I currently have 15 drawings showing in the gallery at The Illinois Institute of Art-Schaumburg. The exhibition will run through March with an Artist’s Reception on Thursday, February 9 from 2:00-3:00 PM. The drawings include my series of 12 works entitled Sway and a series of 3 works entitled Adaptation.

I have a sketchbook included in Art House Co-op’s The Sketchbook Project. Each participating artist was sent a sketchbook with a unique barcode and chosen them to finish and send back. Once finished, the sketchbooks will be exhibited in major cities around the country starting at the Brooklyn Art Library and ending there in their permanent collection. Once back in the Brooklyn Art Library, patrons are able to check out the sketchbooks to view them in the library. The exhibition will be coming the the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 3-4.

The opening reception will be held on Friday, February 24 from 6:30-9:00. Awards will be announced then. The jurors for this exhibition were Susan Inglett and Mark Pascale.

The Billboard Project in Chicago is showing artwork interspersed with advertising. The billboard is located about 1 mile west of the Oasis on I90 as you are heading eastbound on the north side of the highway. I have three close-up images of three of my installations showing. They include Infinite, At Peace and Disintegration. The work will be showing through October 23.

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Time Signatures, the Coalition Gallery Resident’s last group exhibition, will be shown at 217 North Carpenter Street in Chicago’s West Loop through Friday, September 16. There will be a closing reception on September 16 from 5-7 and we will be open for the West Loop’s Gallery Crawl on Friday, September 9 from 6-8.

Different artists approach temporality in a variety of ways, but it is nonetheless an ever-present factor throughout the creative process. Artists navigate multiple temporal planes simultaneously, thereby creating unique “time signatures” that are particular to their process and subsequently embedded in the work of art itself. One can look at the brush strokes, scratches, and layerings of a painting and easily see the residue of these signatures; but they are also present in the editing techniques of the videographer, the collagist, the installation artist, and so on.

For Time Signatures, the metaphor of this musical term lends itself to a deeper reading of the group dynamic. The exhibition draws together artists of different backgrounds and working methodologies, each with their own unique artistic signature (with the temporal being one component of the sense of authorship and authenticity). When brought together in this group exhibition format, the different artists and their individual time signatures relate to one another in unexpected and exciting ways. Moments of harmony and discord allow the works to take on additional meanings as they relate to the works around them, whether in opposition or in unforeseen moments of synchronicity.

Coalition Gallery Artists participating in Time Signatures include Bryan Boomershine, Robin Dluzen, Jori Foreman, Nathalie Gribinski, Christie Helm, Bernell Loeb, Zach Mory, Brad Nugent, Dimitri Pavlotsky, Adrienne Pike, Sarah Rehmer, Shawn Stucky and Connie Wolfe. Time Signatures is curated by Steven L Bridges, Coordinator of Exhibitions and Teaching Artist at Marwen and Editor of the exhibition journal series Exchange Radical Moments.

The exhibition will be opening on August 19 at 217 North Carpenter Street in Chicago’s West Loop. The reception will be held from 6 pm–9 pm.

I would also like to thank Kim Lesko, Griffin Youngstrum, Ron Peterson and John Cizmar for all of their help in finalizing the installation. Kim assisted by crocheting the top panels for the piece. Griffin was my studio assistant this summer and helped to paint the medium on the leaves. Ron will be assembling the base and top frame for the piece in addition to helping with the install. John will also be helping with the install and has helped with packing the finished panels. Thanks again!

An exhibition featuring work by Connie Wolfe, Christie Helm, and Andrienne Pike.

An exhibition featuring the work of Zach Mory and Robin Dluzen will be on display in the Project Space for the duration of Trail Mix.

Curated by Angela Bryant. Trail Mix continues through Tuesday, July 5:

Chicago Artists’ Coalition

217 N. Carpenter St.

Chicago, IL 60607

Take a hike in the new CAC exhibition space and encounter the nature-based work of Christie Helm, Adrienne Pike, and Connie Wolfe.

Through three separate mediums, these artists engage with the age-old tradition of artworks generated by our experience of the natural world. The paint, clay, inks and paper of Helm, Pike and Wolfe also push the boundaries of the visual tradition of nature, capturing and highlighting aspects of the natural environment with unique points of view. Helm’s bold palettes and brushstrokes are contrasted by Wolfe’s effortlessly subtle layering of tones and shadows, while Pike’s incorporation of physical indexes from the landscape helps bring the outdoors in.

Christie Helm’s abstractions of tree trunks employ vivid colors that quickly draw the viewer in, but it is their textured surface that encourages a longer stay.  Helm’s trees are symbolic of both growth and life, and she conveys this idea through her careful layering process.  Building up each surface through multiple layers of paint, the artist makes the journey just as important as the destination.

Natural elements are constantly infused into Adrienne Pike’s process of harvesting her own clay from a local creek to make her pottery, and her unique usage of horsehair brings an unexpected visual treat.  By allowing the hair to singe onto the newly fired pot, she creates an innovative mark-making tool that mimics both the beauty and unpredictability of nature.

Inspired by the rich textures and colors found in nature, Connie Wolfe uses paper to translate her meditative observations. Wolfe pays careful attention to shadows and negative space, always allowing plenty of breathing room within her work.  Viewers are not only left with a feeling of peace, but hopefully a desire to view nature in a more thoughtful way.