2013-07-16

A historical piece which points towards exceptional moments observed directly by the writer, in Chicago, over the course of the previous calendar year. Alternative, NFP, and commercial galleries, as well as art centers, museums, and public spaces, were visited more-or-less regularly, according to the nature of their programming. All artwork copyright original artists; all photography copyright Paul Germanos.

Per convention, “best of” lists and “year in review” articles are released late in December. And critics have tended to follow in lockstep. Yet such a schedule might be a cause for concern when one considers how little time in reflection is afforded the author of any such piece.

That said, it’s the original scope of the critic’s experience, and not the amount of time spent in reflection upon that experience, which is the greater issue in most cases. Readers have good reason to wonder about art writers: How much did he or she see in the first place? What does it mean to be placed in a “top ten” list by a person who might have attended only ten (or fewer) events?

Of course, with regard to the utility of press, the writing itself counts for little; it’s a publication’s masthead and associated social connectivity which are really crucial. For whether the subject is artwork or the publicity related to it, heavily invested dealers, artists, directors, et al, labor to get the right bits in the right places, till the overall picture looks good–much like jigsaw puzzle work. The gaming of interpersonal relationships is, after all, the chief modality of the art world.

Let’s try something different!

(1) Best Artist’s Talk: “Andre Butzer @ Cochrane-Woods Art Center”


Forgoing the pretense of a rational narrative, German painter Butzer dryly delivered pre-Socratic fragments–first in his native language and then in English–alongside projections of his artwork. The audio and visual elements in combination, amounting to a performance, were, in fact, stronger than his show which followed at Rhona Hoffman Gallery.

Butzer became moderately excited when, after the lecture, I presented him with a question about Nietzsche.

6:30 PM, January 25, 2012

Cochrane-Woods Art Center, Room 157

(adjacent to the The Smart Museum)

University of Chicago

5540 S. Greenwood Ave.

Chicago, IL 60637

Runner-up: Karsten Lund’s performance piece in Peregrine Program.

(2) Best Gallery Opening: “Short Court: Tropical Aesthletics @ ANTENA”


Above: Jake Myers at left, in glasses, on the court in ANTENA.


Curated by Jake Myers’ “Tag Team,” and featuring 19 artists (Adam Farcus, Adam Grossi, Alberto Aguilar, Alex Bradley Cohen, Angeline Evans, Brian Wadford, Caroline Carlsmith, Cory Glick, Edra Soto, EC Brown, Irene Perez, Jeriah Hildwine, Jim Papadopoulos, Kevin Jennings, Nicole Northway, Pamela Fraser, Philip von Zweck, Thad Kellstadt, and Vincent Dermody) “Short Court: Tropical Aesthletics” was dominated by Jake Myers’ own performance in the center of the gallery.

There, Myers and company offered to “take on all comers” in a high-spirited volleyball match. The boisterous physical competition which ensued was entirely contrary to the quiet struggle for rank which is usually present, if unseen, at such affairs. This was good. It’s yet unclear to what degree Myers’ work is ironic.

February 10 – March 10, 2012

ANTENA

1765 S. Laflin St.

Chicago IL 60608

(3) Best Art Writing: “Hamza Walker for The Renaissance Society”

With regard to the consistency and volume of his production, Hamza Walker has been exemplary: Every exhibition at The Renaissance Society is accompanied by a broadsheet containing one of Walker’s companion essays. Curiously, these essays usually go nowhere. Are they not read? not understood? not thought to be of any value? Sunday attendance at The Ren is too often like unto church: orderly, solemn, performed for fear of damnation, and forgotten on Monday.

(Ongoing)

The Renaissance Society

Bergman Gallery

Cobb Hall, Room 418

University of Chicago

5811 S. Ellis Ave.

Chicago, IL 60637

Runner-up: Jason Foumberg, skyrocketing in 2013.

(4) Greatest Spectacle and Drama: “NON GRATA ‘Force Majeure’ @ New Capital”

The Estonian performance collective NON GRATA staged the destruction of an American-made sedan on the grounds of New Capital: outdoors, late-winter, encouraging audience participation in the act. No fig leaf of sport covered the aggression here; this was a naked, public display of violence hitherto latent in the community. And it was possible to read the event as a sort of response to the call made by Butzer a little over one month earlier.

7:00 PM, March 4, 2012

Hosted by:

Defibrillator Gallery

1136 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Chicago, IL

Co-hosted by:

New Capital

3114 W. Carroll

Chicago, IL 60612

Runner-up: Unsolicited letters from Wesley Kimler.

(5) Most Noteworthy Young or “Emerging” Artists: Sarah and Joseph Belknap, Tyler Blackwell, Robert Chase Heishman, Sophia Leiby, Jake Myers, Meg Noe, Danielle Rosen, Joseph Rynkiewicz, Etta Sandry, Vince Uribe, and Nikki Werner.

Over the course of the previous year, some memorable artwork, conversation, or public engagement was initiated by each the people listed above. Further, as a result of the good attendance at gallery openings and other events which most displayed, their names were easy to learn and remember.

(6) Best Museum Show: “The Language of Less (Then and Now) @ MCA Chicago”

Above: Dan Flavin: Untitled (for you, Leo, in long respect and affection) 3, 1978; John McCracken: Untitled, 1967.

Above: Carl Andre: Zinc-Lead Plain, 1969; Donald Judd: Untitled, 1970.

Curated by Michael Darling, the “Dimensions of Space” gallery within “The Language of Less (Then and Now)” exhibition wasn’t novel, or exciting, in the conventional sense. Rather, the thing had the appearance of being the logical conclusion of a long meditation upon the fundamental unit, or building block, of the works included, viz., the square. And this formal vocabulary hasn’t disappeared. For example, in “Binary Lore,” the most recent show local NFP threewalls, Edie Fake recalled Carl Andre.

Closed on April 15 , 2012

MCA Chicago

220 E. Chicago Avenue (MVDR Drive)

Chicago IL 60611

(7) Best Museum Opening: “Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art”

Above: Michael Rakowitz’ Enemy Kitchen, opening night.

Above: Sonja Alhäuser’s butter buffet billy goat, opening night.

The Smart has made an effort to push its programming outward: into its lobby and courtyard. That physical movement runs parallel to the community engagement which has been a major, if not the principal, thematic concern of several recent exhibitions. “Feast” wasn’t solely a remembrance of the past by means of the presentation of a collection of artifacts; rather, “Feast” was a new moment available to be experienced via socialization at its opening reception.

February 16 – June 10, 2012

Smart Museum of Art

University of Chicago

5550 S. Greenwood Avenue

Chicago, IL 60637

Curated by Stephanie Smith

Artists: Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Sonja Alhäuser, Mary Ellen Carroll, Fallen Fruit, Theaster Gates, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, InCUBATE, The Italian Futurists, Mella Jaarsma, Alison Knowles, Suzanne Lacy, Lee Mingwei, Laura Letinsky, Tom Marioni, Gordon Matta-Clark, Mildred’s Lane, Julio César Morales and Max La Rivière-Hedrick, motiroti, National Bitter Melon Council, Ana Prvacki, Sudsiri Pui-Ock, Michael Rakowitz, Ayman Ramadan, Red76, David Robbins, Allen Ruppersberg, Bonnie Sherk, Barbara T. Smith, Daniel Spoerri, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and others.

(8) Best Performance: “Mikey McParlane @ Defibrillator”

Mikey McParlane’s performance on April 1, 2012, was really something special. Relevant to contemporary gender issues (whether I’m able to tease-out any deeper meaning) McParlane presented ambiguously in the guise of a harlequin. Here, the choreography, costume, makeup, audio and lighting came together perfectly. It was weird and beautiful.

April 1, 2012

“Second Annual Lyp Sinc Show”

Defibrillator

1136 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Chicago, IL 60642

Performances by: Happy Collaborationists, Ben Foch, Sasha Hodges, Mikey McParlane, Sofia Moreno, Jillian Soto, Courtney Macandanz, Rosé Hernandez, Robin Deacon, Taisha Paggett, Jake Myers, Sharon Lanza, Monica Panzarino

Runner-up: Edyta Stepien & Ayako Kato @ Chicago Art Department

(9) Best Installation – “Jacob Hashimoto @ Rhona Hoffman”

Hashimoto’s work was interesting in its own right. But, too, quite literally depending upon fiber, it recalled gallery artist Anne Wilson’s past treatments of the space, and prefigured Fred Sandback’s recent showing there as well. Politics aside, it’s rare for a dealer (here) to survive long enough for such a formal thread to become evident–running through a succession of shows. Hashimoto was polite and professional, and he didn’t need to be so.

September 14 – October 20, 2012

“Super-elastic collisions (origins, and distant derivations)”

Rhona Hoffman Gallery

118 N. Peoria St.

Chicago, IL 60607

Runner-up: “Lane/Sirianni” @ New Capital

(10) Greatest Wasted Potential: “Color Jam @ Chicago Loop Alliance”

76,000-square-feet of colored vinyl, with a 500,000 USD budget, whose real cost was the good will of its patrons.

June 5 – September 30, 2012

The Chicago Loop Alliance’s “Color Jam” by Jessica Stockholder

State Street and Adams Street

Chicago, IL

Runner-up: “De-mystifying the Art Critic @ Chicago Artists’ Coalition”

(11) Best Residency: “ACRE Projects”

Above: Jason Lazarus’ “Fireworks Extravaganza” @ ACRE Projects

Insofar as a tangible return on investment is concerned, ACRE stands head-and-shoulders above it’s peers. Whether related to the residency, the sheer number of shows produced by ACRE has transformed the landscape of the Chicago art world.

(Ongoing)

ACRE Projects

Home office:

1913 W. 17th Street, 1F

Chicago, IL, 60608

Residency:

Steuben, Wisconsin

(12) Greatest Misses by Chicago’s Critics: “Noelle Mason @ Thomas Robertello Gallery” and “Sheree Hovsepian @ moniquemeloche”

Above: Artist Noelle Mason explains the process by which the satellite-mapped US/Mexican border city “bird’s eye perspective” textile in the foreground was fabricated; pinhole camera prints documenting her substantial skydiving experience are mounted on the wall in the background.

Above: Sheree Hovsepian with her artwork.

We all wonder why some shows receive press while others do not. Mason and Hovsepian “did everything right,” and yet received scant critical attention.

Noelle Mason

“Blue Skies/Black Death”

September 7 – November 3, 2012

Thomas Robertello Gallery

27 N. Morgan

Chicago, IL 60607

Sheree Hovsepian

“Haptic Wonders”

February 4 – March 24, 2012

moniquemeloche gallery

2154 W. Division (@ Leavitt)

Chicago, IL 60622

(13) Best Painting: “Melissa Oresky @ Hyde Park Art Center” and “Davis/Langlois in Re:Chicago @ DePaul Art Museum”

Above: Melissa Oresky

Above: Robert Davis and Michael Langlois

These two (three) were interesting for the same reason: brush or roller “strokes” were applied directly to the walls of the exhibition site. “Painting,” here, was no longer wholly a commodity but rather also a temporary transformation of the venue itself.

Melissa Oresky

“Trail”

May 6 – August 19, 2012

Hyde Park Art Center

5020 S. Cornell Avenue

Chicago, IL 60615

Robert Davis and Michael Langlois

“Living the Dream” in “Re: Chicago”

September 16 – March 4, 2012

DePaul Art Museum

935 W. Fullerton

Chicago, IL 60614

(14) Best Photography: “Dawoud Bey @ The Renaissance Society” and “Sade Kahra @ threewalls”

Above: Dawoud Bey

Above: Sade Kahra

Bey was exactly as expected; Kahra was wholly unexpected. Both photographers presented evidence of the human condition, the bodily circumstance, of their subject. Whether relatively conventional or experimental in its execution, the genre of social documentation is alive and well. Sincere, but not maudlin, the work in each case was a relief from the tide of irony here yet to ebb.

Dawoud Bey

“1975 to the present, a career survey”

May 13 – June 24, 2012

The Renaissance Society

5811 S. Ellis Avenue

Bergman Gallery, Cobb Hall 418

Chicago, Illinois 60637

Sade Kahra

“UV Portraits”

threewalls’ artist-in-research residency

June 1 – June 30, 2012

threewalls

119 N. Peoria #2d

Chicago, IL 60607

(15) Best Public Sculpture: “Martin Creed ‘MOTHERS’ @ MCA Chicago”

After “Color Jam” and “Forever Marilyn” the bar couldn’t have been much lower.

Installed in August of 2012; now closed.

MCA Chicago

220 E. Chicago Avenue (MVDR Drive)

Chicago IL 60611

(16) Hottest Chicago Artist Who’s Not Theaster Gates: Heidi Norton

Above: Heidi Norton at the MCA.

Above: Heidi Norton and Geoffrey Todd Smith at EXPO Vernissage after party.

Norton’s schmutzy floral collages incorporate all manner of found objects–cast or bound together with wax and resin. If her additive Ab Ex, Neo-Dada process might recall a male figure such as Rauschenberg, her palette and penchant for translucent materials are more distinctly feminine.

After showing at Johalla Projects and the late Ebersmoore, Norton graced the MCA in 2012. In 2013 she was hired by Northwestern University; and institutional connectivity is, we all know, key to longevity in Chicago.

August 7 – October 23, 2012

Curated by Karsten Lund

MCA Chicago

220 E. Chicago Avenue (MVDR Drive)

Chicago IL 60611

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