CURATED BY SERGIO GOMEZ

ARTIST: SERGIO GOMEZ

ARTIST(S): Saul Aguirre, Rene Arceo, Mario Castillo, Javier Chavira, Joe Compean, Luis De La Torre, Alma Dominguez, Hector Duarte, Sergio Gomez, Mario Gonzalez, Hector Hernandez, Salvador Jimenez, Ernesto Marenco, Antonio Martinez, Oscar Martinez, Dolores Mercado, Elsa Muñoz, Alfonso Piloto Nieves, Pedro Palacios, Marcos Raya, Robin Rios, Alejandro Romero, Paul Sierra, Diana Solis, Martin Soto, and Gabriel Villa.

“CelebrARTE” is a contemporary art exhibition celebrating the Latino spirit, imagination and creative force in Chicago. CelebrARTE highlights various generations of Latino Chicago artists who are leaving their mark in the visual arts. This exhibition is curated by Sergio Gomez for the Zhou B. Art Center in collaboration with 33 Contemporary Gallery and Latino Fashion Week.

CURATED BY OSKAR FRIEDL

Center Line is the most anticipated event in the Zhou B Art Center every year. The Zhou B Art Center chooses one work from every artist that maintains a studio in the building thus giving an overview over the creative force that has been building in the center. Having followed most artists for several years now the work can be an important piece in the development of the artists body of work or the most exciting and new piece created during the last year. Center Line is a celebration of the spirit that has grown year after year in this unique concept of artist studios and exhibition space and the most interesting artist community Chicago.

CURATED BY CHRISTINE FORNI

ARTIST(S): Christine Forni, David Forlano, Erika & Monika Simmons, Gustav Reyes, James Charles, Laura Kochevar, Michael Dale Bernard, Sandra Leonard, Sara Goldenberg White, Sarah Holden, and Stephanie Voegele.

Jewelry And Wearable Art Chicago is a contemporary exhibition that blurs the lines between fine art and craft. It is an opportunity for collectors to meet artists who have shown work in museums nationally & internationally beside emerging artist who have recently graduated with art degrees, along side professional studio artists.

CURATED BY SERGIO GOMEZ

The title “Progression” suggests an act or an instance of moving forward from one thing or unit in a sequence to the next. For the last seven years, the Zhou B Art Center has become a hub to a diverse community of artists whose talent and inspiration have made of the Zhou B Art Center their creative home.​

CURATED BY SERGIO GOMEZ

Artist(s): Dan Addington, Terry L. Adams, Julie Anand & Damon Sauer, Marisa Andropolis, Tim Arroyo, Roxana Azar, Hector Barron, Christopher Barry, Allison M Belolan, Grace Benedict, Sally Bianca Berkhia, Bill Boyce, Blaine Bradford, Corinna Button, Calaj, Salvador Campos, Maria Carrillo, Lisa Carter, Jennifer Cartolano Moore, Jonathan Casserilla, Javier Chavira, Nannette Cherry, Meagan Clemons, Gregg Coffey, Maribeth Coffey-Sears, Aaron S. Coleman, Julie Cowan, Rory Coyne, Mary Ellen Croteau, Jennifer Cronin, Brian Curtis, Steven DaLuz, Jacqueline Daly, Dana Day, VA. de Pintor, Nick Depeder, Tor Dettwiler, Thomas Dittmeier, Scott Ellegood, Josh Emery, Liana Faletto, Brenda S. Farris, Thomas Ferrella, Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern, Francine Fox, Jessica Freudenberg, Amanda Fulk, Tanya Gadbaw, Phil Gayter, Graehound (Elizabeth Graehling), Peter N. Gray, Laura Grossett, Patrick Earl Hammie, Kate Hampel, James Hart, Charles Heppner, Barbara Hirschfeld, Petronilla Hohenwarter, Tim Hurley, Jane Jacobs, Eve Jensen, Salvador Jiménez Flores, Jason John, Amanda Joseph, Paul Justen, Sarah Kaiser, Jacqueline A. Kelley, Jieun Beth Kim, Duk Ju L. Kim, Cameo Kruse, John LaMacchia, Beatriz E Ledesma, Marsha Lega, Diana Leviton Gondek, Kathleen Lewis, Matthew Logan, Sioban Lombardi, Ernesto Marenco, Laura Marmash, Oscar Luis Martinez, David W. Maxwell, Judith Mayer, Erin McClellan Zhoushi, Diane McGarel, Keelan McMorrow, Erin McNamara, Eddwin Meyers, Joe Milosevich, Susan Mulder, Clare Murray Adams, Amy Neill, Keiko Nemeth, Tina Newberry, Alfonso “Piloto” Nieves Ruiz, Trish Nixon, Benedict Oddi, Ted Ollier, Leasha Overturf, Vladimir Pailodze, Pedro Palacios, Pancho Panoptes, Michael Purdy, Alfred J. Quiroz, Robin Rios, Jaclyn Elizabeth Rivas, Marina Ross, Brigitta Rossetti, Michael Ruback, Michelle Sangster, Jake Saunders, Deirdre Schanen, C. Renee Schinzler, Caitlin Schneider, David Sears, Victoria Senn, John Sevigny, Steve Sherrell, David Simcik, Ursula Sokolowska, Martin Soto, Andrew Souders, Jun-Jun Sta.Ana, Lisa Stefaniak, Jeff Stevenson, Karen Gjelten Stone, Harry Sudman, Camille Swift, Julia Taugner, Ernesto A. Trujillo, Brian Glenn Truex, Garry Vettori, Roy Villalobos, Katherine Villari, Carl Virgo, Melissa Washburn, Jorie Wilkinson, Adrian Wong, Rachel Wright, Christine Wuenschel, Greta Zakrzewska, Jeff R. Zandstra, Marzena Ziejka, Mark Zlotkowski, Jackson Zorn, and Jill Zylke.

In celebration of the 7th anniversary of the National Self-Portrait Exhibition and 33 Contemporary Gallery (formerly known as 33 Collective Gallery), this year’s exhibition will be the largest one to date. 33 Contemporary Gallery in collaboration with the Zhou B. Art Center present the 7th Annual National Self-Portrait Exhibition.

The entire first floor of the Zhou B. Art Center will become a national laboratory for the exploration and visual representation of the “self”. This exhibition will be entirely devoted to different aspects of self-awareness, individual perception and identity. It will include works ranging from representational, non-representational and conceptual ideas of the self. It will feature works in a variety of media.

CURATED BY SERGIO GOMEZ

ARTIST(S): Katherine Perryman, Sijia Chen

Sitting between painting and sculpture, these works operate as a series of cultivations stemming from an internal and external environment. My work is often derivative of a context, where the physical and visceral characteristics of a place manifest themselves through designed arrangements coupled with the residue of making.The material, gesture, and color, on-and-off the wall are composed and integral to the content of my work. Each element alludes to a psychological tension that exists between domesticity and identity. Through abstraction, I incorporate soft and hard forms directly and with economy. A pour, rip, or twist, is silenced or elevated through the repetitive layering of cast-off pigments and materials.
— Katherine Perryman

My current works are highly related to the image of the city, which I have spend all my life in. I was born and raised in a Shantou, Guangdong, after my junior high school I moved to Guangzhou for my further education. For me, city is about palimpsest, in which everything is on top of each other. When we are walking in a city, especially a big city, we don’t have a chance to see a whole image of one thing, like a building, even when it’s right next to us, there’s always something in front of it, no sight of the horizontal line.

Developments such as Google maps, GPS, and iPhones help us to find our ways in cities, they give us more access to information, but we are often still confused or lose our way. My work depicts my impression of the busy but lively cities I have inhabited. The paintings are influenced by the technology I use in navigating the city I currently live in, Philadelphia. The paintings express the complicated feeling I have about cities.
— Sijia Chen

The Zhou B. Art Center invites you to attend the opening of a two person exhibition by Katherine Perryman and Sijia Chen. Both artists were selected from the National Wet Paint Exhibition 2011.

CURATED BY KATYA GROKHOVSKY

ARTIST(S): Marissa Benedict, Scott Carter, Colleen Coleman, Katya Grokhovsky, Holly Holmes, Selena Jones, Maya Mackrandilal, Luis Palacios, Joel Parsons, Alex Gartelmann, Andrew Barco, Ilie Paun Capriel, Hellen Ascoli, Annalee Rose Levin, Michael Webster, Andrew Coppersmith, Hyo Jin Lee, Michaela Murphy

CURATED BY OSKAR FRIEDL

ARTIST(S): Zhou Brothers

On January 18, 2011, the artists unveiled at the White House their most historical painting “The eight US Presidents and the Great Wall” to the President Barack Obama, as a national gift to His Excellency Hu Jintao, the President of China, on the occasion of the state visit to the White House. This painting was the first time in the artists’ career where recognizable figures appear in their art. These figures are a stylistic representation of the eight American presidents who have governed since the opening of China’s relationship with the US by President Nixon in 1972. This rare honor instigated a refocusing of creative interest in the artists’ own personal history which triggered the shift in direction in their latest series.

A walk through history has a particular meaning to artists who have established an impressive carving into the world of contemporary art. Even more so is the case with the world-renowned artists the Zhou Brothers. They are as extraordinary as they are mysterious and while the Zhou Brothers are reaching enigmatic proportions we are taking a closer look at their artistic journey.

The life of the Zhou Brothers further unfolds to the viewer in a more revealing fashion at their new exhibition. These paintings open a new window into their past, by adding new figurative elements with recognizable features of the artists themselves, as a self-portrait of their lives. At this latest show the new paintings deepen the meaning of the Zhou Brothers vision and myth. And, like all myths, it will not reveal itself, it will only settle into our subconscious, leaving us wanting to know more about their art and lives.

ARTIST(S): HEBRU BRANTLEY

Afro-Futurism (Impossible View) – Solo show of work by Zhou B Art Center arist Hebru Brantley, a prolific artist whose work could be best described as narrative meets surrealism and together they had a baby called afro-futurism. The collection of new works presented in Afro-Futurism (Impossible View) touches upon the spirits of children that are not jaded by the social and economical restraints that plague our society. The subjects presented in the works wear the looks of contemplative young adults having to deal with life’s complexities prematurely. Rather than to simply deal with it, these subjects choose to escape into a fantastical state where they idealize a young, heroic character aptly known as Flyboy, derived from Brantley’s attempts to commercialize the idea of an ethnic hero.

CURATED BY MOLAR PRODUCTIONS

ARTIST(S): Academy Records, Erin Larocque, Gabriel Bizen Akagawa, Diego Leclery, Judith Brotman, Heeran Lee, Paola Cabal, Kirsten Leenaars, C.C. Ann Chen, Ei Jane Janet Lin, Edmund Chia, Zihan Loo, Jason Dunda, Maya Mackrandilal, Jeanne Medina With Alexandria Eregbu, Joe Mault, Kirk Faber, Helen Mcelroy, Ling-An Fang, Jon Monteverde, Andreas Fischer, Mzl, Brent Garbowski, Chris Naka, Jeffrey Grauel, Heidi Norton, Greg Grucel), Susannah Papish, Matthew Harrison, Jamilee Polson, John Henley, Qing Yang And Tim Schade, Alex Herrera, Johannah Silva, Greyson Hong, Joshua Slater, Paul Hopkin, Eliot Taguiam, Laura Hsieh, Rebecca Walz, Carol Jackson, Jenyu Wang, Miao Jiaxin, Jiankun Xie, Steven L Jones, Wang Yefeng, Jason Jozwiak, Naomi Yorke, James Kao, Chien-An Yuan, Ana Ut Kei, Alex Zak, and Mayumi Lake.

Molar Productions in collaboration with Cheng-Yung Kuo and Injung Oh Zhoushi presents SEXIER, a noholds-barred, edgier take of what is sexy cum (pun intended) pornographic ranging from photography to performance to installation to painting to sculpture past the usual objects of desire.

Open Monday through Friday from 9-5pm and Saturday from 12-5pm, SEXIER is the NC-17 rated version of “Sexy”, a PG-13/maybe R rated group show tantalizing the mind, beguiling senses and teasing to hint at something suggestive or provocative opening April 1st as part of the 16th Annual Asian American Showcase at the Gene Siskel Film Center.Molar Productions is a domestic exercise of the democratic process as curatorial practice, or some say, buffoonery… since 2005.

CURATED BY SERGIO GOMEZ

ARTIST(S): Adam Bock, Adrian Cox, Amanda Wallace, Anna K. Lemnitzer, Benjamin Grant, Brandon Dean, Clare Rosean, Corey N. Crum, C. Matthew Luther, David Knobel, David Maddy, Ernesto A. Trujillo, E. Thurston Belmer, Hatidza Mulic, Ian Reynold, InJung Oh, Jackson Zorn, Jake Johnson, Jake Wells, Jason Seeley, Jave Yoshimoto, Jen Keshka, Jieun Beth Kim, Jim Graham, Kang Joo Lee, Kate Perryman, LaToya M. Hobbs, Lauren Whearty, Linda King Ferguson, Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern, Maria Lux, Mary Beth Koszut, Michael Pfleghaar, Lisa Caplan, Nannette Cherry, Philmore Peterson V, Rachel Wolfson, Rebecca G. Weed, Sean Smith, Sijia Chen, Sioban Lombardi, Steven Vinson, Suqin Lin, Tanya Gadbaw, and Timothy Kranz.

The National Wet Paint Exhibition is an outlook and an overview of emerging contemporary 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. They are MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) candidates and recent MFA recipients working primarily in the medium of painting.

Under the watchful eye of a technology driven society, online social networking and cyber interaction communities, emerging artists have been evolving and redefining one of the oldest mediums of art, painting.