Michael Workman

`Tis spring, once again, and for art lovers around the globe, that means one thing: Chicago. While April may be the cruelest month for the poet, it's the kindest for the visual artist. Kicking off this busiest of months are several large-scale art events worth knowing about, starting with the Third Annual Chicago Modernism Show and Sale, at 1422 North Kingsbury. It's a big, beautiful open space and a show worth raving about that in its first two years has gone largely undetected. That's a shame. Co-sponsored by the Design and Architecture Society (www.archdesignsociety.org), the event helps raise money for the Art Institute's Architecture Department. Even if philanthropy's not your thing, then you'd be hard-pressed to find a better reason to attend than the seventy-five "noted national and international decorative and fine arts dealers" who have signed on to hawk their wares, everything from furniture to jewelry, including the UK's Silver Fund, France's L'iris Bleu, Mathieu-Malot Art & Design and a healthy dose of hometown specialty organizations, including Chicago Bauhaus and Beyond, Chicago Watch Brokers, Platt Fine Art and Modern Times. It's a strong show that the city shouldn't lose because of visibility--make sure to come out for this year's installment.

Across the spectrum to contemporary art, we have the r4WB1t5 mAcro.Fest, a tech-art event organized by Amanda Gutierrez, Jon Cates and Jonathan Satrom, this time focusing specifically on work by Mexican artists. Writing about this group, it's necessary to explain every time that the odd letter-character/number spelling combination is an example of "leet speak," with the word "leet" derived from the word "elite," originally a way of using ciphered spelling to recognize those "in the know," mostly in the gaming and online worlds. This special r4WB1t5 festival's focus has attracted the attention of Mexican art boosters across the city and netted sponsorships from the likes of Mexican government organizations such as the Consulado General de Mexico, the Secretaria de Relaciones and under-recognized tech-art consortium Centromultimedia. The Art Institute has also thrown in its support with the involvement of Internet radio station Free Radio SAIC. Running from Thursday through Sunday, this installment takes place at four different locations, starting with Pilsen's Chi-Town Futbol Arena, where artist-programmer Arcangel Constantinni will curate "a live Net Art wrestling match." Constantinni will also present his Infomera VS CH1C4G0.COM project, and "the Mexico City based dønut project will go head to head against PIRANACON.EXE in an experimental electronic music battle." In the days that follow, the r4WB1t5 festival kids will take their show to three additional locations: the Busker space (http://buskerchicago.com) at 1087 North Hermitage on Friday, EN3EMY (http://cranksatori.net/enemy) at 1550 North Milwaukee on Saturday and back to Pilsen and the Polvo gallery (www.polvo.org) at 1458 West 18th Street on Sunday. A full schedule of festival events is available--where else?--online at http://r4wb1t5.org/2006.04.05-2006.04.08 (note to the organizers: try making your web addresses a little less bulky next time, please?). Try to make at least one night of this fest, since this art's very young and still forming, offering a rare chance to view a new art form in its infancy.

And finally, if you're an artist in need of space of any kind--whether to make your work or lay your head or even a place or info on how to throw a fundraiser that won't get busted for lack of the proper licensing requirements--then you've got to attend the Chicago Department of Cultural Affair's Third Annual Creative Chicago Space and Housing Expo. Held every year at the Cultural Center downtown, this Expo is THE resource for artists' space needs, hands down. Fail to attend this event and find yourself at a loss when it comes time to apply for a mortgage or, when your venue gets busted for not having a PPA license, then you've got only yourself to blame. Not only will officials from the Department of Buildings, Business Affairs and Licensing, Construction and Permits, Housing, Planning and Development, Special Events and Zoning be in attendance (1pm-3pm), but they'll actually take your questions and hand out applications for "theater license applications, occupancy permits, PPAs, itinerant merchant and street musician's permits." It's a ridiculous level of access to an otherwise starkly opaque city bureaucracy, and that's just for starters. There are also neighborhood booster organizations offering "opportunities for living, working and commercial spaces," and a wealth of forty-minute seminars on everything from "Financing a Creative Organization" with Jason Felger of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, to "Legalities of Home Ownership, Commercial + Live/Work Space" with William Pecquet, Attorney at Law, not to mention a chance to learn how to "Create Your Own Home Recording Studio" with Steve Ponte of Sweetwater Chicago. A full schedule and additional information is available through the city's online artist's resource web site at www.chicagoartistsresource.org.

The Third Annual Chicago Modernism Show and Sale shows at 1422 North Kingsbury, (708)366-2710. April 7-9. (A) MEXICAN r4WB1t5 macro.Fest opens at Chi-Town Arena, 2255 South Throop, through April 9. The Third Annual Creative Chicago Space and Housing Expo shows at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 East Randolph Street, (312)744-6630 on April 8, 10am-3pm.

(2006-04-04)

Also by Michael Workman

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In only its fifth show since opening in September, rowlandcontemporary, the newest space to enter the development now spreading along the Fulton Corridor, finds its place on the Chicago art-world map
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New York, the center of the art world, found its annual Armory Show (www.thearmoryshow.com) in open competition this year with the center of the art-fair world at Art Basel Miami Beach, which takes place every year in December
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Go see the new show of work by Richard Hull at the Carrie Secrist Gallery in the West Loop before it closes
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I paid a visit to Bill Gross's apartment gallery this past weekend, 65 Grand , where he was helping local artist Jon Satrom with a new installation
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The Real Thing
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Tip of the Week
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Kimmel Bits
(2006-01-24)

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