Saturday, July 26, 2008

Bridgeport art show....!

Mutherland Presents:

Two of a Kind:
Carole F. Smith
Sean Flour

The work in this married couple's two-person show display similar vocabulary. Their language utilizes and references signs, symbols, decals, decoration, familiar shapes and era-specific imagery. It is fair to say both artists address visual culture and what gets relayed to us personally and as a society. They both manipulate and layer these symbols to push our thinking. While the couple speak a similar dialog, they definitely use different entrances of the house, to get to where they are going.

The way they direct this familiar communication is what is key here. It is then up to the viewer to decipher what might trigger personal memory, or how these symbols reveal about our society.

Carole F. Smith (Scottish born, resides in Tejas)
Smith's highly process related work starts with her careful scavenging at thrift stores and beyond. She plucks out one of a kind and once ubiquitous table width='100%' width='100%'ware that in form is something that speaks to era, style, personal comforts or, possibly, memories of your Aunt Mary's heirloom ash tray. These lovelies, that may already have stories of their own, are then cast into multiples and glazed. Their slightly new identity is tweaked by Smith's hand and her knack for choosing decals that may or may not be a familiar choice. The offness of this fusion is what can make these typically comforting pieces, uncomfortable, more interesting and even sometimes sexy.

Sean Flournoy
Long time print maker and sticker painter, Flournoy has picked out signifiers that tell a narrative of our society, place, and time. Who is responsible for what is being said in our visual culture? Are we all apathetic? Flournoy's golden blinged grenades allude to what has become our norm. He is addressing commodity, merchandise, and just how the repetitive imagery of the ugly-made-okay, has not exactly outraged us in regard to the war. He orchestrates and controls the pervasive images that no one generally acknowledges, in a ever so gentle, but in your face kind of way. Viewers will be pushed to, at the least, notice the build up of what is quietly, but loudly, being said within our culture. Flournoy wants us to take notice.

Sat. July 26, 2008 from 7:00 to 10:00pm

MUTHERLAND
1125 W 31st St.
Chicago Il.60608
http://www.mutherland.org

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Rudy Lozano Celebration

Rudy Lozano Celebration
Art Exhibit curated by Efren Beltran

Artists:
Patricia Acosta
Efren Beltran
Miguel Cortez
Hector Duarte
Jose G. Gonzalez
Oscar Moya
Rene Arceo
Mario Castillo
Frank Crowley
Esperanza Gama
Jesus Macarena-Avila
Alejandro Romero
Diana Solis

Opening Reception Saturday July 26th from 2pm-4pm
July 26 - August 16, 2008

Rudy Lozano Public Library
1805 S. Loomis
Chicago, IL 60608

18th St. Pilsen Open Studios FUNDRAISER

18th St. Pilsen Open Studios
FUNDRAISER
SILENT AUCTION

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MEXICAN ART
1852 W. 19th Street
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2008
6 PM TO 10:30 PM

Tickets are available at the door or email colibri_alsina@yahoo.com

18th St. Pilsen Open Studios is an artist run art walk that takes place during the third weekend in October to celebrate Chicago Artist Month. For the last 5 years artists, galleries, spaces and cafes open their doors during special hours. Over 30 spaces, 60+ artists from Western Ave. to May St. and from 16th St. to 24th St.

We are happy to announce our fundraiser, Saturday, August 2, 2008 at the National Mexican Museum of Art, starting at 6 pm to 10:30 pm. There will be a silent auction with great artists donating their work who come from different parts of the world: United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras, Brazil, Iran, Colombia, Panama, and reside in the Pilsen area, or are invited to participate: Robert Valadez, Salvador Jimenez, Alejandro Jimenez, Gabriel Villa, Angel Silva, Diana Solis, Jeff Abbey Maldonado, Guillermo Delgado, Magda Dejose, Patricia Peixoto, Magali Almada, Roberto Ferreyra, Cesar Casas, Mark Nelson, Montserrat Alsina, Hector Duarte, Omar Valencia, Miguel Cortez, John Pitman Weber, Alejandro Romero, Gamaliel Ramirez, Baltazar Castillo, Roman Villarreal, Patricia Northway, Christopher Wood, Eufemio Pulido, Felipe Figueroa, Alexy Garza, Victoria Cervantes, Christine Olson, Philippe Gibson, Marivi Ortiz, Maria Gaspar, Pablo Serrano, Mariko Ventura, Amir Normandi, Jennifer Hall, Giselle Mercier, Allen Teske, Miguel Angel Ramirez, Mario Jimenez, Expresiones-Artisticas and more.

Catering by Café Aorta
Also other foods and drinks provided by El Mundial, Jumping Bean, and Café Mestizo.

Entertainment by:
Tarima Son, music from Mexico
Diana Mosquera and her Band, music from Colombia
Febronio Zatarain, poetry and performance
Brazilian music.
Video: “Vecinos” by artist Mark Nelson.
PowerPoint presentation of studios in the area by Pablo Serrano

Monday, July 21, 2008

Art exhibit chronicles immigrant experience

Art exhibit chronicles immigrant experience
Monday, July 21, 2008 | 6:00 PM

A new exhibit in Chicago chronicles the immigrant experience in America.

It features paintings, photos, quilts and other works created by dozens of artists from around the world.

The National Museum of Mexican Art's new exhibit is a declaration of immigration. More than 100 paintings, photographs, sculptures and quilts deal with immigration.

A large tumbleweed with articles belonging to immigrants rolls across the American landscape. One painting shows an undocumented person evolving into a butterfly. A quilt is made of clothing from people trying to come to the U.S. An Albanian artist depicts immigrants in limbo going nowhere.

Carlos Tortolero, president of the museum, says the exhibit is designed to challenge U.S. immigration policies.

"Immigrants are what this country is all about, the heart and soul of this country," said Tortolero.

Chicago artist Juan Compean's customized foosball table features the immigration debate between Mexico and the United States, showing businessmen and politicians in the background and workers in the front lines.

"It simulates the back and forth action of both the immigration itself and the debate," said Compean.

Labor tea represents the millions of undocumented laborers and puts faces to the tea bags. There are also photographs of a window washer dressed as Spiderman scaling a building, a nanny dressed as Catwoman, a man who looks like the Incredible Hulk and workers clad in Wonder Woman and Superman garb working grueling hours to make a better life.

Tortolero says he is disturbed that both presidential candidates voted for the fence along the U.S. border with Mexico.

"The purpose of this exhibit is to bring social awareness to the immigration reform debate. But the letter says instead of building a wall, we should be building alliances," Tortolero said.

The exhibit attempts to provide immigrant perspectives that are seldom included in the national debate.

More than 70 artists from around the world are represented in a declaration of immigration. The installation closes September 7.

This exhibition will launch the museum's three-year commitment to immigrant-centered programs. Tortolero says it is their responsibility to take a proactive stance and provide a platform from which immigrants can speak.

see video here: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6278242

(Copyright ©2008 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Friday, July 18, 2008

Razkauche

Razkauche
Artist’s Reception: Friday, September 5, 5:00 – 7:00PM
July 19 – October 3, 2008

Razkauchismo is the marriage and contradictive fusion of high and low art
Inspired by urban and small town aesthetics. This exhibition features artists who use society’s scraps and recyclables to make personal statements. Razcauche is intentionally eclectic and utilizes common and found objects to create visual celebrations echoing the underdog and marginalized peoples.

Razcauche is a bricolage of Mexican and Chicago American sources and styles including fine art practices, folk, funk, pop, imagist, mass media, political and techno. The slightly subversive, spelling of the title reflects a post-modern appropriation of the sensibility as it applies to visual art, with an inventive, often defiant West Pilsen/Chicago spin.

Participating artists include:
Patricia Acosta, Ricardo Santos Hernandez, Noelle Mason,
Kenneth Morrison, Gilbert Rocha, Marcos Raya and Gabriel Villa.

School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Betty Rymer Gallery, 280 S. Columbus Drive, Chicago IL 60603
312.443.3703, www.saic.edu/bettyrymer
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

unseasonable: Tania Kupczak


unseasonable: Tania Kupczak
Opening Friday July 18 from 6pm-10pm

july 18 - august 16, 2008

For our July show Antena will showcase the work of Tania Kupczak, an artist currently living in Seattle. She received an MFA in visual art and digital media from Vermont College. From her art statement: “The central motif in this current body of work is the imprecision of truth. This impossibility of specific interpretation is the great disappointment of science, where the edges of knowledge quickly come into focus. From my academic background in the natural sciences, I have been exploring the process of scientific observation. Manifested as large acrylic paintings on polypropylene, these system maps reference meteorology and the graphical elements that accompany forecasts and describe patterns of movement. They share a visual commonality with flow charts, but these maps are momentary, representing possible futures and aggregate pasts. My displays of information, leaning heavily on the work of Edward Tufte and Otto Neurath, are questions of aesthetic formality as well as the presumption that my audience will recognize a familiar meaning in the lines.

Accompanying the paintings are two works made during my winters in Vermont. , 3 losses is a projected video work that deals with winter snow and the daily small disappointments of attempting to hold onto something mutable. snow_leylines is an audio piece for headphones which catalogs my walk along a set path through different snow conditions. Both works relate to my near-obsessive need to record and annotate my experiences with weather as indicators of my internal climate.”

antena

1765 S. Laflin, St
Chicago, IL 60608
773-344-1940
www.antenapilsen.com
info@antenapilsen.com
Hours: Saturdays from noon-5pm or by appointment