WHO IS RENEE BAKER? Author of Cipher Conduit Linguistics

Renee Baker's Blu' City Documentary

WHO IS RENEE BAKER? Author of Cipher Conduit Linguistics

BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE-RENEE BAKER

Renee' Baker is founding music director and conductor of the internationally acclaimed Chicago Modern Orchestra Project (CMOP), a polystylistic organization that grew from the plums of classical music as well as jazz. A member of the world renown collective Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

Critical acclaim for her graphic scores novels has come from performances in Berlin, Poland, London, Scotland and as far reaching as Vietnam.

As a disruptive composer and visual artist, there are few barriers to the creative turns of this composer, conductor, artist, and instrumentalist. As a featured ensemble, CMOP has been chosen to work with NewMusicUSA and the EarShot program of the American Composers Orchestra.

An expert at ensemble development and training, Renee’ developed the Mantra Blue Free Orchestra (Chicago), PEK' Contemporary Project (Berlin), the progenitor of Bleueblue Walkers/Bass Kollektief, Twilight Struggles (Berlin) as well as being involved in starting over 20 cutting edge new music ensembles. Among them: TUNTUI, Wrinkled Linen, Chocolate Chitlin' Caucus, Red Chai Watch, FAQtet, Project 6, Renee' Baker's AWAKENING, Baker ArTet, a Butoh ensemble BODY STRATA, and Strings Attached.

Ms. Baker has performed globally from Bimhuis (Amsterdam) to Symphony Center (Chicago) and was a founding member as well as Principal Violist of Chicago Sinfonietta for 26 years Ms. Baker has composed over two thousand works for ensembles ranging from pieces for solo instruments, ballet, opera to large orchestral works that bridge the classical, jazz and creative music genres. Her ability to embrace various creative parameters in her work has led to commissions for the Chicago Sinfonietta, Berlin International Brass, PEK’ Contemporary Project, and DanceWright Project, among others.

As a disruptive force in composition, Ms. Baker’s eclectic visual score compositions led her to create a gestured conducting language she calls CCL/FLOW (Cipher Conduit Linguistics), which she employs when working with numerous cutting edge groups in Cologne, Berlin, Netherlands, London, Chicago, Portland (OR), and other ensembles around the world.

A further aspect of her composition skills is the development of her painted score exploratorium pieces for ensembles of variable sizes. Ms Baker is also in demand as a lecturer and expert in nontraditional composition techniques, as well as large ensemble “comprovisation”/ improvisation development.

Aspects of the art world permeate Ms. Baker’s work. Her performance art work SUNYATA:TOWARDS ABSOLUTE EMPTINESS will premiere at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA, Chicago) in May 2015, and her tactile score sculpture works were featured at the MCA Chicago as part of the Sunyata premiere.

Ms. Baker is the composer of four operas. Currently she is working as a film score composer, having composed and released a new score for

Oscar Michaeux's “race film” masterpiece BODY AND SOUL (1925) with the music performed by her Chicago Modern Orchestra Project ensemble.

Called the latest AACM visionary by Downbeat Magazine, Ms. Baker is one of the brightest and most fertile minds in active in composition today.

Renee' C. Baker, Conductor/Composer
Chicago Modern Orchestra Project /PEK'
Contemporary Project
reneebaker@comcast.net
reneebakercomposer.com
reneebakercomposer.net
chicagomodernorchestraproject.org
For more information:
http://www.billdoggettproductions.com/Black-Composers.html
http://www.billdoggettproductions.com/Black-Composers-2.html

http://www.billdoggettproductions.com/CH125.html

Alan Emerson Hicks Featured Crazy 8 Artists' Carnival

State Street Gallery @ Robert Morris University401 S. State Street, Chicago ILGallery hours Mon- Thu, 10 am - 6 pmShow Runs - Dec 23, 2016Crazy8art.com

The work of eight Chicago artists working in a wide range of mediums and a wild range of techniques.Interpreting the themes of carnival, circus, and festival, the artists are joined by their exuberant delight in the visual and their unique re-imagining of the world. Curated by artist and curator Jason Messinger and Gallery Director and Dean of Arts Shelley Lamantia, Alan Emerson Hicks, is featured artist in a three month artist in residency during the exhibition.

Gallery Director and Dean of Arts Shelley Lamantia, and Alan Emerson Hicks

Featuring artists Kass Copeland, Alan Emerson Hicks, IZZO, Anne Leuck, Edward Master, Jason Messinger, Anthony Stagg, and Joey Wozniak. 

Gallery Director and Dean of Arts Shelley Lamantia

"Carnival Horse" gets a saddle. I'll work on the tail next and filling in some empty areas.

Alan Emerson Hicks uses found plastic objects and heat-manipulated plastic detritus to create tightly corseted structures of complexity. In his hands ephemeral materials are transformed into complex latticed sculptures, elaborate airy costumes, and unique works of art. Hicks conjures the modern world's everyday plastic objects of dull invisibility into a bright parade of startling singularity and vision.

Monica Moore model

Tyler Hicks., Model

 Mini Clown Sculptures on sale at the gallery store

Mini Clown Sculptures on sale at the gallery store

Crazy 8 Artists’ Carnival showcases 

Kass Copeland creates large graphic photo collages referencing by-gone eras and surrealistic tableaus. Both droll and serious, her works are constructed with humorous juxtapositions and garish pleasures while weathered with rich patinas and haunting emotional complexity. They re-invent familiar themes from the circus and the carnival into nostalgic fever dreams. A true master of her materials, Copeland’s artwork is a stage craft of delight.

IZZO unleashes fantastic images on printed-pattern fabric that bridge foreground with background, abstraction with representation, and the flat plane with spatial depth. Alternately embellishing and obscuring the existing fabric patterns, this suite of works focuses on the idea of dizzying love. IZZO fashions images into funhouse rides of joyful exuberance.

Anne Leuck uses her emotional and observed life as a jumping off point to create narratives that charm with their fresh immediacy and universal joy. Using crisp bold colors and a signature graphic style, she exposes a world both intimate and newly seen. In this collection she renders sideshow banners out of her own anxieties of physical aging. Leuck turns her own vulnerabilities into sideshow marvels of the human condition.

Edward Master paints hallucinatory patterned visions astounding in their complexity and richness, referencing natural and man-made motifs, along with decorative and ornamental traditions. With a bewildering level of detail one seemingly hovers above the work, sensing both a microscopic viewpoint and an overwhelming vastness. Swooping in layered complexity, Master’s artworks are a carnival ride for the eye.

Jason Messinger creates ceramic tile murals and sculptures of bright colors and wry content. His sculptures twist and turn with organic yearning and figurative sensibility, creating abstract interpretations of famous sideshow acts. His tile murals vibrate between sneaky humor and abstract beauty - commenting on the lexicons of the circus and the carnival. Utilizing the materials of ceramic and richly colored glazes, Messinger’s artwork is its own circus act.

Anthony Stagg allows his artwork to speak in the language of the street, utilizing tropes as far ranging as graffiti styles to comic book archetypes. Melding pop culture references with fantastical vignettes, the artist exposes a wry observation of the modern world. His non-judgmental viewpoint is both open and humorous, retro and contemporary. Stagg invites you into his own festival of life.

Joey Wozniak pushes, scrapes and layers vibrant color paints to create densely rendered landscapes with an underlying energy bursting below the surface. Bridging a physical approach to the physicality of paint with a masterful understanding of the stimulus of color, the artist crafts joyful scenes in riotous hues. Rich with references to classical architecture and peopled with characters from a wide sampling of cultures, Wozniak constructs his own unique post-modern jubilees.

CIPHER CONDUIT LINGUISTICS

An exhibit featuring new works: Art Books, Paintings, and Wall Sculpture. 

The Phantom Gallery Chicago Network is proud to announce Renee Baker as guest- artist in residency. Her residency took place June 1st– December 31, 2016. She worked directly with Phantom Gallery Chicago’s chief curator Alpha Bruton, and Alan Emerson Hicks. The Phantom Gallery Chicago provided  technical and administrative support, for the creation of new works and the exploration of new ideas with an exhibition at the end of the residency.

As a disruptive force in composition, Ms. Baker’s eclectic visual score compositions led her to create a gestured conducting language she calls CCL/FLOW (Cipher Conduit Linguistics), which she employs when working with numerous cutting edge groups in Cologne, Berlin, Netherlands, London, Chicago, Portland (OR), and other ensembles around the world. 

A further aspect of her composition skills is the development of her painted score exploratorium pieces for ensembles of variable sizes. Ms Baker is also in demand as a lecturer and expert in nontraditional composition techniques, as well as large ensemble “comprovisation”/ improvisation development.

Opening Reception -  Monday, December 19, 2016 7-9pm 

Closing Reception January 22, 3-5pm.

Phantom Gallery Chicago Network

436 E. 47th Street, Room 205

Chicago IL  60653

773-681-6570, Buzz 205 for entry 

RSVP strongly suggested.

Renee' C. Baker, Conductor/Composer

Chicago Modern Orchestra Project /PEK' Contemporary Project

reneebaker@comcast.net

reneebakercomposer.com

reneebakercomposer.net

chicagomodernorchestraproject.org

For more information:

http://www.billdoggettproductions.com/Black-Composers.html

http://www.billdoggettproductions.com/Black-Composers-2.html

http://www.billdoggettproductions.com/CH125.html *