FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13

1. This Quiet Dust Trunk Show

2039 W. Wabansia St. Chicago, IL 60647

A Trunk Show featuring the ceramic work of Dubhe Carreno. Dubhe Carreño’s tableware is designed and handcrafted to create perfectly simple forms inspired by a minimalist aesthetic and by the colors and textures inherent in nature. Forms are intentionally irregular highlighting the presence of the artist’s hand, which honors clay’s voice as an active participant and collaborator in the process of creating each individual form.

Parking lot available for event as well as street parking.  Wine and refreshments will be served.

2. “Shuttered” – New Drawings by Jennifer Cronin

Elephant Room, Inc.
704 S Wabash Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60605

The House: image of the home, family, and community. It exists as the most personal space of our lives, and yet in its nature as a piece of property it is also a political subject. In a new series of drawings Jennifer Cronin engages these subjects with carefully wrought portraits of foreclosed houses located on Chicago’s far south side. Their cold density clashes with the idea of a home which we wish the houses to fulfill. Emotive in their stillness, the houses call us to see the conspicuous absences; the pieces missing in communities, families, and in ourselves. The echoes of lives not led but taken away.

“Landscapes can tell a story about the larger world they inhabit. These houses were once cherished beauties, filled with life and warmth. A beacon of the American Dream. And now, these drawings show the houses as they are, as shadows of their former selves. Still standing, as symbols of what they they once were, and the people they once held. They are relics of a culture of inequality, in which the most privileged are enabled and encouraged to live in excess, while the most vulnerable are forced into increasingly desperate situations.” – Jennifer Cronin

The show will be up at Elephant Room Gallery located at 704 S. Wabash Ave. in the South Loop from November 13th to January 2nd. An opening reception will be held on Friday, November 13th from 6:30 to 9:00pm. The gallery is open Saturdays 11am-5pm or by appointment. More information can be found on the gallery’s website: www.elephantroomgallery.com

3. The Art of Seduction. Sanna Ahtan Solo Exhibition Opening

NYCH Gallery
643 W 18th St, Chicago, Illinois 60608

NYCH Art Gallery is pleased to present “The Art of Seduction”, an exhibition of paintings by Sanna Ahtan, marking the artist’s first solo exhibition.

“The Art of Seduction”
The basis of “Art of Seduction” is to hone in on the basic instincts that lie dormant in us all. To focus and follow up on the progression of ones raw sense of self, while working towards a more intimate relation with our surroundings. To expose and face the fears left by the insecurities we have formed, as well as those planted by others.
By presenting these rationales, I wanted the stages of attraction to be shown, and displayed in a telling form, as opposed to the natural state that would be most recognizable.
“Art of Seduction” finds woman meshing with herself, while accepting attraction in each stage of her growth. We all have a hand in seduction, but I want to show the heart, the reflection, and the staged effects of such a cherished process.
Each stroke, shade, blemish, and imperfection is rightfully shown as to represent each portrayal and characteristic earned.
To indicate time.
To reflect memories.
To stamp Love.

4. “A Journey Inside”

Bridgeport Art Center
1200 W 35th St, Chicago, Illinois 60609

A Journey Inside, is a social documentation project on Iran, carried out through the sensitive lens of young Iranian photographers who sought to narrate parts of current challenges of Iran’s complex and dynamic society. Such work of documentation represents an active field looking, an inquiry with a humane agenda. In their unique investigation of Iran’s social issues, the young photographers have adopted a compassionate look. They have avoided the cliché exotic and contemptuous depiction of the society as a suppressed and perplexed community. Instead, they have attempted to reveal the real dynamics of their society: While truthfully mirroring their society’s ills, they have sought to reflect the dynamics of resistance, the way people wrestle and cope with those problems, and how life’s strong imperative colors even the toughest of their experiences. These photographs and videos pursue community-engagement inside the country to mobilize the social and human capitals inside Iran to help remedy the society’s ills, while outside the country they pursue the diminution of prejudice look against Iranians.

“A Journey Inside” was carried out over fourteen months of training and work, under supervision of Panos Pictures. The photographers: four men and four women, were chosen from different parts of the country. They are emerging talents and after completion of this period of work, they will be teachers and advocates of this look inside their own community. In addition, they will be competent to pursue their carrier and expand their network in the international field of photo and video documentation.
The project team is comprised of Hossein Fatemi, Maryam Athari Ali KavehAtia Shafee and Alireza Ghoreishi; And the photographers: Bahar Aslani, Negin Kiani, Zahra Ostadzadeh, Mahya Rastegar Hamid Akhlaghi Hossein Heidarpour, Ali Tajik, Saeed Zaidi.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14

5. Susan Kraut & Paris, He Said Gallery Talk at Addington Gallery

Addington Gallery, 704 N Wells St, Chicago, IL

Painter and longtime School of the Art Institute of Chicago painting department professor Susan Kraut will display new paintings and join novelist Christine Sneed in a conversation about the overlap between visual art and creative writing. Susan is also a character in Christine’s novel, Paris, He Said (published in May 2015 by Bloomsbury Publishing USA), where she is cast as herself, as a mentor to the main character, a painter named Jayne Marks.

6. ART EXHIBIT: 44 MEMORIES by Sergio Gomez

White Ripple Gallery & Co.
6725 Kennedy Ave, Hammond, Indiana 46323

Join us for the opening reception of 44 Memories by world-class artist, Sergio Gomez. Reception is free and open to the public.

Sated with figurative images, Sergio Gomez’s paintings are imbued with meditations on the multifaceted experiences of human condition and spirituality throughout the cycles of life. The artist unabashedly delves into the essence of humanity and the human condition, daring to use himself as the subject in many of his paintings. The black and white shadowy figures are representative of the flesh and the spirit, with the black images being of this earth whilst the white figures appear to represent transcendence into the higher self, the soul or the spirit. Much of Sergio’s work deals with the subject of man’s search for inner peace and a higher form of consciousness in the face of strife and difficulties associated with the human condition.

Many of Sergio’s figurative paintings begin as drawings of himself with reflective writings scripted directly onto the canvas. These painting are as much about the process as they are about the subject in that they are the result of a meditative exercise. To these drawings, he then intuitively applies layers of color in thin washes that run and drip down the canvas masking the identity of the figure. Deliberate and meandering lines that sometime run off the edges indicate both the visible and invisible boundaries in the physical world. The obscured figure represents all mankind, thereby allowing Sergio’s artistic expression to resonates with our own search for identity, truth, and higher self. –Ruth Crnkovich

7. Awards & Reception: 39th Beverly Arts Center Competition

Beverly Arts Center
2407 W 111th St, Chicago, Illinois 60655

Exhibit features various artists who live in or within 100 miles of the City of Chicago. Over $5,000 in cash awards are given to the winners of various categories at the Opening Reception. Competition Jurors: Michael Kaysen and Karolina Gnatowski

History: In 1976, real estate developer Arthur Rubloff, one of the original supporters of the BAC, decided to honor his good friends, Alice and Arthur Baer, by establishing an art competition in their name. Today, funding for this important juried competition continues thanks to the generosity and community spirit of our sponsor Beverly Bank and Trust.