So me being me, here’s the electronic version. It’s got spam filters up the wazoo, but outside of that, it’s super easy to post anonymously. So if you’re plugging yourself, along with 4 people who aren’t you, then who’s the wiser? It’s the overall list that we’re either going to create into a post or just let sit in the inbox.

But if you post your list, you get $25.  Thematically-linked artist lists are encouraged. [Tech Note:And, interestingly, we can just use link to an image - http://moniquemeloche.com/wp-content/gallery/carrie-schneider/cs-e10-ghost-for-salla.jpg is an example. Then we're "portaling it" - rather than posting a picture we're hosting, it's a window to the original site. This will help us stay out of copyright trouble. For other images, like on Jason Brammer's site, he's got the "copy shortcut" link disabled. So that's a no no. And if you think I'm going to chase down 10 consent forms for each post, you're out of your mind]

But if you can get permission from your studio mates, etc., then go ahead and use the images. If anyone complains, we pull the post down and your name is mud in the self-uploading department.

Alright, let’s give this the old college try.

Also worthy of note, we’re currently looking for collage artists, book artists, resin artists, sculptors, glass, wood, ephemeral, surrealist. So those thematic roundups are very likely to make it to the site.

First,  paste-ups of Joaquin Phoenix began popping up all over the city (and all over the nation) at the start of August. These faux street art pieces were created by Shepard Fairey as part of the guerrilla marketing campaign for Phoenix’s new mock-documentary titled “I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin“. Shepard Fairey should sound familiar, as he  created the iconic Obama poster two years ago, and while these Phoenix paste-ups are somewhat creative (notice the bird flying out of Phoenix’s hair), the flickr and street art community haven’t taken to them kindly.

Second, Nice One outdid himself this month with his gigantic arc piece (subsequently the number one piece of August if you don’t want to scroll down). His paste-up was up for only one day before “Graffiti Blasters” painted over it. It is my understanding that Graffiti Blasters removes graffiti only if someone complains… and repeated calls to Graffiti Blasters (and requests to speak to a supervisor) got me nowhere, except this tidbit: it usually takes 14 days to buff graffiti, except in the case of profanity or nudity the graffiti is removed as quickly as possible. How and why Nice One’s arc was removed after one day is beyond me, and the color of the buff is also unusual. There was no profanity or nudity on Nice One’s piece, and it was not in a well trafficked spot, so the immediate removal of this work, whether it was by Graffiti Blasters or some jealous street artist,  is uncalled for and excruciatingly infuriating.

Third,  Huffington Post ran a poll yesterday asking users to vote which city, out of Philadelphia, Berlin and Chicago, has the best street art. The poll showcased two older pop-like advert-looking street art pieces as representative of Chicago (an oiled bird not even in Chicago, and an over-sized grapefruit). No mention of Nice One, Goons, Ray Noland, or CLS – if I was the paranoid type, I’d take this as a stab at me…

Fourth, in Paul Klein’s latest Art Letter, he interviewed MCA’s new Head Curator Michael Darling and their conversation was  informative and easy to follow for non- hardcore art elitists. If Darling is serious about looking at local talent, I highly suggest Chicago’s street art scene.

And now the list…

10.

“Welcome to Wicker Park” by Poor Kid, photo by Tyler . Mitchel

Poor Kid is a year onto the street art scene, and his steampunk styled robots remind me of Machinarium. Notice the Nice One sails on the bottom of the photo, and the strip of sprayed stencil robots – a new artist? You can see more of Poor Kid’s work here.

9.

Impromptu collaborations:

I included the above photo, taken by gabriel_xavier_michael, for its excellent composition and the “You are Beautiful Project” sticker.

Ask and you shall receive:

The  ”Make it A Duet” stencil was first, the tagging next, the gold heart last. Above photo by Pinotmom.

Swiv has returned from his vacation in a major way – his iconic doctor images are now larger and feature dashes of color (and here is another new Swiv):

By gabriel_xavier_michael

When street art is clumped together, it is a sign of respect – the artists are saying hello to one another, though some street artists find this irritable as they want their work to stand alone:  the clustered art draws attention to itself and increases the chance of it being buffed. Nevertheless, grouping of street art is a sign of reverence, unless the pieces are placed directly over the intact art,  symbolizing an intentional slight.

Here is a recent sticker bomb cluster with Poor Kid‘s crew, featuring another new artist  I’ve been calling Banana Man. A famous collab featuring Goons, Viking and CLS can be seen here, and has been up since May with limited damage to CLS’s sculpture.

8.

blütt stickers, below photo taken by Barrybu

blütt is a local artist that has been active for approximately 5 years now and his longevity and work outside the street art scene are reasons for his spot on the list this month. Here is an interview with blütt from 2006 by the Chicagoist. I am partial to blütt simply because he uses umlauts in his name. While it took me until my 25th year to be comfortable with them, blütt began using his in 2008. As the above photo shows, blütt doesn’t always use his umlauts. blütt has refined his style over the years, compare 2006 when he was drawing on his stickers with  2009. blütt is not above reusing his concepts - the haloed hunchback in the photo above has been around since 2008.  blütt once made a large piece in 2007, but this might have been a fluke. You can see more of  blütt’s work here…

7.

Tied for 7th place this month:
Michael Jackson “Final Product”, artist unknown, photo by gabriel_xavier_michael

A close up image can be viewed here.

Two hungry (?) children paste-ups around town, by Nautilus, photo by Tyler . Mitchell

Both images are strongly satirical and thought-provoking.

6.

Peace sign, artist unknown, photo taken by Tyler . Mitchell

5.

The Carnival, artist unknown, photo by Maxwell Colette Gallery

I am particularly drawn to this piece for its bright color scheme,  and creepy circus-like vibe (how did the tiger die?). The use of actual paint on concrete is rare in street art, so this gets props from me.

4.

The Styx Boat, by 800 PGA

Sure, so this piece really belongs in a museum or a gallery, but the artist, after becoming frustrated with the difficulty of finding a home for the piece (despite giving it away for free), decided to leave it on the street. Whether the piece stays up for a couple days, or a few months, 800 PGA doesn’t care as long as someone sees and enjoys the work. The tunnel site was chosen as it resembles a cave, and notice the hands on the boat, symbolizing souls pushing the boat over the Styx river.

3.

Blagojevich stencils by Ray Noland, below photo by semibold

This stencil has picked up gang graffiti over the month.

The Blagojevich trail and its hung jury dominated the news this past month, so naturally Ray Noland was out and about. Here is Blago combing his hair, here is Blago playing basketball and here is Blago jogging like he does.

2.

Title unknown, CLS

Here is a close-up of the above photo by gabriel_xavier_michael.

August was a productive month for CLS, with at least six new sculptures popping up around the city. Three of the six pieces incorporated actual branches,  with one incorporating an outlet cover and another some old stencils (notice flickr user Man_Of_Steel “playing detective“).  Pay attention to this new towering work, and this solid colored piece that almost blends into the background. Here is a CLS piece that incorporates an old picture frame. In addition to the ones noted, two similar pieces have gone up this month: one appears unfinished despite the style similarities (or has it been damaged?), and this fluid and colorful piece incorporates fabric, making it very un-CLS-like in nature but not in concept.

CLS was my number 2 last month, and while I will try to provide some diversity in my lists, CLS (with Nice One) is dominating the Chicago street art scene right now. If Ray Noland’s simple spray-painted stencils gets protection of his work, why don’t CLS and Nice One?

1.

“Let it Rain”, by Nice One, photo by Mike Paro

Close-up shots can be found in Mike Paro’s photostream. Notice Swiv looking out of the back porthole.

Besides the arc, Nice One left some sails around the city( in color and black and white) and a trio of critters by a pay phone titled “Calling Home“

-Sponsored Post-

Editor’s Note: Nolan work originally appeared on the site in the article by Anna Schier, “Scientists as Artists”

Daniel Nolan, Waking Up, 40" w x 30" w, Resin on Canvas.

Nolan began his professional career as a nuclear engineer that spoke to his analytical and mathematical side before he transitioned to art. In many of his works, evidence exists of his attraction to natural structure, physical phenomenon and mathematical representation of space and time. In other paintings, there is a distinct attempt to avoid the analytical approaching emotional abstract expressionism. But even in his abstracts, structure and geometrics are plainly visible. His scientific background definitely influences his current art work. “When I was in grad school I used to dream in math,” he explains. “I would actually solve the problems I was working on in grad school in my sleep. I do the same thing with my painting. When I’m in that dream state images will start coming to me, very similar to the way I would be dreaming in math years ago.”

Daniel Nolan, Untitled, 4'w x 3'h x 1'd, Mixed Media.

Often when he mixes colors, especially when working with blue, he remembers the blue glow of the nuclear fuel rods from his days as a nuclear engineer. “I remember vividly looking into a nuclear reactor the first time and seeing a soft blue glow of the fuel rods. The blue glow was Cherenkov radiation produced by radiation from the nuclear fuel rods interacting with the surrounding water. It was the most beautiful blue I have ever seen, heavenly and yet somehow elusive.” Nolan adds, “I try to mix colors close to what I remember. To date, I have not achieved it. With resin however, I create colors with a sense of transparency and depth, similar to how I perceived Cherenkov radiation.” This is one of many reasons why Nolan works with tinted resin.

Daniel Nolan, Indistinctness I, 12"x12", Resin on Canvas.

As with science, Nolan likes to experiment and discover with his art. He asks the question “what if?” This is another reason why he currently works with tinted resin. He has some but not total control over the resin. The results often are a surprise. It is like working with a chemistry set.

Daniel Nolan, Uncertainty IV, 12"x12", Resin on Canvas.

In the recently begun series of wall sculptures, the play of geometry, energy and mood is the focus. The sculptures are designed and engineered from the plastic lattice tiles, similar to benzene molecular structures, which are then connected to form the base, to which layers of colored resin are added to cover the tiles. Collectively, the components develop a conversation of the organic and the engineered presenting a strong sense of crystalline structures. The pieces also have a strong emotional elements, play of color and light and impart a sense of energy. Similarly, the sculpture under construction composed completely of business cards as a monument to Nolan’s corporate pass was engineered and designed prior to construction with cube-like structures are at its core. Regardless of the art piece, structure, engineering, and allusions to natural physical beauty can be found while attempting to express an emotional state.

“As I mature and evolve as an artist, my goal is that my art becomes more personally reflective, accept my scientific inclinations, and elicit an emotional response from the viewer. I want the viewer to leave questioning or contemplating ideas which they have not challenged in the past,” Nolan commented.

By Sam Isenstein and MK Meador

Corporate CEO’s and businessmen have in recent years come under fire for fiscal irresponsibility and overindulgence in the face of America’s economic woes, but what happens if a particular CEO is responsible for major contributions to public works? A forward-thinking and civic minded man, the city of Chicago owes John Bryan a great deal of gratitude for his work on the Millennium Park project.

John H. Bryan, former CEO of Sara Lee, is a philanthropist and fund-raising figurehead in Chicago. There is no questioning his success in the business world, but lesser known are his contributions and support of Chicago arts and public works. Bryan is accountable for wrangling over $205 million in contributions towards Millennium Park, serving as the campaign chair for the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, magnanimous support for other aspects of the AIC, the Lyric Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. A proponent of the private sector supporting the arts, Bryan has made a point of practicing what he preaches. Born in Mississippi in 1936, Bryan graduated from Rhodes College and began working in the family business. Consolidated Foods purchased the company and eventually became the Sara Lee Corporation. Quickly rosing through the ranks, Bryan became a member of the board of directors in 1974 and CEO in 1975. He was appointed Chairman of the Board in 1976, holding that position until his retirement in 2001. Accruing a wealth and contacts and experience in business, Bryan worked his way into a perfect position to support the arts.

A persuasive salesman and effective manager, Bryan is an uncannily effective fundraising manager. He gravitates towards projects that stir the imagination and evoke strong emotion, it’s a more effective way to accumulate donations and guarantee the project stays in the public eye. A skilled delegator, Bryan understands the need for benefactors to get involved in planning and execution but doesn’t follow suit – once the project is set to go and his obligations are taken care of, Bryan lets the infrastructure he set up take over. He appoints the right people and then moves to the background, removing his ego and moving on to his next project. While drawing bad publicity for his generous severance package from Sara Lee, the community at large is grateful for his enormous contributions to Chicago art and public works in Chicago. Millennium Park is one of the most important public areas in the city, and without Bryan it arguably wouldn’t have been completed. After the initial budget of $150 million was surpassed, Bryan was integral in raising the overflow budget from the private sector. His unwavering dedication to the arts and belief in accessibility have made Bryan one of the Chicago art movement’s most important members.

The less publicized involvements of John Bryan include his owning and restoration of the Crab Tree Farm and the extensive American Arts & Crafts collection he houses on the estate. It sounds like an idyllic retreat and according to the farm’s website “the farm buildings and most of the farmland [were sold] to Mr. and Mrs. John H. Bryan, who had, the previous year, purchased the Blairs’ summer residence on the lake. Today Crab Tree Farm is home to cattle, horses, sheep, chickens, and turkeys. Crops have included hay, corn, and soybeans. The original Beman buildings have undergone extensive renovation and display collections of furniture and decorative arts from the American and English Arts and Crafts movement, as well as contemporary furniture.”

His farm show signs of his southern roots and the man is highly quotable. He somewhat infamously once remarked to a Tribune reporter that in order to raise the staggering amount of capital for the Park project that “You wrap the civic cloak around the problem.”

For more information on Bryan’s work with Millennium Park read this article.

For more information on Crab Tree Farm

Typeface Documentary Movie Poster

Wood type printing was developed in the United States in the 1820s. Almost two hundred years later, the medium, in many ways, is nearly dead. That is, was nearly dead, until Jim and Bill Moran moved to Two Rivers, Wisconsin and revived the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum, an ambitious feat to say the least. Founded by James Edward Hamilton in 1880 as the Hamilton Hollywood Type Company, the business soon came to monopolize the industry, providing wood type printing services to hundreds of companies and individuals nationwide. Lighter than metal, wood type was ideal for posters and large signs, and it’s aesthetic permeates iconic images of the 20th century. But as modern technology developed, the demand for wood type printing rapidly declined, and in 1985 the Hamilton Factory, the last of its kind, was forced to shut down. It would remain essentially untouched until 1999 when the Two Rivers Historical Society opened the former factory space and converted it into a museum commemorating the medium’s history. Since its inception, however, the museum has operated “in the red,” an unfortunate trend, which is expected to change shortly.

Auto Races, Cut and Printed at the Hamilton Museum

For once, the museum’s future is looking bright, and there seems to be two reasons, one internal and one external, as to why. In January 2010, Kartemquin Films of Chicago released its documentary Typeface, directed by Justine Nagan, which related to wide audiences the beauty of wood type, its history and Hamilton’s unfortunate state. Though a small production, the film showed at a number of film festivals and won the 2009 Flyway Film Festival Award for Best Documentary. It, furthermore, excited viewers, attracting a number of Midwesterners to Two Rivers for museum tours. At the point in which the film leaves off, in the early spring of 2009, the director is getting ready to leave the museum due to lack of funds and despair. By April 2009, Jim Moran was hired as the new Museum Director, and in September 2009, Bill Moran was brought in as the Artistic Director and Development Coordinator. Long-time typesetters and historians of the medium from Green Bay, the Moran brothers, in taking over the job, would quickly turn the museum’s hopes around.

Circus Poster, Cut and Printed at the Hamilton Museum

On June 25th, Jim and Bill Moran spoke in Chicago, and I was fortunate enough to attend. The woman who introduced the brothers described the story of their transformation of the Hamilton Museum as “a fairytale come true.” Over the course of an hour the two switched off talking about what they have done, what they plan to do and what great challenges remain. One of the challenges presented in Typeface was the hundreds of boxes of old type that still needed sorting. Under the Morans’ leadership and with the help of tens of volunteers, Hamilton has gone through one hundred and twenty-nine of the one hundred and thirty-five boxes there once was to sort. In the process, they have discovered many different kinds of old type, some still extremely functional and others so complex in their intense stylization that one wonders what they were originally cut for. As Bill said, “When you find these things you feel as if you are unearthing a piece of American history.”

Set Type at the Hamilton Museum

First and foremost, the brothers are working to draw younger and younger audiences to the museum, to engage children and young adults about wood type. They are also going to where the students already are, teaching one and two day workshops at Midwestern art schools. They have begun utilizing social networking sites in order to reach broader audiences and have also begun producing and selling affordable wood type products, such posters and books, online. In doing so, they are often “re-striking” Hamilton originals, so that one can buy old movie posters, circus advertisements, etc. But they are also making their own artwork from these images, combining an image and a text or two images/texts that never otherwise would have gone together for creative aesthetic experimentation.

The Moran brothers have also begun taking on some interesting new projects. Rather than wring their hands in despair in the face of financial difficulty, the two are writing grants and petitioning for funds to take on some type design and type cutting work. They will be cutting the new wood font of the Lushootseedalphabet, the six hundred year old language of the Native American Tulalip tribe of Washington State. The language, which was only converted into writing in the 1960s, currently faces extinction. The Hamilton Museum’s cutting of the font and printing of posters will assist the tribe in their educational endeavor of restoring the language to every day use. The Morans also expect to begin a project shortly with the Gutenberg Museum, and though it is only in the preparation stages, it is bound to be something of significant historical interest to the medium. Together, the brothers are demonstrating that fresh eyes and enthusiasm can make others realize the magic of art previously neglected and nearly forgotten.

Intro
This article is not a roundup of Puerto Rican artists. It’s not about Puerto Rican identity art. This article is about prominent, talented artists that exhibit art in self-identified Puero Rican exhibition spaces, or in similarly themed shows. This is an extremely imporant distinction, as there are many fine artists of Puerto Rican decent who aren’t on this list because they don’t exhibit in these particular venues and shows.  What this article wishes to describe, however, is a community of linked galleries in an particular area that makes such strong work, it deserves wider recognition by the larger art community that may be unfamiliar with this amazing area and group of artists.

Candida Alvarez, Black Cherry Pit

Neighborhood & Cultural History
Puerto Ricans began immigrating to Chicago in substantive numbers first from New York City and then from Puerto Rico itself in the 1930s and 40s, often settling on the city’s north side in what is now Lincoln Park. They were, however, quickly forced by gentrification to move west, and by the late-sixties most Puerto Ricans in Chicago lived in Humboldt Park, which was then considered an economic dead zone. Yet culturally the  culture did not suffer, as many, identifying greatly with their homeland, continued to practice the arts and music of Puerto Rico, as well as gaining office in local political stations in order to represent the concerns of the oft-underrepresented Puerto Rican population. In 1995, Humboldt Park transformed into one of the most vibrant Latino neighborhoods in Chicago, as community leaders christened Division Street between Western Avenue and California Avenue “Paseo Boricua” and installed two monumental metal Puerto Rican flags across the street at each end of the strip.

Art Venues, Artists, and Organizers
The Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture is located on Division Street in the old Humboldt Park Stables at the western entrance to Paseo Boricua. Currently undergoing the last of many renovations, the IPRAC is the only “self-standing cultural institution in the nation devoted to showcasing and preserving Puerto Rican arts and historic exhibitions year-round.” It is one of a few organizations in the city that regularly devotes entire exhibitions to the art of Puerto Ricans living in Chicago. The Puerto Rican Day Parade and Festival, hosted every June, and other public events held in Paseo Boricua are also sites where concentrations of Puerto Rican art can be found. But like any other grouping of art or artists, the work being made by Puerto Ricans and those of Puerto Rican descent in Chicago is plentiful, diverse and to be found everywhere and anywhere you can imagine. But here are some that are particularly of note and illustrate the offerings in the area.

Star Padilla, Freedom To Ride Mural

Candida Alvarezis a full professor in the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She says that, “as an artist who teaches, I like to create a classroom environment where students feel comfortable taking risks, where they learn to think critically and where skill development is a given…My aim is to push students to question so their engagement moves outside of the familiar.” In the eleven years that she has been teaching at SAIC, Alvarez has worked with a number of Latino students, including Puerto Rican artists Edra Soto, Pedro Velez, Steve Cordero, David Cordero, Brenda Torres Figueroa, Angel Otero, Sebastian Vallejo and Nora Nieves. In her own work, Alvarez often begins by looking to contemporary culture, picking a photograph that she is drawn to from a magazine or newspaper as a starting point. She then transforms the picture through the drawing process, creating a template for a future painting, within which the origins of the image become shredded, practically indistinguishable. As a child growing up in New York, she says that Puerto Rico was the dreamy place of her parents’ stories. Now that they have returned and she visits regularly, it is a real place in real time, though just as lovely.

Josue Pellot, Conquistadors At It Again, This Time In Neon

Star Padilla is a Chicago-born teacher, artist, painter, muralist, and children’s book illustrator. She spends a majority of her time as a freelance mural painting instructor, and has been working with students in Chicago’s public and private schools for fifteen years. In the last year alone, she has lead the painting of murals in Englewood, Cabrini Green, Humboldt Park, Wicker Park, Logan Square, Old Irving Park and Evanston. And she loves the work: “I love working with youth and teaching them that art is more than a hobby or a talent, to the committed personality it’s a way of life.  But I also teach kids that art is a wonderful way to express oneself no matter what’s going on in their lives.” She recently completed a mural on the Paseo Boricua at 2459 W. Division on the back wall of the West Town Bike Shop. She expects to complete an After School Matters Mural Minded mural in the Kelvyn Park District in Hermosa by August 6th.

Josué Pellotis a sculptor, who considers even his work in other mediums to be extensions of his sculpture practice and shows regularly in Chicago, Puerto Rico and the UK. His work is anything but traditional, however, as he often utilizes the language and form of everyday life to critical and humorous effect. He once installed neon light pieces in the window of La Municipal Supermarket (2559 W. Division) just in time for the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Easily mistaken for alcohol advertisements, the pieces actually depicted moments from the European colonization of the Americas, suggestively reminding onlookers of the racism and oppression of their not-so-distant past. He has also infiltrated a “Boricua toy” vending machine in Humboldt Park, purchasing it, toys and all, from the distributor and adding renditions of himself and his family to the navel-baring female and paint gun-toting male figurines sold within for fifty cents. He currently has a solo exhibition, Pellot Gonzalez Rios, at the Hyde Park Art Center that is up through August 22nd, the content of which focuses on his family and childhood in Puerto Rico. He recently took his first venture into filmmaking, making I’m the Queenwith colleague Henrique Cirne-Lima, a documentary about a 2009 beauty pageant for Puerto Rican, transgendered youth from Paseo Boricua. The film will screen at the Hyde Park Art Center Saturday August 14th.

Reynaldo Rodriguez, La Hija de Ochum

Reynaldo “Guaracibo” Rodriguezis a self-trained artist, who has a passion for color pencil drawing, acrylic paint on canvas, mixed-media work and murals. His artwork takes his family and Puerto Rican heritage as the central motif if representation. He says of his pieces, “They are the results of my aesthetic and intellectual development, and belong to different stages and states of mind. They are my reflections, my creations. I always paint for myself and for anyone who may enjoy what I paint. All the projects that I work on, they have to relate to me.” In scrolling through images of his work online this becomes apparent. All are of incredibly intimate subject matter—his wife, seated with a peacock on her shoulder in front of a full moon, a man in chains kissing the belly of a pregnant woman, a middle-aged man daydreaming about palm trees and waterfalls, a couple dancing on a beach—and though most appear to be in the present day a good number recall Puerto Rico’s history: indigenous populations, the Conquistadors, slavery. Rodriguez, thus, melds his personal present with his collective past, making images that are at once both insular and relatable.

Francisco Rosado, Chicagolicious

Francisco Rosadocame from Puerto Rico to visit an old friend living in Chicago eight years ago. That friend is now his wife and the mother of his children. Rosado had began his work as a visual artist designing posters in the 90s for his punk bands Recazo Social and Lopodrido, and his most recent work continues to demonstrate an interest in punk music philosophies and graphic design.  He says, “I’m an internationalist by principle, but growing up in the Puerto Rican status quo certainly influenced my world view. The most notable are the quest for freedom, the need for inclusion, the importance of coexistence and the solidarity spirit I learned in Puerto Rico inform my work more conceptually than with the representation of a reduced specific subject matter.” He was part of the conceptualization process, as well as one of the chosen artists to participate in the School Engagement Initiative, which places community artists at local schools towards the creation of integrated arts curriculum-based projects that address the learning needs of students as well as issues of community development. He did so, feeling that as a product of the public education system in Puerto Rico with limited exposure to art, he could relate to Chicago’s inner city youth, who face a similar situation.

Edra Soto, The Chacon-Soto Show

Edra Soto moved to Chicago from San Juan ten years ago to get her MFA in painting at SAIC. She is interested in creating and promoting non-commercial art and often utilizes a wide-range of materials in her complex installation pieces. Two years ago, she began exploring explicit media images of Latinas. Her work in this area addresses the concern that the sexual agency of Latinas in visual culture has barely progressed and possibly even regressed in the last forty years. In her 12×12 piece at the Museum of Contemporary Art last summer, The Chacon-Soto Show, she honed in on Iris Chacon, a pioneer of the vendetta movement in Puerto Rico in the 1970s and pop culture icon, in order to question the fascination of Latinas with self-exposure and examine the way in which Latino culture is portrayed in the mainstream. She is currently working on a new exhibition, Homily, which will open on September 24th at Ebersmoore on Morgan Street in the west loop.

Brenda Torres, Figueroa La Femme Qui N'Existe Pas

Brenda Torresis a SAIC-educated performance artist, who has been working between Puerto Rico and Chicago as an artist, curator and educator for the last ten years. She has taught at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School since 2008 and in recent years has achieved notoriety for being the youngest contemporary art curator working at a museum in Puerto Rico. She sees all of this work, however, as part of her greater body of performance art. “I use ‘performance art’ as the contrivance that encloses my entire body of work,” she says. “I use performance art as a model in my curatorial practice which pays close attention to those works that explore human behavior. As a result, my educational approach involves finding meaningful tools and resources to challenge the social predicaments that historically had been in charge of marginalizing people in society.” She has been actively involved with Chicago’s Puerto Rican arts community in myriad ways, including the creation of murals with ex-political prisoners, performance workshops for the peers at Vida/SIDA, community lectures with IPRAC, exhibitions at local galleries, and the organization of the Puerto Rican Day Parade and Haunted Paseo Boricua. She does so, because she genuinely believes she can help the community grow through her artwork, programming and education.

From the "Men with Channel Changers" series

He has created an amazing body of photography, and a great collection of his images can be seen via a slideshow on his site. But among his obvious experience, artistry and technical skill, he most amazed the editor of Chicago Art Magazine by using a Loupe Magnifier to examine the review screen on his digital camera to make sure he’d gotten the shot.

From the "Men with Channel Changers" series

From the "Men with Channel Changers" series

*Lloyd was the amazing photographer that I met through The Reader article. Lloyd is trading me interior photography lessons for this post for his peeps in the Chicago Photography Collective Again, that show opens this weekend, Sept 2.

Mari Espinosa

A “finishing school” for artists opens for business in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood next January.  The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship will emphasize leadership and marketing skills for artists, said Lisa Canning, its founder and director.

Canning, a professional clarinetist, comes from a family of successful entrepreneurs. She decided to apply the skills she learned from them to her own business ventures, and believes they apply to artists as well. She said she’s seen “a lot of people not able to survive after attending a very expensive art school.”

She also wants to prove that an art-related business can thrive.

The school’s philosophy centers on combining the classroom with the art and business worlds.  In addition to class work, students will be required to actively participate in fundraising, creating web sites, merchandising, publicizing work as well as observing established entrepreneurs. But above all, she said, it will encourage an artist’s immersion in the community.

“An artist education is not complete until they have all these skills, which is why it’s a two-year finishing program,” Canning said.  She compared the training of an artist to that of a lawyer and doctor, believing art degrees should span 6 to 7 years to give the artist the training and experience she believes is required to be successful.

Canning pointed out that while most undergraduates have impressive skills, they have virtually nothing on their resume besides school-based shows and performances.  These students can’t expect to turn around and be a successful artist without these things.

Canning hopes the I.A.E. would give artists the method and the platform to which they can apply their ideas. “I consider anyone who wants to make a living doing their art at some level creating a business,” she said, adding that students would learn to capitalize their artistic vision into a successful business by thinking like an entrepreneur as well as like an artist.

“Maybe the definition of what those [artists] are needs to change, but their criteria for who they want to be does not have to change.  They simply have to embrace and understand their passions and connect those passions to the work they do in new ways which they’ve never been taught to do,” she said.

Canning started her business ventures after she graduated Northwestern University, and since then has owned clarinet retail stores and a musical mail-order instrument rental among other businesses.  She considers these to be extensions of her artistic skills as a clarinetist.

Canning said she made a point of hiring all kinds of artists, but noticed that many of them left to pursue their own careers after learning from her business model.  She said that the I.A.E is based on the idea that experience is the key to success, so the training at the school will reflect this.

Although the I.A.E. curriculum is still in progress, Canning said it will stress one–on-one teaching, and that students will have opportunities to work independently promoting their work.

The I.A.E will also offer different workshops and programs for artists at different levels.  Canning said that school is not just for beginners, but for those who have started a business and want to develop their marketing skills as well.  Tuition for the I.A.E. ranges from $600 for a 12-week program to $30,500 for the two-year (four semester) program.

“Artists have a role to play economically like we have never seen before,” Canning said, but added that without entrepreneurial training they may not get very far.

“There is this thing called survival of the fittest.  Our world changes and people do have to adapt to survive.”

Learn More, read founder’s story on CAR

Minami Furukawa

Imponderabilia, Marina Abramovic

You can’t claim a title like the “Grandmother of Performance Art” without having a hold on the artform, and in turn, letting it completely have its hold on you as well.   Marina Abramovic is an icon, and rightly so—it seems wrong to define her artistic drive as dedication, but rather as a conceptually saturated lifestyle.  The 63-year old Serbian artist has been ruling the performance art scene with her duration-based work since the early seventies.  If you don’t know her by name, you’re probably familiar with her work; Imponderabilia (1977 and 2010) involved two nude performers facing each other in a doorway, forcing the public audience to squeeze between the two bodies to enter the gallery, The House with the Ocean View (2002) displayed the artist living in a suspended habitat for twelve days with the only exit composed of a ladder made of knives, and Rhythm 10, 5, and 2 from the early seventies experimented with the energy of extreme body pain.

Marina Abramovic Institute

Now with all this in mind, imagine having Miss Abramovic as your personal teacher and mentor.  In order to preserve the seemingly dying performance art scene, the veteran artist is doing just that.  The Marina Abramovic Institute, due to open in the fall of 2012 in Hudson, New York, will offer artist workshops, courses for the public, a library, a grants program, and housing for students in seeking to develop interest and quality in performance art.  Abramovic describes her intentions for the Institute “like the Andy Warhol factory without the drugs”.

The nonprofit “Institute” will contain the artist’s archives, and sponsor performance and film with a minimum of six hours in length, reflecting Abramovic’s own artistic style and interest in endurance art.  Abramovic believes that long-duration performance work fell out of the American interest in the 80’s when the market took over, associating performance to entertainment.  Because of this, she explains that events became shorter and shorter, eliminating variety and focus on this type of work in the U.S.  “Performance art is not entertaining at all,” she said to a New York writer for angelfloresjr.multiply.com, smiling at the misguided offers she receives to present her work at art parties and the like.

House With Ocean View, Marina Abramovic

In Abramovic’s efforts to preserve durational performance, the Institute seeks to invite international curators to show edgy, difficult work that may be forbidden in museums and cultural institutions in this country.  Because the 20,000 sq. foot Greek revival theater that was purchased to house the Institute is made of solid concrete, the use of dangerous and otherwise strange materials will be encouraged, inviting the sort of work that is more often found in European performance genre.  This type of venue encourages the hopes for the public eye to be exposed to an artform that has been waning for decades, thereby cultivating a lost appreciation for it.

Elysabeth Alfano is the founder of Fear No Art Chicago. A friend to both artist and collector, she has been conducting artist interviews and featuring Chicago-centric art events. As the show’s creator and executive producer, Alfano aims to bridge the gap between the arts and public by going behind the scenes into artist spaces where the public is never allowed. This intimate look at the lives of the artists and the studios where it happens shows the human and approachable side of the creative process and spirit.

A Chicago native, Elysabeth has been living and breathing the arts for all of her  life. Her parents were collectors of oddities and dedicated art enthusiasts, she went on to study art history and fashion in Paris and Florence. She returned to Chicago and owned an international art  gallery, stretching her arts connections beyond the visual arts to all  arts communities throughout the city. Having the itch to create  herself, she worked in the Chicago fashion industry, designing and  producing textiles in her own accessories business, while expanding  her contacts into the design and fashion community.  Ms. Alfano taught Graduate and Undergraduate classes in Marketing For the Visual Artists at Columbia College, and has freelanced on various arts projects, including writing art reviews and artist consulting.

Elysabeth’s contributions to the arts aren’t strictly relegated to the visual. She has done voice-over work for Kurtis Productions, acted and performed in the Improv for Actors Series with Second City, and has done countless TV interviews.  Elysabeth has been bridging the gap between artists and the public for over 15 years. Fer site, Fear No Art, features articles by guest writers – such as the recent post: Art & Artists by John Steinbrunner.

Fear No Art Chicago is featured on WTTW and along with the new web series, Art Scene, on www.FearNoArtChicago.com Alfano’s vision is gaining in popularity and FNA is working to assist the public to embrace an approachable format to discover the artists behind the art.