Chicago Art Department is pleased to present the work of Thomas Wolfe. Words and numbers have always been filled with mythology and superstitions, both universal and personal. In the Japanese language the word Yakudoshi refers to the years of calamity. These are the years in which people are likely to experience misfortune. For men, 42 is often considered to be a particularly bad year or Honyaku (great calamity). Thomas Wolfe explores his personal connection to Honyaku in his recent paintings.

Working within collage, Thomas’ work draws upon his career in design—cutting and pasting a narrative that reflects a fascination with typography, books and fashion. The work explores personal relationships and emotions in an effort to capture these fleeting moments. And much like memories, important details—fragments of phrases, numbers and images—mix together with insignificant minutiae in a wonderfully tangled latticework of truths,distortions and inconsequential meanders.

Directed and conceived by Laura Chiaramonte, CORPOREAL is an evening length performance installation featuring new work by artists and collaborator, Janet Chiaramonte. Laura is excited to be to be working with her mother for the first time. Janet’s unique designed installation provides a beautiful landscape depicting the use of Art and Chemistry, resulting in varying monoprints using an oxidation process to create organic imagery.

The performance aspect of the installation confronts the question of the bodily consciousness by capturing the audience and introducing them to the struggles between communal and personal identity. Throughout the evening, we will discover the constant motion of all things, melting and forever changing into different forms, living, adapting and conforming to the space.

The development of the movement vocabulary is in collaboration with and will be presented by Chicago dance artists; Isabelle Collazo, Jessica Cornish, Momar Ndiaye, Amanda Pesch, Becky O’Connell, Amy Swanson, Lesley Werle, and Vienna Willems. The live soundscape will be performed by composer Jason Araujo and Barmey Ung, providing a layer of connectivity, and creating a sense of holding space.

Mark your calendars and please join us on:
April 26th-27th, 8pm – CAD, 1932 South Halsted #100

The exhibiting artists will not be present at Chicago Art Department’s 2nd Fridays gallery opening this month.

Big Dreams I’m Chasing, a show of visual art and poetry created by students of Free Write Jail Arts and Literacy Program, presents the work of youth incarcerated in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. According to Free Write Director Ryan Keesling, the exhibition is an incredibly unique opportunity to connect disparate groups of people through art. “Our students are intensely marginalized. They are young, they are in jail, they have very few positive outlets through which to be seen or heard,” says Keesling. “Knowing that their work will travel outside of the Detention Center’s brown, brick walls and communicate with all sorts of people is deeply validating. It helps them to feel like they have a place in the world. It contributes to a sense of hope and purpose.”

Big Dreams I’m Chasing is the second installment of Free Write student work hosted by Chicago Art Department. At the 2010 exhibition, Escape Route, gallery attendees were given the opportunity to write notes and record video responses to the artists, which were brought back to the incarcerated students after the show. Keesling says that audience feedback makes the young artists feel like their work, and by extension, their lives, hold value. “One student, upon reading a postcard written to him about the quality of his work, said, ‘I can’t wait to get out and be able to have real conversations with the people who like my art.’”

Free Write has provided creative writing workshops, reading tutoring and arts programming for youth in detention for the past 13 years. Free Write collaborates with local teaching artists to provide students with tools for creativity, self expression and all forms of literacy. Past collaborators include acclaimed artists and educators, Avery R. Young, Kevin Coval, and Roger BonairAgard. “Through increased literacy and the study of the performing, visual and literary arts, we work to reduce recidivism and help students find meaningful pathways to self expression and continuing education,” says Keesling.

This exhibition will present a multimedia array of work including murals, comic books, written poetry, autobiographical fiction, recorded poetry and music. There will also be live performances by Free Write teaching artists and members of the youth mentoring group Circles & Ciphers. The show’s title is borrowed from a line in a poem written by 14year old Kiara. It was recorded in the jail and presented at this year’s Louder Than a Bomb youth poetry competition, where the Free Write team won second place in their preliminary bout.

Big Dreams I’m Chasing is curated by Free Write cofounder and Director Ryan Keesling, Free Write teaching artist Elgin Bokari, and Chicago Art Department resident Chelsea Ross, with support from Chicago Art Department, Chicago Lights, Chicago Community Trust, the Illinois Humanities Council, the Oppenheimer Foundation, and the Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation.

For information about this event or the Free Write Jail Arts and Literacy Program, please contact Ryan Keesling at 773-412-5789 or email to ryan@freewritejailarts.org. For more information about the program, please visit www.freewritejailarts.org.

Join us! for a night of stories within the theme of queerness: sexuality, gender, love, community, life, heartbreak, heart not-break…Queer-identified folks and allies welcome! Drinks will be available. with MUSIC by LOS IMPROVIACHIS. Evening will begin at 7pm on Thursday April 4th, at 1932 South Halsted #100.

Chicago Art Department is pleased to host LeveL-Up! Magazine’s Issue 6 Release Party. A celebration of the arts at it’s best, this event will feature underground fashion at 5pm, and artist performances at 7pm.  For more information and to secure tickets, visit level-upmagazine.com.

Opening Reception: March 7th, 2013 7-10pm
Viewings by appointment through March 13th, 2013
Contact: Jessica Myers myersphotographic@gmail.com

The question of what drives the artist to create will be explored at Chicago Art Department in February. Many of us have passions and fixations, the drive of the artist to express and create often goes beyond that to the point of compulsion. The label of “artist” itself has always been a tricky one – is “art” a profession or an obsession? The six artists in this multidisciplinary group show have spent their own time and energy to make something. They were fixated on a subject, some know why and some don’t want to know, but they all did it because they had to.

OCD – [Obsessive Compulsive Drive]
Todd Frugia
Nat Soti
Lauren Feece
Asia Rusztowicz
Edyta Stepien
Chuck Przybyl.

Curated by Edyta Stepien and Chuck Przybyl
Chicago Art Department
1932 S. Halsted #100
Friday February 8, 6-10PM