BY FRANCK MERCURIO

<img alt="" data-caption="Striped bodysuit for Aladdin Sane tour, 1973. Design: Kansai Yamamoto. Photo: Masayoshi Sukita. © Sukita / The David Bowie Archive 2012." data-rich-file-id="431" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/431/original/7403e9bodysuit-copy.jpg" />

Before the outrageous haute-couture of Lady Gaga; before the gender-bending androgyny of Boy George; before the chameleon-like reinvention of Madonna, there was...David Bowie.

In Bowie&rsquo;s 50-year career, the pop music icon has taken on multiple roles: musician, lyricist, performer, actor and artist. Along the way he has collaborated with composers, fashion designers, photographers, filmmakers, and other creatives to bring his trend-setting vision&mdash;and prodigious artistic output&mdash;to a worldwide audience.&nbsp;

To celebrate these creative achievements, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) is hosting the much anticipated David Bowie Is, an exhibition featuring over 400 objects, including photography, video, album artwork, handwritten lyrics, original fashions and set designs&mdash;and of course, music. Originating at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Chicago is the exhibition&rsquo;s only U.S. stop.

Given Bowie&rsquo;s popularity, the MCA is expecting record-breaking crowds. Yet despite its celebrity cach&eacute;, David Bowie Is promises to be more than a &ldquo;rock star show.&rdquo;

&ldquo;It has that rock memorabilia kind of quality to it, especially for those who really want to see [Bowie] putting pen to paper to write out a lyric,&rdquo; says Michael Darling, the James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator at the MCA. &ldquo;But the show is also able to zoom-out to address the mores of the day and show how so much of what Bowie was doing was shocking; it went against the grain.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Original lyrics for Ziggy Stardust, by David Bowie, 1972. Courtesy of The David Bowie Archive. Image © Victoria and Albert Museum." data-rich-file-id="432" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/432/original/a524812lyrics-copy.jpg" />

Examples that still manage to jolt the senses today include over-the-top stage costumes by fashion designers Kansai Yamamoto and Alexander McQueen, surrealist album cover art by Guy Peelaert for Diamond Dogs (1974), and boundary-pushing videos such as Boys Keep Swinging (1979), which features Bowie performing as a variety of male and female characters.

The exhibition&rsquo;s original curators, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh of the V&amp;A, interpreted the objects in the show not only as examples of Bowie&rsquo;s artistic output, but also as commentaries on contemporary society. And, rightly so, the London exhibition told the story from a British perspective for a largely British audience.

&ldquo;The V&amp;A has done a good job of building a cultural and social context around the objects in the show,&rdquo; says Darling. &ldquo;But the MCA has been making little tweaks. I&rsquo;ve been calling it our &lsquo;remixed&rsquo; version. There are a few things we&rsquo;re trying to pull out and highlight that might resonate more with an American audience.&rdquo;

Included are programs, handwritten notes, and other memorabilia from the 1980 stage production of The Elephant Man, featuring Bowie, which debuted in Chicago. Also highlighted will be costumes, photographs, and video excerpts of Bowie&rsquo;s 1979 Saturday Night Live musical performance.

<img alt="" data-caption="Promotional photograph of David Bowie for Diamond Dogs, 1974. Photo: Terry O'Neill. Image © Victoria and Albert Museum." data-rich-file-id="433" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/433/original/f30b314diamonddogs-copy.jpg" />

The exhibition follows a rough chronological framework. It begins with Bowie&rsquo;s early career in the 1960s, then follows his creative and commercial break-throughs in the 1970s&mdash;including the birth of his most famous character, Ziggy Stardust&mdash;and continues with highlights from Bowie&rsquo;s many reinventions since then.

&ldquo;The costumes from all the different periods and personas are the anchor pieces of the show,&rdquo; says Darling. &ldquo;You can imagine him inhabiting a particular outfit and what it meant in that time period.&rdquo;

In addition to the costumes, Bowie&rsquo;s music also grounds each period of the artist&rsquo;s career&mdash;an exhibition soundtrack provides an audio context for the displays of visual objects. The Sennheiser Group of Germany (one of the exhibition&rsquo;s sponsors) created a sound experience for David Bowie Is. Using headphones provided at the exhibition, visitors can listen to a changing soundtrack as they walk through the show. Sensors embedded in different displays recognize the presence of each visitor and match the music to the appropriate time period.

Throughout his long career, David Bowie has earned a reputation for anticipating cultural trends. His fluid identity has pushed the boundaries of music, design, performance, and the visual arts during each period of his life, continuously expanding our expectations of Bowie himself as well as what it means to be an artist. It is no surprise that David Bowie Is promises to expand what museum audiences expect from a contemporary art exhibition.

&nbsp;

Image shown at top of page: The Archer,&nbsp;Station to Station tour, 1976. Photo: John Rowlands. &copy; John Robert Rowlands

&nbsp;

David Bowie Is&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.mcachicago.org">The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago</a>

September 23-January 4, 2015

"David Bowie Is" Takes over the MCA This Fall

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418409/s9tauy54in3uh5ojycws.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;BY ERIN BENATORNearly 40 years ago, the Smart Museum of Art was opened&nbsp;to the public. Founded in honor of the renowned publishers of Esquire and Coronet, David and Alfred Smart, following a major gift to the University of Chicago, the museum opened&nbsp;in Hyde Park on the University's&nbsp;campus.&nbsp;The Smart first began as a repository for the University’s fine arts collection when the institution opened in the 1890’s. The Smart’s mission has always been rooted in education and research. Not just an art historical resource for U of C students, the museum has blossomed into the south side’s center for the fine arts and acts as an educational art hub today for many, from preschool to graduate students, its reach extending from other local universities and colleges to public schools.Through the years the Smart has played a vital role as a key asset in Chicago’s cultural landscape. The museum’s Dana Feitler Director, Anthony G. Hirschel, and chief curator of 35 years, Richard A. Born, provide perspective on the Smart’s rich history as well as its current collection, exhibitions, and mission.&nbsp;When the museum opened in 1974, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Block Museum at Northwestern University and the newly opened Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago were primarily the only art museums in Chicago.“[The opening of the Smart] established another program in the city for individuals interested in the fine arts. It was very special because the south side - not just Hyde Park - had no fine art museums associated with it.” Born explains, “It established itself through outreach and educational initiatives, as well as many school programs throughout the south side and west sides of Chicago. We were really the only museum in the area for people to visit.”&nbsp;Having a dynamic, diverse faculty and an enthusiastic student body has helped the museum grow and develop as an institution. The University’s cross-disciplinary studies are at the core of the Smart’s research and teaching, not only influencing the nature of exhibitions and traveling shows, but also the museum’s educational programs and outreach.&nbsp;“A great deal of the energy that surrounds the kind of programs we do is derived directly from the fact that we are part of this great research university and the intellectual dynamism that reflects these people – it makes us a much more interesting institution,” says Hirschel.&nbsp;The museum’s collection and exhibitions are built upon four main pillars: Asian art, European art, modern art and design, and contemporary art. Intermingling works of renowned artists like Mark Rothko, Auguste Rodin, and Francisco de Goya with lesser-known gems, including Arthur Garfield Dove and Norman Lewis, encompasses a regional and international body of art. Other works, such as Childe Hassam’s 1893 On the Lake Front Promenade Columbian World Exposition, pay tribute to Chicago’s history and important world events. Combining the past with the present is a unique asset of the museum’s exhibition strategy, and the regular juxtaposition of ancient and contemporary works illustrates lasting cultural and artistic traditions. &nbsp;Sculpture has long been a significant focus at the Smart. The museum’s first large sculptural collection consisted of over 350 works donated by the Starrels family in memory of Joel Starrels, Jr., a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School. Born, a graduate student in the Department of Art at the time, assisted in cataloguing the collection that became the core of the museum. The Smart’s inaugural exhibition, which opened to the public in fall of 1974, showcased 164 19th and 20th century sculptures and drawings, including works by Henry Moore, Jean Arp, and Jacques Lipchitz selected from The Joel Starrels, Jr. Memorial Collection.Now, 40 years later the Smart celebrates its roots in sculpture by transforming the museum’s 8,800 square foot gallery space into an exhibition purely dedicated to sculpture from the museum’s collection titled Carved, Cast, Crumpled: Sculpture All Ways, opening September 27.“Often in museums, sculpture gets the least amount of physical play because it takes a lot of space. The inaugural gift really set a course of collecting sculpture here [and] the exhibit highlights a trajectory that we set early on and over 40 years,” explains Born.&nbsp;Carved, Cast, Crumpled: Sculpture All Ways raises the central question “What makes an object a sculpture?” The answer revolves around five underlying historical themes in sculpture: figuration, extraction, materiality, function, and aura. Unique to the exhibit is Gallery X, an open space that acts as a center for the public’s discussion and thoughts. Also exclusive to the exhibit, labels will not be written by a curator, but by students, interns, and staff members.&nbsp;As Born and Hirschel reflect on their fondest memories at the Smart, from collaboration with scholars in China to bringing a variety of people into contact with art, interaction with students and the public are at the heart of their responses. Born remarks, “Working with students - they keep you young!”&nbsp;In 2014 the Smart looks to the public as a tool for change and growth. “We really think about where we are going to experiment with different approaches - to encourage people to think about our collection, the museum, and the museum experience in general,” states Hirschel, “We want our visitors to help us shape the way we interpret the collections and present them in the future.” Here’s to the next 40 years at the Smart.&nbsp;&nbsp;Image shown at top of page:&nbsp;The Smart’s inaugural exhibition in October 1974. © Smart Museum of Art&nbsp;&nbsp;Correction: This article (also printed in the September-December edition of Chicago Gallery News)&nbsp;has been revised to reflect the following:&nbsp;The Smart was not founded by David and Alfred Smart, who both passed away in the early 1950s. Rather, it was founded in their honor following a major gift from the Smart Family Foundation to the University of Chicago.&nbsp;&nbsp;Carved, Cast, Crumpled: Sculpture All Ways runs September 27-December 21, 2014Smart Museum of ArtThe University of ChicagoTel 773-702-0200 • <a href="http://www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu">www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu</a></body></html>

Smart Museum of Art Celebrates 40 Years - Encouraging the Fine Arts and Innovation on Chicago’s South Side

BY GINNY VAN ALYEA<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/428/original/6134bw.jpg" alt=""></figure>Tourism is often on the minds of Chicagoans. Whether we are trying to avoid Michgan Avenue sidewalk throngs or racking our brain for ideas on what to do with a house guest, many of us live day to day alongside visitors to our attractive city.&nbsp;There is no doubt that one of the biggest tourist draws in Chicago is our vibrant cultural scene. The arts, however, are not just a way to dress up an already good looking city; they are serious job and business generators. In a state with a fragile economy, our arts are valuable assets that benefit many individuals as well as groups. The Illinois Arts Alliance estimated that jobs in the arts industry generated more than $2.3 billion in household income in Illinois in 2010, and the majority of the $2.75 billion spent by arts and culture organizations and their audiences in that year went to locally owned or managed organizations, businesses or enterprises.&nbsp;Patronizing the arts nurtures communities, instills a sense of pride, and inspires investment. Supporting individual artists is a wonderful way to support another person’s livelihood, but the impact is actually much greater. The visual arts in particular offer an incredible range of opportunities not just for creativity and economic success but also for solutions, and renewal. Seeing is believing, so to speak, and thanks to visionary artists in our city art can reveal solutions to real world problems.&nbsp;In this issue we talked to a number of people who are making Chicago a better city through the arts.&nbsp;Dealer David Weinberg is devoting his gallery to a new mission of social justice; his first exhibition in this vein features the work of Carlos Ortiz, who embedded himself in the most dangerous pockets of our city to photograph the aftermath of violent crime.Jenny Kendler is the National Resource Defense Council’s first artist-in-residence. For the year long residency, she is examining ways to use art to heal the environment.The Zhou Brothers moved to Chicago from China nearly 30 years ago. As a thank you to the city that welcomed them, they opened the Zhou B Art Center in 2004 and helped revitalize Bridgeport as a place where artists could thrive.Two south side arts institutions, The Smart Museum of Art and the Hyde Park Art Center, are celebrating major milestones this fall (40 and 75 years), and they are both mounting exhibitions that reflect the cultural hub that Hyde Park has become over the years. &nbsp;The arts make a difference. Visitors may come to Chicago to enjoy the lake, the famous food and the sports, but the real power of the arts is personal. The public art we see on the way to work and the local gallery openings we pop into with friends will outlast the seasonal ebb and flow of people jamming into the same downtown shops and restaurants. When the world is on our doorstep during this fall’s art fair frenzy - EXPO in September and SOFA in November, we will have chances to show our best side to those looking for a taste of Chicago. But many who call Chicago home probably first came to the city as tourists. Whatever we saw made us want to stay. And what we do next will make others follow for generations to come.Enjoy our latest&nbsp;edition of CGN, and we wish you an art-filled fall!&nbsp;

Publisher’s Letter: Cultural Offerings Benefit Everyone

BY AMANDA ROSCOE MAYO&nbsp;

Chicago is no stranger to social injustices and violence. This past summer alone the south side saw the city&rsquo;s most violent and deadly weekend to date (as of press time in August 2014) with 84 people shot and 14 killed over the Fourth of July weekend. An abundance of stray bullets wounds unintended targets on a regular basis. Bullets do not discriminate; they pierce the young and the old regardless of the color of their skin, gang affiliation, or religious beliefs.&nbsp;

There are, however, areas of Chicago that are hotter than others for gun violence. To document the atrocities in these danger zones, with a focus on youth, photographer Carlos Javier Ortiz spent eight years embedded in several of the most troubled communities on the South Side, taking his various film cameras to the streets, capturing moments in the lives of those affected&mdash;documenting vigils, prom, graffiti, the aftermath of recent shootings, church services, funerals, and individuals. The project also includes Ortiz&rsquo;s collection of &ldquo;wanted&rdquo; fliers offering rewards for information leading to the arrest of individuals responsible for the death of a loved one in the community. These fliers, photographs, essays, and letters describing the weight of the community&rsquo;s experience are published as a book titled, We All We Got.

Donning the same name and on view at David Weinberg Gallery, We All We Got is also an exhibition of Ortiz&rsquo;s photographs, fliers, polaroids, and more; the show marks a turn for the gallery. For the past decade Weinberg has operated his River North space as a venue for group photography shows and a showroom for his own photography. Beyond the art world Weinberg has long been vested in educational reform in Illinois as chairman of the board of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and as a board member of the Noble Network of Charter Schools; through his regular work with the city, he is more than mindful of the daily challenges Chicago youths face. Combining his dual passions, now David Weinberg Gallery will focus on photography centered on social justice. The model Weinberg has created is one where the art community and the non-profits working to improve the quality of life for those affected can come together and offer the public the chance to not only be moved by art but to use it to make a difference. Each exhibition will identify a certain area of interest, and Weinberg will select two or three non-profit beneficiaries. For Carlos Javier Ortiz&rsquo;s exhibition Weinberg will donate proceeds to &ldquo;Kids Off the Block&rdquo; and &ldquo;Youth Service Project.&rdquo; Both organizations are hard at work in Chicago to provide support and alternatives to youth who face the demons of drugs, juvenile detention, violence, and other challenging circumstances. &nbsp;

Photography has a long history of documenting a community; it is a medium that allows the rest of the world to see what shapes that community and gives those involved a chance to be self-reflective. Traditionally we know this type of work as photojournalism, but there are also fine art photographers using photojournalistic tactics to make bodies of work. Ortiz cites Eugene Richards, Dorothea Lange, and W. Eugene Smith as references, which is apt because of style as well as content. Richards, Lange, and Smith all notably captured the effects of war, economic decline, poverty, and violence, largely in the United States. Ortiz&rsquo;s observations on the South Side have made this body of work both personal and relatable.&nbsp;

Art can provide access to a charged, complicated issue that is otherwise unattainable to someone not facing the challenges being captured. Do most Chicago residents really know how bad things are for the victims of violence? How can we? Ortiz shows as much as he can. His images don&rsquo;t just depict death - they tell the story of those who have survived and must go on living. What gives the photographer&rsquo;s images their power is their raw truth, along with the citizen&rsquo;s knowledge that something must be done to decrease this violence and give youth a fighting chance. By partnering with organizations who are already doing critical work in the communities affected, Weinberg&rsquo;s gallery has an opportunity to use art to progress change. Though certainly optimistic, the effort is a worthy, timely one.&nbsp;

To advance this exhibition and new gallery direction, many events will be offered to both the art community and the related social justice non-profits here. This fall an opening reception celebrating Ortiz&rsquo;s work and his book&rsquo;s publication will take place October 10th. The following day there will be an artist talk by Ortiz and a book signing. On October 15th the event moves out of the gallery to &ldquo;Art Works Project for Human Rights&rdquo; to get to the core of the exhibition: youth violence and neglect. As an organization &ldquo;Art Works Project&rdquo; tackles major human rights issues throughout the world, such as genocide, women&rsquo;s rights, human trafficking, and child labor. Hosting this panel regarding the affects of violence among youth in Chicago signifies that this large issue is screaming for attention. The panelists are Alex Kotlowitz (author and contributor to Ortiz&rsquo;s book), Luke Anderson (an advocate involved in urban education in Chicago), Diane Latiker (Founder and Director of &ldquo;Kids Off the Block&rdquo;) and Carlos Javier Ortiz (the artist). It is Weinberg and Ortiz&rsquo;s hope that these various events can serve as entry points into the project and the issue at hand. We All We Got is an opportunity for members of the art world, and the public, to become part of a conversation and potentially another means of support for a community desperately in need of resolution.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Carlos Javier Ortiz: We All We Got

October 10, 2014 &ndash; January 5, 2015

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/david-weinberg-photography">David Weinberg Gallery</a>, 300 W. Superior, Chicago (60607)

&bull; Opening Reception and Book Signing: October 10, 5-8 PM

&bull;Artist Talk and Book Signing: October 11, 1-3pm

&bull;&nbsp;Panel Discussion: October 15, 6-8pm at Art Works Projects for Human Rights, 1137 W. Taylor, No. 113, Chicago (60607)

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Image at top: Carlos Javier Ortiz, LiL Al ,&nbsp; 24&rdquo; x 36&rdquo;

We All We Got: Art Supports Social Change

BY FRANCK MERCURIO

In the history of Western art (and Western thought) there is a sense that we humans are separate from nature. Traditional landscape paintings provide prime examples of this perspective; from the frescoes of Classical antiquity to the romanticized paintings of the 19th century, Western artists have framed landscapes as picture windows with viewers safely distanced from the depicted &ldquo;wildness.&rdquo;

But as the environmental movements of the late 20th century gained momentum, artists began to reflect a different philosophy in their work: a growing awareness that humans are in fact an integral part of nature. Their subtext: the more we destroy ecological systems, the faster our own potential demise as a species.

Currently, the devastating effects of climate change, dwindling biodiversity, and unprecedented levels of pollution, have lent a greater urgency to the voices of artists. Two Chicago group exhibitions in 2013 featured a range of international artists who explored the effects of environmental degradation in their art: Climate of Uncertainty at the DePaul Art Museum and Suicide Narcissus at the Renaissance Society. Other recent shows focused on the responses of local, individual artists to environmental issues including the journalistic photographs of Terry Evans in Fractured: The North Dakota Oil Fields at the Field Museum and the conceptual installations of Heidi Norton: Prismatic Nature at the Elmhurst Art Museum.

Through a partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), EXPO CHICAGO has been especially committed to exhibiting the works of contemporary artists concerned with human/nature relationships. In 2012 NRDC presented two installations at EXPO, drawing attention to the Chicago River and the challenges of fresh water ecology: Maya Lin&rsquo;s Chicago River and Gordon Matta-Clark&rsquo;s Garbage Wall. In 2013, NRDC and EXPO continued the partnership by bringing the works of Seattle artist and environmental advocate Vaughn Bell to Chicago.

This year at EXPO (held September 18-21), NRDC will present a large-scale installation by Chicago and Los Angeles-based artist Jenny Kendler. Titled Tell It To The Birds, the installation will be created within a typical 10 by 40 foot EXPO gallery booth and will feature photo-print wallpaper of lichens (with images sourced through lichenologists from the Field Museum) and shelves displaying some 25 of Kendler&rsquo;s signature porcelain bird sculptures. The centerpiece will be a dome-shaped structure that invites visitors to &ldquo;communicate with the birds&rdquo;&mdash;participants&rsquo; human voices will be &ldquo;translated&rdquo; into bird songs through a custom-made software application.

This whimsical piece has at its heart a serious message and a subtle call to action, encouraging visitors to consider their own personal ties to the natural environment. Explains Kendler, &ldquo;Cross species empathy is the first step in protecting nature.&rdquo;

Kendler is NRDC&rsquo;s first-ever artist-in-residence, a position that has allowed her to create larger and more public works, such as Tell It To The Birds. It has also enabled the artist to work with the organization&rsquo;s scientists to communicate facts about the environment to a wider audience through her art.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a great collaborative experience,&rdquo; says Kendler about her residency. &ldquo;The NRDC staff members are respectful of the artistic process.&rdquo;

Elizabeth Corr, the NRDC&rsquo;s manager of arts partnerships and events developed the residency program when NRDC was seeking to expand its audience and engage a new environmental audience beyond the organization&rsquo;s core constituency.

&ldquo;We were looking for ways to more effectively reach out to more diverse groups of people,&rdquo; says Corr. &ldquo;Artists bring a visual component to the discussion that is critical.&rdquo;

The Artist-in-Residence program has had unexpected results for NRDC. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a mutual back-and-forth between scientists and Jenny,&rdquo; explains Corr. &ldquo;Staff members now think about their work in different ways.&rdquo;

Case in point: a performative piece envisioned by Kendler to help distribute seeds of native milkweed plants, vital for the continued survival of monarch butterflies whose populations have plummeted in recent years. Titled Milkweed Dispersal Balloons, the piece includes performers giving away helium-filled balloons containing milkweed seeds to the general public.

Kendler describes Milkweed Dispersal Balloons as &ldquo;a beautiful gesture with a real, practical effect.&rdquo; The performance piece empowers the everyday person, who might not know about the monarch&rsquo;s plight, to be the agent of positive change through the distribution of milkweed plants. Funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Rauschenberg Foundation, Milkweed Dispersal Balloons debuted in St. Louis at the end of July and in Chicago in early September.

Artists such as Kendler and organizations such as NRDC, are creating dialogues between contemporary artists, environmental scientists, and the art-viewing public.

Through the visual communication of art, they are encouraging all of us to contemplate and re-evaluate our relationships with and connections to nature.

&nbsp;

Top image: Artist Jenny Kendler distributing her Milkweed Dispersal Balloons. Photo: Carly Hilo for the Pulitzer Arts Foundation

Realizing Human Relationships with Nature through Art

This article appears in the September-December 2014 issue of Chicago Gallery News

In 1973 the Zhou Brothers launched their first artistic collaboration, Journey of Dreams. During the years and exhibitions that followed, the Zhou Brothers achieved global success as artists. In 2004, to share that success, they bought and renovated an abandoned warehouse building in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. Their mission was to build a creative community that would encourage and empower emerging artists who needed space in which to work, exhibit and collaborate. The Zhou B Art Center was born.&nbsp;

A decade later Bridgeport has become a dynamic Chicago art destination, monthly Third Friday open studios are must-attend events, and the center is affiliated with over&nbsp; 100 resident artists; it has exhibited the innovative art of more than 1,000 artists to date. 2014 is about celebrating the Zhou B Art Center at its 10th anniversary and looking ahead to the next 10 years. Everyone is invited to share the creative energy at the Zhou B Art Center this season.

Images at top: Left:&nbsp;ShanZuo Zhou and DaHuang Zhou, Zhou Brothers performance: Mike White Photography; Right:&nbsp;Exterior of the Zhou B Art Center: Erin Zhoushi, Chromacity Studios

<h4>Upcoming exhibitions and events:</h4>

&nbsp;

September 9-October 10

Snow City Arts, Group show

Gala September 12

&nbsp;

October 17-November 16

&bull; Feeling is Liberty, Zhou Brothers solo show

&bull; Centerline Ten, Zhou B Artsits group show

&nbsp;

October 18 and 19

&bull; Bridgeport Art Walk

&bull; Open House Chicago

&nbsp;

<h3>Zhou B Art Center</h3>

1029 W. 35th St., Chicago, IL 60609

Tel 773-523-0200 &bull; Gallery hours: M-Sa 10-5

<a href="mailto:info@zhoubartcenter.com?subject=Message%20about%20CGN%20On%20the%20Cover">info@zhoubartcenter.com</a> &bull; <a href="http://www.zhoubartcenter.com">www.zhoubartcenter.com</a>

ON THE COVER: Zhou B Art Center - A Dream Realized

BY MEGAN BONKE

Science or Art? Left brain or right brain? It actually takes both sides of our brain to perform complex tasks like math, art, science, and writing, and sometimes it can be helpful to remember that being creative and logical are not mutually exclusive.

With this year&rsquo;s Chicago Artist&rsquo;s Month theme, Crossing Borders, in mind, I spoke to two Northwestern medical students who just started their second year, who have personally embraced art and consider their professional lives better because of it. One appreciates the break art provides from the usual grueling medical school schedule. The other sees opportunities for new approaches to high-stakes problem solving. Frank Borrows double majored in Biology and Physics and minored in Chemistry at the University of Virginia and is currently obtaining a duel MD/PHD degree. Blake Platt received a Bachelor&rsquo;s in Chemistry from John&rsquo;s Hopkins and aspires to become a surgeon. - MB

&nbsp;

<h4>When did you first begin a regular art practice and why? How often do you practice art?</h4>

Frank Barrows: I remember painting or drawing all the time as a little kid. When playing the Game of Life, I would always try and be the artist, but I would also try and have the highest wage. Now, during the school year, on the weekend immediately following exams, I paint.

Blake Platt: At the beginning of school last year, I needed a hobby. I played baseball in college, but since then I&rsquo;ve had a sort of void. I have always wished I could draw, and one day I decided to try. Once I started I had a lot of fun, so I just kept at it. Now, after I finish studying every night I pick out something to sketch or paint and fiddle around with it for about an hour before I go to bed.

&nbsp;

<h4>How would you describe your work?</h4>

FB: Wonky. Where I feel confident, I like messing with perspective. In actuality I&rsquo;ll have some drinks, get kind of messed up and just paint into the night instead of studying sometimes.

<img alt="" data-caption="Frank Barrows, &lt;i&gt;I Don’t Like Flying&lt;/i&gt;, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 11” x 14” " data-rich-file-id="425" height="324" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/425/original/barrows1.jpeg" width="432" />

&nbsp;

BP: What I have painted is what I would mostly describe as slightly abstract, sometimes geometric landscapes. I just really like water and color.

<img alt="" data-caption="Blake Platt, &lt;i&gt;The Dunes&lt;/i&gt;, 2014, acrylic, 14&quot; x 17&quot;" data-rich-file-id="426" height="281" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/426/original/bp-art.jpg" width="438" />

<h4>&nbsp;</h4>

<h4>Do creativity and art help you in medical school?</h4>

FB: Since I started painting again, my life is better in general. Art is completely stress free for me. Painting is where I get to be productive and creative and not just sit and watch Netflix, but also not study.

BP: Absolutely. You can tell when we were studying anatomy because I drew all of these [sketches] and copied them from Frank Netters. Anatomy is a lot of visualization, especially with muscles - they have a three-dimensional place in the body, as well as a Latin name that&rsquo;s confusing, and an origin, insertion, and action with relation to bones. I spent a lot of time sketching body parts from cadavers, and that really helped me.

&nbsp;

<h4>What are some of the struggles of being a medical student, and does art supply any form of relief?</h4>

FB: The lack of flexibility we have in our lives while in medical school can be depressing. We sell our souls in hopes of becoming a doctor. Art helps, since I don&rsquo;t ever want to be strictly defined as a medical student, which can be difficult while in medical school.

BP: The larger picture of medicine is very much about problem solving, but I find that the first two years of medical school are very much about learning, then applying that knowledge to a situation, then regurgitating it on a test. We can get a one track mind and&nbsp; end up losing focus. Exercising a different part of our cognitive ability helps us see more.

&nbsp;

<h4>Northwestern UNIVERSITY Medical School requires a humanities program that requires three hours one day a week for one month for one semester a year. Tell me your experiences with this program.</h4>

FB: We would visit the Art Institute and walk around with an ex-Pathologist who was really into art. I remember we were supposed to examine a detail in art to transfer it to a detail in medical school. I was able to see a lot more than I would have on my own.

BP: We sculpted facial muscles onto a skull with clay. The woman who taught us teaches plastic surgeons how to sculpt ears and other body parts. It gives a broader sense of community - physicians are working with the human body, and so are artists, so is everyone. The program exposes you to something that you wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily do, and you find a part of yourself that you didn&rsquo;t know. I didn&rsquo;t know that I would enjoy this, but I love it.

<o><img alt="" data-caption="Blake Platt's anatomy skull" data-rich-file-id="424" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/424/original/anatomy-skull.jpeg" /></o>
<o>
&nbsp;

<h4>Any final thoughts on art and medicine for yourselves?</h4>

FB: As a medical student everything we do is critiqued so hard, and you have to set really high standards for yourself. I think I really enjoy making art because I&rsquo;m such a novice. So little is expected of me; I get recognition just for trying. That&rsquo;s really refreshing. Painting and artwork are so deep and rich, and I get a whole new world to explore in a completely pressure free environment, which is exhilarating.

BP: It&rsquo;s a well-known fact that doctors don&rsquo;t wash their hands as much as they should. Since the 1900&rsquo;s, everyone who has tried zealously to change this has died insane and poor because they have been shunned from the medical community. Recently, the Royal London Hospital commissioned members of the Royal College of Art to ask why the doctors were not washing their hands enough. The designers walked in and said that of course no one is washing their hands enough; everything is filthy. The furniture was designed in a way that was difficult to clean. Say I wash my hands and I take care of a patient and I go type; then I have to wash my hands again. If you are taking together and putting apart an engine, you&rsquo;re not going to wash your hands after every bolt, but that&rsquo;s essentially what doctors have to do. Now the hospital has commissioned this school to design furniture that is easy to clean and does not collect as much dust and dirt. It&rsquo;s still early, but it seems to have a lot of success. This is what I was talking about when I said we can get one-track minded. You can lose a sense of what the problems are where you only see a concept of the problem, and then someone comes in and says, &ldquo;Of course this is wrong. This is terrible, and this is very easy to fix.&rdquo;

Top Image: Blake Platt, Excerpt from Sketchbook, 2014
</o>

Crossing Borders: Practicing Medicine and Art

By KEVIN NANCE

In 1986, two young brothers, ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhou, visited Chicago to attend an exhibition of paintings they had created together in their home country of China. The brothers&rsquo; unique partnership&mdash;they collaborated on large canvases on which their sensibilities melded into a cohesive, though not always seamless, whole&mdash;had already made them rising art stars in Beijing. In Chicago, it was an even greater curiosity, in part because Americans think of visual artists as the ultimate individualists working in isolation, chasing intensely personal visions that no one else, not even a sibling, could possibly share.&nbsp;

Two painters, one painting: How could that work?

Twenty-eight years later, the Zhou Brothers are still in Chicago, still raising eyebrows with their seemingly counterintuitive process of making art as a team. The difference now is that piece after piece, exhibit after exhibit, they&rsquo;ve proved the wisdom and fertility of their collaboration. They are fixtures of the international contemporary art scene, their paintings fetching prices starting in the six figures in the United States and Asia. (They also create sculpture, the largest examples of which currently sell for up to $8 million.)&nbsp;

The brothers also loom large in realms beyond the art world, making paintings as a form of performance art in front of business and political leaders at gatherings such as the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in 2000. In 2011, President Obama commissioned the Zhou Brothers to create a painting that he presented to China&rsquo;s president, Hu Jintao, in a private ceremony attended by the brothers at the White House.

But even as the Zhou Brothers&rsquo; career has expanded into most corners of the globe, they have anchored themselves in Chicago, specifically in the South Side&rsquo;s Bridgeport neighborhood. They live and work in a former Polish social club, which now contains a vast, airy, light-filled studio where they create their paintings, often working on up to 15 large pieces at once. (Sometimes the brothers paint with the stretched canvases lying flat on the floor, sometimes standing up, sometimes both at different stages.) And two blocks away, the Zhou B Art Center, a sprawling complex of galleries, artist studios and event spaces established by the brothers at 1029 W. 35th Street, is preparing to celebrate its tenth anniversary this fall.

&ldquo;Chicago feels like home,&rdquo; ShanZuo says in a recent interview in the garden of their Bridgeport complex. (DaHuang is the younger of the pair, although both brothers, who keep themselves fit and favor stylish, form-fitting outfits and hipster hats, appear significantly younger than their actual ages, which they declined to reveal.) &ldquo;At first we didn&rsquo;t intend to remain in Chicago, but once we got here, we felt like we need to stay,&rdquo; DaHuang says. &ldquo;Chinese artists are a little shy, a little humble, singing very deep. In America, it&rsquo;s more powerful, more direct.&rdquo; He smiles. &ldquo;Here you show your muscle.&rdquo;

*

In their earliest artistic efforts in China, the Zhou brothers trained and painted separately, but they came together as a team in 1973. &ldquo;At first it was just for fun,&rdquo; ShanZuo says. &ldquo;Collaboration among scholars and calligraphers is a tradition in China, so we thought we would try.&rdquo;

But the brothers quickly realized two things. One was that their collaboration wasn&rsquo;t always fun. As part of the process, each brother has the freedom to cancel out&mdash;to &ldquo;destroy,&rdquo; in their blunt terminology&mdash;what the other has done by altering, augmenting or erasing it entirely. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s totally free to do anything,&rdquo; ShanZuo says, &ldquo;I am free to do anything, including to cover over what he&nbsp;did.&rdquo;

From the start, then, their collaboration was rooted at least as much in conflict as in harmony. When they paint, the brothers&rsquo; separate identities neither merge nor disappear; rather, they engage in a dialogue, one responding to the other, and sometimes the conversation can become a bit heated.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Sometimes he gives you a surprise,&rdquo; DaHuang says of his brother. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re working very smoothly, developing something, feeling very comfortable with it, and then he comes in and goes&nbsp;pah-pah-pah-pah-pah! And everything is destroyed. It&rsquo;s hard to take sometimes. You respect his talent, but it doesn&rsquo;t mean you don&rsquo;t get angry.&rdquo;

But out of that destruction and those sometimes raw emotions also came something unexpected: a new form of art-making that produced results that neither brother could have accomplished on his own.&nbsp; &ldquo;At the beginning, we knew it was interesting, but we didn&rsquo;t know how&nbsp;special it was, how important it was,&rdquo; DaHuang says. &ldquo;But more and more as we worked together, we realized the value&nbsp;of the collaboration. People think we have&nbsp;the same idea and bring harmony to it before coming to the canvas. That&rsquo;s wrong. The value of&nbsp;the collaboration is that it opens up things that couldn&rsquo;t happen any&nbsp;other way. When you paint by yourself, no matter how great a painter you are&mdash;Picasso, whatever&mdash;you won&rsquo;t have the courage to destroy your own painting. You&nbsp;think you are always right. But two people together, they don&rsquo;t care. You paint something amazing, but he destroys it, because he sees it differently. And with this kind of fighting, something comes out in the painting&nbsp;that&rsquo;s never happened before. It&rsquo;s a mystery, and it creates a new magic.&rdquo;

The greatest mystery, perhaps, is that for all the struggle implicit in their creation, the paintings often arrive at a place of harmony, or at least a balance of elements, however precarious. Sometimes the balance has the feeling of competitors battling each other to a draw; other times, a natural order is achieved, like planets threatening to collide but slipping, at the last moment, into alignment.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite unique, what they do,&rdquo; says Kuiyi Shen, Director of the Chinese Studies Program and Professor of Asian Art History, Theory and Criticism at the University of California, San Diego. Shen is also author of the introductory essay in Zhou Brothers: 30 Years of Collaboration, published in 2004 in connection with an exhibition mounted by the Chicago Cultural Center and the Elmhurst Art Museum. &ldquo;They start from differences, from their own places, and then there&rsquo;s a competition&mdash;a confrontation, actually. But gradually, the two sides get together, and that results eventually in harmony.&rdquo;

Sergio Gomez, curator and director of exhibitions at the Zhou B Art Center, often finds himself awed by how the brothers repeatedly manage to find equilibrium. &ldquo;What makes it work for them is their culture of trust,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Sometimes when you see them together, you have a sense that they&rsquo;re connecting in a language besides the verbal. Many times they fight, but at the end, the whole comes together and it turns out to be incredibly beautiful.&rdquo;

As ShanZuo puts it, &ldquo;Sometimes after a while, you both see something, and it&rsquo;s good. You stop right there. The painting is done.&rdquo;

*

The Zhou Brothers&rsquo; work has evolved considerably over the decades. &ldquo;As artists, when you start to feel like you satisfy yourself, you always pursue a different thing,&rdquo; DaHuang says. &ldquo;You always look for the best way to make your art go further, go beyond.&rdquo;

&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re young, you think you can do everything,&rdquo; his brother adds. &ldquo;But it takes a long time to find your own style.&rdquo; DaHuang nods. &ldquo;The most important thing is what kind of artistic language you create for yourself.&rdquo;

Their first collaborations in the 1970s were often representational and narrative-based, inspired by Chinese folklore&mdash;one early painting, currently on display in their dining room, shows a mythical beast being slain&mdash;and primitive cave drawings. In the &rsquo;80s, the brothers pushed their engagement with 5,000 years of Chinese art history into the realms of modern art, producing work that, while grounded in tradition, increasingly responded to the international art world in a way that combined the ancient and the cutting-edge.

After settling in Chicago, the brothers spent the &rsquo;90s soaking up influences from their new environment, producing a body of work that was both heavier in texture and more abstract. In those paintings&mdash;several of which remain on view through Oct. 4 at the Zhou B Art Center as part of an exhibit called Zhou Brothers: American Period&mdash;minimalist figures (often secret self-portraits) are prominent, strolling through somber color fields illuminated by lightning flashes of vibrant red.

Since the turn of the millennium, the Zhou Brothers&rsquo; paintings have become almost entirely abstract, decorative and free-flowing, most traces of narrative and the figure having been eliminated. Texture is more important than ever, the canvases rougher, the paint thicker and more three-dimensional. The paintings are more gestural, more intuitive and more concerned with a fluid kind of movement, than before&mdash;a fluidity not of things but of emotions, reflecting their philosophy that &ldquo;feeling is liberty.&rdquo;

&ldquo;Our work is not about thinking, it&rsquo;s about feeling,&rdquo; ShanZuo says. &ldquo;When we paint, something is flowing there, you just have to feel it. It&rsquo;s like tai chi [a Chinese self-defense discipline now used primarily as exercise and stress reduction]. It doesn&rsquo;t look powerful, but the power is there.&rdquo;

Accordingly, the brothers engage in a minimum of chatter when they paint. &ldquo;Originally we talked and planned,&rdquo; DaHuang says. &ldquo;Later we realized we don&rsquo;t have to talk too much.&rdquo;

ShanZuo nods. &ldquo;The painting itself,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;is the conversation.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

Image shown at top of page:&nbsp;The Zhou Brothers, DaHuang Zhou and ShanZuo Zhou, in their Bridgeport studio. Photo: Kevin Nance, 2014

&nbsp;

Kevin Nance is a Chicago-based freelance writer and photographer. Twitter @KevinNance1

&nbsp;

The Zhou Brothers: Four Decades of Collaboration

BY LAURA MILLER

I first met James Mespl&eacute; one day several years ago, when he stopped into the Chicago Gallery News office after visiting Printworks Gallery. He dropped off a catalogue from his upcoming show and shared a first hand explanation of his conceptually loaded work. Since that visit, and on many others, I&rsquo;ve been pleased to gain knowledge and history from the congenial, insightful Chicago artist.&nbsp;

Mespl&eacute;&rsquo;s intricate paintings link the past to the present through portrayals of historical imagery, mythical figures, and surrealist landscapes; fine details and vibrant, saturated colors fill his canvases. References to pop culture and modern themes dot his work along with the occasional glimpse of the artist himself.&nbsp;

Mespl&eacute; studied painting at the University of Missouri in his home state, and following his move to Chicago in 1968, graduated with honors from Northeastern Illinois University in 1970. He has taught art at various Chicago institutions over the years, including Francis W. Parker School, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Mespl&eacute; lives and works in Chicago where he is represented by Printworks Gallery, and his work is included in numerous public and private collections. - LM

Image shown at top of page:&nbsp;James Mespl&eacute;, Calliop&eacute;, Muse of Epic Song and Poetry, multi-media collage on paper, 2013-14, 7 &frac12;&rdquo; x 9 &frac12;&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="James Mesplé, &lt;i&gt;Clio&lt;/i&gt;, Muse of History, multi-media collage on paper, 2013-14, 7 ½” x 9 ½”" data-rich-file-id="444" height="546" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/444/original/clio-web.jpg" width="682" />

<h4>LM: How long have you lived in Chicago?&nbsp;</h4>

JM: I&rsquo;ve lived in Chicago since 1968. I was 19 when I moved here, and I&rsquo;m from a small town in the Ozarks called Nevada, Missouri. I had visited my brother in New York and my sister in Chicago in previous summers, so when I decided to leave the University of Missouri to finish my education, I chose Chicago.&nbsp;

<h4>Tell me about your recent summer exhibition, Mythic Faces &amp; Figures, at the Chicago Cultural Center and your upcoming fall show, Muse, at Printworks Gallery.&nbsp;</h4>

Mythic Faces and Figures at the Cultural Center included my larger canvases in egg tempera and oil, a mixed technique of painting that I originally learned from Thomas Hart Benton, whom I met through my teacher Fred Shane.&nbsp; This process gives luminous, brilliant color, which I very much like. &nbsp;

Muse, my Printworks exhibition, is a series of 33 new collages, made with a variety of water-soluble media, including ink, watercolor, gouache, casein, and acrylic painted over paper collages. Most of the works are small and intimate. The Muses inspire us in the diverse arts. Many people know about the nine Muses but few know their names or attributes. I hope everyone will stop by the gallery, see the exhibition, and pick up the free catalogue, which is really a small guide to the Muses. Once you know their names, you will see them pop up in works by writers as diverse as Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, and James Joyce. The Muses can take you on a journey to both the past and the future.

<h4>I always enjoy hearing your stories. Can you share a noteworthy memory about a triumph you&rsquo;ve encountered throughout your years as an artist?</h4>

In 1987, I was commissioned by Chicago City Ballet to create sets for Chicago!, a new ballet to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the city of Chicago. The premier was at the Chicago Theater on State Street. I couldn&rsquo;t miss the chance to put a monumental image of a golden Venus on the top of the Sears Tower (now Willis). It did not go unnoticed by the critics. This led me to produce a painting with similar images, which was included in my first international invitational exhibition at the Queens Museum in New York in 1988. The title of that exhibition was Classical Myth and Imagery in Contemporary Art. In the art world it is certainly true that &ldquo;one thing leads to another.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="James Mesplé, &lt;i&gt;Terpsichoré&lt;/i&gt;, Muse of Dance, multi-media collage on paper, 2013-14, 9 ½&quot; x 7 ½”" data-rich-file-id="445" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/445/original/terpsichore-web.jpg" />

<h4>Your work is loaded with vivid representations of classical figures, and nods to historic symbolism.&nbsp;Can you elaborate on your interest in mythology and historical subject matter?</h4>

I have always been interested in the narrative in my painting, and in my music as well. My preference is classical music. I like a beginning, a middle, and an ending. For me, it is rather like sex&mdash;the foreplay, the act of pleasure, and the climax. Remove any one of these three parts and something is definitely missing. Sometimes, in narrative painting, the story is only suggested and the viewers complete the action in their minds. These stories have as many different endings as there are viewers. We get out of a painting what we personally bring to it.&nbsp;

I love mythology because the narratives are always open to various interpretations. Often multiple meanings exist simultaneously, both mundane and profound; exoteric and esoteric. My interest in mythology began at an early age, encouraged by my grandfather, who shared with me the stories he learned from his father and grandmother. I find many similarities between his Osage (Native American) stories and the Greek Myths, since both deal with the forces of nature, the sky, the earth, and the creatures that live upon it. Carl Jung, of course, would claim archetypes exist in all cultures.

<h4>What do you find unique about Chicago&rsquo;s art community?&nbsp;</h4>

I find it a nurturing place to work because it is not market-driven. Art, whether a novel, a painting, or a symphony requires time, energy, and isolation in order to bring an artistic creation to completion.&nbsp;

Chicago provides a wonderful cocoon in which art can develop and mature before it emerges and takes its flight from the artist&rsquo;s studio. Other cities around the world have provided the same conditions for the development of art at different times, but the muse is fickle; she never stays in any one city forever. Chicago&rsquo;s location in the middle of the country was in the past a detriment, but it is now looking more like an asset, as people move away from the edges of the continent. For many Americans, the Great Lakes, the Prairie, and the Mississippi are still terra incognita, but in the new century, this is going to change. What will the art of the new century look like? Only one thing is certain. It won&rsquo;t look anything like work from the 20th century, which looked nothing like work from the 19th century, which looked nothing like work from the 18th century, etc., etc.

<h4>Are you in the middle of any big projects?&nbsp;</h4>

I am starting a new series of egg tempera and oil paintings on panels, which incorporate gesso relief in both the picture plane and the frames. The nature of the subjects and narratives are top secret at this time.&nbsp;

The twelve paintings will take me two years to complete. They should be ready for exhibition in the fall of 2016.

<img alt="" data-caption="James Mesplé, &lt;i&gt;Melpomené&lt;/i&gt;, Muse of Tragedy, multi-media collage on paper, 2013-14, 9 ½&quot; x 7 ½”" data-rich-file-id="446" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/446/original/melpomene-web.jpg" />

<h4>Do you have a favorite place in Chicago?</h4>

I love the conservatories at Garfield Park and Lincoln Park, and the Chicago Botanic Garden in Highland Park. I have been sketching plants in all these places since the early 1970s. At that time, when I was still teaching, I used to take my Francis Parker art students to the Lincoln Park conservatory to sketch.

<h4>What books /authors /poetry do you find yourself re-reading every so often? Any classics or old favorites that have really influenced you or your work?</h4>

Shakespeare, Edith Hamilton on Mythology, and Harry Thurston Peck&rsquo;s Classical Literature and Antiquities. Elise Paschen commissioned me to create a painting for the cover of a book of poems entitled Bestiary (Red Hen Press). Her poems, which draw upon her Osage heritage, I found both provocative and powerful. I reread Bestiary recently and found that her poems release a torrent of emotions and images, which any artist could draw upon for ideas.

<h4>Tell me about your studio practice. What is the typical evolution of one of your paintings, for example? How long will you work on a piece, and do you have a set plan when you begin or do elements develop as you work?</h4>

My normal practice is to get up, have breakfast, go out for a good coffee, and get back to start work by 9:30am or so and I work until 6pm, with a 30 minute lunch break. Often I return to the studio after dinner and work until about 10pm. My works begin with small thumbnail sketches that get transposed into small drawings, which are then gridded up to canvas size. The large paintings usually take about two months from beginning to completion. As I work on the pieces, often my plans change and I add or take away elements in the composition. Sometimes, I move on to a new work, only to return to an older work.

<h4>Describe your studio. Is it Organized and tidy, or more of a hodgepodge?&nbsp;</h4>

My studio fluctuates from being organized and neat to a hodgepodge, as I move to the completion of a project.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="James Mesplé, &lt;i&gt;Erato&lt;/i&gt;, Muse of Erotic Poetry, multi-media collage on paper, 2013-14, 9 ½&quot; x 7 ½”" data-rich-file-id="447" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/447/original/erato-web.jpg" />

<h4>What inspires you to produce work? Do you have a long list of ideas ready to go, or do you wait for a spark of some kind?</h4>

I have dozens, probably a hundred, sketch books full of ideas, quick sketches done on my travels to museums and intriguing places here and abroad. I refer to these constantly, and one sketch may inspire several works. However, I have come to the conclusion that I would need several lifetimes to make use of all of my sketches. Sometimes, ideas happen in dreams, and I get up and sketch them down before I lose them. Daydreams are easier.&nbsp;

<h4>Are there artists, past or present, whose work you really admire?</h4>

An early influence was Ivan Albright, whose paintings I first encountered in the Art Institute when I visited as a grade school student. In Missouri, I gained much from two of my earliest teachers, Fred Shane and Thomas Hart Benton. In Chicago, I was inspired by the Imagists, especially the paintings of Ed Paschke, who later hired me to give egg tempera workshops to his students at Northwestern. And I studied under Karl Wirsum, at the SAIC. And, of course, I am influenced by numerous Old Masters, especially Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, and Martin Schoengauer.

<h4>You have a history of teaching at various educational institutions. How was your experience with teaching? Any comments on how the landscape has changed in art education, or on the current state of art education?</h4>

I taught full time for ten years at the Francis Parker School, and part time at the studios in the School of the Art Institute.&nbsp; I enjoyed both, but teaching never left me with enough time for my work.&nbsp; I have been away from teaching for years, so I cannot speak authoritatively on the current situation.

CGN interviews artist James McNeil Mesple

Artist Insights: James McNeill Mesplé

Soho House has come to Chicago, opening in the West Loop on August 11&nbsp;in a former belting manufacturing warehouse from 1907.&nbsp;

A London social club and hotel import, known as a chic meeting place for members of the creative industry, every Soho House takes on a distinct look and feel that celebrates and draws inspiration from its local area. In addition to the many early 20th century features native to the building, there are over 250 works by nearly 200 artists on display. Francesca Gavin, curator for Soho House, worked closely with local talent to build the group&rsquo;s largest collection to date, which includes art by renowned Chicago talents Michelle Grabner, Jos&eacute; Lerma, Enoc Perez, David Schutter, Theaster Gates, Molly Hartung Zuckerman, Ryan Travis Christian, Sheree Hovsepian, Jan Tichy and countless others. Five large canvas pieces are also featured on the ground floor by two artists originally from Chicago &mdash; Rashid Johnson and Angel Otero &mdash; as well as pieces by Damien Hirst, Harland Miller and Noble and Webster, all from Britain.

<img alt="" data-caption="Art by artist Michelle Grabner is part of the Soho House collection" data-rich-file-id="434" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/434/original/michelle-grabner-copy.jpg" />&nbsp;

113-125 N. Green St., Chicago (60607)

<a href="http://sohohousechicago.com">sohohousechicago.com</a>

Abundant Art at Soho House

The Merchandise Mart, an Art Deco landmark towering 25 stories and occupying four million square feet, rests along the Chicago River as the epicenter of downtown Chicago life, culture, media, and business. Finished in 1930 The Merchandise Mart today serves as a monument to early 20th century merchandising and architecture.&nbsp;

The next time you visit the Mart, look up: the building&rsquo;s lavish riverside entrance features a 17-panel mural created by Jules Guerin (1866&ndash;1946), one of America&rsquo;s most important muralists of the 20th century. Titled Merchandise Around the World (1930), the mural is visible, way up towards the high ceiling, between square marble pillars that form a colonnade in the main atrium. The delicately colored panels with metal leaf background details each feature a market scene from a different country. Pictured scenes include Turkish rugs and textiles being sold in a bazaar next to a mosque; silk and pottery markets near Japan&rsquo;s Mount Fuji; sleighs carrying furs in Russia, and a caravan of camels carrying Egyptian cotton past a pyramid.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Pictured at work on the Merchandise Mart’s mural: Amber Smith, The Conservation Center’s Senior Painting Conservator. The mural grime was first eliminated with cotton swabs dipped in an aqueous solution, followed by organic solvents to remove the varnish. Amber elaborates: “Each cotton swab—measuring two-inches tall by half inch wide—took care of a 3” x 3” square surface." data-rich-file-id="436" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/436/original/amber-cleaning-copy.jpg" />

After 80 years, 38,000 daily visitors, and few previous cleaning attempts, Merchandise Around the World needed expert TLC. The Conservation Center dispatched four technicians who worked over night using just delicate cotton swabs for more than 630 hours. Says Amber Smith, The Center&rsquo;s Senior Painting Conservator, &ldquo;Once the panels were cleaned, the lobby immediately became brighter. We hope visitors to the Mart will again appreciate Guerin&rsquo;s masterpiece for Chicago.&rdquo;

Conserving a Mart Treasure

SOFA, Chicago&rsquo;s art fair fixture, (it has 21 years to EXPO&rsquo;s 3), brings a unique experience to Navy Pier each November. Its focus on sculpture, fiber, glass, jewelry, wood and more 3-dimensional art is eye-opening to even the most seasoned visitor. Design has also been making a logical and welcome mark on the fair in recent years, since the ties between art and function are so visible at SOFA.

Watch for museum-style presentations by renowned institutions and organizations, including Cranbook Academy of Art, Pittsburg Glass Center, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and Collectors of Wood Art.

SOFA Selects, which features favorites of designers, curators and critics, includes Suzanne Lovell, Kara Mann, Emily Zilber and Davira Taragin, and James Yood.

Dates, details and info at <a href="http://sofaexpo.com">sofaexpo.com</a>

&nbsp;

Image at top:&nbsp;SOFA CHICAGO 2013, Photo by Cheri Eisenberg

SOFA at 21

The Midwest may not have steep mountain ranges to brag about, nor deep oceans to swim in, but our own subtle natural assets are certainly stunning. Our lakes, prairies, forests and beaches provide locals and visitors a sense of place and offer inspiration to everyone, including artists.

One local organization that helps encourage us to slow down, engage our senses, and experience our natural environment is northshore-based Openlands. As part of Openlands&rsquo; mission to establish a connection between people and nature, it integrates a multitude of art forms into open spaces, ranging from installations at the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve to murals that grace area schools and community gardens.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Terry Evans, Oak Street Beach, Chicago, April 27, 2004" data-rich-file-id="435" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/435/original/evans43-copy.jpg" />&nbsp;

This fall, the charity will highlight critical links between nature and art, going beyond the usual vehicles of outdoor sculpture and landscape paintings. The Openlands 2014 Annual Luncheon on October 30 will focus on the capacity of public art to invite people into the natural landscape, inspiring and educating along the way. Openlands will honor photographer Terry Evans with its 2014 Conservation Leadership Award. Evans has photographed the prairies and plains of North America as well as the urban prairie of Chicago. Combining both aerial and ground photography, she delves into the intricate and complex relationships between land and people. Her work explores the virgin prairie, working steel mills, Greenland ice sheets, a small town in the Kansas Flint Hills and the oil boom in North Dakota. Evans collaborated with Openlands on two major projects, Disarming the Prairie about the former Joliet Arsenal, now Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, and Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait, about the Chicago eco-region, which became both a book and an exhibition at Millennium Park. Evans is represented in Chicago by Catherine Edelman Gallery.

For more information visit <a href="http://openlands.org">openlands.org</a> and <a href="http://edelmangallery.com">edelmangallery.com</a>

&nbsp;

Openlands: Engaging Art + Nature

Metropolitan Capital has been a local champion of Chicago art for several years now. The bank&rsquo;s ongoing quarterly series, Chicago Works, showcases local stars in its decidedly un-bank-like space in the former Tree Studios in River North. This fall they feature the colorful art of Richard Hull.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="438" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/438/original/hull-three-dreams-2003-72x60-copy.jpg" />

Hull&rsquo;s work is recognized as an abstraction of architecture, landscape, and the figure. Over the years his work has evolved from deconstructed and imagined maps of interior spaces, featuring bright, contrasting colors which animate the interacting forms, to more lyrical, organic compositions of looser, swirling shapes. Hull&rsquo;s most recent work explores the abstraction of the figure, using the composition of a traditional portrait as a base for his animated exploration of surface and form.

For more information about Richard Hull, his work and the Metropolitan Capital exhibition, please visit <a href="http://metcapbank.com">metcapbank.com</a> or contact Western Exhibitions at 312-480-8390 or visit <a href="http://westernexhibitions.com">westernexhibitions.com</a>

Richard Hull at Metropolitan Capital

<h3>Passings</h3>Ruth Horwich was a spirited, devoted collector of art and a passionate patron of cultural institutions. She died July 21, 2014 at the age of 94. Ruth collected art with her late husband, Leonard, and she continued to actively collect after his death over 30 years ago. Some of Ruth’s most notable contributions to the Chicago cultural community were a collection of Alexander Calder mobiles and stabiles to the Museum of Contemporary Art (which she and her husband helped found) and the now iconic black and white Jean Dubuffet sculpture, Monument with a Standing Beast, installed outside the James R. Thompson Center. Ruth was chair of the Hyde Park Art Center for 40 years and a board member of Poetry magazine and the Art Institute of Chicago.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Anniversaries: 40, 25 and 10</h3>The University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art celebrates its 40th season in 2014–15 with two museum-wide exhibitions. Launching September 27, Carved, Cast, Crumpled: Sculpture All Ways takes over the entirety of the Museum. Following, Objects and Voices: A Collection of Stories (opening February 12, 2015) will showcase 17 micro-exhibitions by guest curators with a relationship to the Smart.&nbsp;Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, the city’s longest-running independent print&nbsp;workshop, is&nbsp;celebrating&nbsp;its 25th year with a retrospective, sponsored by The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, at Expo 72, opening November 14. The exhibition will feature over 50 CPC-affiliated artists and a mini workshop. A complimentary exhibit at&nbsp;Prairie State College will run November 17-December 11.The Golden Triangle, one of Chicago’s largest home furnishings stores and a national resource for fine Asian and European antiques, turns 25 this October. Established in 1989 by Douglas Van Tress and Chauwarin Tuntisak, The Golden Triangle originally sold artifacts and antiques from Thailand. Today the store includes collectables from all over Asia and Europe, and, since 2006, modern furnishings made from reclaimed exotic hardwoods as well as contemporary Chicago-made case goods and upholstered sofas and chairs.Western Exhibitions marked its 10th anniversary this past summer. The gallery started out as a nomadic enterprise but opened as a West Loop brick and mortar space in 2004.&nbsp;The Zhou B Art Center in Bridgeport will host The 10 Years of Art Innovation, a three-day event October 15-17. Brothers and artistic collaborators&nbsp;DaHuang and ShanZuo Zhou opened the center in 2004&nbsp;to create an art community to empower and mentor emerging artists. Events include an artist’s lunch, The Zhou B Gala, and Crossing Borders Third Friday.&nbsp;<h3>Moves and Changes</h3>Bert Green Fine Art has relocated to a new suite (#620) at 8 S. Michigan Ave.Pagoda Red Winnetka moved to 911 Green Bay Rd., just down from its previous location.KM Fine Arts moved from the John Hancock Center to 43 E. Oak Street, Suite B.&nbsp;Lawyers for the Creative Arts named Jan Feldman as Executive Director, following the retirement on May 1, 2014 of William Rattner. Rattner led the organization for 14 years.David Weinberg Gallery has a new mission: to provide an engaging environment for discourse on critical contemporary issues that concern our community. Joining artists with organizations in support and solidarity of their cause, the gallery will work to produce tangible change and cultivate a culture of consciousness.&nbsp;<h3>Welcome to CGN</h3>We are pleased to welcome Alan Koppel Gallery, 806 N. Dearborn, just off Chicago Ave. between River North and Michigan Ave. Moberg Gallery at deAurora in the Merchandise Mart, Ste. 1499, features contemporary painting and sculpture paired with the finest quality furnishings and accessories.&nbsp;In the West Loop Western Exhibitions, 845 W. Washington, represents a varied roster of conceptually-minded, visually innovative artists. The gallery also maintains an inventory of artist books and multiples, gathered as a sister entity and website, WesternXeditions.com. Aspect/Ratio, run by owner Jefferson Godard at 119 N. Peoria, is unique in Chicago, specializing in contemporary video art by emerging and established artists.&nbsp;In Pilsen Colby Gallery, 1626 W. 18th St., showcases avant-garde international artists.&nbsp;Regards is a brand new space at 2216 W. Chicago in Ukrainian Village run by wife-and-husband Natalie Popovic Schuh and Mike Schuh.&nbsp;In Joliet Bullet Fine Art specializes in the “Graphic Fine Art” works of artist/designer/photographer “Bullet.” Gallery Seven is a fine art photography gallery located in historic downtown Joliet, featuring work by nine participating co-op photographers.The Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion at University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign is the second largest general fine art museum in Illinois and cares for the University of Illinois art collection. The museum is affiliated with the School of Art + Design at Illinois and the College of Fine + Applied Arts.Ayla’s Originals is a bead and jewelry boutique on the North Shore in Evanston.&nbsp;Bardo Consulting Group, Inc. helps clients acquire, maintain and disperse valuables through a network of specialists in appraisal, estate planning, conservation, framing, finance, insurance, law, security and taxation.Cynthia Noble Private Art Tours and Events offers private guided visits to art museums, galleries, private collections and public sculpture and architecture in Chicago and beyond.&nbsp;

News: Anniversaries, Moves and Welcomes

<img alt="" class="left" data-caption="Clockwise from top left: Chicago, Millennium Park @HuffingtonPost; Paris, @SpotUArt; Milwaukee, WI @teachingkristin; Ravinia Music Festival, Highland Park, IL @BlairKamin" data-rich-file-id="427" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/427/original/jp4.jpg" />Spanish artist Jaume Plensa is primarily known in Chicago as the artist who created Millennium Park&rsquo;s Crown Fountain in 2004. It has been ten years since Plensa&rsquo;s think-global-act-local installation became a Chicago icon, and a favorite summertime splashing pool for children, and this summer Plensa introduced four new large scale sculptures, titled 1004 Portraits, to the park, on view through 2015. He also installed a new piece, Silent Music, at Ravinia Festival in suburban Highland Park.

His exhibition, Private Dreams, is on view at the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/richard-gray-gallery">Richard Gray Gallery</a> through September 27.

You&rsquo;ll likely also catch his work on view at EXPO Chicago, September 18-21, at Gray&rsquo;s booth.

Because of the public, interactive nature of Plensa&rsquo;s work, his art is popular on Twitter and Instagram. Above are some of our favorite social media images from around the world.

The Ubiquitous Jaume Plensa

This summer, <a href="http://www.art.org/">Intuit: The Center of Intuitive and Outsider Art</a> features two exhibitions, Lost and Found: the Search for Harry and Edna and Past Perfect: The Art of Eileen Doman. Both are themed on era, nostalgia, personality, and family photos. Although different mediums and processes were used to make the featured work, the exhibitions compliment each other through their depiction of American life.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Paintings by Eileen Doman" data-rich-file-id="419" height="361" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/419/original/doman-collage-.jpg" width="882" />

Intuit&rsquo;s loud, industrial door opens into the large gallery space featuring <a href="http://www.art.org/2014/05/lost-and-found-the-search-for-harry-and-edna/">Lost and Found</a>. Towards the middle sits a reel and projector with two armchairs situated on a homey oriental rug. Large photos of Harry and Edna&rsquo;s lives line the wall. The photos date from the late 1940&rsquo;s to 1961, from house parties, to exotic vacations, to nieces and nephews. Just past the quaint gift shop towards the back, is a smaller gallery room with <a href="http://www.art.org/2014/07/past-perfect-the-art-of-eileen-doman/">Past Perfect: The Art of Eileen Doman</a>. On the left wall, Doman&rsquo;s paintings are arranged in a collage format. The rest of her paintings line the three other walls. In the corner is a small TV playing the CBS program, Face to Face with Connie Chung that features the profile of Doman. The second exhibition space also includes the permanent Henry Darger Room and non-circulating Robert A. Roth Study Center.

Lost and Found began in 2011, when Chicago photographer, Jeff Phillips, found hundreds of photos of a couple at a second hand store outside of St. Louis. Phillips was eager to know the history of the couple and created a Facebook page, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IsThisYourMother">Is This Your Mother?</a> Each day, Phillips posted a photo in hopes to eventually find Harry and Edna&rsquo;s family and information about them. Phillips expected his quest to take years. However, the page grew in popularity and &ldquo;the social media search party&rdquo; took off.

Read the full story of Harry and Edna <a href="http://harryandedna.com/">here</a>.

<img alt="" data-caption="Send Edna around the wold again on Instagram @harryandedna " data-rich-file-id="420" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/420/original/edna-cut-outcrop.jpg" />

Lost and Found is not focused on the quality or composition of the photos, but rather the collection as a whole, and its interaction with the Facebook community. Lost and Found asks questions of the boundaries of legacy: What does the documentation of our lives today mean when we are gone? What do we become after our last photo disappears? The other inherent part to the exhibition are the blown up Facebook captions under the photos. Phillips quickly found himself enthralled in the art of commentary. The captions people were posting revealed aspects about the era and Harry and Edna&rsquo;s lives, but they also revealed much about the Facebook commenters.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="417" height="482" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/417/original/edna-photo-.jpg" width="252" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" data-rich-file-id="418" height="486" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/418/original/harry-photo-.jpg" width="316" />

Both exhibitions capture the essence and personality of the subjects. Eileen Doman depicts character in all of her paintings by slightly augmenting her subjects to create a true portrait of personality. Doman&rsquo;s style is distinctive and quirky. Doman prominently works from family photos but she eventually expanded to painting notable figures and celebrities. Doman is completely self-taught, finding painting in the early 1990&#39;s after her daughter enrolled in school. Quickly Doman&rsquo;s paintings rose in popularity in the mid 1990&rsquo;s, hailed as an overnight sensation and began showing in prominent New York City galleries. Don&rsquo;t miss <a href="http://www.art.org/2014/07/gallery-talk-past-perfect">Eileen Doman&rsquo;s Gallery Talk</a> on September 13, 1pm led by Intuit curator Kevin Cole.

<img alt="" data-caption="Eileen Doman, &lt;i&gt;Steve Buscemi&lt;/i&gt;, 1997, acrylic on canvas, Collection of Kiberly Carlson" data-rich-file-id="409" height="343" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/409/original/steve.jpg" width="296" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" data-caption="Eileen Doman, &lt;i&gt;Ida and Dixie Dan&lt;/i&gt;, 1995, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection" data-rich-file-id="410" height="367" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/410/original/eileen.jpg" width="280" />

The Henry Darger Room Collection is another glimpse into the past and the artist&rsquo;s life. The installation features Darger&rsquo;s Remington typewriter and furniture, as well as other various artifacts. During my visit, Intuit was hosting a rehearsal for the play, The Strange Case of Henry Darger, written by BBC Producer, Judith Kampfner and performed by Looking Glass Theater. The rehearsal added to Intuit&rsquo;s atmosphere of creativity, with monologues audible from next door in the rehearsal space.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="411" height="721" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/411/original/darger-20outside.jpg" width="540" />

Finding Portraits of the Past at Intuit

BY MADDIE JONES

Tucked behind the modern zinc fa&ccedil;ade of the Poetry Foundation, through the treed garden, you can find artist Tony Fitzpatrick&#39;s Secret Birds exhibition in the first floor gallery. Twenty bird drawings hang along the space&#39;s east-west wall, each creating a narrative unique to itself. The intricate, colorful bird theme drawings quote sheet music and prose while incorporating foil wrappers, parts of cross word puzzles, clown eyes, and other hidden treasures. The avian theme is a familiar one for Fitzpatrick, but it is particularly fitting for his final exhibition in Chicago before he relocates to New Orleans this winter to study ornithology and natural history at the University of New Orleans.

<img alt="" data-caption="Tony Fitzpatrick, Lunch Drawing #35: Ice Bird" data-rich-file-id="359" height="414" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/359/original/photo-1.jpg" width="381" />

In conjunction with the show, on Thursday, July 31 at 7:30pm the public is invited to attend a performance of <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/programs/event/3493">Secret Birds</a>. The play, directed by Ann Filmer (16th Street Theater), will be performed by Fitzpatrick and Martha Lavey (Steppenwolf Theater Company), with music performed and composed by Frank Orrall (Poi-Dog Pondering). The play is inspired by the poetry and stories found in Fitzpatrick&rsquo;s drawings. Doors will open at 7pm.

Click <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/media/secret-birds.html">here</a> for Fitzpatrick&rsquo;s multimedia feature on the inspiration for Secret Birds. In the latest edition of Poetry are an essay, <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/media/day-lou-reed.html">The Day Lou Reed Set Me Free</a>, and corresponding drawings.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="357" height="430" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/357/original/image1.jpg" width="653" />

<a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/">The Poetry Foundation</a> is a perfect platform for the exhibition. Both the exhibition space and Fitzpatrick&#39;s drawings bring together nature, art and poetry. The gallery&#39;s tall ceilings and airy lines are a serene contrast to the artist&#39;s vibrant drawings.

The exhibition can be viewed from 11am-4pm, Monday through Friday through September 14. While visiting make sure to browse through the reading library, featuring a collection of predominantly editor copies of single author works that are still used for fact checking and reference. The collection includes: a children&rsquo;s section, anthologies, chapbooks, journals, broadsides, monographs, criticism and prose.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="360" height="516" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/360/original/screen-20shot-202014-07-23-20at-204-53-09-20pm.png" width="316" />

Tony Fitzpatrick at the Poetry Foundation

Birds, Poems, and a Play 

Realizing Realism: Gwendolyn Zabicki

Pictured above: &copy; Ed Paschke, Bocca Rouge, 2000, 20&quot; x 24&quot;, oil on linen

The May-August issue of&nbsp;Chicago Gallery News features the new <a href="http://www.edpaschke.org/">Ed Paschke Art Center</a> on our summer cover. We are thrilled to welcome this new cultural destination to Chicago and look forward to celebrating the life of one of Chicago&#39;s most recognized artists.&nbsp;

The mission of the Ed Paschke Art Center is to preserve and provide public access to the work of the legendary Chicago artist, Ed Paschke. It serves as an educational resource for youth, adults, artists and academics, and functions as an accessible platform for artists to showcase their work. The Center features 2,800 square feet of gallery space and 1,700 square feet of educational space, which also includes a recreation of Paschke&rsquo;s 2004 studio.&nbsp; It will provide free public access to the largest collection of Paschke&rsquo;s works, which were all selected from the holdings of the Ed Paschke Foundation.

<img alt="" data-caption=" © Ed Paschke, &lt;/i&gt;Red Boxer&lt;/i&gt;, 2004, 50” x 60”, oil on linen" data-rich-file-id="238" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/238/original/redboxer-.jpg" />

The son of Polish immigrants, Chicago-born Ed Paschke spent the majority of his life living on Chicago&rsquo;s Northwest side.&nbsp; Growing up, Paschke&rsquo;s artistic influences included his father, also an artist, and the animation of Disney and cartoons, which led him after high school to pursue both his bachelor&rsquo;s and master&rsquo;s degrees in fine arts at the School of the Art Institute.&nbsp; During his graduate studies, he became affiliated with a group of artists known as the Chicago Imagists.

Paschke&rsquo;s work developed an unmistakable confrontational style, which captured the grittiness of urban life and used various forms of media and technology.&nbsp; Subject matter is depicted using intricate patterns and vibrant colors.&nbsp; Paschke used color to reach peoples&rsquo; nervous system; to him painting was a process of discovery&mdash;about solving a problem.&nbsp;&nbsp; Of his art, Paschke once said, &ldquo;They either love it or hate it but rarely are they indifferent to it.&rdquo;

While Paschke has deep artistic Chicago roots, his works are in permanent collections of major American and European museums including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, Centre George Pompidou and the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Board Chair of the Ed Paschke Foundation, Vesna K. Stelcer, recalls that Ed was an amazing original artist and a man devoted to his family.&nbsp; &ldquo;Throughout this process of building the Ed Paschke Art Center, which is to honor Paschke&rsquo;s life and legacy, his spirit and character have been our shining light,&rdquo; says Stelcer.&nbsp; &ldquo;It has been an incredibly humbling experience to work on this Art Center that, all who knew Ed and his work fundamentally agree, &#39;it&#39;s about time.&rsquo;&rdquo;&nbsp; Stelcer believes that the Ed Paschke Art Center is a true reflection of Ed&rsquo;s generous nature&mdash;supporting artists, serving as an educator, being a visionary, and believing his art should be easily accessible to the public.&nbsp; Stelcer says, &ldquo;Paschke naturally inspires, challenges and provokes one to be a better person; we are deeply grateful to be able to bring the Ed Paschke Art Center to our community and our city.&rdquo;

To mark what would have been Paschke&rsquo;s 75th birthday and the opening of the Ed Paschke Art Center, the park across from the Center will host its inaugural &ldquo;Paschke in the Park&rdquo; celebration, which will feature Paschke-inspired community art projects, food and entertainment. The Rabb Family Foundation, which is the major funder of the Ed Paschke Art Center, is sponsoring the free event and according to one of its Trustees, Lionel Rabb, &ldquo;Ed Paschke was not only a great artist but also was a great person who contributed and supported the communities in which he lived and worked. The Rabb Family Foundation and I are proud to have assisted in making the Ed Paschke Art Center a reality, making Paschke&rsquo;s amazing art accessible to all and helping to support and encourage the arts.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption=" © Ed Paschke, &lt;i&gt;Guitao&lt;/i&gt;, 1978, 46&quot; x 74&quot;, oil on linen" data-rich-file-id="237" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/237/original/guitao-.jpg" />

Join in the Center&rsquo;s opening event on Sunday, June 22 (the late artist&rsquo;s 75th birthday) for the inaugural, free Paschke in the Park celebration, featuring Paschke-inspired food, entertainment and activities. Tours of the new Center also will be available.&nbsp;

<img alt="" class="left" data-caption=" © Ed Paschke, &lt;i&gt;Red Sweeney&lt;/i&gt;, 1975, 75&quot; x 41&quot;, oil on canvas" data-rich-file-id="212" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/212/original/sweeney.jpg" />

<h4>&nbsp;</h4>

<h4>Ed Paschke Art Center</h4>

5415 W. Higgins Ave., Chicago, IL 60630

Tel 312-533-4911

Admission is free; open 7 days per week, 10am-7pm

Visit <a href="http://www.edpaschke.org">www.edpaschke.org</a> for more details.

ON THE COVER:  The New Ed Paschke Art Center

BY LAURA MILLER

<a href="http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/millennium_park.html">Millennium Park</a>&rsquo;s July 2004 opening transformed the Loop and today, the 24.5-acre park remains a top attraction for city visitors as well as long-time Chicago residents. This summer marks the 10th anniversary of Millennium Park and celebrations will take form through a series of free events and exhibitions including musical performances, films, simulcasts and documentaries shown on an outdoor, 40-foot LED screen, family activities, workouts and more.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="312" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/312/original/webimg-0573.jpg" />

World-renowned Spanish artist <a href="http://jaumeplensa.com/">Jaume Plensa</a>, creator of Crown Fountain, has also contributed to the Park&rsquo;s 10th anniversary celebration with a new installation of four large-scale portraits located in the South Boeing Gallery (just east of Crown Fountain) and at the Michigan Avenue / Madison Street entrance. Jaume Plensa: 1004 Portraits is meant to complement and expand upon the story of the 1000 LED portraits of Chicago residents that highlight the Crown Fountain.

The new installation&#39;s enormous portraits of young girls convey serene expressions with closed eyes, and offer a soothing counterbalance to the chaos and noise of the city. The faces are elongated and the portraits have slightly skewed proportions. The white sculpture placed at Michigan and Madison, Look Into My Dreams, Awilda, is made of resin and stands an impressive 39 feet tall. The other three cast iron sculptures located in the South Boeing Gallery, Laura, Paula, and Ines, measure 20-23 feet tall.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="313" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/313/original/webimg-0581.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="314" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/314/original/webimg-0583.jpg" />

The new works are on loan from the artist and are co-presented by Millennium Park Foundation with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and the installation is sponsored by The Boeing Company, with support from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.

Plensa&rsquo;s work is also currently on display at <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/richard-gray-gallery">Richard Gray Gallery</a>, where the artist is represented. Private Dreams is on view at the gallery through September 27, 2014 and features eight new sculptures from Plensa&rsquo;s iconic series of heads. The sculptures stand six feet tall and are comprised of a range of materials including bronze, glass, and for the first time, volcanic basalt.

June 18-December 2015 
Jaume Plensa: 1004 Portraits 
Millennium Park&#39;s South Boeing Gallery and at Michigan &amp; Madison park entrance

<img alt="" data-caption="Artist Jaume Plensa speaking about his new installation in Millennium Park" data-rich-file-id="315" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/315/original/webimg-0568.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Artist Jaume Plensa speaking about his new installation in Millennium Park" data-rich-file-id="316" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/316/original/webimg-0570.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="317" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/317/original/webimg-0571.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="318" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/318/original/webimg-0586.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="319" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/319/original/webimg-0588.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="320" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/320/original/webplensa-1.jpg" />

Millennium Park Marks 10th Anniversary with Events & New Installations

BY FRANCK MERCURIO

*This article was originally published in the May-August 2014 issue of Chicago Gallery News

<img alt="" class="left" data-caption="Jenny Kendler, Installation view of solo exhibition “The Hall of Disappearing” in the BOLT Project Space, Oct/Nov 2012" data-rich-file-id="215" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/215/original/1cac.jpg" />Forty years ago, a group of Chicago artists banded together to make a difference. They sought a better working environment for themselves and their colleagues. They demanded&mdash;and received&mdash;greater support from local government. They created programs and institutions that helped to advocate on their behalf.&nbsp;

Today, the Chicago Artists Coalition still thrives. As times have changed, the organization&rsquo;s focus has shifted from political activism to creating a more entrepreneurial environment for artists. But the Coalition&rsquo;s core mission remains: building community around artists and other creative types and connecting that community to professional opportunities.

A host of new programs and events have helped raise the profile of the Coalition in recent years. As the organization celebrates its fortieth year, preparations are underway for one of its more popular events: the Starving Artist benefit scheduled for Saturday, June 21.

<img alt="" class="right" data-caption="Collectors gather for a Chartwell Collectors Circle event" data-rich-file-id="216" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/216/original/2cac.jpg" />

By all accounts, last year&rsquo;s Starving Artist was a great success. Some 600 attendees enjoyed cuisine by celebrity chefs, sipped signature cocktails and rubbed shoulders with Chicago&rsquo;s art world luminaries. This year&rsquo;s event promises more of the same.

&ldquo;This is not your mother&rsquo;s fundraiser,&rdquo; says Sara Slawnik, the Coalition&rsquo;s interim director. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a typical sit-down gala.&rdquo;

Starving Artist 2014 will feature four Chicago artists paired with four chefs and four mixologists. Each artist will create an immersive installation that guests can move through and experience. The chefs and mixologists will then craft food and drink to complement each installation.

&ldquo;We want guests to really enjoy and experience these artists and these chefs and get a sense of the dynamism of Chicago&rsquo;s creative scene,&rdquo; says Slawnik.

Local artists Diana Gabriel, Luftwerk, Alexandra Noe and Edyta Stepien will work with Chefs Matthias Merges (Yusho), Chris Pandel (Bristol/Balena),&nbsp; Kyle Peterson (Fulton Market Kitchen) and Jared Van Camp (Element Collective) to&nbsp; create collaborative installations for all of the senses. Mixologists Jason Ackerman (Bristol), Alexander Bachman (Billy Sunday), Jason Brown (Kinmont), Revae Schneider (Femme Du Coupe) and Brian Sturgulewski (Fulton Market Kitchen) will also create custom-made craft cocktails with Hennessey VS to complement the art installations. (Note: List updated June 18, 2014)

&ldquo;The fortieth anniversary will be present throughout the whole evening in subtle or less subtle ways,&rdquo; says Slawnik. &ldquo;It will be clear that the people who are there are supporting and honoring the CAC&rsquo;s legacy of the past 40 years and helping to build its future.&rdquo;

That legacy includes an impressive roster of achievements. The Coalition was instrumental in establishing the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. It was also directly involved in the creation of Arts Alliance Illinois and Chicago Artists Month. The Coalition successfully lobbied for the city&rsquo;s Percent-for-Art Ordinance, which was passed in 1978 and became a model for other public art programs across the country.

&ldquo;I&rsquo;m super interested in that &lsquo;inception moment&rsquo; when artists collectively decided that this was an absolute essential thing for Chicago,&rdquo; says Slawnik. &ldquo;It was 1974. It was such a ripe period for activism and advocacy at a very grassroots level.&rdquo;

But as time passed, so did some of the organization&rsquo;s momentum. By the new millennium, the Coalition was ready for new leadership and a renewed sense of purpose. In 2010, the Coalition&rsquo;s board hired Carolina Jayaram to shake things up and serve as its new director. (Jayaram left CAC in early 2014 to become the President &amp; CEO of United States Artists, which announced the&nbsp; move of its headquarters from LA to Chicago in spring 2014.)

&ldquo;When Carolina took over this organization in 2010 she had such a huge mountain to climb, just turning the organization around. To her credit, she did it, and then some,&rdquo; says Slawnik. &ldquo;Now that we&rsquo;ve established ourselves and stabilized the finances, it&rsquo;s time to tie that evolution back to our history.&rdquo;

Underlying that history is one constant: community building. The Coalition has developed several programs in recent years to strengthen its commitment to connecting artists to each other and to other arts professionals. The BOLT and HATCH residency programs are two successful examples.&nbsp;

BOLT is a one-year program that provides residents with studio space, a solo exhibition, and a series of one-on-one meetings with some of the city&rsquo;s leading art professionals. HATCH is a one-year residency that mentors both artists and curators in current curatorial practices. Both programs have proved instrumental in connecting emerging artists and curators with established professionals and with the marketplace.

Taking the idea of community building to a whole new level is the Chicago Artists Resource website. Known simply as &ldquo;CAR,&rdquo; the website was founded and developed by the city&rsquo;s Department of Cultural Affairs in 2003. Ownership and management of CAR was transferred to the Coalition in 2012.

&ldquo;Taking over Chicago Artists Resource was huge, and the Coalition is a natural home for CAR,&rdquo; says Lynn Basa, artist and former Coalition board member. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a huge connector of community - a huge source of information for artists.&rdquo;

Sporting the motto &ldquo;For Artists By Artists,&rdquo; the CAR website includes postings for employment, studio space, events, and calls for artists. The website provides different sections for several creative disciplines: visual arts, dance, theater, music, literature, and most recently, film.&nbsp;

Besides connecting artists to one another and to professional services, the Coalition also fosters relationships between artists and collectors through its Chartwell Collectors Circle, sponsored by Chartwell Insurance. The Circle brings collectors&mdash;both aspiring and established&mdash;in contact with artists through studio and collection tours, and other events. The Circle provides a level of education about the art market that collectors and artists are seeking.

&ldquo;I wanted to learn more about contemporary art, that&rsquo;s one of the reasons that I joined,&rdquo; commented Circle member Carlyle Madden at a recent event hosted by Mana Contemporary Chicago. &ldquo;Such a great group of people: collectors, artists, students&mdash;every age range&mdash;it&rsquo;s great.&rdquo;

Through programs like the Chartwell Collectors Circle, the Coalition continues to maintain its mission of connecting people and building community within Chicago&rsquo;s art world.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s about creating a space where artists feel that Chicago is that dynamic hub,&rdquo; says Slawnik.&nbsp; &ldquo;There are spaces for collaboration, and as more and more artists are crossing disciplines, the CAC celebrates that, helps support that, and creates the community that artists are really looking for.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.chicagoartistscoalition.org">www.chicagoartistscoalition.org</a>

<a href="http://www.chicagoartistsresource.org">www.chicagoartistsresource.org</a>

Chicago Artists Coalition Takes a Bite Out of 40

BY GINNY VAN ALYEA

I&#39;ve been reading a lot of children&#39;s books to my own child lately, and since she&#39;s too young to follow the stories - she&#39;s mostly interested in chewing on the board book pages, I get to choose all the books we read. I&#39;m taking advantage of the chance to revisit&nbsp;my own tried and true favorites from childhood:&nbsp;Dr. Seuss&#39;s quirky tales and eccentric characters are certainly at the top of my list. Seuss&nbsp;helped to form my&nbsp;imagination and encourage curiosity, and it&#39;s been great fun to delve back into his familiar&nbsp;stories these past few months.&nbsp;So, I thought it was quite timely when I read recently that a pop-up-gallery of Seuss art work is opening at Water Tower Place just in time for Father&#39;s Day. &nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Theodor Robert Geisel with his father in Connecticut, 1914" data-rich-file-id="310" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/310/original/image024.jpg" />

To celebrate the opening an event-filled weekend of fun and festivities will take place on Saturday, June 14&nbsp;from 10am-9pm and Sunday, June 15 (Father&#39;s Day - don&#39;t forget!)&nbsp;from 11am-6 pm.&nbsp;The Grand Opening event&nbsp;will happen on Saturday, June 14 from 11am&ndash;3pm. &nbsp;The gallery is the first of its kind to dedicate an entire space to The Art of Dr. Seuss, and the sales will go beyond delighting children and their parents, since a&nbsp;portion of every sale made from June 14-29&nbsp;will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House near Lurie Children&rsquo;s Hospital.

<img alt="" data-caption="Incidental Music for A New Year’s Eve Party" data-rich-file-id="308" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/308/original/incidentalmusic.jpg" />

The works on view are, appropriately, ones that were inspired by Dr. Seuss&#39;s own father (who shared Seuss&#39;s real name, Theodor Robert&nbsp;Geisel.) Seuss described in a writing from the early 1980s that he loved to draw when he was a young boy.&nbsp;Since his father ran a zoo in Springfield, MA he never lacked up-close-and-personal inspirations in the animals under his father&#39;s care. Seuss&#39;s father used his own know-how to improve the zoo and its facilities for the sake of the visitors who came to love it so much, and he thoughtfully&nbsp;saved shed animal horns and other unusual artifacts that he knew would foster his own son&#39;s creativity.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Dr. Seuss Gallery at Water Tower Place, 2014" data-rich-file-id="309" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/309/original/image027.jpg" />

The prolific Dr. Seuss wrote more than 40 children&#39;s books, in addition to his many other editorial and creative endeavors. A great deal of personal and historical&nbsp;information about Suess will be available at the pop-up gallery. If you cannot make it to Water Tower Place, take this occasion of the&nbsp;opening as a chance to bring out your own favorite Suess tale and read it aloud to a little boy or girl&nbsp;or even just to your own inner child.&nbsp;

If you&#39;d like to attend any of the opening events, guests are encouraged to RSVP at 312.475.9620,&nbsp;<a href="mailto:sales@drseussgallery.com?subject=RSVP">sales@drseussgallery.com</a>&nbsp;or visit&nbsp;<a href="http://www.drseussgallery.com">www.drseussgallery.com</a>&nbsp;for more info.

Happy Father&#39;s Day!&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The Art of Dr. Seuss&nbsp;

Water Tower Place: 835 Michigan Ave.,&nbsp;Chicago (60611)

Gallery hours: Sa&nbsp;June 14,&nbsp;10&ndash;9; Su, June 15 11&ndash;6

&nbsp;

The Father of Children's Stories Comes to Chicago

BY GINNY VAN ALYEA 
&nbsp;

Everyone has been itching for the beginning of summer to come along -&nbsp;who can blame us for&nbsp;having sunshine and above 50&deg; temperatures on our mind?&nbsp;Finally,&nbsp;the mercury is rising every day, and&nbsp;the art world is heating up too.&nbsp;

While this is always&nbsp;a busy weekend for people to escape work&nbsp;for a precious three days, there is actually quite a lot happening at home in our art world. If you&#39;re having a staycation&nbsp;and looking to make casual plans, we&#39;ve combed our calendar to bring you some highlights. From a&nbsp;$20 Cash N Carry&nbsp;sale to an opening of new works by mega artist Tony Tasset, to a puppet performance of the work of Edward Gorey,&nbsp;there is a lot to do and see.&nbsp;

Happy summer!

- CGN

&nbsp;

<h3>&bull; Gallery Openings</h3>

<h4>gallery receptions&nbsp;takE&nbsp;place Friday night. Our full list is <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar?tag=opening-receptions">here</a>. &nbsp;</h4>

&bull; The Chicago Printmakers Collaborative in Lincoln Square offers a few signature sales and events during the year, and now is the time for their very popular <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/annual-ginormous-20-cash-n-carry-sale">$20 Cash &#39;N Carry Sale</a>. Works by the dozens of artists who are members of the collaborative can be yours to take home right away. This is a great place to find inexpensive art for yourself or to give as a gift. The sale opens Saturday and Sunday 11-6 and runs through June 21.&nbsp;

&bull; Enrique Santana is a popular painter of ethereal Chicago landscapes (often lakescapes). He has a new show opening at <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/santana-new-paintings-lake-shore-drive">Maya Polsky Gallery</a> Friday evening from 5-7:30 in River North. (Image at top of page: Enrique Santana,&nbsp;By the Aquarium, 2014,&nbsp;Oil on canvas; 36&quot; x 60&quot;)

<img alt="" class="right" data-caption="CJ Pyle, &quot;Playmate,&quot; 12 ½ x 12&quot;, 2013, Pen, pencil, colored pencil on LP album verso" data-rich-file-id="300" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/300/original/cjp-63-playmate-small.jpg" />

&bull; Carl Hammer Gallery will be exhibiting new pen and pencil drawings by self-taught artist CJ Pyle. The show,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/cj-pyle-saints-and-sinners">Saints and Sinners</a>, features new works drawn&nbsp;on the backside of LP albumcovers.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&bull; In the West Loop <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/william-eckhardt-kohler-judith-mullen">Linda Warren Projects</a> opens a show Friday evening featuring side by side solo exhibitions&nbsp;of two gallery artists: William Eckhardt Kohler,&nbsp;Portals, Passages and Vessels,&nbsp;and A Good Wander&nbsp;by Judith Mullen.

&nbsp;

Two&nbsp;galleries at 835 W. Washington&nbsp;are opening Saturday night: <a href="http://www.kavigupta.com">Kavi Gupta Gallery</a> opens Tony Tasset&#39;s Spill Paintings (at Gupta&#39;s Elizabeth St. location&nbsp;McArthur Binion:&nbsp;DNA Study opens.)&nbsp;<a href="http://www.andrewrafacz.com">Andrew Rafacz Gallery</a> has two artists exhibiting in his space: Kelly Kleinschrodt: Murmelte Instrumente - a show of new objects and photographs&nbsp;exploring notions and depictions of motherhood, is in gallery 1. &nbsp;In gallery 2 is April Street: Runner. Street&#39;s show is comprised of the artist&rsquo;s black hole paintings and an installation of 150 cast bronze birthday candles running in and out of the gallery walls.

&nbsp;

&bull; Grimm seems to be popular now, thanks to the TV show with the same name. <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/a-grimm-fairy-tale">Galerie F</a> in Logan Square&nbsp;opens a show Friday evening from 6-10 in honor of the 200th anniversary of Grimm&#39;s Fairy Tales. Two artists,&nbsp;Shawn Knight and John Vogl mark the anniversary in their work.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&bull; The suburbs also offer art this weekend. At <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/identity-interpreted-and-assumed">Tall Grass Arts Association</a> in Park Forest, stop by Friday evening for Identity Interpreted and Assumed: National juried exhibition of self-portraits beyond mere physical appearance; curated by Tom Lanham. Opening reception Friday, May 23, 7-9pm. At the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/paula-palmer-michael-brown-digital-photography">College of Lake County Robert T. Wright Gallery</a> in Grayslake you&#39;ll find Paula Palmer &amp; Michael Brown: Digital Photography. Palmer constructs compositions of disparate images that reference the four elements.&nbsp;Brown creates &ldquo;lenticular&rdquo; images that change with the viewer&rsquo;s vantage point. Opening reception Friday, May 23, 7-9 pm.

&nbsp;

<h3>&bull; Other events</h3>

<h4>markets, screenings and puppet shows</h4>

&bull; <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/randolph-street-market-festival">Randolph Street Market May Days Sale</a>, Saturday and Sunday 10-6 in the West Loop. Get an early start on your summer shopping by scouring this sunny outdoor market where many amazing vintage and antique finds may be discovered.&nbsp;

&bull; MCA Sunday&nbsp;screening of <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/mca-screen-takashi-murakami-jellyfish-eyes">Jellyfish Eyes by Takashi Murakami</a>. This screening is sold out, but if you were fortunate enough to get a ticket, lucky you!&nbsp;Acclaimed artist Takashi Murakami visits the MCA to introduce his first live-action feature film&nbsp;Jellyfish Eyes&nbsp;(2013) as part of an eight-stop screening tour of major art institutions across the United States. &nbsp;

<img alt="" class="right" data-caption="A still from LUMA's Art of Edward Gorey performances" data-rich-file-id="303" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/303/original/vinegar.jpg" />

&bull;&nbsp;The Vinegar Works: Puppet Show Inspired by the Art of Edward Gorey, Saturday afternoon, <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/the-vinegar-works-puppet-show-inspired-by-the-art-of-edward-gorey--3">LUMA</a>. Enjoy a fun-filled time of puppets and Gorey tales. Audience members, young and old, will delight in the magical world created by Chicago&#39;s own&nbsp;Blair Thomas &amp; Company, known for combining puppets and visual theater. Goreys stories filled with wild animals, imaginative creatures, and odd folks are an invitation to the imagination. LUMA will host a toy theater staging of The Vinegar Works.