Listed below is a listing from Chicago Art Map of gallery openings taking place this weekend, Sept 15th – 18th.

 

-Thursday September, 15th-

MCA members $22, nonmembers $28, students $10 The MCA Stage launches its 2011/12 season with the world premiere of Jenny Magnus’s latest theatrical work, featuring live music by The Crooked Mouth, featuring members of the Curious ensemble. The production is an emotionally revealing quest about the process of creating a theater production, with players questioning one another about how they “get ready,” and if they truly are “getting ready.” Are you ready?

-Friday September, 16th-

Noah Rorem and Vanesa Zendejas each seek formalisms role and relevance within the contemporary. Each artist delves deep into the heart of pure formal abstraction, with practices that are at once contemporary and variations on established modes of modernism.

In this display by Kerstin Rosengren, she explores the art and craft of traditional Swedish textiles, particularly those handed down through generations of women.

Eugene Von Bruenchenhein seemed to use anything he could to create his artwork. He painted using cardboard and homemade paintbrushes, created sculptures out of chicken bones and cement, and exercised his camera with double exposures to heighten his photography. Self-taught and self-proclaimed, “Freelance Artist, Poet and Sculptor, Inovator [sic], Arrow maker and Plant man, Bone artifacts constructor, Photographer and Architect, Philosopher,” see his work during the upcoming exhibition Eugene Von Bruenchenhein: From the Wand of the Genii, at Intuit September 16, 2011 – January 14, 2012.

The show’s title, “Climb,” references the artist’s aspirations to ascend and move past personal setbacks. It is appropriately reflective of our times and the broader journey of our nation. Local artist Kristin Komar has exhibited at numerous galleries and art shows throughout the city for the past twelve years, and has attained a large, loyal following. She continues to explore the language of abstraction and experiment with different media. For the first time this exhibition includes encaustic works, in addition to oils on canvas and mixed media works on panel.

BRUCE NAUMAN: Combinations Described Donald Young Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Bruce Nauman with three major fountain sculptures and drawings. One Hundred Fish Fountain is comprised of 97 fish, cast in bronze, which hang by wires from a suspended metal grid. Water, from a large basin on the floor, is pumped through clear tubing to the fish and sprays out of the their bodies in all directions from hundreds of randomly punctured holes. The fountain runs on a scheduled timer so that the viewer witnesses the jolting sound and movement as the fish fill with water as well as the silence when the pumps are turned off followed by the water slowly trickling out of each fish. In a second gallery are two fountains entitled 3 Heads Fountain (3 Andrews) and 3 Heads Fountain (Juliet, Andrew, Rinde) each of which consists of three epoxy resin and fiberglass heads wired together with water spraying from the many holes. Within each of the fountains there is a sense of violence and violation. The fish are removed from their natural habitat, cast in bronze and punctured with holes. The harsh treatment of these fish is reminiscent of Nauman’s skinned animal series from the late 1980s. The intense noise of the water splashing in the basin, paired with the visual enormity of the 97 fish and the thickness of the humid air creates a multi-sensory experience that is both aggressive and overpowering.

Kirk Faber, Courtney Mackedanz Hillary Schofield, Chottip Nimia-or Jaeuk Song, Jais Gossman, Savannah Cipriano. Organized by Patrick Kawczykowski.
Patrick Kawczykowski is interested in the rules. Establishing them. Playing by them. But as that saying informs, a certain road is paved with good intentions. Slow announces a new flavor to its offerings, an evening of performances organized by Patrick Kawczykowski.

Upcoming Exhibition: “Meticulous Detail: Conservators’ Paintings” Paintings by Dan Gamble, Christina Haglid and James Stephens. Fine art and conservation seem to go hand in hand. Most works of art, in all mediums, are affected by conservators from conservation assessments to conservation procedures. No work of art is immune to the hand of the conservator as there is no greater attribution to a work of art than “the hand of the artist”. Hand in hand, the artist and the conservator. One hand, the conservator as an artist. The other hand, the artist is a conservator. The attention to meticulous detail as a conservator combined with highly qualified, intuitive skills of an artist exemplifies the three superior artists exhibiting for the first time together at the Architrouve. All three artists, Dan Gamble, Christina Haglid and James Stephens work together as fine art conservators at Joel Oppenheimer, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois.

Curated by Hudson I like a lot, and in this exhibition that may be understood in at least two ways. Remember in the mid-80s when painting died – amusing, right? For me the significance was more about the focus moving to theory, photography, and information and the resulting effects of how we moved toward a more public understanding or perception of art. After about ten or so years of that, the perception and appreciation of art was more a mental assessment of a thing than an experience of a thing, and while that mode of understanding has continued for another twelve years or so, the shortcomings of operating long term from that sensibility have long remained quite obvious. Feature Inc. has always offered a strong presence for painting and over the years I’ve increasingly realized that the impact of art on the body is just as forceful if not more so, than its impact on the brain. Letting feelings and mutable physical and emotional sensations guide an understanding of something doesn’t necessarily provide for an articulate line of reasoning, but it does offer an interior richness which is personally very satisfying. I especially like how that form of experience leads one to think and talk around something rather than to think or talk something through. Around is more inclusive and open to development than the conclusiveness of through.

curated by Jefferson Godard. Candice Breitz, Manon de Boer, EJ Hill, Diego Leclery, Casilda Sanchez

EGO ALTERED: New works by M. Jackson and Laura Lee Junge

This is an exhibition of recent works by artist, musician, art professor and skateboarder Lou Shields. Shields has created a group of works in a variety of media; oil paintings, ink drawings and mixed media works. Shields will also be performing his original music during the artist reception.

The Deer Path Art League features thematic exhibits representing varied media by local, emerging and national artists; also classes, workshops and outreach art programming through our Young Artist Enrichment Program.

Show open by appointment, contact Josh Reames – (972) 965 4747
Manifest Exhibitions is thrilled to announce CLUB HELTER SKELTER by New Orleans-based artist Stephen Collier, This installation of video, painting, collage, and neon explores the psychology behind control, authority, and motivation. The video entitled, Under the Influence (Man’s Son), depicts a form taken from Charles Manson’s infamous 1969 mugshot. Gemstones recorded from the Home Shopping Network and rendered galaxy scenes are layered over the original image transforming it into the look of a kaleidoscope. The video is based from Rene Magritte’s A Son of Man. Other pieces featuring painted black-light posters and collage also refer to the power of free love mentality and the influence of psychedelics on the human mind. Stephen Collier is currently living and working in New Orleans, LA. He co-runs Good Children Gallery, and artist-run space. Recently Stephen has been included in shows at Western Exhibitions (Chicago), Good Children Gallery (NOLA), and White Box (New York).

Main Galleries: Posters, Fans & Songbooks: 19th Century Prints by Toulouse-Lautrec and his contemporaries. Selections from the Robert L. Hoskins and Erwin A. Raible Collection of Fin de Si

Ellen Greene’s work explores the contrast between two opposing traditions; white gloves have long been known as an article of women’s clothing, while the art of tattooing has been regarded as traditionally male pursuit. White gloves evoke a sense of purity and of formality, while the art of tattooing may suggest carnal sexuality and rebellion. The tension between the two helps define Greene’s personal aesthetic, as well as her original tattoo-inspired designs which adorn these vintage gloves. These paintings on gloves live somewhere between the traditions of fashion and painting; high and low culture. Though we are tempted to wear them, the gloves are not wearable. They represent the idea of second skin and hint at a past wearer.

Believe Inn is happy to present a showing of art by artists who love making art. Art & artists will be in attendance. Friends, associates & companions of artists will also be present, and some artist’s friends, associates & companions may also be artists. Those who are not artists will quite likely be artists too. Everyone will smile, be friendly and enjoy one of the last evenings of summer without indulging in the dark side of the force.

Saturday September, 17th

Molly Zuckerman-Hartung and artist Timothy Bergstrom discuss the work in his solo exhibition Sound & Vision

The DePaul Art Museum’s new $7.8 million home at 935 W. Fullerton Ave., just east of the CTA’s Fullerton stop, will debut with the Sept. 17 opening of Re: Chicago. The exhibition, which runs through February 2012, examines the careers and artistic reputations of Chicago artists over more than a century. Artworks in the exhibition were chosen by asking leading figures in the Chicago art world from critics to scholars to collectors to name a famous artist or one who should be famous.

Joe Zucker’s work has always moved between material and concept, between image and process, whether in his well-known cottonball paintings, his gurative paintings of pirate ships, or his recent works using gypsum and water- color. In this exhibition, Corbett vs. Dempsey is proud to show the rst mature body of work in Zucker’s oeuvre; the grid-based paintings he made from 1963 to 1968, when the New York artist was based in the Midwest, first in his birthplace of Chicago, then in Minneapolis. The earliest of these is a spectacular tour-de-force, Joe’s Painting #4 (1963-64), which combines a thickly worked surface and an optical illusion that seems to put a light source in the interstices of the grid. Some of the pieces in the exhibition are actually woven from strips of fabric, while others are painted to look that way; some have a special architecture built into the stretcher, so the front of the canvas slopes forward in the middle, like the wing of an airplane, while others are part of an elaborate twelve-panel series that progressively zooms in on the center of the first piece.

The Los Angeles Painting Scene: History and Context. Critic and curator Terry Myers discusses social and cultural contexts of the Mark Bradford exhibition

Artist Stan Shellabarger discusses his conceptual concerns and process in creating the work in his solo exhibition.

Artist Dan Gunn discusses his exhibition at moniquemeloche as well as his MCA UBS 12×12.

Iceberg Projects is proud to announce the opening of *Looks Bad*, an upcoming exhibition by Los Angeles based artist, Millie Wilson. For this exhibition, Wilson will display a new series of light-box transparencies.

Sunday September, 18th

Kate Costello Erik Frydenborg

The Suburban

125 N. Harvey Ave., Oak Park, IL
Oak Park

Opening reception September 18th, 2-4PM
Closes October 25th