Forming Function Art Series

Part One 

 

Three Art Exhibitions

in Two Cities:

 

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The Beginning of

a Third Chicago School

 

and

Hunting With Louis Sullivan

 

and

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Tools of the Trade

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The Beginning of a Third Chicago School

 

The first exhibit in Forming Function Part One had Galaudet Gallery In Cooperation with The Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Euro to present The Beginning of a Third Chicago School Art Exhibit.   

 

The Beginning of a Third Chicago School  shows the new artistic focus in Chicago where artists and architects, photographers and ceramicists, sculptors and creatives  join forces with business leaders and gallery owners to usher in a Third Chicago School.  15 artists and 3 architects will display their work at Euro in Chicago's West Town neighborhood.  

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These artists were selected from over 250 entries for this inaugural exhibition which ushers in the Third Chicago School, an artistic and design centered movement seeking to further the work of the past two Chicago Schools of thought and to also set off on a new path toward a truly 21st Century art which moves fully into a global artistic motion.  Click on the button below to view the art exhibit catalog for The Beginning of a Third Chicago School

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hunting with Louis Sullivan

 

The second exhibit in Forming Function Part One, held at Galaudet Gallery's Chicago space, is  Hunting with Louis Sullivan which explores 21st Century connections between Chicago architect Henry L. Sullivan's book A System of Architectural Ornament According with a Philosophy of Man's Powers with  the 21st Century art of Vicki Milewski.  Sullivan's philosophy of nature leading the way to greater understanding of culture, community and art works well with Milewski's abstract experientialism which challenges the boundaries of canvas, film, paper, words and music by mixing mediums in artworks and in compelling art collections which pursue experiences expressing the healing potential of nature and her egalitarian philosophy of society founded in her belief of the sacredness of all life. Hunting with Louis Sullivan was also in cooperation with The Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs

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“Hunting with Louis Sullivan incorporates Vicki Milewski’s art and sense of polychromy with the drawings Louis Sullivan made in his book,  Sullivan’s philosophical writings and drawings have never been so well connected as in Milewski’s works.  Her choice of colors and materials brings Sullivan’s drawings and ideas into vivid states which elegantly present a clear joining of the power these two artists hold.  Her understanding of Sullivan and their shared influences like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman is clearly shown in the detailed and beautiful choices she has made in unveiling a true American philosophy that has been analyzed but never seen like this. Milewski’s 21st Century presentation of Sullivan’s early 20th Century drawings fuse into a  boundary push along vectors which follow these great thinkers into uncharted territory of a truly 21st Century American Art leading toward Sullivan's idea of a Global Art with its eventual culmination in a Universal Art." (from Jules Hefe's essay "Hunting for a Global Concern while Looking Toward a Universal Art from Louis Sullivan and Vicki Milewski")

 

Milewski and Sullivan’s individual works often make precise references to sites, history, metaphysics and the meaning of communal living with both of these artists believing in new technologies but not at the cost of meaningful everyday experiences.   Sullivan influenced The First Chicago School; Milewski now contends the Third Chicago School is beginning with an interleaving of artists and architects who share Sullivan's metaphysical philosophy about the real function of art and architecture and the true reality of a democracy that respects all living things as equals. 

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Part One of Hunting with Louis Sullivan is a study of Louis’ drawings and ideas from A System of Architectural Ornament According with the Powers of Man, bringing them into the 21st Century by colorizing and interpreting them.  Part Two will contain collages, assemblages, drawings and paintings utilizing works by Louis Sullivan as source material and as inspirations.  Part Three will occur when I complete a choral/orchestral piece I have written called Hunting with Louis Sullivan”  it has four movements but I will premier each movement when it is finished, hoping to be able to finish the entire at some point in the future.  Part Four will collect all the previous work so that I can write (and draw a new philosophic treatise on the recognition of our personal powers that are founded in spirit, intellect, emotions nature and community (part of this catalog contains the beginnings of this work).

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Click on the button below to view the art exhibit catalog for Hunting with Louis Sullivan

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Tools of the Trade

 

The third exhibit in Forming Function Part One, held at Galaudet Gallery's Eau Claire space, is  Tools of the Trade.  Refocusing the idea of tools into works of art.  Sometimes abstracted, re-purposed or in their original states, these works of art challenge our expectations of everyday tools and what they can produce in skilled hands.  Primary artist Mike Milewski places historical accuracy and abstraction on the same plane creating intellectually stimulating works which also contain humor in the realization that a piece may have once been a hammer, that a sun may have once been a saw blade, that a drill bit may pose as a leg.  Milewski says he enjoys breaking down the walls between the real and the abstract since in the rubble there lies a truth about work.

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As part of Galaudet Gallery's celebration of the Chicago Architecture Biennial Galaudet Gallery curated a thoughtful look at tools as art.  Without tools our architecture would not be realized and it is with this in mind that we begin our Forming Function Art Series with tools.

 

Tools are a known hallmark of civilization since even in the caves of  Lascaux, France the tools used to remake the cave and create the art on its walls were left in the cave for us to know what helped make this prehistoric space.  

 

Tools have also been a source of artistic creativity since the act of creation stresses the simple fact that artists use tools, at times of their own fashioning, to make art, just as skilled craftsmen make tools to create decorative art objects.  This Collection explores the transformation of utilitarian, everyday objects while appealing to the builder in all of us.

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Forming Function Art Series

 

In support of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Galaudet Gallery began their Forming Function Art Series in 2015 and intends to coordinate each successive iteration with the biennial schedule of every two years. 

 

The art series’ title of Forming Function is a play on words from a famous quote by Louis Sullivan, "Form ever follows function” which has been misunderstood as a minimalistic view of architecture and art when really Sullivan was speaking of a much broader version of the word "function" to include our cultural life, our spiritual life, our artistic views which can merge and support one another.  In elucidating Sullivan’s quote, Galaudet Gallery also seeks to expose the emergence of a Third Chicago School

 

The First Chicago School originated with Chicago Architects like Louis Sullivan during the turn of the 20th Century. Tasked with first rebuilding Chicago after a great fire and then rewarded with a bustling downtown business district that needed larger, taller buildings, the architects, educators and artists of the First Chicago School had a rare opportunity to think about their contribution to the evolution of Chicago.  Sullivan thought considerably about it and felt that nature held the blueprints for how buildings, cities and communities should grow.  This was the First Chicago School.

 

Starting in the 1950's through to the 1970's Chicago had a Second Chicago School of architects, educators and artists who believed in experiences both aesthetic and communal.  Skyscrapers were given their shine during this time in order to elicit an experience from those outside the building and inside it.  John Dewey revolutionized education with his experiential philosophy modernized the Phenomenology Philosophy from the beginning of the century.  Artists both embraced these modern ideas and also rebelled against them. This was the Second Chicago School. 

 

Both these schools promoted new technologies and construction methods that worked with the art of their given times and created new avenues for art and architecture to follow.

 

Now as we turn fully into the 21st Century we have found the Third Chicago School in the dissolution of a hierarchical system for producing, disseminating and collecting art which has created a new platform to work from that is based on networks, dialogue and cooperation.  Architecture is experiencing this transition as it seeks more sustainable ways to design, build and reclaim.  The arts have always looked to nature for inspiration and structuring and now is no different; however, we are looking with new eyes that have vast amounts of information to integrate, understand and take into consideration. 

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The beginning of a Third Chicago School of Art, Architecture and Philosophy is curated in 2 exhibitions this Fall.  Galaudet Gallery brings together the 21st Century Chicago Artists’ Studios 3 (CAS3) to show the new artistic focus in Chicago where artists and architects, photographers and ceramicists, sculptors and creatives will join forces with business leaders and gallery owners to usher in a Third Chicago School.  With the power to make our dreams reality, we continue this tradition.

 

Galaudet Gallery explores the beginning of a Third Chicago School of Art, Architecture and Philosophy in two juried art exhibitions and their corresponding lecture series with its inspiration being the original “Chicago School” from the turn of the last century and "The Second Chicago School" from the 1950’s—1970’s. In viewing these two schools from the 21st Century’s future-oriented perspective and unrivaled access to historical ideas, Galaudet Gallery posits that both schools included more than architecture since they enlivened the other arts and enriched educational theories as well as economic forces.   Both these Chicago Schools of Art promoted new technologies and construction methods that worked with the art of their given times and created new avenues for art and architecture to follow.  The Beginning of a Third Chicago School will be seen in two Art Exhibits at two venues during the Fall of 2015:

 

 

The two exhibits take place in West Town a block away from each other where there was once an industrial zone  and now there are innovative startups and pioneering businesses blending with artists to create an urban studio setting— CAS3.  Now there is a network moving toward a common goal—the creation of art and dialogue about art— CAS3.  Now there is the Third Chicago School, a collection of architects as artists, painters as artists, musicians as artists, writers as artists working in their environment sustainably, crazily, beautifully— CAS3.

 

Forming Function list of events:

All events are free and open to the public

 

10/1/15

Opening Receptions:

 

Forming Function

5pm—7pm Euro Furniture 2145 W. Grand

 

Hunting with Louis Sullivan

7pm—9pm Galaudet Gallery 2223 W. Hubbard 

 

10/24/15

Artists Talks

 

Forming Function

Noon—4pm Euro Furniture 7 artists and architects

talk about their 21st Century work, studios and visions

 

Hunting with Louis Sullivan

3:30pm—4:30pm Galaudet Gallery Vicki Milewski's talk about Louis Sullivan

and her Sullivan inspired art collection "Hunting with Louis Sullivan"

 

11/14/15

Closing Receptions

 

Forming Function

3pm—6pm Euro Furniture 2145 W. Grand

 

Hunting with Louis Sullivan

6pm—9pm Galaudet Gallery 2223 W. Hubbard 

 

 

List of CAS3 participating Artists and Architects:

 

Vicki Milewski, Artist

http://vickimilewski.wix.com/vmartist

 

Joseph and Tomoko Nagle, Artist

Nagle Photography

http://nagleweb.com/

 

Allan A. Teske, Artist & Architect

http://www.allanateske.com/

 

Jennifer Marie Chertow, Artist

http://www.jenniferchertow.com/

 

Erika Estefania Doyle, Artist

www.erikaestefaniadoyle.com

 

Megan Williamson, Artist

http://www.meganwilliamson.com/

 

Tim Wang, Architect

 

James Beck, Artist

Studio Beck

 

Jenna Isbell, Artist

http://www.creativeclaythings.com/

aboutus/jennasgallery.html

 

Michael Milewski, Artist

 

Alt Architecture + Research Associates LLC

Paul Alt, Architect

http://www.aaplusr.com/

 

Shawn Vincent, Artist

 

Darya Orlova, Artist