Issuing Forth is the latest exhibit at Robert Bills Contemporary in Chicago. It opens Friday, February 4, 2012 with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibit will show new work by Benjamin Chaffee, Timothy McMullen, Zoe Nelson and Josh Reames. All of these artists are painters and this exhibition features work by each that interrogates and expands the possibilities of the medium and also examines and embraces the limitations.

This group show was curated by Becca Schlossberg and Hannah Klemm. For more information head to robertbillscontemporary.com_.

Robert Bills Contemporary is all about introducing new artists in a variety of media. They are located in Chicago at 222 North Desplaines Street (at Lake on the lower level).

Hideo Takeda's The Proposal is funny but he is a serious artist.  He calls himself a cartoonist. His work was shown at Ink Miami Art Fair during Art Basel Week by Verne Collection Inc.

Takeda, born in 1948 recently had a one man show at the British Museum. When you look through his work you sometimes find muted colors juxtaposed against brilliant color. His absurdist humor will make you smile and sometimes roll your eyes.

He IS a cartoonist but he is also a wonderful artist. The trick is his humor has no words, only the image. It is a tough thing to make people laugh or smile with just an image. A true skill.

__ Enrique Martínez Celaya, a native of Havana, uses a number of media to create his work and examine time, memory, representation and more. His painting, Untitled (Boy With Horse), was another of those that stood out at Art Basel 2011 (and it was AT Art Basel not the satellite fairs). The painting was shown by John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco.

Celaya’s works, not usually shown in group exhibitions, are often shown as “multi-disciplinary” collections at museums, galleries or even unconventional venues like churches and philharmonics. His work has been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of Marican Art and, lest it seem New York-centric, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Museum der bildenden Kunste in Leipzig.

Celaya is more than a fine artist. He also has written criticism, two books of poetry and edited other books including poems by Charles Baudelaire.

Celaya was, as noted, born in Cuba but immigrated to Spain and then moved to Puerto Rico where he apprenticed to a painter. He currently works in Miami. Read more on this fascinating artist at his website (linked above).

Tatiana Ginsbergstudied at the University of Iowa Center for the Book and then went to Japan for several years on a Fulbright Scholarship. Following this she received an MFA from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

And these paper bowls are one of the results of this eclectic education. Small, dainty, beautiful and, presumably functional, the bowls cost around $100. The series was called 100 Days.

Ink is a fair that focuses on the print and on paper. Many of the galleries and companies present use wonderful paper in their art and prints and these pieces are no exception. These pieces were shown by Verne Collections Inc, of Cleveland.

Josh Dorman's work, shown by Mary Ryan Gallery, NY, is mixed media using acrylic, ink and old maps to create abstract images on differing themes. The maps seem to turn up a great deal though.

He has had numerous solo and group shows, going back 20 years. His undergraduate degree is from Skidmore and his Masters from Queens College (I almost went there for grad school, seriously, I did but my student loans got screwed up so I went elsewhere..so Dorman and I are like BROTHERS...ok perhaps not...).

Abel Barroso's piece, Tabaco Con Ideologica, was one of the many interesting small pieces and prints shown by the University of South Florida's Graphicstudio, Institute for Research in Art. The piece was  part of Ink Miami Art Fair at the Dorchester on Miami Beach.

I took photos of some of the other art shown by Graphicstudio but I took shabby notes on the back of someone's bio which I then LOST. What can I tell you this was on Saturday. I hadn't planned on going to Ink and wasn't prepared. But when you read up on Barroso you will find that his works often require you to interact with them.

_ Varnish Fine Art are set to open—on February 25—Beginning to End: Ron Garrigues, A Retrospective of the Last Quarter Century. There will be a reception from 4 to 7 p.m.  at 16 Jessie Street, #C120  San Francisco,
Saturday February 25, 2012. The exhibit runs through March 31.

Ron Garrigues work spans 33 years and this exhibit consists of 33 bronze sculptures, 33 sumi ink paintings (on silk) and 33 etchings (clayboard).

Garrigues first came to the notice of the art world with his solo exhibit, in 1961, at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. This beat culture inspired exhibit was truly groundbreaking. More recently Garrigues has been working in clayboard and sumi ink. In part these materials are used to call attention to the planet’s population growth and sustainability.

_ Lyons Wier Gallery in NYC is set to open Resourced: The Influence of Photography in Contemporary Art.  The exhibit runs from February 2 to 25th. There will be an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 542 West 24th St. New York. Normal gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11 to 6 p.m.

The exhibit consists of the work of eight current artists who use photography to inspire or create art. Artists include;  Ryan Bradley, Mary Henderson, David Lyle, Tim Okamura, Fahamu Pecou, James Rieck, Aristides Ruiz, and Cayce Zavaglia.    


Some of these artists were show by Lyons Wier at Pulse Miami in December and they are really worth a look.

All of these artists use or take from photography in a different way from self portraiture to re-contextualizing photos in other media (and likely more than this).

There will also be an installation by Greg Haberny titled Mommy’s Little Monster in the back gallery. Haberny is set to open a solo exhibit at Lyons Wier in October, 2012.

_ Andres Waissman is an Argentine artist born in 1955. His work has been shown or is in the collections of numerous institutions—often in collections with a specialization in Latin American art. Waissman is a major artist in Argentine contemporary art. His work was shown by Gachi Prieto Gallery in Buenos Aires.You can see better representations of his work on their website.

He works in multiple media and takes inspiration from cartography, sociology and history. He was lived in the USA and France but currently lives and teaches in his native country. He created a Studio Cri Program for Visual Arts in Buenos Aires, as a place for young artists to work and interact.

_ Javier Téllez’ solo show, Rotations, runs from Friday January 20 until February 25, 2012 at Galerie Peter Kilchmann. The opening, with the artist present, takes place from 6 to 8 p.m.

The gallery is located at Zahnradstrasse 21 (next to Prime Tower) in Zurich.

Téllez is a Venezuelan video and installation artist. His work incorporates what some might call “art therapy.” For instance he has worked with the mentally challenged to rewrite classic literature. His work is neither purely fiction or documentary. His work has been show extensively around the world in group and solo shows.