Tony Fitzpatrick

No. 9, An Artist’s Journey, is a refreshing blog site of Tony Fitzpatrick’s body of works.   He delivers detailed stories regarding what inspired him to create each piece.  Fitzpatrick has a unique style of embedding phrases into his collages, which unfold amusing stories that are significant to his development as an artist.  Fitzpatrick’s page is enthralling with descriptions every bit as pungent as the details in his collage pieces.  Much like a narrative, he can set a scene using images and create a mood for the piece using words. 

Fitzpatrick’s art is autobiographical; his works are more than quirky, cartoon-like images, but explore the darker side of American life.  More specifically, life in Chicago rendered with a tattoo-parlor frankness and Catholic drama and pathos.  His vast range of subjects includes Chicago, baseball and memoirs of his father, New Orleans, street people, super heroes, Crazy Horse and Japan. 

Fitzpatrick is a unique asset to the pop art movement, a self-taught artist who combines collage techniques with intaglio prints.  As a former tattoo artist, Fitzpatrick’s line work is deliberate yet delicate.  The prints are merely one component of Fitzpatrick’s mixed media “drawing/collages” which often blend his cartoon-like images with found object art.  Playful and sentimental objects like baseball memorabilia and playing cards are paired with poetry written by the artist. 

Fitzpatrick typically uses a stimulating color palette that may include red, yellow, blue and green on a black back ground, colors that are captivating but only displayed on notebook-sized paper.  The end visual is a stunning arrangement of symbolic images. 

Fitzpatrick’s connection to the city of Chicago resonates in his works.  For the residents of this grand city, many of his pieces stir fond memories of extraordinary passages in time.  Fitzpatrick’s technical skills, wide use of materials and the experimentation of the presentation of his work inspire me.  Fitzpatrick created visual poems in which color, collage, and text play together to tell a story.  In this way, he conveys his memories like a highly decorative page of his journal.  

Linda Warren Projects

Ed Valentine’s exhibition “Someone’s Beauty” is currently presented alongside Michael Stillion’s show, “B.Z&C: Bent, Zigzag and Crooked” at the Linda Warren Projects in the West Loop Neighborhood of Chicago. Both collections encourage the viewer to consider portraiture in new and ambitious ways. Stillion for example, inquires about how fabric contributes to identity by using oil on canvas to depict layers of clothing that completely envelope the wearer. Each of the fabrics are painted with lively colors which juxtapose their serene neutral backgrounds. Stillion favors hues of blue and orange and incorporates them into nearly every piece. By portraying mundane articles of clothing with such vibrancy, Stillion is successful in his endeavor to illustrate portraiture without painting the figure, instead allowing the objects to speak for themselves as the subjects.  Valentine’s work, on the other hand can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. Unlike Stillion, Valentine does not make his artistic agenda clear. Valentine’s pieces depict abstract graffiti style designs created with aerosol spray paint in contrast with realistic eyes using oil paint. While most of the images were done on large scale canvas of approximately 96”x60” Valentine also included a collection of smaller portraits of 18”x24” using a variety of painterly aesthetics such as drips, clean architectural lines and scraping off the paint. Although the pieces of larger scale has less conclusive subject matters, I felt that these works overlapped with Stillion's exhibition as they allowed me to continuously interpret the definition of “a portrait”. 

"Sic Transit Gloria Mundi": Industry of the Ordinary

 "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" is the thought provoking, sometimes shocking and always engaging art exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center created by the collaborative art team, Industry of the Ordinary. Industry of the Ordinary (made up of artists Adam Brooks and Mathew Wilson) is a unique art duo whose mission and vision is to push the boundaries art and to question the ideas of elitism versus the everyday or the ordinary. "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" which loosely translates to "Thus Passes the Glory of the World", beautifully accomplishes the goals set out by IOTO using multi-media and performative pieces as a tool for destroying the line between art and everyday life. This exhibit uses music, sculpture, print, type and photography amongst other mediums to highlight both the fantastic qualities of the artwork with everyday objects and themes. At the entrance of the exhibit is an immense sculptural piece featuring a tower of brightly colored blocks standing on a bright red carpet that ascends up the back wall of the exhibit. Though the sculpture is massive and eye-catching, the shapes and colors are simple, sticking to black, reds and blues reminiscent of De Stijl; an incredible juxtaposition of the massive form versus the simplistic themes. Another piece, a striking photograph of the members of IOTO playing a game of table football against the backdrop of a dramatic wave on Chicago's North Avenue Beach, exemplifying the mundanity of table top football next to the power and wonder of Lake Michigan. There is an overwhelming room further along in the exhibit featuring simple portrait photographs of average people, household objects, toys and TV screens covering the floor and walls of the entire room, overpowering the viewer with what is commonplace.

"Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" is an interesting and informative study on the average existence of an everyday person and their interaction with exceptional, beautiful art. One of the projects in the exhibit was a wall of photographs taken by visitors to the exhibit with paper bags that had the words "I want to be Ordinary" printed on the front. To me this wall of photos was the most striking of all the pieces in the exhibit because it showcases these simple , bland words amongst a group of vastly different people who were anything but ordinary. The exhibit was an excellent insight into the world around us; how we can find customary order in a massive sculpture and find uniqueness and beauty in simple portraits of people holding the same paper bag. "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" questions much, and leaves it's viewers with a varying amount of answers and some insight into art and the conventional world.

"Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" will be up until February 17th, 2013 at the Chicago Cultural Center. You can find out more about Industry of the Ordinary and the artists involved here. 

Statik's Urban Murals

Rahmaan Statik’s graffiti art window exhibition is hidden in the intersection between Adams and S. State St. Four murals in all, Statik depicts a combination of representational portraits, abstract graffiti style shapes and caricatures. By working primarily in an aerosol spray paint medium, Statik is able to capture the vibrancy and chaos of the urban setting that these murals so perfectly embody. As a whole, this collection comments on several different facets of American culture. For example, in one piece titled “Frankincense and Myrrh” which stands at 10x17ft and is painted using Spray paint and acrylic on canvas, Statik bombards the viewer by overwhelming them with images, which depict everything from a robot or a top hat to the female silhouette. As if the scale alone wasn’t enough to catch your eye! I couldn’t help but interpret this piece as a comment on the power of our consumerist society, the objectification of women and pop culture as a whole. Another piece, which I felt particularly drawn to, is titled “Loose Squares”. Also painted to a scale of 10x17ft, in “Loose Squares” Statik challenges the viewer by surrounding the scattered, realistic objects with an abstract solid red frame. This dichotomy creates tension as the piece transforms itself into a complicated mural with layered geometric shapes. Ultimately I felt that Statik was successful in conveying urban graffiti from a contemporary, political voice while simultaneously creating aesthetically exciting works of art.

"Body Language"

I was happy to walk into one of my favorite photography galleries last week to find unique portraits called "Body Language" by Marc Hauser. I was stunned by how big the prints were and curious about the subject. His series of portraits are different sizes with one reaching to about 50 inches on one side. The subject was placed in front of a simple back drop found in photography studios but displayed a very modern and colorful subject. His subject is men and women who are accenting their heavily tattooed bodies. I was very impressed by the details of each shot and the vibrant colors. I liked how he kept the shots simple, with no distracting elements taking away from the fascinating body art. I stared at each photograph for about ten minutes because of the sharp details in everyone's tattoos. I feel like the large format photographs were very effective because the viewer has the pleasure of seeing the details in the tattoos and their faces, giving almost a life-like feeling. I felt very connected to each person photographed and wanted to know more about them based of their personal choices in tattoos, hair style, and piercings. I love this subject matter because of how simple the photographs are as they devote the attention to the works of art on the body. I encourage all art fans to go see these big, beautiful photographs while you still can!

http://schneidergallerychicago.com/home.html
http://www.marchauserphoto.com/

Harold Washington College Professor's Exhibit

This week, my art history professor informed me that my school, Harold Washington College, was hosting an exhibit showcasing some of the art work of the professors in the school. I was very intrigued by this. I mean who knew that our professors, who teach us English and Law had these hidden talents? So before class on Thursday I ventured off onto the 11th floor where all of the art was on display, hoping to see some cool pieces and to talk to some of the artists about their work. Unfortunately, no one was around to talk to me about their work, but I was able to browse for a while, and I came away with a new perspective and appreciation for people and their hidden talents. I was grateful, as I'm sure were the professors, for this platform that they had to showcase their artistic visions so that we as an audience could benefit from it. Perhaps some were working artists, perhaps some were not. And that is what I found so fascinating about this exhibit. All of the art was intriguing in it's own way. One of the most intriguing works of art was a video entitled "Sequences of Light and Shadow" by Galina Shevchenko, which was a video animation. It was a a very surreal animation were the lights and outlines of bodies moved with these somewhat distorted sounds. It totally struck my fancy. Overall, it was an enlightening experience that I think everyone would get something out of.

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!