This is the first podcast by Sharkforum! Wesley Kimler, "The Shark," and Mark Staff Brandl, "The EuroShark," introduce their intentions in a short 33 minute discussion. Skype discussions, rants, Shark attacks, reviews and more will follow.
James Kalm rolls down to Soho to catch the tail end of the exhibition of one of Americas great post war figurative artists. Leon Golub, (1922-2004) presents us, in these late paintings, with a mingling of his mastery of representation and a heightened use of abstracted space. These massive unstretched canvases focus on scenes recalling the brutality of political and social strife, but Golub nevertheless maintains the legacy of classical painting and brings the influences of Titian and Goya into a contemporary context.
Tom Tressor says on HuffPo, "The city that gave the United States a leader who called for change is seething with citizen anger over a laundry list of corruption, cronyism and crooked deals."
Isn't that also true of the Chicago artworld, and indeed the PoMo artworld in general now? How about using our new-found desire for change in our own backyard(s)? Regime change here now.
Jeffrey Dorchen is an essayist, fiction writer, and internationally produced playwright. He has also served the theater as a composer, musician, music director and dramaturg. He is an autodidact scholar of Jewish folklore and agaddot.
At my part-time job, fur clad cosmetically-enhanced people often approach me and make unique, and always urgent, requests.
"Can you tell me where I might find a sterling silver flask? I'm looking for a Canadian Goose Down coat for my daughter. Where might I find that automatic espresso machine that makes the coffee without you having to do anything? Does the spa downstairs do brows and waxing? How tall is the Christmas tree? Where can I get a good shoe shine? I'm looking for Wii. I'm looking for Nintendo. I'm looking for one of those foot massagers? I need the 2.5 ounce Rain Rose hand crème. Do you know if that French store still carries that hand crème in that size? I need to get lingerie for my girlfriend and she loves leather, do you know if The Secret on Michigan Avenue carries leather? My niece is getting married at Holy Name in three hours and she needs a white umbrella."
The requests come quickly and often. Always extremely urgent and very important.
But one request made on the evening before Christmas Eve was different.
...
I was invited by ReneeMcGrath-Abazovic to make a contribution to a project by the Visual Communication Department at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern. At the moment, they are working on a project for the "science et cité" festival that takes place in 5 towns in Switzerland in order to bring science and society closer to each other.
They asked for my answer to the question, "what would you invent to save the world" or "what should science invent to save the world".
This is my answer.
What would I invent? A new self-reliant attitude in human thought.
Science and research in general can do many things to help the world. Some of society's greatest successes in this direction have been in medicine, health care and especially surgery. Logical analysis alone is important ...
The terrific sculptor Scott Fife, creates absolutely marvelous (masterful) large scale heads in cardboard -often grayed out -but this go around with big splashes of color, with all the workings -screws, glue, staples adding both detritus and, detail -in some ways reminiscent of Conrad Marca Relli's best work- made 3d. Scott will be showing with the interesting psychedelic abstractions of Todd Chilton -a painter The Shark knows nothing of, but looks forward to seeing-
Scott will not be at the opening -BUT! will be coming to Chicago in the next month to give a gallery talk -date TBA-
My first and last sighting of Solve in the flesh was slam dunking his patented sticker on a CTA bus sign at what has been referred to as "Solve height." A lanky, beanpole of a man, Solve's inconspicuous infiltration of the city landscape seemed almost impossible by nature. But even after his tragic and untimely death, his imprint still ghosts the bike and bus paths for us urban denizens to appreciate and intake on a daily basis. Brendon Scanlon has become the patron saint of not only street art in Chicago but of any street level dweller willing to navigate the grime and grit.
You laugh! But you shouldn't! or, wouldn't, if, that dorsal fin was attached to, say me for instance, and you were climbing the stairway to the business end of carcharodon carcharias (the ultimate in evolutionary epicurean elegance ) rather than this embodiment of all that is ultimately dysfunctional when it comes to the Chicago art world.
"MoMA's dreary Marlene Dumas show establishes that she is a sensationalist with no original ideas about painting, color, or photography; she hasn't developed as an artist; is merely a later day Neo-Expressionist; is more connected to Andreas Serrano than to any painter."
Steve Halle is a poet, teacher, and Ph.D. candidate at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. His poetry and critical work has been published in various journals including Jacket, Cordite, PFS Post, moria, Milk Magazine, OCHO. He edits the online journal Seven Corners and blog at Fluid / Exchange. His first book Map of the Hydrogen World was released by Cracked Slab Books in 2008.
Obedients
At Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Elementary, Chicago,
a fire claimed the lives of 92 school children and three nuns
on December 1, 1958. Firemen found 24 children
at their desks in one room, their school books open before them.
--Newspaper Clippings, (www.olafire.com)
