Celebrate Woodlawn Botanical Garden Harvest JAZZIN in the Garden

"Art is Business" Repost for William Hill,

Creative Conversation Presenting Artists Speaking About Their Art

"Art is Business"

ZOOM Virtual Gallery Tour Run of Show- November 20, 2020

Facebook: Live Stream

LINK: https://www.facebook.com/events

Phantom Gallery: http://bit.ly/Phantom_Tour Meeting ID: 859 7433 6882

www.cesarcondeart.com

B real Ali Thunder, photo by Toni Smith

Nicholas Conlon, "Last American Poet",  PINK GUN PROJECT

Larissa J. Akinremi Uses Nature as an Experiment to Showcase the Black Body in Outdoor Landscapes.

 "Art is Business" BlogTalkRadio Interview with artist Larissa J. Akinremi.

Headshot of Larissa J. Akinremi 

Artist Statement 

The daughter of creative visionaries activist Bobbie Johnson and Zaid A. Maalikulmulk, 80s club kid and social curator Larissa Johnson-Akinremi (b. Baltimore, MD, 1969) began her career jewelry designer in the early 1990s after college and years later as a freelance make-up artist and fashion stylist. In 2000 she became the host, promoter, and nightlife social curator for Deep House Page, Chicago's premier source for music entertainment and dance culture. Now her focus is on photography and curation. She is inspired by nature, people, social interaction, music, and dance culture. In addition, she enjoys the surreal and spiritual realm, and some of her work encompasses those forms. Larissa's process includes photography of the human condition, a play on light and body movement, spoken word, animation, video, and performance art. In her spare time and upon request, she is also a DJ. Johnson's first solo exhibition, People, Places, and Things, took place in 2015 at Tangible Things. Her work was most recently featured at Beats and Treats, a solo exhibition at Chicago's Bronzeville Room 43, which featured local artists. 

 

For the One

Dancer: Sadira Muhammad

Media: Digital print on canvas, 2017

20 X 16

The One is a Universal term for Allah; God, 

Tetragrammaton, Jehovah, Yahweh, Father, Abba, or The Light.

The dancer moves with a finger pointing upwards. 

This is symbolic of The One.

The photo was taken at Gele Day, an annual event hosted by Pilar Awodola Songofemi Audain-Reed at 63rd Street Beach.

Night Moves

Media: Digital print on canvas, 2016

20 X 16

Night Moves features dancer Cat Mahari in an evening dance at Foster Street Beach.

Black Seeds in the Garden

Media: Digital print on canvas, 2013

12 X 8

A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. To a Black mother, her children and sons are her seeds. She nurtures, covers love, and protects them from seeing them bloom. The photo was taken at Garfield Park Conservatory.

A Dance for Mother and Child

Media: Digital print on canvas, 2017

12 X 12

When I was a little girl, I used to dance with my mother. It was the closest thing to God. This picture holds so many memories, and I am glad I caught it. The photo was taken at Gele Day, an annual event hosted by Pilar. Awodola Songofemi Audain-Reed at 63rd Street Beach.

Protect Our Children

Media: Digital print on canvas

12 X 8

Often times our children are shot and killed in the streets while going to school, running an errand, playing in front of the house, or just playing basketball.

I was sitting in the community park at Reavis Math and Science Academy and captured these young men playing basketball ball and couldn't help but notice the caption on the mural "Protect Our Children."

Lotus

Media: Digital print on canvas, 2016

12 X 12

Lotus Love is a Healer specializing in Reiki, life coaching, massage therapy, and crystal energy healing. The photo was taken along the beach shoreline at 67^th South Shore Drive.

In 2016,  Ms. Johnson’s work was featured in a group exhibition; Continuous Span at the Hyde Park Center and her along with other collaborating curators facilitated the exhibition Taking Shapes at the Hyde Park Art Center. 

Her photography was selected to appear in Connect Gallery Hyde 2017 and Connect Gallery South Shore in the fall of 2018, a weekend Showcase of local Chicago artists hosted by the Silver Room's Pop-Up Gallery. Larissa Johnson lives and works in Chicago and is the curator for Sounding Bronzeville, a gathering space along the Burnham Wildlife Corridor, south lakefront region. She is also the promoter and creative director for Universal Dance Music. She also served as the coordinator for The Great Migration Centennial and Bronzeville Community Development Partnership and assisted in special projects with the Bronzeville Visitors Association. Ms. Johnson is the president of Race to Knowledge and Beyond, successor to her late mother's organization Race to Knowledge, and founder of "the social movement."  

Larissa is the Creative and Promotions Director for "Universal Dance Music," as well as other collaborative projects with Chicago artists, historians, and creatives. In addition, she received her Visual Arts Certification from the University of Chicago Graham School and Hyde Park Art Center in 2017.

“EXPERIMENTALISM” Process artist LaDiPo Famodu Astro Afro Studio

"Art is Business" Bio Short  Ladipo Famodu is a researcher, artist, and futurist, and creator of Astro Afro Studio.

LaDiPo standing in front of the mural by Statik on 47th Street, 600 blocks on the side of a Bronzeville barbara Shop

Astro Afro Studio is a design practice that addresses the present and future threats to social equality and environmental sustainability by weaponizing art, design, and technology in a creative, subversive manner. Based in Chicago, the city is used as a classroom and laboratory, providing an opportunity to observe, explore, and collaborate.

Interview on BlogTalkRadio Creative Conversation:
The specific question I want to press is what are some ways we define "Experimental-ism", while we examine the state of our environment?

LaDiPo has thought critically about experimentalism in his art practice and what that means. 

LaDiPo was asked the question, EXPERIMENTALISM is largely centered on the human experience. Universal education was the key to teaching people how to abandon their habits and think creatively. 

His response: 

Experimentalism to me represents the process of learning by doing - a pedagogy I apply to both my scientific work and artistic practice. As a materials researcher, I am eager to find the potential in products deemed as waste to other industries and incorporate them into the concrete. As an artist, I’ve discovered my own personal style in creating abstract-yet-human-like wire figures. Through exaggerated gestures, these figures greet each other and activate every object they encounter. 

WIRE! Figure It Out"  by LaDiPo

Bio Long Ladipo Famodu 

As a researcher, he studies the future of concrete as a building material at a Chicago-based concrete company. His role is to analyze industrial byproducts for fitness as an alternative to cement which is the binder in concrete. His background in chemistry has equipped him to quickly learn new testing procedures and reference existing literature regarding sustainable material research.

As an artist, his work is a commentary on a neighborhood in flux. He currently resides in Bronzeville, once known as the Black Metropolis. After a period of disinvestment, a wave of new construction is underway with massive single-family houses seeming to pop up overnight. Using collage, he constructs architectural imagery that references the rich history and speculative future of the Black Metropolis.

As a futurist, his mantra is to Never Stop Learning. Outside of work, you may find him at book signings, artists talks, and public lectures covering topics from sustainable construction to algorithmic bias. He is inspired by those who bring together ideas from different fields of study to reframe big problems in today’s society. 

LIVING SCULPTURE- PERFORMANCE ART- IMPROVISATIONAL SOUND

"Art is Business"

“Living Sculpture,” a performance art presentation, created by artist Alpha Bruton, for the Abstract Expressions “Do You See What I See” opening reception at Gallery Guichard, April 11, 2019 reception. 

Marielle Dickens, Chyanne Spencer, Bryonna Young 

About Move Me Soul- 

Move Me Soul is a Youth Dance Company founded by Ayesha Jaco in 2008. Move Me Soul is committed to providing an innovative platform for inner-city youth to train and evolve as the next generation of dancers, choreographers, and teachers.   Performers are engaged in dancemaking, storytelling and character development that allows them to curate Inner-City Aesthetics of the past, present, and future.

Improvisational Sound by guest musicians-

This piece was last presented in its entirety during the Interfaith Concert for Peace at The Chicago Temple, Sunday, March 16, 2008. 

Living Sculptures‖ is a performance art piece choreographed by artist Alpha Bruton, with music by the Ancestral Resurrection Ensemble. The living sculptures and dancer dramatize, through improvisation, a metamorphosis that symbolizes Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and the spiritual ―CRY‖ for world peace. This is a cry of pain, love, and joy. It is not just the physical act of crying, but an inner psychic cry, the longing and hoping, and the giving of all you have.
  

Jazmin Bruton-Davis, Jazell Smith, Oafrikara Mysheallah Webber – living sculptures 

Ancestral Resurrection Ensemble— Siddha Webber – vocals & percussion, Ray Mosley – guitar, Ben Montgomery – percussion, Duryving Ternoir – trumpet, and Eleni Vryza – dancer.

Interestingly enough, I studied dance at Fresno City College, the department chair was from the school of Martha Graham.

Martha Lamentation, 1935 introduced  stretch fabric in the dance of Lamentation
What is a stretch bag?  It’s like a human-sized pillowcase made of stretchy nylon and spandex.  They have an opening either on the side or the top/bottom of the bag.  On stage, we can make intriguing shapes that don’t look at all like the human body.

Lamentation premiered in New York City on January 8, 1930, at Maxine Elliot’s Theater, to music by the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály. The dance is performed almost entirely from a seated position, with the dancer encased in a tube of purple jersey. The diagonals and tensions formed by the dancer’s body struggling within the material create a moving sculpture, a portrait which presents the very essence of grief. The figure in this dance is neither human nor animal, neither male nor female: it is grief itself.

According to Martha Graham, after one performance of the work, she was visited by a woman in the audience who had recently seen her child killed in an accident. Viewing Lamentation enabled her to grieve, as she realized that “grief was a dignified and valid emotion and that I could yield to it without shame.”

COLLECTED VOICES POP UP SCREENING Strange Fruit trailer

"Art is Business"

The partnership between Collected Voices and the Phantom Gallery Chicago Network will serve as Collected Voices' first fundraiser during the Bronzeville Summer Nights Art District Trolley Tour on Friday, July 15, 2016. The screening and fundraiser is a pre-launch to the CV Film Festival that begins in August and runs through October 2016.

COLLECTED VOICES POP UP SCREENING AT BRONZEVILLE ARTIST LOFTS, SECOND FLOOR EXHIBITION SPACE.

Dark Exodus: Subject to Jim Crow laws and an overtly racist white population that still sees Blacks as property, an African American family in the South sends their sons away to a better life. Visualizing the migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban, industrial North in sepia tones, director Iverson White's period film captures the atmosphere of early 20th century America. 28 min Fiction; directed by Iverson White

Sounds of Exodus: An Ode to the Great Migration: A short film from the critically acclaimed award-winning filmmaker Lonnie Edwards paying homage to the evolution of music birthed through the Great Migration. 3:17 min Doc; directed by Lonnie Edwards

The Talk: A father, a son, and a life or death conversation. 7:22 min Fiction; directed by Justin Vaughan

Does Police Have More Rights Than Juveniles? One South Side Family's Rare Victory Against Misconduct: In 2007, Donna Moore's 11-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter were assaulted by an off-duty Chicago cop. The city settled with the South Side mother in 2011, awarding her family $100,000. Real Chi Youth spoke with Moore and others to understand the impact of police misconduct against juveniles. 4:45min Doc; produced by Free Spirit Media, Directed by Chelsea Berry

Strange Fruit: A reinterpretation of the poem by Abel Meeropol in modern times, October travels down Middle American Main Street and finds himself trapped in a fatal cycle. At the end of the day,

Who is to Blame? The Fruit of the Root? 10 min Fiction; directed by Shay Riddick

Watch the trailer here: Strange Fruit trailer  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOFCVDxkldE

WHEN

Friday, July 15, 2016 from 5:00 PM to 10:30 PM (CDT) - Add to Calendar

WHERE

Phantom Gallery Chicago Network- Room 205

 436 East 47th Street, Chicago, IL 60653

Space is limited.- Mixologist Alan Emerson Hicks 

Sponsors

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/collected-voices-film-fest-fundraiser-tickets-26459628461?utm-medium=discovery&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-source=cp&utm-term=listing