Pilsen Gallery 27

On Friday January 11^th I got some friends together and went to the Chicago Arts District at S. Halsted and 18^th Street for an “art crawl”, what we call the art show that is held every second Friday of the month.  I was especially impressed with the pop culture works found in Pilsen’s Gallery 27. This gallery displayed art inspired by early 90s Nickelodeon shows. The gallery showcased works by different artists, which brought a wide variety to the styles exhibited in the show.  One piece in this collection was a mixed media and found materials creation titled “Action” by Danielle Herrera.  This piece featured the logo for the show Kablam! The glass was painted with the logo over a silver sequined piece of cloth.  Other pieces featured characters from The Ren & Stimpy Show done by artists Blain Hefner and Katrina Catizone who used oil paint, vintage paper on toast and canvas to create a Pastor Toastman collage piece.  Additional pop culture pieces paid tribute to Nickelodeon’s Rocko’s Modern Life, Andrew Heath created a poster for this show in a six color screen print (16’ x 20’) in a print series of fifty.  Other pieces were inspired by the films of indie director and screenwriter Wes Anderson.  Many of the Wes Anderson inspired pieces were prints, making a unique and affordable poster for purchase.   Another piece that stood out in the show was a conversation piece between two different framed prints titled, “Donnie Darko Sun” and “Frank Sun” by artist Derek Eads. The images are illustrations of characters from the cult classic film Donnie Darko.  Each individual piece is captioned with dialog from the film. One print reads, “Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?” the other responds, “Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?”  The final piece I will mention was a paper collage portrait of Edgar Allen Poe.  His face was composed from the text to his poem The Raven.   The piece is titled “Nevermore” by Danielle Herrera.   I loved the diversity of the exhibit and found it really compelling as a film enthusiasts and product of the nineties. This Chicago gallery is definitely worth checking out!