Version>06 Parallel Cities is near

Mark your calendars for this year's version fest. It will run from April 20-May 7,2006.

Version>06

NOVA Art Fair-Apr. 27-30

Mark your calendars! Tell your friends! Besides a hot and happening party with a set by the ever-popular Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of all tickets to The Nova '06 Vernissage party on Thursday April 27 at Smartbar will also benefit the Chicago ART Project (www.chicagoartfoundation.org).

PLEASE NOTE: This is a *limited attendance* event, so it's first come, first served. We'd like to invite supporters of the Chicago ART Project to grab their tickets now, before they're sold out. Tickets also include an OPEN BAR from 8-1pm, sponsored by Svedka Vodka, and Heineken Premium Light.

Buy Tickets Here

Vernissage Afterparty
Thursday, April 27, 2006: 8pm-4am
Open Bar: 8pm-10pm
Tickets: $26

The weekend's afterhours activities will kick off with the Nova '06 Vernissage Afterparty at Smartbar. Chicago locals John Phillips and Derek James will warm things up with some vintage soul and ass-shakin eclecticism, and Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid will hit the decks for a special Nova-sponsored appearance. Portion of the proceeds to benefit The Chicago ART Foundation.)

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Nova Art Fair Vernissage
at City Suites Hotel
933 W. Belmont Ave.

Professional Preview
Hours: 1pm - 4pm
Tickets: TBD

Public Reception
Hours: 5pm - 10pm
Tickets: $20 BUY

Vernissage Afterparty
at SmartBar
3730 N. Clark St.

Hours: 8pm-4am
Open Bar: 8pm-10pm
Tickets: $26 BUY
Portion of proceeds to benefit The Chicago ART Foundation.
Featured DJs:
Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid|+|
John Phillips|+|
Derek James|+|

DJ Spooky
photo: Tobin Poppenberg
Friday, April 28, 2006

Nova Art Fair
at City Suites Hotel
933 W. Belmont Ave.

General Admission: Noon - 8pm
Tickets: $10 BUY

Nova Train Fashion Show
departing from the Belmont El Stop

Times: 8pm, 9pm, 10pm (times are approximated)
Tickets: $20 BUY


Nova Art Fair Afterparty
at Berlin Nightclub
954 W. Belmont

General Admission: 8pm - 4am
Tickets: $5

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Nova Art Fair
at City Suites Hotel
933 W. Belmont Ave.

General Admission: Noon - 8pm
Tickets: $10 BUY

Film & Video Screenings
at Landmark Century Cinemas
2828 N. Clark St.

Noon - 4pm
Tickets: TBD
Selections/Schedule: TBD

Nova Art Fair Afterparty
at Berlin Nightclub
954 W. Belmont

General Admission: 8pm - 4am
Tickets: $5

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Nova Art Fair
at City Suites Hotel
933 W. Belmont Ave.

General Admission: Noon - 6pm
Tickets: $10 BUY

2006 SAIC Graduate Exhibition: May 6-19

This is a show not to be missed by those interested in applying to the graduate program at the Art Institute of Chicago. As one of the top graduate programs in US, the museums and gallery owners from Chicago often come to this show to scout for the next "it" in the art world. It differs immensely from the undergraduate show, as works focus more on critical thinking and there is more context behind the creation of the artwork.

More than 150 students completing graduate degrees and post-baccalaureate certificates exhibit their work in Art and
Technology Studies; Ceramics; Designed Objects; Fiber and Material Studies; Film, Video, and New Media; Interior Architecture; Painting and Drawing; Performance; Photography; Printmedia; Sculpture; Visual Communication; and Writing.

MAY 6 - 19
2nd and 3rd Floors
847 West Jackson Boulevard
Opening Reception: MAY 5, Friday, 5 - 8 p.m.
Graduate Reading Event: May 11, Thursday, 7 p.m.
Exhibition Hours: Monday - Friday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Saturday -
Sunday, 12 - 5 p.m.
Extended viewing: May 10 and 19, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Free Admission

Graduating students from the Writing Program will read selections of
their theses on May 11 at 7 p.m. in Gallery 2 and Project Space. The
evening includes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and scenes from plays.

For additional information about all Exhibitions and Time Arts
Events, please call 312.563-5162.

2006 SAIC Undergraduate Exhibition: Apr. 2-14

This is usually a quiet interesting exhibit, as you can see a variety of work by a talented group of artists. Given, not all will become artists in their professional career, nonetheless, the work on display shows great skills, and creativity that goes beyond of what I have experienced in my college years. Simply stated, see what the current cool kids are up to, it will be fun.

More than 280 students completing undergraduate degrees exhibit innovative work in a range of media, including ceramics; fashion design; fiber arts; film; video, and new media; painting and drawing; performance; photography; printmedia; sculpture; and sound.

APRIL 2 - 14
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Floors
847 West Jackson Boulevard
Opening Reception: APRIL 1, Saturday, 5 - 8 p.m.
Exhibition Hours: Monday - Friday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Saturday -
Sunday, 12 - 5 p.m.
Extended viewing: April 5 and 14, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Free Admission

Up-coming exhibitions and related events:

Graduate and Undergraduate Performance Programs

See two thought provoking evening programs that blur the boundaries
between theater, movement, and the visual arts.

APRIL 22 - 23, Saturday and Sunday, 7 p.m.
280 South Columbus Drive, Room 012 (lower level)
Performance Space
Free Admission

Graduate and Undergraduate Film, Video, and Audio Presentations

Encounter the next generation of film, video, and new media artists
in this festival of innovative live-action shorts, animation,
feature-length narrative and non-fiction works, and experimental
digital and audio pieces.

MAY 12, Friday, 1 - 10 p.m.
MAY 13, Saturday, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
164 North State Street
Gene Siskel Film Center
Free admission, tickets required from box office in advance. Tickets
can be obtained from the Gene Siskel Film Center during box office
hours (after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, after 2:00 p.m. on weekends).

Gallery Review 03/17/06

Friday nights at the 118 N. Peoria st building are usually fun no matter what, considering there's at least three to five galleries worth visiting (and open late with opening parties). It is like a constant, never ending party full of interesting looking people all drinking wine and talking about art. If you love anything about the above statement, you should make it your mission to heading West of the Loop and check this building out.

Contained in the building is the Walsh Gallery, a unique gallery in that it caters to contemporary art by Asian artists and shows very diverse work, especially with multimedia. It's like there's nothing they won't do. [for previous thoughts on this gallery click here] We made a special trip just to see Jongbum Choi's opening reception at Walsh, knowing he was going to perform a live dj-style set with images and music.

When we arrived, the space was filling up with people and the show hadn't started yet. Choi lingered about in what looked like a white lab coat, and the walls in the gallery were stark naked. Repeating images of lines of numbers were being projected onto the walls. At the entrance, a television showed the installation in previous cities (even in Paris), a bird's eye view of people milling about as images were projected on the walls and music played.

The truth is, like most abstract things, it is hard to imagine what it might be like until you are actually immersed in it, so it wasn't until the show finally began that I started to feel something akin to illuminating thoughts. I wondered if Choi was attempting to include the visitors in the installation, to force us to interact with or disrupt the images seen on the walls, but no, the projectors were high enough that even my head did not graze them, but they were still low enough to blind the eye when walking around a projecter.

I felt like I was in a haunted house and there was a sensory overload and when I tried to make sense of it, there was none. I had hoped for a more coherent set of images or some correlation between the music and the images, but it seemed random. But the end result was still fascinating, still interesting, still full of the wonder and amusement that art brings with it, how the mind tries to attach meaning to things, and how when the senses are overwhelmed, we can still find lights, images and sound soothing.

check out the Walsh gallery site for more info.

HIT Walsh Gallery, Tuesday–Saturday 10:30–5:30 118 N. Peoria, 2nd Floor

Friday in Pilsen with Ms. n (Part Two)

Having never been to the Pilsen galleries along Halsted Street, I was thrilled to join Ms N for Second Fridays. I found a mix of studio spaces, gallery storefronts and a very eclectic assortment of work. Having only the River North Area of galleries to compare to, I think the Pilsen area really explores a wider range of work and artistry, which is apparent from gallery to gallery.

Our first stop at the 4Art Gallery group show Unconnected, exhibited such diversity. On exhibit were sculptures, paintings, even clothing. Most striking were the untitled sculptures by Matthew Thomas Grimaldi, which resembled big blocks of clear gelatin soap with small symmetrical compartments full of shredded pieces of clothing that evoked images of rose petals; a green thrift store tag still stapled to part of the fabric seemed like a leaf. These pieces were illuminated from underneath. Also striking here were the tiny 4X6 oil paintings by Karena Karras, portrait style animalistic human figures, the best of which was a swan like woman with a bold blue background called "Tetra."

4Art Inc. is on the ground floor of a five story loft building, which is converted into artist studios and living spaces. The second Friday of every month some of the studios open their spaces for public perusal, most notably that evening was the fifth floor and the artists Bryan Sperry and Robert Marshall. As an enthusiast of found object art, I especially enjoyed Sperry's big unwieldy sculptures, the sort that are abstract enough to be engaging, but full of small thoughtful themes, circles within circles or parallel lines, but most of all, the variation of the color of pieces used give the work so much interest.

The studio space of Robert Marshall was alive with sound and light, as Ms. n described Marshall's light box synthesizer excellently, I will merely add that he encouraged visitors to interact with the magnetic field by waving our hands over what looked like metal hangers bent into bunny rabbit ears to change the pitch and volume. He plans on further experimenting and expanding this light sound box of his and it will be interesting to visit him again in the future. His stained glass work is symmetrical yet unbalanced colorwise, which leads the eye into a field of color, almost like a mixed up color chart.

We then wandered down Halsted St. in and out of various galleries, and most notably was a gallery that had an assortment of work with ballet shoes by Jhonmar Radames at the Moka Gallery. A ballet shoe mobile took centerstage, a mostly white canvas held bright blue ballet shoes elegantly rendered in delicate lines, and ballet shoes were the focus in another half dozen paintings. Further along, the clever gallery owner created walls by hanging thick white painted wood on hooks from exposed plumbing. In the far back the work of a woman painter who has a very Klimt influenced style was very striking.

HIT Halsted street for the Chicago Arts District Second Fridays. http://www.chicagoartsdistrict.org

A VERSION FUNDRAISER AND LUMPEN RELEASE PARTY AND ART SALE!!!!!

Friday, March 24, 2006 8pm
see the pretty flier>>
www.lumpen.com/events/v6fundraiser.html

" It's all about the Benjamins"
An art sale fundraiser for Version>06 Festival and release party for Lumpen issue #99

Heaven 1542 N Milwaukee Ave 2nd floor
Admission $10

Be the first to get a copy of Issue #99 of Lumpen magazine. Admission gets you a raffle ticket to win an incredible piece of art. Enjoy complementary beverages and tasty treats while contemplating the things between white spaces and rocking out to some freaky DJ shit.

Dozens of Chicago's finest and celebrated artists have generously contributed a piece of work to Version festival to help us raise some coin to pay for 17 days of mayhem and exceptional art action. Each individual work will be sold for ONLY $100 on a first come first served basis. This is an excellent opportunity to buy a piece of work at a ridiculously low price and support Chicago's most complicated festival.

Featuring work by:
Juan Chavez, Bridgette Buckley, Nick Black, Brian Ulrich, Cody Hudson, Chris Uphues, John Duda, Mike Slattery, Steven Eichorn, Ryan Davies, Logan Bay, Elisa Harkins, Sighn, Greg Stimac, Johanna Wawro, Paul Nudd, Doug Ruschhaupt, Al Pocious, Linda Duk Ju Kim, Jackie Kilmer, Patrick Willie, Michael Merck, Jason Lazerus, Karl Virgo and many others.

Also please enjoy:
Performances by It's A Trap DJ Logan Bay and secret special guests, as well as a Special Sneak Preview Screening of Shorts featured at Version>06 will play on the roof behind Heaven.

www.lumpen.com
www.versionfest.org
www.selectmediafestival.org

Subscribe to the lumpen list
www.lumpen.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

Friday in Pilsen with Ms. f

So Ms. native chicagoan (aka Ms. beanhead) and I, have gone to east Pilsen this past Friday. We saw some art in galleries, and visted the studios of the stain glass artist, Robert P Marshall III, and two other artists, the painter with the cute little girl ( i do not know his name but will find out next time), and the sculptor, Bryan Sperry. All three have their studios on the 5th floor of 1932 S.Hasted, above 4Art,Inc. gallery.
I wrote about Marshall and Perry in January and Ms. f will contribute more later on this week. This month, Marshall has created a sound stained glass box, something that works like a synthesizer, I do not fully understand its operation, but it's worth checking it out. Next month at the end of the night (10pm) they will bowl in their large hall and anyone intersted is welcome to join them.

Although, ms. f has hurt her back, she was great at not caving in to the pain and we saw some interesting work,and had some great food (tres leches cake, lots of cheese and crackers). We did call it a night around 8pm, and walked to chinatown red line, as the bus was taking its glorious time to get there. I do feel bad for making her walk in pain, and as we did not see any cabs, and waited for the bus 30 min, we had no real choice. (well there was one cab but we did not catch it on time). Overall, the nigth was fun,and we will be back there next month.

Version06

After hearing about Version for the past year, I thought I would attend one of their meetings about this year's fest. Since I have failed to submit a proposal by their Feb. 28th deadline, I thought I might be able to contribute as a volunteer. Hence, this past Saturday I went to the Irons St. Building. Not looking it up on the map, and having an obscure idea of its location, I traveled from Pilsen to Bridgeport by cta. I got off at Irons St and 35th St, a rather obscure place surrounded by a bunch of warehouses (a Pepsi building covers half of the 35th street towards Ashland!), empty lots, and no one in sight. Well, instead of giving up, I decided to walk around, and examine whether I reached the right location. To my surprise, I did! It is located in a warehouse along Irons St., not the easiest place to get to, and creepy at night (should have taken my bike, but than again it rained later on).

As I got to the place, there were already other interested souls waiting for the meeting to begin. After about 30 minutes of waiting for them to get organized, some of the coordinators finally walked us through the space for the fest, which covers several floors of the buiding. Now I know why their location is there. The space is massive. They went over a very tentative schedule, and talked about ideas for the show. Although, they seemed a bit disorganized, with their leader, edmar, missing, guns was leading the meeting. I was very excited about going to the meeting, but a little taken aback as I assumed that everything was already set, and they would just talk about the schedule and what they needed volunteers for. However, since everything is tentative everyone there had a chance to propose an idea, and implement it within the schedule, or coordinate it to fit in with the fest.

Also, they are broke, so they do need money and freebies if possible - i.e., Xeroxing, printing posters, and those with possible free access to Xerox machines would be of great assistance. Overall, it was great to see who are the people behind this event, and although they seemed very artsy fartsy, and at times pretentious with their assumed new names, they are coordinating a great series of events that will occur over the course of 3 weeks in April and May.

Version runs from April 20 - May 6. I will post the tentative schedule when i scan it.

Update on the Co-op gallery

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned about a possible formation of a coop gallery. This past Saturday, March 11, 5 of interested artists met at Nima Taradji's office to discuss some of the details involved in venturing into this project. The gallery probably will be a non-profit and non-taxable entity (meaning we will have no income), whose operation will be dependent upon monthly member fees, and member participation in operating the facilities. The gallery will serve as a stepping stone for emerging artists or those that have not really shown their work much in the past, with a finite membership, each artist will have a chance to have at least one 1-man show, and participate in other group shows. Finite membership means that after 1-1.5yrs of membership u will be expected to move on to other and better things.

As of now, we are currently going through a creative process of proposing a name for this place, focusing on spreading the word around Chicago artist community, and scouting possible places for a gallery location. Our next meeting is on April 1 at 1pm and hopefully lots, and lots of new interested individuals will show up. I am not sure how many read this obscure blog, but in case there are some outside of the circle of friends, spread the word and come by on April 1.

In the 1990's Nima Taradji has organized a co-op gallery in Los Angeles, the Artichoke (I believe that was the name) and is attempting to do the same in Chicago. For those that think they might be interested, you can email Nima at nbt11@mac.com and he will sent you updated info and address of the next meeting.