Portage ARTspace is a year-long curatorial/experimental art project started by
Johannah Silva. For this second show at the space, she invited artists who show
other artists through their alternative spaces or curatorial projects, to show
at her space. Silva’s goal and intention for the project as a whole is to
incite and inspire dialogue and community. What better way than bringing a
bunch of artists engaged in a similar endeavor to participate in the spirit of
mutual support and inquiry?
OPENING RECEPTION: Sat, Sept. 4, 4-8pm
WHERE: portage ARTspace, 4837 W. Berenice Ave., Chicago, IL
ARTISTS’ BIOS:
TOM BURTONWOODis an artist originally from the UK and now living and working in
Oak Park, IL. He is interested in an array of subjects and issues relating to
image making, ubiquitous technology and interactive objects. His current work
consists of modular color studies relating to the video game Tetris. Recent
exhibitions include The Center for Book and Paper Arts, Columbia College,
Chicago; Three Walls, Chicago; Fountain, Brooklyn; Apex Art, New York. Tom
teaches at Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He
co-operates What It Is, a project space in Oak Park IL, with Holly Holmes. What
It Is provides a venue for installations, happenings, dinners, garden parties,
screenings and so forth. Artists are invited to interact with their home and
create temporary art works in conjunction with the domestic space they inhabit.
MIGUEL CORTEZis an artist living in Chicago and born in Guanajuato, Mexico. He
has studied filmmaking at Columbia College and at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago. Recent exhibitions include a show at the Krannert Art
Museum in Champaign, IL, the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, as well
as Bridge Art Fair in Miami. Past shows include an exhibit in Dallas at Mighty
Fine Arts Gallery, “Lo Romantico” at Glass Curtain Gallery and “Lies that Bill
Gates told me: Exploring the Digital Divide” at VU Space in Melbourne,
Australia. A co-founder of Polvo (an art collective since 1996), Miguel
currently runs an alternative contemporary art space called Antena in Chicago’s
Pilsen neighborhood.
HOLLY HOLMES is an artist, teacher, curator, collaborator and an MFA candidate at
SAIC 2011. Her current practice asks the viewer to consider nature from two
different points of view — the fetishization and simulacra of the natural world
and encouraging her audience to engage with nature rather than simply consuming
it. Recent exhibitions include The Center for Book and Paper Arts, Columbia
College, Chicago; Gimme Green, Deerfield; Next Art Fair, Chicago; Version Fest,
Chicago; NFO XPO, Chicago; UnCommon Territories, Heaven Gallery, Chicago;
Fountain, Brooklyn; Leaf House, Turku, Finland. Recent publications include
Chicagoist.com, PROMPT and Proximity Magazine. Holly teaches at the Hyde Park
Art Center and Lill Street Art Center. She co-operates What It Is with Tom
Burtonwood in Oak Park, IL.
PAUL HOPKIN grew up in the Nevada desert from a profoundly religious home, and
was raised to be a scientist. He began his Art Education at Brigham Young
University and received his MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in
1997. While pursuing his MFA, he worked with non-traditional sculpture and
since graduating continued to work in this same medium as well as photography.
More recently, he has been working with watercolors. He has taught video and
performance and foundation level courses. A year ago, he opened “Slow”, a
gallery space in west Pilsen, with the intention of developing an audible
curatorial voice, support art that interests him, and instigate discussion and
challenge the ways we think and see.
JOHANNAH SILVA is a Chicago-based artist and art educator who runs portage
ARTspace, a year-long curatorial/experimental art project in her home. Located
in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago, portage ARTspace is also the site
of her new art studio. She received her MFA in Painting from The School of the
Art Institute of Chicago and is currently a faculty member in the Dept. of
Visual and Performing Arts at Wright College. Her recent work consists of an
exploration of micro and macro forms in space and has been exhibited in various
venues in Chicago such as the University of Chicago, The Whistler,
ArtExhibitionLink’s Gallery Uno, Woman-Made Gallery, as well as at national and
international venues.
VICTORIA SZILAGYI is a local Chicago visual artist and performer. After
performing in Chicago underground cult shows for a few years, she graduated from
SAIC with an emphasis in painting. She has shown her work around Chicago at
various locations including Woman Made Gallery, the Evanston Art Center and the
State Street Gallery at Robert Morris, as well as nationally at the Arlington
Museum of Art in Arlington, TX and the Dirty Detroit show in Detroit. “The
Charnel House”, an old funeral home in the heart of Logan Square, is the space
Victoria runs with her husband Billy Bermingham. They regard the space as a
multi arts venue that serves as an alternative art space for visual artists, as
well as a theatre devoted to providing new theatre and dance groups a beautiful,
inexpensive space.
PHILIP VON ZWECK
is the host and producer of Something Else, a radio program of
Sound Art and Experimental music on WLUW, for the past 15 years. His work has
been exhibited widely including solo projects at the Museum of Contemporary Art,
three-walls and Gallery 400. From 2005-2008, he ran Chicago’s best gallery,
VONZWECK, in his living room in Humboldt Park. He has also curated or
co-curated exhibitions at the Betty Rymer Gallery, Gallery 400, Dogmatic
Gallery, Alagon, Western Exhibitions, HungryMan and the forthcoming “A Unicorn
Basking in the Light of Three Glowing Suns” at the DeVos Museum at Northern
Michigan University (with Anthony Elms).
