Monday, September 22, 2008

18th Street Pilsen Open Studios


60 artists featured during 18th Street Pilsen Open Studios

Art walk event is part of the Chicago Artists Month celebration in October

Held as part of the Chicago Artists Month celebration, 18th Street Pilsen Open Studios is an artist-run art walk that will take place Saturday, October 18th and Sunday, October 19th, 2008, from 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm in the heart of the historic Pilsen neighborhood. Since 2003, during the third weekend in October, Pilsen artists, galleries, spaces, and cafés have opened their doors during special hours to the general public. This year, more than 30 spaces will participate, featuring the work of more than 60 artists who live and work between Western Avenue to May St. and from 16th St. to 26th St.

Free trolleys will run frequently each hour to take visitors to each gallery stop along a set route, with the starting point at Colibri Studio/Gallery at 2032 W. 18th Street. Maps will be available at different sites along the routes.

More than 25 artists will be showing their work during the Grand Opening Night kickoff event on Friday, October 17th from 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm at Prospectus Art Gallery, 1210 W. 18th St.

Home to Chicago’s largest Latino community, Pilsen has long been a vibrant center for the arts in our city. The 2008 18th Street Pilsen Open studios event will feature artists from numerous countries, including the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras, Brazil, Iran, Colombia, and Panama. Participating artists include 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 Lanza, 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.

For more information, visit www.pilsenopenstudios.com or call 312/733-8431.



Thursday, September 18, 2008

Edra Soto@Mutherland


Edra Soto

Opening Saturday, September 27th, from 7:00 to 10:00 pm
Closes October 17th, 2008.

In, The Greatest Companions, artist Edra Soto explores sociological aspects of Latino culture and how it is perceived through the media. As the exploratory research subject of this painting and installation show, Soto chooses the Puerto Rican icon Iris Chacon. Ms. Chacon was a pioneer of the ‘vedette’ movement in Puerto Rico in the 1970’s. Her eponymous variety show ‘El Show de Iris Chacon’ was very popular, no doubt due in part to her alluring looks and provocative costumes. This didn’t prevent her from becoming a favorite family entertainer while simultaneously becoming a legendary diva that few other performers in Latin America have been able to emulate.

‘The Greatest Companions’ series of gouaches, reenactments, and self-embellished verbatim paintings from photos, are reflections of Soto’s memories of watching ‘El Show de Iris Chacon’. As a child, she was drawn to her raw, incomparable demeanor, her perceptibly untrained dance style, and her charismatic and charming persona. Channeling Ms. Chacon as her alter ego and setting the paintings in vintage scenarios inspired by her show, the series questions the fascination of Latino women with self-exposure and, how Latino culture is portrayed in the popular media: woman as protector and protected.

The show will also feature works of artists Maria Gaspar, Harold Mendez, Albert Stabler and, one of Soto’s high school senior art students, Ramiro Trejo.

Edra Soto was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1971. In 1995, Edra received the Alfonso Arana Fellowship to work in Paris for one year. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she obtained her Masters degree in 2000.

Immediately after she attended a two-month residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has exhibited in Puerto Rico, France, Australia, Spain, Russia, New York, St Louis, Milwaukee and Chicago. Some of her latest presentations include: Site-Unseen curated by Julie Laffin at the Chicago Cultural Center; Consuming War, curated by Barbara Koenen at the Hyde Park Art Center and upcoming: Landscapes of Experience and Imagination, curated by Judith Hoos Fox at the Krannert Art Museum at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Her work is currently feature in the New American Paintings Midwest edition #77.

You can see more of her work at edrasoto.blogspot.com and re-title/Chicago.

After the opening work can be viewed by appointment only

mutherland
1125 w. 31st st.
chicago, il 60608
www.mutherland.org

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

World Gym Pilsen


World Gym Pilsen
Tema Abierto :: Open Theme
Curated by Ricardo Santos Hernández
ARTWORK BY:
Ricardo Santos-Hernández
Salvador Jiménez
Rudolf Kotlikov
Jeff Abbey Maldonado
Nancy Canellis

Artists Reception September 19th, 2008
5-7 p.m.

1822 S. Bishop St.
Chicago, IL 60608
(312) 491-8700

Show Runs
September 12October 18, 2008

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

CARLOS & DOMINGUEZ FINE ARTS

One of Pilsen’s newest art galleries, CARLOS & DOMINGUEZ FINE ARTS will host an opening reception to announce and celebrate an all-women art exhibit entitled:

VOCES DE MUJERES (Women’s Voices)

FEATURED ARTISTS:
DIANA SOLIS
ESPERANZA GAMA
ALLISON HILL
NORA MENDOZA
MONTSERRAT ALSINA
WHITNEY HETRICK
PAULINE KOCHANSKI
SOLUNGA DELGADO

Opening Saturday, September 6, 2008 from 2:00 p.m.—8:00 p.m

Each of these artist speaks to us through their art in a unique voice to express the inexpressible, the ineffable, the mystical, magical reality of being a woman.

Through their images, both realist and surreal, we get a sense of the range of emotions from which women draw strength. We feel the passion, the playfulness, and even the power of these artists and their art.

This exhibition, curated by Efrén Beltran, closes on October 11, 2008.

CARLOS & DOMINGUEZ FINE ARTS
1538 W. Cullerton St., Chicago.
Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Len Dominguez (773) 580-8053