Art from the Underground

Had a very arty Friday... started off the day with dropping off one of my framed photographs at a gallery in Pilsen (I'm in a show opening next Friday). The pinatas were part of an upcoming exhibit in one of the new Pop Up Art spaces that have been all over the city lately-- the idea is that artists take over unused business spaces (with permission of the owners of the buildings) and can stay in the space until the owner rents/leases it to a tenant. So a pretty good idea in this economy when there are a lot of closed businesses/vacant buildings!

Went to the open studio night at the Flat Iron building in Wicker Park for the first time. I walk by this building on a near weekly basis but never went inside it. It's pretty bohemian inside-- the second two floors are all tiny galleries or private studio spaces that mainly house painters and photographers. Today they had a special event where resident artists painted one or more wall murals that would only be up for a 4-hour time span, they called the event "Now You See It, Now You Don't" as it was all going to be painted over at the end of the night! Above are some sections of the mural that interested me, I especially liked the paper airplane installation.

The Death of Colour

Okay so I'm already feeling a little bogged down by this project... maybe if there was more sun here and/or the days were longer I'd feel a little better. As it is I'm in an office from 9-5 so there are precious few moments to take photos so I'll be taking more inside photos from now on.

This set of images was taken on my way home yesterday... the little notebook has "Love" on the cover which I found unusual (it also seemed abandoned as it was on an empty bench with no one around). I also stopped by the Pearl art supply store yesterday as the Chicago outpost is closing. Everything in the store is 50 percent off which was pretty much a 2nd Christmas for me & all the other art lovers out there... it's been a while since I've painted/sketched but I picked up 2 sketchbooks, premium Prismacolor pencils (sadly the sets were already sold out, just got individual colours) and something I've been lusting for my entire life... a T-square!! Yes, I am a nerd. Don't hate-- when perusing the store I saw at least five other people clutching T-squares to their chests too, so clearly others have nursed this dream as well.

As usual photos taken with my iphone... sorry for the especially bad quality this time around, it doesn't seem to like florescent lighting. A 'Holga' filter and 'Lomo' filter were used for the last three photos.

Simple is Best

Tuesdays at the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) are free so I swung by to check out their new exhibits-- Liam Gillick's minimalist sculpture/installation pieces on the ground floor and the "Italics, Italian Art between Revolution and Tradition 1968-2008" on the third. It's funny, despite being a photographer, I'm usually drawn to minimalist, colorful, design-driven pieces at gallery and museum shows. The photo above is of one of my favorite pieces in the Italics show-- an installation piece consisting of long metal trays filled with colored pigments and glass. I wish I'd written down the artist name... I'm not even sure of the title of the piece or the year it was originally produced (most likely the last 1960s or early '70s).