There are approximately 155 Art & Design exhibitions and events happening this weekend, including great shows we’ve recently reviewed like “Dagmar Varady: Redden” at devening projects + editions and “Vivan Sundaram: Trash” at Walsh Gallery. Check out our listings if you don’t want to miss anything; our image gallery above offers a taste of this weekend’s receptions.

Here are selected events that didn’t make it into this week’s print edition. They all begin tonight (Friday 13) and all free.

In West Lakeview, the Cornelia Arts Building Open House kicks off from 6–10pm and continues Saturday 14 and Sunday 15, noon–5pm.

Humboldt Park’s new alterna-gallery Garage Spaces opens its second show, “Den,” from 5–10pm. Can someone explain to us what “couch bumps” are?

From 6–10pm in Pilsen, the Chicago Art Department hosts “$200,” in which CAD’s dozen resident artists answer the question “What does $200 mean to you?” in art and text.

In Ukrainian Village, Rotofugi unveils new drawings, prints, paintings “and possibly plush” by Jesse Ledoux and Veggiesomething from 7–10pm.

Syndy Ziegenfuss presents new mixed-media collages on wood in “Tipping Observation” at Mars Gallery in the West Loop from 7–10pm.

There are approximately 166 Art & Design exhibitions and events happening this weekend, so please check our listings if you don’t want to miss awesome shindigs like this.

Here are selected events that didn’t make it into this week’s print edition. Unless otherwise noted, events are free.

In the West Loop, ebersmoore holds special hours for its new show “Rob Carter: Stone on Stone” today until 9pm.

In River North, David Weinberg Gallery debuts recent wax-infused abstract paintings by Eric Blum and mixed-media assemblages by Hunt Rettig in “Infuse” Friday 6, 5–8pm.

Wicker Park/Bucktown First Friday takes over the Flatiron Arts Building Friday 6, 6–10pm. ($5 suggested donation.)

Lincoln Square’s Fill in the Blank Gallery highlights humorous prints by Gretchen Huffman in “Choose Your Own Adventure” tonight, Friday 6, 7–10pm.

On Saturday 7 at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago artist Silvia Malagrino explains how Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746–1828) influences her work as part of the museum’s Artist Connect series. (1–2pm, free with museum admission.)

The Art Institute also hosts “Photography Conversation,” a Chicago Humanities Festival event, from 1–2pm. Curator Matthew S. Witkovsky speaks with artists Liz Deschenes and Gaylen Gerber about the new works they prepared for the Modern Wing’s inaugural photography exhibition. ($5, educators and students free.)

In the West Loop, McCormick Gallery hosts a reception for “Melville Price: USA,” which highlights the W.P.A. artist’s 1960s works, Saturday 7, 4–7pm.

At Pilsen gallery and boutique Golden Age, Alex Fuller (of the Post Family) and Gabe Usadel celebrate the release of their book The Incredible Journey That Is Consciousness from 7–11pm.

Sunday 8, 11am–6pm, Bruce Thorn hosts a “Studio Exhibition” in Ravenswood with work by William Conger, Susan Michod and several other local artists.

In Oak Park, the mysterious New York artist Donelle Woolford (Google her, you’ll see what we mean) visits The Suburban Sunday 8, 2–4pm. Woolford exhibits recent paintings and gives a performance, Dan Graham Withdrawal Syndrome, at 2pm.

At the Department of Cultural Affairs‘ (DCA) Artists at Work Forum October 29, I learned that Studio Chicago is the result of an unfortunate mistake—or, rather, a happy coincidence. As curator Dominic Molon was preparing for the Museum of Contemporary Art’s (MCA) February 2010 exhibition “Production Site: The Artist’s Studio Inside-Out,” he got a call from Michelle Grabner, chair of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) painting and drawing department. Grabner told him she and Annika Marie, a lecturer in art history at Columbia College, were curating their own show about the artist’s studio: “Picturing the Studio,” which opens December 11 at SAIC’s Sullivan Galleries. D’oh.

“After the initial panic was overcome,” Molon told the Artists at Work Forum audience, the MCA and SAIC curators realized they could work together. Soon, encouraged by SAIC director of exhibitions Mary Jane Jacob, five other partners—the DCA, Columbia College, UIC’s Gallery 400, the Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) and ThreeWalls, a nonprofit gallery in the West Loop—agreed to collaborate on a year-long, citywide initiative devoted to the artist’s studio: Studio Chicago. Read more »

This evening, acclaimed performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Roberto Sifuentes and Violeta Luna of the ensemble La Pocha Nostra cap off a weeklong residency at Columbia College with a free public performance of Corpo/Ilicito: The Post-Human Society #69. I talked yesterday with Gómez-Peña, the recipient of a 1991 MacArthur “genius grant” and a longtime explorer of cultural and psychological border territory, about the new work.

Time Out Chicago: You’ve described Corpo/Ilicito as responding to the challenge of the end of the Bush regime. How does Obama’s election alter the position of the oppositional artist?

Guillermo Gómez-Peña: We’re exploring philosophically the transition from a legacy of cultural fear, the demonization of the body of the Other: the Latino immigrant, the queer body, the female body. This legacy is still with us, parasitic, like a lingering fog in the streets and in the institutions. How is it affecting us? How are we self-censoring?

And then how does this fit with an institutionalized culture of hope? We’re trying to compare notes from our own project of hope. Are we in sync with them? Is Obama willing to listen to artists and intellectuals?

Read more »

Don’t let the gloomy weather keep you from the almost 150 Art & Design events and exhibitions happening this weekend. (See our slide show above for a preview of what’s opening.) Here are a few events that didn’t make it into our print edition. Unless otherwise noted, they’re free.

Guillermo Gómez-Peña premieres the performance piece Corpo/Illicito: The Post-Human Society #69 at Columbia College tonight, Friday 30, at 7pm.

In its new West Loop space, ebersmoore opens “Rob Carter: Stone on Stone” tonight from 6–9pm. In River North, Roy Boyd Gallery hosts a reception for “Brigitte Riesebrodt: Metamorphoses” Friday 30, 5–8pm.

Shannon Benine unveils “Means Without End” at the Chicago Photography Center Friday 30, 6:30–8:30pm.

Tomorrow, Saturday 31, the new Wicker Park “alternative gallery” Parking Space, which occupies an abandoned garage, highlights works by Michael Cheatwood, E.T. Chong, Dorian McKaie, Daniel Sullivan and Danny Tucker in “Helter Sculpture” at 4pm.

In the West Loop, Andrew Rafacz Gallery opens two shows Saturday 31, 4–7pm: “Jason Lazarus: Orion Over Baghdad” and “Daniel Rich: 1989–2009: Paintings of the Berlin Airports 20 Years after the Fall of the Wall.”

From 5–8pm, Rafacz’s next-door neighbor Kavi Gupta Gallery debuts Josh Azzarella’s “Untitled #100 (Fantasia),” a riff on the video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” and a collection of Scott Treleaven’s collages and films, “Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you.”

On Sunday 1, 1–2pm, Jason Lazarus visits the Spertus Museum for a talk about his new Ground Level Project, the video The top of the tree gazed upon by Anne Frank while in hiding (Amsterdam, 2008).

Sunday 1, 2–5pm, the South Side Community Art Center hosts both a release party for AREA #9: Peripheral Vision and a closing reception for “DEMISE,” a show featuring Theaster Gates, Dan S. Wang, Faheem Majeed and several other artists.

In Pilsen, Slow, another new alternative space, opens “For The Time Being” Sunday 1, 4–7pm, with photos, paintings, drawings and videos by Benjamin Bellas and C.C. Ann Chen.

East Garfield Park’s Julius Caesar hosts a reception for “Jason Hardwig: Seeds and Hitchhikers” Sunday 1, 4–7pm.

A Loyola Phoenix article by Nathan Bobinchak reveals that Loyola University plans to close its Crown Center Gallery at the end of the Fall 2009 semester. While Loyola officials attribute the move to space constraints on academic departments and suggest the fine arts program can find room for exhibitions elsewhere, program director Nicole Ferentz and other fine arts faculty speak candidly with Bobinchak about their opposition to the scheme. Students in Ferentz’s Visual Communications III class have created a blog and ad campaign to protest the gallery’s closure. [Via Artnet's Twitter feed, twitter.com/artnetdotcom.]

Thanks to Chicago Artists Month, there are more than 150 Art & Design events happening this weekend. Our slide show (above) offers a preview of this weekend’s new shows, but you’ll have to check the Art & Design listings for the complete schedule. The following events didn’t make it into print. Unless otherwise noted, they’re FREE.

Tonight (Friday 23), ebersmoore (formerly ebersb9) opens its new West Loop gallery space at 213 N Morgan St, no. 3C (312-772-3021, ebersmoore.com), with a closing reception for its “Group Painting Show” from 6–9pm. The show includes works by Amy Mayfield, Howard Fonda, Tyson Reeder, Sebastian Vallejo and Paul Wackers. A few blocks away, Brooklyn artist John Delk returns to Thomas Robertello Gallery with “Stream,” opening 5–8pm.

In West Town, Noble & Superior Projects opens “Double Fantasy,” featuring recent work by Ivan Lozano and Kate Brock, tonight from 6–10pm. At the Nightingale, Nicholas O’Brien and jonCates curate “Screen.Grab2,” a showcase of artists’ video and new-media work, and performances involving digital and analog computers and electronics, which starts at 8pm. ($5 suggested donation.)

On Saturday 24, the University of Chicago’s Humanities Day includes two art-related lectures by Christine Mehring and W.J.T. Mitchell. Stick around Hyde Park for Home Gallery’s new exhibition “Deedee Davis and Casey Roberts” from 6–9pm.

Albany Park’s Swimming Pool Project Space unveils photographs by San Francisco artists John Chiara and Sean McFarland Saturday 24, 6–10pm.

On the edge of Wicker Park and Humboldt Park, barbara&barbara gallery host “Trunk Show” Saturday 24, 7–10pm. Musical performances by Anna Vogelzang, Vintage Gramma, and Julia V. Hendrickson & Marie Barker (accompanied by Chris Gingrich) accompany 19 young artists’ responses to the themes “luggage, travel and place.”

On Sunday 25, there should be lots of great stuff to see from noon–7pm at the East Garfield Park Art Walk and Open Studios, which encompass the Switching Station Artist Lofts, Albany Carroll Artist Studios, West Carroll Artist Studios, 3311 Carroll Artist Building and Arthur Swirgon, Ltd.

Photos: Mike Novak

It’s hard to look away from the car—or rather, what used to be a car—lying in a first-floor gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), where “Jeremy Deller: It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq” brings together Iraqi émigrés, American soldiers, schoolkids and surprised tourists six days a week.

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At the end of the recital on Friday night, naturally we were all milling about outside discussing what we had just experienced. In my group of four, half of us—a critic and a semi-pro pianist—were unimpressed. The other two, myself and a colleague who has seen Philip Glass repeatedly over his career, were warm and mesmerized. For such a polarizing modernist, Glass plays deceptively simple music. His lulling patterns are immediate and accessible—new-agey you might say. Modernism so often carries the stigma of work that is messy or abstract for the mere sake of being difficult.  The first criticism often lobbed at such art is, “Geez, my kid could do that.” Sure enough, the pianist in our small debate griped, “I could teach my students how to play that in an afternoon.” She’s probably right. But the easiest retort I can think of is, “So?”

As we stood outside the MCA, a college-aged kid strolled out arm-in-arm with his girlfriend. He wore tails and a tophat. She had on a long dress and shawl. They looked silly—and being a smart-ass I joked about calling them a horse and carriage from nearby Water Tower Place—but the couple underlined the largest revelation of the evening: Modernism suddenly seems so damn old-fashioned.

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