Thursday, December 09, 2010

A Night of Poetry in Pilsen


Antena is proud to present:
A Night of Poetry
and Open Mic

Featuring:
Carlos Cumpian
Leticia Cortez


OPEN MIC for poets will be available...all themes welcomed. We will set aside five minutes max or one poem per open mic reader. Open Mic from 7-7:30:pm

Saturday December 11 @ 7pm
FREE ADMISSION

ANTENA
1765 S. Laflin, St.
Chicago, IL 60608
http://www.antenapilsen.com

Carlos Cumpián was named among the Chicago Public Library’s “Top Ten” most requested poets. His poetry has been published in small press magazines as well as numerous anthologies, while Carlos’ books have received positive reviews for their contributions to Chicano literature.

Cumpián is also the editor of March Abrazo Press, which has been instrumental in the longevity of the small press and establishing its presence as an independent publisher of Latino and Native American poetry.

Some of his most recent poetry appears along with poems by Martin Espada, Luis Alberto Urrea, Achy Obejas and David Hernandez in the premier edition of The Hummingbird Review.

Works include Emergency Tacos, March Abrazo Press, 1989; Coyote Sun, March Abrazo Press, 1990; Latino Rainbow, Poems About Latino Americans, Children`s Press, 1994; Armadillo Charm, Tia Chucha Press, 1996; 14 Abriles: POEMS (March Abrazo Press, 2010).

Among the honors Carlos has received include the Gwendolyn Brooks Significant Illinois Author Award and a pair of Community Arts Program Grants from the city of Chicago.



Leticia Cortez was born in Guanajuato, México and grew up in Chicago. As she grew older, reading and writing became her escape. At a city college she met a teacher who encouraged her to write and soon discovered poetry through writing short stories. She studied Literature and Science at The University of Illinois in Chicago and would later teach both subjects for over a decade at Truman College. Since 2009 she has resided in Santa Fe. She edited and co-funded the bilingual publication ¿Hasta Cuándo? which is now online. She writes poetry, book reviews and articles for Polvo, Area,  Lumpen times and Contratiempo magazines. Considering poetry as a form of expression that crosses cultures as well as space and time, her poetry is a process of thoughts and images, which arrange themselves in words and worlds.

Friday, November 19, 2010

PILSEN HOLIDAY ART SALE AND TIANGUIS

Please join us for the Pilsen Holiday Art Sale and Tianguis (Market) featuring 30 + independent and local artists and crafters displaying and selling their art. Select from original paintings, prints, unique clothing and fashion, ceramics, jewelry, DIY handmade crafts, cards, plush toys, screen printed t-shirts, zines, comics, free trade Latin American goods and handicraft.

LIVE MUSIC by the group JARO CHICANOS, traditional Mexican food, delicious baked goods provided by Bella Nor pastries and Casa Girl Cupcakes. And a book and literature section by Contratiempo literary cultural magazine.

Participating artists include:
•Naomi Martínez,
•Nachieli Macias,
•Chema Skndl,
•Jeff Abbey Maldonado,
•Patty Peixoto,
•Roberto Valadez,
•Norbella Peña, Jaclin Paul,
•Caroline Paul,
•Roberto Ferreyra,
•Esperanza Gama,
•Benjamin Anaya,
•Mary Schumann,
•Monique Moreno,
•Casa Girl Cupcakes
•Cristal Alcalá,
•Jean Parisi,
•Omar Valencia,
•Nicole Marroquin,
•Angela Scalisi,
•Hilesh Patel,
•La Fee Brune,
•Patricia Bakle,
•Mary Miller,
•Celia Ruiz,
•Susana Aguilar,
•Contratiempo Magazine,
•Emma Bottari,
•Patrick Patterson,
•Adriana Baltazar,
•Antonio Martínez,
•Laura Vergara,
•Diana Solís,
•Sal Vega,
•Ruben Aguilar.


Saturday, December 11-12 from 12:00pm - 7:00pm

Casa Juan Diego
2020 S. Blue Island Ave.
Chicago, IL

Monday, November 15, 2010

La Neta Art Sale and La Neta del Planeta Party!



come to pilsen’s: la neta art sale

November 20-21, noon – 8 pm

and la neta del planeta party:
Saturday, November 20 at 8:00pm - November 21 at 12:00am
with music by killer diller


featuring woodwork, ceramics, paintings, books, jewelry, knitted and crocheted items and more by members of el stitch y bitch, nuco, kate pszotka, mando "el chucky" velazquez, tom goodell, patricia carlos, naomi "monstrochika" martinez, proyecto latina, becky meyer, oxala gallery, nazcaluna, jerry carrillo, desiree castro and others

the tenant gallery (formerly the beer run gallery)
1104 w. 18th st chicago, il 60608

onspecific

Come and enjoy the work of Hector Duarte, Kathleen Judge, Duk Ju L Kim, Antonio Martinez, Eber Palomares, John Salhus, Gabriel Villa, Patrick Willi and Melody Williams

Friday, November 19 · 6:00pm - 10:00pm

COBALT STUDIO
1950 W 21st Street

Monday, November 01, 2010

Roxaboxen Exhibitions

November 2nd - Missoula Oblongata presents "Clamlump"  8pm-10pm.  Another awesome Baltimore theater company we have the pleasure to host.  http://www.themissoulaoblongata.com/

November 5th - "We Aren't Dead Yet"  A solo show of new work by Theodore (Theo) Henry.  Opening 7-10pm Nov.5

November 21st
- Pocahontas vs Predator, works by Thorne Brandt and Elisa Harkins.  Opening Nov.21st 7-10 in junction with Acre gallery opening 4-8pm. 
The art team will also give a performance Wednesday Nov. 24th at 8pm.
                                      
Pocahontas vs Predator is the first in a series of four solo shows by ACRE resident artists.  Roxaboxen Exhibitions is pleased to announce our collaboration with ACRE, a Chicago based residency program, to put together this series of four solo shows. 

All artists are presenting work created at the 2010 ACRE residency site located in central Wisconsin. This series is injunction with the ACRE Gallery solo show series that takes place every Sunday. 

The artists chosen for the Roxaboxen gallery location have an emphasis on installation and performance qualities in their work.  Each artist has a week for installation, and a week to present work in the gallery. 

Roxaboxen Exhibitions will have an opening reception from 7-10pm Nov. 21st, Dec.5th, Dec. 17th, Jan.23rd, and will offer gallery hours the Saturday following the reception from 12-3pm.

Other ACRE artists :
Dec.5 - Young Joon Kwak

Dec.17th - Brittany Ransom

January 23rd - Hyeon Jung Kim

Roxaboxen Exhibitions

2130 w 21st street
Chicago IL 60608
www.roxaboxenminicastle.com

BEN RUSSELL : NURSES

JACOB CIOCCI
CHRISTA DONNER
BEN FAIN
PETER HOFFMAN
ANDY POSITIVE AND HIS DISSONANT RIDERS


Opening reception: Saturday 6-9 pm, November 6th, 2010
November 6, 2010 - December 11, 2010

BEN RUSSELL
1716 S Morgan #2F Chicago, IL 60608

Private viewings by appointment*
 *The performance by Andy Positive and His Dissonant Riders will begin at 8:00pm during the opening reception. 

-----
ABOUT THE SHOW:
Now that we've got all of that meta-BEN RUSSELL one-year anniversary action out of the way, it's time to move onto the real order of business - we're talking NURSES (of course), and what better way to honor the memory all of those post-Halloween Sexy Nurse / Sexy Florence Nightingale costumes than with a group art show that will care for you in your moment of ill health?  We've seen you sniffling on the train, sneezing at the zoo, and staying in bed on Election Day - we saw you hit your head with your bass guitar while performing in a Nirvana cover band last night, and we know that the 8-year old in you is still in need of sustenance.

This almost-always recession-cusp-of-the-everyday is apparently unrelenting, and most of can't afford Japanese Robonurses to carry our stricken selves from bed to bed to bed.  It's in times like this that the soothing, comforting, and occasionally lactating powers of art can be called upon to heal us - BEN RUSSELL : NURSES stands as proof that artists are the new clinicians, that apartment spaces are their temporary free clinics...

And so: when you find yourself multiplied and contorted and devouring your own flesh (DONNER), let us dress your wounds.  When you have been beaten upon and pounded into like the skins of so many heavy metal drum heads (POSITIVE), let us put a salve upon your bruises.  BEN RUSSELL : NURSES is art for the body - let us be your healthcare professional!

Like the memory-image of battlefield matrons conjured up through the smell of fresh oil paint (HOFFMAN) or a jellyfish-shaped monument to bodily fluids (FAIN) or the hand of God descending upon your weary frame while a Madonna song echoes through those dark nights (CIOCCI), BEN RUSSELL : NURSES is art for the soul - make an appointment now and avail yourself of our metaphoric health care setting! 

-----
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

JACOB CIOCCI is most notably known as one third of the American art collective Paper Rad. In his videos, performances, collages, and net art Jacob deals with the relationship between popular technology, popular culture, and contemporary American pathos. He has performed and exhibited at a variety of venues including the New Museum and MOMA in New York, Tate Britain, and most recently the TBA festival in Portland, Oregon and the Penrith National Gallery in Australia.

CHRISTA DONNER uses a variety of drawing-based media and small-press projects to examine the human body and our relationships to it through physical sensation and imagination. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the Museum Bellerive (Zurich, Switzerland), BankART NYK (Yokohama, Japan), Centro Columbo Americano (Medellin, Columbia), Kravets-Wehby (New York, NY), and POST (Los Angeles, CA). 

BEN FAIN is best known for his large-scale public performances and parades.  He received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008 and is an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Most recently Ben (with Uncle Merril Ferris, an expert on the Mayan calendar), transformed the Miami Lotus House Thrift Store truck into a parade float/mediation center based on an ancient South Indian practice and lead small groups in short meditations focused on the power of community.

PETER HOFFMAN is a Chicago based artist who primarily works with oil paint on canvas.  He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004, and studied at the Marchutz School of Painting in Aix-en-Provence, France in 2006.  Hoffman has exhibited in numerous Chicago venues including Heaven Gallery, Green Lantern Gallery, Harold Washington College, Old Gold, mini-dutch, Hyde Park Art Center, and has been featured in multiple national and international group exhibitions.

ANDY POSITIVE AND HIS DISSONANT RIDERS "are from mind's eye from Mosinee and western Massachusetts.  Andy with some help from the Beard, from western Massachusetts, works in the public field explaining corporate procedures and Andy is a history collector of the blues (the Blue Riders).  We play in order for unity, not to be hard really but more because I don't get do this very often " - Andy Positive

ABOUT THE SPACE:
BEN RUSSELL is an art space in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.  Co-curated by artists Brandon Alvendia and Ben Russell and situated around the front two rooms in the apartment of its namesake, BEN RUSSELL began presenting a series of month-long 5-person shows on Memorial Day Weekend in the year 2009.  Participating artists are invited to produce and exhibit work that is in accordance with the title/theme of each show, the name of which will be derived entirely from the 10 letters in the words "ben russell."  Future shows may include BEN RUSSELL : LENS, BEN RUSSELL : REBELS, and BEN RUSSELL : US.  In keeping with the structural conceits of the French Oulipo language group and the spatial and material limits of what is effectively a rented apartment, BEN RUSSELL maintains a strict set of restrictions for all exhibiting artists by which:

- One artist shall produce a wall-mounted work scaled at a minimum of three quarters of the thirteen by ten foot wall.
- One artist shall produce a wall-mounted work at a maximum of one half of the opposing wall space between the two adjacent doors.
- One artist shall produce a time-based work to be presented via a CRT flat screen monitor (and associated components) with Dolby 5.1 audio in the adjacent screening room.
- One artist shall produce work to be installed in the all-weather sculpture garden.
- One artist shall produce work to be performed for the duration of 15-30 minutes during the opening.

BEN RUSSELL features a rotating roster of Chicago-based and non-Chicago-based artists and will be open for viewings one night a month and by appointment, as needed.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Salvador Jiménez Flores @ Oxala

New works by Salvador Jiménez Flores

opening night: 11.02.2010
5pm to 9pm


closing night: 11.25.2010
5pm to 9pm

there will be a special ceremony on 11.02.2010 at 7pm in which the public can participate.


Oxalá Fine Art
1653 w 18th st.
chicago, il 60608
312.850.1655
oxala1653@sbcglobal.net

Monday, October 25, 2010

Día de los Muertos Procession


Día de los Muertos - join PERRO for a procession through Pilsen to stop coal pollution

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 4:30PM AND 6:30PM


4:30 PM - rally at UIC’s Quad 750 S. Halsted

5:30 PM - procession begins into the Pilsen neighborhood, past the Fisk Plant and to Alivio Medical Center. See map here.

6:30 PM - rally at Alivio Medical Center - 966 West 21st Street.
Will have music, food, art making and a lot of fun. Feel free to come in costume and bring your own sign expressing your concern about the pollution coming from the Fisk coal fired power plant.

8:00 PM - movie screening "Mountain Top Removal" (sponsored by LVEJO ) - Decima Musa, 1901 S. Loomis

Thursday, October 14, 2010

COBALT ART STUDIO @ PILSEN OPEN STUDIOS 2010


18th st. Pilsen Open Studios 2010

Weekend of October 16-17

Noon - 8PM

Artists:
Adriana Baltazar
Antonio Martinez
Jose Arceo
Juan Compean
Miguel Cortez
Hector Duarte
Ruben De Santiago
Anni Holm
Naomi Martinez

COBALT ART STUDIO
1950 W. 21st St.
#7 on the map.
http://cobaltartstudio.blogspot.com

 

Roxaboxen Exhibitions


Pilsen Open Studios!
October 16th and 17th 11am-7pm

This Weekend!

We are participating in the Pilsen art walk this year.
This means you have the opportunity to walk through the entire Roxaboxen building, check out our studios, and see the Little Village Artist's exhibition in the Gallery.
Come visit us and all the other awesome artists of Pilsen.


Horror Movie Marathon

October 22nd
To get into the Halloween spirit, we are hosting a 24 hour horror fest.
To find out the line up visit www.roxaboxenminicastle.com
Perhaps even some pumpkin carving too?

Roxaboxen Exhibitions
2130 West 21st Street
Chicago, IL 60608
http://www.roxaboxenminicastle.com/

Roxaboxen Exhibitions is an artist run gallery and performance space in the heart of Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. We are dedicated to displaying work of awesome artists we encounter, providing a space for creative calloboration, as well as distributing/acquiring ideas and information. This blog provides a forum for us to communicate ideas, and post events we are hosting or attending.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

2010 Pilsen Open Studios!!

SATURDAY & SUNDAY,
OCTOBER 16th & 17th, 2010
12 NOON TO 8PM

PILSEN OPEN STUDIOS is an artist run art walk that takes place in October.
Each year artists, galleries, cultural centers and cafes open their doors during special hours. Over 55 spaces, 80+ artists from Halsted St. to Western Ave. and from 16th St. to 23rd st.

PRIVATE STUDIO TOUR – SATURDAY, 10/16
A private tour of some studios guided by artist Georgina Valverde.
See pilsenopenstudios.org for time/details.

MURAL WALK – Sunday, 10/17
A mural walk tour guided by artist Jose Guerrero.
See pilsenopenstudios.org for time/details.

Bus Tour:
Four buses (free of charge) will take visitors to the different sites.
Maps will be available at local places.
For more information, visit pilsenopenstudios.org or call 312/733-8431.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

SONES DE MEXICO @ COLIBRI

The pioner group of the Son in Chicago will play a broad repertoire of Sones from the Huastecas to the Hot Lands. Come enjoy this great music and also to remember the martyrs of the 2 de Octubre in Tlaltelolco, Mexico 68.

Saturday, October 2 · 9:30pm - 11:30pm
$10 Suggested Donation

COLIBRI ART CENTER
2032w 18th St
Chicago, IL 60608

Monday, September 27, 2010

Anamnesis

 Anamnesis

Opening Reception Friday October 1st from 6 to 10 pm.

Refreshments will be served.

Featuring work by:

Scott Ashley
Stephanie Bassos
Ayelet Even-Nur
Damien James
Shawn Stucky
Renee Prisble Una


Morning Glory Studios
571 W. 18th Street #1R, enter on Jefferson
Chicago, IL 60608

Exhibition available by appointment through October 10th. Please contact Holly Sabin at 773.220.1660 or hrsabin@gmail.com for appointments. www.hollysabin.com

This exhibition is hosted in conjunction with the Chicago Arts District 40th Annual Open House.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Punk Show @ CASA AZTLAN

Punk Show @ CASA AZTLAN
Punk/Metal/Hardcore:


Friday, September 24 · 9:00pm

Garrobos (Mexico)
La Armada (Hardcore / Rep. Dominicana/Chicago)
Asinine (Chicago Punk)
...Luciferum (MetalCore)
Por Mi Culpa (Punk)
Sepulcro (Death Metal)

Casa Aztlan Community Center

1831 S. Racine in PILSEN
Show 9pm.. Early Arrival Suggested
All Ages + $10 donation

BEN RUSSELL : UR

BEN RUSSELL presents
BEN RUSSELL : UR

ALINE CAUTIS
TREVOR GAINERDAVID MORÉ
JESSIE MOTT
TYLER B. MYERS YOU ARE HERE (ZANNY BEGG + KEG DE SOUZA)
AND
FRANCISCA DURAN, LIEF HALL, OLIVER HUSAIN, SIMON DION REDEKOP, CHRIS WELSBY, AND RICHARD WILKINSON AS CURATED BY A.L.K.


1716 S Morgan #2F Chicago, IL 60608
April 24, 2010 - May 22, 2010
Opening reception: Saturday 6-9 pm, 
September 25th, 2010

Private viewings by appointment*
 *The performance by Tyler Myers will run between 6:30-8:30pm during the opening reception and will be followed by an afterparty dance party from 9:00 onwards.

-----
ABOUT THE SHOW:
At last, that empty void in your apartment-gallery-existence of the last few moons has been filled!  After doing a spell of world-wandering, your third-favorite curatorial team of Alvendia-Russell has returned to Chicago just in time (or a few months late, really) to celebrate the first anniversary of BEN RUSSELL, your second-favorite space.  That's right - after a year of eight shows BEN RUSSELL has finally turned ONE and, in honor of its movement into maturity, we are proud to present a look waybackbackbackwards with BEN RUSSELL: UR.  Taking its inspiration from the German prefix meaning "original, primitive" (and not, regrettably, in honor of the ancient Mesopotamian city or the Alanis Morissette song of the same name), this show is an over-the-shoulder glance into the history of history, a portrait of space-in-time.  Intended as both meta-response and self-conscious regard, we've gathered together enough local and international artists to throw the Standard Operating Procedure of BEN RUSSELL into a radical fourth-wall shattering vortex of confusion, a mad mix of art and art practices that are firmly entrenched in notions of disruption and repetition.

And so: join us as we turn our gaze towards the past we can never hope to regain - to the halcyon days of BEERBURNSRUNE and RUSE, to those Midwestern nights of RUBLES,LESSEN and BLUENESS.  Join us as we tilt our PBR to that memory of the past, then gulp the rest down in the name of the present and the future.  To smooth out that Blue Ribbon Burn, we are proud to offer the following checklist for your inner selves - an art-world mantra to calm the stormiest of seas:

- the BEN RUSSELL bench displaced by a pyramid made by former BEN RUSSELL residents (YOU ARE HERE) and subsequently transformed into a smaller BEN RUSSELL bench (GAINER)
-a fantasy portrait of the BEN RUSSELL mascot (MOTT)
- an abstraction of the fantasy portrait of the BEN RUSSELL mascot (CAUTIS)
- an audio portrait of BEN RUSSELL-as-space (MORÉ)
- a collaborative portrait of the BEN RUSSELL-audience-as-psychic-phenomena (MYERS)
- a curated and Sun Ra-themed 80:00 program of films/videos in response to a year's worth of un-curated program of 8 films/videos at BEN RUSSELL organized by a future BEN RUSSELL resident (A.L.K.)

And so on, and so forth.  We are meta-, we are beginning, and dammit if we aren't as serious as death which is, coincidentally, the start and end of us all.  This is UR-BENRUSSELL.  BENRUSSELL - UR begins now.

-----
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
ALINE CAUTIS employs an intuitive language of gesture, mark-making and abstract forms to create paintings and works on paper that are at once fluidly psychedelic and tightly controlled. She is currently en route to Romania as a Fulbright research fellow to study both early 20th century Romanian Non-objective painting and the Folk Art that informs it. Her project is hosted by the University of Art and Design at Cluj-Napoca. Recent exhibitions include Mayerei Gallery Berlin, Devening Projects + Editions, Roots & Culture, Julius Cæsar in Chicago.

TREVOR GAINER was born in Colorado where he spent his formative years practicing campfire craft and building stone walls.Gainer obtained his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Currently his work can be seen at CLUTCH Gallery in Chicago until September 25th, and KOH-I-NOOR in Copenhagen beginning January 8th. Trevor lives and works in Chicago.

DAVID MORÉ grew up outside Chicago; he has spent the past fourteen years moving between Wisconsin, Oregon, Minnesota, Maryland, and Missouri; and currently is based in Chicago. In 2004 he was quite honored to play his self-built instruments at the High Zero Festival of Improvised and Experimental Music (Baltimore), performing with such luminaries as Daniel Higgs, Joe McPhee, and Le Quan Ninh. He has remained involved with the High Zero Festival as Stage Manager ever since. His artworks, performances and sound installations have been presented through Harold Arts, Gallery 400 at UIC, and Vega Estates in Chicago.

JESSIE MOTT is a visual artist who lives and works in Chicago. Her work includes drawings, paintings, collage and video that employ a menagerie of human, animal and celestial forms to explore desire and anxiety within fictive worlds. She received a BFA from New York University and an MFA from Northwestern University. 

TYLER B. MYERS primarily works collaboratively with the duo he co-founded in 2000, Cupola Bobber (on tour in the UK October - December, 2010). Venue highlights for collaborative work include the Plateaux festival at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt, Performance Space 122 and the CUE Art Foundation in New York, and Belluard Bollwerk International in Switzerland. Individual and one-off collaborative projects have been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Cleveland Performance Art Festival, and PSI 15 in Zagreb. His published writings include: The Dictionary of Endurative Actions in The Drama Review (CB), Letter to Leatherface in Frakcija Performance Journal, Letter To Tolstoy in Make: A Chicago Literary Magazine, and Monologue For One Performer Taking One Step, Slowly in an anthology on SLOW (CB).  He has been a 2010 MacDowell Colony Fellow and an International Fellow at Lancaster University in 2007/08 and he has been a visiting artist at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bristol University, Columbia College Chicago, and Goat Island's Summer School. Tyler received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with a Nelson Raymond Fellowship, and an MFA from Northwestern University's Art Theory and Practice Department.

YOU ARE HERE (ZANNY BEGG + KEG DE SOUZA) is an Australian art collective which works across art making, curating, writing and discussions with open source software developer Andy Nicholson. Together they have a ten year artistic mapping project of Redfern, Sydney called the 2016: Archive Project.  In June/July 2008 they conducted a residency in Yogyakarta with Asialink and IVAA, The Indonesian Visual Art Archive and made a film entitled Cities Without Maps – Kota Tanpa Pet and in 2010 they were part of a two-month "residency" at BEN RUSSELL while working on ReMake Estate in Gary, Indiana.

&

FRANCISCA DURANLIEF HALLOLIVER HUSAINSIMON DION REDEKOPCHRIS WELSBY, and RICHARD WILKINSON curated by A.L.K. in "EVERYTHING IS IN PLACE EXCEPT YOU PLANET EARTH"
"We are another order of being. We bring to you the mathematics of an alter-destiny. Look up! See the greater universe. Everything is in place—every star—every planet. Everything is in place—but you planet earth! Everything is in place—except you planet earth! You are just like you always were—in your improper place. Living your improper lives and dying your improper deaths. Change your time for the unknown factor. Time passes away but the unknown is immeasurable and never passes away. The unknown is eternal because you will never know what it is all about. Your wisdom will be when you say, I—DO—NOT—KNOW. Your ignorance will be your salvation. I am the brother of the wind. I cover the earth and hold it like a ball in my hand. I can make it in seconds to another galaxy. I will take you to new worlds. I will take you to outer unseen worlds. If you are fearful you will die in your fear. If you have fear you have the futile persuasion. We are the pattern for the spirit of man. If the spirit of man is strong—it will be and do as I, and my brother. Only fools seek to arm the wind. Only fools seek to arm the brother of the wind. I the wind—come and go as I chose. And none can stop me. I the wind—come and go as I chose. And none can stop me."  —Sun Ra, Space is the Place (1974)
FEATURING: Squiggle by Oliver Husain (21:40, BetaSP, 2005, India); 25/27 by Lief Hall (14:22, DV, 2008, Canada); In the Kingdom of Shadows by Francisca Duran (5:30, BetaSP, 2006, Canada); Sun Ra Home Movies by Richard Wilkinson (7:00, DV, 1970s, Europe and North Africa); Teh by Simon Dion Redekop (12:00 excerpt, DV, 2010, Canada); Seven Days by Chris Welsby (20:00, 16mm, 1974, UK)
TRT 80:00

A.L.K (referred to here by her initials due to unwarranted and overzealous Canadian-USA border restrictions) programs a monthly evening of contemporary short-form cinema and cinematic collaborations at the Pacific Cinémathèque Pacifique called DIM Cinema. She is also the Events & Exhibitions Coordinator and Curator at VIVO Media Arts Centre and the Signal & Noise Media Arts Festival. She lives in Vancouver, BC Canada where she is currently Artist in Residence at Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society, exploring the relationship between the liminal and ephemeral elements of cinema and the post-Olympic city.

-----
ABOUT THE SPACE:
BEN RUSSELL
 is an art space in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.  Co-curated by artists Brandon Alvendia and Ben Russell and situated around the front two rooms in the apartment of its namesake, BEN RUSSELL began presenting a series of month-long 5-person shows on Memorial Day Weekend in the year 2009.  Participating artists are invited to produce and exhibit work that is in accordance with the title/theme of each show, the name of which will be derived entirely from the 10 letters in the words "ben russell."  Future shows may include
 BEN RUSSELL : LENSBERUSSELL : REBELS, and BEN RUSSELL : US.  In keeping with the structural conceits of the French Oulipo language group and the spatial and material limits of what is effectively a rented apartment, BEN RUSSELL maintains a strict set of restrictions for all exhibiting artists by which: 

- One artist shall produce a wall-mounted work scaled at a minimum of three quarters of the thirteen by ten foot wall.
- One artist shall produce a wall-mounted work at a maximum of one half of the opposing wall space between the two adjacent doors.
- One artist shall produce a time-based work to be presented via a CRT flat screen monitor (and associated components) with Dolby 5.1 audio in the adjacent screening room.
- One artist shall produce work to be installed in the all-weather sculpture garden.
- One artist shall produce work to be performed for the duration of 15-30 minutes during the opening.

BEN
 RUSSELL
 features a rotating roster of Chicago-based and non-Chicago-based artists and will be open for viewings one night a month and by appointment, as needed.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

AMELIA WINGER-BEARSKIN: TRANSFORMATION OPERA



AMELIA WINGER-BEARSKIN: TRANSFORMATION OPERA
Also this month's Project Wall Space: J. Thomas Pallas

Opening Friday October 22, from 6pm-10pm

October 22 - November 20

Transformation Opera is a sound and video project by Amelia Winger-Bearskin in which music generated from four different video works merge in the center of the gallery. Personal and Public figures are captured by video during moments of transformation, and then projected as slow moving loops. Sleepwalkers, Italian arias, trash TV, and tragic love ballads are warped to create the dreamlike musical environment.

Winger-Bearskin is an assistant professor of art at Vanderbilt, where she teaches video and performance art, as well as new and interactive media. Her undergraduate studies were in opera and performance art, her MFA is in time based media art (transmedia) from the University of Texas in Austin, 2008. She was in the group show Art in the Age of the Internet at the Chelsea Art Museum in 2007 and was a featured video and performance artist at Basel in Miami, Scope at the Lincoln Center and other art fairs consistently since 2007 as an artist at large for the perpetual art machine [PAM]. She has concentrated her live performance since 2009 on Asian Performance Art Festivals, performing live in the Philippines, South Korea and China as there is a unique support structure for performance that she wishes to study in hopes to bring similar structures in place in the USA.

ANTENA
1765 S. Laflin St.
Chicago IL 60608
www.antenapilsen.com
antenapilsen (at) gmail.com
(773) 340-3516
Hours: by appointment only


Transformation Opera, by Amelia Winger-Bearskin
REVIEW BY: LAURA HUTSON

Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Professor of Video and Performance Art


The ability of an appropriated image to maintain its original intent can be manipulated to create subtext with far more subtlety, complexity, and intelligence than a brand new creation.  The Transparencies/Transformation Opera exhibit combines two artist’s work, both of which contain original and appropriated images.  Artists Amelia Winger-Bearskin and Vesna Pavlovic pose questions of authorship, the difference between reality and illusion, and the post-modern wonderings of the authority of the audience.

Amelia Winger-Bearskin’s is a charismatic and powerful personality that doesn’t purposefully seek out performing, but it seems to follow her around anyway.  It comes easily to her, and in Transformation Opera, she recreates a space that is emblematic of a performer’s headspace, filled with grandiosity, foolishness, and dying dreams.   Four videos, all of which feature sound in some way, converge to fill the gallery space with the ambiance of perpetual performance.  Winger-Bearskin uses her own performances twinned with appropriated footage of (former) starlets Mia Farrow and Lindsay Lohan against a confluence of operatic vocals, shoe gaze, and honky-tonk.

In “ambienTTransformation,” Winger-Bearskin uses the turn of phrase for being a hyper-productive artist literally, as she unwittingly made a performance piece in her sleep.  Actually sleepwalking throughout the entire piece and recording herself the whole way through, the video perfectly captures the restless energy associated with performers between performances.   In her sleep the artist smears honey on her face and covers it with $150-worth of gold leaf.    She is asleep, and yet the video is perfectly shot, and it is not necessary to understand the context of its creation to appreciate the appeal of the artist’s expressionless face being covered in gold.  “I could try my very hardest to be earnest,” Winger-Bearskin says, dreaming of all the different ways she could manipulate her face, calling on her relationship with her young son to inspire authentic concern in a dreaming state of nonsensical logic. The childlike, diva-esque behavior of an artist performing in front of a camera is echoed in other pieces in the exhibit, like Mia Farrow’s over-the-top starvation opera, and in Lindsay Lohan’s Morrisey-tinged anguish.

In “Transformation Opera,” she spontaneously performs with the house band at Second Fiddle, one of the more identifiable honky-towns in Downtown Nashville.  Succeeded by a piece that shows Lindsay Lohan in a tasteful, respectful, terribly sad analysis of her recent jail-sentencing, Winger-Bearskin’s light-hearted rendition of Willie Nelson’s outlaw country ballad “Crazy” reminds you that fame is good luck and bad luck, and opportunities taken or squandered.

“The Transformation of Lindsay Lohan” is a series of stills from YouTube, taken seconds before and as the actress hears her sentence – 90 days in jail.  Blond hair and beautiful bone structure collapse as her face falls and her head drops, all as the first few measures of Morrisey’s “Seasick, Yet Still Docked” play.  For a performer, the moments between being free and imprisoned carry the additional weight of transforming an identity.  Lohan’s life is a well-known spectacle.  In jail, she will be without audience, and what is a performer when she is not performing?

As so many videos are being played at once, there exists an inability to view each one individually. Victor Turner called liminality “the state of being betwixt and between.”  Winger-Bearskin’s videos capture this moment - between sleep and waking (“ambienTTransformation”), between audience and performer (“Transformation Opera”), between celebrity and prisoner (“The Transformation of Lindsay Lohan”) – and, through the addition of sound and the careful proximity between videos and gallery space, creates a suspended liminality among her audience.  It is at once unsettling and comforting -- a familiar feeling of unrest.
 

Friday, September 17, 2010

Strong and Chata: We Are All Narizona


Strong and Chata: We Are All Narizona
Artists respond to immigration policies that attempt to erode dignity and strength

Opening Reception September 18, from 8-12 PM
September 18-October 24, 2010

Brikena Boci
Camilo Cruz
Luis De La Torre
Salvador Jimenez-Flores
Christine LoFaso
Jenna Loyd
Carolina Rubio MacWright
Jeff Abbey Maldonado
Paloma Martinez-Cruz
Aaron Michael Morales
Nuco
Jackie Orozco
Jenny Priego
Kate Pszotka
Christine Rabenold
Paul Lloyd Sargent
Jaime Vargas

The Beer Run Gallery
1104 W. 18th St.
Chicago, IL

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Book Release Party for Jose Gonzalez

September 24, 2010 from 6:30pm - 9:00pm
 
Carlos and Dominguez Gallery
1538 W. Cullerton
Chicago, IL 60608
 
Please help me celebrate the release of my Dad's autobiography, "Bringing Aztlan to Mexican Chicago". This book was edited by Prof. Marc Zimmerman and is a recollection of Jose's life and role in developing Mexican, Chicano, and Latino art as a fundamental dimension of Chicago and Pilsen. Jose is almost 80 years old now and this book is a real tribute to the power of community organizing, how art informs politics, and the beauty of family and friends. Light appetizers and drinks will be available with a small program starting at 7:00 p.m. We will also have some of my Dad's artwork available.

Many thanks to Lenny Dominguez for offering his space for this party.

Hope to see you all there!

Alicia Gonzalez

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Rene Arceo @ Prospectus



Between the Extinctive and the Rational
A one person exhibition by Rene Arceo


A selection of collages, paintings and prints included in the artist's recently published book.
The publication celebrates 25 years of artistic work. Book is available at the gallery.

Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 4th, 2010 from 5:00 - 10:00 pm

PROSPECTUS ART GALLERY
1210 West 18th Street
Chicago, IL 60608
Tel 312/ 733-6132

Hors d'oeuvres courtesy of
Ristorante El Teatro

Free parking available

Monday, August 30, 2010

Adelita Pata de Perro

We wanted to extend an invite to you to check out "Adelita Pata de Perro" by performance artist Jenny Priego.

Saturday, Sept. 11 from 6pm to 10pm -FREE

CARLOS & DOMINGUEZ FINE ARTS Gallery

Arts of the Americas
1538 W. Cullerton St.
Chicago, Illinois 60608

Adelita Pata de Perro by Artist Jenny Priego is an ongoing project based on the Mexican Revolution’s soldaderas. Priego sees the early 20th century rifle-toting revolutionary as a 21st century Wonder Woman breaking borders throughout the planet. Using herself to represent this image she intervenes in world spaces from posing at the Royal Palace of Bangkok, Eiffel Tower, and the Coliseum, among others. Read more...http://www.proyectolatina.org/

Proyecto Latina is generously supported by the Fire This Time Fund
Special thanks to the Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts Gallery
Our Wine Madrinas - Chicago Foundation For Women's Latina Leadership Council

Proyecto Latina
info@proyectolatina.org
312-498-4067

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

From the Wash: Mark Nelson



From the Wash: Mark Nelson

Opening Friday September 3, from 6pm-10pm
September 3 - October 2

From the Wash is an exploration into the coded and indigenous landscape of the Painted Desert of the Petrified Forest in northern Arizona through performance, video and installation.

Mark Nelson lives and works in his GringoLandia Studio, located on 21st Street in the Pilsen neighborhood. His foundation in painting and theater evolved into multi-media installations. He has received the Illinois Arts Council's Fellowship Award twice and a third time as a runner up. His work can be found in collections such as the U.S. Embassy in the Republic of Panama' in 2007 and private collections in the Republic of Panama’ and North America. Mark Nelson is an adjunct faculty for Triton College and has been teaching art in the city of Chicago for 22 years.


ANTENA
1765 S. Laflin St.
Chicago IL 60608
www.antenapilsen.com
antenapilsen (at) gmail.com
(773) 340-3516
Hours: by appointment only

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

MGLEZ Art Exhibit (tour)

Friday August 27 from 6:00pm - 10:00pm

Kristoffer's Café

1733 South Halsted Street
Chicago, IL

"Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience."Paulo Coelho


This is the 2nd and final part of the MGLEZ Art Exhibit which began at Fogata Village. In the aftermath of Martha’s tragedy we looked for ways to heal our loss and to keep her memory alive by continuing to raise awareness about the unsolved case. The exhibition began specifically to celebrate what would have been her 37th birthday on June 14th. The participating artists drew inspiration from Martha’s likes, dreams and ideals. What this exhibit offers us the opportunity to mourn and remember Martha in uniquely visionary ways. We remember her friendship, warmth, smile and most of all,her joy at life.

This exhibit will contain several new pieces not shown at Fogata.

There will be hors d'œuvres and Kristoffer's famous tres leches cakes served. For more information on Kristoffer's please visit: www.kristofferscafe.com



For information on purchasing art prints please visit: http://www.marthagonzalezmemorial.com/mglez/

Friday, August 20, 2010

Mano/Mundo/Corazón: Artists Interpret La Lotería

Opening Reception: September 9, 5:30 - 8:30pm

September 9 - December 10, 2010
Opening Reception
Thursday, September 9, 2010
5:30-8:30PM

 La Lotería, the Mexican game of chance, has a centuries-long social history, and a broad reach in contemporary art. This exhibition features a culturally and geographically diverse group of artists in three distinct sections:

  • A curated selection of films, photographs, installations and paintings featuring work by Jim Finn, Maximo Gonzalez, Jill Hartley, Luis Delgado, Adolfo Patiño and others.
  • Newly commissioned works on paper, each based on a Lotería card.  Participating artists include Balam Bartolome, Mario Castillo, Damara Kaminecki, Michael Velliquete, Gabriella Via Cal y Mayor, Daniel Guzman, Fred Stonehouse, Javier Carmona, Chris Flynn, Ruben Gutierrez, Alexis MacKenzie, Charles Hobson, Scott Espeseth, Miguel Cortez, Mauricio Limon, Marilyn Propp, Jose Andreu, Humberto Duque, Rodrigo Imaz, Ala Ebtekar, Michael Pajon, Larry Vigon, Christopher Kerr, Michael Scoggins, Terence Hannum, Andy Kozlowski, Maria Gaspar, Eric J. Garcia, Rene Arceo, CHema, Felipe Ehrenberg, Hugh Merrill, David Jones, Joyce Owens, Saul Aguirre, Raul Aguilar, Kevin Riordan, Gabriel Mejia, Darren Oberto, Nacho Chincoya & Jean Bevier
  • The LA Loteria: a series of Lotería-inspired prints from the Los Angeles-based Aardvark Letterpress

EXHIBITION RELATED EVENTS

Opening Reception
Thursday, September 9: 5:30 - 8:30PM

Multi-Poet Lotería Reading Hosted by Roddy Lumsden
Thursday, September 16: 6PM
Presented with Poetry Magazine

Critical Encounters/Cafe Society: Image and Implication in La Lotería
Tuesday, October 19: 5-7PM

Gallery Talk & Studio Tour (featuring Visitng Artist Maureen Cummins)
Thursday, October 21: 5:30 - 8:30PM
Presented for Chicago Artists Month


This exhibition is organized with the help and support of the Illinois Arts Council, National Museum of Mexican Art, Mexican Consulate in Chicago, Poetry Magazine, and Anchor Graphics, Critical Encounters and Latino Cultural Affairs at Columbia College Chicago.  Presented in association with Chicago Artists Month.

Center for Book & Paper Arts (CBPA)
1104 S. Wabash, 2nd Fl Chicago, IL 60605
Phone: 312-369-6630

Thursday, August 12, 2010

CHURCH PORCH @ BEN RUSSELL (GALLERY)

ETERNAL COLORS and A CONVERSATION BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE


a joint exhibition featuring ASPEN COURT (NYC) and BRENDAN ANTON JAKS (AMSTERDAM)


on Saturday, August 14, 2010, 6-10PM at CHURCH PORCH
1716 S. MORGAN #2F, CHICAGO, IL    


The intrepid CHURCH PORCH team hijacks the BEN RUSSELL (GALLERY) space for ONE night to bring you TWO exhibitions for the price of one.  Admission is free.


From 6-8pm we will be showing the installation ETERNAL COLORS by ASPEN COURT, poetic detachment used to describe a philology of color, tongue-in-cheek references to domesticity and the carpet samples themselves, cast-away icons of a homebuyers dream.  The thin mosaic of multiform rectangular shapes bisect the space from floor to wall, forming a right angle that climbs to the ceiling, touching it.  The right-angle hints at the room that is not there, and the minimal arrangements of color encroach upon a space where their use-function is obsolete, and it is precisely this uselessness that make possible the patterned forms of restrained color, old hues of familiar settings, displaced, to reveal their true beauty as objects.  Before this arrangement stands a pedestal offering an old blank book whose pages have curled from neglect.  The open-most page lays awry but tells us nothing.  The empty book commands attention to itself as an object, and without words or pictures, this book, like the carpeted array of colors behind it, point elsewhere-


At 8pm, mid-exhibition, will will de-install ETERNAL COLORS and install A CONVERSATION BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE, by BRENDAN ANTON JAKS which will be shown from 8pm-10pm.   Gesture and theatricality, when syntax fails due to ineptitude or by the means which express ideas fail or fall outside the scope of language, emerges gesture.  Emotive, flabbergasted, or otherwise, and also receding into mechanical form (think of traffic cops), indeed the automaton can live in gesture and take the form of ritual.  "You aren't understanding what I'm trying to say!" waving my hands at your face, the relationship between energetic youth talking, gesticulating and Android Nazi Troopers.  Whatever the relationship, gesture is usually taken for granted.  But not today as JAKS reveals to us through the installation of one sculpture gesturing to another (or is it one sculpture with a schizophrenic personality?) ending with a moment of silence between two people.


-ASPEN COURT (USA) lives and works in NYC


-BRENDAN ANTON JAKS (b. 1983, USA) lives and works in Amsterdam, NL
currently studying Fine Art at the Gerrit Rietveld Akademie.  When not busy with
University he can be found reading tarot in Vondelpark.


special thanks to Ben Russell and Michael Thibault