"It was this eyesore on Milwaukee and now it's transformed; it's beautiful, phenomenal" says Gallery Director Catherine Seward. "It's set up more like a museum. People have contacted us and want to have weddings here."

Billing itself as one of three galleries in the United States specializing exclusively in Eastern European art, Malovat (from the Czech word for paint) has moved into 2,400 square feet of Bucktown under the radar, opening in December for private showings. "We were just opening the gallery after September 11 and everyone thought we were crazy. But people are still buying art," Seward says.

The seeds for Malovat were actually sown in the Sears Tower elevator, where Seward met the owner, real estate investment banker and art collector, John R. Burns. "We were elevator buddies," she says. "One day he said he was going to Paris to buy art, and I said 'There's a great artist community in the Czech Republic. It's really the best buy for your money.' I told him I'd be happy to make his plane reservations as long as he didn't go to Paris again!"

Burns did eventually get to Prague in 2000, where he met Boyko Asparuhov, who is currently headlining Malovat's opening exhibit of Bulgarian artists. Originally, Seward says, Burns wanted a site simply to show Asparuhov, but over time the idea grew into something bigger. And, Seward says, there's more to come. "Most of these artists developed under Communism, and it's only been in the last seven or eight years they've been able to get their art out there," she says. "There's a lot of people to see."

Also by Elaine Richardson

FIGHT THE POWER
Twenty-four hours after the Bears lost their shirt to the Philadelphia Eagles, Soldier Field was in full-on transition. Seats yanked, the field ripped up and an army of workers going like gangbusters to kick the controversial $606 million renovation plan into gear. In fact, it seemed like a little too much work, considering that a pending lawsuit could kill the project.
(2002-01-24)

TALLYING TURNSTILES
In the bleakness of the weeks immediately following September 11, the city's cultural strongholds seemed doomed to end the year in downturn. Or not. The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum reported last week that attendance topped 27,000 in December alone, tripling the numbers from the year before and boosting them to a level unseen since the museum's new facility opened in October 1999.
(2002-01-17)

COSELL & CO.
It's not quite the textbook definition of mayhem—no real maiming going on—but it's damn entertaining. Not into football? It doesn't matter—we're talking TV history and pop culture iconography here, not sports.
(2002-01-10)

IT'S ALIVE!
The mutations area offers a look at mutant white-eyed flies, while the genetic engineering area offers frogs from the University of Virginia, which have been "engineered" to produce green fluorescence in the eyes.
(2002-01-10)

BALANCING ACT
(2002-01-10)

HOT AIR
(2002-01-10)

FILM VAULT
(2001-11-22)

THE GIFT GUIDE
(2001-11-15)

ALL ABOARD
(2001-10-18)

BRAIN FREEZE
(2001-09-13)

ANALYZE THIS
(2001-09-06)

THE GOOD FIGHT
(2001-09-06)