Strategy Sharing Social with The Funambulist Magazine Special guest Léopold Lambert

"Art is Business" This event is hosted by Ladipo Famodu 651-261-7410

Special guest Léopold Lambert will share a brief history of The Funambulist Magazine and his plans for the future of the publication. Attendees are encouraged to participate in the informal discussion by responding to the question “How are you fighting for spatial justice in Chicago and beyond?”

The Funambulist is “a print and online magazine dedicated the politics of space and bodies initiated in 2015. Every two months, it proposes to its readers' spatial perspectives on political anticolonial, antiracist, queer, feminist and/or anti-ableist struggles in various scales and geographies of the world”.

https://thefunambulist.net/about

Come join fellow artists, architects, designers, planners, journalists, activists...etc. for a series of brief interviews concluding with a social hour. 

This private event is of limited capacity, so please RSVP to save your spot. Information on additional interviewees to be shared throughout the week. 

LOCATION:

Bronzeville Artist Lofts

436 E. 47th Street

Second Floor, Room 205

Chicago IL, 60653

RSVP HOST: Ladipo Famodu

651-261-7410

New Patron Saints, New Works by N. Masani Landfair

"Art is Business" curated by Renee Baker, AIR Phantom Gallery Chicago Network

@N. Masani Landfair

New Patron Saints, New Works by N. Masani Landfair

These new works are presented by Renee Baker, 2019 AIR Curatorial Practice 

Phantom Gallery Chicago

Installation Feb 1st - March 15th, viewing by appointment

The closing dinner and wine reception will be held on March 1, 2019,  6-9pm
 

N. Masani Landfair – Artist Statement and Bio.

I take materials considered undesirable and redefine their worth and meaning. I use traditional collage and assemblage to create abstract social commentary, dream landscapes and spaces I consciously and subconsciously deal with every day.

I grew up in the heavily industrial community of South Chicago which contrasted constantly with the teachings and ways of my Southern Grandparents that continued with much of our culture from their transition through the Great Migration. These influences shaped my views of beauty and worth in the simple to complex dilapidations and sacred understandings of nature and the environment.


N. Masani Landfair (b. 1970, US)

nmlandfair@gmail.com

Residencies

2014  Resident of the Bronzeville Artist Lofts Chicago, Il.

2013-2014 Artist in Residence, Sacred Keepers Sustainability Lab, NFP, Chicago, Il.

Exhibitions

2019   “GAP VII” Global Art Project, Group Exhibition, Dakar, Senegal

2018   “Transceivers” Prizm Art Fair, Miami, Florida.

2018  “8×8” Self Portrait Exhibition, 33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago, Il.

2018  “Visual Strategies Exhibition: Global Art Project, ClearWater Artist Studios Concord N.C.

2018  “Imagining Post Capitalism” ProArts Oakland. Oakland, Ca.

2018  “the past is more infinite than the future” Under the Bridge Art Space Miami, Florida.

2017 “Chicago 9” Prizm Art Fair, Miami, Florida.

2017  “Post 11/9. The New Now” Group Show. Connect Gallery. Chicago, Il.

2017  “Sketch Book” Group Exhibition, 33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago, Il.

2017  “Layered” Group Exhibition Tracing How Art is Made. 33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago, Il.

2016  “100 year anniversary of DADA” Global Art Project, San Francisco International Arts Festival. Ca.          2015  “GAP III” GLOBAL ART PROJECT: ( workshops and exhibitions) Group show Lecce, Italy

2015  “Aesthetics of Wellness” Woman Made Gallery Chicago, Il.

2015  “Art from Excess” Miller Beach Arts & Creative District Miller Beach, In,

2015  “Museum of Science and Industry’s Black Creativity Juried Exhibition Chicago, Il.

2014  “Herradura Tequila Barrel Art Collection” Group show Finalist Chicago, Il.

2014  “Curator’s Choice: 10th Annual National Self Portrait Exhibition”, Zhou B Art Center Chicago, Il.

2014   Bronzeville Artist Lofts Incubator Group Show, Chicago, Il.

2014   Samantha Hill’s “Sweat Tea Party” Featured Artist, Part of “RISK”. Chicago, Il.

2013  “Boundless Shores” South Shore Cultural Center, Chicago, Il.

2013  “End of Plastic” Solo Show  Shacks and Shanties, Chicago, Il.

2013  “copy.right? The art of appropriation” 33 Contemporary Gallery Chicago, Il.

2012-2014 “Knee Jerk” Global Art Project Collage postcard exchange, San Francisco, CA.           
2012  “100 canvases for things that matter” Silver Room Chicago, Il.

2012  “face mask” 8th National Self-Portrait Exhibition Zhou B Art Center Chicago, Il.

2012  “Chicago 12 at the Garfield Park Conservatory” Garfield Park Conservatory Chicago, Il.                                   
2012  “Chicago 12” 12 artists mobilizing the Earth, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, Il.               

2011  “Surfacing” Solo Show South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, Il.

2005   “Women of the African Diaspora” Group Exhibition. Woman Made Gallery Chicago,Il.

2001    Museum of Science and Industry Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition Chicago,IL.

2000    Amtrak Union Station, Solo Exhibition for Gwendolyn Brooks Reading. Chicago, Il.

               
Teaching

15 Youth Art Classes at Sacred Keepers Sustainability Lab

2012  After School Sustainable Art Programs.

2006  Walk Wireless Growing the Youth of Englewood Art Classes.

2005  Apostolic Church of God Young Sisters for Christ Girl Scouts Art Classes

1998  ARCHI-TREASURES, Art Supervisor Chicago,Il.                 

Bibliography

2017

Gomez, Sergio “LAYERED” An Interactive Exhibition Tracing How Art Is Made. Jan 11, 2017 pg. 2

2012

Gomez, Sergio: FACEMASK. 8th Annual Self Portrait Exhibition Exploring the Other Behind Our Social Media Face  Jul 11, 2012 pg. 55

Gomez, Sergio: Chicago’s Twelve 12 Artists Mobilizing the Earth May 3, 2012 pgs. 42-49

Hillegas, Laura Brooke: Art Centered, “Certified Organic and/or Artificially Flavored – Chicago’s Twelve: 12 Artists Mobilizing The Earth”, Published by Zhou B Art Center, pgs. 6-11, June 15, 2012.

2004

Stevens, Mike Hyde Park Herald “Black artist featured in new MSI exhibit, January 21, 2004

2001

Reed-Scott, Beverly Chicago Defender “Going North”,  Jan. 25, 2001

Collections

Works held in private collections in Canada, the United States, and Europe

Curatorial projects

2018   “AL(L)TER CURRENTS” Group Exhibition. Alena Museum, Oakland, CA.

2018   Al(l)ter  “Art as Momentum, Incubating generative resolutions to the present.”

Ongoing. Canton, Georgia and San Francisco, California

2013  “No Away To Throw To” Shacks and Shanties at Sacred Keepers, Chicago, Il.

2013  Shacks & Shanties co-curator with Faheem Majeed at Sacred Keepers, Chicago, Il.

Awards

2004, 1st place winner Museum of Science and Industry Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition. Chicago, Il.

Gallery Guichard Presents fingerprints

"Art is Business, Visit the heart of the Bronzeville Art District, 

SILENT SMILES: INTERIOR INVISIBILITY

"Art is Business" Please check the weather before voyaging out, a notice will go out if this event is canceled due to extreme weather.

SILENT SMILES: INTERIOR INVISIBILITY

Renee Baker Artworks on Paper

Feb 1- March 15

CLOSING RECEPTION MARCH 1st, 6-9 pm

Phantom Gallery Chicago Network

436 E 47th St

Suite #205

773-681-6570 for more information.

The Phantom Gallery Chicago Network is proud to announce Renee Baker as guest- artist in residency. Her residency will take place between Feb 1st - September 30th, 2019. She will be working directly with Phantom Gallery Chicago’s chief curator Alpha Bruton. The Phantom Gallery Chicago will provide AIR with technical and administrative support, support for the creation of new work and the exploration of new ideas with a monthly exhibition featuring new works.

First Friday Salon Series- "Creative Conversation"

Description: "Salon" is a room or series of rooms where works of art are exhibited, thus the Phantom Gallery Chicago Loft Gallery, located in the Bronzeville Artist Lofts, 2nd floor, Room 205 are hosting a series of creative conversations, and artist talks hosted by featured artists in the network. 

Renee Baker for the month of February will feature the works of N. Masani Landfair.

"Art is Business" reposted article by Jim Daley

Alpha Bruton Installation 

William G. Hill Projections of images from garden series

ENVIRONMENT | VISUAL ARTS | WOODLAWN

Concerning the Environment

A month-long showcase of installations and interactive events in and around Woodlawn provokes questions of our place in nature and its place in our communities

BY JIM DALEY | OCTOBER 30, 2018

 

Patric McCoy and Kahari Black discuss environmentalism, art, and Woodlawn's history (Matthew Searle / Experimental Station)

In his art gallery, which inhabits a small brick house at 64th and Dorchester, originally purchased by his grandfather in 1946, artist William Hill, a co-curator of the Experimental Station showcase “Environmental Concerns,” explained the project’s concept.

“The key is by establishing, fusing art, environment, and community, we begin to raise really important questions and conversations about who we are, and how we explore creativity, art and an important lifestyle that’s sort of connected or involved in the community,” Hill said. “Our goal is to have ongoing shows or exhibitions that would focus on various problems or issues that relate to the environment.”

“I wanted more of a local-global experience, where we would concentrate on youth and communities in underserved areas of the city within the parameters of Englewood, Woodlawn, and South Shore,” Hill said. He contacted art instructors at Hyde Park Academy High School, artist Gerald Sanders, and others to participate in the showcase.

Sanders, who teaches art at his Bronzeville studio, contributed his own and his students’ paintings to the exhibit at Hill’s gallery, one of four physical spaces “Environmental Concerns” is inhabiting and connecting in the project. The paintings explore themes of environmental degradation, animal population dynamics, and humans’ impacts on natural spaces. In one watercolor, a Bengal tiger, sharply in focus, considers a blurry reflection of itself in a stream. In another painting, scrawny trees peek out from a landscape crowded with shotgun houses.

Artists in multiple disciplines from across the city contributed to the showcase. Rhonda Ghoulston’s students at Hyde Park Academy made papier-mâché animals for a “Zoo of Endangered Animals.” Sound artist Norman Long led guided sound walks that explored how the soundscape in the neighborhood around the Experimental Station defines the experience of moving through it. Alpha Bruton, an art consultant and chief curator for the Phantom Gallery Chicago, created an art installation that hangs in the Experimental Station’s foyer. The piece incorporates projected slides, sound elements, computer monitor shells, shards of mirrors, and other found objects.

When she began conceptualizing the installation, she considered different ways of entering the space as well as questions around technology as a source of physical and mental pollution, Bruton told the Weekly. She collected some of the installation’s components, and Hill alongside Experimental Station assistant director Matthew Searle provided others.

“All the things that are in the installation have to have a story of where they came from and why they’re purposed,” said Bruton.

The monitor shells represent her concerns about our reliance on the internet. “Even now, we have little kids that are plugged into their iPhones,” Bruton said. “These monitors were precursors to this little phone.” The monitors hang amid triangular shards of former mirrors. That element reminds the viewer to reflect on how humans have treated the environment. “What’s our legacy, what are we going to pass on to our grandchildren?” she said.

✶ ✶ ✶ ✶

Ground Yourself

In addition to site-specific art installations, the “Environmental Concerns” showcase has also incorporated public events.

One of those events, on October 13, gave shoppers at the 61st Street Farmers Market (also run by the Experimental Station) the opportunity to bury their fears—literally. Artists from Cream Co., a Pilsen-based art collective that creates interactive installations to explore alternative, sharing-oriented economies, hosted an interactive event titled “Plant Your Fears,” which invited market attendees to write down their sources of fear on slips of paper that the artists wrapped around allium and fritillaria bulbs. The artists later planted the bulbs at the nearby Woodlawn Botanical Nature Center, which Hill also manages.

“The intention was to create the art around the experience rather than the product,” Brett Swinney, a project manager at Cream Co., told the Weekly. “I think we always struggle with our fears—just personally we always have these things, and we always kind of feel the need to expel them without really thinking about putting them to use.” Whatever someone’s background, they would be able to contribute something that would take on a transformed nature as it grew into a garden, he said.

The artists chose bulbs that have been described by writers and on gardening websites with fear-provoking words. They found that allium plants, for example, have been variously called unpredictable, zealous, clingy, aggressive, wild, and persistent.

“It was fun to look at the flower and read different people’s descriptions of it and find the words that we thought were particular to how you could describe a fear,” said Sasha Earle, a creative director at Cream Co. “So that was another thing we considered. Is your fear weighty, is it hair-raising? These are all words that came from different people writing about these flowers.”

Participants offered a variety of fears to be buried. Climate change featured heavily, as did what Swinney called the “heavy hitters”: dying alone, death, and loneliness.

“People who participate are usually so open to just putting their feelings and hearts out there,” Earle said. “And we never know that’s going to happen, so it’s always a great reminder to us that people want a place to have their voice heard.”

The bulbs will spend the winter underground. “In the late spring, we should have a fear comfort garden,” Earle said.

✶ ✶ ✶ ✶

What Makes an Art Collector?

At a well-attended public conversation, Kahari Black, co-director of the Youth/Police Project at the Invisible Institute (another tenant of the Experimental Station) and a visuals contributor to the Weekly, discussed environmentalism, art, and Woodlawn’s history with Patric McCoy, a longtime EPA scientist and a cofounder of Diasporal Rhythms. Through the organization, McCoy collects, promotes, and preserves art from the African diaspora.

McCoy, who grew up in a two-room apartment in Woodlawn, began collecting art when he purchased a lithograph from his college roommate for ten dollars. In his home gallery McCoy now has over 1,000 pieces of fine art, the majority of which are by Chicago artists. But for many years, he never considered himself to be an art collector. McCoy told the audience that there are implicit barriers that prevent most people, himself included, from thinking they can access the art world.

“We tend to think immediately when you say ‘art collector’ that the person is super-wealthy,” McCoy said. This reinforces the notion that art is for the ultra-rich, he explained, and it tells the average person art isn’t for them. Another assumption is that art collectors “squirrel away their art and hide it,” he said. He also believed that he had to be “academic” and “encyclopedic” about art to be a collector. “I’d never taken an art history class,” McCoy said. Finally, the idea that fine art is an investment, in which every purchase must lead to future value, was not something he agreed with. “So I had four strikes in my head that were keeping me from thinking I was an art collector,” he said.

McCoy said he had an epiphany when he started considering other cultural touch points such as music, poetry, or fashion.

“I thought, well, everybody is a music collector in some way, shape, or form,” he said. “And the first thing you do in your music collection is you want to share it. So I said, you don’t have to be wealthy; you clearly share this thing; and you don’t have to know a thing about music to like it and acquire it; and you don’t think of it in terms of investment.” These things all happen in the art world, but not in other cultural spheres, he said.

McCoy and Black also discussed the history of the Black Arts Movement, how the environmental movement impacted national and local policy, and the relevance of both struggles today.

McCoy welcomed questions from the audience, several of whom asked what he thought the best strategies are for artists and community members to tackle critical challenges like climate change. McCoy argued for putting pressure on corporations by affecting their bottom line. “Corporations are not necessarily anti-environment,” he said. “They’re pro-money. They do what they have to do. If you don’t push them, they won’t do it.”  

He said he’s almost resigned to the idea that things will get worse before they get better. Just almost: “But I’m an optimistic person, I believe it can turn around,” he said.

Editors’ Note: The Weekly is a tenant of the Experimental Station (come visit our newsroom!), which also serves as our nonprofit fiscal sponsor.

The closing event of “Environmental Concerns” will be held Tuesday, November 13, from 6pm–7:30pm. Participants will ceremoniously remove the art installation “Solo Saw,” a double-chainsaw creation by Erik Peterson, from its perch on a ledge inside the Experimental Station. The send off will feature performances, tastings, and sensory stimulation for guests. Searle plans to bake bread, and volunteers will make jams, jellies, and compotes to share.

“Environmental Concerns.” Experimental Station and Blackstone Bicycle Works, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave.; William Hill Gallery and Sculpture Garden & Dorchester Botanical Garden, 6442 S. Dorchester Ave.; Woodlawn Botanical Nature Center, 6300 S. Stony Island Ave. Exhibits open through Sunday, November 18. Free. (773) 241-6044. experimentalstation.org

✶ ✶ ✶ ✶

Jim Daley is a contributor to the Weekly. He was raised in Beverly and deeply loves the South Side. A former biologist, he writes about intersections between health, environment, science, and community. He last wrote about Pilsen gym Healthy Hood for the Weekly’s Best of the South Side issue.

Next City - Inspiring Better Cities

"Art is Business" Re-Posted article BY AUDREY F. HENDERSON | JANUARY 4, 2019

Restoring the Glory of This Iconic Chicago ‘Black Metropolis’ Building

• Facebook
• Twitter

Historic Anthony Overton Hygenic Building in Bronzeville, 3619 S. State Street

n the heart of Bronzeville, on Chicago’s Near South Side, around 20 folks bundled in coats, hats, and scarves gathered on the first floor of the iconic Overton Hygienic Building. Photos and graphics lined the walls, stripped to bare plaster and exposed brick. A cardboard representation titled “The Shotgun Shack/House” sat on one table, covered with cutout slogans and photos. D.W. Griffith’s controversial 1915 film, “The Birth of a Nation,” played in a continuous loop, projected directly onto the bare wall opposite the entrance.

RELATED STORIES

Reclaiming the Black Panther Narrative Before It’s Too Late

What If All Community Development Started with Local Arts and Culture?

New Mural Brings Spotlight to Chicago Bike Trail

Plaza Heralds New Era of Afrocentric Development in Seattle Neighborhood

They were all there on Nov. 30, 2018, for the closing reception of “Art and Social Justice: Examining the State of Our Environment,” a pop-up exhibition organized by Phantom Gallery Chicago Network. The month-long multimedia exhibition featured contributions from participating curators Renee Baker, Felicia Grant Preston, Paola Aguirre Serrano, and Paula Robinson, along with artists Duane Preston, Renard Preston, Ciera L, Preston, Jihad El Amin, Toussaint Werner, Michael “Koto” Thomas, Walter Freeman, Larissa Johnson, and Rhonda Hardy.

The venue was not a random selection. In its heyday, the Overton building housed a thriving variety of black-owned commercial and civic improvement ventures under the direction of legendary African-American entrepreneur Anthony Overton.

Reflecting Resistance and Reality Through Creative Engagement - To be Rescheduled

"Art is Business" Posted for Renee C. Baker

This event has been canceled due to the winter ice storm, across the Greater Chicagoland area. Join us in April 2019 as we present installments of Creative Conversation at the Chicago Bee Library on South State Street. TBA

Reflecting Resistance and Reality through 

Creative Engagement

Composer, visionary, culturally creative, conductor, sculptor, painter, filmmaker are terms that barely hold in the artistic career of Renee Baker.

In our talk with this artist TBA, we'll get a clearer and more precise look at the artistic arena of social activism through her many professional outlets. Join the conversation and get a closer look at this artist who enlightens, engages and educates through the various mediums of art.

The presentation will include excerpts from various film, music and art projects. 

TBA 

Chicago Bee Branch Meeting Room

3647 S. State Street, Chicago IL 60609 

(312) 747-6872

Recently she was featured in Sepia Collectives ICONIC Black Panther exhibit at Stony Island Arts Bank and is an AIR (artist in resident) visual artist of Phantom Gallery Chicago Network located at the Bronzeville Artist Lofts. 

Upcoming projects include a February 16 performance of her neo-opera BALDWIN CHRONICLES: Midnight Ramble, a live recording by CMOP of her new score for the orchestra to a newly discovered Swiss silent film BORDERLINE 1930 featuring Paul and Eslanda Robeson at UI Champaign Urbana plus an introduction to her new film series premiering in Paris in March 2019.

2019 Curators Present Conundrum Conversations

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Renee Baker as Guest- Artist in Residency 2019  The Phantom Gallery Chicago Network proudly announces Renee Baker as a guest- artist in residency. She will work directly with Phantom Gallery Chicago’s chief curator Alpha Bruton. Exhibit: We Know Our Blues Film /Screening A Natural Born Gambler- Bert Williams Charleston Parade- Jean Renoir Both films with new scores by Renee Baker Recorded by Chicago Modern Orchestra Project Friday, Jan 4 -  2019 Phantom Gallery Chicago  Opening 6-9pm Dinner and wine reception (RSVP space limited) What are Creative Conversations? Creative Conversations are local gatherings of engaged citizens in communities across the country and are part of a grassroots movement to elevate the profile of arts in America.  Historic Overton Hygienic Building, 3619 - 3627 S. State Street, Art, and Social Justice, "Examining the State of Our Environment, Nov 1 - Nov 30, 2018.Artist: Toussaint  Warner, Curator: Paula Robinson, Moderator: Larissa A. Johnson Phantom Gallery Chicago panel discussion in 2007, at the Switch Station Artist Lofts, East Garfield Park, Chicago, IL.  Join us on BlogTalkRadio by scheduling a podcast to discuss yourself and your art practice. Submit proposals to phantomgallerychicago@gmail.com.  Pop-Up Research Station has developed gradually: by hosting curators and artists who have and are exploring  “Temporary Public Art Installations,”  ” Storefront Art Movements,” “Creative Place-making,” and projects that are the impetus for “Tactical Urbanism/Cultural Urban Planning”.… urban movement has come to be known under many names, “Pop-up.” Our methodology for collecting data is to call the guest artist and ask them, in casual conversation, about their current project and the trajectory of their practice. Investigation: What does it mean to exhibit in temporary installation spaces outside the museum? Unanticipated Impacts? How do the current body of work and the films you are currently screening intersect with the ideas of art and social justice?  CALL for Curators 2019 Exhibition -Installation Artists  Deadline or Post Expiration: Open Call  Call for papers are ongoing/projects for the art and social justice Action Network.

We Know Our Blues Film installation/screening

"Art is Business" Re-post for Renee C. Baker

2019 Exhibit: We Know Our Blues Film Installation/Screening

A Natural Born Gambler- Bert Williams

Opening - Jan 4 -  Closing -Feb 4, 2019
Phantom Gallery Chicago Network 
Opening 6-9pm
Dinner and wine reception

Exhibit: We Know Our Blues Film installation/screening
A Natural Born Gambler- Bert Williams
Charleston Parade- Jean Renoir
Both films with new scores by Renee Baker
Recorded by Chicago Modern Orchestra Project

A Natural Born Gambler is a 1916 silent film short, the first of only two films starring Broadway comic and singer Bert Williams. The film was Williams' first two-reel comedy and was a film that was expected not to disappoint audiences and was highly anticipated. 

Initial release: July 24, 1916

Director: Bert Williams

Screenplay: Bert Williams

Production company: Biograph Company

Producer: Bert Williams

Cast: Bert Williams, Wes Jenkins

Come and join the Phantom Gallery Chicago as we begin our 2019 open studio's first Friday, exhibits, creative conversations, art talks, and more. Located at the Bronzeville Artist Lofts, 436 E. 47th Street, Suite #205.

Gallery office hours Wednesday- Thursday, 10am - 2pm, or by appointment.  

phantomgallerychicago@gmail.com
773-68106570  for updated information

Creative Grounds & The Future of Social Infrastructure Podcasts

Creative Grounds & The Future of Social Infrastructure 11/29 by Phantom Gallery Chicago Network | Visual Arts Podcasts:

Our democracy lives and breathes in our social spaces. Creative Grounds is an installation that invites to think spatially and geographically utilizing maps and places as visuals to reflect on the cityscape and quality of our social infrastructure – parks, schools, community centers, libraries. Using cartography and inventory less by their technical attributes, and more as tools for visualization of distribution and concentration, this installation contrasts and compares the location of closed public schools in Chicago from 2013 – the largest school closings in the history of the United States – to raise questions about investment and disinvestment, social equity and justice.

Paola Aguirre Serrano is the founder of BORDERLESS — Chicago-based urban design and research studio-workshop focused on cultivating collaborative design agency through interdisciplinary projects. With the emphasis on exchange and communication across disciplines, Borderless explores creative city design and civic engagement proposals that address the complexity of urban systems and social equity by looking at intersections between architecture, urban design, infrastructure, landscape, planning, and civic participatory processes.

Paola is also an active educator, and currently teaches architecture The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has taught urban design at the Sam Fox School of Design Washington University in St. Louis and social impact design at Archeworks.

"Art is Business"