1. It’s Getting Hot in Here at Chicago Artists’ Coalition

Work by Sarah and Joseph Belknap.

Chicago Artists’ Coalition is located at 217 N. Carpenter St. Reception Friday, 6-9pm.

2. With Other People, With Other Sons at Heaven Gallery

Work by Ryan Chorbagian, Hao Ni, and Patrick McGuan.

Heaven Gallery is located at 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave. 2nd Fl. Reception Friday, 7-11pm.

3. Temporal Figuration at LVL3

Work by Andrew Holmquist, David Brandon Geeting, and Jade Walker.

LVL3 is located at 1542 N. Milwaukee Ave, 3rd Fl. Reception Saturday, 6-10pm.

4. limes and bricks suck pink you tasteless hunk or just limes and brick suck pink or tasteless hunk at Terrain Exhibitions

Work by Claire Ashley

Terrain Exhibitions is located at 704 Highland Ave. Oak Park. Reception Sunday 12-4pm.

5. Objet Petit Ahh…, and Benefit for Version Festival 12 at Co-Prosperity Sphere*

Curated by Dayton Castleman and Matthew Dupont, with work by John Airo, Kristen Althoff, Anna & Meredith, Nick Black, Lisa Brosig, Stephanie Burke and Jeriah Hildewine, Jessica Calek and Dan Streeting, Abby Christensen, Melissa Damasauskas, Kaleb Dean, Aaron Delehanty, Jim Duignan, Ben Fain, Karl Gesch, Aron Gent, Ricki Hill, Gabe Hoare, David Hooker, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Anais Maljan, John Medina, Thomas Moreno, Heather Mullins, Jake Myers, Catie Olson, Haynes Riley, Blake Russell, Chris Santiago, Rana Siegel, Charles Smith, Bert Stabler, Basia Toczydlowska, Emily Van Hoff, Johanna Wawro, and Jen Zito.

Co-Prosperity Sphere is located at 3219 S. Morgan St. Reception Saturday 6-11pm.

*The author has work in this exhibition

1. NEW FORMALISMS 2 at 65GRAND

Work by Samantha Bittman, Todd Chilton, Steven Husby, and Melissa Oresky.

65GRAND is located at 1369 W Grand Ave. Reception is Friday from 7-10pm.

2. I’M HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS at Happy Collaborationists Exhibition Space

Work by Aay Preston-Myint.

Happy Collaborationists Exhibition Space is located at 1254 N Noble St. Reception is Saturday from 6-10pm.

3. Group Exhibition at Hinge Gallery

Work by work by Corydon Cowansage, Aaron Delehanty, Brent Houston, Charles MaHaffee, MaryKate Maher, and Ryan Richey.

Hinge Gallery is located at 1955 W Chicago Ave. Reception is Saturday from 6-9pm.

4. SUPERSTRUCTURES at The Mission Projects

Work by Susan Giles, Jeroen Nelemans, and David Salkin.

The Mission Projects is located at 1431 W Chicago Ave. Reception is Friday from 6-9pm.

5. 120 Years at Threewalls

Work by Laura Mackin.

Threewalls is located at 119 N Peoria St. Reception is Friday from 6-9pm.

Hey again everyone! First off, I need to give a shout out to all my buddies, including Aaron Delehanty, Daniel Lavitt, Duncan Anderson, Helen Maurene Cooper, Robin Dluzen, Takeshi Moro, and so many more, as well as myself, who are involved in the Art Loop Open. The space crawl is tomorrow night from 5-8pm, and voting must be done on site, so come and vote for us to get some moolah.

As for the Top 5, here you go:

1. Bowie at Rotofugi Gallery

Paintings of David Bowie by Carlos Ramos.

Rotofugi Gallery is located at 2780 N. Lincoln Ave. Reception is Friday, from 7-10pm.

2. My Invisible Friend at Tony Wight Gallery

Cartoon craziness from the mind and hand of Karl Haendel.

Tony Wight Gallery is located at 845 W. Washington Blvd. Reception is Friday, from 5-8pm.

3. Miller & Shellabarger at Western Exhibitions

New work by the dynamic duo of Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger.

Western Exhibitions is located at 119 N. Peoria St., suite 2A. Reception is Friday, from 5-8pm.

4. Foreign Interior at DIG

New works by Chicago artist Caleb Lyons.

DIG is located at 2003 N Point, #3. Reception is Saturday, from 7-10pm.

5. Glimmer at Peregrineprogram

Jewel-encrusted madness from Rob Bondgren.

Peregrineprogram is located at 500 W. Cermak Rd., #727. Reception is Sunday, from 2-5pm.

This weekend is making up for the last couple slow ones. In all, 35 openings, with shows in all the standard art districts, a few museum events, and an awesome array of shows at the weird-ass venues that make Chicago such a vibrant art scene. Here’s my picks:

1. Living Treasure at Pentagon

“Living Treasure is a shadow of Pentagon Gallery’s first opening Nemesis, A show that engaged cultural others and darkness in music, film, literature and athleticism. Living Treasure attempts to take note from Nemesis but focuses on current global issues and America’s involvement with in them. Each artist transforms ideas of violence, destruction, environment, religion, and sexuality by utilizing different mediums and engaging the viewer to be critical of their own social nature. The show it’s self might seem sinister but stays satirical with subject and matter.” Work by Carl Baratta, Carolina Wheat, Montgomery Perry Smith, Theodore Darst, Ryan Ingebritson & Flash Gordon (1980).

Pentagon is located at 961 W. 19th St., 1F. Reception is PLEASE NOTE: Saturday from 7-10pm.

2. Younger Than Janis at Noble & Superior Projects

“The work of all of these artists (who together cover film, sculpture, sound, food, printed matter, painting, photography and video) considers the ephemeral nature of youth and beauty. The work ranges from musings on death to pursuit of an infinite youth, covering all the fleeting affect in between.” Work by Marcel Alcala, Ryan Barone, Lucas Blair, Patrick Bobilin, Connor Camburn, Kevin Clancy, Adam Cruces, Cara Anne Greene, Eliza Koch, Andre & Evan Lenox, Vanessa Macholl, Celia Marks, Ross Meckfessel, Michael Morris, Erin Nixon, Michael Radziewicz, Anna Rochinski, Steve Ruiz, Liz Rugg, Hannah Verrill, Blair Waters, Ali White, Andrew Norman Wilson, and Travis Wyche.

Noble & Superior Projects  is located at 1418 W. Superior St. Reception is Friday from 6-10pm, film screening is Saturday from 7-10pm.

3. A Packer Schopf 3-fer: “South County Scrapbook”, “Gleaners, Hawkers, and Reapers” and “Skivery”

Danny Hein: South County Scrapbook – “My drawings are inspired by romantic memories of growing up in rural Indiana. I always felt there was a lot of mystery there. The figures here represent the land. I think of them as corn-fed-ghosts.”

Catherine Jacobi: Gleaners, Hawkers, and Reapers – “The Histories of Objects are platforms from which Jacobi starts her pieces – considering a narrative that has already existed and one that she will have imagined existed. The novelty of form is that it leads you to believe it will endure. Look at a body, her body – immortality it seems is mortal.”

Nancy Bardawil & Casey Gunshel: Skivery – “Nancy Bardawil started her art career as a painter and a sculptor, but for the last twenty years she has been working in film as a director. Although she’s been painting since she was six-years-old, this is the first time she’s shown her paintings in public. As a child, Casey Gunschel learned to draw by way of National Geographic and Dungeons and Dragons monster manuals. That introduction has inspired a lifetime fascination with animals, creatures and all things wild.”

Packer Schopf Gallery is located at 942 W. Lake St. Reception is Friday from 5-8pm.

4. Action! at Chicago Art Department

“ACTION! is a Chicago Art Department exhibition themed around the idea of the Hollywood summer blockbuster movie.  Since the release of Jaws in 1977, the summer movie season has, for better or for worse, become characterized by over the top, big budget, action, special-effects laden movies that we now know as “the summer blockbuster”.    The art in this exhibition looks at the summer movie as cultural phenomena and symbol, as nostalgia and memory, and yes even simple, mindless fun.” Work by Ryan Roberts, Christophe Roberts, Clare Rosean, Nat Soti, Jim Jeffers, Ali Serradge, Sarah and Joseph Belknap, Kayce Bayer, Chris Lin, and Kerry Flaherty.

Chicago Art Department  is located at 1837 S Halsted St. Reception is Friday from 6-10pm.

5. Visible City: Map Room at Fill in the Blank Gallery

“Visible City: Map Room is part of an ongoing body of work by Aaron Delehanty in which painted images and drawn maps work together to build a mythos of a nonexistent place called Visible City. This exhibition highlights two features of this city—its urban physical space and its mental space—by showing scenes of the city as being designed in harmony with its surroundings. The maps of Visible City are strange and unique, different from your usual map because Visible City is a different kind of human settlement.”

Fill in the Blank Gallery is located at 5038 N. Lincoln Ave. Reception is Friday from 7-11pm.

Saturday Lauren and I went to the Co Prosperity Sphere to check out the NFO XPO. In all honesty I hadn’t been to a Version festival in three years. Three years ago both myself and several friends were stranded in Bridgeport at 2am in the rain and miles from the train (no taxis would come pick us up and the bus had stopped running). So, with that incident behind me, I returned to Version Fest in a car and with a fresh amount of optimism.

The layout of the fair looked liked most art fairs in the sense that each artist/organization/gallery had an individual booth and objects were either being sold/bartered/given away.

Golden Age, manned by the always rad Marco Kane Braunschweiler (pictured right), was one of my favorite booths. They carried work by Robin Camron.  I was really into Camron’s “Mind Maps” and picked up her most recent book also titled “Mind Maps” which maps the artist’s thoughts through extended ven diagrams.

Green Lantern and Three Walls held it down in usual fashion. Aaron Delehanty had a psychiatric help booth set up which resembled “Peanuts”.  I did not get a chance get Aaron’s advice but I did hear him tell a woman that she needed to “go get a job”.  I was also sort of taken with Daniel Mellis’  Institute for Socioaesthetic Research. According to a pamphlet, “the institute is dedicated to discovering the aesthetic possibilities inherent in the research and observation of social structures.” To be honest I was initially attracted to the stock of paper that their pamphlet and business cards were printed on (I spend all day at work talking about paper) but also became interested in some of the services they offered. “The Fourth Amendment on Paper (Bags) Learn about your constitutional rights while enjoying a refreshing beverage at Maria’s (Kaplan’s Liquors),960 w. 31st street. Every purchase comes with the Fourth Amendment and instructions for use on a paper bag. Remember, bags at a liquor store are no substitute for legal advice.”

My overall feeling when I left was that I liked some portions of Version but wished there were more participants. And being the optimist that I surprisingly am, I think that more participation will come over time.