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With only a week before graduation, the real world, and Sallie Mae loan officers descend, the seniors and graduate students of Columbia College will gather on Friday, May 15 for the seventh annual Manifest Urban Arts Festival. Though past festivals have boasted impressive musical headliners like OK Go and Lupe Fiasco, budget cutbacks have brought the focus of this year’s festival back to the students’ endeavors. Student artwork will be on sale throughout the festival, whose various hot spots in the South Loop Arts Corridor will be accessible via the free Chicago Trolley or by good, old-fashioned foot power. Read the rest of this entry »

Angel Otero

By Natalie Edwards

Doesn’t Artropolis sound like a futuristic Ethan Hawke movie where uniformly dressed artists and gallery owners pursue their dream of a utopia based on a foundation of aesthetic principles in an art-historical context? It’s not. Artropolis isn’t utopian or dreamy, and it isn’t over in an hour and a half, but it can be eye-numbing and interest-suppressing, just like movies with Ethan Hawke. Artropolis, like most large art fairs, feels like a celebration of quantity, more than a celebration of art. Making money is a great thing for art to do, and it is something that it must do, but the crap economy and the need to fill up two floors of the monstrous Merchandise Mart means that Art Chicago and the NEXT fair became arenas where mediocrity threatened to gobble up thoughtful stuff on a visually droning, super-sized stage.
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Compiled by Jason Foumberg

I asked art fair participants and insiders to make predictions for this year’s fair. At turns grim and hopeful, the responses present a slice of Chicago’s varied interests.

Brian Sholis, Art Critic: I suspect this year’s fair will be a cake of apprehension and worry frosted with taut smiles and outward expressions of hope.

Britton Bertran, Curator and Dealer: Commodity expectations are at their lowest and artists will do whatever they can to be heard in the loudest possible way. But what might be more interesting is when galleries and other enablers (non-artists) start to rear their own heads in protest and anger without repercussions from their own enablers (those that run these fairs). But what are they protesting against?

Carl Baratta, Artist: Everything will be at least competent except the free drinks. They will be perfect. Read the rest of this entry »

Our Literal Speed [OLS] is a self-reflexive, art historical all-star, conceptual art “media pop opera” taking place in Chicago over the May Day weekend. Its first iteration occurred last winter at the Center for Art and Media Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany, and brought together an A-list roster of jet-set historians, artists, critics and curators for a program that attempted to materialize the structures of consumption and circulation that make up the contemporary art world—with the idea that these structures have become the material of contemporary art itself. Through performances, panel discussions and art happenings, the OLS events in Chicago represent a collaborative effort to literalize the theoretical and pedagogical technologies that make up the experience of contemporary art, particularly as that experience is mediated by various institutions such as the museum and art historical discourse. Read the rest of this entry »

HuskMitNavn, untitled (2009)

Imperfect Articles was launched five years ago when artists Mike Andrews and Noah Singer took their love of t-shirts (and, in Singer’s case, a growing obsession with the art of custom hand-dying) and turned it into a collective enterprise whose goal is to promote the work of artists they love, and to offer that work to people at a reasonable price and in an eminently wearable form. Their first collection, which included shirts designed by Chicago-area artists like Adam Scott, Danielle Gustafson-Sundell, Josh Mannis and others, sold like proverbial hotcakes when Singer and Andrews brought them to the first Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. “We were kind of shocked,” Singer recalls. “After that we got invited to the Volta show at Basel. Once we went to Basel we did Nada in Miami, and it took off from there. Last year we did six art fairs, which was crazy. And, um, we’re not going to be doing that again this year,” Singer laughs. Read the rest of this entry »

Version>09, or simply Version, could be aptly described by the instructions for artist Ashley Metcalf’s installation at NFO XPO: “Please look through the wormhole to our parallel universe.” And Version will take you down the worm’s hole, to a sprawling alternate art world of friendly artists, affordable art and beer. Parts of the Version festival are timed to precede Art Chicago, with a small overlap, and upcoming events are posted on their website.

Taking a cue from Chicago’s 2016 bid for the Olympics, Version partnered with several art groups to organize events examining Chicago’s historical international event, the 1893 Columbian Exposition. On April 25 there was a walking tour titled “A Working Man’s Guide to the Columbian Exposition,” which allowed attendees to learn about the laborers of the Exposition. The tour ended next to the Experimental Station, which is hosting King Ludd’s Analog Arcade through the first weekend in May. Physically close to the Midway Plaissance, the site of the 1893 carnival games and rides, King Ludd’s also consists of carnival-style games, made by artists. Following their Luddite title, the games are low-tech and emphatically use recycled materials in their construction. The most ambitious of these was a bike-powered air-hockey table, the actual functioning of which was uncertain at the time of my visit, though that suited the Experimental Station perfectly.
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Carol Wax, "Writer's Blocks," mezzotint

By Steven Wirth

If you happen to be curious about the current state of affairs in the wide world of printmaking then look no further than the forthcoming Southern Graphics Council’s annual conference hosted by Columbia College and Anchor Graphics from March 25–29. Established in 1972, the Southern Graphics Council, or SGC as it is commonly called, is the largest print organization in North America, and each year its annual conference is the largest celebration of printmaking of its kind.

The conference itself means many different things to many different people: Read the rest of this entry »

By Alicia Eler

Art Fairing in a new economy, Chicago blows through the 2008 Miami art fairs

The Western Exhibitions booth

Overall murmurs of low attendance aside, Art Basel Miami Beach reported more registered collectors and cultural institutions than any previous year. The Miami Herald said that almost half of the galleries at Art Basel saw drops in sales, however, and after just two days into the fair, only sixteen percent of galleries at Basel and the satellite fairs saw sales growth. There are fewer visitors roaming the fairs than in years past, but the art world won’t give up.

Of the three Chicago galleries at Art Basel Miami Beach—blue-chippers Richard Gray, Donald Young and Valerie Carberry—I noticed a sprinkling of red dots covering David Hockneys at Richard Gray. During an unstable time, art buyers will invest in artists whose names they already know and trust. Kavi Gupta Gallery led the way at the younger, more casual, Chicago gallery-populated NADA Art Fair, even positioning Tony Tassett’s “Snowman” (2008) by the coveted fair entrance. Within the first hour of the fair, that piece sold for $70,000, which “shocked” Gupta according to reports from Artinfo.com. Red dots covered works by Melanie Schiff—a 2008 Whitney Biennial participant—including her “Untitled” (2008), an exquisite play with light, shadow and circular lens-like mirrors and symbols that are curiously shaped like Schiff’s nipples, recognizable in her other works.

David Lieske at Rowley Kennerk Gallery

Imperfect Articles represented a more affordable slice of Chicago’s art world at NADA, selling t-shirts designed by Andrew Rafacz Gallery’s Cody Hudson, among others. Nearby, Bridgeport-based Proximity Magazine and Pilsen-based Golden Age showed off their print goods. The West Loop’s Western Exhibitions dedicated their entire space to the work of Chicago’s husband art team duo Stan Shellabarger and Dutes Miller, who are quickly becoming the gallery’s art-fair darlings, and included a live knitting performance of their pink umbilical cord-like tube, making early on a $5,000 sale of a book filled with self-portrait silhouettes. Chicago galleries Rowley Kennerk and Shane Campbell Gallery also showed at NADA.

The West Loop contingent was further seen down the street at PULSE, where Monique Meloche Gallery’s booth featuring L.A.-based emerging artist Kendell Carter sold a variety of his works ranging from $1,700–$12,000, including the space’s wainscot wall installation, something that’s certainly more difficult to sell than, say, one of the artist’s shoelace drip paintings. Lake Street’s Packer Schopf Gallery did Bridge for the past three years but switched to PULSE this year; owner Aron Packer says that Michael Dinges’ paintings on deceased Mac computers and Steve Seeley’s whimsical taxidermy drawings were “a hit.” Tony Wight of Tony Wight Gallery smiled from inside his crisp white-walled space, which included a strong selection of work including abstract, kaliediscope-esque photos from NY-based Tamar Halpern’s solo exhibition recently seen in Chicago.

Catherine Edelman Gallery, Douglas Dawson and McCormick Gallery brought work to Art Miami, another of the vast tent fairs. Chicago representation at the poppy young Aqua Wynwood Fair included Kasia Kay Art Projects and Thomas Robertello Gallery, who smartly curated works from Lily McElroy’s “I Throw Myself at Men.” In this series, the artist hand-selected men either from Craigslist or at dive bars in Chicago, and literally threw herself at them, toying with assumptions about male-female power dynamics.

The Chicago born-and-bred Bridge Art Fair led Chicago representation in Miami, bringing ALL RiSE GALLERY, Accomplice Projects, Antena, GARDENfresh, Swimming Pool Project Space to the Miami location, and Aldo Castillo Gallery and Ryan Schulz Projects (of the recently closed NavtaSchulz Gallery on Lake Street) to the new Bridge Wynwood. Emerging artist Mathew Paul Jinks says “I’m seeing a lot of interest—my Web site stats peaked this week, and GRACE, a Brooklyn gallery, asked me to do a performance next year.” Likewise, at Bridge Miami Beach, gallery co-owner Liz Nielsen, of the less-than-one-year-old Swimming Pool Project Space, saw two $500 video art sales of work by Latham Zearfoss and Aspen Mays.

Imperfect Articles

Talk of sales was still on everyone’s lips until Art Basel Miami Beach closed their doors on Sunday, December 7, at 6pm sharp. As the power went out on Donald Young Gallery’s four-channel Gary Hill video piece, guests streamed out of the convention center. When the Art Basel Miami Beach closing party began at the newly renovated Fontainebleau Hotel at 41st and Collins, which was recently renovated in line with Morris Lapidus’s original design, the food and wine flowed as if someone had just won the lottery and was treating thousands of close friends. Guests ate little slices of decadence, like grilled jumbo shrimp, succulent beef polenta, fresh cherry tomatoes and finger-food desserts of soft sweet cakes, rich chocolate morsels and creamy puddings. Free champagne, wine and mixed drinks flowed endlessly at the bars, some of which were crafted entirely from ice. And as the party meandered into the hotel’s new LIV Lounge, where shiny stairs led the way into a lounge-like pit of sweaty bodies dancing against one another, Art Basel Miami Beach Co-Director Annette Schönholzer smiled, sliding alongside collectors and exhibitors. No one was thinking about unsold paintings needing to be shipped home.

Newcity’s daily coverage from Miami can be found here: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four

Problems in video art curation, evolving technologies and copyright laws

By Alicia Eler

Omer Fast, "Looking Pretty for God (after G.W.)," 2008

It’s still hard to justify the expenses of technology—and the necessary viewer attention—needed for displaying video art, especially at fairs where each tiny booth must compete with thousands of others. Most galleries don’t want to take the video art risk except, perhaps, Postmasters Gallery (PULSE Art Fair), where owner Magdalena Sawon included Omer Fast’s “Looking Pretty for God (after G.W.)” (2008), Guy Ben-Ner’s “Second Nature” (2005) and Katarzyna Kozyra’s “Don’t Cry Honey, They are Evil They are Men” (2008)—more video than I saw at any booth. Conversely, in a conversation with Jack the Pelican owner Don Carroll (showing at SCOPE), the dealer asserted that including one video in a show actually took attention away from other, perhaps more easily sellable, pieces. Then again, ShanghART Gallery, showing at Art Basel, took up an entire wall with Yang Zhenzhong’s five-channel video “I Will Die” (2000-2005), which showed at the 2007 Venice Biennial, and Donald Young Gallery displayed four 2008 Gary Hill videos arranged as a four-channel piece (“Up Against Down” [right hand], “Up Against Down” [face], “Up Against Down” [back/torso], and “Up Against Down” [left foot]). Likewise, Peres Projects (Berlin) sectioned off a viewing space for a Paul Lee video, as did König Gallery (Berlin) for Jordan Wolfson’s “untitled false document” (2008).

Jordan Wolfson, "Untitled (False Document)," 2008

Many of the art fairs addressed the video-art viewing dilemma directly by including sectioned-off video/new media art lounges. Art Basel Miami Beach’s gallery show was housed in the Miami Beach Convention Center, positioning the Art Video Lounge across the street at the Botanical Gardens with selections by Rosemarie Trockel, Trisha Brown (including “WATER MOTOR,” 1978, a recording of the artist dancing at Merce Cunningham Studio), and Deimantas Narkevicus’ “Energy Lithuania” (2000), a meditative journey through a town built entirely around an electrical facility. Art Miami presented their first installment of the New Media Lounge, curated by Asher Remy-Toledo, who hand-selected six international institutions to present one video work each inside individual viewing spaces. Guests streamed in and out of Bjørn Melhus’ “Deadly Storms” (2008)—curated by Julia Draganovic of The Palazzo Delle Art Napoli, PAN, Naples, Italy—a three-screen installation best viewed from the middle of the room. On each screen, three panels of the same bald, Star Trek-looking man repeated dialog about an impending attack, stating that no one knew where it was coming from or what exactly was going on. Yellow lights glittered where the newsperson’s name and other variously “important” news scrolls, and swishing “zoom-in” sounds spilled in and out of the speakers, causing viewers to stand on edge as they waited for the report that never arrived. Using the same conceptual base as Candice Breitz’s video “Mother + Father” (2005), which plucked six mothers and six fathers from popular Hollywood films, removed the backgrounds and left them in a black-background setting, Melhus similarly reduces sensationalistic television news reports to their essence, thus revealing the media’s manipulative techniques.

Yang Zhenzhong, "I Will Die," 2000-05

Curation challenges run alongside copyright issues: If each piece of video art is contained on a single DVD, everyone from the artist to the collector must be able to retain control over illegal distribution. Art Basel examined this issue through a discussion featuring Christopher Eamon of the Richard and Pamela Kramlich Collection (the Kramlichs have been video art collector pioneers since the mid-1980s), British artist Isaac Julien, Lars Nittve of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Peter Andersson of the Scandinavian Trust Group (Sweden/Switzerland), and Johan Wilén of GTC Market Support in Sweden. Infusing the idea of “taking the physical art world values into a digital context,” the discussion centered around how an artist can retain digital art copyrights in the face of a YouTube world, but veered off into less legal-focused topics like the changing technological formats of video art, and the idea that buying video is more about the video piece’s content rather than the physical DVD. As such, each piece of video art must be considered a conceptual work of art, not an object. Later Eamon suggested that in an installation context, the environment in which the video is installed is the work of art, not the DVD, meaning that the only truly salable object is a photographic documentation of the video installation. Yet in an age of sound bytes, fast downloads, rapid-fire emails and constant contact via Blackberries and iPhones, perhaps DVDs will become extinct, transporting questions about the object-hood of video art into an even more meta-realm.

As technology continues evolving, and the transmission of data becomes quicker and more compact, video will continue questioning itself. Viewers must ask themselves how best to comprehend a medium that is at once a visual and auditory experience, but also an increasingly cerebral one.

Tracey Emin

Light Luv and Happiness

By Alicia Eler

When one starts seeing the same neon lights on flashy hotel signs in Miami Beach as they do in art fair booths, always remember that arguments about the separation between pop culture and the art world are useless.

Tracey Emin’s heart-shaped neon sign “For You” (2008) at White Cube Gallery’s Art Basel Miami Beach booth continues the Young British Artist’s exploration into, well, herself. Emin never holds back, spilling her guts to the viewer through her soap operatic art-making process. Inside her bright light pink heart, she bends red neon tubes into a scrawly sentence that reads, “I felt you and I knew you loved me X.” Sad and sappy like a tearjerker moment in a bad romance film, Emin’s newest work recalls her 1996 neon sign “Kiss me, kiss me, cover my body in love” that’s almost exactly the same but without the cheeky heart. Jonathan Monk’s “The sex is the same but the dishes start to pile up” (2008), created with the same pink neon but mounted on a black rectangle of Plexiglas (Yvon Lambert Gallery), revels in its mature male sensitivity and conceptual basis, bypassing Emin’s purposefully sloppy, emotive aggravations. While Emin’s work reads with whinyness, Monk’s signage typifies a more rational, poetic approach to one such truth.

Jonathan Monk

How much love is enough, though? According to Uri Dowbenko of New Improved Art Gallery (Pray, Montana), showing at Bridge Art Fair Miami Beach, the answer is…never. Like a knock-off of a Miller Lite Valentine’s Day special sign, the diner-style cursive letters of Dowbenko’s neon pink “Never Enough” (2008) elicit neither an ironic shrug nor a passionate outpouring of emotion. The titular text is encased in a perfectly symmetrical heart, which only adds to this piece’s bland approach to art that’s inspired by real life.

Uri Dowbenko

When real life and love get too depressing, however, pop a few pills and get crazy happy. British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s conceptual piece, “Happy” (1999), showing at Deitch Projects (Art Basel Miami Beach), a blinking carnival-like sign with the word “Happy” spelled in soft cursive letters, casts a multicolored, schizophrenic and seizure-inducing glow on anyone who crosses its path. The 298 multicolored light bulbs blink randomly,  creating a hypnotic effect that later repels, leaving the slippery taste of artificial sweetener on one’s lips. During tough economic times, this darkly ironic piece reminds one of a Prozac nation struggling to stay present. Glassy-eyed and sad, “Happy” corners haunting global fears.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster

Leo Villareal uses light, but in a way that induces spacing out—not tuning in. “Big Bang” (2008) at Conner Contemporary Art (PULSE Art Fair) is made of 1600 light-emitting diodes arranged in outwardly growing circular patterns that twirl, explode and flicker using a code that coincides with the title. The precisely positioned bulbs on the five-foot-wide circle find Modernist roots in pointillism, but push forward into the twentieth century, recalling 1970s-style psychedelia.

Leo Villareal, "Big Bang"

In terms of actual wattage, however, light shone brightest at Friday night parties, particularly the Art Nexus magazine party in downtown Miami at the IconBrickell, which was hosted on a fifteenth floor two-acre pool deck. While pianist Julian de la Chica tapped away on piano keys, DJ Shlomi blasted beats, creating a giant lounge-like feel that’s typical of Miami’s over-the-top luxury-inducing spaces. Lying on one of the many beds as green lasers bounced off the façade of the neighboring building, white light reflected off the slick walls, and guests nibbled on powdery circular sugar cookies. Back in Miami Beach, the über-exclusive Vanity Fair party at the Raleigh Hotel had guests lined up down the street. Nearby at the National Hotel, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago hosted an alumni get-together where one could find the likes of Rashid Johnson, Carrie Schneider and Justin Cooper (all represented by Monique Meloche Gallery).

With all these flashing lights and constant party hopping, however, it’s important to eat—something that’s easy to forget about in Miami where you’re either sitting by an oversized or oddly shaped pool, or racing from fair to fair.

Peregrine’s tip of the day: Don’t get hangry, meaning “hungover from hunger.” If you do, the bright signs and flashing light bulbs, combined with celebrity citings of Jay-Z and Beyonce at Art Basel, might wear you down.