Spotted This Week

And my favorite things spotted this week were:

Art - Talya Inbar (I have to honor my younger cousin on the weekend of her bah mitzvah!)

Design - Anthropologie Lamp Shades

Fashion - Charles Philip Shanghai Shoes

Spotlight on Jacques Villegle

Chicago isn't known as being one of the big art centers in the World. The gallery scene in particular is not as vibrant as it is in New York, LA, Santa Fe, London, Paris and Berlin. It is for this reason I was so pleasantly surprised to stumble upon the Alan Koppel Gallery. Located on Chicago and Wells, it is the only gallery situated in that general vicinity. It is a true 'white box' - clean, crisp, impeccably designed (book styling and all). It is the type of gallery that you would find in Chelsea and its exhibition on display could definitely compete with some of the top tier galleries in the World. I fell in love at first sight with the work of Jacques Villegle. Villegle's practice involves deconstructing posters and propaganda found on the streets of Paris - also known as decollage. He does this as a social commentary on how we view the everyday world. His recent retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris paid tribute to his life's body of work. Maybe it is my love of everything vintage...or my love of everything French...but I just can't get enough of his work!

Jacques Villegle

Finger on the Pulse of Art

For all you art enthusiasts, if you haven't visited it already, the Zhou B Art Center is a must-see in Chicago. Inconveniently located in Chicago's South Side, the Zhou B Art Center houses a gallery, three floors of artist studios and an eclectic cafe (the kind where you would go to read poetry, drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, listen to indie music and contemplate life). There is nothing quite like it here in Chicago. With concrete floors and suspended ceilings, the space is unpolished in a hip, underground sort of way. It reminds me a lot of The Boros Collection in Berlin (a former bunker that now houses the private art collection of Christian Boros) which I was fortunate enough to visit last year. The Zhou B Art Center has a number of talented artists on display. I was so impressed with both the space and some of the talent that I have scheduled follow up appointments with a few of the artists to see more of their work. While the studios at Zhou B are open to the public every third Friday from 7-10pm, I just can't wait that long! The best part is that the artists and works on display change each month to provide a fresh outlook on what is happening in contemporary art with a revolving door of group exhibitions.

Inside Zhou B

My favorite works on display

Feeling a bit of Cy Twombly!

Feeling a bit of Modigliani and van Dongen!

Gallery Favorites - Gruen Galleries

I have been on a mission to find my favorite art galleries in Chicago. This means actually visiting all of the galleries in the Chicago Gallery News Guide and evaluating them based on artist roster, exhibition space, lighting and architectural design. I spent a lot of time in the Chelsea, Madison Avenue, Lower East Side and Williamsburg gallery districts while in New York. After much evaluation, I decided that my favorite galleries there were Hauser & Wirth, the Andrea Rosen Gallery and Salon 94 - Freemans. I had the opportunity to work at the Andrea Rosen Gallery while I was in school which was an amazing experience. Her artists are some of my ultimate favorites. Thus far in Chicago, I have been able to visit most of the galleries in the River North district. While there are still more gallery districts in Chicago that I need to explore, I am confident that the Gruen Galleries in River North will remain on my list of gallery favorites. Towering three stories high, I was very impressed with the gallery space and scale. Most importantly though, I really responded to the artists on exhibit. My favorite works on display there are posted below.

Erin Parish

Tom Brydelsky

Spotted This Week

And my favorite things spotted this week were:

Art - Deborah Samuels

Design - Josef Albers Nesting Tables

Fashion - Equipment Python Print Blouse

Art for Art's Sake

Today I headed over to the Flat Iron Arts Building in Bucktown. I try to make it there every few months to check out what's going on. I absolutely love the vibe there. It makes me feel like I am back in Brooklyn. In addition to housing dozens of artists' studios, it also has a yoga center, florist, barber shop and open jam session space for the artists by the artists. One of my favorite things about art is learning about the life of the artist and what makes them tick, so it is always a treat to be able to interact with them in the raw open space of their studio. I absolutely love it when I find a new artist whose work inspires me. I am thrilled to report I found that today and added it to my very own personal collection!

Karen Gagich (new to my collection)

more budding talent...

the vibe

Flower Me Pretty

Today it was so hot I couldn't bear to make myself go outside...except to find a good florist in the neighborhood. (A girl's gotta have a good floral arrangement for a weekend of housewarming soirees!) Luckily, I found a great one just a few blocks away. Fleur-de-lis makes floral arrangements look like artistry. If there is one thing I have learned from my boss, it is the importance of flower styling and book styling. It actually took him over an hour once to arrange tulip stems in a vase for a shoot. Obviously they looked amazing, but that is a lot of work, and I am no expert. Fleur-de-lis totally side steps this by placing large leafs around the perimeter of the vase covering the stems and even puts the arrangement in a box decorated in your choice of tissue paper. They also sell absolutely adorable stationary and knick knacks as well. I am a sucker for fresh flowers and cute stationery so I am glad I found this go-to spot! And did I mention they are located in the River North Gallery District? Perfection.

Jim Rose - Triple Threat

I was going to wait to include this in my Spotted This Week Post on Sunday, but I love it so much it deserves its very own post. I popped into a few galleries in River North yesterday, found a few things that I liked, then I walked into the Ann Nathan Gallery and hit the jackpot. Maybe I am now trained to appreciate a good piece of furniture from working in the interior design world, but I found Jim Rose's steel crafted art furniture to be just amazing! Rose is a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been represented by the Ann Nathan Gallery for 20 years. He is an incredible designer, craftsman and artist...can we say triple threat?! His furniture has a very vintage feel to it and is truly one-of-a-kind. Inspired by the quilting tradition, he incorporates colorful found panels of steel into detailed metalwork to create these individual masterpieces. And he does work on commission also!

Jim Rose Handmade Steel Furniture

All About Mark Bradford

I was pleasantly surprised to find out upon entering that Tuesdays are free admission at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. I was even more pleasantly surprised to see The Mark Bradford Exhibition. I am happy to report that Mark Bradford was in fact one of the artists on my "emerging artists to watch" list that was created at Sotheby's after visits to many art fairs, private collections, museums and galleries. I saw his piece titled Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year at Armory Week New York 2010. I really responded to his work then and I still do now. At his MCA retrospective, I found the decollage pieces to be the most intriguing and aesthetically pleasing. They really reminded me of Robert Rauschenberg and Guillermo Kuitca. Being someone who values both art and writing, I have always believed that titles should be just as important as the work itself. Learning that Bradford shares this belief regarding titles and references in his work made me appreciate him as an artist even more. "Bradford describes the titling process as organic, it can happen in the beginning, middle or end of the work." It is fascinating to think that artists can go into a work with a clear intention of what it should be and it can become just what they envisioned or something totally different. They can also go into the creative process not knowing where it will take them. All of these factors effect the titling process, when it happens and how it happens.

Mark Bradford, Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year

Mark Bradford at MCA

Art in Review - River East Art Center

Yesterday I made my way over to the River East Art Center. On display now in the Museum of Private Art Collections is the work of Salvador Dali and Matt Lamb. While I am not particularly fond of the aesthetic of either artist, there were a few pieces that I appreciated and posted below. Upon first seeing Matt Lamb's work (and this was my first time) I immediately associated him with the Art Brut movement. While Jean Dubuffet has always been one of my favorite artists, I did not find Lamb's work to be of the same stature. On the whole, I found a lot of his work to be a bit kitschy. However, one thing that I found particularly interesting was his umbrella project. It reminded me of the art production fund's limited edition items at opening ceremony which I just love!

River East Art Center

Matt Lamb

Matt Lamb

Spotted This Week

And my favorite things spotted this week were:

Art - Simon Hantai

Design - Pucci Pillows

Fashion - Cynthia Rowley Bikini

Art & Interiors

Working at an interior design firm these past 18 months and living in the small confines of Manhattan apartments for three years, I have learned a few tricks of the trade to maximize space. After three long weeks of capital improvements and some major decorating, my new apartment is finally finished!

For me it is important that the space I am living in makes me feel inspired everyday. It is always fun shopping for accessories like decorative vases and pillows, throw blankets and new art & design books seasonally to change things up.

I have become an avid collector of art these past few years. In my apartment the aesthetic focuses on vintage French posters, contemporary photography and a unique mix of pop and assemblage art. In terms of the furniture, I tried to incorporate statement modern pieces with a few classic antiques for a clean yet bold finish.

Before...

After...

Until there's the gallery, here's the blog

Those that know me well know it has been a life-long dream of mine to open an art gallery in Chicago. For the past few years I have thought about it a lot. So much so that over the past three years I have compiled a list of my favorite emerging artists - people whose art drew me in at first glance, people whose art I would, and hopefully will, display in my very own gallery. One of my favorite things that I got the chance to do was take this dream and develop it into a concrete plan. Now that I am back in Chicago, the place where I always envisioned this dream becoming a reality, I have taken a look back into the New Wave business plan created at Sotheby's...while some of the components are totally ridiculous, others are just in line with what I hope to one day develop. Next step, finding some local artists to add to my list!

New Wave Ad Campaign

Finding the New York in Chicago

For me this summer is all about discovering what the Chicago cultural scene has to offer. Of course there are things about New York that cannot be replicated or replaced, but I am coming to find that Chicago offers its own little (and cleaner..) version of New York. I recently moved into my new apartment in River North and everyday I am pleasantly surprised to find more things I love about the neighborhood - the most important being that I am conveniently located just a few blocks from the River North Gallery District. It may not be Chelsea, but it has its own alluring qualities, one of which being its accessibility. I walked into the Andrew Bae Gallery yesterday and the gallery owner started up a friendly conversation with me, offering information all about the history of the neighborhood. This type of exchange is taboo in the New York gallery world...I mean I had to study at Sotheby's in order to have access to anything and anyone art related. Here in Chicago the snobbery and elusiveness doesn't yet seem to exist, but I still have a lot more places to discover...

River North Gallery District

Leaders of the Pack

After a few years of fully immersing myself in the New York art world and reading every copy of Art Forum, Bomb and Corduroy magazines a girl can find, here is a list of the who's who in my book of up and coming art stars.

Julie Heffernan

Greg Miller

Elliot Hundley

Elisa Johns

Philip Haas