Temporary Allegiance. Courtesy of Josue Pellot.

An interview with Josue Pellot, Chicago Artist To Watch

By Miguel Jimenez

Everyone meets at Humboldt Park's Café Colao to have coffee on a Tuesday morning — from local politicians to the neighborhood’s elderly. I met with Chicago Artist to Watch Josue Pellot, and what began as an interview developed into another conversation among the many in Café Colao.

MJ: What do you usually order here?

JP: At the very least, I'll always have Café con Leche.

MJ: Why did you choose this café for our interview?

JP: I was born in Puerto Rico but raised here [Humboldt Park], and a lot of my work comes from conversations I've had in this Café, from just hanging out and talking to people. Ideas for some work began here and turned into full projects. For instance, I was eating a sandwich one day and saw this machine in the corner.

Josue points to the “Boricuas,” a toy vending machine that sells stereotypical Puerto Rican toy figures for fifty cents.

Family Portrait of Boricuas Toys. Courtesy of Josue Pellot.

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Technorati Tags: Humboldt Park, Chicago Artist to Watch

How much farther until we get to the other side?

Today, Richard and I went to Artropolis at the Merchandise Mart about 11 a.m. and left about 2:30 p.m. There are 5 concurrent shows under one roof.

Art Chicago (12th floor) — art in a gallery atmosphere featuring works appealing to curators and collectors

NEXT (7th floor) — an invitational exhibition of international contemporary emerging art focusing on single artists or special projects

The Merchandise Mart International Antiques Fair (south side of the 8th floor)

The Artist Project (north side of 8th floor) — work of independent artists

The Intuit Show (northwest corner of the 8th floor) — folk and outsider art

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Nancy Charak studied photography and design at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and painting and drawing at Northern Illinois University, where she received her MFA in 1979. Her work has been shown in several significant juried exhibitions, including the Chicago and Vicinity Show at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Davidson National Print and Drawing Competition in NC. She was awarded a purchase prize from the Chattahoochee Valley Art Association in GA. Charak’s work has also been represented by several galleries, including Van Straaten and Bernal in Chicago and Genesis in New York.

She recently juried the Drawing on Experience show at Woman Made Gallery, 685 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago. The exhibition is June 27 through July 24, 2008, with an opening reception on June 27th from 6 to 9 p.m.

Nancy Charak. Field No. 1077. 2007. Oil, pencil on linen canvas,
height 30″ x 40″.

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Alan Lerner, a Chicago-based musician, screen printer and conceptual artist who makes sculptural and installation works, has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work deals with personal imagery, war, fashion, and political events that shape and define the individual psyche and mass psychology. He has an upcoming show in May at Art on Armitage, a window gallery in Chicago dedicated to exhibitions and installations that redefine street art.

ArtStyle: When did the “intellectual” component of your work begin to develop in your art?

Alan Lerner (AL): In the 1970s, as an undergrad, I started making drawings of actions I would fantasize about but not necessarily accomplish. Many of these planned actions would involve bad manners and behavior on the group level, leaving behind evidence in the form of dirty suburban interiors as a comment on the sterility and purity of the impossibly neurotic standards of daily life. I worked in ceramics for many years, and also designed and built furniture. These activities helped form my ideas of how objects function as art separate from the functional craft object. At the time I did a stint at security at the MCA and used the library there to help form my early experiences as an artist.

Alan Lerner. An Ocean Of Drink. Acrylic clipboards, paper,
screenprint ink, neoprene, 15' x 15'.

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Technorati Tags: musician, screen printer, conceptual artist, street art

Pat Otto. Reclining Head. 2004. Beeswax and oil paint on wood,
height 6.5″ x 9.5″ x 4″.

Patricia Otto's house in Edgewater is a gallery, a studio space and a home shared with her husband, painter Kristopher Dodd. At the entrance, beneath a large mirror, there is a tray with what looks like bones of a human spine. The walls are filled with small, detailed paintings in decorated old frames. Kimonos made out of paper, fabric and painted canvas, hang on large walls. Resting on shelves are ceramic sculptures of nude figures with horses. Miniature vessels with painted parts of anatomy are scattered around like some relics used in sacred rituals. Three-dimensional encaustic portraits hang on smaller walls.
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