What It Is, 23 East Madison, Chicago, IL, 60602
What It Is, is moving!
*NEW LOCATION*
23 East Madison, Chicago, IL, 60602
Madison & Wabash
http://g.co/maps/cg692
Starting with our next show “Quad Core” opening on Thursday February 9th, 2012, we will be producing exhibitions and events from our new location in the Loop. We’re working with the Chicago Loop Alliance through the Pop Up Art Loop to host exhibitions at the new space through 2012. We have invited Book Club organized by Kimberly Kim to collaborate with What It Is at our new location. Book Club features artist books, zines and other multiples. Contextual texts, art books, critical writing and other works will be available. Kimberly Kim recently had a hippie revelation that everything is connected and influences each other while studying for her Quantum Mechanics exam. Kim makes artist books, photography and video installations. She was raised in South Korea, currently lives and studies in Chicago.
*NEW EXHIBITION*
“QUAD CORE”
Theodore Darst, Paul Hertz, Selena Jones and Sabina Ott
Opening reception Thursday, February 9th, 2012. 5 – 8pm
Exhibition continues through March 10th, 2012.
Gallery hours Weds – Saturday noon – 5pm
Our first exhibition at the new space will be “Quad Core” a group show featuring Theodore Darst, Paul Hertz, Selena Jones and Sabina Ott. It opens on Thursday February 9th and runs through March 10th, 2012. “Quad Core” exhibits four different artists whose core processes connect aesthetically and conceptually in interesting and surprising ways.
Theodore Darst’s art works are an attempt to fight nostalgia by giving it some notion of physicality. He uses video gaming platforms to make interactive environments that serve as snap shots to his formative years. These cyberspaces are a time machine to a lost mindset that he is trying to recover. Drawing from remembered experiences such as church, playing basketball, video games and robotripping Darst creates fictive spaces that are at once mysterious and engaging. By appropriating 3d models from the Internet as “ready-mades” he taps into a collective unconscious melding his memories with our own interpretations of what these virtual objects mean and refer to. Paul Hertz works in digital and traditional media, with particular interest in intermedia, algorithmic composition, and performance. For “Quad Core” Hertz will exhibit “Tree Jive” a series of thirteen digital images created by algorithms he has written and implemented. The resulting images are printed on Hahnemühle Rag Bright paper. For Hertz his process is part scientist creating an experiment – establishing parameters and letting it go; and part editor, sifting through the outcomes, and culling a body of work from the many permutations the algorithms create. For Selena Jones the process of construction is vital to the character of her creature-like forms and totems. Often choosing to create pieces with materials that physically challenge her both in terms of scale or method. Jones intentionally selects materials that are ubiquitous and readily available in order to create a feeling of familiarity with these strange forms. Sabina Ott challenges the viewer with objects that are at once all things and none. Her sculptures, paintings, mixed media works and video installations draw upon many reference points and perspectives. Are they plants or paintings? Landscapes or topographical surveys? Ott is a neo cubist – using the Internet to synthesize many different viewpoints and perspectives into a single cohesive body of work.
I used to live in Oak Park – near Lombard and Washington and I have some fond memories of it. i called it “Oak No Park” which indicated one aspect I was not so fond of. It would be fun / nice /interesting etc. to come by your gallery some time and get to klnow you. I stopped by the space in the Art Chicago show and got to know one of the artists – lise baggesen – and she encouraged me to stop back and meet others there, but I wasn’t able to do so. I had asked about Michelle Wasson also. I am an artist also, and a …collector, spelled with a small “c” and not a big “C”. Cheers, Dan
As parents we are obviously proud and supporting but well done to Tom & Holly for giving this opportunity, not only to James, but all the other artists they are showcasing. Really must buy you a pint or two when next in the UK. Very best wishes to everyone. I am sure you will all make your mark.