Duncan MacKenzie

In the summer, Philip von Zweck's apartment gallery, located in his Humboldt Park living room, gets too hot for packed openings. So the pragmatic gallerist has taken to running his AC all day to get the room cool enough for an evening lecture series. As you can imagine, seating is extremely limited and you have to be on the VONZWECK mailing list to even know what's on the docket. But for those willing to brave the limits of a window AC unit, the "Much More" lecture series is a treat as it is an unusual opportunity to see Midwestern artist, curators, historians and critics discuss the topic of "the day."

This week Wisconsin-based artist John Neff gave a lecture on a tangent that came up for him while writing the essay that accompanies a new show at Western Exhibitions called "PRINTED SPACE: Or, Why So Many Contemporary Artists Are Preoccupied By The Collection And Display Of Many Small, Printed Pages." His lecture was dense and serious, which contrasted nicely with the apparent silliness of presenting only images of screen grabs through Google's "image search." The talk ran through several subjects, but focused on how artists might once again be able to credibly define "the figure" as a topic for new art works. It was the perfect thing to kick the rust off our sun-bleached minds and the questions lightened the mood significantly.

The next and likely last (although Philip has not given up trying to line up a couple more guests for his patrons) lecture of this summer is coming up on August 16 and will be delivered by Northwestern professor and curator Huey Copeland. The seminar will center on images that he is presenting and relate to his current work on "materiality, meaning and the figure of the negress."

To get on the VONZWECK mailing list in time to reserve your seat visit

http://www.stopgostop.com/VONZWECK/ and don't make the same mistake we did—the lectures are MBYOB (the "M" is for Mandatory). The Gallery re-opens on September 6 with an exhibition by Chicago Artist and Temporary Services collaborator Marc Fisher with a new initiative called Public Collectors.

David Coyle

What is unique about artist David Coyle's curating debut at 40000 is not the quality of the works presented (although most are outstanding), but this artist's decision to curate them through the lens of his own studio practice. I caught up with him to have a quick chat about it.

You curated shows in this town for many years with the Pond and Klein Art Works. What is different about this one?

Yeah, Howard Fonda, Jeff Ward, Pete Fagundo and I ran the Pond from 2002 to 2004 and Howard and I curated a couple of shows at Klein Art Works just before Paul Klein sold his building. But I have not really curated anything in the last few years and it is the first time I have done it solo.

The thing that struck me most while in the exhibition was that a lot of the work in the show looks like things that you might make.

Yes, I guess so. A lot of my interest in the conceptual bend of the show and the formal qualities of the work came out of my own studio practice. That is a little bit different then when we would curate things at The Pond. There were four of us and we would slowly build a consensus around the specific, thematic and conceptual aspects of the show, and then curate toward investigating or interrogating that theme via other peoples practices. When Britton [Bertran] first approached me about doing this show I was a little unclear about whether I wanted to do it. But I felt that it was a great opportunity to show these works that I have very direct and personal relationships with. So a lot of the artists’ work I've known for a long time or they are people that have become evident to me due to aspects of my own art practice.

The way that you curated the show almost gave me the impression that your work seemed like it was missing. I almost felt like you had directly curated yourself out.

I am kind of curious about how this will play against the next show of my own work in the late fall [at 40000]. But all these works are things that I'm very committed to and have a relationship with my things, but they are also very distinct. The works by the artists [Alison Fox, Dana Frankfort, Gavin Perry, Jeremy Beaudry and Jo Hormuth] are so great that I really just wanted to see their works. People will have other chances to see my work.

Alright David, one last question: Who is the Walrus?

I am and you are.

"I am the Walrus" is a show of abstract and text-based paintings, video and an installation in the project room at 40000, 119 North Peoria, (312)738-0179. Through August 11. Duncan MacKenzie is the co-host of Bad at Sports podcast.

(2007-07-31)

Also by Duncan MacKenzie

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