Kemang Wa Lehulere: "In All My Wildest Dreams" - Art Institute of Chicago

In the Neck of Time

Suit Case, Earth, Grass, and Ceramic Dogs

2016

Kemang Wa Lehulere: In All My Wildest Dreams is currently on display at The Art Institute of Chicago. I went to the exhibition on November 22nd, 2016. Wa Lehulere is 32 he was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and still lives there. He received a bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2011. Wa Lehulere was a co-founder of the Gugulective in 2006, a collective based in Cape Town, he is also a founding member of the Center for Historical Reenactments in Johannesburg. Wa Lehulere, known for his masterful fusion of multiculturalism of personal storytelling, Reenactments of what he called “deleted scenes from South African history". The focus  of the exhibition In All My Wildest Dreams is the first American museum show devoted to him.

Wa Lehulere's exhibition was quite interesting to be able to see in person. The pieces were all very different from on another. The first piece I saw when I walked into the exhibition was his "In the Neck of Time". The use of the smashed Ceramic Dogs and open suit cases were confusing. I almost feel as if the way the display was laid out, couldn't walk in front or behind the piece to get closer, restricted me from getting the full experience. The first few pieces I saw definitely give off a cultured feel that I haven't really ever experienced before. The material and layout helped me recognize a story being told by the use of progression of "quality" between each piece.

Gladiolus
Wall Carving
2016

The one piece that really caught my eye was "Gladiolus". Luckily I was at the exhibition with my sister who knows sign language, it came out as "eleven august". I have absolutely no idea what it is referencing or if it isn't actually in English, but what I do know is that it was very eye catching. What I really noticed about the piece was that the medium was wall carving and I didn't even notice until I got closer but the detail and the grey scale really stuck with me. I noticed the dust and debris salvaged underneath the carving to really show the labor he put into this piece.

X, Y, Z

Salvaged School Desks, Steel

2016

Another interesting piece was Wa Lehulere's "X,Y, Z". The first thing I thought of when I saw these triangles was paper air planes.  The three paper-plane sculptures, rising and dipping triangles of salvaged wood and metal. Another piece "A, B, C", sculptures constructed from tires and crutches were designed as wheelbarrows in which the wheels themselves were containers for the sand. The letters in the titles of each of these represent the disposable and loose units that establish any word. These two related sculptures correspond real and physical movement with grammatical ones.

A, B, C
Rubber Tires, Wooden Crutches, and Sand
2013-14

If you haven't been to the Art Institute of Chicago in awhile I highly recommend you go see Kemang Wa Lehulere's exhibition. Wa Lehulere's puts on a show using videos, sculptures, drawings and audio to get his theme of travel, displacement, and transition out. His mastery of fusion of multiculturalism and personal storytelling really shows in the wide variety of mediums available to see. He does an amazing job of presenting juxtaposed imagery. I fully recognize his attempt at deconstructing history of South Africa.

"Art for Change" - Illinois State University

CVA Community Wall
40 foot
2016

Art For Change was on display at Illinois State University in the Center for the Visual Arts room 110. The student run exhibition was on display until December 1st, 2016. The Bloomington-Normal Art Collective held the free exhibition as a response to the recent presidential election. A lot, but not all, of the pieces showed very passionate feelings towards the election. Accompanied by the art was Release and Rebuild theme going on. Now I did not attend the opening performances or the closing talk by Barry Blinderman, I heard very positive things about them of course. A 40 foot gallery wall was available for all who attended to draw or paint something of their choice. When I went on the last day right before Barry's talk I noticed everyone had a similar voice on the wall of "love". Most messages on the wall were focused on love and the tough emotions America is going through with the election.

Emily Fry

"Untitled"

Litho

There were obviously a lot of pieces mocking Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton because of the focus. The piece by Emily Fry really to me was a stand out piece in the whole exhibition. The way Trump and Hillary were crafted was impressively realistic. Their facial expressions and especially Trump's hand motion he always does is what really did it for me. The attached skin from hand to face almost leaching life from each other really sent a strong message of how exhausting the whole election was. The piece gives off a gross feeling with the shading and detail of the attached skin and how it is pulling the skin around there eyes away is unnatural but very intriguing and that is what grabbed me.

Hayley Gray

"Hive"

Latex paint & permanent marker 

on veneer, acrylic on foam board

2016

I also wanted to cover the piece "Hive" by Hayley Gray. I really noticed this piece as soon as a walked into the exhibition because of the stand out blue back ground and distorted lump of flesh. I love how this piece has something in common with many other pieces in the exhibition. As I got closer the flesh colored lump I noticed that it was Trump because of the iconic hand gestures. I also really love the loosely crafted winged bugs and how they, as well as the Trump lump, give off a very disturbed aroma, a common feeling I got from many other pieces with Trump or Clinton as the subject matter.

Evan Morris

"Trump Protests"

Charcoal

2015

Bart Woodstrup

Border Control

There were a few subtle works that didn't flash in front of my face but still captured the theme of the exhibition without all of the flair. My soul seemed to be pulled towards Even Morris' piece "Trump Protests". I really connected to this piece because early on in the election I was in Chicago and heard about people outside of Trump Tower and I decided to stop by and this reminded me of that moment. I really love the dark ominous sky behind the tower. If you look closely you can see the detail of the building with the white strokes as well as the beautiful shading. The piece by Bart Woodstrup "Border Control" fell under the same category as Morris' piece. The medium of the piece was not listed but I assumed it was gently cut paper in the shape of a barbed wire fence. The craftsmanship of this piece had me in awe, I cant even imagine having the patience to carefully cut the material without tearing it. The fence obviously represents the idea of Trump's immigration policy. At the bottom of the fence is a bent up opening that someone could possibly crawl through and to me the entire piece gives off the idea that no matter what Trump does people will always find a way past.

I really hope everyone had the opportunity to see this amazing exhibition. Art for Change shows off it's wide range of technique and material uses. The show does amazing job of presenting the emotions we have gone through during this stressful election. The whole ISU community shows that we can come together to help one another and shouldn't be afraid to speak our minds.

Luke Ahern: "Fences and Courts"

Selected Works on Paper
Mixed media on handmade paper and Rives BFK
2016

Luke Ahern: Fences and Courts is currently on display at Illinois Wesleyan University in the Merwin & Wakeley Galleries in Bloomington Illinois. The exhibition will be on display until November 3rd, 2016. Luke Ahern is an artist and educator living in Marysville Ohio. Ahern has a bachelor of fine arts degree from Bowling Green State University, and also a master of fine arts degree in painting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ahern works as an assistant professor of art at Ohio’s Denison University, along wth that he has shown his work in exhibitions across the country. Ahern is a father and husband in a mixed race family. The exhibition shows Ahern’s works that combine image making with his experience dealing with racial identity in today's society

Fenced in Pink and Hurt
Solid Marker, enamel, silicone, crayon, acrylic, inkjet collage on canvas
2016

Fenced in Rust and Dust
Acrylic, collage, oil, paper, inkjet print, dirt on canvas
2016

Luke Ahern's exhibition was extremely unique to be able to see up close. The pieces in this series were very eye catching and over exaggerated. The use of bright colors like hot pink to create the fence pattern and then the use of thick jet black layered acrylic to stand off the canvas are very fascinating. The collage technique within each piece never leave your gaze at a stand still but has your eyes constantly moving and seeing something new every time you look at it. The pieces give off a child like feel with the colors, material and layout but the deep meaning of the fence keeping you locked in pulls you back down to earth.

Morning, Noon and Night
Beeswax crayon, walnut ink, acrylic on Rives BFK
2016

My opinion on Luke Ahern's exhibition is very positive. I have just recently taken my first painting class and I could relate to his technique of layering acrylic to make the fence pattern stand off the page. I love how each of these pieces has something unique about them. Within one of the fence holes is a piles of rocks glued on and a few inches down has what looks like dryer lint. Now I do not know for sure what each unique little feature means but I love how he does what he feels. 









His "not so eye catching" works somewhat drew me away from the meaning of the exhibition. My eyes seemed to get lost in his smaller paintings and his The Force of Horse with Colors piece, therefore I couldn't understand  the idea of race and identity to these as well as  could feel the idea of his major fence pattern works.

Selected Untitled Small Works
Mixed media
2016

The Force of Horse with Colors
Gesso, metallic enamel, paper, flashe on un-stretched canvas
2016

I would recommend everyone to go see Luke Aherns exhibition. Ahern shows off his wide range of technique and material uses. He does an amazing job of presenting the emotions he  must go through being a father and husband in a mixed race family in a very unique way that I have never seen before.

Bethany Collins

"Don't You Think That's a Little Elitist?" 2010
48" x 72" x 2" - Chalk & Charcoal on Chalkboard

This month, Wednesday October 26, Bethany Collins, gave a lecture at University Galleries in Normal, Illinois. Collins began her lecture with a summary of her journey and uprising as a young biracial artist. Collins went to Georgia State University where she began her first attempt at language in 2010 with her piece "Don't You Think That's a Little Elitist?" in her white noise series. Collins described her situation in school as her being the only black graduate student. Collins described her work as art that represents racial issues and language structure and how those ingredients  compliment each other. Collins stated that most people have a solid outline around themselves and that she was one of a few that has a dotted line and she wanted to escape the outline. Collins explained that critiques were awkward because of her minority status in class. Collins work in school emulated colorism connected to black history and her desire to create beauty in all of the discrimination. Her White Noise series gained snarky and disrespectful remarks which she then used for the titles. 

Collins' Erased series is still in the works and has become a vigorous procedure because of the continuous writing and erasing which causes stress on her body and mind emotionally, and physically. It's amazing because Collins does all of this to support herself and answer the questions she has for herself and society. Collins explained during the lecture that she is obsessed with her work and how “language shifts as we do”. 

Collins discussed the term dual binary and how society and herself are "double-edged". Collins' technique of repeatedly drawing, writing and erasing enabled her to discover things about her general questions in life. Collin refers to Chicago as "home" but she is primitively from Montgomery, Alabama, she has also lived in New York but still finds Chicago home. Even though Collins represents herself as a Chicagoan, she accepts that her southern roots influence her work in a very significant way. Collins may be from the south but she does not accept the southern correlation  to define her as a person. She joked her time living in New York and constantly being asked what it was like to be a southerner in such a big city. Collins’s series, "Southern Review", was her closest related series to her Alabama home. Collins took  the Southern Review, an actual magazine started in 1935, and blacked out certain sections from each page to make the viewer only read in the order she wanted people to read. The one piece from her Southern Review series that stood out was her was "Southern Review, 1985 (special edition)" which exclusively used black authors and she joked about how it was a apology from the publishers for never having a black author featured in the magazine until then. What made this piece stand out was that she said herself that she couldn't follow her own rules from the series because it was such a monumental edition she felt as if she couldn't black any of it out. 

Southern Review 1985 (special edition)
57 1/2" x 104" - Charcoal on paper

Collins art revolves around her obsession with language, she said something that resonated with me, “language is a kind of form, language, and prism”.  What I took out of it is that just like society changes, language changes with it. Collins created the series she named Book Works in 2015 where she made two works known as "Colorblind" and "Black and Blue". The series was based around Collins erasing, with saliva, the word color in "Colorblind" and the words black and blue in in "Black and Blue". 

Colorblind Dictionary 2015
Webster Dictionary with all color terms erased
8 1/4" x 10" x 2 1/4"

The heart of Bethany Collins’s work is language. Collins shows that with the help of language she can show the connection between race and language. Collins' lecture was thoroughly enjoyable and I really enjoyed her work.

Danny Volk

Danny Volk. That was my first visiting artist lecture ever as a student here at Illinois State and I must say I am pleasantly inspired. All of his projects were extremely intriguing and stimulating, not because it was so deep and serious but because it was so playful and free. He started his career as a theater major and acted most of his life but he realized that the stage and him did not mix. Danny began his journey pretending to be someone else on Instagram during his DVNY project, then went on to GAP mimics with his GAP project, then to having people paint on his face during interviews for his very own show Made-Up, which led all the way to him managing a boy band.

Danny's DVNY project started in 2012 with his Instagram account. Danny's explained how he was tagged in a photo with Heidi Klum, but not because he was in the picture but because the person in the picture was another Danny Volk from New York. Danny noticed that he started gaining a lot of followers with a similar portrait of of themselves on Instagram, luxury. Danny decided to establish himself as the New Yorker on Instagram by pretending to be the luxurious Danny Volk in an almost overly creepy way. He took photos from other Instagrams and google and continued to post them as if it were him. If I wasn't at the lecture and someone were telling me about this I would probably be shook but because I could see him laugh at himself and poke fun it made me settle in and enjoy his story. Danny continued this project for a decent amount of time, Danny even involved friends and random strangers, who weren't so involved, in the fun and created false stories about this New York Danny's life. Danny realized that his creepy little project was only available to people with Instagram. You would think this project would end with a crazy story of Danny meeting Danny but it wasn't quite like that. Danny had found out New York Danny was having a birthday party at his New York night club. Obviously Danny's first instinct was to go to New York and do just that. When Danny got to the night club he noticed that he did not fit the ambiance. It wasn't a story book ending for his project but it was very unique nonetheless.

Danny's GAP project was also very intriguing. Danny explained how he got a job at GAP over the holiday season and told us his crowd was restricted to men or people shopping for men because he worked in the men's section. My first thought was, he did this while he worked? I related this to myself because I always feel as if I am experiencing people and observing their actions during my everyday life. Danny illustrated this project as a growing, intimate, uncomfortable relationship with random people asking him for clothing advice, because its his job! Danny described these awkward brief relationships as subtle skin on skin contact and series of passive intimate dialogue. 

After another creepy little project Danny was in an exhibition with other artists where he recreated the GAP check out isle with identical decor. Danny then gathered a production team of models and photographers to take photos just like models in a GAP advertisement. During this project Danny wrote stories on found paper about his awkward relationships with these random people. Danny said the stories were things people shouldn't tell people at all.

To conclude, I was very impressed with Danny Volk, he was hilarious and pleasant. I was locked in on his lecture the entire time and the brief lecture only made me more curious. The DVNY and GAP projects were my favorite of his, but his show "Made-Up w/ Danny Volk" that I was able to check out a few episodes afterwards had me laughing even more. I think it's comforting to know that people like Danny and myself can still go and be fun and playful even with the label as artist attached to ourselves that I feel locks down the creative process now-a-days.

Amy Cousins: "All The Queerness That's Fit To Print: The Abiline Reporter News 1967-75" (2015)

The winner of the curator's choice award, Amy Cousins' All The Queerness That's Fit To Print: The Abiline Reporter News 1967-75, is currently on display at Illinois State University Galleries in Normal Illinois. The piece is part of the International Juried Print Exhibition, the exhibition will be on display until October 16, 2016. Cousins is an interdisciplinary artist from Houston, Texas who currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She holds a Master's of Fine Arts in Printmaking degree from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Amy Cousins
"All The Queerness That's Fit To Print: The Abiline Reporter News 1967-75"
Serigraph, paper, buttons, wood, & foam - 2015

Amy Cousins' piece All The Queerness That's Fit To Print: The Abiline Reporter News 1967-75 was a stand out from the rest of the exhibition. The piece suggested a powerful and controversial essence to it. As I scanned the piece I felt as if the headers of the news were yelling out to me in disarray. The use of the intolerant topics in large bold print crumpled and contorted from the buttons makes it challenging to see at first, but that only helps you by pulling your eye closer to the piece and force you to read the headers. Once you realize what the headers are saying and what they are portraying, depending on your point of view, you were probably agitated. On the other hand, there are furniture, theater, and lingerie ads.

My particular assessment of Amy Cousins' All The Queerness That's Fit To Print: The Abiline Reporter News 1967-75 is drawn two ways. I am very intrigued by the way the headers show one side of society today and the advertisements show the other side of society. What I mean by these two sides is that society today is corrupted with dreary and bleak headlines we see today in the news (headers on the piece), and the other side is what we are distracted by (ads on the piece) and how easy it is for society today to brush off the issues in the world and get engulfed in their own muse's.

But away from the deep emotion, this piece is very unique for the exhibit is was presented in. The piece sat in the middle of the wall surrounded by other pieces in the exhibition, but what made me walk to it before any other piece was that it was protruding out of the wall. Behind the piece is a foam base overlapped with paper which gives it the lift off of the wall. The other interesting parts are the wood buttons that push through the front of the work and distort the the words/images. From afar the piece looks stiff on the wall but when you get close you can see the corners of the serigraph moving with the subtle breeze in the gallery. Overall the medium of the piece assists the intense message it portrays, but neither factors take away from one another, the piece is in perfect unison.

Amy Cousins 
"All The Queerness That's Fit To Print: The Abiline Reporter News 1967-75"
Serigraph, paper, buttons, wood, & foam - 2015

Rob Swainston: "They Said What We Said" (2016)

If you were lucky enough to catch the mind bending woodblock prints by Rob Swainston at the University Galleries this month, your eyes were probably drawn to his "They Said What We Said" prints. The four pieces focus on the line between historic and contemporary art. Rob Swainston was born and raised in Pennsylvania and is founder and master printer at Prints of Darkness, a collaborative print shop in NYC. The prints are some of his most recent works made in 2016. Most recently the pieces were being shown at the University Galleries in Normal, IL from May 21st until September 11th 2016. The four pieces are a collection of woodblock prints on fabric with aluminum stretchers and fluorescent lights, with each piece measuring 126 x 54 x 10 inches.

Mind bending was almost the perfect term to describe Swainston’s work. Almost as if the waves of the oceans confuse your wandering eyes as they glide from the first piece ever so smoothly to the fourth. The use of the fluorescent lights and the texture of the fabric give off a three dimensional feel to it almost as if it is coming alive. The light bounces off each stacked print in a wavy pattern giving it the illusion that it is floating off of the frame. Swaiston wrestles with the earliest print form from the 2nd century and the dark undecipherable imagery that leaches on the viewer's soul. As uneasy as these prints may make the casual contemporary art consumer feel there is almost a clear image throughout the black and white illusions.

Three aluminum frames hold three layers of fabric on top of one another while being backlit by fluorescent lighting. The light is a pure light almost piercing the eyes through the very abysmal black that is the print. This set up creates a texture almost too similar to a mirage in the desert. As the light bounces through the layers of fabric and the viewer walks left to right there is almost a black wave produced that flows across the pieces bringing satisfaction only a dehydrated traveler can get from a desert mirage of a glass of cool crisp water. The motion of the viewers eyes and head moving in all directions trying to make a solid image out of this collage of black and white create a rhythm with the pattern of these mysterious black waves. Somehow a faint image of teeth and an eye pop out of the nothingness and then it cannot be unseen. All of this chaos is almost a perfect balance of imperfectness stemming from the fact that this is almost a three dimensional piece with the aspects of the frames, the multiple pieces and light fixtures clearly shown behind the works of art. All of these elements and principles create these dark holographic illusions that is a perfect connection between the historic print technique and the contemporary idea that comes with society today.