If the New Chicagoans art show is any indication, the Bridgeport area is developing a healthy fresh, and innovative art scene. The exhibit is currently in the Iron Building at 3636 S. Iron, and it will close on Sunday.
The exhibit includes more than 34 art pieces in many different mediums painting, photography, sculpture, and even performance art.
The show was curated by Ed Marszewki the editor of Lumpen Times and mastermind of the late, lamented Wicker Park performance space, Buddys.
Duk Ju Kim’s vibrant “Blockage” contains an abstract image broken up into little blocks. It effectively blurs the lines between the organic and artificial. Some of the images look like a mouth and malformed teeth while others look like tubes.
Elisa Harkins’s “Eskimo Infinity” is a charmingly kitschy piece comprised of a pink room with images of two Eskimo heads about to kiss with and without rabbit ears. Viewers can hit each other with pillows once they enter the room
Christine Tarkovsky’s striking piece is a fiber glass covered mound of litter including such stuff as cigarette boxes and beer bottle. Underneath the glossy fiberglass, Tarkovsky somehow manages to make garbage look elegant and cute.
John Salthos contributed a fine abstract painting accompanied by panels showing fighters getting hit from different angles. Together the panels have a kind of cinematic quality, and they create a montage effect even though they depict different boxers.
Most of the other pieces are also eye catching and highly creative. The exhibit is positive proof that the artistic imagination is thriving on the south side.
IF YOU GO …
WHAT: The New Chicagoans and Secret Histories.
WHERE/WHEN: weekends through Sunday, 11/13 at the Iron Studios, 3636 S. Iron
TICKETS: Free Admission
PHONE: 773-847-3249
