Power of Ten

ALEX CHITTY, RITZ, A1472, 2012, MANIPULATED C-PRINT

Alex Chitty (American, b. 1979) lives and works in Chicago, IL. Chitty received her B.A. from Smith College in 2001 and her M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008. Recent exhibitions include Recent Work at Corbett vs. Dempsey in Chicago; Platonic Year at Alderman Exhibitions in Chicago; Big Youth II at Bourouri Gallery in Berlin, Germany; Book Art at Kyung-In Museum of Fine Art in Seoul, Korea.

LEAH PATGORSKI, COUSIN, 2013, COTTON, STEEL

 Leah Patgorski was born in 1978 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She received her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia in 2000. In the years that followed, she worked for a landscape architect and then for a drapery manufacturer until moving to Chicago in 2004 to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She earned her Master of Fine Arts there in 2006. 

Ms. Patgorski’s work over the past 10 years consists primarily of textile sculptures and associated drawings. She has been commissioned to construct various pieces stemming from this work, and she engages with a range of other creative fields including architecture and graphic design. Ms. Patgorski is currently based in Pittsburgh. 

VELETA VANCZA, PROPAGATION 3, 2013, ACRYLIC NAILS/FLOCKING/NAIL POLISH

Veleta Vancza has been working as an artist for over 20 years. She began her career as an art/studio jeweler creating one-of-a-kind conceptual works. More recently she has been working on a larger scale creating sculpture, wall pieces & installations using vitreous enamel on metal integrated with new technologies such as sound-mapping & 3D rendering software. She is recognized for her experimental use of vitreous enamel as an adhesive, as well as her innovations with phosphorescent enamels.

Veleta’s work has been exhibited internationally in venues such as the Museum of Arts & Design (NYC), the Design Museum (Helsinki), the Cheugju International Craft Biennale,and Museum fur Angewandte Kunst.

Many of her works have been featured in a variety of books & periodicals such as  Sculpture magazine, Metalsmith magazine, The Boston Globe, 500 Enameled Objects & The Art of Enameling: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration.

Veleta is also the co-founder and Creative Director for Mina Atramentum, makers of Mine Luxury Nail Lacquer.

AVERY R. YOUNG, WEEZIE JEFFERSON INFILTRATE(S) & FIND(S) DE INGREDIENT(S) TO POPCORN CHICKEN, LETTERPRESS, PAPER, INK, MILD SAUCE, CHKN GREASE

2012 3Arts Teaching Artist Awardee, writer, performer avery r. young is a Cave Canem Fellow who’s artwork blends phonetics, linguistics, hymns, jazz and hip hop to depict the politic and inspiring attributes attached to the stories of a people.  Dubbed “sunday mornin jook-joint,”  mr. young’s work merges spiritual and secular aesthetics with dramatic and comedic sensibilities.  young has worked as a teaching artist, mentoring and shaping youth in the craft of creative writing and theatre.  He has written curriculum for Columbia College - Chicago, Young Leeds Authors, True Star magazine and Chicago Public Schools Art Integration Department.  His work has been published in AIMPrint, The Teaching Artist Journal, swaggerzine., Callallou, To Be Left With The Body, Warpland, Coon Bidness, Reverie Review, War Diaries, Make Magazine, The Spaces Between Us and Fingernails Across The Chalkboard.  young has performed in the Hip Hop Theatre Festival, Lollapalooza, WordStock and is featured on such compilations as New World Reveal-A-Solution, Audio Truism,  Catfish Haven’s Devastator and New Skool Poetics.  young has appeared on BET, MTV, ABC and WGN’s Morning News.  young is currently a 2012/13 Public Life Artist-In-Residence Program at University of Chicago.

RICHARD HULL, UNTITLED, 2013, CRAYON ON PAPER

Born in Oklahoma City, Hull received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1977, and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1979. Before graduating, he attracted the attention of dealer Phyllis Kind, who began exhibiting his paintings in both her Chicago and New York galleries. At Kind's gallery, Hull joined the company of well-known Imagists such as Roger Brown, Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, and Ed Paschke. Besides a number of one-person shows at Phyllis Kind Gallery, Hull's work has been exhibited across the United States. His paintings may be found in many private and public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Milwaukee Art Museum; the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City; and the San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas. He is represented in Chicago by Western Exhibitions Gallery.

CHLOE SEIBERT, FACADE, 2012, PLASTER AND PIGMENT ON ALUMINUM-BACKED POLYSTYRENE

Chloe Seibert (b. 1989, New York) lives and works in Chicago, IL. Her practice consists mainly of sculptural objects of many different colors and sizes. She received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a member of the artist group PplSft. Recent exhibitions include Queer Thoughts (Chicago), Bodega (Philadelphia) and Important Projects (Oakland).

BEN DRIGGS, NEBULA, ARCHIVAL INKJET PRINT

One of my favorite images is the Hubble Extreme Deep Field. I have a small print of it hanging in my living room. It is a picture of the universe as it looked very close to its beginning. A black field is full of galaxies that look like droopy eggs and fuzzballs - baby galaxies. Light from those stars travelled for over 13 billion years and hit the Hubble space telescope. During the trip, that light had become so distorted that it was now totally invisible to human eyes. Scientists used image editing software like photoshop to make the data from the telescope visible. As I'm finally looking at this picture, I love to think about how we make the world we see. Our senses and brains have evolved to survive but our consciousness has a motive of its own. No matter how rigorous our method or how far we look, the goal of science is to understand our own meaning right here.

About this work: As impossible as it may be to fully understand the meaning of infinity, images of outer space offer a new perspective on one’s experience by placing it in the context of infinite time and space. Nebula is part of a series of photographs that investigate our relationship to the infinite reality that we live in. For this body of work, I create sculptural representations of iconic celestial events and objects in my studio and photograph them. By using everyday objects, this process highlights the idea that a true conception of outer space is the farthest thing from our daily lives.

This piece was made using fog and a flashlight.

THE HILLS ESTHETIC CENTER, SHWAG BAG, 2013, ZIPLOC SPACE BAG AND STUFF (PRESS BUTTON FOR STROBE LIGHT)

The Hills Esthetic Center is both a conventional and organic exhibition space located within a complex of artist’s studios and audio recording facilities on Chicago’s west side. Focusing on emerging artists and local arts initiatives, the space aims to promote a breadth of cultural production and invention in the service of independent artistic expression. We value a relaxed artist-controlled environment with the potential for the interaction of critical and social dialogues. The Hills is directed by Ron Ewert, Michael Kloss, and Leo Kaplan.

RESISTANCE POOL, UNCOMFORTABLE SPACES, 2013, INK ON CANVAS

Resistance Pool is an ongoing collaboration between partners Aron Gent and Betsy O'Brien. Established in the winter of 2013, Resistance Pool focuses on two dimensional and video works featuring the mundane, personal, and familial. Separately Aron Gent’s work has been exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center, Houston Center for Photography, Chicago Cultural Center and Devening Projects + Editions and Betsy O'Brien has exhibited at SAIC Sullivan Galleries, Betty Rhymer Gallery, and Nicole Villeneuve Gallery. Together Resistance Pool has exhibited at Heaven Gallery in “It’s not me, It’s you”.

DANIEL LUEDTKE, BLUE ALOE, 2013, DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPH

Daniel Luedtke is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, video, photography and drawing.  He is a founding member of Madame of the Arts, a queer community art center in South Minneapolis and received his MFA at the School of the Art Institute in 2013.  HUZZAH!

LISA RYBOVICH CRALLE, SMALL RELIEF 2, 2013, OIL ON PANEL

Lisa Rybovich Crallé lives & works in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Her sculptures, collages, and paintings explore the theatricality of everyday life. Lisa received her MFA from the University of California, Davis in 2011 and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 2004 after also studying at the San Francisco Art Institute and the New York Studio School.  Her work has been exhibited in the US and abroad, including exhibitions at Field Projects (NYC), The Lab (San Francisco), the Dublin City Gallery (Dublin, IRE), Queens College Art Center (NYC), Roots & Culture (Chicago), Proof Gallery (Boston, MA), and the 2011 Bay Area Currents exhibition (Oakland, CA).  Lisa has been an Artist in Residence at Ox-Bow School of Art (Saugatuck, MI), the People’s Gallery (San Francisco, CA) and ART342 (Ft. Collins, CO) and she is the recipient of the Robert Arneson Award and the Nelson ARTfriends Award. 

LAUREN ANDERSON, THIS SUMMER'S YIN VS YANG #10, MONOPRINT

Lauren Anderson lives and works in Chicago, IL. She was born in Virginia, on the same day as Woody Allen, Bette Midler, and Richard Pryor, and then she received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited at ADDS DONNA, CCS Bard, Golden Age, Megamall, and Roots and Culture.

STEPHEN KENT, FROM THIS IS PARADISE, DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPH MOUNTED ON DIBOND

Stephen Kent was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1985.  He earned his BFA in ceramics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2007, where he received a Kiki Smith Scholarship to attend Haystack Mountain School of Crafts where he continued to work from 2009 to 2011.  He received a Lighton International Artist Exchange Program grant from the Kansas City Artists Coalition to participate in the Ceramics Research Center Guldagergaard in Skaelskor, Denmark.  While attending Cranbrook Academy of Art In 2012 he was awarded a summer fellowship at Ox-Bow School of Art. He most recently received a Robert C. Larson Art, Design, and Architecture Venture Award to Co-found Vessel and Page Project Space in Pontiac, Michigan, where he co-curated over ten events throughout the academic year.  Stephen has just completed his MFA and will be moving to Berlin in late summer where he will continue his artistic and curatorial practice.   

RASHAYLA MARIE BROWN, POMBRA GIRA III, 2012, ARCHIVAL INKJET PRINT

Rashayla Marie Brown is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and writer. She received a BA in Sociology and African-American Studies from Yale University in 2004 and a BFA in Photography and Video from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013. Her work primarily negotiates race, sexuality, spirituality, and popular culture in the formation of personal mythologies. She has been awarded numerous fellowships and grants, including the Anna Louise Raymond Fellowship, Chicago Artist Coalition’s BOLT Residency, the Archibald Motley Grant, and SAIC’s Graduating Student Leadership Award.

NORMAN TEAGUE, PLANK NATURAL ACCESSORIES, WOOD AND VINTAGE MATERIALS

PLANK is a product designed and made by Norman Teague, head of 22B Design Studio. The idea of Plank originated from spare and scrap pieces of wood found in the wood shop. Inspired from traditional wooden African beads and with Scandinavian craftsmanship. This new line is intended for all, men and women – from the trendsetter to the classic business man. These well crafted neck pieces can also be worn as a hair accessory or pendants.

NORWOOD VIVIANO & SARAH LINDLEY, KOHLER VILLAGE, 2012, RAPID PROTOTYPED AND SLIP CAST CLAY

Sarah Lindley and Norwood Viviano have been based in Southwest Michigan since 2001, where they are sculpture professors at Kalamazoo College and Grand Valley State University respectively.  Lindley’s previous work focused on the domestic environment, but more recently has responded to the paper mill industry and superfund clean-up sites along the Kalamazoo River.  Her work has been widely exhibited throughout the USA and at the Magnelli Museum in France and the Clayarch Gimhae Museum in South Korea.  Viviano’s recent work focuses on the link between the departure of industry and population shift in major cities.  He has had solo exhibitions in Seattle, New York and Cleveland in addition to numerous group exhibitions in the USA and Europe.  In 2010, they worked as a collaborative team during a twelve-week Arts-Industry Residency at the Kohler Company in Wisconsin.  The project Kohler Village is the result of that collaboration.

SCOTT FORTINO, PAPER STUDY, 2012, ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT

Scott Fortino developed his approach to photography out of experiences directly related to his position as a Chicago police officer. This work led to the publication of his monograph, Institutional, which depicted seemingly impersonal architectural spaces while revealing the embedded evidence of personal use. Now retired, he uses the studio as a site for his own investigations into the meaning of light and materials.

He received his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a BA from Columbia College Chicago. He has had solo exhibitions in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. His work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Milwaukee Art Museum, Worcester Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and numerous public and private collections. He lives and works in Chicago.