multi-verse

I believe in the multi-verse theory where anything that can happen, does happen. All possible outcomes of any decision you think you make does happen and you only experience your choice. you cannot deviate and experience other options after you choose. Quantum theory tries to explain how the minute elements behave at a microscopic subatomic level. They exist both as a particle and a wave until you perceive them. Your choices in life exist as every possible option until you decide.

Lucid dream

Early this morning I had a lucid dream where was living on a 2nd floor apartment in an unfamiliar building and location. All of a sudden tons of people come in and start having a party. I don't know any of these people. At this point I realize I am dreaming because I feel myself laying on my bed and this scene being some projection or virtual reality.

After some NSFW moments, I start exploring and trying to change the environment. I look at a wall and think there are other rooms so a door gradually appears. I go through it until I find a stairway and go downstairs and eventually find myself outside in the backyard.

I stand in the center, look up and see the electrical wires connecting the house. I jump up, touch the wires and pull them up slightly and let go like a rubber band. I float back down gently towards the grass. I then start jumping on garages and over trees until my alarm wakes me up.

My Friday Rant

I realize I exist at a point in history that is still fucked up by (stupid) ideology, race and religion and truly hope one day we will look back at this time period and see how primitive we behaved. We need to dismantle the current systems and devise one that benefits all of us in order to evolve as a species. 

Dream 2-6-15

4:35am. Just woke up from a futuristic dream. I was being held captive in some industrial decayed warehouse when all of a sudden some friends barged into the building and beat up and killed the people that were keeping me captive. We ran throughout the rooms and hallways and got onto a sort of elevator/cart with windows. This device moved in all directions (up, down, left and right) through this city complex. I tried looking out one of the windows as we were moving and between a scenery of industrial pipes and objects I caught a glimpse of the outside. Off in the distance near the horizon I saw some huge objects that looked like massive robots the size of skyscrapers. They weren't moving. And behind them was the dark star lit sky.

Bridgeport Dream

I dreamt I was in a place that resembled Bridgeport. This song was playing: http://youtu.be/guJOyJyTn5w

In the dream I walked out of my home and wandered throughout the neighborhood.

August 1, 2014

There is so much violence happening now globally and locally. Why can’t humanity evolve past this? Does one blame the political and religious ideologies that guide us? Is it that simple? I hope one day we look back at ourselves and see how primitive we really were in this 21st century.

Dream July 2, 2014

I dreamt that I hooked up with Ann Margret but in my dream she was young and not present day Ann(in her 70s). I always had a crush on her growing up but she made horrible movies.

CTA train

I take the train daily to work and during the repetitiveness of this action I notice the same people over and over. One such person is this very pretty young woman probably in her late 20s or early 30s. She always wears a distinctive colorful backpack. Boards at Division, leaves the train at my stop Rosemont and then walks to an area by the parking lot where a lot of shuttles pick up people to go to work.

I still haven't had a chance to talk to her. I wouldn't know what to say besides dumb small talk. Perhaps one day I'll start a conversation.

April 18, 2014

For the past year and a half I have struggled to make art that for years used to satisfy me. That was mostly 2D painting and drawing. I grew out of this traditional media and although I do still respect the medium and like that type of art, I feel the need to grow and experiment. In the past, I have dabbled in video, animated GIFS, photography, etc. But now I want to explore further and grow as an artist and as a person without catering to the commercial aspect of artmaking.

#404 Not Found

#404 Not Found
Curated by Miguel Cortez from Antena

Opening Friday August 30, 2013 from 6pm-10pm
Show runs until September 8th

"Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality. Technology has become the body's new membrane of existence." - Nam June Paik

The 404 Not Found is an HTTP web error message indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server, but the server could not find what was requested. Humans created this entity called the Internet which has no physicality but it is a collective forum for our ideas, comments and cat videos. This show is about artists using technology as an art form, from video, web, animated GIFS, social networks, virtual reality, etc.

Artists:
Channel TWo (CH2)
Jeff Kolar
Jon Satrom
Rob Ray
Patrick Lichty
Sarah Weis
Christopher Smith
Jake Myers
Amelia Winger-Bearskin
Emilie Gervais

Co-Prosperity Sphere
3219-21 South Morgan Street
Chicago Illinois, 60608
http://coprosperity.org

Artist Bios:

Channel TWo (CH2)
Adam Trowbridge (b 1972) and Jessica Westbrook (b 1974) collaborate as Channel TWo (CH2), a studio/research construct focused on mixed reality, media, design, development, and distribution, authorized formats + unauthorized ideas, systems of control + radical togetherness. Channel TWo is loosely aligned with the concept of over-identification, Slavoj Žižek’s description of a tactic intended to reveal the hidden nature of dominant ideologies -- not by pointing to them but by becoming extreme forms of them. CH2 projects intersect joyful/play-oriented aesthetic experiences and user interfaces with challenging critical undercurrents. CH2's most recent projects involve interactive landscapes/game environments, and computer viruses. In 2012 CH2 was awarded a Rhizome Commission, a Turbulence Commission in 2011, and a Terminal Commission in 2009 for projects involving education, systems design, and net art. In addition to exhibitions and commissions, CH2 contributes to panels, platforms, publications, and collaborative programs involving new media, and social practices. Both Trowbridge and Westbrook are Assistant Professors at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where they teach courses in the Department of Contemporary Practices and the Department of Art and Technology Studies. Trowbridge received an MFA in Electronic Visualization from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL (2008). Westbrook received an MFA in Photography from Temple University's Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA (1998). http://www.onchanneltwo.com/

Jeff Kolar is an audio artist working in Chicago, USA. His work, described as "speaker-shredding" (Half Letter Press) and "wonderfully strange" (John Corbett), includes cross-platform collaboration, low-powered radio, and live performance. Jeff is a free103point9 Transmission Artist, and also the director of Radius, an experimental radio broadcast platform.

His work has been released on Panospria (Canada), HAK Lo-Fi Record (France), free103point9 (USA), and has appeared in compilations by Furthernoise.org (Australia) and Sonic Circuits (USA). His video work was published in the DVD journal ASPECT: The Chronicle of New Media Art. He presents at festivals, radio programs, exhibitions, and performance venues which recently include GLI.TC/H, KUNSTRADIO, and The Kitchen; and in Argentina, Mexico, and the Netherlands, among others internationally. http://www.jeffkolar.us/

 

Emilie Gervais
Girl living the life, living the internet and all. If i lose this current skin, it's scary like #404voidBB. http://emiliegervais.com/

Jon Satrom is a constructive deconstructivist, a creative problematizer, a collaborative agitator and a systems spelunker. His realtime A/V performances, experimental video-works, net.art and artware have been consumed within various space-times across multiple planes. Satrom co-founded the r4wb1t5! microFestival framework and the GLI.TC/H conference/festival/gathering. He has taught and developed courses in the new-media path of the Department of Film Video New Media Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and directs the Chicago-based boutique digital studio studiothread. Sharing, bringing folks together, creative problem creating and investigating structures though failure, kludges, and glitches fuel his endeavors. http://jonsatrom.com

Rob Ray examines technology in public/outdoor spaces and creates interactive public artworks, experimental videos and sound compositions. His interactive work, GET LOST! was commissioned by the Abandon Normal Devices Festival in Manchester, UK and has exhibited at Conflux 2012 in New York and the Tracing Mobility festival in Berlin, Germany. His video game disguised as ATM, Bucky's Animal Spirit, was selected for the art.tech exhibition at The Lab (San Francisco), and the (re)load exhibition at Antena (Chicago).

Rob also collaborates with Jason Soliday and Jon Satrom as a member of the Chicago-based circuit-bent multimedia noise trio I Love Presets. I Love Presets has performed at the GLI.TC/H 2011 and 2012 festivals, The SAIC's Conversations at the Edge series and the Chicago Underground Film Festival.

From 1999 to 2008, Rob was founding curator of the DEADTECH electronic arts center in Chicago, IL, USA. DEADTECH's unique curatorial vision, residency facilities, workshop facilities and exhibition space were custom created to cater to the specific needs of the electronic artist and performer. DEADTECH exhibited artists from across the globe including the Beige Programming Ensemble, Institute for Applied Autonomy, Trevor Paglen, Norman White, Kevin Drumm, T.V. Pow and Kazuyuki K. Null. In 2010, Rob received his MFA in Electronic Arts from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. http://robray.net/

Patrick Lichty is a technologically-based media artist, writer, independent curator, co-founder of the performance art group Second Front, animator for the activist group, The Yes Men, and Executive Editor of Intelligent Agent Magazine. He began showing technological media art in 1989, and deals with works and writing that explore the social relations between us and media. Venues in which Lichty has been involved with solo and collaborative works include the Whitney & Turin Biennials, Maribor Triennial, Performa Performance Biennial, Ars Electronica, and the International Symposium on the Electronic Arts (ISEA). He is also an Assistant Professor of Interactive Arts & Media at Columbia College Chicago. http://patricklichty.com/

Jake Myers is a Chicago-based artist, athlete and educator. "His work gratuitously merges art and sports, homoeroticism and hypermasculinity, and heroism and existential suffering." (M. Devlin) http://jakemyers.us

Amelia Winger-Bearskin works with modeling (as defined by agent based computer programming) as a conceptual prompt in her performance work, she has developed a concept of Open Source Performance Art (OSPA), she has spoken about OSPA at various academic conferences and performance festivals since 2010. She has been a solo performer at numerous international performance festivals since 2008 in cities not limited to: Beijing, China, Manila, Philippines, Seoul, South Korea, Sao Paulo, Brazil, New York NY and Washington, DC. She participated in the 2012 Gwangju Biennial as a performance artist and recently returned from an artist residency at the University of Tasmania in Australia. http://www.studioamelia.com/

Miguel Cortez is an artist/curator living in Chicago and born in Guanajuato, Mexico. He has studied filmmaking at Columbia College and art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He currently runs Antena, an alternative art space located in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. His artwork has been shown at Gallery 414 in Fort Worth, Texas, at the Krannert Museum and at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. Other shows included exhibits in Dallas at Mighty Fine Arts Gallery, Glass Curtain Gallery and at VU Space in Melbourne, Australia. http://www.mcortez.com/

Public Transportation Options: (CTA)
Take the HALSTED BUS (8) south to 31st or 32nd Street. Walk 4 blocks West to Morgan.

ORANGE LINE to Halsted/Archer, catch the HALSTED BUS to 31st.

RED LINE to Sox/35th, take the 35th STREET BUS (35) West to Morgan. Walk north.

2013 Predictions

my predictions for 2013:

1.smartphones will continue to be larger(phablets) because very few people actually make calls anymore. Luddites/Hipsters continue looking for payphones and carry 50 cents in their pockets at all times.

2. Al Gore will try to sell his soul on ebay. No one bids on it.

3.The CBS network will finally cease to exist. All the old viewers will be confused and just watch CSPAN thinking it's a new episode of Matlock.

4. Fox will finally cancel all those damn sunday night cartoons and replace them with 2 hours of Howard Stern.

5. New alternative apartment art spaces will pop up and disappear.

6. Religious freaks will continue knocking on your door but Google will invent the star trek "tricorder" so they will be able to scan your place and see that people are home and ignoring the knock on the door.

7. Anonymous will finally be the TIME mag person of the year.

8. No one will care anymore about the Kardashians. TV shows canceled. They become the Vanilla Ice of reality TV. Kanye's music sales take a dive too. He goes nuts and just kills all of them. Bruce Jenner's face survives. Kanye gets life in prison.

9. Michelle Bachmann finally realizes her husband is gay and supports gay rights. No one cares.

10. Blackberry 10 is released and no one cares. RIM goes out of business but on their way out they release a youtube video of their executives singing  a Frankie Goes To Hollywood song. The web site REDDIT loves it and it becomes a MEME.

11. An artist installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art accidentally blows up the building.

dream 1-04-2013, 3:51am

Had a dream of walking to an outdoor one day art show in this decayed industrial area with destroyed buildings and walls leftover standing. This conceptual/graffiti female artist who went by the name "happy?" was showing installations using materials that blended with the raw industrial surroundings.

I was with a group of people, some of whom I recognized. The artist was explaining an installation in front of us which was a huge 300sq foot square made up of dirt, rocks and stuff sticking out which looked like metal hangers twisted into various shapes.

She invited the group to step into the installation and reshape the metal sculptures. So we did. I noticed as the crowd was stepping all over the dirt and rocks, that a few larger rocks looked like they were moved so I proceeded to move them back into place. The artist came by me and started yelling and saying, "Those are part of the installation and should not be moved voluntarily. You should only reshape the metal sculptures that I just explained!"

I apologized and after this ordeal the artist pointed to where we could get some drinks. It was an opening on the floor with a metal chute that lead down to a basement level. It did not look safe but most of us in the group slid down for drinks and further art chit chat.

After a while we walked back up to leave and there was a half demolished wall with an abstract mural with the name "happy?" spray painted below it. Next to it it said "next art opening: Barry McGee."

WTF is wrong with America?

taking a nap

recycle your ideas

early 1900s

scene from Breaking Bad

Art and Technology in Chicago

Art and Technology in Chicago
by Miguel Cortez
(published in Contratiempo, October 2011)

"Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality. Technology has become the body's new membrane of existence." - Nam June Paik


This article is by no means a history of New Media Art, but will focus on a few artists using new technologies in Chicago.


New Media Art's roots can be traced back as far as to the mid to late 1800s with the invention of animation projectors such as the "zoetrope" and the "praxinoscope" and continued on to the use of experimental sound instruments called "intonarumori" by the Italian Futurists in 1913.


It evolved and expanded as new technologies came about such as the invention of video and affordable video cameras such as the Sony Portapak introduced in 1967. Nam June Paik is considered to be the first artist to use this technology. Although early computers were mostly used by engineers, scientists and computer programmers in universities, artists also found this technology as a new tool for expression. The origins of computer art dates back to 1960 with the invention of the Henry Drawing Machine by Desmond Paul Henry. This led to him having a solo show in London in 1962.




Nowadays artists use 3D virtual social environments to create sculptures or interactive performances. One such artist, Patrick Lichty uses Second Life as a virtual performance space with his group Second Front. They explain on their web site: "Second Front creates theatres of the absurd that challenge notions of virtual embodiment, online performance and the formation of virtual narrative."  In a separate art piece Lichty recreated in Second Life the sculpture titled Spindle by the artist Dustin Shuler which existed in Berwyn, Illinois from 1989 until its demolition in May of 2008. It consisted of eight cars impaled on a 50 foot spike. The sculpture was removed to make way for a Walgreen's drive-thru window but now thanks to Lichty, it exists in a virtual world.


A local group called I Love Presets consisting of Jon Sartrom, Rob Ray and Jason Soliday create physical(not virtual) multimedia performances consisting of digital video, circuit bent electronics, custom video games and audio software. A review of a performance at the Gene Siskel Film Center explains, "The trio chops up and recontextualizes bits of digital ephemera into new processes, sounds, and even games; it may sound a bit techy, but one look at Ray's ultra-provocative Guilty Party installation or ILP's labyrinthine website, and it becomes clear that the gadgetry's impressive, but the concepts are just as fully formed."


In 2009 Ben Chang did an installation of two virtual characters doing a performance using telegraph machines and video projectors. Each computer generated character is seen tapping on their virtual telegraphs while next to the two projections a real antique telegraph equipment produces the sound. It is a love performance between two virtual characters that uses old antiquated instruments alongside the new and in my opinion gives an homage to the origins of technology.


The use of the internet has also been used by artists. Earlier this year artists Adam Trowbridge and Jessica Westbrook organized a one night show of web performances at Antena in Pilsen called Daisy Chain. Using multiple projectors and computers they filled the space with a continuous array of moving images, pictures, sound and text. This also included a gallery performance by Jeff Kolar manipulating the sound of Hallmark sound greeting cards.


We are not limited to the media that I listed before. We live in a time period were technology is evolving at a rapid scale. Computer chips are becoming smaller and holding more memory which in turn give us access to faster computers, tablets and smartphones. Pretty soon we may be able to create nanobots which will help heal and repair the human body at the cellular level or we may create life-size holodeck simulated virtual environments. As all these developments occur I am sure artists will find a way to use them for experimentation.


Links:
Patrick Lichty: http://www.voyd.com/
Second Front: http://www.secondfront.org
I Love Presets: http://ilovepresets.net/
Ben Chang: http://www.bcchang.com/art/sounderandrelay/index.php
Daisy Chain by Adam Trowbridge and Jessica Westbrook: http://antenapilsen.com/exhibit28.html


-------------------------------

Arte y tecnología en Chicago

“La piel se ha vuelto inadecuada para interactuar con la realidad.
La tecnología se ha convertido en la nueva membrana existencial del cuerpo”.
Nam June Paik

Este artículo en modo alguno constituye una historia del arte de nuevos medios, sino que se enfocará en unos cuantos artistas que utilizan tecnologías nuevas en Chicago. Las raíces del arte de nuevos medios se remontan inclusive a la segunda mitad del siglo XIX con la invención de proyectores de animación como el zoótropo o el praxinoscopio, y continúan hasta 1913 con el uso de instrumentos de sonido experimentales, como los llamados “intonarumori” usados por los futuristas italianos.

Estos medios evolucionaron y se expandieron en la medida en que aparecían nuevas tecnologías, como el vídeo, o a partir de la popularización de las cámaras de vídeo, a partir de la introducción de la Sony Portapak en 1967. Nam June Paik está considerado como uno de los primeros artistas en usar esta tecnología. Si bien las primeras computadoras eran usadas más que nada por ingenieros, científicos y programadores en las universidades, los artistas también encontraron esta tecnología como una nueva herramienta para la expresión. Los orígenes del arte por computadora se remontan a 1960 con la invención de la Máquina de Dibujo Henry por parte de Desmond Paul Henry, quien la presentó por vez primera en una exhibición en Londres en 1962.

Hoy en día, los artistas usan ambientes sociales virtuales en 3D para crear esculturas o llevar a cabo performances interactivas. Uno de estos artistas, Patrick Lichty, usa el programa Second Life como espacio para una performance virtual junto con su grupo Second Front. El grupo explica en su página Web que Second Front “crea teatros del absurdo que prueban hasta el límite los conceptos de encarnación virtual, online performance y la formación de la narrativa virtual”. En otra pieza, Lichty recreó en Second Life la escultura llamada “Spindle” de Dustin Shuler, que estuvo puesta en un centro comercial de Berwyn, suburbio de Chicago, entre 1989 hasta su demolición en mayo de 2008, y que consistía en ocho automóviles empalados sobre una pica de 17 metros de altura. La escultura fue eliminada para darle paso a la ventanilla para automovilistas de un nuevo Walgreen’s, pero ahora, gracias a Lichty, existe en el mundo virtual.

Un grupo local llamado “I Love Presets”, formado por Jon Sartorm, Rob Ray y Jason Soliday, han creado performances multimedia en vivo que consisten en vídeo digital, efectos electrónicos de circuit bent, vídeo juegos adaptados y software de audio. Una reciente reseña de su trabajo en el Gene Siskel Film Center indicaba que “el trío rebana y recontextualiza efímeros bits digitales, convirtiéndolos en procesos, sonidos y hasta juegos nuevos. Puede que suene un poco techy, pero una mirada a la instalación ultraprovocadora Guilty Party, de Ray, o al laberíntico sitio Web de ILP, y nos queda claro que la parafernalia es impresionante, pero que sus conceptos están plenamente formados”.

En el 2009, Ben Chang montó una instalación de dos personajes virtuales que hacían un performance usando telégrafos y proyectores de vídeo. Cada personaje generado por computadora aparecía aporreando el teclado de sus telégrafos virtuales, en tanto que al lado de las dos proyecciones había un auténtico equipo telegráfico que producía el sonido. Era una performance de amor entre dos personajes virtuales que usaban instrumentos anticuados e instrumentos nuevos, algo que en mi opinión rinde homenaje a los orígenes de la tecnología.

El uso del Internet ha sido también frecuentado por los artistas. A principios de año, Adam Trowbridge y Jessica Westbrook montaron un show de una sola noche de performances Web, llamado Daisy Chain, que se presentó en el Antena de Pilsen. Usando múltiples proyectores y computadoras, llenaron el espacio con una gama continua de imágenes en movimiento, fotografías, sonido y texto. Esto incluía también una performance de galería a cargo de Jeff Kolar, quien manipulaba el sonido de las tarjetas de felicitación sonoras de Hallmark.

No estamos limitados a los medios descritos hasta ahora. Vivimos en una era en la que la tecnología evoluciona a una veloz escala. Los chips de computadora son cada vez más pequeños y cargan cada vez más memoria, lo que a su vez nos da acceso a computadoras más rápidas, tabletas y smartphones. Pronto, seremos capaces de crear nanobots que nos ayudarán a curar y reparar el cuerpo humano a nivel celular, o podremos crear ambientes virtuales simulados a escala real. Conforme estos conceptos se vuelven realidad, estoy seguro que los artistas los usarán para su experimentación.

Algunos enlaces:
Patrick Lichty
Second Front
I Love Presets
Ben Chang
Daisy Chain de Adam Trowbridge y Jessica Westbrook

Miguel Cortez es un artista y curador, nacido en la ciudad mexicana de Guanajuato y residente en Chicago. Estudió cine en Columbia College, y arte en el School of the Art Institute. Está a cargo de Antena, un espacio de arte alternativo en el barrio de Pilsen. Su obra ha sido exhibida en Gallery 414 de Fort Worth, Texas, el Krannert Museum y el Museo Nacional de Arte Mexicano de Chicago. También ha presentado obra en la Mighty Fine Arts Gallery de Dallas, la Glass Curtain Gallery y el VU Space de Melbourne, Australia.

http://contratiempo.net/2011/10/arte-y-tecnologia-en-chicago/

Article in ArtSlant

  

Antena  & Miguel Cortez

by Joel Kuennen

Renovation Creep: Joe Cassan, Dan Bruttig and Erin Thurlow

Joe Cassan, Dan Bruttig and Erin Thurlow

Antena

1765 S. Laflin St., Chicago, IL 60608

August 5, 2011 - September 3, 2011

Antena (the Spanish spelling of “antenna”) is a project space run by Miguel Cortez of the now-defunct Polvo collective and magazine. Located in Pilsen, Antena has a history of presenting new and interesting work that has given it a reputation of excellent curation representative of young artists and emerging work at the intersection of genres most important to the contemporary moment. Mr. Cortez points to his laissez-faire approach to curating as the key to keeping artists and patrons interested in Antena. “I allow artists to alter the space for their experimentation. Artists can paint the walls, put up bathroom tile (like the current show “Renovation Creep”) and even build walls. For a show about two years ago this artist wanted more wall space for his paintings so he had an L-shaped wall built. At the end of the show I left it in place for future artists to use.”

Antena is itself an apartment gallery following in the long tradition that has defined Chicago’s art scene for years. Both because of the prevalence of two large art school institutions that bring in a rotating cast of artists and curators, the apartment gallery is kept as a transient phenomenon. Cortez takes advantage of this through allowing the space to reflect each show. The apartment renews with each exhibition.

 Installation view of "Renovation Creep" at Antena. Image courtesy of Antena

Much of the contemporary art scene in Chicago is a cloud of alternative gallery spaces that come into existence for a year or two and then disappear. Some transition into more permanent institutions, others are lost to time and the revolving door of the city. Sometimes, as is the case with Miguel Cortez, the closing of one space, Polvo, leads to the opening of another, Antena.

Cortez says of the consecutive galleries; “Both were very similar and it was just a natural transition. Polvo was run by a collective. Once the collective disbanded then I decided to continue using my apartment to showcase art under a different name.” The mission didn’t change however. What has changed is the frequency of shows as well as their make-up. “With Antena there are fewer shows a year and most are one person shows (with the exception of the current show). Antena runs six-to-eight shows a year as opposed to twelve shows a year and more group shows during the Polvo years.”

“Renovation Creep,” is on view (by appointment) until September 3^rd and will be followed by an exhibition by a local group of female crafters called El Stitch y Bitch, following Antena’s mission “as a cultural space that transmits/broadcasts symbolically art ideas, new media and installation projects on a local and global scale.”

-Joel Kuennen, ArtSlant Staff Writer
http://www.artslant.com/chi/articles/picklist#p24566

"Is this thing on?: The art of comedy"

"Is this thing on?: The art of comedy"
Guest Curator: Miguel Cortez from Antena

Opening Friday August 12 from 6pm-10pm
August 12-28, 2011

"If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses."
- Lenny Bruce

Contemporary art is too serious sometimes. This show will focus on the lightheartedness and humor in art. Most of us are part of the system and work 40+ hours a week and by the weekend we just want to unwind and be entertained. Then this show is just for you. These artists use irony, goofiness, satire, and sarcasm in their work. 

Artists:
Andy Detskas
Ben Pederson
Catie Olson
Chris Silva
Darrell Luce
David Leggett
Lauren Feece
Meg Duguid
Nick Black
Nicole Marroquin
Paul Shortt
Rick Huggett
Sarah Perez

Born June 3rd, 1975, Andy Detskas grew up hopping around the Midwest, deep South and East coast. Like many artists, Andy began to work at a young age exploring drawing, painting and sculpture. Since graduating from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2000 Andy's work has varied as much as the places he grew up; exploring themes of human scale, urban ruin, defacement, landscape, ghosts, robots and typography. Andy's current body of work is focused on using discarded motel landscape paintings as a canvas for hand-drawn typography and strange comedic characters. http://andyandyandy.com/

Ben Pederson was born in 1979 in Grand Rapids Michigan and received his B.A. in Studio art from Aquinas College in 2003. He went on to obtain his M.F.A. in Sculpture from the University of Massachusetts, which he received in 2007. After graduate school, Ben moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he worked as an art handler and continued to make and show work. Now residing in Madison, WI, he has shown in Chicago and throughout the midwest as well as staying involved with shows and screenings on the east coast. http://benforceblog.blogspot.com/

Catie Olson is multi-disciplinary artist born in Decatur, Illinois, the pleasant home of two chicken cars. She received her BS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995 in Agriculture, ventured to Chicago and received her BFA at the School of the Art Institute in 2000. Catie organizes SpiderBug, a mobile short film festival, along with her husband, EC Brown. The pair also run Floor Length and Tux, an apartment art space. Catie has an animation that will be shown in the International Pancake Film Festival in Boston upcoming in July. She has shown work in Chicago including Heaven, Swimming Pool, antena and minidutch galleries. http://www.catieolson.com, http://www.floorlengthandtux.com, http://www.spiderbug.org

Christopher Tavares Silva is a multi-disciplinary artist who has been cold rockin' shit since his little monkey feet touched down on Planet Earth. Having recently returned to Chicago from a 4 year vision quest in the jungles of Puerto Rico, Chris is splitting his energy between creating collaborative and heart-warming works of art and music with his expansive band of misfit slackers - and charging ever onward with his tireless passion for data entry. Chris's work has been exhibited and published in places that would make you shit your pants, and since most of us prefer to shit our pants in the privacy of our own homes (I know - there's nothing greater) the details will be spared. It's simple - buy one of these reasonably priced pieces of supreme quality visual funk...or live a life full of regret. Pussy. http://chrissilva.com/

Darrell Luce, b. circa 1963, probably in San Francisco. Luce is the wild man of the workshop, which he joined in 1996, at the request of Alma de la Serra. He either refuses to discuss his past or concocts sly stories that in retrospect cannot possibly be true. A realist in more ways than one, Luce paints in an expressionistic style that borrows freely from old masters, publicity stills, and cartooning. His sarcastically entitled 'Life of Ignotus' series documents his skepticism with regard to Ignotus's ideas--which Ignotus fully shares. His series of paintings of de la Serra apparently documents his relationship with her, though no one has yet figured out exactly what that relationship is, since Luce never gives a straight answer and de la Serra limits herself to saying "you either trust Darrell completely or not at all."

David Leggett was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1980. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts from Savannah College of Art and Design (2003), and a Masters of Fine Arts form the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2007). He also attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2010). His work is influenced by relationships, both personal and cultural. Popular culture and imagery are often used in his work. He has shown his work throughout the United States and internationally. He received the visual artist award from 3Arts in 2009. http://www.davidleggettart.com/

Lauren Feece
I have always loved making things and I have spent most of my life happily tucked away in my beloved studio. It helped to make me a bit unprepared for real life but completely comfortable with life in my sketchbooks and paintings. In my youth I struck out for success in the city of Chicago. Waitressing and pursuing a career as a working artist kept me very busy. One night on my way to an art opening with friends I met a very interesting musical and visual artist named Chris Silva. I like to think in hindsight that at that moment I knew I was meeting my future husband, but even if it wasn't entirely clear back then I knew instantly I was meeting someone very special. We were hardly apart and soon we had combined our lives, our living and studio spaces. We made our first attempts at collaborative work. Life was beautiful and full of art making.

For years we put art making first and "real jobs" second. Living simply and working hard we happily enjoyed life as full time artists. Over time, our energies focused on making and selling art work for years, began to run down. We wanted to recharge so in 2006 we moved on to a new opportunity. The Silva Family property in Moca, Puerto Rico was without a caretaker and we left The Windy City to take on that job.

From December 2006 to September 2010 we learned more than we had planned on. We encountered many trials as the abandoned house became a home. We got to be more green as the well was dug and the solar were panels installed. We learned how hard it is to grow a garden in the tropics. We learned to listen to the birds, bugs, and frogs, and to see the stars again. This was a life with many new challenges, but through it we got back to art making with a recharged and refreshed perspective.

In the fall of 2010 we returned to our sweet home in Chicago. Continuing to make a life full of love, we are wiser from our travels, and more committed than ever to our human responsibility to the earth, the animals, and especially to one another.

I continue to be motivated by the challenge of being present in the moment. The paintings and drawings I make are thoughts about the nature of things, musings on the everyday, and studies of the layers of meaning just under the surface. In my work I continue to be inspired by the connection of the artistic process to ritual, myth, and meditation. My work is a dance of brushstroke, line, swirls, drips, explosions and movements of paint. As I dance, I remember life, birds, clouds, color, flowers, trees, light, lace, pattern, people, blooms, webs, waves, vines, twilight, leaves, sunrise and sunsets... http://laurenfeece.com/

Meg Duguid was raised in Columbus, Ohio, and received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA in from Bard College. She has performed and exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, the DUMBO Arts Festival in Brooklyn, and 667 Shotwell in San Francsiso. Duguid has screened work at Synthetic Zero in New York, Spiderbug in Chicago, and at the Last Supper Festival in Brooklyn. Duguid lives and works in Chicago, IL where she runs Clutch Gallery, a 25 square-inch white cube located in the heart of her purse. http://megduguid.com/, http://clutchgallery.blogspot.com/

Nick Black was born in Chicago in 1958. He has attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, DePaul University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Massachusetts College of Art. Recent exhibitions include Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, Uncle Freddy's Gallery, Highland, IN, and Joymore, Buddy Space, and Klein Art Works, all in Chicago. Nick has had key works at Art Chicago, the Stray Show, Version Fest, and the New Chicagoans. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nbtoy/sets/72157607672560085/

Nicole Marroquin is an interdisciplinary artist whose creative practice includes collaboration, studio art, research, teaching, and strategic intervention.  As a classroom art teacher in Chicago and Detroit, Marroquin taught and collaborated with youth on art-based action research projects.   She makes art, exhibits and writes about participatory cultural production with youth and in communities.  Marroquin recieved her MFA from the University of Michigan in 2008 and is now living in Pilsen in Chicago.  She is an Assistant Professor of Art Education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  nicolemarroquin.com

Rick Huggett
Raised in shrimpy Chagrin Falls, Ohio, the starting place for plenty of jokers including; Tim Conway and Tom Watterson (Calvin & Hobbs), I graduated from high school there and then attended Kent State University for a degree in Graphic Design.  Four weeks before graduating I took a job in advertising and never completed my degree.  I worked in advertising for two years before it dawned on me that I was both starving and penniless.  Moved to Canton, Ohio after taking a job selling material handling systems to the steel and aluminum industries and did the 50-60 hour work week grind for the next 20+ years.  During that time I acquired a wife, a house, 3 children, a dog, and a business degree from Malone University in Canton, Ohio. Now retired from sales I am currently pursuing a B.A. in Arts at Malone University with an emphasis in painting.  In other words, I am a 52-year old undergraduate who will graduate in December of 2011, so long as I pay off all of my parking fines.

Paul Shortt (b. 1981) received his BFA in Painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2009. He has been in numerous group shows in Chicago, Nebraska, Kansas City, and Minneapolis. From 2009-2010, he directed a monthly, year-long series of performance art at the Fishtank Performance Studio in Kansas City, Missouri, called The Paul Shortt Invitational Performances. He has participated in the Charlotte Street Foundation residency program in Kansas City, and spoken about his work at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Shortt currently is pursing his MFA in New Media at The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and expects to graduate in 2013. http://www.paulshortt.com/

Sarah Perez
Born in the suburbs of Chicago, I lived for most of my childhood in a tiny, one-bedroom apartment with my mother, father and younger sister.  My entire family relies on love and humor to get through tough times, which has been a continued inspiration.  I feel this evident in my work, in addition to the combination of real and surreal that creates a delicate balance in our day-to-day lives. http://www.sarahperez.net/gallery.html

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Miguel Cortez is an artist/curator living in Chicago and born in Guanajuato, Mexico. He has studied filmmaking at Columbia College and art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He currently runs Antena, an alternative art space located in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. His artwork has been shown at Gallery 414 in Fort Worth, Texas, at the Krannert Museum and at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. Other shows include exhibits in Dallas at Mighty Fine Arts Gallery, Glass Curtain Gallery and at VU Space in Melbourne, Australia. http://www.mcortez.com/

Cobalt Studio is an artist run space. Studio artists, Adriana Baltazar and Antonio Martinez work separately and collaborate on occasion to produce thoughtful public art that is meaningful for it's communities. As a project/exhibition space, Cobalt's key purpose is to provide exceptional artists, established and emerging, with an opportunity to showcase their work in a gallery-like atmosphere minus the commercial pressures and b.s.

Cobalt Studio
1950 W. 21st St.
Chicago, IL 60608
http://cobaltartstudio.blogspot.com/


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