Eye Exam
Cracking the Type Cast
What is design but the decoration of meaning?—such that “good” design is a fitting elaboration of subject matter. Words (perhaps these printed here) can be dressed to impress—Times New Roman—or be cloaked in perfect blankness—Helvetica, no doubt. But what if a serif were stretched beyond a flourish, and an italics jutted off the page, and punctuation spun on an axis too blindingly fast for the eye catch? Such formal fatuousness surely disservices the eager reader of words
(2009-01-20)
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Tip of the Week
Criteria
“This exhibition is about sustainability,” a wall text declares at the beginning of “Criteria.” What the show is not about, curators Jimena Acosta and Emiliano Godoy stress, is “green design, ecology, environmentalism” and other hot-button issues
(2009-01-20)
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Portrait of the Artist
Theaster Gates
Theaster Gates: urban planner, sculptor, coordinator of arts programming (and an established eccentric-in-residence) at University of Chicago, has transformed a small gallery space at the MCA into a site for ritual and musical conversation that combines his two major influences of African-American and Japanese traditions—Gates has long been involved with Japanese sculpture through his own sculpture study and projects
(2009-01-13)
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Tip of the Week
Jason Robert Bell
“The Unreasoning Mask: New Revelations in Figurative Metaphysics” is the mouthful of a title for Jason Robert Bell’s exhibition of painting and sculpture at Thomas Robertello Gallery
(2009-01-13)
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Portrait of the Artist
Young Sun Han
Artist Young Sun Han placed a Craigslist ad for a stranger to engage in a twenty-four-hour sustained hug. After receiving several responses, Young invited Gerald O. Heller to participate. Though not an artist himself, Gerald was comfortable with endurance practices, having run thirteen marathon races. The two men began their embrace on December 30 at midnight, and after moving through several emotional phases of excitement, physical fatigue and mental boredom (they agreed to remain silent), comfort, and finally, impatience, Young and Gerald released on December 31 as a crowd counted down the last seconds of 2008
(2009-01-06)
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Tip of the Week
Jim Lutes
The properties of flesh are the subject of Jim Lutes’ painting retrospective, spanning twenty-six years of the artist’s career
(2009-01-06)
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Newcity's Top 5 of Everything 2008: Art & Museums

Anne Wilson, Mark Wagner, Jenny Holzer and more
(2008-12-30)
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Portrait of the Artist
Don Baum
“Don Baum: In Memoriam” is a shout-out to one of the greatest promoters of Chicago art. Ephemera from his curatorial career include documents from the 1969 exhibition “Don Baum says: Chicago Needs Famous Artists.” A press release describes the exhibition area, held at the MCA’s then-recently refinished basement, as “a homey Chicago basement atmosphere”
(2008-12-30)
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Eye Exam
Call of the Wild
Lilli Carré flips through comics at a café in Ukrainian Village where she can often be seen leaning over a half-finished drawing, crowded by a laptop, a stack of pens, notebooks and an unfinished coffee. She had just released her first graphic novel this October with Fantagraphics Books, “The Lagoon,” and has a full-color comic, “The Carnival,” on the horizon, scheduled for release in the spring issue of Mome. In the midst of comic-book projects she’s working on a handful of illustration assignments, and while I want to ask her how she manages to find time enough to sleep, she pulls out a handful of zines she’s been working on
(2008-12-30)
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Tip of the Week
“Dr Wax captures the big and small machines for the enjoyment of the people”
A collision has never been as quiet as that found at DOVA Temporary this winter. “Dr Wax captures the big and small machines for the enjoyment of the people” is an exercise in repurposing cultural materials by both musicians and conceptual artists alike
(2008-12-30)
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