Monday, October 27, 2008

Day of the Dead @ APO


DIA DE LOS MUERTOS EXHIBIT
ALL OF THE ARTIST STUDIOS WILL BE OPEN FROM 6-10 PM.

AFTERWARDS THE APO BALLROOM WILL BE OPEN FOR A PACHANGA!

ARTISTS EXHIBITING:

CARLOS CORTEZ
NICOLAS DE JESUS
JOSE & MARGARET GUERRERO
JOHN PITTMAN WEBER
ROMAN & MARIA VILLAREAL
GERRY LANG
MAURO VASQUEZ STUDIO
RICARDO HERNANDEZ STUDIO
JEFF ABBEY MALDONADO STUDIO
PABLO SERRANO STUDIO
ANDRES ZAYAS LIGHTING SYSTEMS

APO STUDIOS
1436 W. 18th ST
PILSEN, CHICAGO

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Pilsen For Sale



Get your own "Pilsen For Sale" magnets:
http://www.cafepress.com/polvo.320266709

Halloween Costume Party!!


Halloween Costume Party!!

Also Special Performance by THE SUCKLING PIGS, experimental jazz

Plus movie screening/projection: The Lower Circle

Admission: FREEEEE!

----BYOB-----

Friday, October 31, 2008 at 8:00pm - 1:00am

ANTENA
1765 S. Laflin St.
Chicago, IL
http://www.antenapilsen.com

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Little Village Arts Fest this weekend!



October 17-19, 2008

A weekend of FREE art exhibits, workshops and performances in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood.

LITTLE VILLAGE ART FEST
Due to weather conditions for Friday October 17, the Little Village Art Fest Opening Night has been moved to Catedral Café.

Opening Night Friday, October 17
6-10 PM

Catedral Café
2500 S. Christiana Ave.
Chicago, IL 60623
773-277-2233

Music, performances and much more!!!

Local artists and art organizations and collectives from the Little Village neighborhood join forces to organize the 3rd Annual Little Village Arts Fest. Having no formal gallery or performance spaces, local bussinesses, community organizations, and schools donate their space, so the artists can transform them into gallery and performance spaces.

This year there are 14 spaces and our opening night will be on Friday, October 17th at Catedral Café 25th and Christiana Ave. Artists hope to have a peaceful weekend filled with color, music, and art all over Little Village, to give local artists the chance to exhbit and perform in their own neighborhood.

DOWNLOAD PROGRAM AND MAP IN PDF FORMAT

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Night of the Living Artist


Ever want to bring your favorite artist back from the dead? Or maybe mortify a living artist? Chicago Art Department will be showing art that fit this theme, at The Night of the Living Artist, this Friday October 10th from 7-10pm. Featuring plush artist extraordinaire Kerry Flaherty. There will also be a closing for this exhibition on Halloween night! Here's a link for info, and of course more is available at www.chicagoartdepartment.org.

http://flavorpill.com/chicago/events/2008/10/10/night-of-the-living-artist

Monday, October 06, 2008

Spire Reloaded: Patrick Lichty

Spire Reloaded: Patrick Lichty

Opening Friday October 10, 2008 from 6pm-10pm
october 10 - november 8

Since Patrick wont be able to attend the physical opening at Antena, he will be online and available to chat from www.secondlife.com at this location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/I%20AM%20Columbia/142/122/97

A computer will be set up at the gallery during the opening so you can see his virtual sculpture and to chat with him.

"For a long time, I have been fascinated with "obsolete spaces", or places that have fallen into disuse or been destroyed for the same reason. This includes the Hulett Ore Loaders near Cleveland, the Adak Naval base in Alaska, and now the recently dismantled Berwyn Spire. These represent the loss of certain parts of American identity in a society that is obsessed with the "new".

For this series, I documented the piece in the last year of its existence, and also made an interpretation of it in the 3D online world, Second Life. I did this as I feel that the Spire only exists in memory and our cultural databanks now, and I felt that by having a virtual version to contrast with the actual one was a fitting tribute to this iconic piece of Americana."

Patrick Lichty (b. 1962, Akron, Ohio) was born into a family with a long involvement in and support of the arts. His mother, a exhibiting artist of numerous art and craft media, immersed him in textiles, painting, ceramics, print and other techniques during his upbringing. Simultaneously he was also exposed to technology in the form of the emerging genres of electronics, video games, and later personal computing when his parents bought him an Atari 800 computer in 1978. Instead of following the desires of many adolescents of the late 70's in wanting to program the next Pac-Man or Space Invaders, he was interested in drawing and creating music with his personal computer.

Upon graduation from high school, family convinced him that computers and electronics was a field with great potential. Lichty then followed this advice to complete two degrees in electronic engineering at the University of Akron (Ohio, US), but also followed studies in Art and Asian Studies. In addition, free time was devoted to continuing interests in design, painting and digital imaging.

In 1990, while studying postgraduate Glass and Art History at Kent State University, Lichty met theatre historian Leigh Clemons and Sociologist Jonathon Epstein. Clemons would later become Lichty's scholarly collaborator (and spouse), and Epstein became partner in the media group, Haymarket Riot. During the first half of the 1990's, Lichty and Epstein created a number of works on media and culture, including Americans Have No Identity, but they do have Wonderful Teeth, The Sociology of Jean Baudrillard, and Haymarket Riot's MACHINE.

By the mid 1990's, the World Wide Web burst upon American culture, and advances in personal media production allowed the individual to create media art available only to institutions. From this, early web artworks following his love of art and theory, such as (re)cursor and video like Haymarket Riot's WEB were created, which caught the attention of corporate activists cum art group RTMark. From the mid 90's to the early 00's, the critical work started with Haymarket Riot continued in collaboration with RTMark in creating visuals and animation for exhibitions and video, culminating in 1999's Bringing It to YOU!, which was featured in the 2000 Whitney Biennial.

Solo work continued as well, exploring the nature of narrative structure in online spaces. These include 1998's Metaphor and Terrain, a 'sculptural' essay examining interface as art object, 1999's Grasping @ Bits, another hyperessay looking at issues of art and intellectual property rights, and 2000 Smithsonian American Art Museum commission SPRAWL: The American Landscape in Transition. This last piece consisted of a hyperdocumentary consisting of over 190 minutes of interviews, various texts, and 32 panoramic vistas of areas in his home town of North Canton, Ohio that were in the midst of rapid change due to the housing boom of the late 90's.

After 2000, Lichty's artistic and scholarly practice would further expand from solo and collaborative works to include numerous curatorial projects, including (re)distributions: Mobile Device and PDA Art, columnist for ArtByte Magazine, and the assumption of the Executive Editor position at Intelligent Agent Magazine (NYC), in partnership with Whitney Museum of American Art digital arts curator, Christiane Paul. In addition, his service to the New Media community also expanded by becoming Chair of the Inter-Society of Electronic Art's (ISEA's) Cultural Diversity Committee, and Executive Curator of Microcinema International's Mobile Exposure cellphone video festival.

In 2001, the RTMark visual collaborations would catch the attention of another activist group, The Yes Men. This group's comical stunts, calling for humane treatment of global populations by organizations such as Dow Chemical, EXXON, the US Government, and the WTO, were featured internationally from ArtNews to the BBC. Lichty's slapstick animations from bizarre management schemes to fast-food waste reclamation projects were core illustrative components of the group's presentations, and featured in Bluemark's documentary, The Yes Men, which showed at the Sundance, Berlin, and Sydney film festivals.

After over a decade in the New Media art world, a desire share his experience through teaching required that Lichty seek a terminal (MFA) degree. In 2004, he entered Bowling Green State University's Digital Arts program under advisor Gregory Little. While planning to graduate in 2006, Lichty has served as Representative-at-Large for BGSU Graduate Student Senate, the BGSU Public Arts Committee, and is member of Phi Kappa Phi with a 4.0 GPA. He remains in his former duties, and is most recently featured in the exhibition, Dreaming of a More Better Future, at the Cleveland Institute of Art with Kevin and Jennifer McCoy and Vito Acconci. http://www.voyd.com/voyd/

See an article about Antena in the Chicago Reader HERE

antena
1765 S. Laflin, St.
Chicago, IL 60608
antenapilsen (at) gmail.com
Hours: saturdays Noon-5pm or by appointment

Saturday, October 04, 2008

The Western Frontier: Pilsen’s other arts scene

by: Sam Feldman

Four decades ago, the Podmajersky family’s eponymous real estate company founded the Chicago Arts District in East Pilsen. Centered on the strip of Halsted between 18th Street and Cermak Road, the Chicago Arts District has experienced tremendous success and routinely draws large, lively crowds for its Second Friday gallery crawls. Last weekend’s 38th Annual Pilsen East Artists Open House was essentially a larger version of these gallery crawls, with the addition of a curated show arranged by Podmajersky. These cheek-to-cheek galleries, together with institutions like EP Theater and Kristoffer’s Café, have cemented East Pilsen’s reputation as an artist’s haven.

Later this month, on October 18-19, there will be another gallery tour in Pilsen: Pilsen Open Studios. But this one will not be Podmajersky-supported. This art walk roughly spans an area known as West Pilsen, running from May Street to Western Avenue, from 16th Street to 24th Street. West Pilsen is considered the more “Mexican” of the two Pilsens, and outside of the National Museum of Mexican Art it may be more known for its taquerías than its galleries. But West Pilsen has an art scene all its own, with younger, smaller galleries, local artists, and no corporate protector. The West Pilsen art scene is more dispersed with no equivalent of the packed stretch along Halsted, but 18th Street between Blue Island and Paulina (including the Pink Line stop) has a relatively high concentration of artistic spaces.

This stretch includes the headquarters of Polvo, an art collective founded in 1996 by Miguel Cortez, Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa, and Jesus Macarena-Avila. The gallery space Polvo has maintained on and off is far from its only contribution to the West Pilsen art scene. The collective puts out a self-titled magazine at irregular intervals, and since 2003 they’ve hosted the Pilsen Open Studios. This year the event will open at 5pm on October 17 with “Made in Pilsen III,” a show featuring more than 25 artists at the Prospectus Art Gallery (1210 W. 18th Street). Here we have assembled a sampling of the galleries of West Pilsen—some old, some new, and some still unborn.

antena
antena is a new gallery from Polvo co-founder Miguel Cortez, so last April it opened to high expectations. By all accounts they have been met, and antena’s third exhibition, which closed last weekend, received positive reviews in the citywide press. On Friday, October 10, antena opens its next exhibition, “Spire Reloaded,” by Patrick Lichty. During the opening reception, Lichty, a Columbia College professor, is also showing a virtual sculpture on Columbia’s private island on Second Life. Lichty’s sculpture, and the exhibition as a whole, focuses on the recently demolished Berwyn Spindle, the so-called “car kebab” that drew tourists to a suburban mall parking lot for almost twenty years. “Spire Reloaded” continues antena’s tradition of immediately accessible art, which began with its first exhibition last April, “What Makes a Man Start Fires?”, which used video games, night vision, and Superman’s X-ray vision to comment on violence in our society. 1765 S. Laflin St. Saturday, noon-5pm or by appointment. antenapilsen.com. (773)344-1940

No Coast
The eight members of the No Coast collective first started working out of their studio at 17th and Laflin about a year ago. On October 11 at 3pm, they will officially open their storefront to the public with a barbecue, bands, and an art show, although regular hours began on October 1. Don’t be fooled by the awning outside, left over from a sandwich store called “Golden Age”; inside, instead of pop, candy, and ice cream, you’ll find poster art from local venues like the Hideout, zines, apparel, screenprints, fiber arts, records, and more. In the basement is a printing studio for use by the collective and other local artists. “We really want to be a resource,” says No Coast member Alex Valentine. In keeping with that mission, No Coast hosts a variety of events, including periodic “screenprinting lock-ins,” where guests can use the facilities from 6pm one day to 6pm the next. (The next lock-in will begin on November 7.) The collective also hosts film screenings on the first Sunday of every month (starting this month) at noon, curated by Bike-In Cinema, and on October 25 they will host a 24-hour horror movie marathon. Valentine says the group enjoys their location in West Pilsen, off Halsted’s beaten path. “I feel like there’s a big difference,” he says. “Things are more active and messy over here.” 1500 W. 17th St. Wednesday-Friday, 1-7pm; Sat, noon-7pm; Sun, noon-6pm. (312)850-2338. no-coast.org

Golden Age
This clean storefront space on 18th Street, less than a block away from the Pink Line and unrelated to the previously-mentioned “Golden Age” sandwich shop, is more than just a gallery or bookstore. Golden Age is a true center for area artists, selling and displaying books, music, jewelry, visual art, and sculpture, like the gigantic, perfectly aligned pyramid of beer cans in one display window. Marco Kane Braunschweiler, a graduate of the School of the Art Institute, started the store a little over a year ago and has received “a warm reception from the neighborhood.” As opposed to the Chicago Arts District in East Pilsen, which he calls “a little contrived,” West Pilsen is “pretty in flux right now” in Braunschweiler’s estimation. “Where there’s open storefronts [around here], those storefronts often turn into galleries,” he says. “It seems likely that there’ll be a lot more art spaces. There’s a positive atmosphere here, people are really interested in cultural events.” Braunschweiler has hosted his share of these events, including film screenings by experimental filmmaker Ben Russell (“Black and White Trypps”) and others. In the second or third week of October, Golden Age will open an exhibition by Jihee Kim consisting of “taxidermied animals along with various other sculptured things,” according to Braunschweiler. 1744 W. 18th St. Thursday-Sunday, noon-6pm. (312)850-2574. goldenagestore.com

Colectiva 18
One of the oldest art collectives in West Pilsen, Colectiva 18 began almost twenty years ago in a building on Halsted near Cermak. At that time, it was a studio for artists and printmakers, but after its move to its current location at 18th and Bishop it expanded into something of an arts-based community center, with everything from guitar classes to theatrical performances. Since then it has undergone a series of name changes, many of them incorporating the portmanteau "mestizarte," a blend of the words for "mixed-race" and "art." The word "Mexican," common in previous names, has been discarded from the current moniker because it excluded people from other countries, according to collective member Isaura Gonzalez, a former professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The collective was once associated with Pilsen legend Carlos Cortez, a poet, artist, and activist. Now it counts artists such as Victor Alegría and Jose L. Piña Moralez among its ranks. Colectiva 18's next exhibition opening will take place on October 11, from 6:30pm to midnight or later. 1440 W. 18th St. Saturday-Sunday, 1-6pm.