Exhibitions

Group Show at Gallery 2
Through November 29
This exhibition features work in installation, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, and video by SAIC students and alumni.
Gallery 2, 847 W. Jackson, 312.563.5162.

Spectacular Vernacular
Through November 21, 2003
Spectacular Vernacular, curated by Chicago-based artist Ryan Davis, reexamines the influence of subculture and its common symbology through the viewpoints of four contemporary artists. This exhibition features artworks that respond to popular culture by re-contextualizing common iconography to blur the lines and distinctions between social use and material meaning. Artists include Brian McCutcheon, Lynn Cazabon, Matt Owens, and Matthew Weddington.
Betty Rymer Gallery, 280 S. Columbus, 312.443-3703. Opening reception Friday, October 10, 5 - 7 p.m. Curator’s talk Tuesday, October 14, 4:30 p.m.

Atomic
November 14 - December 6
Unit B (Gallery) presents the U.S. debut of British artist Matthew Noel-Tod, whose video Atomic is a shot-for-shot remake of the 1980 music promo video for the pop song Atomic by Blondie. Recreated with a Debbie Harry look-a-like, the video replicates the imagined post-apocalyptic setting of the original video; the soundtrack of the original Blondie song, Atomic, is replaced with a contemporary score written for F.W. Murnau’s silent vampire film Nosferatu.
Unit B (Gallery), 1733 S. Des Plaines, 312.491.9384.

Pablo Helguera: Parallel Lives
Through December 6
For his first major solo exhibition in Chicago, New York-based artist Pablo Helguera will create an unconventional hall of fame, featuring vignettes of a selection of five semi-obscure though remarkable historical figures, whom the artist has researched for an extensive period of time.
Julia Friedman Gallery, 118 N. Peoria, 312.455.0755

Palpable Disequilibrium: Contemporary Art In Romania
November 7 - December 7
Five internationally known Romanian artists explore the political, social, economic and cultural instability plaguing Romania as it transitions into democracy in this interactive exhibit, which includes wall drawings, photographs, a short film, a multitude of objects featuring globes, wet cement on which the visitors are invited to step, an interactive website, and human size houses to be explored by visitors.
LIPA Art Gallery, 160 E. Illinois. Opening reception November 7, 6-10 p.m.

Grant Miller: New Work and John Paul Doguin: Space Available
October 24 - December 6
The Chicago debut of Miller, a recent graduate of Washington University (St Louis, MO), who uses graphite and acrylic gel medium to build paintings that draw on the vocabulary of architecture, layering other images into his rendering that resemble textbook illustrations and science fiction. John Paul Doguin is a local photographer and graduate of Columbia College Chicago whose series of palladium prints and quadtone inkjet prints take the banal suburban industrial park and transform it into a mysterious, evocative landscape.
Peter Miller Gallery, 118 N. Peoria. Opening reception Friday, Oct 24, 6-9 p.m.

At the Edge: When Darkness Falls Across the Land
October 28 - November 8
A group exhibition and forthcoming publication based on the concept of “darkness” from its literal definition — a thing or space devoid of light- to its metaphorical associations with death and evil.
Gallery 400 UIC, University of Illinois at Chicago (MC 034), 1240 W. Harrison, 312.996.6114. Opening Reception Wednesday Oct 29, 4-7pm.

Special Events

Bare Walls 2003
Saturday, November 8, 6-9 p.m.
Over 150 prominent School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni will create original works of art on 3-by-5 feet sections of canvas at this annual event. Guests will have the unique opportunity to watch these artists at work and to purchase their “new masterpieces” through a silent auction. Proceeds from this event benefit the Bare Walls Scholarship fund.
Gallery 2, 847 W. Jackson. Advance registration $60 per person; registration at the door, $75 per person. Call 312.899.7414 for details.

RESFEST 2003
November 7 - 9
Memo to new media junkies: RESFEST 2003 is coming to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). The annual global festival is dedicated to new and innovative film, music, art, design, technology and supporting up-and-coming talent as well as innovative techniques. RESFEST was started in 1996 and was the first global festival that features desktop tools designed to empower the independent creator. Over the years it has become a global way combine film, music, design, fashion and art recognized with a worldwide community.
In addition to short film showcases, there will be lectures, ways for attendees to look at the new creations that have come out of the last year’s advancements in technologies. RESFEST will also feature musical events, such as a concert at the Empty Bottle (Nov. 8, 11 p.m.) by Amon Tobin, a prolific Brazilian-born junglist who uses drum and bass tags with abstract noise explosions to compel his listeners.
For information about tickets and event schedules, visit http://www.resfest.com.
— Submitted by Paula Salhany

Lectures Readings

A Night with Bitch Magazine
Saturday, November 8, 8 p.m.
Lisa Jervis, Marisa Meltzer, and Andi Zeisler of Bitch magazine come to Quimby’s to read from their “Family”-themed fall issue (as well as some old favorite articles) and answer questions in what should hopefully be a lively Q&A session. Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture is a print magazine devoted to media criticism, and witty, occasionally snarky pop culture analysis. It features critiques of TV, movies, magazines, advertising, and more—plus interviews with and profiles of cool, smart women in all areas of pop culture.
Visit www.bitchmagazine.com or quimbys.com for more details.

Fred Braithwaite, a.k.a. Fab 5 Freddy and Charlie Ahearn
November 5, 6 p.m.
Fab 5 Freddy was among the first graffiti artists to exhibit internationally and went on to direct over 75 music videos. He has been the host of YO! MTV Raps and the head of Pallas Records, and authored a book on hip-hop slang, Fresh Fly Flavor. Charlie Ahearn is a filmmaker and co-author of Yes Yes Y’all, an oral history of the first decade of hip-hop with over a 100 photos, many of them by Ahearn. Ahearn’s photos have been exhibited this past year in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo and London.
SAIC Auditorium, 280 S. Columbus

Renee Green
November 12, 6 p.m.
Renee Green’s installations are complex examinations of overlapping themes that are usually related to the exhibition site. Using an anthropological approach toward her subjects, she researches historical and cultural topics and then offers viewers the results of her studies in videos, texts, and sound elements.
SAIC auditorium, 280 S. Columbus

Theater

The Marriage of Figaro
November 8-December 13
In this new adaptation by Wing & Groove Theatre Company ensemble member Megan Powell, Beaumarchais’ 18th-century French comedic romp (once the source of Mozart’s opera) is re-imagined as a screwball comedy in which Figaro and company are transported to a luxury ocean liner in the 1930s.
Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division Street. Call 773.782.9416 x2 or contact info@wingandgroove.com for dates, times and ticket information.