Sorry I’ve missed you all over the Christmas and New Year holiday, I was gallivanting about in California. Now I’m back, and looking forward to another great year of Chicago art.

-Steph

1. Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea at Carl Hammer Gallery

Work by Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick.

Carl Hammer Gallery is located at 740 N. Wells St. Reception is Friday from 5:30-8pm.

2. The Collective at David Weinberg Gallery

Work by Eric Blum, David Burdeny, Helen Maureen Cooper, Jordan Eagles, Bob Emser, Amanda Friedman, Joseph Ivacic, Yvette Kaiser-Smith, Beverly Kedzior, Daniel Kim, Kelly McCormick, Robert McGuire, Jennifer Scott McLaughlin, Elizabeth Opalenik, Michael Parker, Michael Ratulowski, Tricia Rumbolz, Stephanie Serpick, Dylan Vitone, David Weinberg, and Rhonda Wheatley. This is the final show at Weinberg Gallery.

David Weinberg Gallery is located at 300 W. Superior St., #203. Reception is Friday from 5-8pm.

3. Mostly Small and Serious at Stephen Daiter Gallery

Work by Elliott Erwitt.

Stephen Daiter Gallery is located at 230 W. Superior. Reception is Friday from 5-8pm.

4. Cryptogram, So Alone and Mystified, & You’re Partially to Blame at Packer Schopf Gallery

Work by Deborah Baker, Michael Krueger, and Dominic Paul Moore, respectively.

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

5. Thing is a Hole in a Thing It is Not at The Renaissance Society

Work by Gerard Byrne.

The Renaissance Society is located at 5811 S. Ellis Ave., Cobb Hall 418. Reception is Sunday from 4-7pm, with and artist talk from 5-6pm.

1. Containers at DIG

A space over by Monument 2, DIG looks like it could be a new place we all might want to start going to. As usual, it is hard to tell from the photos what the actual work will be (when it’s 3-D), but the light box Rorschach thing going on looks interesting. What to see a “new” place (new to me at least)? Head on over.

DIG is located at 2003 N Point #3. Reception is Friday from 6-9pm.

2. Anatomy in the Gallery at The International Museum of Surgical Science

Now, I will admit a “conflict of interest” here (if you believe in those), I am good friends with Annie Heckman. Now that the formalities are taken care of, HOLY CRAP, these shows are going to be awesome. I’ve known Annie’s work for a while now, and saw Lauren Kalman’s work at, I think, SOFA. Heckman’s exibit is called “You thought that you were alone but I caught your bullet just in time,” and Kalman’s is called “Blooms, Efflorescence, and Other Dermatological Embellishments.” Glow-in-the-dark bones and skin rashes made of precious stones? How can you go wrong?

The International Museum of Surgical Science is located at 1524 N. Lake Shore Dr. Reception is Friday from 5-8pm.

3. Twelve Hundred Miles Down the Street at Linda Warren Gallery

I think I’m attracted to this work because it reminds me of my own photography, in a weird, round-about way. Depressed places rendered formally for contemplation, I guess you could say. I am generally a lover of Linda Warren’s place, and this looks like another good show for the books. All the paintings in Twelve Hundred Miles are by Joseph Noderer. Michael Stillion will be showing in the Project Space.

Linda Warren Gallery is located at 1052 W. Fulton Market St. Reception is Friday from 6-9pm.

4. Carnival of Curiosity at Holy Mountain

You ever heard of Holy Mountain? I hadn’t until earlier this week. For those of you new to it, Holy Mountain is a women-owned BDSM Studio in the West Loop.  And I quote, “Carnival of Curiosity is intended to bring a new audience into an environment they might not otherwise explore, and to showcase the talents of a collective of Pro Dominas who already contribute to Chicago’s artistic zeitgeist in their own ways.” Sounds like a party to me!

Holy Mountain is located at 120 N. Green. Reception is Friday from 6-9pm.

5. The Strange Case of William Mumler at The Renaissance Society

Spirit photography is rad! Now Louis Kaplan from the University of Toronto will be discussing the work of one the most famous, William Mumler. And I quote, “As Kaplan’s case study of William Mumler shows, faith in the truth-telling abilities of photography has always been accompanied by skepticism about the objectivity of the photographer. Beginning in the early 1860s, Mumler became famous in Boston and New York for taking “spirit photographs” in which ghostly images of departed family members or friends appear in portraits of living subjects.” Hooray for ghosts!

The Renaissance Society is located at 5811 S. Ellis Ave. The lecture will be held Sunday in  Swift Hall, Room 106 at 2pm.

Times are tough, but there’s a lot to look forward to with the coming Fall art season in Chicago. Here’s what Meg and I are most looking forward to seeing over the next three months — and be sure to check out Stephanie’s guide to Friday and Saturday openings below!

Philip Von Zweck at ThreeWalls

9/11 Philip Von Zweck at ThreeWalls (M, C) The title of this show is “The Fortieth Anniversary of the First Anniversary of May ’68 (in September).” Von Zweck is a significant and much-beloved figure in the Chicago art scene who ran a highly respected apartment gallery for a number of years. This exhibition marks his return to a more traditional solo artist exhibition framework.

Luis Gispert at Rhona Hoffman Gallery

9/11 Luis Gispert at Rhona Hoffman (C) New large-scale photographic portraits and videos by the Miami-born, Brooklyn-based Gispert that focus on immigrant sectors of the American workforce and the search for expressive outlets outside the realm of labor. A three-channel film focuses on Gispert’s friend Rene, a Cuban immigrant who works in a Miami restaurant supply store.

9/11 Jessica Labatte at Scott Projects (M). Labatte’s exhibition Bright Branches documents found objects collected from Chicago alleys and junk stores.

9/11 Craig Doty: Women at Roots and Culture (M,C). The women in Doty’s new photographic series have been described as appearing “physically exhausted as well as ethically or morally debased,” i.e. a wet and shivering woman looking out past viewers with few narrative clues as to why, etc. Given Choire Sicha’s description of Doty as “a sick little pervert” whose previous body of work was “very John Hughes meets John Waters meets John Lydon,” well, let’s just say we can’t wait to see his approach to the subject for ourselves.

Doug Ischar at Golden Gallery

9/12 Doug Ischar at Golden (M,C). A body of work from 1985, never before seen in its entirety, is the enticement here. Ischar’s show is titled Marginal Waters and features images taken in Chicago’s now-defunct Belmont Rocks.

9/19 Jonas Wood at Shane Campbell Gallery (C). He’s from L.A. and showed at Black Dragon Society, plus he’s collaborated with painter Mark Grotjahn…for now, that’s all I need to know to want to see Wood’s show.

9/19 Jason Lazarus, Wolfgang Plöger, Zoe Strauss at The Art Institute (M). A show of recent photographic acquisitions of these artists’ works by the Art Institute.

9/20 Allen Sekula, Polonia and Other Fables at The Renaissance Society (C). New photographs by anti-globalization hero Sekula that focus on Chicago’s rich labor history, its Polish working-class population along with The University of Chicago’s famous lineage of economic theorists. Heady yet vital stuff from this woefully under-recognized L.A.-based artist.

9/25 – 9/27 Mikhail Baryshnikov at Harris Theater (M). It’s Baryshnikov dude. ‘Nuff said.

Greely Myatt in Heartland at Smart Museum of Art

9/30 Heartland at the Smart Museum (C). Coorganized by the Smart Museum of Art and the Van Abbemuseum, a survey of artists from the Midwest aka the American Heartland. Hopefully it’ll subvert the syrupy connotations of it’s title, or at least be the kind of show that people argue, bitch and moan about rather than simply ignore.

10/2 – 10/4  Western Exhibitions and Golden Age at the NY Art Book Fair (M). The only event to make it to our list that is not in Chicago. If your in New York at the beginning of October check out two Chicagoans holding it down at the Fair.

October, opening date TBA, Carroll Dunham at He Said/She Said (C). Carroll Dunham shows in a suburban apartment gallery: the Oak Park home of Pamela Fraser and Randall Szott. Can’t wait for this.

10/8-21 Chicago International Film Festival (M) In it’s 45th year the film festival the two week festival is the hub for all film fanatics.  This festival might be the only time to catch certain films so be sure to check out their schedule in advance.

Jeremy Deller at The Museum of Contemporary Art

10/10 Jeremy Deller: It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq, at the MCA (M) Commissioned by The Three M Project Jeremy Deller will invite numerous participants to discuss their knowledge of the Iraq War. Some guest will include verterans, and scholars.
James Welling at Donald Young (C)

10/10 Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage at The Art Institute (C). I’m a sucker for Victoriana, and this exhibition –the first “to comprehensively examine the little-known phenomenon of Victorian photocollage, presenting work that has rarely—and in many cases never—before been displayed or reproduced” — is probably the one show I’m most looking forward to seeing this fall. A medium mostly practiced by aristocratic women, Victorian photocollage combined human, animal, and botanical forms in all sorts of wacky and whimsical ways, and I’m looking forward to reading the accompanying full-color catalogue to learn more about the ways that female artists of this era approached the form some sixty odd years before Picasso and Braque started playing around with it.

10/13 Alex Halsted and David Moré at Gallery 400 (C). Chicago-based Moré “collaborates” with an elephant nose fish, who emits an electrical pulse as a navigation tool which the artist then amplifies. I love the gallery’s blurb on this show: “This performance duo mixes issues of displacement, communications, commercial sound and inter-species contact in a singularly engaging bio-tech format.” Yep, pretty much says it all.

10/16 In Search of the Mundane at ThreeWalls (M) Organized by Randall Szott and InCUBATE  According to ThreeWalls this series will , “include boozy brunches, a lecture on the art of storytelling, various leisure excursions, and a tour of personal collections.”

Liam Gillick at the MCA

10/17  Liam Gillick Curates the MCA Collection (M, C). We love the way that the MCA is experimenting with the curation of its permanent collection. The MCA has invited Liam Gillick to select works for its next hanging.

11/TBA James Welling at Donald Young (C).  New work by L.A. photographer Welling, whose ongoing interest in the experimental and abstract possibilities of photography set his work apart from contemporaries like Sherrie Levine and Cindy Sherman as well as today’s younger generation focusing heavily on portraiture. Welling’s last show at Donald Young featured photograms of flowers and “torsos” (the latter actually made out of screens sculpted to resemble human curves) made without the use of a camera; the results were gorgeous, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he delves into next.

12/4 Carrie Schneider at MCA 12×12 (M, C)  Often using herself as her main character, Schneider  melds several genres of art-making including body art, performance, self-portraiture photography and film in images that are haunting, creepy, and hallucinatory in their resonance. If someone ever gave Schneider a huge project budget she could give Matthew Barney a run for his money, but for now we’ll look forward to seeing the new short film Schneider plans to premiere in her first solo museum outing at the MCA. According to the MCA’s website, the film, made in Helsinki, Finland while the artist was there on residency, continues the artists’ ongoing exploration of doubled selves and the uncanny.

Friday

Saturday

“The Foolish Toys” will build a post-decadent shrine or memorial to our excessive past. Materials, objects, sounds, actions, and images, will be incorporated into one large sculptural form that evolves over time. Viewers are invited to leave a remembrance of things past: useless, excessive, non-essential items.  Check out their website for more information.

• The Renaissance Society: Paul Chan: “My laws are my whores”

March 01 – April 12, 2009

5811 S. Ellis Avenue
Bergman Gallery, Cobb Hall 418
Chicago, Illinois 60637

“My laws are my whores marks the premiere of a new ensemble of works by Paul Chan. Using the writer and philosopher Marquis De Sade (1740–1814) as a point of departure, Chan has created moving image works, ink and charcoal drawings, a sculpture, and a set of computer fonts that evoke what the Sadean legacy might look like today and how his obsessions with forms of sex, violence, freedom, and reason echo in the 21st century.” The fonts that Chan has created are also available for free download via the Ren’s website.

Sunday

Spertus: Black Like Us

Lecture/Multimedia Presentation
Sunday, April 5, 2009
2pm
Spertus
610 S Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60605
$20/$15 members/$10 students

“The fates of African Americans and Jewish Americans have often been seen as entwined, as an index of the nation’s capacity to live up to its democratic ideals. With audio and visual examples, Dr. Stephen J. Whitfield lectures on stories of both minorities—separately and together—overcoming barriers and speaking out through literature and the arts.” More information at the museum website