arts
What Matters (better late than never)
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Last year was an eventful one for Team CG. We started up the year with awesome shows like Present Standard at the Chicago Cultural Center curated by the wonderful artists, Josue Pellot and Edra Soto. This show served as a contemporary survey of Chicago Latinx artists and was also one of the best curated shows of 2016. The images below were taken in front of Diana’s piece, Fleco.
See the following links for more press, images, and info on the show:
http://southsideweekly.com/gripping-art/
http://art.newcity.com/2016/02/29/review-present-standardchicago-cultural-center/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-present-standard-review-ent-0225-20160223-column.html
https://www.artforum.com/picks/id=58692
The Annual at Chicago Artist Coalition, also curated by Edra Soto ran at the same time as Chicago Art Expo. It was a big weekend in Chicago with lots of art to see and artists to meet! See images of both events here:
The StArt Up Art Fair was another very interesting event happening at the same time as Expo and The Annual. Artist and art guru, Paul Klein talks to artists, Edra Soto, Magalie Guerin, Juan Angel Chavez, Jenny Lam, and Tom Torluemke about What Matters. What are some of the core concepts that matter to this diverse group of relevant Chicago artists, and how money, professionalism, and community impact their practices.
Lastly, we wanted to dedicate this post to Diana’s aunt, Emmita. She was a mother to those of us who who needed one. Always there and up for anything. She was a friend, art supporter, and a late blooming artist, herself. Her parting was devastating but the void in our hearts will overflow with all of the beautiful memories and love she left for us. Rest in Peace.
Other People’s Pixels Interview with Diana Gabriel from The CG Team
I’ve managed my online portfolio through OPP for quite a few years now. I love it because it’s easy to manage and it has quite a variety of templates and other cool features, but it wasn’t until a few months ago I found out they have a pretty legit blog full of wonderful interviews with some of the artists they host. I was approached by the talented, Stacia Yeapanis, who writes the interviews, to do one for the end of summer. It finally came out today. So here it is:
Interview with Diana Gabriel
If you like to see the site, here is mine:
Diana’s Online Portfolio
To Tempestt, With Gratitude
We met Tempestt on a whime. She gave our friend, Angela Bryant, a platform to write about her studio practice so we reached out to her blog for possible collaborations. Our relationship with Sixty Inches from Center has since been a source of inspiration and growth. The last time we wrote about our work with them was leading up to Pay It Forward but we’ve stayed in contact since. Last month, Tempestt wrote an open letter to those of us that call Chicago home.
“This place, with all of its beauty and its faults. Embracing all of its messes that I willingly inherit. I love this city with a kind of love that is unexpected, constantly nurtured, frequently tested, and feverishly cultivated. One that embraces the complicated, unapologetic, stubborn, and enduring tangle of it.” T.Hazel – Sixty Inches from Center
It hasn’t been the easiest of times here but we stay to build something better. That’s not to say that displaced Chicagoans aren’t fighting the good fight, or that there aren’t circumstances that could pull us away from home. However, the unapologetic stubbornness Tempestt speaks of is etched deeper in our bones with each passing winter that we survive together. The lists that she lays out for reasons to stay and go are both heart wrenching and empowering. She’s a leader and an ally in the journey that we started 3 years ago. The nurturing space and social goldmine that she created in SIFC reciprocates the courage and opportunity that she gets from the community. We’ve been juggling a lot of different hats lately so there hasn’t been enough time to write about some of the victories we’ve had through our work with Sixty, so here’a a recap.
Finding Truth from the Inside by Mario Contreras
Two victories for me with this one. I graduated from Southern Illinois with to motivation to get published. The CG Project offered a chance to self-publish for some time before eventually making content for the Sixty Inches for Center blog. This piece in first issue of a digital magazine gave me a real sense of accomplishment which was amplified by the fact that they paid me to write it.
The second victory is that the first episode of my next documentary project was published as part of the post. The significance of this is two-fold: First, it shows that someone else believes in my project enough to stand behind it. Second, my documentary was published as a piece of contemporary art. To use her own words, I’m grateful that Tempestt is “…reaching out, pushing through, and breaking the limits I place on myself, and [giving] me the courage and opportunities to do so.”
Experiencing the Moment by Diana Gabriel
The second issue of the SIFC Magazine is called Ephemeral and it was a great chance to preserve a step in the relationship between Diana and Rita Grendze. A residency that they collaborated on through Water Street Studios was coming to an end and they both work in non-permanent art so they recorded a conversation while sorting through material for the piece that they’ll assemble next year.
The topics they cover are relevant to artists, audiences and curators. Ranging from how to take part in the process, why to program non-permanent art and what it is like to know your work won’t last forever. It’s also an important piece to anyone that’s interested in the ethics of consumption within art.
Contribute to Sixty Inches from Center
There’s an open call for submissions to the next issue of the SIFC Magazine. The theme for this quarter is Gatekeepers, Tempestt, Jenny and Reuben are very kind and supportive Gatekeepers but you might want to pitch them some experiences you’ve had with not-so-sympathetic Gatekeepers. Maybe you have a story about a time that you were charged with deciding who gets into a show… Whatever your story may be, they’ll pay you $50 if they publish your story.
“In February we’ll be launching an issue focused on the entities that facilitate the arts by publishing, teaching, funding, and promoting new works or stand between artists and access to these resources. Who decides what is created, and how? Is the power in the appropriate hands? If not, what can be done to rectify that? We want to explore the topic through one-on-one interviews with the gatekeepers themselves, through firsthand accounts from those who’ve been affected either positively or negatively by these issues, and through alternative routes around the gates being kept.
If you’ve got an idea for GATEKEEPERS, send us a clear and concise pitch by Monday, December 15. The more specific, the better. We’ll let you know if your pitch has been accepted by Friday, December 19, and your first draft will be due on Sunday, January 25. The issue will go live on Friday, February 20. Contributors will be paid $50 for a completed article.” – R.Westmaas – Sixty Inches from Center
Art at Morton College. Erin Hayden
Erin Hayden received BS in art education and studio arts from Illinois State University and is a current MFA candidate in Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
My paintings hover in the space between pictorial representation and the actuality of the painting as object. Through the use of paint, papers, and fabrics, I create spaces where the identities of materials shift and merge into one another while also conforming to pictorial representation. My paintings directly link to image matter that has a place within the history of painting, depicting commonly known images that can be identified by a wide range of audiences. I am engaging a long tradition of painting still life objects, landscapes, animals, etc., while also highlighting the materiality of the paintings as objects.
By choosing common image types, I am able to push paint and material to its limits in a variety of ways while still conforming to the conventions of picture making. The collaged areas bring a direct representation of the subject, and in some instances, the materials transform identities. For instance colorful dresses become tulips, cookies form the backside of a dog, or a night sky is transformed into a mountain. The paintings deliver instances where the image coheres and yet falls apart as the different materials become apparent. The paint density also plays an important role in asserting the fluctuation between image and object. Washy areas of paint are used to create infinite space, opaque paint makes flat assertions of surface, and thick impasto paint enters into the viewer’s physical space. With this layering and absence of different materials, I want to question our everyday visual experiences in hopes of bringing to light the phenomenon of simply looking.
Erin’s work will be up from November 3rd through December 19th.
Morton College is located on 3801 S Central Ave, Cicero, IL 60804 Building C, first floor across from the Book Store.
This exhibition is free and open to the public.
Curated by Diana Gabriel
Art at Morton College. Karen Murphy.
Karen E. Murphy is a sculptor born and raised in Oak Park and currently living in Schaumburg. She earned a BS in Business from Indiana University and recently graduated from Northern Illinois University with MFA concentrating in Ceramics. She has been a resident artist and received a Kiln God Award at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, ME. Her works have been published in Lark Book’s 500 Prints on Clay. Karen exhibits her work nationally.
I use clay as my primary material to create abstract geometric images. I explore my interest in systems of structure and relationship through geometric form as a method of examining the conceptual process of organizing perceptions about boundaries.
Clay is typically used for its properties to create or cover objects of volume. This body of work examines clay’s relationship to form and surface in a low relief, 2 dimensional manner that relates to painting, printing or collage. The clay is used as a medium for the expression of mark and the unique surface of glaze. Utilizing repetitive geometry, references to nature and patterns from design, the selection of material and focus on process questions the hierarchy of material in art.
In some of the work 3D printing techniques were used to create originals that were then molded into clay. The contrast of new technology with the earthy ceramic medium is intended to provoke consideration about the nature of progress and technology.
Karen’s work will be up from November 3rd through December 19th.
Morton College is located on 3801 S Central Ave, Cicero, IL 60804Building C, Second floor across from the Student Union.
Artist contact: sandksahore@yahoo.com
This exhibition is free and open to the public.
Curated by Diana Gabriel
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