Cait Hardie

STILLSCAPES  Opening Reception Fri.  Jan 6, 5-8pm

There is something about travel that leads to a particular way of seeing. In a new place, the mind is fresh and open; our senses are heightened. We notice things that we might have overlooked in our everyday life. Certain things stand out – color, structure, direction, patterns – as the mind seeks to make sense of the unfamiliar.

Travel involves an act of imagination, when our curiosity of another place gives us a window into a life that isn’t our own. The making of art can take us further along that path, as lived experience is transformed into the imaginary.

Inspired by travels in Japan and Hong Kong, these pieces embrace the speed, the noisy and chaotic in the urban landscape, while finding the order, quiet and stillness within them.

Cait Hardie was born in Australia, and educated in Australia and the United States. She lives in Chicago.

 

Opening Reception, Friday, January 6, 5:00-8:00pm

  • Exhibition dates: Jan 5 – 28, 2023
  • Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm

 

Read more

Call for Entries: COLOR

Call for Entries: COLOR   Opening Reception Fri.  Feb 3, 5-8pm;  Exhibition Discussion: TBA

JUROR: Ann Rintz – Art Gallery and Permanent Collection Curator of the Robert T. Wright Community Gallery of Art at the College of Lake County, Grayslake. IL.

CLICK THIS LINK (OR CUT AND PASTE LINK TO YOUR BROWSER) TO APPLY: https://arcgallery.wufoo.com/forms/color/

 

COLOR 

Color is one of the most exciting elements of art. It personifies beauty, expresses emotion, and creates a mood. The power of color has a profound effect on the viewer. It’s one of the first ways we learn to decipher the world around us. Color can sway thinking, and cause reactions both joyful and extreme. Color can seem absolute, but it shifts and changes.

Artists manipulate color to turn our perceptions on their heads; to challenge our understanding of reality. Color is magical. Color is cultural. Color is symbolic. Color signifies. How do our interpretations of color affect our perceptions? Our prejudices? Our stereotypes? Does color reflect the racial, social, and political forces shaping our communities? The LGBTQ community, for example, has taken the rainbow of all colors for their symbol of strength and unity.

In this call, we invite you to consider your relationship to color and share ways you experience and celebrate it. Let’s honor color and its vibrant expressions. Join us as we transform and saturate the gallery with an exploration and celebration of color.

All mediums and materials are eligible for submission including video and performance. Due to space limitations, no large projections will be accepted.

EXHIBITION DATES:  Feb 3 – Feb 25, 2023

DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: Friday, Dec 30, 2022 at 11:59pm CST

 

Deadline for Submission of Applications: Friday, Dec 30, 2022 at 11:59pm CST

Notification of Acceptance: Will go out by email on Jan 6, 2023
Work Delivered to ARC: Thurs & Fri, Jan 26 & 27, 2-6pm; Sat, Jan. 28, 12-4pm
Pick-Up Work at Gallery: Sat, Feb. 25, 2;30-4pm
Shipped Work Return Date: the week of Feb. 26 *Pre-Paid FedEx or UPS label is required.*
Do not use the U.S. Postal Service.

FEES:
$40 for one to three images. $10 for each additional image. (Lower charge for students: high school or college students can pay a reduced fee of $30 per 3 entries with $10 for each additional entry. Please include copy of Student ID.) If paying by check, it must be received prior to jurying.

About the Curator:

Ann Rintz is the Art Gallery and Permanent Collection Curator of the Robert T. Wright Community Gallery of Art at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. Ann attended Northern Illinois University and earned both a Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degree in drawing and installation art in which the curriculum included foreign study of contemporary art and design in England and France. She is a fine artist and college art professor. Her fine art exhibition history encompasses galleries in Chicago including one-person shows at ARC Gallery, Gallery 1633 and the Pilsen Arts Invitational. On a personal level, Ann celebrates visual grace and is dedicated to the propagation of all beautiful things.

Opening Reception, Friday, February 3, 5:00-8:00pm
Exhibition Discussion: TBA

  • Exhibition dates: Feb 3 – 25, 2022
  • Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm

 

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Charlie Goss

FACES OF 2022  Opening Reception Fri.  Dec 2, 5-8pm

Faces of 2022 is a collection of modern portraits representing Charlie Goss’ take on tonalism and impressionism.

 

 

Opening Reception, Friday, December 2, 5:00-8:00pm

  • Exhibition dates: Nov 26 –  Dec 17, 2022
  • Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm

 

Read more

Pamela Sloan

BATS TO BUTTERFLIES: ART OF THE CHICAGO WILDERNESS  Opening Reception Fri.  Dec 2, 5-8pm

It’s odd to think “Chicago” and “Wilderness” in the same breath. The concept of a Chicago Wilderness seems contrary to the concrete and steel grid that defines our dazzling magnificent city.  And yet a wilderness persists, albeit vastly fragmented and depleted from its earlier form. More complex than most of us realize, we depend on it to maintain fresh water, flood control, agriculture, and breathable air. Migrating animals depend on it for their yearly journeys across the planet. Many of us retreat to it, as we must.

A native Chicagoan, my art focuses on animals and plants of the Chicago Wilderness with intention to educate via the artists’ process.  The more we know, the more responsibility we have to maintain, restore, and resolve the complexities of coexisting within a necessarily biodiverse environment.

All original art is for sale. For those who prefer to spend less, fine art signed-edition prints are available for each image.  50% of all sales go towards conservation organizations.

 

 

Opening Reception, Friday, December 2, 5:00-8:00pm

  • Exhibition dates: Nov 26 –  Dec 17, 2022
  • Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm

 

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Randi Shepard

WEATHERING  Opening Reception Fri.  Dec 2, 5-8pm

Ten years ago a tragedy occurred which changed the course of my sister’s life. So many of us whose lives she touched with her love and generosity are still scrambling to fill the voids created by this loss.

Plans were hijacked, dreams shattered, and futures altered. She can no longer comfort us with her words, offer advice or encouragement, be our advocate, give us self-confidence or validation, accompany us around the world, or cuddle our babies in her arms.

This work is intended to celebrate my sister, who always brought happiness to others, even if only as a brief distraction from their own tragedies. It is an attempt to call out what we take for granted, and acknowledge that which requires appreciation, while there is still time.

 

Opening Reception, Friday, December 2, 5:00-8:00pm

  • Exhibition dates: Nov 26 –  Dec 17, 2022
  • Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm

 

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Adriana Miranda

DOMESHTICK  Opening Reception Fri.  Oct 28, 5-8pm

Adriana Miranda was born in Phoenix, AZ and moved to Oak Park, IL with her family at age five.

Adriana expressed her creative prowess early in life through music and art. Adriana’s coming-of-age involved Basquiat, her father’s house music expertise, her love for learning, and lots of video games. Her adulthood has been shaped by the chance to reclaim her childhood through parenting. Today, Adriana is working to make a statement in the fine art industry about the power of memory and letting go.

Opening Reception, Friday, October 28, 5:00-8:00pm

  • Exhibition dates: Oct 27 –  Nov 19, 2022
  • Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm

 

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

PERSPECTIVES: FIGURATION AND ABSTRACTION IN CONTEMPORARY BLACK ART

PERSPECTIVES: FIGURATION AND ABSTRACTION IN CONTEMPORARY BLACK ART  Opening Reception Fri.  Oct 28, 5-8pm;  Exhibition Discussion: Sat.  Oct 29, 1pm

Curator: Spencer Hutchinson

For nearly the entire history of Black Artists’ existence in the U.S., black art has been largely segregated from the concerns of mainstream Modern, Postmodern, and Contemporary Art, and usually focused on the human figure. Even visual artists as unconventional as Jean Michel Basquiat still frame the representation of the black body as the center of their Art making. Recently, this trend has been undergoing a change. Artists such as Julie Mehrutu and Mark Bradford have crossed the rubicon into Abstraction and into a frame of discourse that long excluded Black Artists while much older Black artists working in Abstraction going back decades such as Macarthur Binion are experiencing a renaissance and having their art being given the credibility that evaded them in years past. At the heart of this show are the questions what respectively drive Black Representational and Black Abstract Art? How are these motivations distinct from “Mainstream” representational and abstract art that the general public are more familiar with? How do representation and abstraction inform and contextualize each other in the discourse surrounding Black art and are there implications within this realm of discourse that can help shed light on the ontology of figuration and abstraction more broadly. This show attempts to equally represent Black figurative and abstract artists working in the mediums of Painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, and sculpture across a broad range of the African diaspora. We seek to include artists at all levels of their careers regardless of age, gender, ability, or sexual orientation to help drive the conversation and engender broader understanding of these two major themes in Contemporary Black Art.

A Statement on PERSPECTIVES by the curator:

In 1933 curator James V. Herring, philosopher Alain Locke and visual artist James A. Porter joined forces and put together a show featuring the various contributions made by African American Artists at all levels of training, education and professional accomplishment throughout the country to showcase what we now take for granted as being at the foundation of Modern Black Aesthetic Interests.

In the year 2022, only 89 years after the opening of a show that was erected at The Smithsonian Institution’s National Gallery of Art, many of the same issues addressed by Herring, Locke and Porter continue to resonate with us today. The centrality of The Black Experience, of African Identity, and of a sense of participation in a society in which one finds oneself to be so deeply enmeshed, and yet held so far apart from.

The location of Black Art’s contribution to society shifts with-in the American Psyche, in the ebb and flow of time, just as America’s relationship with us, her African-American inhabitants has. The styles have changed, somewhat, but the lived social realities remain very much the same. Intended to also act in recent historical concert with similar shows that have showcased Black Artists working today, specifically the ICONIC: Black Panther show at The Stony Island Artsbank in The Chatham/Southshore Neighborhood, PERSPECTIVES revisits what may have been the same subjective themes in 1933 revisited for the benefit of a contemporary audience, namely the representation of the human Figure, and the concept of Abstraction from the figure, from nature itself, and from the depths of the human psyche.

The Art that has been chosen, reflects the times in which Black Artists find themselves in yet again. I hope the work in this show teaches us to live for today, and celebrate the continued vibrance, vitality, and impact of Black Art in The City of Chicago and around the world.

 

Exhibiting Artists: 

Krystal Boney, Austen Brantley, Summer Brooks, Amel Dockery, Zahra Edwards, Angela Davis Fegan, Erol Harris II, Jennifer Hodges, Lindsay Johnson, George Jones, Rhian Kempadoo-Millar, Anika Kowalik, MISU, Marcela Adeze Okeke, Turtel Onli, Angie Redmond, Michele Stutts, Narvell Taylor, Darlene Tyree, Cheryl Toles, Nia Wilson

About the Curator:

Spencer Hutchinson is a 2020 MFA graduate from The University of Illinois at Chicago where he studied Studio and New Media Arts (specifically Painting and Sound) and a 2009 BFA graduate from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he studied Sound, Painting and New Media. His work primarily deals with intersections across visual media, particularly painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, performance, 3D animation, video and sound as well as topics relating to race and art theory and criticism. He has shown nationally and internationally in Mexico City, Ravenna IT, Assisi IT, Dubai UAE, and Manchester UK and previously served as editor and art critic for the New Art Examiner as well as being a founding member of Agitator Cooperative Gallery in Chicago. He has been a working artist based in Chicago, IL since 2007.

Opening Reception, Friday, October 28, 5:00-8:00pm
Exhibition Discussion: Sat.  Oct 29, 1pm

  • Exhibition dates: Oct 27 –  Nov 19, 2022
  • Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm

 

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Carolyne King

“THE SPACE BETWEEN”  First Fridays Reception  Oct 7, 5-8pm

“The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation. When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then comes the new life and all that is needed.” – Joseph Campbell

A few months after my last show at ARC, Fractured States, my mother was diagnosed with a terminal cancer. She passed away 17 months later and it seemed as if the concepts that exhibition had discussed were a reality for me. The fight for connection had, at least artistically, given way to loss and inertia. But something else happened too during this time. I fell in love. Simultaneously, I was experiencing the worst of pain and best of happiness.

Grief – Solace – Sadness – Joy

These four words became a mantra that kept ringing around my head. And slowly the focus of the work began to build on the peace and silence created by negative space, harmony between color and each piece’s collage element.

Yet, The Space Between, like Fractured States, A Delicate Balance and Fragile States before it, is also a reflection of my belief that we are on a continuous and circuitous path of creation, illumination, and spiritual progression towards one’s place within the universe. I fully believe in the Buddhist practice of re-learning what one has learned for while the lesson has remained the same, the person has changed. And the loss of my mother has changed me on a deep level.

As the work for this exhibition began to take shape so did the realization that in creating this current body of work I was putting into practice my own artistic concepts, as both an action of living and an action of creativity. The Space Between is a, “fight for connection in the face of dissolution…Even if it seems components are being forced together, in the end, each piece that goes into the artwork has a purpose. It is not always an easy progression and there is strife and loss on the way. And sometimes the simple belief that things will be better is enough to hold even the smallest connection together.”

 

First Fridays Reception, October 7, 5:00-8:00pm

  • Exhibition dates: Sept 29 –  Oct 22, 2022
  • Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pmThis program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
      

Michele Stutts

“HOUSEBIRD”  First Fridays Reception  Oct 7, 5-8pm

Michele Stutts is a British born, Chicago-based, contemporary artist whose journey has led her to a diversity of visual art: video, painting, collage, and now, assemblage.

Composed of found objects rich with history and seasoned by time, her work has integrated all of her artistic experiences. Her assemblage artworks often contain forgotten memories that have lost their original appearance and purpose, but have been born with a new aesthetic and meaning.

The current exhibit, Housebird, is not synonymous with ”birdhouse”, but has the opposite meaning. Although both are human-crafted structures, birds find protection from harsh weather and predators in birdhouses, a place to nest and raise their young. In contrast, Housebird represents a constant state of isolation, anxiety, and financial insecurity.

Yet, there is a clear transition in the exhibition of the artist trapped and resentful expressed in Housebird into her free flowing, visually energetic assemblages. This change has an edge of stubbornness to it, much like a sturdy brick and mortar home whose good old bones still have plenty of life left in them.

See more about Michele Stutts here: http://michelestutts.com/gallery.html

First Fridays Reception, October 7, 5:00-8:00pm

  • Exhibition dates: Sept 29 –  Oct 22, 2022
  • Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pmThis program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
      

THE INVISIBLE COSTS OF WAR

JUROR: Adrienne Kochman, PhD, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago

EXHIBITION DATES: JULY 21 – AUGUST 13, 2022

Without any provocation, Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, 2022. The attack is considered an act of aggression internationally. It has triggered Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II with more than 5 million Ukrainians leaving the country. As UN Women states, “wars affect women and children differently and disproportionately.” Women and children in Ukraine are being targeted by Russian forces as reports from Bucha and Irpin indicate, and women and children refugees who have left Ukraine are being targeted by human traffickers.

In support of the Ukrainian people, and to protest the Russian invasion, ARC Gallery invited artists to respond to the war in Ukraine using their creativity. We envision this as an inclusive exhibition that protests this, and other, acts of aggression through thought-provoking and thoughtful artwork that specifically addresses the current war in Ukraine and the refugee crisis created by this war, as well as previous and current wars that create a refugee crisis for women and children.

For a link to a video interview and images from the exhibition featured on the WTTW show “Chicago Tonight” broadcast on July 27, 2022, click here: https://bit.ly/3zW44Iq

In-Gallery Artists: Tim Atseff, Iryna Chaboryk, Linda Cohn, Elean Diadenko, SP Scotti Estes, David Feingold, Michael Fischerkeller, Donna Fleetwood, Judith Roston Freilich, Nancy Fritz, Deborah Hirshfield, Pearl Hirshfield, Judith Joseph, Louie Laskowski, Alexander Martemianov, William Marx, Ken Reker, Maggie Rose, Irina Visnevscaia

*Please note this correction for Rostyslav Luzhetskyy’s image: “Long Journey of a Black Swan”, acrylic on canvas, author’s technique, 15.8 x 23.7 inches, 2022

Virtual Artists: Petro Antyp, Gayane Arushanian, Vasya Dmytryk, Oksana Fedko, Svetlana Gavrilenko, Marianna Goncharenko, Anastasiia Grygorieva, Tetiana Kopytova, Olga Kuts, Mariia Lashkevych, Victoria Likholyot, Olga Lisowska, Ivan Lisyuk, Daria Lutsyshyna, Rostyslav Luzhetskyy, Natan Markman, Alexander Martemianov, Sveltlana Mikhalevich, Liudmyla Molodan, Nancy Natow-Cassidy, Serhiy Savchenko, Antonina Semenova, Alina Shevchenko, Nikolay Sokolov, Oksana Svizhak, Andriy Sydorenko, Maryna Talutto, Maryna Vashchenko, Ilya Yarovoy, Mihail Zablodski, Yulia Zakharova, Oleksii Zheltonogov

“Under the Wall” by Tereza Barabash

 

See “St. Sebastian” by Mykhaylo Barabash here: https://bit.ly/3zS0qQ2

See “Ukranian Golgotha” by Oksana Chepelyk here: https://bit.ly/3QK6p0d

See “Ukraine. Identification Code” by Irina Visnevscaia here: https://bit.ly/3CaeM0G

See “Limbus” by Nikita Vlasov here: https://bit.ly/3pdiRK0

Video Artists: Mykhaylo Barabash, Tereza Barabash, Oksana Chepelyk, Irina Visnevscaia, Nikita Vlasov

Juror: Adrienne Kochman, Curator of contemporary art at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago. Dr. Kochman has a PhD in Art History from the University of Chicago. Dr. Kochman, PhD has been working as an art historian, curator and educator in Chicago and its art community since the 1980s. Formerly Associate Professor of Art History and Adjunct Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Indiana University Northwest, she currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and since 2017, is curator at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art. Recent curatorial projects include The Ukrainian Diaspora: Women Artists, 1908-2015 (2015) and Reality Check: Directions in Contemporary Art Since Ukrainian Independence (2016); Increment: Barbara Cooper, Shona MacDonald, Yoonshin Park (2018); Raw Reckoning: Michael Paxton (2019). Her exhibit on Paris-based Ukrainian refugee artist Michel Andreenko opened in June.

Closing Reception, Saturday, AUG 13, 1-3pm

Exhibition dates: July 21 – August 13, 2022
Gallery hours: Thurs & Fri – 2-6 pm,  Sat & Sun – 12-4 pm