Exhibitions
Group Show at Gallery 2
Through November 29
This exhibition features work in installation, painting, performance,
photography, sculpture, and video by SAIC students and alumni.
Gallery 2, 847 W. Jackson, 312.563.5162.
Spectacular Vernacular
Through November 21, 2003
Spectacular Vernacular, curated by Chicago-based artist Ryan
Davis, reexamines the influence of subculture and its common
symbology through the viewpoints of four contemporary artists.
This exhibition features artworks that respond to popular
culture by re-contextualizing common iconography to blur the
lines and distinctions between social use and material meaning.
Artists include Brian McCutcheon, Lynn Cazabon, Matt Owens,
and Matthew Weddington.
Betty Rymer Gallery, 280 S. Columbus, 312.443-3703. Opening
reception Friday, October 10, 5 - 7 p.m. Curator’s talk
Tuesday, October 14, 4:30 p.m.
Atomic
November 14 - December 6
Unit B (Gallery) presents the U.S. debut of British artist
Matthew Noel-Tod, whose video Atomic is a shot-for-shot remake
of the 1980 music promo video for the pop song Atomic by Blondie.
Recreated with a Debbie Harry look-a-like, the video replicates
the imagined post-apocalyptic setting of the original video;
the soundtrack of the original Blondie song, Atomic, is replaced
with a contemporary score written for F.W. Murnau’s
silent vampire film Nosferatu.
Unit B (Gallery), 1733 S. Des Plaines, 312.491.9384.
Pablo Helguera: Parallel Lives
Through December 6
For his first major solo exhibition in Chicago, New York-based
artist Pablo Helguera will create an unconventional hall of
fame, featuring vignettes of a selection of five semi-obscure
though remarkable historical figures, whom the artist has
researched for an extensive period of time.
Julia Friedman Gallery, 118 N. Peoria, 312.455.0755
Palpable Disequilibrium: Contemporary Art In Romania
November 7 - December 7
Five internationally known Romanian artists explore the political,
social, economic and cultural instability plaguing Romania
as it transitions into democracy in this interactive exhibit,
which includes wall drawings, photographs, a short film, a
multitude of objects featuring globes, wet cement on which
the visitors are invited to step, an interactive website,
and human size houses to be explored by visitors.
LIPA Art Gallery, 160 E. Illinois. Opening reception November
7, 6-10 p.m.
Grant Miller: New Work and John Paul Doguin: Space
Available
October 24 - December 6
The Chicago debut of Miller, a recent graduate of Washington
University (St Louis, MO), who uses graphite and acrylic gel
medium to build paintings that draw on the vocabulary of architecture,
layering other images into his rendering that resemble textbook
illustrations and science fiction. John Paul Doguin is a local
photographer and graduate of Columbia College Chicago whose
series of palladium prints and quadtone inkjet prints take
the banal suburban industrial park and transform it into a
mysterious, evocative landscape.
Peter Miller Gallery, 118 N. Peoria. Opening reception Friday,
Oct 24, 6-9 p.m.
At the Edge: When Darkness Falls Across the Land
October 28 - November 8
A group exhibition and forthcoming publication based on the
concept of “darkness” from its literal definition
— a thing or space devoid of light- to its metaphorical
associations with death and evil.
Gallery 400 UIC, University of Illinois at Chicago (MC 034),
1240 W. Harrison, 312.996.6114. Opening Reception Wednesday
Oct 29, 4-7pm.
Special Events
Bare Walls 2003
Saturday, November 8, 6-9 p.m.
Over 150 prominent School of the Art Institute of Chicago
alumni will create original works of art on 3-by-5 feet sections
of canvas at this annual event. Guests will have the unique
opportunity to watch these artists at work and to purchase
their “new masterpieces” through a silent auction.
Proceeds from this event benefit the Bare Walls Scholarship
fund.
Gallery 2, 847 W. Jackson. Advance registration $60 per person;
registration at the door, $75 per person. Call 312.899.7414
for details.
RESFEST 2003
November 7 - 9
Memo to new media junkies: RESFEST 2003 is coming to the Museum
of Contemporary Art (MCA). The annual global festival is dedicated
to new and innovative film, music, art, design, technology
and supporting up-and-coming talent as well as innovative
techniques. RESFEST was started in 1996 and was the first
global festival that features desktop tools designed to empower
the independent creator. Over the years it has become a global
way combine film, music, design, fashion and art recognized
with a worldwide community.
In addition to short film showcases, there will be lectures,
ways for attendees to look at the new creations that have
come out of the last year’s advancements in technologies.
RESFEST will also feature musical events, such as a concert
at the Empty Bottle (Nov. 8, 11 p.m.) by Amon Tobin, a prolific
Brazilian-born junglist who uses drum and bass tags with abstract
noise explosions to compel his listeners.
For information about tickets and event schedules, visit http://www.resfest.com.
Lectures Readings
A Night with Bitch Magazine
Saturday, November 8, 8 p.m.
Lisa Jervis, Marisa Meltzer, and Andi Zeisler of Bitch magazine
come to Quimby’s to read from their “Family”-themed
fall issue (as well as some old favorite articles) and answer
questions in what should hopefully be a lively Q&A session.
Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture is a print magazine
devoted to media criticism, and witty, occasionally snarky
pop culture analysis. It features critiques of TV, movies,
magazines, advertising, and more—plus interviews with
and profiles of cool, smart women in all areas of pop culture.
Visit www.bitchmagazine.com or quimbys.com for more details.
Fred Braithwaite, a.k.a. Fab 5 Freddy and Charlie
Ahearn
November 5, 6 p.m.
Fab 5 Freddy was among the first graffiti artists to exhibit
internationally and went on to direct over 75 music videos.
He has been the host of YO! MTV Raps and the head of Pallas
Records, and authored a book on hip-hop slang, Fresh Fly Flavor.
Charlie Ahearn is a filmmaker and co-author of Yes Yes Y’all,
an oral history of the first decade of hip-hop with over a
100 photos, many of them by Ahearn. Ahearn’s photos
have been exhibited this past year in New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Tokyo and London.
SAIC Auditorium, 280 S. Columbus
Renee Green
November 12, 6 p.m.
Renee Green’s installations are complex examinations
of overlapping themes that are usually related to the exhibition
site. Using an anthropological approach toward her subjects,
she researches historical and cultural topics and then offers
viewers the results of her studies in videos, texts, and sound
elements.
SAIC auditorium, 280 S. Columbus
Theater
The Marriage of Figaro
November 8-December 13
In this new adaptation by Wing & Groove Theatre Company
ensemble member Megan Powell, Beaumarchais’ 18th-century
French comedic romp (once the source of Mozart’s opera)
is re-imagined as a screwball comedy in which Figaro and company
are transported to a luxury ocean liner in the 1930s.
Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division Street. Call 773.782.9416
x2 or contact info@wingandgroove.com for dates, times and
ticket information.