EXHIBITIONS

PAST EXHIBITIONS

CURATED BY PIERRE DANIEL MCCLENAGHAN

ARTIST(S): Gary Dobry, Brenda Venus

Gary Dobry, a former boxer schooled in the “manly art”, is the head trainer at Pug’s Boxing Club in the School of Hard Knocks located at 824 S Main St. in Crystal Lake. He’s more than just a “knockout artist”. This year alone Dobry’s paintings have exhibited at Galerie L’Art Rien in Paris, France and the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, California. On November 19th a solo exhibition of the paintings Dobry did with writer Henry Miller’s last great love, Brenda Venus, will exhibit at the Chicago Art Matrix Gallery at the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago. Henry Miller is recognized as the leader of the 60’s sexual revolution and is best known for his literary masterpiece, ‘Tropic of Cancer’.

Dobry was an apprentice and life-long friend of Chicago artist, Ed Paschke. In this body of work Dobry and Venus celebrate finding their own artistic voices after being under the strong influences of their mentors, and join those voices to sing praise to Miller and Paschke. Selected Miller watercolors of Venus, from her private collection, and selected Miller love letters to Venus, as published in ‘Dear Dear Brenda’ will also be on exhibit with Dobry’s paintings.

CURATED BY JENNY LAM AND ROBIN RIOS

ARTIST(S): Robert C. Anderson, Noor Mahmood, Nancy Bechtol, Jessie Mutz, Michael Coakes, Carol Ng-He, Nicholas Depeder, Zsófia Ötvös, Scott M. Fincher, Eve Ozer, Lea Goldman, Alessandra Posada, Sargam Griffin, John Pranica, Ken Christopher Hill, Omar Rashan, Derail Howery, Russ Revock, Sonia Katz, Viviana Santamarina, Tom Keefer, Jerod Schmidt, Suprina Kenney, Carol Spicuzza, Laura Lein-Svencner, Chris Spuglio, Agnieszka Ligendza, Tom Wilson, George Lindmark, and Joan Wynn.

A group show featuring artwork across all media by over 30 artists exploring the dream world. Far from the restrictive setting of a salon squarely delineated by white walls, Somnambulist is a sensory experience that defies convention; guests are invited to wander through the 14,000 sq. ft. exhibition room of the internationally renowned Zhou B Art Center with artwork suspended from its high ceilings.

CURATED BY OSKAR FRIEDL

ARTIST(S):Tomas Moreno, Chad Gerth, Hui-min Tsen, Chris Larson, Hideous Beast (Josh Ippel, Charlie Roderick), Tim Graham, Jennifer Mills, Xavier Nuez,Theodore Durst, Miguel Guzman, Monument 1.5, Alexa Loftus, Peter Feigenbaum, Aron Gent, Anna Rokka, Aaron Delehanty, Holly Holmes, Before Cake after Dinner, Se Young, Brian Murer, Erik DeBat, Sarah Ross, Bill Mackey, Mike Slattery, Tom Burtonwood, Kariel (Karri Kuoppala and Muriel Laesser), Heloisa Escudero, Jeff Zimmerman, Lise Haller Baggesen, Gitte Bog, Gudrun Hasle, Anni Holm, and Berit Nørgaard.

Installation, exhibition and performance at the Zhou B Art Center opening April 24 2010. Curated by Ed Marszewski and Dayton Kasselman. Produced and directed by Oskar Friedl.

CURATED BY DAYTON CASTLEMAN & ED MARSZEWSKI

Second annual presentation of works in all media by artists in residence at the Zhou B Art Center.

CURATED BY SERGIO GOMEZ

ARTIST(S):Jon Barwick, Jolene Beckman, Colleen Beyer, Blaine Bradford, Erica Buss, Victoria H. Chang, Nannette Cherry, Woojin Choi, Tony Conrad, Kim Deakins, Emile Ferris, Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern, Maureen Forman, Francine Fox, Laura Grossett, Jaime Gustavson, Garry Holstein, Michael Hubbard, Andrea Jensen, Jason John, Jake Johnson, Maria Jonsson, Michael Kalmbach, Saydi Indianos Kaufman, Geoffrey Krawczyk, Matthew Lahm, Megan Leong, Suqin (Jackie) Lin, C. Matthew Luther, Michael McCaffrey, Kyle McKenzie, Susan Mulder, Nicole Northway, Benedict Oddi, Injung Oh, J. Thomas Pallas, Katherine Perryman, Rebecca Potts, Shawn Saumell, Leah Schreiber,Elise Schweitzer, Ryan Shultz, Garric Simonsen, Ernesto A. Trujillo, Chris Ulrich, Ben Utigard, Anthony Vega, Amanda Voltz, Robin Walker, Amanda Wallace, Michael Wartgow, Sanders Watson.

2010 marks the first decade of the 21st Century. Under the watchfull eye of a technology driven society, online social networking and cyber interaction communities, a group of young artists have been evolving and redefining one of the oldest mediums of art. The National Wet Paint Exhibition will be an outlook and an overview of promising artists across the United States currently working in the medium of painting. Wet Paint refers to the idea that this is a fresh group of artists (MFA candidates/graduates) working in painting media.

Wet Paint will pose the following questions: How is the next generation of artists redefining one of the oldest art mediums? How are new technologies impacting their painting materials, methods, techniques, processes and ideas? How are graduate programs in America reshaping painting? What does painting mean to a new generation? Wet Paint will highlight and give a forum to a new generation of artists working from traditional to experimental painting mediums.

CURATED BY OSKAR FRIEDL

ARTIST(S):Jon Ellen Sandor

(art)n is a collective of artists organized by Ellen Sandor in 1983. Their primary media, PHSColograms, combine aspects of photography, holography, sculpture, and computer graphics to create fantastic and futuristic architectural renderings. The viewer interprets the images as three-dimensional sculptural objects when they are backlit. Including reconstructed versions of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and deconstructed versions of Pritzker Pavilion, the artwork addresses the intersection of architecture and nature, space and structure, and our ideas about the future of reality.

CURATED BY OSKAR FRIEDL

It has been exactly 20 years since I first had the pleasure to present Ingrid Hartlieb’s work here in Chicago. Much has changed since – Hartlieb is now one of the foremost sculptors in Germany and one of only a handful of women that have reached national and international acclaim in this heavily male dominated genre. Little has changed since – her form language is still as archaic, strong, and powerful as I have seen it so many years ago in her studio in Stuttgart. The compositions show the definitive elements of creation and destruction – raw cut wood is healed with the most sensitive skin of wax and pigments inviting the viewer to touch and experience the sculptures. It is with great pleasure the we present this exhibition at the Zhou B Art Center allowing us to show her work on a scale that will let you experience the breath of Hartlieb’s oeuvre.

CURATED BY OSKAR FRIEDL

ARTIST(S): Martin Bernstein, Brad Biancardi, Hebru Brantely, Carla Carr, Paul Castillo, Javier Chavira, Zulema Covarrubias, Nick Depeder, Sergio Gomez, Kimberley Harmon, John Himmelfarb, Rhett Johnson, Kim Joo Hyung, Randy Korwin, Romano Machietto, Stephen Mathewson, Herbert Migdoll, Josh Moulton, Clarisse Perrette, James Prinz, Christophe Roberts, Amy Lee Segami, Richard Spinner, Paul Sierra, Martin Soto, Teri Tito, Corina Valdez, Mike White, Rachel Welling, and Zhou Brothers.

Since its inception in 2004 the Zhou B Art Center has become an institution for Bridgeport and for Chicago. It is a venue for exhibitions and concerts of the most diverse nature and established itself as an important cultural center on the city’s South Side. The center currently houses 12 artist studios and has hosted over 50 exhibitions, festivals and installations.

Director Oskar Friedl has selected works from every current resident as well as works from past shows that have been installed at the Zhou B Art Center. “The exhibition is a direct reflection of the diversity of artists that have worked here and the wide variety of events that we were able to accommodate in the galleries.”

The Zhou Brothers started the Zhou B Art Center 2004 together with their long time curator, Oskar Friedl. Having come from China in 1987, the Zhou Brothers have established themselves as the leading artists in Chicago and realized a life long dream to start a “Creation Center”. “We have been fortunate enough to be able to give back to the community and start a new exciting movement with the Zhou B Art Center,” ShanZuo Zhou says. “My brother and I have been inspired by so many good art spaces around the world that we wanted to provide a platform for Chicago art as well as contribute to the richness of the cultural landscape of this great city,” adds DaHuang Zhou. The Zhou B Art Center has become a bridge point for Asian art in America but has attracted artists and shows from almost every part of the world. This 5-year survey is a document of the past as well as an outlook into the future. Started by artists and following the concept of the ‘Kunsthalle,’ a contemporary art space serving the immediate community, the Zhou B Art Center now is an intricate part of the Chicago art scene. In the coming year the Zhou B Art Center plans to add an art school to this unique development and foster new and young talent from the Chicagoan area.

CURATED BY OSKAR FRIEDL

20 Contemporary Artists from Mexico City. The contemporary art scene in Mexico has become a must-see attraction for U.S. and european curators and art patrons. Mexico City especially, has become a hub for new art, with contemporary commercial galleries, alternative and artist run spaces and special salons — breaking the longstanding pattern of government-run galleries and exhibition spaces.

CURATED BY OSKAR FRIEDL

ARTIST(S): Eleftheria Lialios

Eleftheria Lialios is an internationally renowned Chicago artist who has been creating and exhibiting her photographic work for the past 30 years. In 2005, she had her most comprehensive mid-career exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center. As Gregory Knight, chief curator for the show states in the catalog of her work, “Lialios always wanted to escape to the outdoors, free from what was contained inside, again working with the projection of the individual to the external world.” She is a Fulbright Scholar who has been teaching at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago since 1988. Eleftheria is a pioneer in photographic transparencies, exhibiting in Europe and in North America. She believes in the power of creation and its concrete aftermath in our thoughts, and in the power of the object and its presence.

In her new body of work, Cloud Walker, she goes back to primitive ways of reading abstract images: looking up as a child at the cracks of ceilings, and into the infinite space of clouds as an adult. Clouds change as quickly as our lives change, and if no attention is paid, pass by. What does one see in the clouds? A dancer, a chicken, a person, an alligator, a bird, an armadillo? All are here, all are acceptable, all are seen. Conclusions drawn depend on who we are, where we come from and what we wish ourselves to be.

ARTIST(S): Zhou Brothers and ICE

Chicago- Chicago Composers Forum (CCF) presents New Music PLUS Painting, Saturday, October 20, 2007 at the Zhou B Center for the Arts. This collaboration with the Zhou Brothers (Shan Zuo and DaHuang Zhou) CCF-featured composers Nathan Davis, Guillermo Gregorio, Ryan Ingebritsen, and Christopher Preissing, and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) will transform the second floor of the Zhou B Art Center with a landscape of new art and new music. Tickets are $30 at the door, or $25 purchased on-line in advance. Doors open at 6pm, live painting and performance begins at 7pm.

DREAM DIALOGUE – Over the past 30 years, the Zhou Brothers have developed a collaborative creation technique that is completely unique and visionary. The concept of the “Dream Dialogue” being the primary means of communication between two artists during the act of creation is one that has implications outside the act of art creation in and of itself. It inspires a curiosity in what such collaboration could mean for other areas of the human experience.

Chicago Composers Forum recognized that though this form of collaboration may be realized through visual media or described in literature, the aural medium of music, with its time dependence and rigid structures, could pose difficulty in this form of collaboration. However, with new technologies that allow sound to be manipulated in real time, the possibilities become much more interesting for two or more improvising musicians to work together to create a unified sound. Using these methods, CCF composers and ICE musicians are able to work together in a way that is analogous to the Zhou Brothers collaboration. Because the Zhou Brothers often use their creative powers to give live performances of art creation set to music, it seemed only natural that these events occur together. On October 20th at 7pm the resulting collaboration will be to witness the creative act-in sound and in images-through a simultaneous juxtaposition of both live art and live music for a live audience.

CHICAGO COMPOSERS FORUM – CCF is dedicated to providing an environment that encourages the creation and presentation of new works by its members and to identifying, developing and nurturing musicians and audiences that reflect the strength and diversity of the Chicago community. New Music PLUS Painting, supported in part by Boeing Company, is part of an ongoing CCF New Music PLUS Art series; a collaboration providing unique opportunities for composers, artists, and audience members to participate in and witness the creative process with world class musicians and artists.

CURATED BY OSKAR FRIEDL

ARTIST(S): Etchi Nyiri

Etchi Nyiri was born in Tornala, Slovakia and immigrated to Tel-Aviv, Israel in 1949 where she remained throughout the formative years of her life. Nyiri ‘s personal history led her to speak to both the finite nature of the physical body as well as the fragility of the form. The traditional bronze sculptures created by Etchi often include references to the deconstructive nature of the materials as well as the technique that she employs.

CURATED BY OSKAR FRIEDL

ARTIST(S): Ziva Kronzon

Ziva Kronzon was born in Eretz, Israel to a family of pioneers. Ziva’s personal experience marked by growing up in a place torn by violence, forced her to adapt to the ever-changing conditions as a form of survival. She became aware that in life there is a predetermined beginning and end, while the path traveled in between is in a constant state of flux. Ziva’s sculptures and installations reflect this notion as they portray uncertainty by questioning and doubting what is often times taken for granted as a logical part of reality.

ARTIST(S): Mathias Schauwecker

Mathias Schauwecker’s works explore the ambiguous space between likeliness and strangeness, the difference between animals and mankind. Today, animals are frequently “used” as metaphors to educate children (to teach them our human characteristics and to inculcate moral behaviour) or else to help adults express and overcome trauma: Godzilla as the result of an atom bomb. If we look back to cave-paintings, we see that the principal representations were those of animals whose later domestication led us towards a very human-centric view of the world. Wild animals are no longer part of everyday life but are met mostly in controlled circumstances, in zoos or on the televisionscreen. Mathias Schauwecker plays with these aspects in 3 series: Anamorphose-Animorphose, Godzilla, and Savagery. These series underline our often-uncomfortable relationship with animals and reveal that we are much closer to our animal- relatives than we would like to admit.

WHAT IS THE CHICAGO ART OPEN? A unique exhibition of art by more than 300 Chicago-based prominent, mid-career and emerging professional artists. The Chicago Art Open is the largest survey of Chicago visual art under one roof and is one of the largest non-juried art shows in the country. This exhibition is part of Chicago Artists’ Month, the city-wide celebration of Chicago’s rich visual arts community. A show of artworks by student artists from Chicago area colleges, universities and art schools runs concurrently in the same gallery with this professional show. The Chicago Art Open was created by the Chicago Artists Coalition in 1998 as an opportunity for artists in the Chicagoland area to display their works in a non-juried professional setting.

Video installations by various artists.

ARTIST(S): Paul Sierra

“There are two great events in you life – birth and death,” says artist Paul Sierra, a Chicago resident. “In the blink of an eye, you get older and become very curious about death.” The series of car crashes – Mangeled – is not meant to be sensational rather then to give pause. In most paintings the ‘accident’ seems to just have happened and is a contemplation of time and circumstance. We know that lives have changed in the glimpse of moment and can only imagine the impact that the occasion must have for the people involved directly. It is the moment of calm after the storm, the surreal beauty of peace in a time slowed down by total alertness until it rushes back into reality.

ARTIST(S): John Himmelfarb

John Himmelfarb is an established artist whose lush, calligraphic drawings and paintings have always been driven by an unceasing devotion to line. Consistently blurring the boundaries between drawing and painting, Himmelfarb revels in line’s evocative potential to create a synthesis of graphic sign, text and elusive image that challenges one’s ability to interpret visual language.

ARTIST(S): Hyung Joo Kim

In a beautiful and thought-provoking series of installations, Korean born fiber and textile artist, Hyung Joo Kim explores the universal themes of birth, existence and death. This summer, as part of a joint showing at the Chicago Cultural Center and the Zhou Brothers Art Foundation, Hyung Joo Kim’s “Spirit of Korea” comes to Chicago. The full exhibition is comprised of three components- “Spirit of Korea-Humanity; Spirit of Korea Harmony; Spirit of Korea-Freedom.” At the Zhou B Center we will have the opportunity to explore the two components of Harmony and Freedom” and learn about this interesting artist’s conceptual and spiritual base.

ARTIST(S): Hyung Joo Kim

In a beautiful and thought-provoking series of installations, Korean born fiber and textile artist, Hyung Joo Kim explores the universal themes of birth, existence and death. This summer, as part of a joint showing at the Chicago Cultural Center and the Zhou Brothers Art Foundation, Hyung Joo Kim’s Spirit of Korea comes to Chicago. On display at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Michigan Avenue Galleries will be Hyung Joo Kim: Spirit of Korea-Humanity. Companion installations, Spirit of Korea-Harmony and Spirit of Korea-Freedom can be found at the Zhou B Center.