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November 24, 2014
Art in all Dimensions
South Side Weekly
Walking into the Chicago Art Department (CAD) in Pilsen last weekend, I was greeted by a thrum of activity in the back room of the gallery. [more]
July 12, 2014
An Exhibition Features Work of Incarcerated Youth
Austin Talks
The third annual art show put on by the Free Write Jail Arts & Literacy Program opens today at 6 p.m. [more]
June 13, 2014
Posters for Pride Exhibit at Chicago Art Department
Gozamos
Artists & designers from around the country were asked to react visually to pride & equality in the form of a screen printed or letterpress poster. [more]
June 6, 2014
Printmaker makes ‘Pride’ you can hang on your walls
RedEye
With the city’s annual Pride Month underway, Tyler Deal wants Chicagoans to have an emblem of their LGBT pride that they can hang on their walls. [more]
May 13, 2014
Learning, Unedited
South Side Weekly
At Pilsen’s Chicago Art Department, Nat Soti and Edyta Stepien ran around frantically, doing last-minute installations of pieces for their exhibition, “connect [ ] ED,” and putting up tape to prevent people from venturing into restricted spaces. It was 6:29. [more]
April 17, 2014
Disquiet Riot
South Side Weekly
The anxious folks down at the Chicago Art Department (CAD) in Pilsen chose to channel their fear and trembling into something productive this past Friday. The result was “Modern Anxiety,” an exhibition featuring the filmic musings of local artists on their, and our, existential unease. [more]
March 17, 2014
Performance and Spectacle at 2nd Friday in Pilsen
Chicago Weekly
The Chicago Arts District in East Pilsen opens its galleries, artists studios and neighborhood shops for local people every second Friday of the month. [more]
May 16, 2013
A Confusing Calamity
Chicago Weekly
Thomas Wolfe mixes more than media. His collages conflate preying birds and preening beauties, substitute blossoms for bullet-broken plywood, and suggest something strangely glandular in irises and bull’s-eyes [more]
May 13, 2013
Chicago’s Free Write Jail Arts Builds Bridge for Disparate Youth
Quip
Free Write Jail Arts & Literacy Program is an initiative to engage youth in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, the oldest juvenile facility in the United States, in defining their own narratives and processing their experiences through writing & visual arts. [more]
May 2, 2013
Corporeal Creations
Chicago Weekly
This retrospective clarity occurred when an accidental elbow bump or foot shuffle from an adjacent chair released me from the dancing’s tenuous, fragile trance. [more]
May 2, 2013
Lofty Goals
Chicago Weekly
Chung met Uible at one of his loft parties, and together they brought The Numbered Days in conversation with the Chicago Art Department, building in turn a diverse community of emerging Chicago-based artists through their events and parties. [more]
Feb 21, 2013
James King’s Special Blend of Hip Hop
Chicago Tribune
For James King, the sound of his future is rooted in his past. Born in Chicago to Nigerian parents, King got to know Nigerian culture directly when his family moved back there for a time when he was 10. [more]
Feb 15, 2013
Obsession and Compulsion
Chicago Weekly
Nat Soti’s Instagram photos have never before been presented in printed form. “I did it for like three months, and then for whatever reason, I just stopped doing it,” he tells me, squinting at the charming 144-photo display across the room. It’s easy to imagine him experimenting with photo filter apps on his iPhone, dressed as he is with large glasses and a calm grey scarf over a simple suit. [more]
November 10, 2011
Christian Saucedo creates optical illusions at CAD
Chicago Weekly
Christian Saucedo bikes around Chicago, through residential neighborhoods and industrial overpasses. Equipped with masking tape and an eye for surfaces, he placates the police officers that question his motives. His canvasses are ceilings, floors, and walls; his tools are tape and a command of perspective.
September 22, 2011
Riley Henderson @Chicago Art Department
FStop Magazine
In conjunction with ACRE artist residency and the Chicago Art Department, the opening reception will be held on September 23rd with gallery hours on the 24th. The show will be held at the Chicago Art Department’s new 3,200 sq ft space and co-curated by Jason Frohlichstein.
September 12, 2011
Light Paintings: Paint and Projections at Chicago Art Department
Sixty Inches From Center
On Friday, September 9th Nathan Peck presented his light paintings at the Chicago Art Departments gallery at 1932 S Halsted #100. Nathan’s video paintings are a combination of actual pain and projections of painting.
August 31, 2011
Caught On Tape
International Science Grid This Week
…an interesting artwork paying hommage to a fixed-target charmed baryon experiment, SELEX (Segmented Large X baryon Spectrometer) that ran in Fermilab’s Tevatron from 1996-97.
August 23, 2011
Physicists Tape Together Particle Data
Symmetry Breaking
Magnetic tape, the transformative medium that made it possible for 1990s teenagers to commit carefully curated pop songs to cassettes and present them like audio billets-doux to their crushes, has long been superannuated by hard drives. Getting a mix from Pandora just isn’t the same.
August 22, 2011
Post-Face 2.0
Frederic Moffet
In August 2011, I participated in the Tape: a celebration exhibition at The Chicago Art Department. I presented a multichannel installation version of POSTFACE inspired by the union of machine and body that generated Montgomery Clift late career’s persona.
April 4, 2011
An Interview with Jennifer Nalbantyan
Sixty Inches From Center
In light of her solo exhibition at Chicago Art Department, I asked Atlanta-turned-Chicago artist Jennifer Nalbantyan about how the relocation to Chicago has influenced her practice, how dreams and memory have served as inspiration for her latest work and more.
April 2, 2011
Culture As Collective: An Interview with Abraham Velasquez Tello
Sixty Inches From Center
I recently sat down with a fellow Chicago Art Department member, Abraham Velázquez Tello, who has been a very busy man lately with projects like his year-old website,
March 7, 2011
Chicago Art Department Open Studios
WBEZ
At Chicago Art Department, photographers, printers, painters and video artists share space, tools and inspiration, and for the first time – taking place each Saturday in April – the general public will be invited to see the studios, gallery and interactive workshops where the artist collaborate.
October 22, 2010
Chicago artists imagine Great Lakes without the water
Great Lakes Echo
Imagine if the Great Lakes claimed negligence and abuse and left the region.An exhibit at a Chicago art gallery recently explored this question. Participating artists met three hours once a week for a month to learn about Great Lakes environmental issues. Speakers discussed sustainability, water management and the exploitation of natural resources. Artists proposed solutions to the problems faced by the watershed and also imagined region without the water body. [more…]
September 12, 2010
Art Imitating Hard Science
SaCrit
Inspired by the physics of Fermilab on a recent tour with physicist Teppei Katori, joint curators Chuck Przybyl and Edyta Stepien have encouraged a pose of artists to create an ensemble fit for showcasing the universe.
September 10, 2010
Using Art To Understand Particle Physics
Symmetry Breaking – Fermilab
Looking around at the Hard Science art exhibit in Chicago, you might be persuaded that someone with a canvas and paint can translate physics laws as effectively as someone with a calculator and a pencil. [more…]
July 30, 2010
Art Centers Come Home
Chicago Tribune
Creating an environment where artists can thrive and collaborate is part of the mission of the Chicago Art Department. (1837 S. Halsted St., 312-725-4CAD, chicagoartdepartment.org) — a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and art space dedicated to developing new voices in contemporary art through exhibitions, residencies, classes and community partnerships. [more…]
April 29, 2010
Cheeky Asks Melissa Auf Der Maur
Cheeky Chicago
We sat down with Auf der Maur at the screening of her film at the Chicago Art Department and the re-launch of Venus Zine, as Melissa is the issue’s cover girl, to talk about the making of this project, the freedom of being a solo artist, and how a volcano can change your week.
February 16, 2010
The Past Has Not Passed
Newcity
The Pilsen art walk used to be the only annual studio crawl where artists flung open their doors, gave spectators cheap, free wine and general revelry was had in secret annexed gardens you couldn’t see from the street. The novelty of the art walk is its yearliness, but now it happens every month on Second Fridays. [more…]
January 15, 2010
Chicago, L’Avant Guard D’Amerique
L’Express.fr.
Un an après l’investiture d’Obama, il est temps de (re)découvrir sa ville, la bouillonnante métropole du Middle West. Balade arty dans les cinq quartiers qui bougent. [more…]
January 14, 2010
Making Modern Art With an iPhone
The Daily Northwestern
Power outages may mean dreaded hours of boredom to some, but to Mike Nourse and his friends there was only one logical thing to do—pass the time on their iPhones. And what did they discover? After two hours spent without electricity in the Chicago Art Department, art became achievable through one of the most accessible and portable ways. Enter iPhone art. [more…]
January 11, 2010
iPhone therefore iArt Review
Newcity
It’s opening night and the gallery goers at the Chicago Art Department are on their phones. Their iPhones, to be exact. Far from being bad etiquette, this reinforces the show’s argument that the iPhone is a valid artistic tool. [more…]
January 8, 2010
iPhone As A Work of Art
Chicago Now
I haven’t seen much of the art yet, but this blogger already declares iPhone Therefore I Art awesome – based on name alone. [more…]
January 8, 2010
iArt What iArt
Truthful Enthusiasm
The phenomenon of Apple’s iPhone has made its way into the world of visual arts with an exhibition at the Chicago Art Department. This personal communication device quickly became the most popular smart phone worldwide. Part of the success of the phone is due to the applications in which you can do anything from personal organization, gaming and a multitude of art-based programs. Those were the inspiration for Chicago Art Department’s Mike Nourse to create a course to use these phones as an artistic instrument. [more…]
January 8, 2010
How Good Is iPhone Art?
Chicago Sun-Times
About four months ago, the power went out at the Chicago Art Department, where artists Mike Nourse and Nathan Peck were working. As they sat there in the dark, the friends began to play around with their iPhones. That was when new possibilities began to open up for them with the iPhone as a new creative tool. [more…]
January 7, 2010
iPhone Art!
WCIU Chicago
Artists at the Chicago Art Department have discovered a new medium: the iPhone! [more…]
January 7, 2010
iPhone Therefore iArt Exhibition Opens Tomorrow
Charlie Chicago
Ever since last May, when the cover of The New Yorker featured an iPhone painting by Jorge Colombo, the mobile art craze has been in full swing. In local news, the Chicago Art Department (CAD) offered a 5-week “iPhone Art Class” beginning this past November, led by local artist Mike Nourse. Those 5 weeks end tomorrow, with works created throughout the course to be displayed in an exhibit titled, “iPhone Therefore iArt.” [more…]
January 7, 2010
There’s An Exhibit For That
NBC Chicago
After thoroughly dominating the digital communications world, it was only a matter of time before the iPhone started staking out new ground, now making its move into the art world. [more…]
December 31, 2009
Graphic Capture of iPhone Art Exhibition
Line By Line
Mike Nourse, a co-founder of the Chicago Art Department, has reconciled his love/hate relationship with iPhones by creating an art class around the phone. Exhibition “iPhone Therefore iArt” will open January 8th at this Pilsen gallery in Chicago.
December 22, 2009
Chicago Artists Create iPhone Masterpieces
Chicagoist.com
We’ve all entertained the Mac versus PC debate and seen both Apple and Microsoft commission known names in the art and design communities for special projects. Purists may argue art has no place in the corporate world, but artists themselves are welcoming the publicity of attaching their names to big brands, and the challenge of merging form with new, innovative functions. [more]
December 20, 2009
A Class Reaches Out and Touches High Tech Art
New York Times
Like many of us, Mike Nourse is both irritated and entranced by iPhones — their ubiquity, their utility, their unique power to extinguish conversation. Unlike most of us, Mr. Nourse, a co-founder of the Chicago Art Department, is in a position to do something useful with his internal conflict. And so he has, introducing a five-week class called “iPhone Art” at his nonprofit arts education organization. [more]
November 6, 2009
Life In LoFi
LifeInLoFi.com
Earlier this year, 47 artists were on display in the The Cell Phone Project exhibit at Cherrylion Studios in Atlanta. The exhibit featured photography taken with iPhones and other cell phones. Here’s an opportunity to take part in a similar exhibit in Chicago. [read on]
October 30, 2009
There’s a Class For That
TheChiGuide.com
On more than one occasion I’ve been sitting at a table with friends and realized that everyone there has an iPhone. Or I’m in a group and one person is the weirdo who still has a Razr (come on – it’s missing a letter!) Anyway, by now whether you own an iPhone or not, you’ve been around one and you’re aware that ‘there’s an app for that.’ And people like to show off what they can do with those apps…[read on]
October 23, 2009
CAD Featured on Beyond the Pedway
beyondthepedway.com
Beyond the Pedway is a weekly video podcast dedicated to showing creative companies and organizations found in sweet home Chicago.
August 29, 2009
Gallery Owners Feeling Pinch of Recession
Chicago Tribune
Somehow CAD is highlighted in an article which focuses on the decline of art galleries in Chicago. We’re still learning, but read this article to get sense of what others have been going through, and how CAD fits into that equation.
April 19, 2009
Collapse, failure, bailout, economic crisis and greed. It seems like the last year has been a downward vortex of no return. The trials and tribulations of day-to-day life are sometimes too much to handle. It is as if we will only survive by the skin of our teeth. These ruminations of the human condition are evident in new work by Chicago artist Jen Rosenthal.
April 12, 2009
The work of Chicago Artist Abraham Velaquez Tello tackles the issue of gender identity through photographing the traditional and structured world of Mexican “Machismo.” Having just finished the group show “”Evita el Exceso” at the Chicago Art Department with the Tripa Collective, an organization he founded with artist Jova Duran in 2007, he is currently working on the Machos project which is a book aimed at documenting Mexican male subcultures, subcultures such as the Luchadores or Mexican Wrestler and the Caballeros or Cowboy.
April 9, 2009
The short-lived sand paintings of Tibetan monks are as ritualistic as they are aesthetic. Requiring days of concentration and effort, the paintings are destroyed in a matter of minutes. Their value depends essentially on faith.
April 8, 2009
New work by Jen Rosenthal at Chicago Art Department
Chicagoist.com
When looking at “Control,” the collection of new works by Chicago Art Department resident artist Jen Rosenthal, a particular Joy Division song comes to mind.
March 31, 2009
The Island of Dr. Tweet
NewCity
Like many top-secret missions, this one hit a few bumps: some recruits failed to show up, a large corporation had frozen their accounts and the press was, of course, following them closely. But for Lauri Apple and Seth Gershberg, co-founders of the live-networking experiment known as Twitter Island, such snags could not stop them from their objective: To watch strangers “tweet” at each other from within the same room.[read on]
March 28, 2009
Go Back To Your Home On Twitter Island
Museumist.com
I’m sure most of you have heard of Twitter by now. You may not be on it, you may not understand it, but you’ve at least heard about the ubiquitous microblogging site. Well, Lauri Apple and Seth Gershberg with the Chicago Art Department have heard about Twitter, and they have decided to see what it is made of by conducting a social experiment. [read on]
March 25, 2009
Take a Trip To Twitter Island
Chicagoist.com
There’s something a little irritating about the word ‘Twitter.’ Maybe because we hear it 10,000 times a day. Chicago is, after all, ranked third on the Twitter Cities List. And the adoration of the real-time messaging service has reached a fever pitch. Politicians doing it while in session, cable networks going ape shit over it, media moguls chronicling their craps [read on]
Feb 20, 2009
An Interview with Mike Nourse
Chicagoist.com
Chicago by-way-of Montreal artist Mike Nourse is known to some as a co-founder of the Chicago Art Department, one of Pilsen’s most intriguing art spaces. He also manages the the studio programs at Marwen, overseeing close to 90 visual arts programs for Chicago’s under-served youth while curating about 10 exhibitions per calendar year. [read on]
October 15, 2008
Gallery of the Damned: The Chicago Art Department brings deceased artists back from the beyond
Chicago Weekly
So, another review glowing polysyllabically over some obscure gallery opening in Pilsen probably won’t turn too many heads. I don’t care; the Chicago Art Department’s new show, “Night of the Living Artist,” deserves every bit of overarticulated praise coming its way.
Review: Nat Soti/Chicago Art Department
Newcity
“Death” comes in myriad forms, as is made plain by the twelve photographers—six from Chicago and six from New York—who give us suites of Polaroid images in this tight conceptual show, inspired by the demise of instant-print technology.
Review: Death + Extinction Via Polaroids/Chicago Art Department
Newcity
“Death” comes in myriad forms, as is made plain by the twelve photographers—six from Chicago and six from New York—who give us suites of Polaroid images in this tight conceptual show, inspired by the demise of instant-print technology.
State of the Art: Why art matters, from the people who live it
Chicago Weekly
We asked some leading lights of the South Side art scene: Why does art matter? What is the social relevance of art? Why do we need it on the South Side? What follows are their responses.
Top 5: Emerging Art Spaces/Shows
NewCity
Chicago Art Department was included in New City’s annual top 5 Lists of Chicago
Best New Art School
Newcity
It’s unfair to compare what Pilsen’s Chicago Art Department does to that of the Art Institute or the University of Illinois at Chicago. But it takes some real moxie to even feign competition with such goliaths….
Chicago Open House
ArtNet Magazine
It’s a familiar story. Artists want workspace. They move into rundown buildings and fix them up, only to see the neighborhood become fashionable and expensive…..
Campus Pilsen
Newcity: Article by Michael Workman
House burning to the ground with you in it? Call the fire department. Ski-masked stranger with a chainsaw chasing you down the street? Call the police department. Wake up with an urgent need for art? Call the art department
Back to School
Newcity: Article by Michael Workman
It’s a hot night and the Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic” blares out through the open windows of my car as I make it a Pilsen night once again…
Group Efforts: Hey Let’s Start An Art School
Chicago Reader: Article by Cara Jespen
The three of them came up with the idea for their informal school, launched in January, last fall at a monthly meeting at the two-story….