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Category: art
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THE EXQUISITE BOOK Authors and Contributors at Quimby's on 11/5!
EXQUISITE CORPSE [also known as exquisite cadaver or rotating corpse] is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds a composition in sequence…
THE EXQUISITE BOOK
100 Artists Play a Collaborative Game
By Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, and Matt Lamothe
THE EXQUISITE BOOK reinvents the classic surrealist drawing game The Exquisite Corpse for a new artistic generation. In these pages, one-hundred of today’s hottest indie artists each adorn a single page with brand new work, having only seen the page of the artist immediately prior. Each of the book’s ten chapters resides on a ten-page according fold-out that lets you enjoy the artwork in an interconnected stream, as it was originally created by the artists themselves. It includes work from contemporary illustrators, indie artists, and cutting-edge creates such as David Shrigley, Jill Bliss, Jordan Crane and more.
About the Authors: Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, and Matt Lamothe are partners in Also Design, a design firm based out of Chicago and New York that has won several awards, including the ADC Young Guns award. Julia is author of the popular blog BookByItsCover.com, which showcases the design and layout of obscure books.
So far the artists who will be in attendance at this event will be the authors, Anders Nilsen, Lillie Carre, Paul Hornschemeier, Isaac Tobin, Lauren Nassef and Susie Ghahremani.
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Pawn Works Sticker Machine Debuts at Quimby's!
Nicholas Marzullo, owner of the West Side’s Pawn Works gallery and creator of the Pawn Works Sticker Club with New York based partner Seth Mooney, have developed an artist network program using sticker vending machines as the conduit. “We align the images we select with our own history as lifelong street- and graffiti-art aficionados,” he says. ” We believe the sticker is true to the accessibility and visceral nature of street/low-brow art. While it appeals to an age submerged in kitsch, the medium and the vending machines offer ways to deconstruct our childhoods and make the art of established artists from around the world accessible in a cool, cheap way.”
Just a few of the artists participating include: C215, a prolific Paris-based stencil artist and muralist whose splashes of color and meticulous representation of social outcasts, British luminary Eelus, whose dark sense of humor and surreal images bear an uncanny resemblance to those of Banksy, Chicago’s Joe Padilla, as well as The Grocer, who is an an enigmatic street artist with his bold images of, appropriately enough, produce, help make the city Chicago an even bigger component to the project.
Machines can also be found in various venues in New York City such as Brooklynite Gallery.
For more info: www.pawnworkschicago.com
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Love In the Photobooth
These nice photographers from Colombia, Juan Felipe and Valeria got arty with our photobooth, and we just couldn’t resist posting their pictures on our blog!
And then these nice folks came in to take pictures for their wedding invites but the machine ate ’em up and never spit ’em out! But here they are. And now we can’t find their contact info! So, nice people, here are your photos! Do you know these people? Pass on the info that their pics are here!
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Artist Sonja Ahlers Presents The Selves, with Anne Elizabeth Moore
Sonja Ahlers has been described as a pioneer of a new genre of print material fusing collage, found images, original drawings, poetry and prose and her work has been included in university teachings. Ahlers was influenced by the early 90s autobiographical comics and zines, the do-it-yourself movement, music of the Pacific Northwest and fine art.The Selves (Drawn & Quarterly), her third book, is a 96-page color feminist scrapbook and collective biography, that which Kathleen Hanna said was “seductive, familiar and very funny.” It tells the story of different selves in a lifetime starting from baby to lady. The ‘character’ grows up throughout the pages. The cast includes: Hollie Hobbie, Drew Barrymore, the Olsen twins, Camille Claudel, Alice Munro, Degrassi kids, Angelina Jolie, and Stevie Nicks and Judy Chicago. These selves appear by way of collage, illustration and poetry.
Sonja Ahlers’ very first book was Temper, Temper (Insomniac Press, 1998) which now sells for $200 online and Fatal Distraction (Insomniac Press, 2004). Born and bred in Victoria, BC, she has been making angora bunnies since 1995. This craft item supports her bookmaking and art practice. She has exhibited her installation work internationally and has received numerous awards.
Appropriately, this evening filled with childhood nostalgia, pop culture and feminine power would not be complete without staunch critic of consumerism and media activist Anne Elizabeth Moore. Her Operation: Pocket Full of Wishes project was originally a series of eight cards that mimicked the shopping aides found in American Girl Place. Moore is also the author of Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity, founding editor of the Best American Comics series, and former editor of now-defunct Punk Planet. Recently, Moore went to Cambodia to teach the first generation of feminists in the country self publishing as a way of combating governmental oppression and self-censorship. She travels throughout the globe to lecture on corporate and governmental oppression and freedom of expression.
For more info: www.sonjaahlers.blogspot.com or www.sonjaahlers.com or www.anneelizabethmoore.com
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Feelin' Sappy?
Feel this space! Tree Sapp magazine is looking for work for their upcoming second issue. Check out their website and blog and submit your watery works to their “River Beds, Sweat and Sheets” -themed issue by May 10th.Tree Sap is a publication devoted to digging up, excavating and documenting the convergence of art & nature. Through artist features, collaborative projects, & personal narratives, we hope to offer commentary on the wild origin of our myths, sexuality, & inner lives.
-eds. Anika Sabin & John Wagner
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Featured Book of the Day: Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volume III
The final volume of this trilogy is the only one in print. The other volumes go for tons! If you’re not familiar with any of the books in the series, the deal is that they’re tattoos done with crude resources by Russian prisoners on each other, and they’re collected by this lifetime security guard Danzig Baldaev (his name is Danzig, heh heh hehheh). The KGB supported his collection! It was important to them to be able to establish facts about convicts by reading the images (both pictoral and text) on their bodies. You don’t need to have either of the other books in the trilogy to get into this one. Devils, penises (peni?), swords, SS cats, barbed wire, anti-party tatts — whether you’re an ink freak, photography nut, sociologist, political maverick (are any politicians really mavericks, I mean really?) or lowbrow art collector, this is the book for you. I particularly like the captions for many of the drawings that translate the meanings. Just as an example, dig the caption explaining the drawing of a rat with Russian text that translates to ‘Tightwad filcher’ for a convict sentenced for hooliganism: “He stole three packs of cigarettes and some sweets from the lockers of his fellow inmates. He was discovered and beaten up. It was decided by a group of ‘authoritative’ thieves that this tattoo should be forcibly applied as punishment.” Thazwutchoo get for stealin’ candy and smokes! These books have even influenced a movement in these parts where the youngins have actually started replicating these drawings on themselves by professional tattoo artists — would they get their asses kicked in a Russian jail?
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Today's Featured Book: L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, Illustrated by Graham Rawle
This is no ordinary reprint. This version of The Wizard of Oz is an artbook illustrated by Graham Rawle, author of Woman’s World (a novel created entirely from fragments of found text from 60s womens mags, now being made into a movie). The text is the same — hence it being almost 300 pages long! There’s illustrations on almost every page, and they’re crazy. Collage-y type of stuff with dolls and toys and beads and doll slippers and bottles and things cut out from other things — like he cut up magazines and newspapers and then went crazy at American Science and Surplus. Kids would love this but adults may love it more. Even some of the font is spicy with cursive and italics and who knows what else. There’s little graphic surprises on almost every page. A lot of work went into this thing!
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We have the new Mark Ryden book, Sweet Wishes!
With its vibrant and colorful pictures, Sweet Wishes tells the tale of Dolly, Baby and Bear and what happens when they are granted a wish from a magical fairy — regarding eating too many sweets. This 56 page book is hard covered and measures 11.25 x 9.5 inches. The story is based on a short film by the authors, Mark Ryden and Marion Peck. Published by Porterhouse Fine Art Editions in Pasadena, CA. Copies are limited so make sure you get yours now, ’cause like most Mark Ryden books for us, once they’re gone, they’re gone. Plus, note it’s only $20.00! It’s a pretty twisted title that could double as a lowbrow art and/or a kids book (By the way, we don’t have a lot of kids books, just ones that we think are cool, so take advantage of this while it’s here). Dolls and teddies making messes of cupcakes and themselves — hell yeah!
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New Summer Window Display
In the neighborhood? Spend some time basking the glory of our new window display by artist Zachary Huelsing (of Eyerocket Books). With a cast of characters including a nun, a rapper, a baseball catcher, a calculator, a leather daddy, some dogs in love, and a rainbow, it’s kind of like a technicolor rebus for the forces of good.
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Chicago Shine: Gregory Jacobsen
Its always nice to see some local Chicago talent getting a little shine! Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to see the work of Gregory Jacobsen featured in the new issue of Hi Fructose. It seems they chose to run some of his tamer paintings but his work still comes across! So check out the issue or grab Gregory’s show catalog/zine from us before they go for big bucks on ebay.
A fine example of his work!
