2015: Michael Kaysen @ 65GRAND

Above: Michael Kaysen standing before his ceramic installation, "Look Long, Look in Vain," in 65GRAND gallery, at 1369 W. Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL, during the show's opening reception on January 23, 2015.

Michael Kaysen
"Look Long, Look in Vain"
January 23 - February 21, 2015
65GRAND
1369 W. Grand Avenue
Chicago, IL

http://65grand.com/

http://gallerysidecar.com/

"65GRAND is pleased to present 'Look Long, Look in Vain,' Michael Kaysen's first exhibition with the gallery. On view is a selection of vessels from Kaysen's ongoing investigation of a specific form. This bottle form is something the artist goes back to over and over again. It is a starting point, a jumping off point. Most simply it is the idea of a bulbous body with an almost closed off opening. The form comes from Gertrud & Otto Natzler, Austrian potters who emigrated to California and who helped raise ceramics to the status of fine art.

'When I was younger I saw this bottle form the Natzler's played with. It intrigued me. It's a difficult form. It's visually simple but it's deceptive. It's difficult to execute and it allows you this endless variation,' notes Kaysen. The artist's approach to glazing is in direct contrast to the regularity of the form. 'I visually try to cut across the form. There isn't a lot of asymmetry in patterning, generally. Most of the surface treatment is usually to accentuate the form,' Kaysen goes against it. 'I think of the glazing as bisecting. I also try to do this up and over the piece. This is where the idea of 'cutting across' the piece comes in.' He doesn't use patterns, but the way Kaysen glazes his pieces, you are led around them visually. It puts an extra level of importance on the fact that what we are looking at is not flat. 'You can't look at one side and get it. You have to deal with it as a thing in the round.' The artist explains that his interest in the bottle form extends, 'to the fact that it contains space. It carves out a form in space. It's not something you put things in. What does it do? It holds space.'

Michael Kaysen lives and works in Hammond, IN and teaches ceramics at Calumet College of Saint Joseph. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago."

Quotation above from: http://65grand.com/kaysen_release.php

Above: Erik Wenzel, left, and Vincent Uribe, right, candid during the opening reception for Michael Kaysen's "Look Long, Look in Vain," in 65GRAND gallery, at 1369 W. Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL, on January 23, 2015.

Above:
Images (1-7) January 23, 2015;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

See related post which includes documentation of the artist at work, firing and glazing, in his Hammond, IN, studio: http://chicagoartworld.blogspot.com/2014/04/2014-clare-britt-ccsj-sidecar-gallery.html

2014: Anders Ruhwald & Stephen Reber @ threewalls

Above: A candid look at Stephen Reber--in threewalls for the closing of "Threshold Amnesia"on July 26, 2014.

Stephen Reber
"Threshold Amnesia"
Anders Ruhwald
"Things About Things"
June 15 - July 26, 2014
Curated by Shannon Stratton
threewalls
119 N. Peoria Street
Chicago, IL

http://stevereber.com/

http://ruhwald.net/

http://three-walls.org/

Above: Stephen Reber's "Ossipoff's Grill" 2014, wood, concrete, plaster, 136 x 120 x 26 inches, detail.

Above: Stephen Reber's "Ossipoff's Grill" 2014, wood, concrete, plaster, 136 x 120 x 26 inches, overview.

Above: Anders Ruhwald's "Barrier/Frame (version 1)" 2010, foreground, and "Untitled #8" 2006, background.

Above: Anders Ruhwald's "Beginning and ending (version 3)" 2010, foreground, Stephen Reber's "Timeshare" 2014, background.

Above: Anders Ruhwald's "Edge" 2009, glazed eartenware, 20 x 20 x 1.5 and 22 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches.

Above: Stephen Reber's "Timeshare" 2014,concrete, wood, plaster, paint, 120 x 66 x 68 inches, detail.

Above: Stephen Reber's "Concrete and Blue" 2014, concrete, plaster, paint, 56 x 36 x 17 inches.

Above: Stephen Reber's "Dredge" 2014, wood, concrete, paint, 124 x 36 x 41 inches.

Above:
Images (1-9) July 26, 2014;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

2014: Clare Britt & CCSJ @ SideCar Gallery

Above: Michael Kaysen, proprietor of SideCar Gallery, raku firing with his CCSJ ceramics class, April 5, 2014.

Clare Britt
"From Utopia"
March 15 - April 19, 2014
SideCar Gallery
411 Huehn Street
Hammond, IN

http://clarebritt.com/

http://gallerysidecar.com/

Michael Kaysen
Media and Fine Arts 335 Ceramics Class: Raku Firing
April 5, 2014
Calumet College of St. Joseph
2400 New York Avenue
Whiting, IN

http://www.ccsj.edu/

"While Britt’s background is in photography, the work in [her] exhibition ranges from collage-based text pieces to a site-specific installation.  Populating the main gallery space are framed 'Ransom Notes,' collages made of text cut out of fashion and lifestyle magazines targeting a female audience. Ransom notes come as a last resort, drastic means to extreme ends. To Britt the ransom note is about demanding and wanting and these notes represent Britt’s wants and demands of herself and of others. They quickly expand into mantras, things we tell ourselves, things we think but would never say. Ransom notes are anonymous and from that anonymity their author gains power.  If the ransom notes are a verbalized communication of the artist’s interior life, then the installation in the second floor project space is a pre-verbal or nonverbal expression of that life. While the Ransom Notes have a tone of aggression, desperation and frustration, the installation is a calming ensemble of color and abstraction derived from Britt’s practice of meditation."

Quotation above from: http://gallerysidecar.com/artwork/3284127_Upcoming_Exhibition.html

Above: Clare Britt at SideCar Gallery, April 5, 2014.

Above: Michael Kaysen, proprietor of SideCar Gallery, raku firing with his CCSJ ceramics class, April 5, 2014.

Above: Clare Britt, installation overview, at SideCar Gallery, April 5, 2014.

Above: Michael Kaysen, outside SideCar Gallery, preparing for a raku firing with his CCSJ ceramics class, April 5, 2014.

Above: SideCar Gallery, 411 Huehn Street, Hammond, IN, at sunset on April 5, 2014.

Above: Michael Kaysen, proprietor of SideCar Gallery, raku firing with his CCSJ ceramics class, April 5, 2014.

Above: Clare Britt at SideCar Gallery, April 5, 2014.

Above: Michael Kaysen, proprietor of SideCar Gallery, loads a kiln for his CCSJ ceramics class, April 5, 2014.

Above: Clare Britt's installation in the attic at SideCar Gallery, April 5, 2014.

Above: Michael Kaysen with his CCSJ ceramics students: Amber, Jessica, Rachel, and Kacey, April 5, 2014.

Above: A participant in the CCSJ raku firing at SideCar Gallery, April 5, 2014.

Above: Michael Kaysen, proprietor of SideCar Gallery, raku firing with his CCSJ ceramics class, April 5, 2014.

Above:
Images (1-13) April 5, 2014;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

See related post: http://chicagoartworld.blogspot.com/2015/01/2015-michael-kaysen-65grand.html

2014: Laura Letinsky @ Paris London Hong Kong

Laura Letinsky
"Tableware and Some Pictures"
January 31 - March 8, 2014
Paris London Hong Kong
845 W. Washington Avenue
Chicago, IL

http://lauraletinsky.com/

http://parislondonhongkong.com/

http://valeriecarberry.com/

8:00 PM, Friday, January 31, 2014: On the floor, in the center of the room, is a rather low, long, folding, wood-toned dinner table.[1]  Stacked heavily upon that table are many glossy white ceramic dishes which, because their irregularity, seem to be hand-wrought.[2]  At first glance, the cumulative effect of the presentation recalls William J. O'Brien's artfully-glazed yet primitively formed clay works at Marianne Boesky Gallery and The Renaissance Society.  On the wall, around the perimeter of the room, are hung small, framed prints.  Looking closely, these two-dimensional works are revealed to be scanned reproductions of collage.[3]

Nothing in the scene just described has the effect of suggesting the work for which Laura Letinsky is best known: photographic depictions of meals on linen after the manner of some still life painter from the Dutch Golden Age, e.g., Pieter Claesz, Jan Jansz van de Velde, Willem Claeszoon Heda, et al.[4]

And while the press release for the show wants to remind us that Letinsky's involvement with ceramics began five years ago, it's still a bit of a shock to find a display for the sale of pottery (the pieces in the gallery are meant to advertise her wares for order from a factory in Mexico) at the heart of her show.  In form and in function too it is very much like a presentation from Crate and Barrel.

Nevertheless, it's intriguing.  And one wonders why, exactly two years after the Smart Museum offered us free food in "Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art," we're now presented with empty dishes for sale.  Photographer Nick Albertson's concurrent exhibition at Aspect/Ratio, less than one block away, begs the same question; Letinsky isn't alone here.

Maybe it's good to remember that Theaster Gates, Letinsky's fellow faculty member at The University of Chicago, was trained as a potter.[5]  Maybe it's good to remember that Michael Rakowitz appropriated Saddam Hussein's dinnerware.[6]  Nevertheless, one wonders why divergent factions and theories are made to support convergent practices in Chicago, at this moment, and too whether the impetus for such movement originates with the artists.

Notes:

[1] The table in question was said to have been supplied by photographer Jessica Labatte's partner: Chef Eric May.

[2] Why not accept that well-formed pottery, like perfectly round wheels on a car, functions best?  Why not contest prevailing standards of beauty in the glaze?

[3] Pictures of food, and not food itself, appears in the collage, I think.

[4] An example from the Spanish Baroque, e.g. Juan Sanchez Cotan, would too have been accurate--but lacked the Dutch connection to commerce.

[5] Gates has earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Ceramics.

[6] Rakowitz appeeared in "Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art," alongside Gates and Letinsky.

Read more:

"Eye Exam: Galleries Out, Curators In, and Other Artist News," by Jason Foumberg, Newcity, November 8, 2013:
http://art.newcity.com/2013/11/08/eye-exam-galleries-out-curators-in-and-other-artist-news-2/

"Laura Letinsky’s Urban Garden," by Heiji Choy Black and Lena Singer, Chicago Magazine, May 16, 2013:
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2011/Laura-Letinskys-Urban-Garden/

Above:
Images (1-4) January 31, 2014;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

1974: Marc Chagall @ Chase Tower - Exelon Plaza

Marc Chagall
"Four Seasons"
1974
Mosaic tile
Chase Tower / Exelon Plaza
Dearborn Street, near Adams Street
Chicago, IL

Unprotected, the 1974 mosaic mural "Four Seasons," by Marc Chagall (1887-1985), did not fair well in Chicago's climate.  The piece was therefore the subject of major, successive conservation efforts in 1988 and 1996; too, seeking to limit further damage through exposure, the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed a steel and glass shelter for it.  Additionally, a guardrail was placed around its base.  Landscape planters have formed a shield to the east, and south, of the plaza site.  Whether helpful for preservation, the cumulative effect of the surrounding structures has dramatically altered the experience of the artwork itself.  See Mary Ann Sullivan's images of Chagall's "Four Seasons" prior to its enclosure: http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/chagall/chagall.html

Read more:

"Chagall Art In Season Of Restoration," Phat X. Chiem, Chicago Tribune, July 14, 1996:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-07-14/news/9607140013_1_mosaic-marc-chagall-restoration

Above: Note relationship between canopy, guardrail, planters, and artwork, as sun strikes the piece from the west.

Above:
Image (1) September 20, 2006;
Image (2) September 20, 2006;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

1981: Joan Miro @ Brunswick Plaza

Joan Miro
"Chicago"
1981
Concrete over a metallic armature, ceramic tile, and bronze, on a travertine stone base
Brunswick Plaza
Washington Boulevard, between Clark Street and Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL

Situated in an architectural nook formed by the Cook County Administration Building, the Chicago Temple Building, and Harold Washington College, "Chicago," by Joan Miro (1893-1983), is often overlooked in favor of Picasso's sculpture in Daley Plaza on the opposite side of the street.  Standing roughly 12 meters tall, Miro's piece took some 18 years to realize after its proposal, largely as a result of the complex arrangement of its funding.  The Art Institute of Chicago maintains Miro's plaster "Chicago" maquette from 1963: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/100666

Above:
Image (1) September 20, 2006;
Image (2) September 20, 2006;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.