauser and others, as well as a virtual tour of the artist’s last studio in Atlanta by dimitre.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/501/original/mr-imagination.jpg" alt=""></figure><a href="http://www.art.org/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/">Welcome to the World of Mr. Imagination</a>January 9 - April 25, 2015 Free Opening Reception: January 9, 5-8pm&nbsp;Curated by Martha Henry. On view at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art

Mr. Imagination at Intuit

BY FRANCK MERCURIO

Chicago&rsquo;s youth art programs help fill the gaps left by reduced or non-existent arts education in our public schools. For the city&rsquo;s underserved youth in particular, extracurricular arts organizations provide havens where students can safely socialize, learn, and discover their own creative potential. These programs provide services that elevate art-making above the status of &ldquo;leisure activity&rdquo; by empowering youth to think creatively&mdash;not just about their art, but about their educational and life goals. Following are three profiles of non-profit art organizations that are making a difference in the lives of our city&rsquo;s young people through art education, art therapy, and social services.

&nbsp;

<h3>Marwen</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Marwen students pictured doing Autumn Watercolors and Light and Vision. A variety of courses are offered. " data-rich-file-id="499" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/499/original/marwenjan15.jpg" />

Founded by entrepreneur Steve Berkowitz in 1987, Marwen is one of the longest running&mdash;and most successful&mdash;youth art programs in Chicago. The organization (named after Berkowitz&rsquo;s daughters, Marcy and Wendy) currently serves 1,000 students, from 6th through 12th grades, in more than 100 art programs.

Many students return to Marwen as adults to teach. &ldquo;A really important aspect of Marwen is that we aim to work with kids over the arc of many terms and years,&rdquo; says Antonia Contro, Marwen&rsquo;s Executive Director for the past 20 years. &ldquo;A young person can come here in sixth or seventh grade, stay through high school and then continue through work opportunities with our teaching-artist community.&rdquo;

Marwen offers programs in traditional mediums such as painting, drawing and sculpture but also courses in new media, interdisciplinary arts, and design, including fashion design. Beyond offering a wide range of visual arts programs, one of Marwen&rsquo;s goals is to get kids to think about their future potential, especially college.

&ldquo;Marwen has a fantastic, nationally recognized college planning and career development program,&rdquo; explains Contro. &ldquo;We help young people understand post-secondary education, apply, and get into college.&rdquo;

According to Contro, over 90 percent of Marwen participants &mdash; the majority of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds &mdash; are accepted into higher education programs.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>South Chicago Art Center</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Children at the South Chicago Art Center" data-rich-file-id="500" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/500/original/dscn5228-copy.jpg" />

A world away from Marwen and its River North gallery neighbors is the South Chicago Art Center, located on 91st Street near the Calumet River. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty much a cultural desert down here,&rdquo; says Executive Director Sarah Ward. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re the only program that has served this neighborhood for the past 13 years, and it&rsquo;s the only consistent after school program.&rdquo;

Ward has a degree in art therapy from the Art Institute of Chicago. She sees multiple needs of the kids who live in the South Chicago neighborhood and participate in the Center&rsquo;s programs.

&ldquo;While some programs might fit snuggly into an art education box or a social services box, we fill [students&rsquo;] needs on a holistic level,&rdquo; says Ward.

In addition to offering 29 different programs for elementary, middle school, and high school kids&mdash;covering subjects like art, gardening, and cooking&mdash;the Center also feeds students if they&rsquo;re hungry and helps provide basic necessities like clothing. Most important, the Center gives its students a safe and stable place to go to after school to avoid South Chicago&rsquo;s random violence.

&ldquo;They&rsquo;re coming here to be in a safe place where people are not only going to teach them concepts and art, but they&rsquo;re also going to be respected and heard,&rdquo; explains Ward. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t have to worry about the things that are going on outside of here.&rdquo;

The Center recently purchased a new building at the corner of 91st St. and S. Houston Ave. and has launched a $2.5 million dollar fundraising campaign to pay for the move and needed renovations. Located across the street from the South Chicago Public Library and the South Chicago YMCA, the new home will provide even more safety and security for its students.

&ldquo;It will greatly raise our profile,&rdquo; says Ward about the relocation of the Center. &ldquo;Plus we will have a gallery space, a kiln, and we&rsquo;ll be open for more extended hours&hellip;it will become a really kid-friendly, safe space.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

<h3>Yollocalli</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="A group at Yollocalli, courtesy Yollocalli Arts Reach" data-rich-file-id="497" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/497/original/yollocalli-copy.jpg" />

Yollocalli means &ldquo;heart of the house&rdquo; in Nahuatl, the Aztec language. Located in Barrett Park in Chicago&rsquo;s Little Village, this teen arts program is an outreach initiative of the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Unlike many youth arts programs in the city, Yollocalli&rsquo;s courses are structured as open-studio residencies.&nbsp;

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not really teaching,&rdquo; says Director Vanessa Sanchez of Yollocalli&rsquo;s approach, &ldquo;but more like a mentor relationship.&rdquo;&nbsp;

The students, in turn, collaborate on their instructor&rsquo;s projects. As a prime example, Sanchez cites a recent collaboration with 96 Acres, a series of site-specific works and events headed by artist Maria Gaspar. Students worked alongside artists to stencil phrases and questions on the walls and sidewalks surrounding the Cook County Jail. In a technique called &ldquo;reverse graffiti,&rdquo; the participants &ldquo;inscribed&rdquo; words onto surfaces using a powerwasher.

&ldquo;Instead of applying paint to a surface, you&rsquo;re cleaning a surface,&rdquo; explains Sanchez.

In addition to other street art classes, Yollocalli also offers unique programs like Digital Journalism, where students use narrative and storytelling in the manner of This American Life or Snap Judgement to create their own podcasts.

To Sanchez, many of Yollocalli&rsquo;s benefits are more intangible than the practical skills that students learn. &ldquo;I think it helps build their character,&rdquo; says Sanchez. &ldquo;They always let us know how much they loved their time with us and how they&rsquo;ve continued the tradition of giving back to the community or doing something positive for whatever neighborhood they&rsquo;re from or for the city at-large.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

For more information visit:

<a href="http://www.happyartcenter.org">happyartcenter.org</a>

<a href="http://yollocalli.org">yollocalli.org</a>

<a href="https://marwen.org​">marwen.org</a>

Pictured at top of page: students at the South Chicago Art Center

Art Offers Youths a Creative Safe Haven

Chicago artist Ellen Lanyon passed away in October 2013 at age 86 while working on a new print series.&nbsp;A memorial exhibition of those pieces as well as others, Ellen Lanyon: Remembrance and Celebration, featuring the final Cambridge screenprints, is on view at Printworks in River North through February 14, 2015.Lanyon split her time between Chicago and New York, and she was a frequent attendee at many art openings and events all around the country. Her diminutive stature was not representative of her energetic personality and zest for art and artists. Lanyon received&nbsp;a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa.&nbsp;Her work is part of the permanent collections of many museums including&nbsp;the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of&nbsp;Modern Art (New York), Walker Art Center, Milwaukee Art Museum and the Library of Congress.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/502/original/ellenportrait.jpg" alt=""></figure>Printworks311 W. Superior (60654)<a href="http://printworkschicago.com">printworkschicago.com</a>

Ellen Lanyon Memorial Show

BY ERIN BENATOR

Entering <a href="http://tomburtonwood.com">Tom Burtonwood&rsquo;s</a> studio at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he is an artist in residence, I was greeted by a reverberating, mechanical hum. The source of the noise? A machine &ldquo;printing&rdquo; a complex object, layer by layer until a sculpture took form. Burtonwood discovered the lure of 3D printing,&nbsp; and as an artist he has taken advantage of the opportunity to transition from working in more traditional mediums to a technological revolution in art and design.&nbsp;

Invented over 30 years ago, 3D printing has recently taken the fields of design, art, science, and engineering by storm. From fabricating prosthetics and robots, to replicas of art objects and lamp fixtures, these machines benefit a variety of industries. Unlike the traditional &ldquo;subtractive&rdquo; method of sculpture and manufacturing, 3D printers perform an &ldquo;additive&rdquo; process. Requiring less raw material and producing less waste, whether plastic or metal, the process is more cost effective. Designs can also be fabricated via digital content creation using computer-aided software (CAD), or &ldquo;scanned&rdquo; through images or photographs of an object from various angles.

Jackson Levy, a digital fabrication specialist at <a href="http://www.the3dprinterexperience.com">The 3D Printer Experience</a> located in Chicago&rsquo;s River North neighborhood, defines 3D printing as, &ldquo;a technology that has developed into an industry, which facilitates artists, designers, and people who are involved in prototyping and fabrication, as well as manufacturing&hellip;It introduces all these groups and individuals who have been working with old tools of fabrication to a new medium.&rdquo;

3D printing is not done in a vacuum; the open-source movement is at the heart of the printing community, where designers&rsquo; and artists&rsquo; concepts are often available online for other users to download and utilize. Burtonwood even shared a recent design of his for Orihon, his 3D-printed accordion-fold volume containing scans of ancient sculptural objects from the Art Institute of Chicago&rsquo;s collection.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Studying a 3D object in a 2D space is a challenge,&rdquo; explains Burtonwood, as he pulls out a sample draft page from a new 3D-printed book he is working on, along with a jar of Play-Doh. He takes a glob and pushes it into the mold. The after effect is a 3D model of an ancient Greek sculpture. Burtonwood says he values 3D printing&rsquo;s educational tools. For him as well as other artists, 3D printing opens up a new realm of art education, where students can have economical and easy access to art objects through 3D replicas of their actual forms in space.&nbsp;

The 3D Printer Experience is one of the first places to offer 3D printing as an interactive, personal experience for the general public. Whether users want to submit a design for printing or learn how to use 3D printing equipment and software, their mission is &ldquo;to make an immediate impact through open information and education,&rdquo; says Levy.&nbsp;

The printing technology for 3D continues to evolve. From the ChefJet, which enables users to print out edible objects, to Home Depot&rsquo;s recent agreement with desktop 3D printer company MakerBot, the 3D printing industry is increasingly becoming more mainstream and user accessible. Like the computer once transformed society across all industries from design to medicine, 3D printing holds the boundless new potential to shape the future of art, design and more. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

Image shown at top of page: Tom Burtonwood, Orihon (3D Printed Accordion Book), &copy; Tom Burtonwood

Industry, Art and Education: 3D Printing

Happy birthday to The&nbsp;Golden Triangle! &nbsp;This week the global home furnishing and antiques resource turns 25.Founded in 1989, <a href="https://www.goldentriangle.biz/index.html">The Golden Triangle</a> has always been unique, thanks to the vision of founders&nbsp;Douglas Van Tress and Chauwarin Tuntisak. The Golden Triangle&nbsp;is today one of the city's largest home furnishing stores, which is pretty remarkable when you consider that so many of Chicago's&nbsp;big furniture&nbsp;stores that come to mind are corporate bohemoths featuring mass produced wares promoted in glossy catalogues, and The Golden Triangle specializes in antiques.&nbsp;Frequent flying and unusual travel has been the hallmark of the business since its inception, since only by in-person buying trips and personal research can Doug and Chauwarin bring the best of the world back to Chicago (and then beyond again, since the store also holds a national profile.)&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/467/original/gt1.jpg" alt=""></figure>Devoted to specializing in fine Asian and European antiques, The Golden Triangle has made a sometimes stuffy field accessible to a new generation. Furniture and pieces sold at the store easily blend in with traditional or contemporary aesthetics, so there is something for everyone's style.&nbsp;History is palpable without being too precious. Pieces found here have more meaning, as well as long term value, when compared to the sometimes disposable alternatives from big-box stores. Van Tress is a proponent of the value of antiques, and that personal passion is evident in the range of resources he finds for clients.&nbsp;The Golden Triangle's original focus was on antiques and artifacts just from Thailand. Over the years the store's inventory has changed&nbsp;regularly due to availability, quality and trends.&nbsp;Offerings are always&nbsp;expanding, today coming from all over Asia as well as many destinations in Europe, so clients have a reason to visit the store over and over.&nbsp;The Golden Triangle's showroom is a work of art which creates a comprehensive visitor experience. Housed in an 18,000 square foot former Chicago River warehouse and featuring an indoor courtyard, the store invites visitors to explore several vignettes from various historical periods, such as the Raj, other Colonial periods, ancient China, and 19th Century Europe. As shoppers and designers move from space to space, their experience changes with the context. That variety can also deliver helpful inspiration to clients and designers. &nbsp;The scale of Golden Triangle's space also allows for displaying its signature large works, like ancient doors, panels and mantles.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/468/original/gt2.jpg" alt=""></figure>While The Golden Triangle is an international resource for many, its roots are in Chicago, and the founders are devoted to supporting people here at home. Since 2006 the store has&nbsp;featured modern furnishings made from reclaimed exotic hardwoods as well as contemporary Chicago-made case goods and upholstered sofas and chairs.&nbsp;Here's to celebrating 25 years in Chicago!&nbsp;&nbsp;The Golden Triangle is celebrating their anniversary this week with an <a href="https://www.goldentriangle.biz/events.html">Open House</a>&nbsp;on Saturday, October 18, 12-5pm. The event is open to the public and will feature refreshments and cultural performances.&nbsp;The Golden Triangle330 N. Clark,&nbsp;Chicago, IL 60654 •&nbsp;T: 312-755-1266&nbsp; M-F&nbsp;10-6;&nbsp;Sa&nbsp;10-5&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/469/original/gt3.jpg" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/470/original/gt4.jpg" alt=""></figure>&nbsp;

The Golden Triangle Turns 25

Monday night at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA)&nbsp;was a big night for ten local artists, thanks to the support of Chicago's 3Arts. The charity, devoted to supporting women artists, artists of color and artists with disabilities, hosts a special event each October to announce the year's lucky recipients of unrestricted grants - inspirational windfalls or bountiful financial relief packages that are always greatly appreciated. 3Arts' has always touted its mission of providing the means for artists to freely create art and build a sustainable career, but now the charity is&nbsp;expanding programming to include residency fellowships, project support, and professional development and promotion.&nbsp;This year for the 7th annual awards,&nbsp;the grants are worth more than ever: $25,000, up from $15,000&nbsp;in&nbsp;2013.&nbsp;To date, 3Arts has raised nearly $1.5 million to directly support artists. The recipients work in a variety of arts-related fields, including the performing, teaching and visual arts. This year’s 3Arts Award recipients are: dancer&nbsp;Darrell Jones&nbsp;and choreographer&nbsp;Erica Mott; circus choreographer&nbsp;Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi&nbsp;and playwright&nbsp;Calamity West; instrumentalists&nbsp;Brandi Berry&nbsp;and&nbsp;Carlos Mejía; visual artists&nbsp;Irina Botea&nbsp;and&nbsp;Amanda Williams; and teaching artists&nbsp;Sophia Nahli Allison&nbsp;and&nbsp;Samuel Roberson. Full bios are available at <a href="http://www.3arts.org">www.3arts.org</a><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/463/original/irina-botea.jpg" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/464/original/amanda-williams.jpg" alt=""></figure>

Big Money for Ten Lucky Chicago Artists

BY FRANCK MERCURIO The 140 galleries participating in EXPO Chicago this year&nbsp;showcase a range of established artists from across the globe. But the exposition of contemporary and modern art also provides opportunities for a select group of local artists to exhibit their work to an international audience. Jenny Kendler, John Preus, and Erik Peterson are three Chicago artists whose work is highlighted at this year’s EXPO at Navy Pier.Kendler is the first-ever artist-in-residence for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Her EXPO installation&nbsp;Tell It to the Birds&nbsp;(2014) fills the entire NRDC exhibitor booth and vibrantly reflects issues surrounding dwindling biodiversity and the conservation of species. You can read more about Kendler’s installation in a previously published Chicago Gallery News article,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2014/8/realizing-human-relationships-with-nature-through-art">Realizing Human Relationships with Nature through Art</a>.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/460/original/kendlercombo.jpg" alt=""></figure>Above: images from Kendler's NRDC installation.&nbsp;Until recently, Preus (rhymes with “choice”) was the lead fabricator for artist and activist Theaster Gates and the creative director of Gate’s <a href="http://rebuild-foundation.org">Rebuild Foundation</a>. Given this background, it’s not surprising that Preus fabricates many of his works from found objects. For EXPO&nbsp;Preus was invited to create a series of installations using discarded furniture from Chicago Public Schools. Collectively titled&nbsp;Social Furniture&nbsp;(2014), these works address last year’s closing of 54 Chicago schools and bring attention to what Preus sees as waning support for public education.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/461/original/photo-2.jpg" alt=""></figure>John Preus's installation at EXPO&nbsp;Peterson, a recent “graduate” of the Chicago Artists Coalition BOLT residency, creates works that explore the dichotomies between “space and surface, luminescence and reflectivity.” His neon sculptures grabbed the attention of EXPO officials during a recent tour of the CAC’s artist studios; Peterson was subsequently invited to create a site-specific piece for EXPO. Titled&nbsp;Seep&nbsp;(2014), this pink neon sculpture activates a dark—and rather challenging—outdoor space at the lower level entrance to EXPO. True to its name,&nbsp;Seep&nbsp;“spills” from its brick wall base onto the sidewalk, blurring spatial boundaries, a trademark condition of Peterson’s sculptures.A second site-specific work by Peterson titled&nbsp;Indulge Your Every Whim&nbsp;(2014) is located in the Chicago Artists Coalition booth inside Festival&nbsp;Hall (EXPO's main exhibition space.) This piece was selected from a dozen other proposals by Kate Nesim, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. Similar to&nbsp;Seep,&nbsp;Indulge You Every Whim&nbsp;is created from pink neon tubing and designed to fit its space. Peterson calls the two works “fraternal twins.” Both use neon in what Peterson calls a “mannerist way,” where the medium is manipulated and transformed from its original function as signage material into a more expressive mode.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/462/original/photo-1.jpg" alt=""></figure>"Seep" by Erik Peterson&nbsp;Says curator Nesim of Peterson’s installation “[It] struck a compelling balance between, on the one hand, contributing to the sense of spectacle or visual dazzle in a fair environment, and, on the other hand, arresting the viewer—providing a space in which optical disorientation and ultimate orientation are explored both playfully and thoughtfully.”The works of Kendler, Preuss, and Peterson are on view at <a href="http://expochicago.com">EXPO Chicago</a> from Friday, September 19 through Sunday, September 21.&nbsp;&nbsp;For images and posts from EXPO all weekend, follow CGN on <a href="https://twitter.com/ChiGalleryNews">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://instagram.com/chigallerynews">Instagram</a>

Local Artists Featured at EXPO CHICAGO

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY KEVIN NANCEIf a man’s home is his castle, an artist’s studio is his or her laboratory—a place of experimentation, trial-and-error, research and development. Cooking metaphors come to mind: throwing things at the wall to see what (literally!) sticks; the shrouded mystery of sausage-making. Far from the pristine galleries where their finished pieces are displayed, some artists labor in smudged, messy spaces crammed with works-in-progress, materials and tools arrayed in minimally organized chaos; others are more compartmentalized and precise.&nbsp;For our second installation of Artists at Work, we offer&nbsp;a glimpse into eight such environments, occupied by leading Chicago artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Phyllis Bramson, Audrey Niffenegger, Nicholas Sistler, Marcelo Eli, Louise LeBourgeois, the Zhou Brothers, and Edra Soto.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/454/original/kerry-james-marshallaaw.jpg" alt=""></figure>Kerry James Marshall in his studio in Bronzeville. Last year he became the first African American to have a solo show at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and later had a show in Antwerp, Belgium, that is now touring Europe. When I saw him in his studio, he looked glad to be home.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/452/original/audrey-niffeneggeraaw.jpg" alt=""></figure>Audrey Niffenegger in her attic studio at her home on the West Side. The skeletons are her pals and models -&nbsp;they've made cameo appearances in several of her pieces -&nbsp;and so is the taxidermied raven on her desk; the bird modeled for several images in Audrey's most recent graphic novel, "Raven Girl."&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/458/original/phyllisaaw.jpg" alt=""></figure>Phyllis Bramson is&nbsp;shown in&nbsp;her West Loop live/work space. "I'm trying not to care so much," she said of her painting/collages, but that seems to be coming along slowly. Stated in regards to a change in visual strategy as Bramson gets ready for her Thirty Year Retrospective at the Rockford Art Museum, opening in October 2015 - January 2016.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/457/original/nicholas-sistleraaw.jpg" alt=""></figure>Nicholas Sistler in his home studio in Bucktown. The clown outfit was his idea; as he put it, "Why not have some fun?" Good question.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/455/original/louise-lebourgeoisaaw.jpg" alt=""></figure>Louise LeBourgeois in her Rogers Park studio. She specializes in paintings of Lake Michigan, one of which recently was acquired by Fermilab, the particle-physics research facility in Batavia, IL&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/456/original/marcelo-eliaaw.jpg" alt=""></figure>Marcelo Eli in his Bridgeport home studio. For the photo shoot, he sat on a wooden stool that he's had since he was a small child. He's a grownup now, as the beautiful painting behind him shows, but the stool still bears his weight nicely.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/453/original/edra-sotoaaw.jpg" alt=""></figure>Edra Soto in her home studio a few blocks from the Garfield Park Conservatory. She worked until 1 o'clock in the morning the day of the photo shoot because&nbsp;she had an exhibit opening that evening, "Say Everything" at the Lloyd Dobler Gallery. She still looked fresh and rested for the shoot.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/459/original/zhou-brothersaaw.jpg" alt=""></figure>The Zhou Brothers in their Bridgeport studio. During the shoot, I asked the brothers how they manage to stay in such good shape, and especially how they keep their midsections so trim. "Well," DaHuang Zhou (on the right) said with a smile, "I suck it in."&nbsp;Kevin Nance&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/KevinNance1">@KevinNance1</a>

Part II: Artists at Work: Studios as Laboratories

EXPO CHICAGO will be on the minds of more people than ever this fall when it returns to Navy Pier for the third time, September 18-21. The first year everyone watches and waits, the second you get both feet on the ground, and the third time, you take off. This year’s art fair is sure to do just that. Featuring over 140 galleries from 17 countries and 43&nbsp;cities, both the strength of the fair and the special programming will be better than ever.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/439/original/openingssummer-copy.jpg" alt=""></figure>So, what should you watch for? In addition to a packed EXPO ART WEEK taking place in the days leading up to the fair, noteworthy EXPO programs include IN/SITU: a program of large-scale, site-specific installations curated by Renaud Proch, and EXPO Video: film, video and new media works curated by Astria Suparak (new for 2014 is a fourth station featuring the work of Columbia College students.)<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/art-after-hours">Art After Hours</a>, happening September 19, 6-9pm, is a chance to visit local galleries and art spaces around the city after the fair. The rest of the weekend, <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/free-shuttles-during-expo-chicago">free shuttles</a> will run from Navy Pier to the MCA, the Art Institute, River North and West Loop (including Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.)&nbsp;Many Chicago galleries participating in EXPO have openings taking place in conjunction with Art After Hours.&nbsp;Highlights include Mickalene Thomas at Kavi Gupta, an exhibition organized by Theaster Gates at Valerie Carberry and Richard Gray, Simon Starling at the Arts Club and the MCA, Gregory Scott at Catherine Edelman, Dawoud Bey at Stephen Daiter, Paula Hayes at Rhona Hoffman,&nbsp;Magritte at the Art Institute, Bowie at the MCA, 40 years at the Smart Museum, and 75 years at the Hyde Park Art Center. Trust us, there's more!&nbsp;And of course&nbsp;<a href="http://www2.mcachicago.org/vernissage2014/">Vernissage</a>, Thursday’s opening night preview benefiting the Museum of Contemporary Art is the art party of the year. Think light installations, mylar, performance artists, free popcorn, lots of drinks, many things to Instagram, after parties on boats, and more.Cross your fingers and maybe you’ll be extra lucky and also score a $3,000 ticket to the <a href="http://www2.mcachicago.org/bowiegala">MCA’s Bowie gala</a> Saturday night!Complete details available at&nbsp;<a href="http://expochicago.com">expochicago.com</a>

Art at EXPO and Beyond

By KEVIN NANCEArt collectors often claim that they buy art solely because they love it, not because they consider it an investment. But for Paul and Linda Gotskind, a Chicago couple who’ve spent the past quarter-century thoughtfully amassing an impressive collection of contemporary art, they see a work’s monetary value, now and (potentially) in the future, as a necessary part of the decision-making process.“Most people would probably say that they don’t have the money thing in the back of their minds, but they do,” Paul Gotskind says in an interview at their River North home. “We buy art mostly because we like it, but when you’re buying something that costs a lot of money, you’ve got to think about the investment part of it. I’m not saying we buy things because they might go up in value, but at the same time, I don’t want to lose every cent we’re putting into it, either.”Linda is even more definite on the subject. “For me, it’s part of my portfolio,” she says. “I’m not in a position to spend several million dollars on something and ignore the possibility that it could be worthless at some point.”The Gotskinds’ unapologetic practicality with regard to art and money stems in part from the fact that they both spent most of their professional careers as stock and commodities traders, he at the Chicago Board of Trade and she at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. &nbsp;(Paul remains an active stock trader, working from home; Linda, a teacher before entering the financial industry, is retired.)&nbsp;Their understanding of the fiscal realities of art collecting also affects the art they buy and how they buy it. They deal primarily with established galleries in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago (including the Richard Gray, Alan Koppel, Kavi Gupta and Rhona Hoffman galleries). “We’ve occasionally bought pieces from galleries whose reputations we weren’t sure of,” admits Linda Gotskind, “which might not have been the best decision.” And rather than take risks on emerging artists, the couple prefers to collect work by mid-career artists “who’ve made a move for themselves,” as Paul puts it. “They’re associated with good galleries, they’ve sold at auction, they’re in museum collections.”Also hovering in the background of their art-buying choices is the fact that with his first wife, Paul Gotskind built a significant collection of work by blue-chip artists such as Picasso, Dubuffet, Frank Stella and Cy Twombly.&nbsp;At the time of their divorce, Gotskind and his ex-wife chose to sell the entire collection rather than make the difficult decisions that would have been necessary to divide it. “If we hadn’t sold it, that collection would have been worth a small fortune today,” he says wistfully. “Now I’m paying the same amount for younger artists that I was paying for blue-chip artists back then.”*<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/430/original/gotskinds-2-copy.jpg" alt=""></figure>The Gotskinds’ collecting is also largely about their own emotional investment. Showing a visitor around their 2,800-square-foot condo recently (they also have a home in Laguna Beach, Calif., where they keep the other half of their collection of about 100 pieces), they take obvious pleasure in the work. They are unusually knowledgeable about each piece, having developed relationships with many of the artists and learned more than many collectors do about the art-making processes involved. Their collection is consciously integrated with family heirlooms and photographs. “That’s my best art,” Linda says proudly of a framed portrait, “My grandkids.”Both Paul and Linda know what they like (primarily painting and sculpture, the latter often with a textured, tactile quality) and what they don’t. “Conceptual art is something we’re still working on,” Linda says. “Something that needs an explanation, that you have to study up on, is not what I’m normally drawn to—although when you walk around with a curator, that’s all they’re drawn to.” Most of all, they’re drawn to quality. “We’re big fans of buying one of the better pieces by an artist,” Paul says. “I’d rather buy a lesser artist’s better work than Andy Warhol’s worst piece.”Along the way, the Gotskinds have developed fairly specific affinities: for African-American artists, including Rashid Johnson, Kehinde Wiley, Charles Gaines, Jack Whitten and Theaster Gates (“Black artists are having their time right now,” Linda says); women artists (including Rosson Crow, Wangechi Mutu and Elizabeth Neel); and Chicago artists (including Gates, Angel Otero, Dzine and William J. O’Brien).“Paul and Linda have an extraordinary eye,” says Tony Karman, who enlisted the Gotskinds as investors in Expo Chicago, the annual art fair at Navy Pier. “They are very active on the contemporary art scene, not only with leading galleries but as people who collect artists who have gone on to great careers. One of the best parts of their collecting ethos is that they don’t use an art adviser; they share the experience of finding artists they want to collect, and they stay true to their curatorial vision.”Perhaps the Gotskinds’ biggest problem now as art collectors is that they’re essentially out of display space, though they continue to actively collect. Virtually every possible place to show art in their two homes is filled.&nbsp; Lending pieces to museums (which they do frequently, including recent loans to Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and other institutions) only solves the problem temporarily.“It’s a question we don’t have an answer to yet,” Paul says a smile. “We’re working on it.”One possibility is to sell some work at auction, which, so far, they’ve done only sparingly. Another option is to donate some artworks to museums, but that still leaves something to be desired. “The pieces the museums are the most interested in are the pieces we’re most interested in,” Linda says, “and I’m not ready to give them up just yet.”Kevin Nance is a Chicago-based freelance writer and photographer. Twitter @KevinNance1

Collector Profile: Linda and Paul Gotskind

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image image-style-side"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417943/nzmy38pedy2ltbzyotye.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;By KEVIN NANCEIn the community of art dealers in Chicago, Kavi Gupta stands out as one of the busiest and most ambitious. From his base in his eponymous gallery at 835 W. Washington, Gupta surveys an expanding mini-empire of exhibition spaces that now includes a branch in Berlin as well as two satellite spaces in Chicago (219 N. Elizabeth in the West Loop and 2108 S. California in Pilsen); in September, he plans to open a fourth Chicago space, a store specializing in art books and small editions, next door to the main gallery.Over the years, Gupta has represented a core group of midcareer artists from Chicago—including Theaster Gates, Curtis Mann, Angel Otero, Melanie Schiff and Tony Tasset—but casts a wide net in terms of marketing them around the globe. More recently, his stable of artists has diversified in terms of geography, but Gupta’s approach to selling their work has remained consistently international.&nbsp;Chicago Gallery News recently visited Gupta, 45, at the Washington Boulevard gallery, where he also lives in a rooftop apartment with his wife, Jessica Moss, associate curator of contemporary art at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago. Following is an edited transcript of our chat.&nbsp;What drew you to become an art dealer, and what was your preparation for it?I started out collecting art. My family in India are some of the biggest collectors of contemporary Indian art. My father, Raj Gupta, was an architect and an engineer, who moved here in 1964 and worked with Bertrand Goldberg on Marina City. I was born in 1969, and our life was about architecture and design. I was an art history minor at Northern Illinois University; I was an investment banker after college but was spending all of my money on art. I went to get a master’s at the business school at the University of Chicago, and they allowed us to work with other departments. I chose the art history department, and that really propelled me into thinking I wanted to do something with art. I wanted to be around art, I wanted to be around artists, and I wanted to show what I was collecting. In the late ’90s, I found a building in the West Loop, a boarded-up crack house on Peoria, for a dollar a square foot. I called right there and said, “I’ll take it.” I built that space over two years, and I later bought the building across the street. As the West Loop developed, the value of those spaces went up, and we were able to leverage that into buying this building.&nbsp;Fifteen years later, you’ve got a ton going on.Yes, although the busyness, for us, isn’t really defined by how many people are walking through the door. We’ve positioned ourselves as a gallery that’s based in Chicago, but we don’t quantify our success based on things happening here. I just had a meeting with the staff, and they’re so busy that they can’t fathom how they’re going to get everything done. But it’s to do with all the things we’re doing around the world—collectors from everywhere, artists from everywhere. We’re a global gallery that just happens to be located here.&nbsp;The majority of our artists are Chicago artists, but we’re promoting them around the world.It’s not about foot traffic.Right. In New York, it’s about dealing with who walks into the gallery; that’s their day. Our day is meetings and conference calls and research for artists and flying everywhere. Somebody from the gallery’s on the road all the time. We’re very proactive on behalf of artists, and that means not sitting here waiting for that client to come into our door. So our guys are out there talking to collectors, talking to curators, talking to art writers, pitching ideas and getting in front of them. If you look out my office door, you’d see two people packaging catalogs and other people writing proposals for museum shows. We have one person doing nothing but PR for specific artists. We have two people, who are artist liaisons, going to artists’ studios, talking about their practice, and talking about what’s coming next. It’s a constant back-office function and a high level of activity with a global focus.What was the thought process behind opening the Berlin gallery?It was part of this same thing we’ve been talking about. Berlin is a cultural capital, a place where curators and artists live and spend time. It’s about thinking; it’s about looking. And it’s a place where new art always comes from. For me Berlin has always been that place in Europe. It’s also very affordable, so it was a great place to make a European foothold. We wanted to reach out beyond Chicago and establish a beachhead for our Chicago artists, to have a different audience come and see the work, increase its recognition. It’s been very successful. We also use Berlin as a way to find new artists from Germany and elsewhere. Because it’s so affordable, artists come from all over the world and have studios there. There are artists from every city in Europe, as well as from Japan, China, and India. So it’s important for us to be there and see what’s really happening in contemporary art today.You also have multiple spaces in Chicago. You just opened a new one on Elizabeth Street, for example.That’s right, and we have a third space as well, an 11,000-square-foot building in Pilsen. The idea, basically, is to build opportunities for our artists. A lot of them work in large scale, and I wanted to give them the impetus to do that if they wanted to. We did a large show of Roxy Paine pieces, Apparatus, in the Elizabeth Street space that won the AICA [International Association of Art Critics-USA] Award as the best gallery show in the country; it took up two rooms and 5,000 square feet. It was a museum-caliber show, one of the bigger productions a gallery has ever done in Chicago. We also produced a Tony Tasset piece for the Whitney Biennial that was 80 feet long.&nbsp;So you have three spaces in Chicago - you’re opening a fourth - and you have one in Berlin. That’s a lot.It happened by need; it wasn’t really a conscious decision. Our gallery here isn’t that big, and we don’t have storage. At one point I was renting a storage building for $8,000 a month, and one of our collectors, a banker, said, “That’s ridiculous. Why don’t you go buy a warehouse, and your mortgage will be half of that for a bigger space.” So we bought the Elizabeth Street building, an 8,000-square-foot cold-storage facility that we renovated, and yes, the mortgage is less than half. And the space turned out so beautifully that we decided to start doing exhibitions there. And then the Pilsen space, a former auto garage, turned into the storage building.So it’s not about establishing an empire.Oh my gosh, no. We’re way too exhausted for that. We’re just working very hard for our artists, and we have to do what they need. We’ve only grown to fill that need.&nbsp;Will you keep expanding in the near future, or stay the same size?We don’t plan things that much; we’re just going with the flow. We do plan to open a kind of small bookstore and editions gallery, which has been a dream project for a while. It’s going to open next to us in this building in September. A lot of our artists are producing small editions, along with monographs or art books, so the new space will be a place to show those. We also want to be able to do lectures and artist talks there, to bring a criticality to the shows we’re doing. &nbsp;&nbsp;Is there some through-line, some shared quality in the artists you choose to represent?Well, there’s a regional focus to some extent. We like to find and promote artists from Chicago; it’s a big thing for us. We’re really proud of having found a program here and taking it global. Another area of common ground is that we’re interested in artists who develop a narrative through process. They’re very interested in the process of making things, and they make a hint of a narrative. Or there’s some personal statement that’s being made.&nbsp;As opposed to something that’s purely abstract.Right. Another area we’re interested in is artists with a little bit of a social practice, a social narrative—who are making, not so much a political commentary, but are looking at the world and responding to it. This September, for example, we have shows by Mickalene Thomas and Glenn Kaino. Both of them deal with issues they’ve been grappling with, including race, gender, political structures. Mickalene’s show is mostly done in cast bronze and has to do with her history with her mother, who was a flamboyant African-American socialite in the ’60s. Mickalene also produced a film about this, “Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman,” that was broadcast this year on HBO; the film will be shown here in the gallery. Also this fall we’ll be doing Glenn’s Leviathan, his first major show in many years, in the Elizabeth Street space.Which artists have you had the longest professional relationships with?Angel Otero, for one; we started working with him before he had finished grad school. Tony Tasset, who had a show here this summer, we’ve been working with for many, many years. We’ve added four or five new ones—including Mickalene, Glenn, Roxy, Jessica Stockholder and McArthur Binion—but most of our artists, we’ve been working with for close to 10 years.Back in the days of the Hairy Who and the Imagists, Chicago artists had a kind of group identity, a set of shared aesthetic concerns, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.&nbsp;The good thing about being removed from New York or L.A. is that there, artists do tend to become slightly homogeneous; they develop schools that emerge pretty regularly, and the schools themselves push an aesthetic. Here, I think the artists don’t tend to group in those ways. Everyone has a unique practice, and we look at each artist as an individual here. I can’t think of anything that really ties them together, but I think that’s a good thing.&nbsp;&nbsp;Kevin Nance is a Chicago-based freelance writer + photographer. 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