Rashid Johnson exhibition at the MCA Chicago
Although I usually don’t talk about my personal life on Make Space, I feel the need to update fellow artists, collaborators, and followers of this site about my future plans. Starting this fall, I will be pursing a graduate degree in New York City, which means (and doesn’t mean) a lot of things for Make Space, since it is based in Chicago. The focus of the site will not change and will continue to feature the same kinds of artists with an emphasis on Chicago. Thankfully, I have an awesome team of contributors dedicated to writing reviews, conducting interviews, and investigating spaces in Chicago. During my last summer in Chicago, I will focus on developing new interview series, features and collaborations, while making new work and preparing for my transition into a new city. I will try my best not to disrupt the regularity of the site during this transition, but bare with me. Also, this summer I have invited artists from different parts of the country to guest contribute!
Finally, sorry for the recent break. Below are some pictures of what I have been up to in the past few months. Thank you for your continued support!
-Lynnette (@lynnettemiranda // tumblr)
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Truth Theorem, 22″x 20″ acrylic, gouache and ink on paper 2012
Geoffrey Todd Smith has been staking quite a claim in the Chicago art scene with his obsessive and abstract work. In this investigation Smith talks of his process, thoughts on beauty, and how depressing his studio practice seems when presented in written form. Smith has another upcoming solo exhibition at Western Exhibitions in September.
Geoffrey, you’ve talked about your work as being a type of representation or expression of your memories and interests. Do these personal experiences reveal themselves and influence you while you work on these intensely repetitive pieces? And if so, why are they all delicate and beautiful?
I used to answer the question of content within my abstractions by drawing anecdotal parallels to more tangible experiences and cultural references. I guess I just felt that I needed to have more of a reason for an abstraction to exist if I was going to have the viewers full attention. I was concerned that they would be dismissed for being merely pretty or decorative. The trouble is surface beauty is a big part of what I’m after. They are “delicate and beautiful” because I want them to be seductive and I want the viewer to desire them. When I say desire I don’t mean strictly to buy them but rather to feel them deeply and develop an attraction.
Surely There’s a Better Place To Have Snacks, 12″x 12″ acrylic, gouache and ink on panel 2012
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It is quite rare to see the worlds of D.I.Y. art spaces (for local, emerging artists) and commercial art galleries (for more mid-career and established artists) overlap in Chicago. I attended an opening this past Friday where this exact thing happened and in such a way that it instilled some hope for future discourse between these two groups of artists that seemingly exist on opposite ends of the spectrum, but yet have something in common.
Gustavo Diaz, El universo como origen hipotético entre una cierta ambigüedad y una ambigüedad cierta (Universe as a hypothetical origin between a certain ambiguity and a ambiguous certainty), Courtesy of THE MISSION
Justificaciòn a priori by Gustavo Dìaz and Sentient Space: A Topography of the Senses by Laura Elayne Miller opened Friday, April 27 at THE MISSION in Chicago’s Noble Square neighborhood. Director, Natalia Ferreyra, describes the young space (only open for about a year and a half) as a gallery dedicated to promoting art of the Americas with a particular emphasis in exhibiting work of contemporary Latin American artists. While many of the featured artists are well known in their home countries, they bring something fresh to Chicago and begin to create a new perspective and broader definition of Latin American art. As Lauren Weinberg writes in an article for Time Out Chicago profiling THE MISSION, “Enough Frida Kahlo.” Why does the average Midwestern artist have such a narrow scope of Latin American art? The works of Kahlo and Diego Rivera are wonderful, but certainly not contemporary. Both artists died before my parents were even born. I am sure there are a plethora of other artists from countries like Mexico, Venezuela, and Peru who have made intriguing art during my lifetime. I am exhausted from walking into contemporary art sections of museums and being surrounded by work from the 60’s and 70’s. I want to see new work that I cannot just point to and call by name. I want to be inspired by people who are making work now, drawing from today’s society and culture and not from 50 years ago. Contemporary Latin American art to me consists of such living artists as Brazil’s Os Gêmios and their graffiti works as well as Mexico’s Betsabee Romero and her car culture inspired works. But I digress. I am thrilled to see THE MISSION bringing more mid-career Latin American artists to Chicago so I too can broaden my vision of this art and strengthen my connection to the contemporary cultures of the other countries of the Americas.
Laura Elayne Miller, Sentient Space, Courtesy of the artist
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Previously featured on Make Space (here), Baltimore-based artist Suzanna Zak talks about her practice below!
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http://fernandocatramirez.com/
EL RINCON SOCIAL PRESENTS: HEAVY TRAFFIC
Featuring new works by Fernando Ramirez and Brian Simmons
A mighty back-to-back art show featuring exciting new works by two underground artists! Check out their latest painting and drawing based works!
Official Open Reception: Saturday, May 26, 2012 8:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m. +
El Rincon Social
3210 Peston
Houston, TX 77003
“Detail, materials, art history, color, figures,storytelling, cartoons,dreamworlds, real worlds, social situations, crowds,yelling, scary places,shoes,dresses, girls,boys, space,hungry hungry hippos, salty things, bugs, bugs life 2, The Internet, high art, low art, streets, people you know, kids, bars, nightlife, past, future, back to the future, sleepiness, headaches, stomach aches, running, People staring at you, rude people, polite dogs, hard to reach places, eating stuff- drinking things, and much more- it’s all Heavy Traffic”
•MUSIC•ART•DRINKS •
This event will feature tons of fresh works on display, and for sale! Beverage’s will be available for consumptions, but we also encourage BYOB. Donations will also be wonderfully accepted
http://www.katiebellstudio.com/
Katie Bell, previously featured on Make Space, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, but is from Rockford, IL. She talks about her studio practice after the break!
COLLECTING + INITIAL PROCESS
Gathering and collecting material is a very important part of my work. I am continually looking for stuff to use in my work. I try to bring in one new object to the studio everyday. This could be something really minor like a scrap of wood or something large like a bundle of countertop pieces. I have a pile of material in my studio in which most of the pieces originate from. I use this pile as my pallet.
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http://www.miachristopher.com/
Mia Christopher’s work was featured on Make Space last summer (here). She is graduating with her BFA from the California College of the Arts with a concentration in painting and drawing. Now she shares her practice and process with us!
COLLECTING + INITIAL PROCESS
For me, art making is cyclical. I’ve found that everything I do, see or read tends to eventually come back around into the studio at some point or another, consciously or not. My collection of sketchbooks is probably one of the most significant aspects of my practice. The space within a book allows for a different type of painting and recording process. Accidents happen in them from one page to the next. Paint might not dry before I turn the page and new textures appear through the bleeds between pages which will influence the next marks made. The spreads in my sketchbooks are especially loose and there is a sort of magic that seems to happen in them. I revisit these thought catalogs frequently; I often come across a fleeting idea I scribbled down and then forgot, becoming inspired by an old drawing or color relationship. There is a lot of value in rapid, half-finished thoughts.
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Last month, I profiled Roxaboxen Exhbitions, a DIY exhibition and venue space in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Roxaboxen is a space I really look up to here in the city and is one of my favorite spaces to visit and hang out at. When I initially visited Roxaboxen to investigate the space, I met with Liz, Brian, and Virginia. We had a great conversation about organizing, DIY spaces, and the development of Roxaboxen. I e-mailed them with some follow-up questions to get a more in-depth look at how Roxaboxen works.
Liz McCarthy's Studio
This space is multifaceted and in constant flux. So right now, I just want to clarify that the descriptions you’re getting are from myself, Virginia Aberle, and Brian Gallagher. In the past, aspects of the space have been misrepresented because one or another person expresses their ideas about the space–which really exists on a lot of different planes–and it gets oversimplified. I don’t want to completely answer these questions but give you the most relevant information, and a general response to elements I think your questions are reaching at. Brian and Virginia will respond too.
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With Other People, With Other Sons is a three-person exhibition by SAIC alums Ryan Chorbagian, Patrick McGuan, and Hao Ni. The show opened this past Friday at Heaven Gallery in Wicker Park. The exhibition title, borrowed from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, truly encompasses the overall themes of the work: “American genesis, expansion and hybridization, and the inevitability of disintegration.” All of the show’s nine substantial sculptural pieces touch upon the loss and accompanying nostalgia of something once great, whether it be an object, a person, a place, or a larger community of these things. Displayed in the gallery’s two rooms, the works create a quiet, and at times solemn, blueprint of personal and cultural memory belonging to the artists as well as the viewers.
Chorbagian, Information I (courtesy of the artist)
At the exhibition’s core are Chorbagian’s assemblage pieces. Consistent in craftsmanship, materials, and tone, they serve as a strong path that weaves visitors through the space. The reclaimed materials and found objects bring their own histories to the works, but together with Chorbagian’s hand, create a new story reflecting on “broader human experience.” Chorbagian writes, “All of my work is created through a layering of conceptualization and fabrication. And from this continuous cycle emerges hybrid animal and machine, human and architecture, works I then consciously strip to their few essential elements.” What results from this process are exquisitely clean and precise sculptures that pull the viewers in, causing them to crave more of the histories, more of the stories. At times, the pieces also encourage the viewer to further relate these stories to their own experiences, underscoring the emotionality of the pieces.
Chorbagian, Valley (courtesy of the artist)
For me, this personal connection to Chorbagian’s work occurred with Valley. At the center of this large piece of hinged, reclaimed wood, stand two steer horns shaped like human lungs. The materials are reminiscent of barns and farms and farming, connecting human to animal to land. I was drawn to the inherent duality of emotions within the piece. At times, it felt altar-like with the soothing tones of the worn wood and rusted metal creating calmness. But at other moments, the piece felt aggressive, one narrow corridor leading to the sharp horns and their stark-white enclosure. This aggression was particularly interesting when juxtaposed with the piece’s unintentional shadow: a home with a picket fence, truly a special addition. The unexpected stillness and peacefulness of the flat image cast on the wall allowed for contemplation of my own relationship to the earth, thereby continuing the cycle of layering Chorbagian uses to create his work.
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