Events

PHILIP SCHALEKAMP:
Phillip Schalekamp is a Chicago-based artist and industrial designer. He earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, during which time he founded his present-day business SPDI. Schalekamp weaves aesthetic elements into functional creations to achieve a level of surprise and unexpected beauty. Schalekamp’s unique cultural heritage (Dutch/Indonesian), his outdoor adventures in landscape, his fondness for mechanical devices combined with his training as an artist reveal his broad spectrum of perception and interpretation. His work has a precise yet loose quality and an inherent sense of depth and dimensionality.

Linc Thelen’s Traverse On Exhibit at Florense:
300 W Ontario, Chicago IL 60654

LINC THELEN:
Painting for over two decades, Linc Thelen’s style fuses classical training with a modern perspective. Thelen’s works consist of abstract paintings described as dream-like and esoteric layered with calming emotion- an attempt to deconstruct the form. Thelen received his BFA in painting from Northern Illinois University. Please visit www.lincthelenart.com for more information.

About Traverse
Linc Thelen’s new series “Traverse” is a study of lines and their intersections. By incorporating the fundamental use of light, texture and color he creates spontaneous emotion, which reflects the fluidity of life. The work represents real life metaphors relating to human relationships and the evolution of time.

Lynn Basa and Adam Thomas On Exhibit at Chicago Luxury Beds:
440 N Wells St #100n Chicago, IL 60654

LYNN BASA:
“I want my paintings to look like they were made without thinking. As effortlessly composed as leaves floating on a pond, a curl of smoke, or layers of geologic sediment. It’s a paradox, of course, because each mark is a decision whether I think I’m thinking about it or not. So I try to set up situations where the materials can respond randomly to my inadvertent attempts at control. Working with fire and beeswax, I have to act fast while the medium is still hot. What thinking there is has to be done in an instant.”

ADAM THOMAS:
“Nature is the biggest influence on my work. As I’ve become more confident my work became more realistic and ironically with that confidence my work has become once again abstracted. My current path is abstracting nature using a mixture of oil and wax and reductive methods. This causes great tension in my work, reflecting the tension in nature and ourselves.”

Jennifer Webster On Exhibit at Studio 41:
225 West Hubbard Street Chicago, IL 60654

JENNIFER WEBSTER:
“The aim of my brush (my arrow) is to make paintings that convey my longing to notice and find meaning; personally, emotionally, spiritually. I want my work to inspire wonder and mystery, a sense of completion, despite fragmentation. If can make something that another human being connects with, then the aim of my brush is complete.”

Keiko Nemeth On Exhibit at Oscar Isberian:
120 W Kinzie St Chicago, IL 60654

KEIKO NEMETH:
“I love everything about oil painting: the solid feel of a quality tube of paint in hand; the glistening density of color as it oozes onto the palette; the incredible variety of ways paint moves on canvas; its textural quality reminiscent of earth and of soil; its willingness to merge, change, and deepen as it meets up with other colors; the resolute presence of a final, dried canvas. Oil painting allows me to explore and seek solutions through the “process” itself. I never begin with a concrete image, but start purely with an inner compulsion. The act of painting itself is the most worthy of goals.”

Pamela Staker On Exhibit at Organic Looms:
401 North Wells St. Chicago, IL 60654

PAMELA STAKER:
“My work explores abstraction, skirting the line between beauty and raw expression. I experiment with intense hues, bold color combinations and gestural line work. This work is spontaneous and energetic – starting simply with color and shape the work expands intuitively to include a loose abstracted structure that maintains a clear and colorful composition.”

Sheila Ganch and Sally Ko On Exhibit at Montauk Sofa:
401 North Wells St. Chicago, IL 60654

SHEILA GANCH:
“Sculpture is one of my many passions. I love experimenting with materials and usually find exactly what I’m looking for when working with clay. Its responsiveness makes anything seem possible and its texture make me feel more connected to the planet. I try to create ancient-looking pieces which come from a contemporary reality to define our timeless human connection to the Earth.”

SALLY KO:
“My focus is on the physical form and color of my paint — its various shades, forms, textures, and spatial relationships. I apply it and manipulate it to create effects that are both physical and emotional. My paintings are expressive and free, and simultaneously controlled and calculated. People have commented that the shapes and forms in my paintings look like cells dividing. In some cases, that is an accurate thematic characterization, but that perception is also a glimpse of the process leading to my finished work.”

Eric Gushee On Exhibit at TOTO:
500 North Wells Street Chicago, IL 60654

ERIC GUSHEE:
“I begin my process with a single repetitive action, such as drawing a series of lines or mass-producing a single material. For me, actions and materials are holy tools which need to be examined before use; through careful examination and use, the divinity of these tools can be known.”

Rubem Robierb and Rim Lee On Exhibit at Lightology:
215 W. Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60654

RUBEN ROBIERB:
Brazillian born Rubem Robierb’s body of work carries an innate connection to the pop art movement referencing Warhol’s two-dimensionality, visual strength, and use of repetitive figures. Robierb utilizes a simple, almost naïve sense of figurativeness to convey powerful messages to the beholder. His use of nature and biological elements generate a strong visual representation of nature versus manmade metaphors.

RIM LEE:
Rim Lee is an important internationally collected South Korean artist. Her work finds primary source material within the realms of performance and photography while her oeuvre focuses on the intensity of human emotions. Lee’s works emphasize a visualization of the conceptual values of inherent human emotions, as a result of which the artist provides a portrayal of human sentiment within the context of art discourse.

Candace McGarry and Brenda Dawn Jones On Exhibit at iD:
375 W. Erie Suite 101, Chicago, IL 60654

CANDACE MCGARRY:
“I have collected, I have erased thoughts all my life.
It’s how I place line on paper. It’s how I remove it.
I think of bone, line, of skeletal imagery. It may appear clear, well defined, or blurred beyond recognition.
I wash away the image, the past, the memory.
For these reasons, I would describe my work as angst x tension.”

BRENDA DAWN JONES:
Brenda Jones is a native Chicago artist. Not constrained by one particular medium, she voices her artistic vision through multiple creative outlets. Her artistic process is free form and organic, channeling her dream worlds in paintings, drawings, and lighted mixed media installations. Visceral in nature, her work is often a bizarre visual poetry inhabited by beautiful, ethereal heroines experiencing sensual epiphanies. Yet there is something menacing here, in these backroom parlors and surreal settings like a dark jungle inhabited by ominous cicada-like drones.

 

SAVE THE DATE, More information will be posted when available

Chicago Luxury Beds, Luxe Interiors + Design and The River North Design District invite you to attend “Dreaming by Design”

Tuesday May 5th | 5:30 — 8pm
440 N Wells, Ste 100N

Featuring bedscapes by Michael Del Piero, Barbara Ince, Cathy Bruni Norris, Kenneth Walter, Hunter Kaiser, James Thomas, Donna Hall, Elizabeth Krueger Jerith Bailey and Kristina Curtis. Vote for your favorite designs at the event! The winner will be announced by Luxe Interiors + Design Features Editor, Brittany McGuire.  RSVP to suzanne@chicagoluxurybeds.com or 312.527.5337