The Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition opened on Friday. All of the graduating seniors have been working there booties off for the last week to put up their work in SAIC's Gallery 2 space. You can see my pre-plans in the small drawing of the space. My work was a collection of phone conversations between the women in my family. The conversations concerned the people, their lives and the goings on of my small Missouri hometown. Each conversation sound piece could be listened to through rotary dial phones. And on the walls were the phonebook pages of my hometown with all of the people mentioned in the conversations circled and marked according to various stipulations. Also, I set up the space with a telephone table with a contact/address book....one closed, one open. I was lucky (or maybe unlucky) enough to have an installation room. Right now, I only have my before and beginning install shots of my room. I'll post the after shots as soon as I can. And we'll see if my drawing and description of work adds up to what you're imagining.

Thats my Mom, with a very nice deer in the headlights signature pose.

Doing a little planning of the space before I paint the walls.

This is Matthew, my hometown BFF triple E (bestfriendforeverandeverandeverandever). He helped (I mean masterminded) with all of the tech stuff...like getting the phones wired to work. He's super cute in his phone talkin' stance.

And finally, here's my drawing. This worked great because it allowed my advisors to know exactly what I meant when I was asking for help or advice. I recommend this as far as installation goes. It really is a life-saving must.

Posted by Jamilee at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So last weekend I went home, to Missouri for a visit. On my way to the airport to head back to Chicago, mi madre and I stopped in Kansas City to see SAIC MFA alum, Deb Sokolow's solo show/installation "You are one step closer to learning the truth" at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Deb's works are stories woven of conspiracy and paranoia, and are structured similar to the "Choose Your Own Adventure" children's books. She uses a bunch of stuff: pencil, pen, paint, and correction fluid to make the stories look like maps and diagrams with a journal entry writing style. They're usually done on huge sheets of paper, but this particular mystery was put directly on the wall. It was about someone trying to ruin the famously delicious KC style BBQ sauce by putting youth enhancers in it. Each story, including this one, is pretty hilarious.

Here are some photos. Sorry, they're pretty horrible and blurry. They didn't allow photos so I had to be sneaky and take them really quickly.

Thats David Copperfield. Thats me.

Posted by Jamilee at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So! We had 2 shows this month in the Student Union Galleries. Here are a few photos.

The show in the LG space was called Heuretic Housewife. The artist is Ellen Alderman, an MFA student from the VCS department. This show was concerned with the idea of a young woman trying to have it all, while simultaneously defining what "it all" is for herself.

These were garments that Alderman made and wore to fulfill the different duties in her life.

Here's the studio work apron with pins that are like girl scout badges to show accomplishments/goals of the Heuretic Housewife:

Close up of some of the pins:

These are the text pieces that made up the rest of the show. Each included aspects of the artists own life, such as wedding vows, sewing patters, and visual and critical studies texts.

AND the GX show was titled Gravtitation Pull. This show was also the work of an MFA student. His name is JiHyun Yoon and he is in the Art and Tech department. The work in this show was minimal; there were just 3 works. Two of the pieces were big wood square panel that had hundreds of small squares hinged to them. Both pieces moved by sensors on the floor that when stepped on signal the too-smart-for-me-mechanisms to rotate, in one piece's case, or move forward and back off of the wall, in the other piece's case. The last featured work was a video that used animation and effects to show the square pieces running around in Millineum Park.

Posted by Jamilee at 6:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While Prague may have lame contemporary museums, its friend Vienna is just 5 hours away with, in my opinion, some of the best museums on the planet. Vienna has a Museum Quarter. It’s a little museum campus of purely art exhibition spaces ranging from very sound Old Masters Collections to a nice selection of international Modern and Contemporary works.

My favorite space is the MOMUK. It’s a really interesting building designed by Jo Coenen, and the outside is covered with little rectangular slabs of molten rock.

I’ve been to this museum 5 or 6 times and the shows are always quality. They have a huge collection Actionism, of course Viennese, since Vienna was where it all started, but they also have a big spectrum from the States, Germany, Italy and others. Last summer I saw a Sigmar Polke retrospective and it was great too. But this year, they have a show of contemporary Chinese Art titled, China:Facing Reality.

This show was, of course, well curated and really did reflect the contemporary tastes, subjects and working style of Chinese artists. I thought the show was really well curated, all of the works were greatly relevant. The show took up 4 floors (which are pretty huge) and was hung according to a few different criteria….sometimes being group by region in which it was made, sometimes by medium, sometimes by subject matter, etc. My only qualm with the show was that I thought the upper middle floor was a little too crowded (it was every medium you can think of: video, painting works on paper, sculpture), as if they thought “these are the pieces that don’t group that well, so we’ll just put them all in this big hall and hope that nothing distorts the meaning of anything else.� Sometimes I think this grab bag set-up can work, but in this case I wasn’t pleased with the effect because most of the works were small or really visually complex, rather than being monumental and really eye-catching.

These photos courtesy of Meghan Steinman.

However the first floor was strategically good because it got people to keep going for two reasons, 1) they realized they recognized the work and 2) because all of these works were huge, bright and technically impressive. This floor had all the work that the Chinese have been paying huge million dollar prices for, so of these pieces the rest of the world is quite familiar.

These photos courtesy of Meghan Steinman.

Then, the exhibition got a bit quieter and showed some really great stuff.
On the final floor, looking at the Shanghainese work, which was mostly photo/video and new media, when I really started to get into the show. The work from Shanghai had a lot to do the lifestyle of being from Shanghai. All of the work was really easy and natural to look at and be with. I really loved being able to compare and contrast my life to those of some of these artists and other young people from a place across the world that I have always assumed to be so different. And while it is obviously very different, it’s the same in that the kids there are going day by day and picking through the traditions and societal demands and choosing what they’ll keep or trash in order to develop an open culture that they can live proudly and enjoyably within.

These photos courtesy of Meghan Steinman.

Also in the photo section of the Shanghai stuff, there was an installation of 3000 photos on the floor. Each photo came from a collection of 20,000 snapshots of random moments in the artist's life that he took over a year or so. I'd decided it was my favorite. It was really precious and sweet, but not at all cheesy. The piece was by Song Tao and titled, What a Wonderful World. So, I'm walking along just glancing through it and then I realized, "Wait, I know that guy." And what do you know, my friend Han Tao is everywhere. I got really excited and told Han Tao about it. He said that he and this artist are best friends and they hangout and work together all the time. Han Tao is getting his Masters in SAIC's Arts Administration program and he's my office buddy in the ECO/SUGs office. Our boss, Michael, told me a while ago that Han Tao is a pretty well known photo curator in Shanghai, but I didn't really think much about it after that. But seeing him in this I'm definitely very excited to see what Han Tao will be doing in the future. I carefully went through all 3000 photos and I counted, he is in 46 of the photos. Wow. I attached a few visuals for you all.

Posted by Jamilee at 4:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, I haven't written for quite a while because over winter break I was in Prague for 2 weeks with an additional few days in Vienna. I was so lucky to be the trip assistant for SAIC's Prague Study Trip. I actually lived and studied in Prague for the whole of last year, so I have become somewhat knowledgeable about the Czech Republic and Eastern/Central Europe in general. My accumulated “wisdom� naturally, specializes in the arts scene. It seemed to me that Prague's professional arts and exhibitions are lacking. Especially when it comes to quality exhibition production, such as installation techniques and innovations. Even the simplest things, such as presentation: the pieces are crooked or hung so that they look unstable, they haven't been dusted in years, the walls are dirty and waterstained, the lighting is bad and some of the pieces even look recently faded in their horribly rickety frames. The museums kinda suck for these reasons, plus there is a limiting, a filtrating of the contemporary work coming into the country because there is still a bit of a power struggle amongst the older members of the art community in Prague. This power struggle lies within the remnants of a system that still lingers from communism.

So, as people have been frequently doing in areas not so dense nor diverse with quality contemporary art, my friends and I opened and produced projects in a squat gallery for 6 months. This was a pretty incredible experience, as running a space that is always temporary and isn't fully in your control (think water, electricity, legal battle tie-ups, keys and authority being passed around, etc.) can be pretty nerve-racking and hectic. But it is really crazy fun.

New and internationally inspired energy is slowly trickling into the exhibition scene thanks to these squat galleries and independent projects like the one I got involved with. Both students/emerging artists and longstanding artists are active which gives birth to a wide range of ideas and art being shown. And although the exhibition process is pretty informal, it is still well thought out and innovative. Good installation and presentation techniques are still practiced, its just that experimentation is greatly utilized due to the quirkiness of many of the spaces. Gallery A.M.180 of the Vinohradska neighborhood featured one of my good friends and Norwegian artist, Anders Gronlien. Here's his show flyer and some work:

This is why its really exciting to be involved with one of these projects because the scene is small and these ideas of facilitation and self-motivation/promotion are still pretty new there. The experience was great especially because of being American, since sometimes it seems as though nothing is ever considered new here, it seemed revolutionary there AND it was because I am still young and learning and I got to do so with a variety of types of people and artists. My show flyer for a solo show I had in a squat gallery called Independent Creative Space was purely a digital scan:

And then here are some pictures of various installed works and artists looking and hanging out within some of my favorite squat/alternative space projects.

So it was really interesting to go back to Prague after having been gone for just 6 months and to see all of the new cool obstacle hurdling spaces. It felt really great to have been and still be part of something thats small but important. Especiallly when its halfway across the world!

Posted by Jamilee at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, this week we are reviewing proposals for our spring semester show line-up. We have some pretty awesome students and proposals this semester. I feel confident that however the SUGs committee and directors vote we will have a great show roster. We have proposals that kids from all over the school's departments submitted and as soon as we have the official results and schedule I will let you know!

And let me tell you it really does show who put time in to their proposals. The proposals this semester were as a whole, very well done. They were clear and concise while presenting the work and ideas. From this gig and other artistic endeavors, I now know that having the know-how to write a successful proposal is just as important as making work and having ideas because if you can't present yourself, your work, your visions with clarity and quality, its really difficult to do or show anything. There are many ways to create a proposal. But remember this: Its good to look good. That doesn't have to mean fancy or extremely elaborate. It means things should have clarity, specificity and their appearance should have an identity, a presence. It should give the impression you want your artwork to give. And I assume you want your work to be though of as awesome!

So my tips for you:

I think it is important to speak with the place you are applying to ask for advice or specific guidelines. Also it is a good idea to ask to see examples of a previously successful proposal. But if there are no specific details or examples as is often the case then you can create your own. A good proposal doesn't necessarily have to be a jam packed folder. The important thing is to give only the info pertaining to the proposed show (showing past work is fine, IF it is relevant to the show you are proposing). Include a curatorial statement; it should concern the big picture or vision that the show should have....what it should mean and how it should make the audience and gallery feel/function. A to scale gallery floorplan/diagram and exhibition description (this should contain only visually tangible information, keep the metaphors and conceptuality in the curatorial and artist statements), is extremely important so that the reviewers can get a sense of how the space will be utilized. Clear images of the work along with an artist statement (that specificly concerns the artwork, not the show) the individual pieces' dimensions, medium and needed installation supplies, equipment, and in-gallery maintence (think turning on/off monitors, etc.).

AND FOR YOU AND ONLY YOU MY SPECIAL READER the SUGs proposal application from our gallery is downloadable at www.sugs.info. I recommend using it just as a guideline and creating your own format, whether that be a binder/book (my favorite), a powerpoint presentation, or whatever.

So remember....

Its good to look good.

Posted by Jamilee at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

AND the show "JUSTIN SWINBURNE presents..." just opened on Tuesday Nov. 27th.
There are performances by collaborators tomorrow, next Wed. Dec 5th and then
Thurs. Dec 13th all at 4pm in Gallery X, the SAIC Columbus Bldg. Room 113. I'll
put up images from that show after all the performances have occurred, but here
is the downloadable press release we wrote and designed.

Download file

Posted by Jamilee at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So the show "Techne" that I wrote about in "installation rigors" is up and looks great. The artists have been working on their pieces for months and after painting and prepping the gallery with an all nighter or two in the between they not only got it up, but they made it practically perfect. We had an opening a little while before the T-day break. We served mediterranean food and lime seltzer. Nice touch. So I posted a few a pics of the show poster, the collaborative piece and the two artists with their masterpiece.

The installation is quality (excellent in fact, no one would have a clue this was a student run space), the dialogue and relationships between all the artworks is both absolute and rhetorical and the work is uniquely relevant to everyone. I'll post some of the individual works as soon as I have those images. OR you can check out the artists' and their very nice websites yourself:

Robert Andrade
robandrade.com

Daniel G. Baird
danielgbaird.com

Posted by Jamilee at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the last few weeks there has been quite a few exhibitions. Select Media Festival happened once again this year. Lumpen a local chicago art/culture magazine hosts in their space (the co-prosperity sphere) a series of bands as well as art work. The bands were great and they had an awesome homemade space ship, complete with control panel. (pictures to be posted soon).

The same space hosted a 101 painting show that happened around a month ago where they had an open call for painters in chicago to submit a piece of work, in the end they had 100 different painters showing at the space.

If you're interested in either of these projects you should check out www.lumpen.com

The fall BFA undergrad thesis show also went up two weeks ago. The show looked great, and there was some great work there, as well as the best tuna salad hor d'oeuvre sandwiches ever.

This upcoming week there will be a closing show at a local space called the Plaines Project . The show is by an SAIC Senior, Alex Ferrando, and is titled Looking for Love. It turned out great!

Its spaces like the plaines projects and Lumpen that allow showing experiences to students still in undergrad, something unique to Chicago. There is a school panel of the alternative art space being hosted at SAIC tomorrow by Michelle Grabner, I'm going to try to get there and report back.

Posted by Elizabeth at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So right now we have 2 shows in production. One a 2 person exhibition called "Techne" and the other is called "Justin Swinburne presents..." and it concerns some curatorial practices and social maintenance including a performance series.

Techne is sculpture work by Rob Andrade and Daniel Baird. Rob is a senior who'll be graduating this semester, check out his installation room in the upcoming fall BFA show. Daniel graduated last spring with his BFA from SAIC, and Daniel says "Watch out!". Each artist is contributing two individual pieces and then they have constructed this massive collaborative piece that is a huge parthenon (columns and all) made out of mostly wood, i think, that sits upside down on a 3' x 6' pedestal. All in all the work is pretty streamlined and technically well done too. Should be a pretty great show when we finish working through the installation stage. After priming and painting the walls, which is a relatively fast process, this show is proving to be a pretty in-depth install because alot of the work is pretty huge and has to be assembled in the gallery. Also, there is one installation that our floating wall had to be moved to accommodate. Fortunately, Rob and Daniel are very apt and things are going smoothly. The show opens on Thurs. Nov. 15th in the LG Space of the 2nd floor in Sharp. Hope to see you there.

As far as "Justin Swinburne presents..." goes, we have just began organizing and producing the show. We're still in the early stages, but that's actually alot of work because we are making all the big decisions and doing the designing of publicity and text materials which really is how you figure out what the show will be about. Things like show postcards and posters and paint colors are really important because they force us to figure out what we want you guys to think. That show opens after Thankgiving on Tues. Nov. 27th at 4 in Gallery X of the first floor Columbus bldg. and then other performance dates I'll give you soon.

So thats the jist of the galleries this week. Later gators.

Posted by Jamilee at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)