FOOD FOR THOUGHT Vincent Dermody (whose Law Office Chicago Style, 2009, is pictured) and other artists from the defunct collective Law Office ran a VIP room at the “Artists Run Chicago” opening.
Photo: Courtesy of the Hyde Park Art Center
“I can’t think of another city where it happens this much,” says Britton Bertran when we call to ask him about “Artists Run Chicago.” With Allison Peters Quinn, the 35-year-old independent curator coordinated the showcase of local artist-run galleries at the Hyde Park Art Center. The exhibition’s 35-plus participants include thriving spaces like the Suburban and Roots & Culture as well as VONZWECK, Dogmatic and other galleries that have closed.
Bertran, who shut down his own gallery 40000 in 2008, laughs about the breathless coverage that “a new wave of apartment galleries in New York City” has received recently. The HPAC’s sprawling, noisy exhibition demonstrates that organizing shows in your living room or even your medicine cabinet is, as he puts it, “very much a Chicago thing.”
How did you choose the galleries in the show?
They had to have been in existence for [at least] eight months, continuously, since 1999. About half are now closed. We wanted a variety of exhibition practices. Some don’t necessarily have physical locations; they float. Others are in apartments, and some are in storefronts. We have nonprofit spaces, alternative spaces and commercial spaces. The most obvious element is that they’re all artist-run.
The art on display varies widely; you have memorials to closed galleries alongside an almost life-size replica of the Suburban’s shed, which hosts its own weeklong shows. What kind of work did you ask these galleries to contribute?
We encouraged them to submit work by artists that best represented what their spaces were about. We were surprised by the amount of sculptural objects, the fact that there’s hardly any painting in the show and the slew of video involved.
Why does “Artists Run Chicago” include so many unusual events—like Roots & Culture’s kimchi-making demonstrations?
A lot of artist-run spaces have their own programming. We wanted the exhibition to create not only the atmosphere but the true soul of these spaces. For example, joymore was really well known back in 2001 or 2002 for putting on these parties in vacant lots, where they would ask artists to make carnival booths. We asked them if they would reappropriate that idea for us [for the Shrill and a Half Block Party on June 20].
Are artist-run spaces as important in other cities?
Other cities have histories of artist-run spaces, but they get usurped by the system. What makes Chicago unique is that there are so many talented artists here but without the traditional commercial venues for experience after school. A lot of these places are run by students recently out of or still in grad school. Couple that with the cost of living in Chicago; it’s ripe for this kind of thing.
What trajectory do most of these galleries follow?
There’s always different [reasons] why these spaces close or move on. Some people think, “I was so successful doing this in Chicago that I can go to New York and do it,” but then they fail. Others decide they need to return to making artwork, and this is getting in the way. Back in the day, some of these spaces got NEA funding, and when that dried up, that sounded the death knell for them. The ephemeral nature of these spaces is important. But [because of] this exhibition, some of the artist-run spaces that don’t exist anymore are thinking about going back to these kinds of projects.
“Artists Run Chicago” is on view at the Hyde Park Art Center through July 5; Green Lantern Press and ThreeWalls will publish an exhibition catalog this September.