---polvo_-_--__-

polvo @ NFO Xpo - Version 08

2008-04-07T15:34:00.001-05:00

http://www.versionfest.org/nfoxpo.html

NFO XPO DIRECTORY

April 19 & 20, 2008

NFO XPO
Viaduct Theater
3111 N. Western (link)

Hours: 1pm to 3am on Saturday
1pm to 2am on Sunday
$8 ($10 for 2-day pass)

Polvo @ NFO XPO

Participating artists:
Miguel Cortez Edra Soto Jaime Mendoza

Miguel Cortez will be showing an ongoing project of mixed media artworks dealing with the concept of "recycling" that began in 2006. I am taking this idea and creating multi-media works, such as digital photos, computer drawings, Flash animation, business cards, and bumper stickers. In April part of this project will be shown at the Krannert Museum in Champaign IL in a show titled "Landscapes of Experience and Imagination: Explorations by Midwest Latina/Latino Artists". For more info on this series go to: http://recycle-ideas.blogspot.com/

Edra Soto will exhibit her "Greatest Companions(series)

Alternative Art Spaces Panel Discussion

2008-04-03T19:48:00.002-05:00

Chicago Alternative ArtSpace Panel
Wednesday, April 2, 2008. 6 pm

A lively panel discussion with a fantastic line up of speakers will give you a new perspective of the "alternative space" scene from the 80's to the present day. Learn about Chicago's rich history of alternative space and how that feeds what is happening today!

Included in the panel:
Elizabeth Chodos of Three Walls will moderate. Elizabeth is a graduate student at SAIC, Director of Public Programs at 3 Walls and on the selection committee at Green Lantern.

Peter Taub, Director of MCA Performance Program and former Director of Randolph Street Gallery.

James Yood, Theory and Criticism and Art History Faculty SAIC and Regional correspondent: Artforum; Art and Auction, tema celeste; GLASS magazines.

Elvia Rodriguez of Polvo: Member of the Polvo artist collective, Elvia is a strong advocate for local artists.

Salem Collo-Julin of Temporary Services and Mess Hall. Salem works in collaboration to create socially dynamic situations and spaces for dialogue.

Betty Rymer Gallery
280 South Columbus Drive
Chicago, IL 60603

DOWNLOAD MP3: 127mb
LISTEN TO IT ON "THE INTERNET ARCHIVE"

Polvo Magazine compilation

2007-12-27T13:39:00.000-06:00

I made a compilation of some of the content from past Polvo Magazine issues from 2003-2006 and placed them on lulu.com . If you'd like a copy you can purchase it HERE.

Twine @ Polvo

2007-12-10T18:58:00.001-06:00

Friday December 14, 2007 from 7pm -9pm
FREE ADMISSION

Join Twine for an evening of “Basant”: A celebration of the metaphor of spring in the cold of December in Chicago. We invite you for an evening of art, film, storytelling, and dialogue dedicated to building awareness about choices in art, craft, and design in relationship to nature and humanity.

-Viewing of “Basant” a sculptural piece inspired by the visual language of Sufi Basant that integrates fiber, natural dye and video to explore the process of resistance to destructive monocultural values through personal narrative and metaphor.

-Screening of “Basant” a short documentary about the Sufi Basant in India created by Delhi Based Filmmaker, Yousuf Saeed:. www.ektaramusic.ek

-“Why I went to Lubbock Texas” a presentation by Twine director, and Chicago based artist: Amy Mall, about her research in Sustainable Dye and Fiber. Amy has been researching the ecological and social concerns linked to cotton in India, where the rate of cancer and suicide in Punjab is growing. She recently traveled to Lubbock Texas, the center of the US cotton Industry, to visit with the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative and try to gain a broader perspective of this global issue. www.twinenfp.org

-“What do handbags have to do with the Iraq war?”: Presentation by co-collaborator of Noon Solar, Marianne Fairbanks, about the start of her solar powered handbag company with Jane Palmer and the ecological and social motivations behind their careful material choices: www.noonsolar.com
-the evening will conclude with a conversation among all who attend. Please Join Us!

Twine, NFP is dedicated to the intersection of Art, Ecology and Social Justice Internationally.

POLVO
1458 W. 18th St., 1R(entrance on Laflin St.)
Chicago, IL 60608
www.polvo.org

Goin' Mobile opening

2007-11-17T00:42:00.001-06:00

===

article in culturalchicago.com

2007-11-07T05:55:00.000-06:00

“We felt that Pilsen needed a contemporary cultural space,” says Polvo co-founder Miguel Cortez, “where artists could be free to experiment.” Among the most long-running artists’ organizations in the Chicago area, Cortez formed the Polvo conglomeration over a decade ago, in 1996, with the assistance of partners Jesus Macarena-Avila and Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa. The three met in the early 1990s through their mutual affiliation with alternative artist spaces Casa de Arte y Cultura/Calles y Sueños and Taller Mexicano de Grabado. Through these affiliations, the three recognized a void in the local art scene of the time in its lack of outlets for contemporary Latino art; such artists were typically relegated to commercial Latino galleries or the Mexican Fine Arts Museum while the art which interested Cortez and his partners was too experimental to gain recognition at such venues.

The group’s first action was to begin a zine in 1996 to publish the art they found interesting as well as bilingual poetry. This venture led to the opening of Polvo in storefront gallery form three years later, establishing a venue for the collective to showcase the sort of avant-garde Latino art they hoped to promote in the Pilsen community. Faced with financial difficulties, the gallery was forced to close soon after and the group instead focused on developing a noticeable presence on the internet and promoting their zine. The success of these ventures resulted in the opening of the current Polvo space in 2003, which has shown a continuous stream of exhibitions since.

For their gallery, Polvo’s founders logically chose Pilsen, Chicago’s nexus of Mexican-American culture. They were drawn to the neighborhood due to its mutually supportive combination of working class families and artistic community. Additionally, Pilsen’s rich history over the past century—including, Cortez cites, artistic subcultures from the Bohemians to the Mexican muralists—made the location a unique setting for the sort of organization into which he and his colleagues hoped Polvo would develop.

Cortez describes the second show in Polvo’s current venue as a turning point in media coverage for the space. “We were the first space/gallery in Chicago to organize an anti-war show against the Iraq War,” he states. “Our show opened the week that the US started bombing.” The critical attention and dialogue earned by the exhibition set the course for Polvo’s agenda in the years since; the collective has exhibited thematic group shows by artists who deal with such politically charged issues as gentrification, the environment, and surveillance.

Despite the increasing attention Polvo has received in past years, Cortez, Macarena-Avila, and Rodriguez-Ochoa still aim to exhibit work by emerging artists, to serve as a springboard for the career of such local and international figures. The work of such practitioners is complemented by work by more established artists from such locales as South Africa, Australia, and Mexico. They are likely attracted to Polvo due to the space’s focus on diversity. “I don't mean ethnicity but also types of media and art making,” explains Cortez. “We needed a space where artists could be free to not just hang 2-D work on the walls.” Artists exhibiting at the gallery have shown work of a variety of media including new media and installation art, among others.

On November 16, an exhibition entitled “Goin’ Mobile,” curated by Kimberly Aubuchon and dealing with the theme of travel will open and run through December 15. The show will be the last in Polvo’s physical space, which will close at the end of 2007 and, instead, exist primarily as a webspace and curatorial endeavor. (Britany Salsbury of www.culturalchicago.com)

polvo is showing in a christian college?

2007-10-20T09:24:00.000-05:00

"Polvo: since 1996"

Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa
Miguel Cortez
Jesus Macarena-Avila

Opening Nov. 15, 2007 @ 7pm

Trinity Christian College
6601 W. College Drive
Palos Heights, Illinois 60463
1.866.TRIN.4.ME
The Art Gallery is located in the Jennie Huizenga Memorial Library.

Trinity Christian College is a four-year liberal arts college located in Palos Heights, Illinois, a suburb 20 miles southwest of Chicago. Since its founding in 1959, Trinity has provided students with an excellent Christian higher education in the Reformed tradition, offering majors in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, as well as pre-professional programs.

Goin' Mobile

2007-10-17T19:35:00.000-05:00

Goin’ Mobile

Out in the woods or in the city
It's all the same to me when I'm driving free
The world's my home
When I'm mobile
Going Mobile, The Who

Inspired by The Who song of the same name Goin’ Mobile is an on-the-road inspired traveling exhibition that investigates the literal sense of travel—point A to B, beginning to end, start to finish, back and forth, one way and dead ends—Goin’ Mobile ventures in every direction to guide the viewer on a trip to those familiar and unknown places along our traveled and explored routes.

Featured Artists:
Adam Blumberg (New York, NY)
Min-Tse Chen (Beijing, China)
Mark Hogensen (San Antonio, TX)
Michele Monseau (San Antonio, TX)
Tao Rey (Miami, FL)
Mark Schatz (Houston, TX)
Ethel Shipton (San Antonio, TX)

Curator:
Kimberly Aubuchon, Founder and Director, Unit B (Gallery), (San Antonio, TX)

Adam Blumberg’s photographic works explore travel by way of bicycle. Traveling back roads, Blumberg doesn’t take for granted the road less traveled. Min-Tse Chen’s drawings wander down roads and pathways that suggest no end but only a contemplation of what is. Mark Hogensen’s vibrant paintings are abstract views of rural roads and highways as architecture. Michele Monseau’s video walks you along a residential street passing by the passers by. Tao Rey’s street signs provide friendly reminders on the crowded highway known as life. Mark Schatz gives miniature sculptural examples of various routes via arranged childhood travels. Investigating the history of highway systems, Ethel Shipton’s wall sculptures entertain how these systems serve our needs and how motion dictates the shape of our landscapes.
Paying special attention to the driver’s seat view of landscapes in our daily and worldly travels, Goin’ Moblie is a memoir to places we expect to know.

Also this month's Mini-Exhibit: Amy Mall

Opening Friday November 16, 2007 from 6pm-9pm
November 16 – December 15, 2007

Polvo, www.polvo.org
1458 W. 18th St., 1R Chicago, IL 60608
773.344.1940
info(at)polvo.org

feature in centerstagechicago.com

2007-10-15T19:31:00.000-05:00

Living the Art Life, Literally
Five gallerists tell all about living and working in one small space.
Friday Oct 12, 2007
By Alicia Eler

The adage says you shouldn't combine work with pleasure, but sometimes it's best to buck the establishment and do your own thing; in this case, we're talking about opening an art gallery in the space where you live. Despite saving big bucks, this venture is risky business, sometimes making it impossible to find privacy or peace of mind. We tracked down five gallerists who "live their art" on a daily basis to find out if they'd do it all over again.

Britton Bertran of Gallery 40000
The gallery-filled building at 119 North Peoria Street in the West Loop usually empties out around 6 p.m., but one guy hangs around. No, he didn't get locked in; he lives there. Behind Britton Bertran's cube-like gallery space, filled with cutting-edge work by local and national artists, sits a bedroom littered with contemporary art. "It's a necessary thing if I'm going to give this gallery thing a go," says Bertran. Problems arise mostly during openings, when people want to use his bathroom, but he says the positives, like the fact that his room can serve as a VIP place for artists to relax during stressful showings, trump the negatives. His five-year plan is to eventually move into a separate space, but for now he goes with the flow, trying not to work on Sundays and Mondays. "I literally cover my eyes when I walk through the gallery," he says about his days off.

Dubhe Carreno of Dubhe Carreno Gallery
When Dubhe Carreno came to Chicago in 1999 to complete an MFA in ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she never envisioned opening her own space dedicated exclusively to that art form. But after she found a great live-in/work space in Pilsen, everything just clicked. Large white platforms display hand-crafted ceramic vases, and Carreno greets patrons from behind a front desk. She says that the positives of her living situation heavily outweigh the negatives. "With sculpture, [most] people [don't really know] how to live with it," she says. "They have [this] assumption that you need a pedestal or something to elevate it. It really helps when they see my home space [in the back], which is full of sculptures."

Lisa Flores of All Rise Gallery

It's not easy transforming a once-adolescent art co-op, aptly named High School, into the mature All Rise Gallery, especially when the entire loft building used to be hipster party central. Owner Lisa Flores admits the past two years have been hard. But visitors who climb three flights of rickety stairs to her Wicker Park space (that's easily twice the size of most galleries) could never tell she did a massive overhaul. Today, All Rise is finally gaining notoriety, thanks in part to Flores being uniquely connected to artists all over North America. Living at your workspace isn't easy, though. "It's hard being tied down to the space everyday…and it feels like I'm always working," she says. But on the up side: "It's great because there's always so much to do. And if I need to hang a show all night long, I can work until 3 a.m. without interruption."

Marco Logsdon of Logsdon 1909 Gallery & Studio
Marco Logsdon moved to Chicago from Kentucky a few years ago and opened a gallery and studio space for his own work. But in September 2006, after a few successful shows, he decided to start showing other artists' pieces, too; he now rotates exhibits (mostly mixed-media, drawings and paintings) in the front and shows his work in the back. In line with the nature of most Pilsen galleries, Logsdon's space is only open on Saturdays and the second Friday of every month. With slim to none walk-in traffic, he's able to have some privacy though, "[I've always] got to be ready for people, so I can't be a slob," he says. Though keeping tidy isn't very fun, drawing a curtain at the halfway point of the gallery ensures his privacy.

Miguel Cortez of Polvo

For the past four years, Miguel Cortez has displayed challenging installation, new media and performance art in his gallery/home space, with white walls, wooden floors, TVs showing experimental video work and a kitchen right in the open. "The only downside is my loss of privacy; it's a minor inconvenience," says Cortez. But since living and working in the same space means only paying one rent, Cortez says it's "easier and cheaper to keep things going." It's been a while since he took a vacation, so after hosting a few more shows in 2007, he's going to take a well-deserved six-month break. Although Cortez juggles running Polvo on the weekends and working as a graphic designer during the week, he's received a tremendous amount of acclaim that many full-time gallerists could never live up to.

photos from oct 12 opening

2007-10-15T19:20:00.001-05:00

Harold Mendez

2007-10-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

No better, no worse, no change
Harold Mendez

Also this month:
Mini-exhibit: Brandon Alvendia and Derek Chan

Opening Friday October 12 from 6pm-10pm
October 12 - November 10, 2007

Taking the notion that silence is an expression of something, Harold Mendez presents No better, no worse, no change, his second solo show at Polvo. Mendez´ large drawings and sculptures depicting barren landscapes, conflicted sites and borders circumscribe space into place by searching politically charged sites with significant histories as they address conventions of place and humanity where something has seemed to occur.

Sifting through the everyday, politics, literature and criticism, Mendez forges iconic forms and spaces into a socially familiar here and now. With references to past events, using memory and photography’s ability to index history, he employs stark and haunting compositions; open to interpretation, delicately juxtaposing disparate media including black silicon carbide, marking chalk, popcorn, natural dyes, reflective beads and other transient materials.

A serenely muted river, central to the exhibition, offers little or no recognizable evidence of either historical incidents or recent conflict. Hinting towards the sublime, Mendez´ fossilized sculpture Winter in America leads us to bring our collective knowledge and experiences between place and loaded landscape with human experience to find emptiness of an exposed history. A drawing of an eroded interior with a window reflects the sentiment that something has occurred, and nothing has occurred, nothing at all.

Gloom and beauty make recognition difficult.

Harold Mendez received his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007. He recently exhibited with Western Exhibitions in a two-person show and will be participating in Consuming War, an upcoming group exhibition at the Hyde Park Art Center in November. He's been included in group shows at the Commerce Street Warehouse in Houston, vuspace in Australia, the University of North Umbria in the United Kingdom and the University of Science & Technology in Ghana, West Africa.

Brandon Alvendia and Derek Chan’s first collaborative project will consist of a sculptural installation investigating the sites of contestation inherent in spaces of heterogeneous populations. Questioning the promises offered by the developing built environment, Chan and Alvendia locate a moment in the cycle of renewal, stasis, and decay.

Brandon Alvendia completed his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007. Since 2004, under the guise of artLedge, Alvendia along with co-curator Caleb Lyons has facilitated the work of upwards of 150 emerging and established Chicago artists, in venues both nationally and abroad. He is currently planning an independent curatorial venture entitled Peso Neto that will be exhibited overseas at Quartair Contemporary Art Initiative, The Hague. He was recently appointed to sit on the advisory board of the Chicago public art initiative Hammer and Chisel. Alvendia’s own practice is concerned with the relationship of the individual to material and societal architectures.

Derek Chan recently received his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007. Challenging the conventions of representation and abstraction Chan's paintings investigate the constructs of place as tied to the self. He has been included in group exhibitions in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Polvo, www.polvo.org
1458 W. 18th St., 1R (entrance on Laflin St.)
Chicago, IL 60608
773.344.1940

installation

2007-09-26T16:52:00.000-05:00

invasion of the after pods
installation of cardboard file folders with text
Polvo Collective 2007

The flimsy boxes represent the new ugly buildings that are being built allover the city including Pilsen. They are cheaply done, using materials that will not last long. These units are then sold to the publlic at outrageous prices. Profit and capitalism is what drives initial gentrifiers like the pods and other realtors.

installation for the Podmajersky Show

THE PODMAJERSKY SHOW

2007-09-24T18:01:00.000-05:00

Polvo is participating in this art exhibit!

THE PODMAJERSKY SHOW
Opening Friday, September 28th
5pm - 9pm

(Special presentation and discussion at 7pm)

In an unofficial collaboration with the 'Pisen East Artists Open House', the Plaines Project proudly presents the first annual "Podmajersky Show". For several decades the Podmajersky family (East Pilsens most powerful landlords and coordinators of the open house event) have largely been responsible for the social and economic changes that have occured in East Pilsen. Though there are many who praise the Podmajersky family for cultivating a community that is centered around the arts, the Podmajerskies have also been widely criticized for displacing the predominantly working class residents of the neighborhood by capitalizing off of real estate that is marketed exclusively to middle class artists. Currently operating under the slogan of "building Soho in Chicago", the Podmajerskies as a social force provoke many questions of the use (or abuse) of artists as catalysts of for such forms of urban development.

In this exhibition, The Plaines Project seeks to use the Podmajerskies as a point of departure for a broader investigation of gentrification as a phenomenon that is conditioned by global capitalism, and to pose challenging questions regarding what role artists, as a social category, tend to play in this process.

This exhibition includes solo and collaborative installations by Amanda Gutierrez, Andreas Warisz, Polvo Collective, and Soni-Gram, as well as a presentation from guest lecturer Laura Schmidt.

The Plaines Project
1822 S. Des Plaines.
Chicago, IL

Urban Recline: new work

2007-08-27T19:09:00.001-05:00

Urban Recline:
new work by

Adriana Baltazar
Miguel Cortez

Opening Friday September 7 from 6pm-10pm
September 7 - October 6, 2007

Polvo begins the fall schedule by showcasing 2 local artists, Adriana Baltazar and Miguel Cortez. Even though their styles are different they find common ground in the influence of the urban environment, its surroundings and how this affects them.

Adriana Baltazar
A sincere goal of mine as an artist is to celebrate and document my time and surroundings in an effort to record history in the making. The late 18th c. French writer Sebastian Mercier recorded life in the streets of Paris in his day to day existence and has given the world a priceless view of a time and place we did not have to live in to know. He captured the type of things that slip out of the pages of history books. With our faces and digits fumbling over one of the plethora of gadgets available to us, I fear we put ourselves at risk as always to lose track of some irreplaceable gems. I feel compelled to record those things which we will undoubtedly miss only after they are finally gone. - Adriana Baltazar

Born in southwest Chicago, Adriana Baltazar has grown up to be a near hermit. By night, she is drawing away and by day working in an office to pay off art school debt. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. As a child she searched for stray pets to nurture and now it appears she is the stray. Find her wandering streets and woods seeking sublime inspiration and escape in vacant lots or other plots of dirt overridden with trees and foliage.

Miguel Cortez
Several years ago I did a series of paintings that dealt with imaginary aerial landscapes. With this new series of work I go to the opposite end and imagine microscopic environments plus imaginary abstract forms and shapes. For inspiration I looked at decaying textures that I came across such as found rusted and cracked objects, paint peeling off walls and buildings, oils stains on the pavement and other examples of urban/nature decay. - Miguel Cortez, August 2007

Miguel Cortez is an artist living in Chicago and born in Guanajuato, Mexico. He has studied at Columbia College and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Miguel also has exhibited his work for more than a decade in Chicago and elsewhere. Recent exhibitions include a show in Dallas at Mighty Fine Arts Gallery, also in Austin at Studio 107 Gallery, Pool Art Fair in Miami, Milwaukee International Art Fair, "Lo Romantico" at Glass Curtain Gallery and "Lies that Bill Gates told me: Exploring the Digital Divide" at VU Space in Melbourne, Australia. Miguel is also one of the founders of Polvo.

Polvo, www.polvo.org
1458 W. 18th St., 1R Chicago, IL 60608
773.344.1940
info(at)polvo.org

ArtLies review of Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud

2007-08-21T18:52:00.000-05:00

Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud showed a video earlier this year @ Polvo and ArtLies Magazine from Texas reviewed it in one of their past issues. I found the review online and pasted it below as well as a link to her video on google.

/MC
--------------------------

Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud: Goofer Dust @ Polvo
- by Leah DeVun from ArtLies

Goofer Dust, an installation/performance by Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud at Diaspora Vibe Gallery in Miami in 2006, is now on display as a documentary video at Polvo in Chicago. For the original performance in Miami, Mccloud constructed a square box of earth in the center of the gallery. Computer projections, video and a troop of live roosters intersected the performance space; Mccloud also invited audience members to join her in a session of collective dreaming.

Participants lay face down on the floor, their bodies oriented toward the earthen box. According to Mccloud’s statement, she intended to evoke the spiritual—even supernatural potential of collective dreaming through which dreamers can predict the future, heal their bodies and escape the mundane nature of reality. The title of the work, as well as Mccloud’s emphasis on collectivity and dreaming, are a nod to the aesthetics and sensibilities of Voudou, a diasporic religion practiced predominantly in Haiti. Goofer dust is an ingredient in certain spells.

The staging of Mccloud’s installation brings to mind the visual structure of Voudou ceremonies, which organize adherents around a similar spatial focus—the poteau mitan or traditional peristyle—and a shared altered consciousness. The chickens that moved through the gallery represent the sacrificial food of the lwas, divinities in Voudou. They transmit the dream experience from one participant to another. The ritual composition and intensely theatrical nature of Voudou ceremonies lend themselves readily to performative adaptation, and Mccloud’s effort and ability to capitalize on such imagery and its meanings is impressive.

As a stand-alone video, however, Goofer Dust does not hold up quite so well. The camera offers a restricted and unsteady view of the space, making it difficult to see the projections that accompanied the performance. The piece is strictly a document rather than an interpretation of the event; as such, it takes little advantage of video as a medium. Even so, Goofer Dust manages to convey what a treat the original performance must have been. It also provides some insight into themes Mccloud has been exploring for several years now—a logical extension of earlier projects, which also draw connections between the human body, the natural and the supernatural.

Mccloud often borrows from Voudou, particularly through her use of vévés, traditional symbols of the lwas, which the artist removes from their ritual contexts. In Damballah Study, for example, she writes the snaky lines of a vévé onto a grassy field; in both Delete/Borrar/Efase and Crossroads, she constructs installations using vévés for specific lwas. In this respect, Mccloud follows a number of artists who have incorporated the ritual imagery of Voudou, Santería, Palo Mayombe and other diasporic religions into their artistic practice. Her performances and installations also resemble those of Juan Boza and Angel Suarez-Rosado, whose recreations of Santería altars similarly blur distinctions between ritual and artistic space, arguing for a suffusion of the spiritual into all aspects of life. Other recent works highlight the body as a potential site of physical and metaphysical movement.

In Walking, Mccloud’s body slowly vanishes into the spare landscape of a beach, suggesting the passage from one world to another. Emphasis on the transformative potential of the body brings to mind the photographs of Marta María Pérez, which unite Pérez’s naked body with orishas and firmas—Santería versions of lwas and vévés. Mccloud is also indebted to Ana Mendieta’s well-known work, which combines earthen mounds, Santería-inspired markings and the artist’s body to powerful effect. Mccloud’s methodology, however, suffers in one important respect: the symbols she borrows are not always sufficiently transfigured. One wishes that she would keep pushing form as much as gesture as she does successfully in Sky Crosses, which reinvents the Voudou crossroads by means of string stretched through treetops. But Mccloud seems well aware that merely tracing out vévés is no longer enough: her recent work represents a welcome effort to inject physicality and personality into projects that still convey spirituality and transcendence. In this regard, Goofer Dust documents a wonderful progression in an ongoing body of work.

from Flavorpill

2007-08-21T17:14:00.000-05:00

ECHELON is thought to be a worldwide government-run intelligence network — the big Big Brother. This group exhibition, on the other hand, is concerned with the unscrupulous, grainy, and creepy kind of digital spying available to governments and artists alike. Some use video directly, as in Patrick Lichty's "wristcam" prints of security sites at LaGuardia airport, as well as Gretel Garcia's brilliant, sculptural wall installation of small dome cameras arranged to spell "hope" in Braille. Others evoke the malevolent implications of a Patriot Act-era regime, including Annette Barbier and Drew Browning's floor-projected examination of library searches, and T.W. Li's documentary about an innocent man wrongly suspected of involvement in the 2005 London terrorist attacks. (AM)

http://chi.flavorpill.net

Echelon in Chicago Reader

2007-08-16T19:25:00.000-05:00

Critic's Choice: Echelon: Who Is Watching You?
from the Chicago Reader

This show about surveillance opened the day before the U.S. House of Representatives approved expanded information-gathering powers for the executive branch. Among the sculptures, photos, drawings, and other works on exhibit is a beautiful, disturbing rug conceived by local artist Noelle Mason and woven by Mexican artists Jose Antonio Flores and Jonathan Samaniego. Made of red and green wool, Ground Control takes its dynamic pattern from a map of the U.S./Mexican border generated by Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer technology. The red denotes the patchwork of cultivated agricultural areas, most clustered in this country, while the green, mostly on the other side of the border, indicates arid, undeveloped land. Though the rug is lush, it depicts the site of much conflict and suffering based on economic inequality (Mason paid the two weavers the amount of money it would take for a Mexican family of four to cross the border illegally). This challenging work questions the boundaries between the aesthetic and the utilitarian, the decorative and the subversive. Another standout is a witty, engaging installation by Annette Barbier and Drew Browning in which the viewer is tracked by a motion-sensing camera while reading the titles of “suspicious” books projected on the floor. Among the other artists in the show are Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa, Patrick Lichty, Gretel Garcia, and Finishing School. Through 9/1: Sat noon-5 PM or by appointment, Polvo, 1458 W. 18th, 773-344-1940. —Janina Ciezadlo

‘The Whole World is Being Watched’

2007-08-16T19:06:00.000-05:00

Exhibit expands on the art of surveillance, how it affects today’s world

by Jessica Del Curto
Extra News
Posted on 08-16-2007

When a number of crime cameras began popping up around Pilsen, Miguel Cortez, director of Polvo Art Gallery, found his idea for his latest exhibit.

“I thought I would reach out to other artists and have them react to what is going on,” he said.

The latest exhibit, “Echelon: Who is Watching You,” consists of various art pieces that relate to surveillance, both on a local and international level.

He said all of the artists portrayed surveillance as a negative thing in society.

One piece, created by Drew Browning and Annette Barbier, shows a list of library books projected onto the floor of the studio. These books have been flagged by the government at the Harold Washington Library. As the viewer walks past the artwork, an infrared camera picks up his or her image, placing it behind the text, and tracks whether he or she goes left or right.

Artist Noelle Mason paid Mexican artisans José Antonio Flores and Jonathan Samaniego to create a 6-by-8-foot rug that is a map of the California-Mexico border. Mason paid the artists what it would cost to bring a family across the border. The point, Cortez said, is to show that satellite tracking is also in existence. “You can access any point on Google Earth and access any building. The whole world is under surveillance,” he said.

Cortez said audience members can take with them what they like from the exhibit.

He hopes people at least gain some awareness of the fact that they are being watched everywhere they go. “They can analyze the good and bad of that,” he said. “It may solve crime in some cases, but you also lose your privacy.”

As far as Cortez is concerned, George Orwell got it right in his book 1984. “He predicted it too soon. Now it’s actually happening,” he said.

photos from tonight's Echelon opening

2007-08-04T00:10:00.001-05:00

"echelon" installation

2007-08-02T13:39:00.000-05:00

Drew and Annette installing their computer/video interactive installation

Dustin Klare came into town from New York to install his piece.

Time Travelers on Rhizome.org

2007-07-09T20:31:00.000-05:00

From Rhizome.org

Time For Some Art Speak
July 6, 2007

Time-based art has a long history and its pulse continues to tick, as they say. As diverse as time-based media may now be, it tends to lack much mystery (afterall, time--like space--is something we humans have studied... forever), except in the occasional narrative reliance on 'mystery' as a structuring element, and as such the medium is ripe for problematizing. This is precisely the accomplishment of Time Travelers, an exhibition and major spectacle of a panel discussion curated by Amelia Winger-Bearskin at Polvo, a Chicago-based alternative space founded by the Polvo artist collective. Winger-Bearskin's curatorial statement stakes out the show's territory, in declaring, 'Time Travelers recognizes that NEW MEDIA has incorrectly been identified as the repository for all art technologies utilizing a video camera, a computer, and an electrical outlet, but insists that as artists, first and foremost, we can use any f*&%@!’n media we want!' Included in the exhibition are emerging artists Artur Augustynowicz, Christopher Borkowski, Dietmar Krumery, Donata Napoli, and others, including the curiously-named artist(s) Haircuts by Robots and Universe of Junk. Last week, the space hosted a discussion on the present themes, which paradoxically predetermined, 'Each time a loaded art word is used, two or more universes will be created in which differing ideas become the dominate paradigm.' [Sic.] The self-described 'ridiculous blend of word-salad artspeak' no doubt dribbles over into the Free Manifestos advertised on Polvo's website. Look into the exhibition any time between now and July 28. - James Petrie

http://www.polvo.org/july07.htm

photos from today's panel discussion

2007-06-30T18:56:00.000-05:00

echelon: who is watching you?

2007-06-30T07:13:00.000-05:00

echelon: who is watching you?

Opening Friday August 3 from 6pm-10pm
August 3 - September 1, 2007

"One cannot use spies without sagacity and knowledge, one cannot use spies without humanity and justice" - Sun Tzu

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face… was itself a punishable offense."
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5

US surveillance began centuries ago with the concept of slave passes, which allowed slave-owners to monitor and control the mobility of their "chattel." Yet the slave pass system was sometimes subverted by the rare slaves who could write, such as Frederick Douglass. These literate slaves could create their own passes and might thus gain freedom for themselves and other slaves. Trafficking in passes and "free papers" soon became a burgeoning business, one that the slave system grappled with for nearly two centuries.

From slaves, the history of surveillance next turns to the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which restricted Chinese immigration to the United States. All Chinese laborers were forced to register with the government and subject themselves to being photographed and fingerprinted. A whole apparatus of surveillance was created.

In the 1920s, government surveillance spread to political radicals, especially workers trying to organize union activity. J. Edgar Hoover headed this government surveillance unit which would later become the FBI. As the 20th century advanced, computer technology proved a powerful enhancement to the regime of surveillance. This allowed most devices and databases to be monitored and evaluated, including automobiles, Your car can be tracked by GPS, and your spending habits can be gleaned from accessing your credit card records. Internet and email are monitored in the workplace and cameras are just about everywhere.

For this show artists will explore the history of surveillance and how this affects us at this present time. They will in turn create work dealing with this theme which will include 2D work, installation, and new media.

ARTISTS PARTICIPATING:
Anni Holm
Drew Browning and Annette Barbier
Dustin Klare
Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa
Finishing School
Gretel Garcia
Ian Simmons
Jesus Macarena-Avila
Noelle Mason
Patricht Lichty
Tom Sibley
T.W. Li
Venia Bechrakis

Polvo, www.polvo.org
1458 W. 18th St., 1R Chicago, IL 60608
773.344.1940
info@polvo.org

photos from tonight's opening

2007-06-29T23:09:00.000-05:00

Mandorla Magazine

2007-06-28T20:39:00.001-05:00

Mandorla magazine graciously offered an ad spot for Polvo on their next issue. Below is info about the mag and the ad I designed.

First published in Mexico City in 1991, Mandorla emphasizes innovative writing in its original language--most commonly English or Spanish--and high-quality translations of existing material. Visual art and short critical articles complement this work.

The name of the magazine--mandorla, describing a space created by two intersecting circles--alludes to the notion of exchange and imaginative dialogue that is necessary now among the Americas.

Mandorla is a member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.

-__-__-polvo_-_--__-