Work by Liz Nielsen, Kate Ruggeri and Brendan Sullivan. Connectivity from the "real thing" is removed or sometimes replaced in art just as relationships are fabricated from false presumptions. We create expectations for one another that eventually either satisfy, call for compromise or lead to disappointment and failure. Feeble Intimacy showcases three artists who touch on methods of interaction with the viewer and incorporate themes that focus on human connectivity with one another and the environment.

Art, religion, and spirituality are deeply intertwined. For thousands of years artistic production was concentrated in manufacturing houses of worship and objects for religious devotion. In the mid-nineteenth century, artists began exploring non-religious themes and, eventually, the importance of religion in art waned. Although art from the last two hundred years appears to lack a strong religious viewpoint, it would be incorrect to assume that it no longer possesses any spiritual significance. As we enter into the second decade of the twenty-first century, Westerners have become more accepting of alternative spiritual customs. WHO’S YR SHAMAN? is a group exhibition featuring ...

Spudnik Press Cooperative is hosting a full day of festivities in recognition of three far out years of community print making. In the evening, festivities will move to Happy Dog Gallery. Live jazz and complimentary beer will accompany a silent auction. The event is free, but all guests who contribute the suggested donation of $10 will receive a complimentary print. $25 donations will receive a block printed T-shirt made on site. All contributions will support Spudnik’s artist’s residency program, open studio sessions, free workshops, and new equipment. The Silent Auction will include art from Paul Nudd, Jeremy Tinder, Wrik ...

This exhibition brings together some of the talent from the book Art of Touring (Square Root Books) and the local music community to showcase creative endeavors when not rockin’ on the stage. Whether video, pictures, sketches or written word, these musicians keep their creative edge sharp while whittling away the hours in a van, on a plane or walking about the cities they frequent.

ACRE's boredom-banishing night of art, music, and mirth. Even the broke among us can win stellar contemporary art from Chicago and beyond! Plus the folks from the The Hornswaggler Bar will be on hand providing unique refreshments. Raffle and auction items include paintings, photographs, drawings, and sculpture by local Chicago artists and ACRE’s 2010 residents. Entrance is $10, which includes 3 raffle tickets and a door gift. Additional tickets can be purchased for $4, or you can get 7 tickets for $20. The silent auction closes and raffle winners are announced at 10:30pm. Funds raised go toward ACRE’s inaugural summer ...

A mixed media exhibition curated by Barbara DeGenevieve. In a Plain Brown Wrapper is an exhibition of work that would not be shown in many other venues. It is the end of the first decade of the 21st century and yet the discomfort of the majority of people in regard to naked bodies or talk about sex still fuels the debate about what is appropriate for public display, and whether it is pornographic, or worse, obscene. Public offense and keeping the children safe from images that might “damage them” are the reasons invoked most often when art with sexual content is ...

Work by Peter Hoffman and Dick Dermody.

Banshee is a group exhibition exploring the subject of adolescent women. In Irish mythology, the Banshee is a female spirit viewed as an omen of death that appears as either a hideous, old hag or an enchanting, young woman. This showcase of photography captures the status of the contemporary American girl. Anna Cerniglia of Johalla Projects has organized this exhibition with the intention of taking this group of photographs to be shown by our affiliates in Rome. With the popularity of imagery of young females in contemporary photography, we hope to shine a light on some Chicagoans who have ...

Jason Middlebrook’s longstanding interest in the decaying landscape was all about "sustainability" before the word became part of our everyday vernacular. His paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations address the concept of living with less and literally build upon this strategy to convey that one can also be "alive with less." Re-imagining discarded materials like cardboard and plastic bottles into provocative installations, Middlebrook essentially creates something from nothing. In his site-specific installation LESS, Middlebrook uses trashed and abandoned wood materials scavenged from the streets, alleys, and basements of Chicago to create a jumbled starburst of reclaimed wood in the gallery. ...

Immersioni/Immersions, an exhibition curated by Anna Cerniglia and Susanna Horvatovičova, is the third installment of an international collaboration between an American and a Czech curator. While working together in Italy, these two women developed a three-part series of presentations that revolved around the concept of total captivation and the invasion of the imagination into real space. Showcasing films and site specific installations, their previous exhibitions, Immersioni di Progetto/Project Immersions and Flusso di Coscienza/Flux of Consciousness, were held this past winter at La Porta Blu Gallery in Rome. Immersioni/Immersions marks the first occurrence of their partnership on US soil and ...

Thirteen living artists representing several generations of American life. Family-men, healers, care-takers, lovers, and a space goddess. Stories for our friends and families told through psychedelic non-fiction and future traditions. Artists include Roderick MacKenzie, Gunsho, Kyla Cech, Scott Alerio, Margeurite Keyes, Nemo Boko, Travis Millard, James Bruce King, J. Chris Johnson, Lisabeth Gutierrez, Peter Karpick, Goddess Irena and Orion Dommisse.

A group exhibition of emerging, female photographers curated by Jes Ashley Santrock. Featuring photography by Kate Brock, Kimberly Kim, Megan Noe, Sarah Q., Laurie Reese, Jess Sikon, Krystal Thompson and Maria Ulrich.

Available works by Adam Hoff, Stephen Eichhorn, Chris Bradley and Tinsley Hammond.

hArts for Haiti is a silent auction and raffle, benefiting the people of Haiti to help rebuild the Earthquake stricken country. Proceeds going to UNICEF. Available works by Blood is the New Black, Milano Chow, Ryan Travis Christian, Alika Cooper, Alex Da Corte, Joel Dean, Cali Dewitt, Austin Eddy, Bea Fremderman, Myranda Gilles, Michael Hunter , Elizabeth Jaeger, Robin Juan, Landon Metz, Rachel Niffenegger, Annie Purpura, Courtney Reagor, Daniel Shea, Brian Sorg, Mitchell Spider, Hannah Stouffer, Fraser Taylor, ...

False Anatomies presents the diverse work of three artists dealing with the fabrication of the physical and the sometimes uncomfortable or humorous way that objecthood and illusion relate to each other. Their work commonly shifts attention to the importance of relationships between colors and textures. Paint is used as a structural element, hinting at the fiction of objects and the elusiveness of the figure, while color may be extracted entirely to highlight its indexical properties. Figures may only loosely or rarely be seen but in the case of all three artist's work, an interest in the mystery of a kind ...

Work by Karl Haendel & Walead Beshty, Sheree Hovsepian and Barbara Kasten.

Contemporary sculpture is an increasingly intriguing notion, defining it is a somewhat useless activity. Nineteen artists will make an attempt with performances, installations, photographs, sculptures, videos, sound and drawings. The artists work towards common goals and are situated inside un-common territories. Notions of site and space specifics, place and dislocation, memory and architecture, the body and utopian worlds, everydayness and unfamiliar grounds collide and diverge. Work by Marissa Benedict, Christopher Bradley, Scott Carter, Lauren Carter, Younghwan Choi, Colleen Coleman, Allison Fall, Elise Goldstein, Katya Grokhovsky, Samantha Hill, Holly Holmes, Scott Jarrett, Selena Jones, ...

New work by Sangho Choi, Christopher Gatton and JT Rogstad. Maybes are tentative propositions that suggest an overlap between participation and obligation. They are declarations of intent without a future. This lack of commitment reflects a commitment to openness and possibility. The three artists in our debut show make work that similarly straddles a line of purposeful compromises, generally between the material and the illusory. By straddling the supposed divide between media, they exploit the potential rather than the determined.

The Merger – by following this 1 easy rule... was initiated by the visiting artist Markus Hahn during his six month residency in Chicago under the auspices of the Austrian Cultural Ministry and brings together the work of 28 emerging artists from Vienna. The exhibition confronts a range of approaches to sculpture, installation art, drawing and video that relate to ideas of space. These artists follow a post-conceptual notion that employs a response to found atmospheres and insists on a subjective authorship in the process of art making. Hahn and Zwingl's work focuses on a sculptural practice that investigates concepts of ...

It is no secret that 2009 was a difficult year for arts programming in Chicago. We witnessed exhibition spaces close, admission prices sky rocket, and charitable donations evaporate. Many were lucky and persevered into 2010, but not unscathed. While institutions suffered, so did artists and their patrons. Though many artists do not live solely off their commissions, losing benefactors and exhibition opportunities can be devastating. On the opposite end of the spectrum, collectors saw their budgets for art buying dry up. Ultimately, this situation has trickled down to affect the public, who are losing the arts in their communities. Johalla Projects ...

The Dog and the Wolf is Letinsky’s newest series of photographs. The title is from Aesop’s Fable of the same name, but also refers to the French phrase L'heure entre chien et loup – the time between dog and wolf is seen when dusk becomes night. This is a mysterious time when day and night exist together, when a dog is no longer a dog but not fully a wolf. Exploring this concept, Letinsky is now photographing in twilight as opposed to the morning light that permeated her earlier work. The subject matter of her recent still life photographs ...

We spend our lives surrounded by strangers. They're sitting at bars, shopping in malls, and working in offices all around us. And while strangers are everywhere, we're rarely given the chance to explore their circumstances. Conversely, the artists in Getting Acquainted have chosen to spend time with strangers. Anonymously working after the fact, they turn brief encounters into deep, careful records. Through collaborative video work, drawing, photography, and simply listening, these works celebrate the process and products of getting to know a stranger. Work by In b Flat, Kristin Freeman, Shane Lavalette, Jason Polan, The Free Listening ...

Johalla Projects, along with guest curator Christopher Starbody, presents Snow Globe, a group exhibition exploring the thematic subject of the snow globe. Thought to be invented in France during the early 19th century, snow globes have long held a place in our collective psyche as tschotches symbolizing happiness and blissful innocence. Simply put, they are plastic (or glass) orbs containing miniature sculptures and a concoction of water, glycerin, and particles. They are the product of the Modern era, a whimsical, useless, and often cheap object made for the consumption of our entertainment. Snow globes have since become an American fixture, ...

CHURCH PORCH is a vehicle for the presentation of ideas – an aimless institution that turns on and spreads from a sign, a single neon sign reading CHURCH PORCH. We are a medium for bastard ideas ill suited to commercial spaces. It is the practical minimum of an institution pregnant with failures. Work by Lauren Elder.

Johalla Projects presents Long Hand, a group exhibition curated by Caitlin Arnold and Emily Green. Featuring sculpture, photography and fiber, Long Hand brings together 7 artists whose conceptual work involves lengthy manual processes. With the constant inundation of the virtual into our everyday lives, these artists return to reality and the use of their physical bodies in the creation of their art. Work by Jesse Avina, Melissa Damasauskas, Matt Shaw, Alise Spinella, Julia Stotz, Peter Takamori and Casey Ann Wasniewski.

Paintings and drawings by Theodore Boggs, Thomas Cowan, Kyle Letendre and Jason Perry. Curated by Matthew Schaffer.

The SAIC Sound Department presents Waveforms: New Dialogue, a collection of works by artists exploring a new subject or medium. "Here we ask you to expand your voice, learn the language of a new people, and to have a conversation you haven't had before, or in a way you haven't before." Installations by Chris Bradley, Ryan Dunn, Joseph Grimm, Dorian McKaie and Kim Walker. Performances by Joey Carr, Benjamin Chaffee, Bethany Childs and Rebecca Simmons, Ryan Dunn, Joseph Grimm, Joseph Kramer, Monica Panzarino, Aaron David Ross and Michael Vallera.

Sign of the Times is a group exhibition exploring the current global economic crisis. This show was initially inspired by Carrie Schneider's most recent photos Recession and Miss America. Acting once again as her own subject, Schneider set out to explore elements of physical comedy and its greater psychological repercussions. But as an American working in a foreign land (Helsinki), during a global meltdown, not-to-mention being bombarded with headlines about Miss California Carrie Prejean, Schneider could not help feeling personally responsible and embraced the topical nature of work. Taking this cue, Sign of Times hopes to convey the multiplicity ...