Matt's Cheddar Apple Pie Dessert, 2012

Geoffrey Todd Smith's Mac and Cheese (Before Tuna), 2012

Stacy Jane's Family Reunion (Meatloaf), 2012

Modern Groceries: Modern Midwestern Meals

These photographic still lifes by Stephanie Dean closely observe the particularly Midwestern Meals her friends and acquaintances have eaten. Foods such as meatloaf, mac & cheese (with tuna) and apple pie with a “special” topping are treated with the classical lighting and formal compositions usually associated with traditional Dutch still life painting. Each piece is named after the person who regularly eats the meals, and is a natural evolution from Dean’s famous “Modern Groceries” series, also seen at ART ON ARMITAGE in October 2010.

www.stephaniedean.com

Also upcoming:  Chicago Gallery News will feature Art On Armitage in the Jan-Mar 2012 edition, in an article on alternative spaces.

Endless Columns detail

Endless Columns

Endless Columns in my studio

Also on view this month at 626 S. Michigan Ave, Chicago in Columbia College Bookstore window

ENDLESS COLUMNS

I am working with trash – stuff that can’t be or isn’t recycled, mostly because it is not financially profitable.  “Endless Columns” (a take-off on Constantin Brancusi’s iconic modernist sculpture) are made of plastic jar lids and bottle caps.  The colors are beautiful, but the trash is ugly – and endless.  I hope to make people aware of just how much garbage we are throwing onto the earth, especially plastics.  Worse, they are made from petroleum, exactly what we are fighting wars for.  People are dying so we can have disposable bottles and bags.

Meanwhile,  I hope to take things that would otherwise go into a garbage dump and make beautiful environments from them.

view more of her work at:

www.maryellencroteau.net

Working - Dec 3 Installation & performance

mop heads, braided and combed

"Working" window installation

“WORKING”

In this installation, artist Jessica Vaughn presents a common, disposable working-class object for closer inspection and care.  500 mop heads create a backdrop for a live performance on Saturday, December 3 from 9am to 5pm, the length of one standard working day.  Contracted laborers comb through the mop strands, collecting fibers and generally cleaning this window space, both inside and out.

With this art installation and performance, Vaughn asks us to think about the value of work, the art of work, and issues of class, labor, and the exchange of goods.

to contact this artist:
jessvaughn.com

performance Dec 3 2011

Sister and Brother

Squabs 1960

Louisville Slugger

Sister and Brother

These watercolor paintings of my older brother and me were inspired by the family photo album compiled by my mother in the 1960s and 1970s in New Jersey.  In those old photos, we were regarding the adult behind the camera. Now that my brother and I are in our fifties, the photos seem to be looking into the future at us.
But there’s also a lot that photos can’t show. By re-interpreting the original pictures in watercolor, a child’s art material, I can bring out what I know is under the surface: what it felt to be that age in that time and place.
Sue Sommers
Pinedale, Wyoming

www.suesommers.com

Chairs are utilized as a structure for painting. In conjunction I have developed a paint that fuses into plexiglass. This enables me to replace original chair components with painted panels. Narrative situations are achieved by extending panels beyond the chair frame when mounted on the wall. Juxtaposed free standing pieces become sculptures unto themselves. When all elements are combined an installation results, this one entitled “Emotional Venues”.

to contact this artist:
fydryck@yahoo.com

Xenophobia

Xenophobia - Kong

XENOPHOBIA

This German artist shows three larger-than-life-paintings of persons who are hidden behind a primitive ape mask. Imprisoned and not visible in their unique individuality they are frozen in different postures. They react ironically, ignorantly or aggressively.

Growing xenophobia in the Western world – as manifest once more in the terrible Norwegian massacre this past July – inspired the artist. She performs with the ape mask herself and photographed all her friends and coincidental acquaintances with it too.

Out of more than 100 photos she selected 3 for the exhibited paintings. Her elaborate mosaic technique allows her to transport the paintings easily and provides great mobility for exhibiting them. From Chicago the works will travel to an art show in Dakar, Senegal in November this year.

to contact this artist:
ina.zeuch@gmail.com

Where's Our Bailout?

Killa Octopus

Blacque Plague

My art is social commentary that touches on issues dealing with the negative effects of corporate America and those who struggle against social injustice created by those in the corporate sector.
I have noticed that nation states as well people are either accepted or rejected depending on what media outlet they have been perceived through. However, only a few media corporations own most of the media outlets we get our news from. So those who fight for social justice can be marginalized and perceived as enemies or villains by those in power. In many cases it’s the corporations who are the true enemy of the people.
By using comic books and poster art I generate my own media outlet upon which I launch my own news and propaganda. My art gives a voice to those who don’t own their own magazine, news station, or magazines.
My influences include the mural and street art of Chicago, Marvel Comics, Unifikation Media, and the revolutionaries and activist of the past and present.
My illustrations and prints are given life and color by use of Silk Screen and Intaglio inks. I chose these inks because they provide the brighter more vivid colors often seen in posters, and comic book art. Since both comics and posters are prints it lends well to the printmaking medium.
To contact this artist:

http://facebook.com/d.c.pigeon

dirtycitypigeon@ yahoo.com

No Chemistry

“Safety Net”

A safety net can catch a fall or jump and act as a safeguard against possible adversity. They generally provide comfort, assurance and protection, but these knitted sculptures do quite the opposite. They act as beautifully knitted missteps, mistakes or flaws created to adapt to the changes that new forms and material propose in each sculpture. Conceptually, they represent clusters of unsettling situations in both my personal and professional life where the security and strength of safety nets continue to be tested. Made of various types of yarns and found objects of similar fibrous nature, each piece is created by an experimental mix of crochet, knitting and embroidery stitches.

Tenure as Sacrificial Lamb

To contact this artist:  yonseniawhite.com

Email: artwork@yonseniawhite.com

Hope in (Haggai 2:9)

Urban Terrane

Urban Terrane 2

Urban Terrane 3

Urban Terrane

A terrane is a distinct sliver of rock that is embedded in the surrounding geological landscape. It is totally foreign, isolated, and a remnant but at the same time it completes the puzzle of strata. Borrowing from geology, I want to consider the window gallery as a terrane, something that is contained within the building: filling the window gallery space and being completely enmeshed in the streetscape at the same time.

Through physically layering the sewn paper arrangements during the installation process, the individual elements, sewn lines, loose threads, and various types of map imagery are transformed into a strata-like whole.

to contact this artist:

dreaminreverse@gmail.com