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July 24, 2010
Booze and Bacon
Slow Gallery
2153 W 21st Street
Chicago, IL, 60608

Summer is best used nursing a cocktail on the veranda, not for stewing over challenging concepts.

Booze and Bacon is my personal foolproof recipe for crowd pleasing. A group of dynamic people indulging in simple pleasures is both the desired outcome and generative of the next. It’s like that kiss good night after a really good first date: enough of what you want to get you hooked for the second. Maybe we don’t learn that much along the way, but it sure is a hell of a ride.

This show will feature artists who have been exhibiting for years, sometimes in really important venues, and very young artists who have never shown anything outside of a school setting. There are too many artists, but it opens that space where you can try that ridiculous thing. It promises to be a good time.

Work by Brooke Barnett, Benjamin Bellas, Tola Brennan, Judith Brotman, Christopher Bungart, Ann Chen, Laura Davis, Meg Duguid, Jason Dunda, Kirk Faber, Brent Garbowski, Max Garett, Jeffrey Grauel, Matt Harrison, John Henley, Andrew Holmquist, Fred Holland, Michael Hunter, Carol Jackson, Brad Johns, Larry Lee, Kirsten Leenaars, Mican Morgan, Helen McElroy, Chris Naylon, William Newhouse, Susannah Papish, Laura Prieto-Velasco, Scott Ramon, Tim Schade, Sarah Wild and Philip von Zweck.

August 13, 2010
Variations On A Theme
Merchandise Mart / Chicago, IL
with:
Paul Cowan
Scott Cowan
Christopher Gatton
Michael Hunter
Vanesa Zendejas
Curated by Vincent Uribe

"For the last week I have been playing a game. I have been trying to predict what I would be doing in five minutes or in two minutes. I have found that no matter how hard I try I am more often wrong than right, and when I am right it is obvious that this outcome has been reached so precariously that the results seem accidental. I have also been struck with the radical difference between my fantasy about the future and the actual experience itself. My prediction is at most a vague picturing of a category of activity whereas the experience itself is made up of mood, thoughts, bodily sensations, detailed perceptions, etc., none of which are exactly like what I have experienced before. I have discovered that when I am aware of all of this I find it impossible to be bored. As I write this I am convinced that boredom is a false concept of the future. My boredom leans on my expectation that the immediate future will be 'the same old thing.' I cannot expect imminent change and remain bored." - Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself

Subjecting themselves to rigid constraints revolving around ideals and conventions of the artists practice, Paul Cowan, Scott Cowan, Christopher Gatton, Michael Hunter and Vanesa Zendejas highlight the work itself as a gestural stand-in for the consideration of art in general. Join us in this wild room for the opening reception on Friday, August 13, 2010, 6 - 10 PM.

Upcoming Exhibitions

August 28th, 2010
Beach Party
The Hills Esthetic Center
128 N Campbell, Unit G
Chicago, IL

September 3, 2010 - October 8, 2010
Days of Penty
Hyde Street Gallery
1987 Hyde Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
Curated by Robin Juan

Opening Reception: September 4, 2010

The exhibition is curated by Chicago's Hungryman Gallery's Co-Founder and Director, Robin Juan

"These Chicago based artists remain true to the traditions of still life and portraiture while taking risks and encouraging progression in their mediums.

The works find common ground in the artist's working with established forms while exhibiting traces of self-curation through various conditions of arrangement and framing. The evident formalist structure and restrictions are representative of Chicago art practice, yet the artists were chosen by their work's ability to transpose for Midwest and West Coast audiences. Carson Fisk-Vittori abstracts common objects and flora through photographic and sculptural composition with Michael Hunter creating unassuming arrangements as sculptures, sculptures as paintings, and paintings as sculptures. Jessica Labatte manipulates the perceptions of perspective with a humorous nature in her photographic assemblage's. The subjects in Casey McGonagle's photographs create a stage on which he is able to blur the space in between objective reality and the subconscious. Michael Hunter and Carson Fisk-Vittori collaboratively have created a site specific installation piece, accompanied by photographic works from Jessica Labatte, and Casey McGonagle."

- Robin Juan

September 17, 2010
Losers
Important Projects
5432 Boyd Ave
Oakland, CA