ArtStyle

Q&A with Serhii Chrucky: Remembering Chicago’s Past

amyrud — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:47:53 +0000

As a founding member of Forgotten Chicago, Serhii Chrucky (pronounced SIR-he KROOTS-key) spends his available time (when he’s in not in class at UIC) examining relics of Chicago’s past. Forgotten Chicago is part photo album, historical repository, and architecture / infrastructure as art.

Schlitz Tied House, 21st and Rockwell. 2008. Photo: Serhii Chrucky.

Our main goal is to discover and document little known elements of Chicago’s infrastructure, architecture, neighborhoods and general cityscape, whether existing or historical. — Forgotten Chicago

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CAC’s Chicago Artist to Watch: Josue Pellot

CAC Jeremy — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:57:55 +0000

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

CAC: Fear and Curating in Chicago by John Brunetti

CAC Jeremy — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:13:29 +0000

Fear and Curating in Chicago

An interview with and by John Brunetti, Director, Alfedena Gallery

What motivated you to become a curator?

JB: Fear.

Seriously?

JB: Yes, seriously. Fear can be a great motivator. It can either hold you back or set you free. I had never intended to be a curator, just as I had never intended to be an art critic. Those were two jobs that grew out of my desire to survive in the arts after I got my MFA in 1987. My original intention was to be a painter. But in the case of my painting career, fear kept me from making that happen, so I decided to start making fear work for me in other ways.
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A Trip to Atropolis 2008

amyrud — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:55:01 +0000

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.

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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Q&A with Daniel Godston: Musician and Poet

amyrud — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:29:17 +0000

Living in Chicago since 2000, Daniel Godston professes that his family moved around a lot. He earned a BA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, taught English as a Second Language in South Korea for several years, and then returned to the US to earn an MFA in Creative Writing at Mills College, in Oakland, CA. In Chicago, Godston teaches English Composition, Literature, and New Millennium Studies courses at Columbia College. He also teaches poetry to young people who are hospitalized, through Snow City Arts Foundation, and he teaches creative writing to high school students, through the Center for Community Arts Partnerships. When he’s not teaching or publishing poems, he plays the trumpet with his trio, Ways & Means. Their recent CD, Fire of Dream, features poetry and experimental ritual music that is influenced by jazz and world music.

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Technorati Tags: trumpet, Ways & Means, poetry, jazz, world music

Q&A with Nancy Charak: Infinite Line

MJU — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:13:40 +0000

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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First Year Anniversary for ArtStyle Blog

amyrud — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:32:54 +0000

Today is Earth Day and the first-year anniversary of ArtStyle Blog. The year I spent publishing and editing the blog has been a rewarding and eventful one. I would like to thank the Contributing Bloggers, subscribers, and supportive friends for helping to make this blog successful.

As some of you know, I will be taking a leave for a month after April for recuperation, some R&R, and to work on my children’s book. During the interim, we will be informally posting and uploading images at Flickr.com, a photo sharing site, under the name ArtStyle Blog Group. The website is www.flickr.com/groups/artstylebloggroup.

Thanks again, and we hope you visit our Flickr.com site.

Amy Rudberg

Q&A with Alan Lerner, Conceptual Artist

Darrell Roberts — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:52:11 +0000

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

Quiz #3: Sample Quiz!

admin — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:02:57 +0000

Disregard!!

Quiz #2: New quiz title?

admin — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:54:38 +0000

Clue #1: Modern patriarch

Clue #2: Some crowns bestowed

Clue #3: Verdigris inky rubric

Show Answer ▼