2013: Erik Wenzel @ The Storefront

Above: An overhead view of Erik Wenzel's Artforum magazine-based installation "Fernweh," as seen within The Storefront, 2606 N. California Ave., Chicago, IL, on the show's opening night, April 20, 2013.

Erik Wenzel
"Fernweh"
April 20 - May 12, 2013
The Storefront
2606 N. California Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

Erik Wenzel, most obviously recalling Carl Andre, has made use of the floor for the purpose of presenting modular units in a grid pattern. Here, though, the invitation to the audience to walk upon the piece set in Brandon Alvendia’s The Storefront is wanted to be especially cheeky: an institution of sorts (Artforum magazine) and a commercial appropriation of cultural resources (in the form of gallery advertisements) are simultaneously trodden upon, which action symbolically mimics Wenzel’s own “progress” through the real and metaphysical worlds of art.

Above: The artist, Erik Wenzel, at center with a cigarette and a 16 oz. can of beer, discusses "Fernweh" with patrons of The Storefront, 2606 N. California Ave., Chicago, IL, on his show's opening night, April 20, 2013.

Above: The artist, Erik Wenzel, at left, surveys The Storefront gallery, 2606 N. California Ave., Chicago, IL, on the opening night of his "Fernweh" installation, April 20, 2013.

"Wenzel works across disciplines, from visual arts practices to writing. The artist envisions each exhibition he makes as a work in its own right. Fernweh represents the realization of a project that has been developing for a number of years.

Appenzeller Landschaft forms the exhibition’s centerpiece. The gallery’s checked linoleum floor is tiled with several years’ worth of Artforum magazines laid face down. What started as an art-about-art Oedipal gesture unfolded over time into a more complex gesture mixing travel, the idea of 'home', and personal and contemporary art history. The title translates to 'Appenzell countryside' or 'landscape', referring to the photographs of Swiss life, particularly in the Canton and region of Appenzell, which have graced the back cover of the art magazine since the 1980s. Gallerist Bruno Bischofberger has leased this space, honoring his hometown of Appenzell and juxtaposing with brief text about his exhibitions, to represent his gallery’s program. These images, at once spectacular, sentimental, and curiously ethnographic, provide a consistent and compelling counterpoint to the ever changing ebb and flow of trends catalogued within the magazine’s pages.

Viewers step onto the piece and into a landscape. Just like the Swiss topography, Appenzeller Landschaft has its peaks and valleys, created by the varying thicknesses of each issue of the magazine. From the thin copies the 1990s to the phonebook girth of the boom years, from the Spartan aftermath of the latest economic collapse to the recent recovery of high-end economies, the floor’s irregular surface is determined by the number of ads taken out in the periodical. Formally, an aesthetics of compression is at play--the physical experience walking around on magazines, the weight of your body acting on the pages, squeezing them together in a sculptural way.

Travelling through Appenzell, hiking in the pre-Alps, and spending a night in a gasthoff on the side of a mountain during a residency in 2009 left a lasting impression on the artist. Over time Switzerland, particularly Bern, the home of the residency with which Wenzel is affiliated, has become a home away from home for the artist.

The story of Fernweh reads somewhat like a folk tale. In 2011 Wenzel, his cat deceased, in a dead-end job, and the lease on his apartment expiring, chose to leave the country. The possessions he didn’t sell or throw out, he locked up in storage. The stock of Artforums and other magazines he’d collected over the years he bequeathed to Brandon Alvendia, whose Storefront space was up the street from Wenzel’s apartment. For nearly two years Wenzel has lived an itinerant existence, travel through Switzerland, living in Berlin, returning for a time to Chicago, living outside Salzburg for a residency in an old Salt Factory in Austria, traveling by train through Germany, Austria and Switzerland, living the New York life of too many people in too little a space, only to ultimately land, quite fortunately, on the same block as the Storefront, where his cache of art magazines waited, stacked like Donald Judd in the back room.

It is in this spirit of sentimentality, symmetry, and perfect coincidence we present Fernweh, the story of a wayfaring stranger, who struck out into the world only to find his place back where he had started.

Fernweh is a German term connoting an almost physical ache to be in another country."

Quotation above from: http://www.thevisualist.org/2013/04/erik-wenzel-fernweh/

Above:
Images (1-3) April 20, 2013;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

2015: Corinna Kirsch on Leaving Chicago

Paul Germanos: Hold old are you? Where are you from? When did you come here? Is Chicago one of many stops on your journey?

Corinna Kirsch: I grew up in a rural part of Texas which was like suburbia, just about a 45-minute drive north of downtown Houston. I ended up choosing to go to Chicago for the Master of Arts in Art History program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. But I’ve always liked Chicago; my dad is a Midwesterner. I arrived for my degree in 2007, and stayed a little bit after that. I moved away for good during a snowstorm in January of 2011. And a lady never reveals her true age.

Above: A portrait of Corinna Kirsch by Mark Dorf; black and white (halftone) filter applied; resized for publication.

PG: For what did you hope when you came to Chicago? A degree? A job? What did you think that you'd find here? What was your first impression of the city?

CK: Pretty much, I just wanted a degree in Chicago. A job--I’d take one anywhere. I came to Chicago straight from Austin, Texas. The cities are, um, very different. I didn’t have much in the way of expectations other than that I’d see a lot of art, meet a lot of artists, and hopefully become a better art historian. This is going to sound so "basic," but my first memory of Chicago was the sight of all the Art Deco buildings; coming from Texas, where everything is new, having some sort of history visible in the built-environment was incredible. Oh, that, and nobody else in my MA program smoked cigarettes. I’ve since quit.

PG: Did you attend a school here? Which school did you attend? How long were you in school here? Did you receive a degree here? When did you receive your degree?

CK: I attended SAIC from 2007 through 2009. I received my MA in Art History in 2009.

PG: How long were you in practice here? Did you enjoy success on your own terms? Can you recall some peak experience? If you felt frustrated, what frustrated you? Poor sales? A lack of publicity? High rent? Crime? Inefficient transportation? Public apathy? Bad weather? What was the total amount of time that you spent as a resident?

CK: Hmmmm. I thought SAIC was a great place to be in school. But afterwards I was running an apartment gallery and having a difficult time finding a job (this after working as a curator at the University of Minnesota). One reviewer came out to my space; and, while we were chatting, he ended up saying something along the lines of: “You’ve made it.” I wanted to die. I was working for just above minimum wage at an awful hair salon and paying for exhibitions out of pocket. I didn’t have enough time or resources to support the type of programming I wanted. All in all, none of that is what I considered “making it.” I was poor. I was on food stamps--a survival trick I learned from an artist [we'll call him Greg] who has since left Chicago. And it wasn’t just about being money-poor: I just wasn’t having fulfilling conversations on the state of the art world.

PG: How does Chicago know you? Does Chicago know you? Have you been misunderstood?

CK: Those are great questions. I have no idea of what Chicago thinks of me now! I haven’t been back in a couple of years--oh, I did visit last year for a conference--but I do try to stay in touch with what’s going on in the city by staying in touch with what artists and organizations are doing there. I love writing about Chicago! Let me know what people think of me when you find out.

PG: Was there an event which precipitated your departure? For which other city did you leave? What was waiting for you in that other city?

CK: This is pretty funny. I ended up moving because I didn’t think I’d be able to get an arts-related job. (That’s not a great reason to leave; but that’s what I did, when I was 26.) I went to New York because I had a place to stay for a couple of weeks for free--and because I was receiving unemployment insurance from my former curatorial gig. So, yup--it was mostly the unemployment insurance that let me move to New York on an $80 Amtrak ticket. And for some reason I assumed that there would just be more jobs available in New York. Now I love New York for different reasons. In part, I became a critic because I see injustices, whether aesthetic or political, in the art world. I wasn’t as attuned to them while I was a happy go-lucky grad student with the world ahead of her (I know!!!). It’s nothing you can predict until you’ve had that life experience.

PG: Does Chicago look different to you since your arrival to it and/or departure from it? Do you have advice for someone about to begin what you've finished?

CK: I’ve only been back once, briefly, for three days. I do remember being shocked that Logan Square [subject to rapid gentrification] looked like "Jocksville." My advice to anyone in Chicago would be to stick with it, and try to overcome the insularity of the SAIC world. Move south; try to be involved with people in your community who aren’t artists. Be critical. Be digital. Fight for the type of art world you want.

PG: Do you expect to maintain a connection to Chicago and its art world? What's your incentive to stay connected? Have you left friends or family here?

CK: No family. No close friends. Honestly, I just believe there’s a bunch of creative, caring artists and other people in Chicago; and I want to see them succeed however they see fit.

PG: By what means do you stay abreast of developments in the arts in Chicago? Print? Social media? Visits?

CK: I try to keep up with Chicago by being online.

PG: In the end, is place important? Is physical location a matter of consequence in 2015?

CK: Digital spaces are becoming more important. I’m starting a PhD in the fall, and I hate to admit it, but one of the reasons why I chose Stony Brook University is that I didn’t want to leave New York, at least not yet. There’s so much activity here that I end up going to panels, talks, and openings several nights a week--when I have time. I’m a country mouse at heart, though, and hope to someday write and blog from a place that I own. Maybe with a horse. I love writing about horses and art. But for the moment, I like the speed of New York. I like not having a car. I like public transportation which is reliable and frequent (sorry, Chicago). I like being surrounded by other workaholics, by artists and critics who see a purpose beyond aesthetics. Digital activism, too, is a topic that more people are comfortable discussing here than in Chicago, in my experience. Maybe that’s changed? New York is prohibitively expensive for most people. I wouldn’t work as many hours as I do--if I didn’t have to do it in order to stay here. So in that sense I definitely miss Chicago. I’d go back in a heartbeat if someone wanted me to teach a class on criticism, or blogging, or reporting.

PG: Was some important subject omitted from this query? Please introduce it.

CK: Just let me know if I can answer any questions more fully.

PG: OK. In Chicago, you were associated with two galleries--Concertina Gallery and The Exhibition Agency--which operated from 2009-2010 at the same address (2351 N. Milwaukee) in the Logan Square neighborhood. Is that correct? If so, were there any particular exhibitions or artists from that period of your life which are now memorable? What would have helped you, as an apartment gallerist, to continue to operate a space? Is it all, in the end, a question of money? Any thoughts on being on the receiving end of press coverage? Did it affect your work (inform your perspective) as a writer?

CK: Yes, that's correct. All of it was memorable: the good and the bad. Here are some anecdotes, not necessarily in order of importance. I remember getting poked all the time by Matthew Paul Jinks' spiky metal sculpture, which took up our entire living room. We'd have to tread carefully to get past it, just to go to the bathroom or kitchen. Ugh, and then there was the red glitter, left over from a performance, which we couldn't get out of the wood floors. (We rarely had furniture in the apartment so that we could have exhibitions.) The back courtyard was my favorite part, even though you had to walk down through the laundry room, there was a gorgeous backyard to escape into--as we all know, apartment galleries can get scorching-ly, sweating-ly hot. I remember having to negotiate with artists in ways I wasn't yet comfortable. School, studio visits, working in a gallery--none of it compared to having your own microcosm of a gallery/museum/laboratory all-in-one. Artists weren't always happy with the way their work was presented, or who they were put in a show with--that's the sort of usual stuff you'll always find. I take it back: My absolute favorite experience of running Concertina was on opening night I managed to find a professional concertina-player to serenade the event. He was a really nice guy, sat in a kitchen corner all by himself, and played us something that may have been a waltz. That's the sort of playful thing you can do when your project space is on your own terms.

PG: As a writer based in Chicago you contributed to Edward Marszewski's "Proximity" in 2008-2009 and Stephanie Burke's "The Gallery Crawl and So Much More..." in 2009. Is that correct? Were there other publications to which you contributed while a resident of Chicago?

CK: I think those were the only ones. Oh, and the SAIC school paper: F Newsmagazine.

PG: Is there a website in addition to Art F City which you'd like linked from the article? A personal site or another publication? Do you want to leave contact information?

CK: Sometimes I write for Vice. I'm also a reporter for The Art Newspaper. And I'm starting my PhD in Art History at Stony Brook University in the fall.

PG: You earned your MA at SAIC in 2009. Are there any classmates or instructors who had a lasting effect upon you? Do you keep in touch with anyone from school or is that a closed chapter in your life? Was SAIC worth it? Was it a good choice for you?

CK: Most of the friends I made in my program don't live in New York. I try to keep up with them on social media. I think I've probably become better "online friends" with some people than I was in real life. In the Art History department at SAIC, David Raskin is great, and totally funny. I was really scared of him at first (hi, David), but he's down-to-earth. Michael Golec and David Getsy, too. It's funny, but when I was in the Art History program at SAIC, I was nervous, I think, of speaking my mind. Maybe I was a little shy? I didn't take as many risks as I would have liked in my coursework, which may have been due to my shyness. (This is also related to the fact that I was working all the time I was in school, a bad idea all around.) With writing, and being a somewhat public figure (at least on the Internet), I've had to deal with all types of conflicts (like trolls and working with a variety of editors) that have contributed to me being a somewhat more outgoing person who's willing to speak my mind about aesthetics and activism. As for Chicago people, it's hard to say who I've become better friends with since leaving. Maybe Eric Fleischauer and Jason Lazarus? I saw them the last time I was in town. Dana Basset? There's a lot of really talented, down-to-earth people who live in Chicago, but who I wish I could see them all the time. In general, I like running into former Chicagoans in New York.

PG: Do you have any advice for a young person who's trying to work as a critic? operate a gallery?

CK: If you want to work as a critic, talk to me. But really, if you want to work as a critic I would say that the top five things I can think of are:

1) Lose the academic art speak. Write sentences that sound like they just came out of your mouth. The world does not need more Deleuze-robot criticism;

2) Go see a lot of art. I don't just mean where you are. You need to be online, on Twitter, and know what people are making everywhere. Always be sniffing out for artists;

3) Don't be scared to say you don't like something;

4) Sorry--here's a fourth. Do not bury your lede. This is my number one editor grumble;

5) Write all the time. Blog if you must. Even if you don't have an affiliation yet, you've got to write. Practice.

If you want to operate a gallery, just don't. There's already too many out there. Unless you're providing an alternative to the current art-as-commodity sales model, then don't do it.

- June 5-12, 2015 (C) Corinna Kirsch

Learn more about Corinna by visiting her website: http://corinnakirsch.com/

Corinna Kirsch is Senior Editor at Art F City: http://artfcity.com/author/corinnakirsch/

Read Michael Weinstein's 2009 review of Concertina Gallery: http://art.newcity.com/2009/11/02/review-anthea-behm-and-aron-gentconcertina-gallery/

Read Julia V. Hendrickson's 2010 review of the Exhibition Agency: http://jayveeaitch.blogspot.com/2010/09/review-uncrumpling-at-exhibition-agency.html

Image above provided by Corinna Kirsch; original artwork by Mark Dorf; black and white (halftone) filter applied; resized for publication.

Edited by Paul Germanos. Apologies for errors and omissions. Contact using the information at right.

2015: Kate McQuillen @ Comfort Station

Above: An anonymous late-night cyclist about to pass the canted bay window at the center of Kate McQuillen's "Old Flame" installation at Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, on February 21, 2015.

Kate McQuillen
"Old Flame"
Curated by Jessie Devereaux
January 24– February 22, 2015
Comfort Station
2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Logan Square
Chicago, IL

http://www.katemcquillen.com/

http://www.comfortstationlogansquare.org/

Saturday night, January 24, 2015: In Chicago, immediately northeast of Logan Square's Illinois Centennial Monument, the doors at 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue are locked. And Comfort Station (a shelter for trolley riders in the 20th century, a venue for arts patrons in the 21st century) is opaque as well as inaccessible. The single story structure's street level windows are filled with gouache-tinted paper, masked and backlit to create the illusion of yellow-orange flames within.

Above: An interior view of Comfort Station's canted bay window filled with paper and backlit for Kate McQuillen's "Old Flame" installation at 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, as available for view on February 21, 2015. The white table supporting McQuillen's single-channel video is visible at far right, its monitor half-hidden by the surrounding yellowish material.

Puzzled would-be-attendees of the evening's opening reception periodically circumnavigate the building: looking, vainly, for a way to get in. Taken together with a single-channel video (the small screen of which peeks out towards Milwaukee Avenue) the architectural intervention is the work of thirty-five-year-old Massachusetts native Kate McQuillen, a visual artist selected for the occasion by Comfort Station curatorial panel member Jessie Devereaux. On an adjacent sidewalk a sandwich board bears a message in chalk: McQuillen and Devereaux are available at a nearby location, waiting with refreshments.

Above: An exterior view of the single-channel video component of Kate McQuillen's "Old Flame" installation as seen through the canted bay window at Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, on January 24, 2015.

Theatrically, the staging of "Old Flame" is successful enough to engage an interested passerby. It works. Conceptually, the site-specific artwork wants for a paragraph of text which offers a historical ground for the experience. In this place, at this time, what does "Old Flame" mean?

Of course, it isn't fair to reserve that criticism for McQuillen and Devereaux. Chicago's art world, attractive largely for: (a) its schools; and, (b) its non-commercial residency, publication and exhibition system, is filled with young and short-term residents. Consequently, memory is wanting. And we have only few miserable, old, critics to suggest in writing such visual precedents as might exist.

Above: The maquette of Comfort Station's canted bay window (photographed while available for view on February 21, 2015) which was featured in the single-channel video component of Kate McQuillen's "Old Flame" installation at 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, January 24– February 22, 2015.

For example, Oak Park resident Alison Ruttan presented (below) a little city of burned-out modelli at Chicago's ADDS DONNA gallery in 2012.[1] And Ruttan's ceramic, architectural structures were each identical in scale to (above) the maquette of Comfort Station's canted bay window featured in McQuillen's single-channel video. In fact, Ruttan has a concurrent show (January 24 - April 26, 2015) featuring said pieces, "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail," at the Chicago Cultural Center.[2]

Above: A detail of Alison Ruttan's "Natural Disaster" which ran April 15 - May 13, 2012, at ADDS DONNA, 4223 W. Lake Street, #422, Chicago, IL.

Above:An overview of Alison Ruttan's "Natural Disaster," which ran April 15 - May 13, 2012, at ADDS DONNA, 4223 W. Lake Street, #422, Chicago, IL.

Alison Ruttan isn't the only artist worth mentioning. Also running concurrently (January 9 - March 15, 2015) is a group show at the University of Chicago's Logan Center entitled "Lands End," which includes works from now Brooklyn-based Carrie Schneider's 2010-2011 "Burning House" series.[3] Schneider, like McQuillen, produced an architectural prop which was literally set ablaze and photographed, the results of which (below) were first displayed at Chicago's moniquemeloche gallery in 2012.[4]

Above: Carrie Schneider's "Burning House (October, afternoon)" 2010, originally a c-print, 40 x 50 inches. (C) Carrie Schneider.

Above: An installation view of Carrie Schneider's "Burning House," which ran March 31 – May 12, 2012, at moniquemeloche gallery, 2154 W. Division Street, Chicago, IL.

If Alison Ruttan and Carrie Schneider are comparable to Kate McQuillen because of their common choice of subject matter (a building which is being or has been burned) the University of Chicago's Jason Salavon seems good to remember because of his working method: In 2009, Salavon employed computer-controlled projectors inside the Hyde Park Art Center to cause (below) animated, geometric patterns of colored light to appear across the screened clerestory--an effect enjoyable from outside the building.[5]

Above: A still, interior view of Jason Salavon's animated "Spigot (Oracle's Reflection)," which ran September 23, 2009 - February 6, 2010, across the Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Above: A still, exterior view of Jason Salavon's animated "Spigot (Oracle's Reflection)," which ran September 23, 2009 - February 6, 2010, across the Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Avenue, Chicago, IL. (C) Jason Salavon.

Every work cited above can be seen to hinge upon an energetic treatment of architecture. And, each artist having concerned herself with a particularly human intervention in the environment, the figure is conspicuous in its absence. Taken together, McQuillen, Ruttan, and Schneider are suggestive of a potentially alarming turn from the controlled, domestic interior of the still life towards some ambiguous violence in the landscape.

What does it mean? In Chicago, in 2015, architecture as ground for some phenomenon of light is found recurrent in practices as diverse as those maintained by Luftwerk and Colleen Plumb. In Chicago, in 2014, the strongest displays at the city's EXPO art fair took the form of architecture. Again, among other examples, Judy Ledgerwood's direct architectural paintings were paired with Anne Wilson's "Portable City" pieces at Rhona Hoffman's gallery in 2011. Whatever else might be happening, in this place, at this time, there's evidence of a widespread and persistent interest in the built dimension of the world.

Above: Kate McQuillen, left, with Jessie Devereaux, right, within McQuillen's "Old Flame" installation at Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, for a closing event on February 21, 2015.

Epilogue: Saturday night, February 21, 2015, McQuillen and Devereaux hosted a closing event. Comfort Station's doors were unlocked. And attendees were able to view "Old Flame" from within, which in the end allowed for the best possible experience of the artwork. Comparative knowledge is sometimes available without an appeal to history or geography. In this case it was possible to consider how one's position--inside or outside--determined one's perspective. Even as the individual artwork was opaque when only its exterior was accessible, so too the larger "art world" defies scrutiny from the borders of its territory. And it's easy to forget how many people are inclined to pass unobservant: supposing that the lights and colors therein are no more related to one another than are the sounds in the cacophony of the city itself.

[1] Alison Ruttan
"Natural Disaster"
April 15 - May 13, 2012
ADDS DONNA
4223 W. Lake Street, #422
Chicago, IL 60624
http://addsdonna.com/ADDS_DONNA/Natural_Disaster.html
http://www.alisonruttan.com/cv

[2] Alison Ruttan
"if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"
January 24 - April 26, 2015
Chicago Cultural Center, Michigan Ave. Galleries, 1st Floor South
78 E. Washington St.
Chicago, IL 60602
http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/ruttan.html

[3] Carrie Schneider
"Lands End" (a group show)
Curated by Zachary Cahill and Katherine Harvath
January 9 - March 15, 2015
Presented by the Reva and David Logan Center
for the Arts and the Department of Visual Arts at
the University of Chicago and the Goethe-Institut
Chicago
915 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
https://arts.uchicago.edu/landsend

[4] Carrie Schneider
"Burning House"
March 31 - May 12, 2012
moniquemeloche gallery
2154 W. Division Street
Chicago, IL 60622
http://moniquemeloche.com/exhibitions/burning-house/
http://carrieschneider.net/work/houseburning.html

[5] Jason Salavon
"Spigot (Oracle's Reflection)"
September 23, 2009 - February 6, 2010
Jackman Goldwasser Catwalk Gallery
Hyde Park Art Center
5020 S. Cornell Avenue
Chicago, IL 60615
http://www.hydeparkart.org/exhibitions/jason-salavonem-spigot-oracles-reflection-em
http://www.salavon.com/

Above:

Images (1,2,4,11) February 21, 2015;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

Image (3) January 24, 2015;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

Images (5,6) April 15, 2012;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

Image (7) Copyright 2010 Carrie Schneider.

Image (8) March 31, 2012;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

Image (9) September 23, 2009;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

Image (10) Copyright 2009 Jason Salavon.

2014: South Logan Arts Coalition @ Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival

Above: "Tre" on the North Stage, outside the South Logan Arts Coalition at the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, June 28, 2014.

South Logan Arts Coalition (SLAC)
"Trip Hazard"
June 27-29, 2014
2775 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival (MAAF)
Chicago, IL

Artists: Amanda Brown, Melanie Brown, Stephanie Burke, Stephanie Del Carpio, Simone Chagoya, Helen Maurene Cooper, Diana Gabriel, Jessica Harvey, Stacee Kalmanovsky, Raeleen Kao, Austin Ross Knierim, Gabriel Mejia, Zach Mory, Courtney Prokopas, Kelly Riker, Morgan Sims, Noah Vaughn, Nathan Vernau, Natalie Virafuentes, Bryan Volta, Jenyu Wang, Gwendolyn Zabicki

http://southloganarts.org/

http://milwaukeeavenueartsfestival.org/

Above: South Logan Arts Coalition's "pop-up" gallery space,  inside (vacant) 2775 N. Milwaukee Avenue, June 28, 2014.

June 28, 2014: To the south, Milwaukee Avenue was closed at Logan Boulevard and Kedzie Avenue; to the north, it was closed at Diversey Avenue and Kimball Avenue.  At both points of closure a large stage was erected.  And the roadway between the two stages was given over to vendors of food, drink, and various crafts.

It's a scene is found repeated, with a change only in location, throughout the whole of the Summer.

Distinctively in the case of the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival: vacant storefronts too were employed for the purpose of housing exhibitions of fine art.  Of current interest, one such property, formerly a "Warehouse Furniture" showroom, was divided between two local groups--the South Logan Arts Coalition (upper-level) and Comfort Station (lower-level)--from June 27-29, 2014.

Above: The view onto Diversey Avenue from the northern window of (SLAC) 2775 N. Milwaukee Avenue, June 28, 2014.

It's needful to emphasize that 2775 N. Milwaukee Avenue was not a "visually neutral" space; it was not a white cube.  And it's needful to acknowledge that the environment in which artwork is exhibited sometimes affects the experience of its audience.  In fact, it's widely, if not universally, accepted that the placement of a found object in a particular context might amount to the whole of an artist's practice--at which point the distance between the artist and the curator has closed.

Above: Stephanie Burke in the South Logan Arts Coalition's gallery at the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, June 28, 2014.

Stephanie Burke and Noah Vaughn were among the twenty-odd artists included in the exhibition curated by the South Logan Arts Coalition, on the upper-level of 2775 N. Milwaukee Avenue, at the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, in 2014.

Stephanie Burke's three photographic prints (shown above in situ) were drawn from "CANTO," a 2013 solo show at Rational Park gallery in Chicago.  Though such historical knowledge was unavailable to most SLAC/MAAF visitors, Burke's subject matter was readily identifiable: the landscape of the American West stood in vivid contrast to the wall upon which it was hung.

Above: Detail of the third panel, "Part 3 - Sphere 6; Puritan Grey (Jupiter)," 2013, in Stephanie Burke's SLAC/MAAF triptych.

Looking closely at the color swatch held aloft in the foreground of the third panel in Burke's SLAC/MAAF triptych, it too was found to be composed of three chips.  Whether such placement was a matter of concern for either the artist or the curator is doubtful; nevertheless, a sort-of picture-within-a-picture was available to be seen here.  And it was made yet-more interesting when Noah Vaughn's photographic work was considered.

Above: Detail of Noah Vaughn's 2014 SLAC/MAAF triptych, formatted as Burke's 2013 color swatch.

Opposite Burke's pristine exteriors, Noah Vaughn presented prints which detailed corrupted interiors.  So that if Burke first benefited from the contrast of the ground provided by the crumbling property at 2775 N. Milwaukee Avenue--then Vaughn benefited from the contrast provided by Burke's work.  Vaughn was otherwise maybe at risk of being lost for the similarity between the place which he depicted and the venue in which his pictures were hung.

Above: Noah Vaughn in the South Logan Arts Coalition's gallery at the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, June 28, 2014.

Here too the manner of the works' presentation played a role: Burke's pieces were unglazed, and their thick, black frames left them well-defined from the room; Vaughn's pieces, glazed, reflected the bare bulbs overhead, and the thin, white frame was not distinct from the matte or the wall.

By way of both comparison and also contrast, Burke and Vaughn did well together.  And it would have been good to see their works physically brought nearer to one another within the (5000 square foot?) room.  But this wasn't a two-person show, built around square aspect ratios, medium format film, triptychs, mise en abyme, sensitivity to the environment, American decline, or any other such thing--which simply happened to be found within the show which did exist.

Above: The door to 2775 N. Milwaukee Avenue, into which people ran when the rain began to fall.

Above: "Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars" performing on the South Stage at Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, June 28, 2014.

Above: "Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars" performing on the South Stage at Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, June 28, 2014.

Above: "Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars" performing on the South Stage at Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, June 28, 2014.

Above: Dimo's Pizza guy at Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, June 28, 2014.

Above: "Tre" on the North Stage, outside the South Logan Arts Coalition at the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, June 28, 2014.

Above:
Image (5) Copyright Stephanie Burke, 2013;
Image (6) Copyright Noah Vaughn, 2014;
Images (1-4 and 7-13) June 28, 2014;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

2014: Jessica Taylor Caponigro @ Comfort Station

Above: Jessica Taylor Caponigro, photographed during her artist's talk on June 1, 2014, inside Logan Square's Comfort Station.

Jessica Taylor Caponigro: "Wait for Now"
Justin Petertil: "Mmmmm"
Curated by Robyn Paprocki
May 3 - June 1, 2014
Comfort Station
2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Logan Square
Chicago, IL

Documented here, Jessica Taylor Caponigro and Justin Petertil in a talk with Robyn Paprocki, on June 1, 2014:

"Comfort Station is pleased to present two juxtaposed solo shows. Inside the Comfort Station, Taylor Caponigro’s works react to the building’s original purpose as a place where travelers were stranded. Outside, Justin Petertil will install a soundscape consisting of tree-hung plastic fruit manifesting in a subtly shifting soundscape and uncanny visual, audio experience for passerby. Join us to hear about the works from the artist’s perspective.

Join us for a discussion and following Q+A session with May’s Comfort Station artists. We will learn about what inspired them to create these site-specific works and find out what they have planned next and what they like to do in their free time, among other things."

Quotation above from: http://www.thevisualist.org/2014/06/jessica-taylor-caponigro-justin-petertil-artist-lecture/

Above: Comfort Station, exterior, 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, on June 1, 2014.

Above: Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, advertising on June 1, 2014.

Above: Comfort Station's Robyn Paprocki, left, introduces the artists prior to their talk on June 1, 2014.

Above: Painter Gwendolyn Zabicki, scheduled to show in a three-person exhibition at Comfort Station opening 5:00-8:00 PM, July 11, 2014.

Above: Andrew Rafacz Gallery artist Robert Burnier in attendance at Comfort Station on June 1, 2014.

Above: Jessica Taylor Caponigro's screen printed architectural intervention at Comfort Station on June 1, 2014.

Above: Angee Lennard of Spudnik Press, supplier of screen printing services and facilities, at Comfort Station on June 1, 2014.

Above: A detail of Jessica Taylor Caponigro's screen print, facilitated by Spudknik Press, installed at Comfort Station.

Above: Kavi Gupta's Assistant Director, Emanuel Aguilar, contributor of an essay to Jessica Taylor Caponigro's exhibition.

Above: Artist Justin Petertil at Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, in Logan Square, Chicago, IL, on June 1, 2014.

Above: Artwork by Jessica Taylor Caponigro installed at Comfort Station on June 1, 2014.

Above:
Images (1-12) June 1, 2014;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

2014: Liz McCarthy @ Comfort Station

Above: Liz McCarthy's untitled photographic installation in "Partitions" at Comfort Station on February 1, 2014.

Liz McCarthy and Nora Nieves
"Partitions"
February 1 - 14, 2014
Comfort Station
2579 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL

Presented by High Concept Laboratories.

http://liz-mccarthy.com/

http://highconceptlaboratories.org/

http://comfortstationlogansquare.org/

"Liz McCarthy works through a process of submerging herself in naturally occurring landscapes in attempt to alter and document her own durational experience. Whether it be a migration to central Wisconsin or a walk in an abandoned overgrown lot in the middle of the city, she explores places where the environment looses ridged boundaries of space and the limitation of formal time. She uses photography to document these environments, and then in the studio, reinterprets the images through the building of corresponding material structures. McCarthy considers most of these structures to be alternative calendars and new representational frames for experience."

Above: http://highconceptlaboratories.org/ai1ec_event/nora-nieves-and-liz-mccarthy-partitions/?instance_id=

"The perception of time and space is fluid, one moment bleeds into the next. In the physical world we create more clear boundaries with objects, barriers, and frames to more clearly define and navigate our experience. In 'Partitions' Nora Nieves and Liz McCarthy both document environments by making structures that tentatively define the way in which they experience particular spaces."

Above: http://www.thevisualist.org/2014/02/nora-nieves-liz-mccarthy-partitions/

Above:  Liz McCarthy's untitled photographic installation in "Partitions" at Comfort Station on February 1, 2014.

Above: Liz McCarthy, left, and Nora Nieves, right, in press image for "Partitions" at Comfort Station, February 1-14, 2014.

Above:
Images (1-2) February 1, 2014;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.
Image (3) Press image advertising "Partitions" at Comfort Station;
Copyright Liz McCarthy, left; Nora Nieves, right.

2013: It Varies @ The Storefront

Above: Justin Witte, Philip von Zweck, Dana Bassett, Jessica Harvey, Brandon Alvendia, Erik Wenzel, et al, November 23, 2013.

"It Varies"
November 23-30, 2013
The Storefront
2606 N. California Avenue
Chicago, IL

Organized by Justin Witte and Judy Rushin

Featuring artists Brandon Alvendia, Michelle Bolinger, Magalie Guerin, Anna Kunz, Judy Rushin, Olivia Schreiner, Rusty Shackleford, Selina Trepp and Philip von Zweck

"Rushin, based in Florida, sends collections of her work to different individuals around the country and asks that the work be set in small interior spaces to serve as the impetus for small events and gatherings. [...] Remnants from the exhibition will be sent back to the artist to be included in an exhibition at Flashpoint Gallery in Washington D.C. in 2014. [...] The installation subtly and not-so-subtly plays with various modes of creating and viewing paintings by tracing the contexts through which they travel. Does a painting installation stand-alone as a piece-in-itself? Does it stand-in, like a souvenir, for a multi-authored networked social process? Is the installation made specifically for the production of documentation or is does it thwart it? Or do the multiple private and public conversations supplant the unique time and place where the paintings are exhibited? The exhibition complicates the formal, spatial and historical conditions of a painting-as-group-project to highlight the varied points of entry implicit in the shared life of images."

Quotation above from: http://www.thevisualist.org/2013/11/it-varies/

Above: Detail of the installation "It Varies" at The Storefront on November 23, 2013.

Above: The Storefront exterior as seen from California Avenue on November 23, 2013; "It Varies" interior.

Above:
Images (1-3) November 23, 2013;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.