Hello Folks. I just attended an opening at the Hyde Park Art Center, and if you have not been there, I recommend bookmarking their site for a list of current exhibitions, readings, and performances in Chicago’s art world. The Hyde Park Art Center, a part of Chicago’s art scene for over 60 years, has 5 exhibition spaces that are always changing to highlight a diversity of artwork being made in Chicago. (Photo credit: Darrell Roberts)

In the center’s main gallery is Consuming War, an exhibit showing artist whose work deals with being consumed by war and conflicts. Curated by Barbara Koenen, the show includes artists Lynda Barry, Wafaa Bilal, Mary Brogger, Adam Brooks, Burtonwood & Holmes, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Fred Holland, Harold Mendez, Michael Rakowitz, Ellen Rothenberg, Edra Soto, Paula White and Dolores Wilber.

Mary Bogger has created a large steel Persian rug that floats tentatively on pins, and a raft out of oil drums and a car frame.

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Technorati Tags: Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago’s art scene

In 1953, a young Celia Gonzalez boarded a plane in Puerto Rico, escorted by her distant cousin Maximino Alvarez, to stay with her cousin who had helped her secure a factory job in NYC. At that time, young women could not travel alone, so she was entrusted to her cousin (since he had been a soldier in the Korean War and could speak English). His parents, Celedoina and Pedro Alvarez were already residents in Brooklyn. Although Celia and Maximino were related, they were strangers to each other, but that historic plane ride led to a marriage. Like Maximino’s parents, they settled in Brooklyn and started a family. All three of their children were born in February. The middle child was Candida Alvarez. Maximino landed a job working in the mail room at Cumberland Hospital, which was within walking distance from where they lived. In time, he became manager.

Young Alvarez family in the 1950s. Candida on the far right.
Courtesy of the artist.

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NanoArt is a new art form where micro or nanosculptures (sculptures at molecular and atomic scales), created by artists or scientists through chemical and/or physical processes, are visualized with powerful research tools like Scanning Electron Microscopes. The monochromatic electron microscope scans are processed further using different artistic techniques to create works of art that can be showcased for the general public.

Science As Art. Courtesy of Cris Orfescu.

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Technorati Tags: NanoArt, nanosculptures

It is not a secret that one can go to DePaul University’s Concert Hall on an ordinary day and enjoy the high-quality “entertainment” there. On a fairly cold Friday night when music was the one to warm my heart, I witnessed a very exotic night with a very nice flavor: A Taste of Georgia.

AmerKlavier studio, with its artistic director and founder Eteri Andjaparidze, and DePaul A Cappella and its leader Clayton Parr were the hosts of the evening. Joining together, they presented vocal and instrumental music of Georgia.

Tbilisi, Georgia in 1671

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Technorati Tags: DePaul University, AmerKlavier, DePaul A Cappella

Iris Goldstein, a sculptor who has exhibited her work nationally and internationally in both Europe and Japan, creates relief sculptures made of plaster and aluminum screening, connecting textural surfaces and exploring color. She was an Artist-in-Residence in Haguro-Machi, Japan, and co-curated the Thirty Years at ARC Exhibition in 2003. Her husband, Paul, has fully supported her aspirations to obtain a graduate degree in art and to work as an artist. Together they have raised 4 children.

Reflections. Courtesy of the artist.

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Technorati Tags: relief sculptures