August 2009

“Traveling Light”

This work is all about the thoughts that fly around my mind when I am taking a journey in my head, and where I want to be free. The free space I have is in a small part of my brain and these things pop out from there.

I give my thoughts life by making flying objects in light forms and materials. Their forms and colors come from my dreams.

Anna Eyjólfsdóttir lives and works in Iceland.

July 2009

This installation, titled Cats Inspired by Cats, is a sculptural portrait of a colony of feral cats once cared for by the artist. The work celebrates the resourcefulness of these so-called “alley cats” and points to their scrappy individuality by using a variety of reclaimed materials and improvised construction methods.

The artist states:

“When something once valued, such as a pet, is no longer wanted and is discarded, it transforms into something that appears dark or menacing. Domesticated animals that have retuned to a wild state tend to exemplify the aspects of that animal that people usually find unsavory. I am attracted to these particular kinds of dirty. This is what I refer to as the patina of the discarded. In this installation, I structurally approximated one of Chicago’s feral animal population and their living conditions.”

“I attempt to approach all art objects as part of our material culture — not above or beyond the world of the rest of stuff — just with extraordinary purpose.

To contact this artist:
http://lauraanndavis.com/

June 2009

“Oceans Unraveled”
THE NEW CHICAGO REEF
A Satellite of the worldwide Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project created by Margaret and Christine Wertheim of the Institute For Figuring in Los Angeles.

Artists: Aviva Alter, Mary Buczek, Mary Ellen Croteau, Jessica Stapp and Amber Reyes

“Oceans Unraveled” is a woven testament to both the beauty of the reefs and to the fact that the amount of plastic and waste we are putting into the ocean (along with global warming) is threatening the coral reef system at an ever growing rate. By using an ever-repeating crochet stitch, yarn and plastic are brought together to re-create this natural wonder.

This exhibit is a response by artists to the fact that 30% of The Great Barrier Reef is dead. It is estimated that 70% of all coral reefs around the world could perish by 2050. The coral reefs are vanishing even more quickly than the tropical rainforests, and along with them the food chain that sustains us.

Under the current environmental stress corals ‘bleach’, they release algae, their source of food, and starve to death. The once colorful and vibrant world of crenulated living coral becomes white and lifeless. Forms that began growing over 50 million years ago are becoming extinct. It is now up to all of us to participate in stopping this destruction of our oceans and our planet.

Oceans Unraveled is a sister reef of The Hyperbolic Coral Reef Project created by Margaret and Christine Wertheim of the Institute For Figuring www.theiff.org ‘What began as a tiny seed in the Wertheims living room has morphed organically into a worldwide movement;’ with exhibitions in New York, LA, Chicago, Flagstaff and London..

http://www.crochetcoralreef.org/satellite/new_chicago.php

May 2009

Rainbow: after Michael Craig-Martin’s An Oak Tree, is an installation by a Korean-born artist Hyun ja Shin.

The window contains glasses filled with rainbow-colored water on a shelf. Through the month, the water will evaporate, leaving colored traces behind, drawing rings on the surface of glasses. The viewers will be able to observe the evaporation process as they travel by the window during the month.

Using An Oak Tree (1973) by Michael Craig-Martin, as the subtitle of the installation, Shin questions the overgrown ideology and over-stretched intellectualism in contemporary art.

Hyun ja Shin received a BA (Honors) in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2004, followed by a MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008. She currently lives and works in Chicago.

to contact this artist: hyunnuyh@hotmail.com

April 2009

Every warrior has a weapon and mine is my art. In my work I try to visually examine the versions of “American” history that have been overlooked and whitewashed. History, culture, and politics are three key issues of my work. I politically charge allegories of my cultural history in hopes that the viewer will learn and also react. I want to create dialogue about the issues that shape our histories, and in turn shape our identities, and our futures.

I call my painting style “comic baroque”. It is shaped both by the early childhood influences of comic books and later by Colonial Baroque paintings. Like a comic book cover, I try to tell a story with just one crucial scene.

Eric Garcia is from New Mexico, and is finishing his Master’s degree in Fine Arts at The School of the Art Institute.

Other works by Eric Garcia can be seen at www.southvalleyart.com