March 2017

March 2017 / FreeDesign 50: Who Shapes ChicagoCharles Adler of Lost Artscover_TOC-JH.indd 1 2/19/17 9:04 PM

Spaces without drama or surface is an illusion, but so is depthCurated by Ruth Estévez and Wonne Ickx, Aldo Rossi with Gianni Braghieri and Roberto Freno,LIGA — Space for Architecture, February 16–July 1, 2017 Teatrino Scientifico, 198, private collection. © Eredi Aldo Rossi, courtesy Fondazione Aldo Rossi.Featuring work by architects Emilio Ambasz, baukuh, Gerardo Caballero, fala atelier,Marcelo Ferraz, Sam Jacob Studio, Johnston Marklee, Monadnock, Charles Moore,MOS Architects, Norman Kelley, OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen,Cecilia Puga, Aldo Rossi, Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha + Gabriela Carrillo,Pezo Von Ellrichshausen; and artists Pablo Bronstein, David Hockney, William Leavitt,Silke Otto-Knapp, Gabriel Sierra, Batia Suter; and dramaturg Jorge Palinhos.Graham Foundation, 4 W Burton Place, ChicagoFree Admission to the ExhibitionGallery and Bookshop Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 11am–6pmwww.grahamfoundation.org

MARCH 2017 Arts & CultureFeatures 43 Art Setting the record straight11 Designer of the Moment on art and AIDS What did Charles Adler do after co-founding Kickstarter? 48 Dance A Dancing Island17 Design 50 World-class contemporary Who gives Chicago its visual swagger? choreography from Cuba These folks do. 50 Design33 After Michelangelo Eyewear for the Snowden set The female gaze of Mariah Karson’s “Modern David” 52 Dining & Drinking Eat like an immigrant on Devon Avenue37 How To Instigate Invention Dispatches from Brazil about artistic 54 Film visionary Hélio Oiticica Making sense with Melika Bass 58 Lit Bullets fly in books, too 61 Music A night at the opera with Charlie Parker 64 Stage The Chicago Inclusion Project’s fight for a bigger tent Everything Else MARCH 2017 Newcity 9 Dime Stories 10 Future News 66 Life Is Beautifulcover_TOC-JH.indd 3 3 2/19/17 9:04 PM

Newcity MARCH 2017 Carta Editorial It’s strange to be launching a redesign of Newcity without spending a year or more planning and tweaking it. This time, we’re doing it as we go—an evolution rather than a revolution— which should afford us maximum freedom to adjust, to react and yes, to tweak. It’s strange to be doing this from Mexico City, where I’ve been since inauguration weekend, finishing up post-production on our feature film, “Signature Move.” (We won a large post- production grant that was the only thing that would have moved this process out of Chicago, but the presence of Mexican- American characters and themes in our movie added a special relevance to doing so, and the indefensible words and actions of our new president added a special poignance.) Spending the first month of this presidency outside of the country, without a television, has offered me a distant, and truly foreign vantage point from which to see it unfold. As an American, I can’t avoid the conversations, which always must start with me apologizing for a man I did not vote for. The United States is now seen as a confederacy of dunces. Folks joke about the latest faux pas, about this week’s or that week’s “Saturday Night Live” sendup. About that wall, the absurdity of which is amplified exponentially once you spend any time in this vibrant, smart, cultural city. Walls work two ways, after all. The jokes are tempered, of course, by the understanding that this particular clown has the power to destroy the world, literally and metaphorically. It’s strange, in fact, to be covering anything other than the ongoing debacle that our country’s leadership has become, and the threats to existence, progress and even our survival that it represents. But culture is a powerful and nonviolent weapon in the fight against ignorance and the fight for human rights and basic American dignity that is now underway. And so, as we fight the power, we must also fight for the culture. With this new Newcity, we like to think we’re sharpening our sword for all the battles ahead. BRIAN HIEGGELKE 4 2/19/17 9:04 PMcover_TOC-JH.indd 4

Hcaonwwheiggho?Join us on March 16 for a discussion Building Tall:with professionals from varying disciplines Skyscraperin the tall building industry—including Lecture SeriesGordon Gill—as they answer the question:What is the tallest realistic height that a THURSDAYS AT 6PMskyscraper could reach? $20 PUBLIC / $12 CAF & CTBUH MEMBERSTickets at architecture.org/programs MAR 16 Building Tall: How High Can We Go?SERIES FIRST EVENT MAY 18 Securing Tall: What’s the BiggestPARTNER SPONSOR SEP 21 Threat to a Skyscraper? NOV 16 Greening Tall: Naturalizing OFFICIAL The Vertical Realm BEER OF CAF Living Tall: What Will Make Tall Buildings More Habitable? Wuhan Greenland Center in Wuhan, China. Photo courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture LLP. 224 S. Michigan Ave. | 312.922.3432 | architecture.org A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO INSPIRING PEOPLE TO DISCOVER WHY DESIGN MATTERS

Contributors -------------------------------------------------- Fletcher Martin (Lead Anupy Singla (“Devouring On the cover Designer) is the creative Devon”) is the author of Photo: Joe Mazza/Brave Lux director of a5, a branding three cookbooks, including Cover design: Fletcher Martin and digital firm in Chicago her most recent, “Indian for which he co-founded after Everyone.” She is also the VOL 32, NO. 1365 starting his career at founder of Indian as Apple Chicago design powerhouse Pie, which specializes in PUBLISHERS VSA Partners. spices, sauces and other Brian & Jan Hieggelke Indian grocery items on Associate Publisher Mike Hartnett Joe Mazza (Photographer) has shelves in and around photographed every single Chicago, including Whole EDITORIAL “Leaders of Chicago Culture” Foods Market. You can find Editor Brian Hieggelke issue since 2014, making this out more about her and her Managing Editor Jan Hieggelke his twenty-third such under- products on her website, Art Editor Elliot Reichert taking! When he’s not turning www.indianasapplepie.com. Dance Editor Sharon Hoyer our pages into works of art, Design Editor Ben Schulman he’s shooting portraits at David Hammond (“After Dining and Drinking Editor his studio in Ravenswood—and Michelangelo”) is Newcity’s David Hammond working with many theater dining and drinking editor Film Editor Ray Pride companies in town. when he’s not posing for Lit Editor Toni Nealie beefcake photos. David is a Music Editor Robert Rodi Ben Schulman (Design 50 seasoned scribe on food and Theater Editor Kevin Greene editor) is Newcity’s design travel, and on food travel, Editorial Assistant Taryn Smith editor and co-host of our in Chicago. Contributing Writers Tony Fitzpatrick, podcast about all things Isa Giallorenzo, Aaron Hunt, Alex Huntsberger, design, “A Lot You Got to Cynthia Garcia (“How To Hugh Iglarsh, Chris Miller, Dennis Polkow, Holler.” A prolific writer on Instigate Invention”) is a Vasia Rigou, Loy Webb, Michael Workman design and the built environ- senior contributor to Newcity ment, as well as a collabora- Brazil. The Rio native is a ART & DESIGN tor on the Contraphonic Sound respected art historian, art Senior Designers Kady Dennell, Series, Ben also has a day critic and journalist fluent MJ Hieggelke job, or so we hear. in five languages and sta- Designers Sean Leary, Jim Maciukenas, tioned in São Paulo. Stephanie Plenner, Dan Streeting, Billy WerchNewcity MARCH 2017 MARKETING Marketing Manager Todd Hieggelke 6 OPERATIONScover_TOC-JH.indd 6 General Manager Jan Hieggelke Audit Colin Smith Distribution Nick Bachmann, Adam Desantis, Diana Durkin, Preston Klik, Quinn Nicholson, Matt Russell One copy of current issue free. Additional copies, including back issues up to one year, may be ordered. Copyright 2017, New City Communica- tions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Newcity assumes no responsibility to return unsolicited editorial or graphic material. All rights in letters and unsolicited editorial or graphic material will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to comment editorially. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Newcity is published by Newcity Communications, Inc. 47 West Polk, Suite 100-223 Chicago, IL 60605 Visit NewcityNetwork.com for advertising and editorial information. 2/19/17 9:04 PM

SIZE: 8”W X 10.5”H CHOOSE LOVE WALK IN PEACEJOHN FLUEVOG s CHICAGO - N MILWAUKEE AVE ·· FLUEVOG COM

JazzFirst Monday Enlivening evenings of music from some of Chicago’s most exciting artists. @artsandpubliclife Currency Exchange Café, 305 E. Garfield Blvd. arts.uchicago.edu/artsandpubliclife September 16, 2017– January 7, 2018MAKE NEW HISTORY AT THE CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIALFor news about partners and participantsplus information to plan your visit check outchicagoarchitecturebiennial.org

Dime StoriesThe Case for the Piazza By Tony Fitzpatrick This job is not going to get easier with the The most salient thing to emerge MARCH 2017 Newcity activism that has been necessarily out of this turmoil and calamity is Sometimes you need to get out awakened in Chicago and America since the awakening of us as a body of Chicago to get a better look Tangerine Mussolini took office. People are politic—as artists, musicians, at it. I’ve spent the last couple of out in the streets. For the first time since writers, dancers, actors, poets weeks in Italy—Rome and the late 1960s Chicago has decided to and journalists. The stakes are Florence to be exact—and in push back—against Rahm, against Trump, bigger and they are tethered to a those couple of weeks, I’ve against the institutional racism that never moral imperative that asks of us: had a lot of time to think about went away, but was only practiced in code, Who are we as artists, as a our town. inference and veiled reference. people and a nation? And what example can our creativeThere is a lot we could do Then Trump happened. As I write this from energies and vision set in a differently. This whole trip I’ve Florence, he and the greasy bucketful of troubled world? What is the best been fascinated by the culture of parasites that comprise his cabinet are way to embrace these responsi- piazzas—they’re a little like scrambling for cover, and it looks as if the bilities and move our culture parks in the city—little public whole house of mutants might just shit the forward? squares or spaces where people bed. Michael Flynn lying about playing from the neighborhood get footsie with the Russians: OUT. An- As artists, how do we make a together, have a drink, burn drew Puzder dogged by a history of better world? some herb and eat gelato with domestic abuse charges: OUT. It is a good their dogs. It’s all way civilized— day for the National Security Agency and Less than a month ago, women people talk, flirt, laugh and enjoy the Department of Labor, as well as the by the millions worldwide went the great assets that are their nation, that these two mutts stepped on out and marched. It was fellow citizens. Carl Sandburg their own nuts, not thirty days into the job. peaceful, inspiring and as would have loved piazzas. They Arriverderci dip-shits. forceful as the parting of an are not the kind of tourist la-la ocean. Something tidal in our thing that “Cloud Gate” is culture took hold that day and it (okay…”The Bean”). Because was thrilling to watch: my wife, they are all over each city, and my sisters, the young women none is dependent on an who work in my studio. Mothers, admission price, they are public sisters, wives, daughters: in one places where people talk, eat, bold stroke, they changed the smoke, drink and gather—and, on way the world would be allowed to define occasion, watch soccer together—and them and they did it with nonviolence, I’ve never seen any trouble. It is truly the solidarity and great hope. public square. This might be a nice addition to Chicago’s many neighbor- Into this troubled city and nation comes hoods; seeing that some neighborhoods Newcity, the now-monthly magazine. This have access to pubic gathering spots— isn’t new for us: when we started, the some do not—some are haunted by guns country and the city were still reeling in the and violence and are inadequately policed. Reagan years, the stonewalling of Mayor Harold Washington, AIDS, the crack We’ve been in better shape. As I write this, epidemic, as well as the economic the horror of gun violence goes on displacement of whole cultures across unabated—the murder rate is even more America. We will continue to do what we accelerated than it was last year—a few of did then: present what is good about the cops I’ve talked to are apprehensive to being alive and being a Chicagoan. We will actually do their jobs in light of the mistrust shine a light on and celebrate the arts and prevalence of body-cams and iPhone because art celebrates life, no matter the cams. In an odd way, these iPhone videos circumstance. are the best thing to have happened to the Chicago Police Department. It shows how Please join us, for this reason trenchant and badly people have been that I saw on a wall one time:“served and protected” in our city. The rot All passes. Art alone endures. is deep and CPD needs a complete overhaul. The officers over forty need to 9 go and there has to be a tidal, institutional, foundational shift in the CPD.cover_TOC-JH.indd 9 2/19/17 9:04 PM

Future News / Article in Newcity, Vol. 33, No. 2, February 21, 2018 By Stephen Eisenman Pussy Hat Project, Black Michael Moore, who in 2002 directed Lives Matter and the Brady “Bowling for Columbine,” has joined the Campaign Demand Repeal pro-gun movement, as have other of Gun Control Laws left-wing celebrities including Susan Saran- don, Matt Damon and Danny Glover. They have promised to lead a nationwide consumer boycott of four prominent businesses that recently banned guns from their premises: Chick-fil-A, Pizza Hut, Walmart and L.L. Bean. In response to the rise of liberal gun WASHINGTON — Hundreds of gun Doylestown, purchases by women in ownership, President Trump and congres- enthusiasts from the Pussy Hat Project, pussy hats at gun shows has totaled more sional Republicans are promising to Black Lives Matter and the Brady Cam- than $5,000,000. introduce what they call “common-sense paign (formerly Brady Campaign to gun control.” Trump’s recent tweet, Prevent Gun Violence), rallied today on the At about the same time as the Pussy Hat “Millions of falsified gun registrations! Very steps of the U.S. Capitol to demand the gun movement began, Black Lives and the dangerous!!” has motivated his base of repeal of existing gun control laws. They Brady Campaign stepped forward with gun-control advocates, and a bill to close waved signs featuring Kalashnikov rifles, their own initiatives. Their members the gun-show loophole is sailing through brandished long guns and shouted “Come applied for open-carry permits in huge the Republican Congress. Democrats, and Get It” to the bank of microphones numbers and they brought their weapons however, threaten a filibuster. (PolitiFact and cameras arrayed in front of them. to rallies. The passage in recent months of has labeled Trump’s claim entirely false or Fearful of violence, D.C. police ushered state laws requiring government-issued “pants on fire!”)Newcity MARCH 2017 anti-gun Republican legislators into the IDs for gun permits, so-called “shooter Yet despite its rapid growth, the long-term Capitol through basements and side suppression laws,” have only slightly prospects of the progressive gun-rights doors. slowed the growth of armed liberals. At a movement is dim. With the imminent retire- recent Black Lives rally at Homan Square ments of Supreme Court Justices Ruth The history of the new gun rights move- Police Station in Chicago (site of a Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer and ment is by now well known. In summer notorious detention center), most of the Trump’s vow to appoint to the court only 2017, a dozen feminists wearing pink protestors were armed. Their chant to “strict gun-control advocates,” the Second pussy hats entered a small Doylestown, police, “You Pack, I Pack,” is now Amendment right to bear arms is under Pennsylvania gun show and bought repeated at pro-gun rallies across the serious threat. Indeed, some observers $85,000 worth of rifles, shotguns and country. Shepard Fairey’s poster of a predict that gun rights may soon be pistols, nearly half of the stock on view. A pistol-pointing, pussy-capped Muslim consigned to the history books. week later, the same thing happened in woman beneath the slogan has become Indiana, except this time the women ubiquitous. Photo collage by MJ Hieggelke numbered about thirty and the haul over Photo by John C. Rivard $100,000. Then Tulsa, Dubuque, Canton10 and elsewhere. In the six months sinceNewcity_march_cover_TOC-final.indd 10 2/19/17 10:33 PM

DESIGNER OF THE MOMENT ** 2017 **CHARLES ADLER OF LOST ARTS BY BEN SCHULMAN PHOTOS BY JOE MAZZA / BRAVE LUX Charles Adler wants to talk about music. We’re sitting toward the back of the “design zone” at Lost Arts, the incubator-laborato- ry-coworking-cre- ative-space that Adler runs. Lost Arts has transformed 15,000 square feet on the first floor of Goose Island’s ...

Lost Arts is the embodiment ofmaking the invisible creativeprocess more visible. ... iconic Pickens Kane warehouse, an immense structure that seems to carry the entirety of the area’s historic industrial weight in its heavy brick walls. Around us, a class of visiting students settles in to listen to a presentation, 3D printers hum softly, a staffer runs over to tell Adler about a stubborn garage door that won’t open, all sorts of workstations, spread across the design, prototype and workshop zones, sit in anticipation, already infused with ideas. We could be talking about the crowdfunding progenitor Kickstarter, which Adler co-founded in 2009. We could be talking about Lost Arts itself. But you can’t talk about either if you don’t first talk about music. “Both Kickstarter and Lost Arts don’t happen without music,” he says. Adler was born in London and grew up in Westport, Connecticut. He went to college at Purdue University where he studied mechanical engineering, though he wanted to be an architect, noting his youthful obsessions with architects and designers like Saarinen, Eames and the Bauhaus. While at Purdue, “living on rice and soy sauce so I could come up to Chicago to buy records at Gramaphone,” Adler started flexing his musical and design muscles. He became a DJ, started designing flyers for shows and taught himself how to build websites on a DIY-HTML site called barebones.html.com.

He dropped out of school, moved to Chicago bring creative people together in directand started the process of making his connection with others—with friends Perry“hobby become a profession.” Becoming Chen and Yancey Strickler to launchimmersed in Chicago’s DJ culture, and Kickstarter in 2009.becoming more fluent in building websitesin the early days of streaming media, Adler By the time Kickstarter had launched,launched Subsystence, a forum for DJs to Adler was actually back living in Chicagoset up shop in his Roscoe Village with his wife and their young daughter.apartment and broadcast their sets over The success of Kickstarter pushed him tothe web. “The idea was to give friends of New York in 2010, where he remainedmine another venue,” he says. In essence, until 2013, when he left the company. Heit was an attempt to build a network of returned to Chicago to be close to hismutual supporters while building a family and to figure out what came next.reciprocal relationship between consumer “It was analogous to the time I left(in this case, the listener) and producer school,” he says. “Something about(the DJ). Chicago and the Midwest keeps pulling me back. A bit of that romance is built on theYears later, having bounced around all network I had built.”over the world and settling in New York forday-job commitments, and having sunsetthe original Subsystence site andrelaunched it as a highly designed,tightly-curated online arts magazine,Adler would refine his original idea—to

Lost Arts is not meant to bea linear-minded space.It’s a Montessori schoolfor creatives.Lost Arts is the culmination of Adler’s beyond the now-nearly ubiquitous idea ofromantic ideal of cultivating networks co-working or maker spaces by offeringwith providing a space for creative work itself first and foremost as a place ofacross many disciplines. It’s the access: for tools, for practice and forembodiment of “making the invisible mentorship.creative [process] more visible,” he says.Practically, Adler offers that Lost Arts Roman Titus is a Lost Arts member. Ais a “space to ‘build space.’” It goes photographer by trade, he left his graphic

design and branding studio, and after endeavors. Adler’s understanding of the watching a TED talk about “how mushrooms “VC/financial world and how to connect the could save the world,” decided to try dots,” is invaluable, Titus says, as he growing mushrooms on his own. After looks to scale his growth to a commercial successful grows, the mushrooms overtook level. “There are blurry lines between his apartment. what’s an artistic venue and an entrepreneurial venue,” Adler says, His firm Sojourn Fare aims to “make articulating a philosophy echoed by farming accessible to people.” He wants to“make the small farmer into a medium farmer” and use mushrooms as a conduit to change the delivery—and perception—of how food systems work. His setup at Lost Arts is like a mad scientist’s mycological dream come true: clear boxes of enormous fungi are hooked up to computerized sensors, not-so-little brains getting stronger, smarter and bigger in climate- controlled coolers. “Lost Arts offered the multiple pieces of manufacturing process, enabled by 3D printing, right there,” Titus says. But his circuitous route to becoming a mycologist—a designer leaving an established operation to envision a new way to improve an existing system—mirrors Adler’s own path toward creative

It’s nice to go to Lost Arts and have a community, to be surrounded by peers or those more advanced. academics like Richard Florida about The spillover effect from interaction is harnessing—and appreciating—the economic intentional. As Adler says, “Lost Arts is value of creativity. not meant to be a linear-minded space. It’s a Montessori school for creatives.” A number of Lost Arts members seem to Adler himself is understated about his follow this unorthodox bridge over cultural reach. Yet beyond his work at disparate disciplines and backgrounds. Lost Arts, serving on the board of the There’s the accountant focused on Active Transportation Alliance, Chicago woodworking. A healthcare industry worker Design Museum and the Wabash Lights, as designing and prototyping a new ergonomic well as supporting numerous other shoe for working women. The artist ventures, it’s impossible not to feel his building large-scale tigers and octopi. presence across multiple facets of Chicago’s design world. Jessica Gorse is a student in the School of the Art Institute’s Designed Objects “Charles is an important presence in program. The thirty-one-year-old Chicago,” architect and MAS Context designer went back to school with a focus publisher Iker Gil says. “If with on “synthesizing the creative and Kickstarter he created a new way of analytical mind.” Working with two supporting independent artists anywhere, partners (Soniya Khasgiwale and Erin Lost Arts provides a local physical Delaney), Gorse has conceived Fertile environment to bring together creatives Design, an effort to create a way to turn from diverse disciplines in one runoff waste from breweries into space. When many organizations have a biodegradable plates “embedded with the narrow mission and audience, it is seeds of plants native to the Illinois important that others like Charles are prairie.” Basically, it’s a disposable creating places to break those boundaries, plate made of discarded material that you bringing people together to support each throw into the ground that breeds flowers. other’s work, be aware of others in the city, collaborate, learn, share, Gorse and company came to Lost Arts celebrate and be challenged.” “needing a huge wall to do mind-mapping,”Newcity DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO she says. “Charles was flexible to [allow us] to use the space as we needed it,” she adds. The connection between Gorse and Lost Arts was made through SAIC professor Douglas Pancoast. SAIC, among other institutions, is increasingly using Lost Arts as a learning environment outside the classroom, whether for standalone events or as a conduit to enhance the collisions between designers. “A big aspect for me,” Gorse says, “is to be surrounded by designers. It’s nice to go to Lost Arts and have a community, to be surrounded by peers or those more advanced.”16

DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO

o view the world through a political lens, one would think that narrative has superseded substance in defining how culture is shaped. When literally means figuratively and facts and falsehoods have become fungible frenemies, it seems difficult to find a clear window through which to view the world.Newcity DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO But the political construction of Chicago's design scene, who (un)reality that unfolds around us provide the outlets and channels everyday now—an aggressive act for practitioners to create and be of, yes, design, that aims to erect acknowledged, who ensure there's a viscerally violent cultural frame still space for substance to weigh around political life—is compet- the airless culture down, who ing, not supplanting the cultural keep those frames in place, those frames that have come before it. windows clean, and the vision for Those preexisting frames, what a better designed tomorrow clear. one might call normalcy, have not (Ben Schulman) been constructed out of an elitist bubble, but rather, from interac- Note: With collaboration in mind, we tion, iteration and hard work took extra note this year that shepherd- between the wonderful mess that ing and championing a culture of design makes up the American people in is often more than a two-person job. places just like our home, Chica- Throughout the list, you'll see couplings go. They're the result of years of of those who work in tandem to best communication and collaboration, move the mission of their organizations an accretive process that ends up and the culture at large ahead. as, well, curation. This year, we celebrate these people. The curators, organizers, educators, critics and thinkers who lead18

Todd Palmer, Juanita Irizarry & Marcia Lausen1 2 3 DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO NewcityMarty Nesbitt Todd Palmer Juanita IrizarryChairman, Obama Foundation Executive Director, Executive Director,He may not be the most visible or vocal Chicago Architecture Biennial Friends of the Parksperson when considering the role of When the second edition of the Chicago Juanita Irizarry became executive directordesign in shaping Chicago, but Nesbitt, Architecture Biennial kicks off this coming of Friends of the Parks in 2015. Irizarrythe chairman of the Barack Obama September, executive director Todd has a long history of public and nonprofitFoundation, occupies a preeminent place Palmer—who succeeded longtime service, having worked for Governorin seeing through the development of the Chicago Loop Alliance honcho Ty Tabing Quinn, at Latinos United, and elsewheremost significant public landmark in in the role—says a new focus on legacy in the areas of housing, urban planningChicago in years—if not ever. The site has will be felt. “We’re thinking differently and community development. At Friendsbeen secured—Jackson Park—and the about legacy,” he says. “Rather than of the Parks, her charge has not been anarchitects selected—the feted-all-over thinking of legacy as a direct outcome as easy one, taking over the campaignNew York- based Tod Williams Billie Tsien a building or a pavilion, it’s more about against the use of lakefront park land forArchitects. The mild controversy over the setting the stage for continued impact.” the proposed Lucas Museum, andsite selection has been quelled and a Within that mindset, Palmer, who was stopping the Ma Yansong of MADstalwart slate of landscape architects, previously the associate director and Architects’ design from taking form on theMichael Van Valkenburgh and Ernie curator at the National Public Housing lakefront. (As an aside, since leavingWong’s Site Design Group, have been Museum, is establishing the biennial Chicago the Lucas Museum has receivedannounced to shape it. Now, Nesbitt, in organization itself as an ongoing concern, chilly responses from San Francisco,his organizational role, will be tasked with streamlining the business affairs that go again, and Los Angeles.)overseeing the completion of a project into programming a “global platform forthat not only enhances the city, but takes the built environment.”on added significance as an emblem tocarry the weight of democratic idealsand practice, as Rome appears to burnaround it. 19

Tanner Woodford & Iker GilNewcity DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO 4 5 6 Tanner Woodford Theaster Gates Ikram Goldman Executive Director, Director of Arts + Public Life, Office of Owner, ikram Chicago Design Museum the Provost, University of Chicago Ikram is one of these people who need no Tanner Woodford’s role at the helm of the The fingerprints of Theaster Gates—artist, further introduction. The Midwest’s haute Chicago Design Museum—and the designer and urban developer—are all couture ambassador’s reputation precedes hundreds of volunteers that compose its over blueprints of redevelopment on her. With a larger-than-life personality, the body and activity—is to allow the Chicago’s South Side, anchored in knowledgeable, powerful tastemaker put museum to serve as an intersection of projects like Stony Island Arts Bank, the Chicago on the fashion map for good. And social thought and community. The Arts Block in Washington Park, Dorches- she was not even born into fashion. museum itself is a neutral, free space, ter Projects and Black Cinema House. Growing up in Israel, Goldman moved to where visitors are welcomed in to reflect, Animating their impeccable redesign of Chicago at a young age. She then think, but also to become “active space and patina of reclaimed materials is proceeded to make a brand of herself participants of change” in the world. the commitment to constructing new under the roof of an eponymous bright-red Woodford also serves as an ambassador forms for “reflection, opportunity and state-of-the-art boutique… Luxurious, for Chicago’s unique cadre of designers to beauty,” where real people in real sophisticated and well-connected, the rest of the world, most recently neighborhoods learn about, share and Goldman proves that she can achieve through the ChicagoMade installation at celebrate culture. Recently, Gates and his anything she sets her mind to — even if Business of Design Week in Hong Kong, Place Lab platform, in concert with the it’s stepping up to the mic with the lounge which attracted 120,000 attendees. With University of Chicago, has led the Ethical act Pink Martini to dazzle the crowds huge growth in both CDM’s membership Redevelopment Salon Series, bringing during Paris Fashion Week. and public programs, Woodford has together artists, designers and community bolstered the CDM as a forum for a developers from around the nation to community hungry for innovation, reimagine and reshape cities using the exchange of ideas, and the wider complex politics of place “to make space attention of the international design for people.” community.20

You’ve got the data — now tell the story. • Learn to apply digital design to effectively and strategically convey information that creates quality user experiences. • Develop the expertise needed to fill multiple roles and lead design, development, and communication teams. • Build a mindset that will enable you to interpret consumer information and articulate data-driven strategies and tactics. • Earn your Northwestern University master’s degree entirely online. Apply today — the summer quarter application deadline is April 15. sps.northwestern.edu/design • 312-503-2579CUSP CONFERENCE WOULD LIKE TOCONGRATULATE THOSE WHO SHARE INTHE BELIEF THAT THE BEST WAY TOPREDICT THE FUTURE IS TO DESIGN IT.TO HONOR THE NEWCITY DESIGN 50, CUSP IS OFFERING A LIMITED TIME DISCOUNT.PLEASE USE PROMO CODE - DESIGN50 - FOR 25% OFF CURRENT TICKET PRICES.CUSP CONFERENCE 2017September 27-28, 2017 / Museum of Contemporary Art Theater / Chicago, IL / www.cuspconference.comTwo days of thinkers, innovators, performers, believers, and visionaries from the arts, sciences,technology, business and design, sharing remarkable ideas, inspiring stories, unexpected connections,innovative thinking and mind-expanding conversations about ‘the design of everything.’

hub for aspirational designers—those passionate, direct and expressive enough to join his community and enact change. Of the city, Tullman describes that the best aspect of its design—one which forms the heart of 1871—is that the city “invites all comers in,” celebrating diversity and collaborative spirit.Newcity DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO 7 Zoë Ryan 10 Blair Kamin and Design, Ryan has taken her depart- Stanley Tigerman and Margaret McCurry Architecture Critic, Chicago Tribune ment of an institution traditionally devoted Principals, Tigerman McCurry Architects After twenty-five years as the Tribune’s to impressionist works in oil and turned it The eighty-six-year-old enfant terrible of architecture critic, it’s hard to overstate into a design powerhouse, with reach far Chicago architecture continues his long Blair Kamin’s impact on the city—not just beyond Chicago to match the local arc of influence over the coming genera- on its architecture and evolving urban connections Ryan has forged. Much of tions of practitioners. At any given form, but the more subtle role he plays in this success is due to Ryan’s embrace of moment, Tigerman could be polemically its overarching cultural environment. a multifaceted curatorial practice. Writing, riffing to Iker Gil in an issue of MAS Although you may not agree with teaching and collaborating widely beyond Context, being slyly referenced throughout everything he says, you can’t dismiss his her curatorial duties (what Ryan calls, the work of Ania Jaworska, among others, role both as an advocate for causes he “Practice in-the-round”) enables her to or lending the theme to the inaugural believes in and as a provocateur: If Kamin continually sharpen her knives so as to Chicago Architecture Biennial—its “State writes about something, you can be sure better dissect what it is that makes of the Art of Architecture” was originally that people will discuss it. Despite his architecture and design so essential to the title of a series of lectures he con- Pulitzer Prize win, he feels his success as civic life. vened at the Graham Foundation in a critic, “isn’t measured by the awards 1977. Yet it’s the work of his firm, you win, but by the ideas you advance 9 Tigerman McCurry Architects, that he and discussions you provoke.” He offers shares principality with his wife and that “when people stop me on the El and Howard A. Tullman partner, Margaret McCurry, that remains a thank me for opening their eyes to CEO, 1871 reference point for designers to turn to something, that’s the ultimate prize.” A serial entrepreneur known for his style when envisioning a new language with of “disruptive innovation,” Howard which to build. See last year’s “Chicago 8 Tullman describes the community he has Residence,” located in Lincoln Park, helped craft at 1871 as a “miniature city published in Architectural Record, as a Zoë Ryan in itself… grown to incorporate the best preeminent example. John H. Bryan Chair and elements of Chicago.” Tullman envisions a Curator of Architecture and Design, 11 The Art Institute of Chicago The recent preponderance of high-quality Christopher Jobson architecture and design exhibitions, Founder, Colossal events and lectures at the Art Institute of With Colossal, one enters a maelstrom Chicago may have misled Chicagoans into where Jobson’s words weave around the thinking that it was always this way. That central imagery of each post, and these is not so. In her tenure at the Art Institute images draw you in deeply. Compact of Chicago, where she is the John H. writing opens rather than interprets and Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture leaves one reading the images, pointing above all to the potency of work designed by human hands. Colossal is a clearing- house for artists and expression, a site that serves as a repository for cutting criti- cism and a must-read pulse on the design world for practitioners, consumers and appreciators alike. His process is an assiduous consumption of hundreds of websites and submissions to fixate on but two or three uncommon projects that can both awe and open conversation for his vast community of readers.22

12 has streamlined individual and institution- design is not restricted to 'designers' and al grants, elevated the quality of exhibi- that it is a fundamentally human trait thatRick Valicenti tions and sought to both physically and has taken our species from developing theFounder and Design Director, Thirst metaphorically open the foundation’s first stone tools to driving remote vehiclesValicenti is interested in the “currency home—the Madlener House—to the on Mars.”born of innocence and energy embodied public. Through her curatorial scholarshipby the next generation.” A self-described at Graham Foundation, Herda has 15“wisdom keeper” drawing from the pool showcased a heady and diverse mix ofof New Bauhaus, and one of the foremost artists, architects, curators, scholars and Richard Wrightchampions of young designers working in writers while engendering an unmatched President/CEO, Wrightthe city (Valicenti was the curatorial mind institutional amiability and inquisitive- If Chicago is perennially ranked secondbehind the 2014 CHGO DSGN exhibit at ness. Graham Foundation is unquestion- (or third) to New York or Los Angeles inthe Cultural Center), Valicenti is yet ably the elegant, cultured dame of almost every aspect of the art market,inspired by the sincerity and creativity of Chicago’s architecture and design scene, Wright auction house has probably thesocial movements such as the Women’s largely above the fray and promulgating a best claim to national leadership in theMarch and its visual emblems. He purely intellectual manifestation of local area of modern—particularly post Worldexplains that designers have a responsibil- and global architectural discourse. War II—design objects, where it hasity to amplify that energy, or else lose the developed a reputation that equals oressential value of work that resonates in a 14 betters rivals Sotheby’s, Christie’s andsocial continuum. Valicenti models the Phillips de Pury. Richard Wright reportsnew archetype of the designer: that of the Dave Mason that after seventeen years in operation,thoughtful worker, a leader in educating Co-Founder, Cusp Conference his biggest challenges now involvethe next generation of designers, yet still If you've ever looked around you and adjusting to a shifting, broadeningentranced by his own curiosity and the thought ”everything is done with inten- marketplace and new technologies. “Ourpossibilities of whimsy in his practice. tionality,” then Mason is your man. In strategy has changed to come up with fact, the “design of everything” is more tightly curated sales, more content13 practically a summation of the En- points,” he says. “We’re always looking glish-born Mason's philosophy. In addition for material that tells a story that hasn’tSarah Herda to his role as principal and strategy been told yet.” Case in point: auctioningDirector, Graham Foundation director of Multiple, Inc., Mason convenes the contents of New York's famed FourSarah Herda was seemingly everywhere the Cusp conference for a few days of the Seasons restaurant, which brought inin 2015, the last time Newcity assembled year each fall—an event he describes as more than four million dollars, four timesthis list. Director of the Graham Founda- “supercollider” for those in the design the original estimate.tion, Herda also curated the inaugural field. “Our presenters are most definitelyChicago Architecture Biennial and now innovators, leaders, thinkers and doers,sits on the board for 2017’s installment, and we believe in the power of design toadvising and overseeing planning, facilitate change,” Mason says. “Throughpreparation and curator selection. Herda Cusp, we hope to promote the idea that Dave Mason 16 DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO Newcity Robert Somol Director of the School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Chicago Robert Somol’s tenure as director at UIC School of Architecture has seen the projective agenda of post-modernism reappropriated to inform a contemporary platform for emerging architecture practitioners and students. Ever the thinker, Somol’s deft application of soft power has encouraged a new generation of small practitioners and thinkers in Chicago. Somol has long advocated for 23

Kim Knoll beautiful and free to the public, is a wonderful venue, Lunceford is often motivated by a thought in bringing art and design to more communities in Chicago: “How do I get to them?” 20 Charles Adler Founder, Center for Lost Arts Being a co-founder of Kickstarter may stand out on his resume, but it’s Adler’s ability to create the conditions and places that connect people, and more important- ly, see their projects go from seed to root, that is his lasting accomplishment. Adler now heads up Lost Arts, the multi- pronged entrepreneurial lab-cum-work- shop-cum-creative-mad-scientist-hangout that is quickly becoming one of the city’s injecting levity and humor into what is 18 hubs of innovation across many sectors. often a deadly serious profession, and “Charles is a critical element of the while the current manifestation of this Kim Knoll Chicago design community,” says Tanner approach yields a nearly uniform style Founding Partner + Designer, Woodford, the executive director of the among faculty and students, his bifocal Knoed Creative Chicago Design Museum, where Adler gaze toward the future and the past of For Kim Knoll, everything is about serves on the board. “[He is] providing an architecture promise that this will soon attitude. When at twenty-five she found open platform for entrepreneurs, artists change. herself unemployed and back at home and other creatives to work and experi- with her mom, she knew she wouldn’t ment.\"Newcity DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO 17 give up. Within the past six years she 21 became co-founder of Knoed Creative, Jonathan Solomon working with startups around the globe Zurich Esposito and Joan Pomaranc Director of Architecture, Interior Archi- and hosting over forty local Creative Executive Vice President and Program tecture and Designed Objects, School of Mornings events since 2013. Whether the Art Institute of Chicago planning the well-known breakfast lecture An inveterate optimist in the power of series for the creative community, turning public spaces to shape civic life, Solomon small-business visions into something has transformed the School of the Art tangible with her partner Kyle Eertmoed, Institute of Chicago’s department of or painting on the side, her purpose Architecture, Interior Architecture and remains strong: thoughtful strategy, Designed Objects in the nearly three years wide-eyed creativity and a big smile. ”For of his deanship. An academic who me, inspiration comes from a concept or understands the realities of practice, strategy. Without either, I would stare at a Solomon is comfortable exploring the blank screen and feel lost,” she says. frequent dichotomies in architecture Through the ups and downs she’s learned practice and education, willingly position- one thing: “Just work hard, push yourself ing SAIC (and himself via various writings, and be nice.” publications and seminars) between 19 Director, AIA Chicago critical and popular practice, context and How integral are Zurich Esposito and ideal, nuance and simplicity, the sacred Joan Pomaranc to the success of the space of academic thought and the Greg Lunceford Chicago chapter of the American Institute profanity-laced reality of architectural Curator of Exhibitions, of Architects, the nation’s second largest practice. Under Solomon, SAIC has Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs of the national 90,000-member organiza- refined its pedagogy to teach a contextual- and Special Events tion? Both non-architects were distin- ly and urbanism informed yet no less The work of Greg Lunceford, curator of guished by the board of directors as experimental architecture, one which he exhibitions at Chicago’s Department of honorary members. Esposito, the hopes will prepare students to reform the Cultural Affairs and Special Events, is executive vice president, represents the practice of architecture from within the ephemeral. His curatorial productions at organization publicly and is responsible the Cultural Center are on display for an for the execution of its mission and profession, as well as it prepares future initiatives. Pomaranc is the institutional educators to inhabit SAIC’s new ivory average of three months, though he heart, bringing encyclopedic knowledge of tower in Homan Square. sometimes spends years producing the the entire canon of Chicago’s architectural exhibitions. He says “yes” to a lot of proposals, knowing his role is to provide a history, and an eagerness to see every architect succeed in every circumstance.24 platform. While the Cultural Center,

Together, they underpin the organization’s 23 24efforts to use architecture as a means forbuilding better communities, whether it Elizabeth Kelley Cindy Pritzkerbe leading efforts to prototype Tiny Public Art Administrator, Co-Founder, Pritzker Architecture PrizeHomes as an affordable housing solution, Chicago Transit Authority Cindy Pritzker is the matriarch of one ofopposing AIA National’s seeming willing- Elizabeth Kelley has served as arts Chicago’s most powerful and influentialness to support President Trump’s administrator for more than eighteen clans, and occupies one of the greatestinfrastructure program, or elevating, as years in Chicago, first for the city, and positions in the city—or at least herEsposito says, “the importance of public since 2012, as public art administrator image does: the distinctive Andy Warholbuildings, schools, community centers for the Chicago Transit Authority. With the silkscreen portrait is the only artwork atand playspaces that activate communi- CTA, among other projects, Kelley has Cindy’s—the restaurant atop her sonties.” incorporated public art on the Red Line John’s Chicago Athletic Association hotel south of the Cermak-Chinatown station. that opened in 2015 on Michigan22 “The stations are located in the center of Avenue. Pritzker, most widely known for the Dan Ryan expressway, which made the Hyatt hotel brand her family estab-Lynn Osmond and Michael Wood the space feel cold, empty and unremark- lished, is perhaps more (justly) associatedPresident/CEO and Senior Director of able,” she says. The artwork has also with the support of literacy and the city’sProgram Strategy, Chicago Architecture made a visual connection between the libraries, but her most lasting contributionFoundation stations and the communities that were to the role of design as a core tenet ofLynn Osmond, president and CEO of the separated by the construction of the Chicago’s cultural might remains as theChicago Architecture Foundation, and highway. Her work highlights the need to force behind the family foundation’sMichael Wood, senior director of program bridge the design divide between architecture prize, the world’s leadingstrategy, strive to develop our appreciation utilitarian and beautiful, infrastructure accolade in architecture. The prestige ofof Chicago’s existing environment. Wood and asset. the award cements Chicago’s place as awrites that, “we help people see that the global capital of architecture.designer’s care and ingenuity is all aroundthem.” Osmond has been head of CAF for 25over twenty years, which now serves halfa million visitors annually. Wood joined Janel LabanCAF in 2010 to head the new Association Executive Editor, Apartment Therapyof Architecture Organizations. AAO hosts Janel Laban is working “at the dreamiestthe Design Matters Conference, the of dream jobs,” as she calls it. As thelargest meeting of those working in design executive editor of Apartment Therapyeducation. since 2006 and author of “Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home” Michael Wood & with the popular home-design website’s Lynn Osmond founder Maxwell Ryan, she understands the importance of a beautiful, well-orga- nized home, and she knows how to pass her wisdom to others. From step-by-step home-design tips and DIY space make- overs, to side projects, to lifestyle advice, Laban is a font of resources and guid- ance—a form of therapy, only for your living space. 26 DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO Newcity Bonnie McDonald and Lisa DiChiera President and Director of Advocacy, Landmarks Illinois At Landmarks Illinois, Bonnie McDonald and Lisa DiChiera work together to preserve our historic structures. McDon- ald has been president and CEO since 2012 and DiChiera has been director of advocacy since 2003. Much of their work is outside of the public eye, developing plans with owners that both reuse historic buildings and do so in a way that makes economic sense. Bonnie, Lisa and Landmarks Illinois are now doing the unsexy, but vital, work of defending the 25

29 Emmanuel Pratt Executive Director, Sweet Water Foundation Emmanuel Pratt has extensive training in architecture and urban planning. He’s currently a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, but his work moves beyond policy to execute the practical and the meaningful. He does this as the co-founder and executive director of the Sweet Water Foundation. Active in Milwaukee and Chicago, the Sweet Water Foundation combines the reuse of land in disinvested neighbor- hoods, urban agriculture and work experience and design training for youth. In short, it is an experiment in communi- ty-building, economic development and the raising of our community’s children. 30 Kim Coventry Executive Director, Driehaus Foundation Bonnie McDonald and Lisa DiChiera Richard H. Driehaus and Kim Coventry work as a team at the eponymous Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. Drie- haus, the successful capital investment manager, provides the vision (and funding) and Coventry, the execution. The federal historic tax credit being targeted 28 foundation supports historic preservation for elimination. The Chicago Athletic and high-quality design and improve- Association and Rosenwald Courts would Marcia Lausen ments to Chicago communities. It also most likely not have been rehabilitated Director of the School of Design, promotes valuing of this work through the without this credit. University of Illinois at Chicago Local Initiatives Support Corporation A 2015 recipient of the AIGA Medal from Chicago Neighborhood Development 27 the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Awards. Driehaus believes that “humans this Fort Wayne, Indiana native came to respond to design that responds to them. Andrea Reynders and Tonya Gross Chicago by way of Yale, bringing a Everyone deserves good design.” Coventry Director of Design and Executive design-can-do-better attitude as evi- joined the foundation in January 2014 as Director, Chicago Fashion Incubator (CFI) denced in her work with Design for executive director and vice president, Did you know that Chicago is home to Democracy after the 2000 election to having previously headed a consulting help provide ballot design less susceptible firm for more than twenty years. one of the few incubators in the country to error and hanging chads. Today, sheNewcity DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO dedicated to the development of fashion not only heads up the UIC School of 31 entrepreneurs? “Chicago’s creative and Design, but also continues to balance her entrepreneurial community is very special, directorship with her partnership role in Frances Bronet says Chicago Fashion Incubator director of design firm, Studio/lab. Lausen can count Provost, Illinois Institute of Technology design Andrea Reynders. “Like an oasis clients such as the Alzheimer’s Associa- IIT has found itself on the cusp of a between two coasts, its nurturing tion, Motorola and Steelcase, but it’s her geographical and generational shift environment lies away from the relentless, efforts to innovate in her pedagogical coming to Chicago. Located at the competitive and commercial. It is like approach that might carry the most northern boundary of the South Side of being in a bedrock foundation of personal influence. “In the fall of 2018 we will Chicago or the southern boundary of identity,” she says. The CFI helps local launch a Bachelor of Arts in Design (BA in Downtown, the storied university has aspiring fashion designers build sustain- Design) degree,” says Lausen. “This will sought to reposition itself within the able businesses of global influence. Tonya have a humanities focus with studio context of Chicago and reconnect to its Gross, the CFI executive director and courses in Design Research, Graphic immediate surroundings as well as local, former director of fashion and culinary Design and Industrial Design. It will allow national and international issues. Frances programs at the city’s Department of students to transfer from other institutions Bronet, a practicing architect and Cultural Affairs and Special Events, adds, or from within UIC to complete an engineer, has led this charge since 2015 “It’s an incredibly dynamic city. The cool undergraduate degree in the UIC School when she joined the school as provost. thing is that no one expects anything from of Design.” Her background as an educator, adminis- us (in fashion) here out of Chicago.”26

Chicago. Despite working for national and international clients, Dawn stays close to her roots in Chicago: “We love the opportunities when we get to create something for our city because it feels like we are building something positive around us.”Dirk Denison structural basis of the built world as well 34 DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO Newcity as its aesthetic manifestation. One getstrator and practitioner prepare her to the sense that Dension does not celebrate Celeste Adamsdirect the sometimes overly cloistered and refined objects and details simply for their President/CEO,rational impulses of IIT toward the liminal beauty, but because in this beauty we find Frank Lloyd Wright Trustspaces between the campus and the a transcendent and meditative connection In what would have been his 150thcommunity where new opportunities for that is accessible to all people. year, Frank Lloyd Wright is moreengagement, experimentation and relevant than ever, in no small partexploration exist. 33 because of the continued relevance of the FLW Trust. And in the six years32 Dawn Hancock since Celeste Adams has served as chief Founder and Managing Director, executive director, the trust—whichDirk Denison Firebelly Design manages the Wright Home & Studio andFounder, Director, Losing both of her parents at a young age The Unity Temple in Oak Park as well asDirk Denison Architects drove Dawn Hancock to think deeply the Robie House in Hyde Park—hasAmong Chicago architects, few hold such about life as something impermanent. “I substantially expanded its mission. It’swell-deserved and humbly wielded wanted to invest my time wisely, doing making a particular outreach to aeminence as Dirk Denison. Through his things I am passionate about,” she says. younger generation of schoolchildren,eponymous architecture practice, he “So I started Firebelly in 1999 at the age teaching them that Wright was morecontinues to carry on and refine the of twenty-five.” Hancock’s mission was than simply America’s now-most-be-modernist ethos of attention to detail, simple: good design for good reason, loved architect. “Beyond his designs, hecraft and execution that largely germinat- focusing on “doing work that helps stood for the courage of his owned in Chicago. Beyond his practice, people.” Flash forward to 2017, Dawn convictions. We want students to knowDenison chairs IIT’s Mies Crown Hall not only runs Firebelly Design but also that they, too, can cultivate their ownAmericas Prize, the second installment of Firebelly Foundation, through which the vision and fulfill it in their own lives.”which was awarded this past fall. A new programs Reason to Give and Camptype of architecture prize geographically Firebelly have been launched. Dawn is 35focused on projects in the Americas and the co-founder of Typeforce, along withthe clients and users behind them, the the Public Media Institute, and has served Cheryl S. DurstMCHAP seeks to further a dialogue as the community outreach chair for AIGA Executive Vice President/CEO, Thearound design, development and global International Interior Design Associationissues in a way that examines the In 2016, Durst was named to Interior Design magazine's Hall of Fame as “an ambassador for innovation and expansion, and a visionary strategist.” As executive vice president and CEO of the Chicago chapter of the International Interior Design Association, she leads both the organization and heads the publication of the association's design journal, Perspec- tive. A prolific speaker, advocate and board manager, Durst also announced in 2016 that she would see the group through a relocation out of its longtime home in the Merchandise Mart to a new seventeen thousand square foot space in the Mies van der Rohe-designed tower at 111 East Wacker. 27

36 37 38 Alisa Wolfson Eleanor Gorski Robert Forest EVP Head of Design, Deputy Commissioner of Planning, Founder/Partner, Adrian Smith + Gordon Leo Burnett Chicago Design and Historic Preservation, Gill Architecture Alisa Wolfson facilitates the environment City of Chicago Department of Newcity’s annual Design 50 list alternates of Burnett’s design team as a space “open Planning and Development between the doers—those on the ground to experimentation, critique and fluidity.” Eleanor Gorski has served the city of making things happen, and the thinkers— In her office, a welcome hum of interac- Chicago for many years, becoming the those who take the 50,000-foot view. tion between designers reflects products’ director of historic preservation for the Bob Forest of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill value and place in how humans interact Department of Planning and Development Architecture takes what could be equated in the world. A lifelong Chicagoan, the in 2011. She had additional responsibili- with the orbital view—considering local city’s own grid becomes a subconscious ties added to this role in 2016, now and global design problems in an part of her work, where its community of serving as deputy commissioner of ever-expanding context of culture, designers “overlap, run into each other Planning, Design and Historic Preserva- materials, contracts, law and schedule. and share” their innovations. In working tion. City staff are not expected to be in From his work with Chicago’s chapter of with other top-level designers, collabora- the limelight and often perform the the American Institute of Architects to the tion “makes for healthy tension and necessary yet unglamorous tasks that way he is changing practice by designing conversation.” It is an instinct for make the city what it is. In Gorski’s case, the process of business and delivery at collective ingenuity to transform the this includes the multi-year rehabilitation ASGG, Forest often seems like he is world. of Wrigley Field and the plan for the playing chess while everyone around him Fulton-Randolph Market District, which plays checkers. has set the guidelines for the preservation and planning of the district. Morlen Sinoway & Alisa WolfsonNewcity DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO 39 Iker Gil Founder, Director, MAS Studio Nobody better represents the spirit of self-directed independent thought and practice that characterizes “capital A” Architecture in Chicago as Iker Gil. A practicing architect, designer, journalist and curator, Iker has been bringing interesting, obscure and overlooked topics to local and global audiences since 2009 through his journal, MAS Context. Uninterested in the popularity or expedi- ency of ideas, Iker embraces profundity and insight instead. He is constantly engaging, interrogating and examining the–ahem–context in which we live, work, play and function as citizens, designers and architects. Iker’s contributions to the city and the profession have impacts that reverberate far beyond Chicago’s immedi- ate environs and the publications he curates often grow more influential over time.28

Eric Williams40 42 43 DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO NewcityUgo Alfano Casati Max Temkin Tim SwansonFounder, Casati Gallery Designer, Cards Against Humanity Office Practice Leader, CannonDesignIn the universe of urban gentrification, the Ever since Max Temkin leveraged a design As the youngest office leader in thepioneer who is victimized by his own internship with the Obama administration history of the century-old-and-countingprescience is an old story. But don’t call into a job, he has sought out design architectural firm of CannonDesign, theUgo Casati a victim. He’s a great adapter. challenges that push boundaries. “I was tattooed, globetrotting Swanson overseasHis Casati Gallery was one of the first interested in the way the design brand a group of more than 200 working onnon-food retailers on Fulton Market, and turned Obama from an outsider guy into buildings and city planning around theas his reputation for dealing in collec- someone really polished through the globe. With a central focus on health andtor-quality twentieth-century Italian design execution of the brand,” he says. Born in education, the firm has also workedgrew, so did the desirability of the Highland Park, Max grew up with a close across the spectrum including governmentneighborhood. That partly explains why circle of friends who would later become and, under Swanson's leadership, tohe has been priced out of the neighbor- partners and co-creators of the successful pioneer new engagements including morehood and will move later this year to a game Cards Against Humanity. Max has a equitable design. Projects under hismore industrial location and space. He passion for philosophy, comedy writing stewardship have included the Cooksays his new, by-appointment-only and political communications and uses County Bond Court and the healthshowroom space will allow him to expand these fields to inform his projects. In sciences campuses at Malcolm X College,his stable of contemporary designers addition to his involvement in Cards aimed at giving Chicago youth a leg up.(including local favorite Jonathan Nesci) Against Humanity, Max has published anto complement his historical program. independent zine called “Maxistentialism” 44“Proportion, shape and scale don’t come and works as a design advisor. “I want tofrom nowhere,” he says. “They come from make sure that with the successes we’ve Morlen Sinowayhistory. All contemporary design is had, that we use that to open doors for Owner, Morlen Sinoway Atelierdescended from somewhere.” more people” he says, showcasing his Morlen Sinoway cringes at the notion of dedication to provide artists and designers being called the city’s godfather of41 with platforms for expression. design—mostly because he assumes it ages him. But few players on the sceneEric Williams are such tireless cheerleaders andOwner, The Silver Room optimistic promoters of Chicago’s designEric Williams opened the Silver Room, in culture, from the singular offerings of his1997 in Wicker Park. Now in Hyde Park, atelier on Fulton Market to the scaled-the space serves as a mix of arts incuba- down reboot of his Guerrilla Truck showtor, jewelry-fashion-art retail outlet and during the Neocon trade show. More thanvenue; people in the neighborhood anything, he remains a trend-setter,program more than seventy percent of the tastemaker and a proponent of the Fultonevents. “I want to provide a platform for Market neighborhood, even as itsthe community,” he says. Eric started out character wanes as a gallery/retailstudying finance while simultaneously neighborhood while booming as anbeing a vendor on Maxwell Street, selling entertainment and nightlife district. Het-shirts to pay for college. After a briefstint as a stockbroker, he quit and went 29back to selling merchandise on thestreets. “Being a vendor on the streetallowed me to meet artists, students, DJsand the microcosm that is Chicago,” hesays. Some of Williams’ upcomingprojects—the Silver Room’s Block Party, asummer music series, and a documentaryof the history of the Silver Room—reflecthis passion as a bridge builder andcultural leader.

Petra Slinkard, Tim Swanson & Frances Bronet says the influx of office workers—from 46 Google specifically—has had practically no influence on his business, out of which Virgil Abloh his retail operation is less significant than Founder, Off-White his work with architects and designers. He's creative, innovative and fearless. But he’s staying. “I’ll be a dinosaur here He's everywhere and nowhere. His eventually,” he says. whereabouts a blur and his next piece of work is always more boundary-pushingNewcity DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO 45 than the one before. Founder of Mi- 47 lan-based fashion label Off-White (with Nasir Kassamali retail locations across Asia and in Angelique Power President/Co-Founder, Luminaire London), designer, DJ and creative President, The Field Like many purveyors of furnishings and consultant of Kanye West, among others, Foundation of Illinois designed objects, Luminaire’s Nasir Virgil Abloh defines the area between Angelique Power has worked in nonprofit Kassamali acknowledges the significance black and white as \"off-white,\" and he management and philanthropy for over of e-commerce. “We do well with our brings vintage and daring streetwear into twenty years, currently serving as online store,” he says. “It’s a stepping high fashion. The designer says his president of the Field Foundation of stone for our newly acquired customers.” creative ideas exist in two worlds, the Illinois. Her background and involvement But he says that the experience of a trip street and the runway, and his force is with civic initiatives are diverse and to one of Luminaire’s three brick-and- strong and contagious. The self-made Chi- far-reaching. She grew up on the South mortar stores (two in Miami, one here) cago kid with the big vision of disrupting Side, a child of Jewish and black parents, can’t be transmitted virtually. And really, the fashion industry is already doing it— themselves a teacher and a police officer. each of its retail outlets has acted as an and whatever he's up to, he's undeniably Having earned a master of fine arts important real estate catalyst in the city. cool. degree from the School of the Art Institute When it arrived in River North, it was an of Chicago, Power now “creatively outlier: a design retailer in the city’s supports the arts and Chicago.” She leading gallery district. Despite the area’s states that one current project is to use decline as a contemporary art center, the present political and social situation Luminaire has remained an anchor of style and refinement in the design arena. as an opportunity for “listening and learning to believe in each other.”30

Eleanor Gorski, Claire Warner & Sam Vinz48 49 50 DESIGN 50: WHO SHAPES CHICAGO NewcityPetra Slinkard Sam Vinz and Claire Warner Laura ForlanoCurator of Costume, Founders, Volume Gallery Assistant Professor of Design, IITChicago History Museum If asked, \"What can an art gallery focused Institute of DesignIt’s best to call Petra Slinkard a fashion on emerging American design do for you?\" As a professor of design, Forlano pre-detective. Or perhaps a storyteller through Sam Vinz and Claire Warner, the founders cludes the canon’s narrative, insteadfashion. Born in the Netherlands and of Volume Gallery, have an answer. Their seeking alternative and dis-establishedraised in Indiana, Slinkard’s background shows, events and engagement with the voices to teach her students about design,in art history and fashion merchandising Chicago design and architecture commu- aesthetics and the life of cities. “Politicsmotivated her to launch her own clothing nities all reflect the notion that contempo- are embedded in designed artifacts andline called FOP. In 2013, she relocated to rary American design can be appreciated emerging technologies,” she explains, anChicago where she currently works as a for its complexity in terms of an idea, but imperative for her students to respondcurator of costume at the Chicago History must remain honest to clarity of form. and interact with the pressing issues ofMuseum. Her role as a fashion curator Volume represents a generation of the world to build “more inclusiveinvolves researching fashion and history designers and makers exploring bodies of futures.” She believes designers have ato tell Chicago’s stories. “I’m inspired by work that can hold their own in the white unique responsibility to social justicediscovering and sharing stories,” she says. halls of a gallery and simultaneously look movements in “connecting citizens and“Dress and adornment objects hold the sick in your first condo. In January, the intersectional activist organizations.”keys to those stories and fashion has a lot duo moved west to a new space on Lately, Forlano has focused on pursuingof stories to tell.” Petra’s love for fashion Chicago Avenue. the uncomfortable in her work, exploringand storytelling informs the way in which collaborations with architects, historiansshe uses design and research to present and fashion designers while drawing moreintriguing stories. “Making Mainbocher,” deeply from her own self and humor foran exhibition she curated at the museum, inspiration.is currently on view until August 2017. Design 50 was written by Philip Berger, Nick Cecchi, Gregory Maher, Andrew Vesselinovitch and Michael Workman With additional contributions by Taylor Holloway, Tracy Montes, Vasia Rigou, Aaron Rose and Ben Schulman Cover and interior photos by Joe Mazza / Brave Lux 31



F ROM MARI AH KARSON’ S “MODE RN DAVI D” SE RI E S MARCH 2017 Newcity AFTER MICHELANGELO MARIAH KARSON’S “MODERN DAVID” CONSIDERS WHAT’S IN A NAME BY DAVID HAMMOND“Modern David” is now on display at the Chicago Cultural Center. This installation of thirty photographs of guys named David, arranged in a large square, is the work ofNewcity_D50_p33-40.indd 33 33 2/19/17 10:27 PM

Chicago artist Mariah Karson, and it’s actually come in for a portrait session. Other Davids came more prepared. David part of a larger show titled “The Subject One powerful statement another male Stephens told us he got in shape for the is Chicago: People, Places, Possibilities.” photographer made to me when shoot “by watching my water intake and Karson’s other major current work is discussing the difficulty of finding spending some time at the gym.” Wish I “American Legion,” which she explains participants was that with more equality had done that. “documents the lives of Legion members between genders, now men are allowed and the impact veterans and Posts have to hate their bodies equally. I have Michelangelo’s David: on communities. It combines my love of learned a lot about male body image colossal, naked, perfect small-town America and my unique sense issues—some participants have detailed of patriotism.” how they prepared for their session, Right now, you probably have a mental workouts, spray tans, diet… one Patriotism and one’s place in the country participant came in and did push-ups in image of David, and that iconic, paradigmatic David was implanted in our are also themes addressed in “Modern front of me.” collective consciousness by Michelangelo, David.” Here’s the invitation to participate who sculpted “the” David for in “Modern David” that Karson the city of Florence. This put up on Facebook: gargantuan statue of the young Seeking individuals named warrior, facing down a distant David in the Chicago area to and unseen Philistine Goliath, be photographed for a portrait has been interpreted as a series. Please contact IT TAKES A CERTAIN symbol of Florentine civic pride Mariah Karson to participate and resistance to threatening and receive an 8x10” print of KIND OF DAVID TO neighbors. Michelangelo’s your portrait. Please share / ALLOW THEMSELVES warrior boy was also on tag Davids you know to Karson’s mind, of course, and get the word out. Email believes that, “using the name [email protected] David provided for both or call 773.470.8571 to TO BE DISPLAYED IN A religious and art historical participate. context. Michelangelo’s Karson’s “Modern David” VULNERABLE WAY, sculpture at first impression is a colossal naked body, perfect project has been going on for WITHOUT CONTROL in anatomical form and carved over two years. In early 2015, with a proud glance. The I heard about it from a friend. OF FINAL VIEWING. physical representation of Sounded fun. Karson and I David in this sculpture has communicated via email, and been looked at as the ideal or she told me that I’d be perfect man, much like modern photographed with my shirt off. representations of men in I was okay with that. advertising and media.”Newcity MARCH 2017 Men now allowed to David Sanchez, featured in “Modern Michelangelo’s David has hate their bodies David,” owns a Chicago modeling agency. always struck me as grotesque, equally Sanchez, who has done some modeling monstrous, domineering, smooth and himself, told us he’d recently had a large sleek, almost a precursor of twentieth- Once in Karson’s apartment, however, tumor removed from his neck; the century Soviet Socialist realism. Even taking off even some of my clothes was a surgical scar is still apparent. “My though this paradigmatic David was little more awkward than I’d expected. business is all about body image,” says technically well-proportioned, it’s all Married for decades, I hadn’t disrobed in Sanchez. “During the shoot, I don’t think white hardness, threatening with barely a woman’s apartment in a long time, and I’d ever felt more vulnerable. I had not suppressed aggression, much like it felt slightly… off. It turned out fine, of only a physical but an emotional recovery America, right now, in 2017. You feel course, but at first it wasn’t entirely to deal with. I felt very raw. Being in the small in the presence of Michelangelo’s comfortable. Turns out, just by showing modeling business, you have very clear giant, this great man. You’re supposed to up I’d gone further than most who were ideas about body standards, and in the feel small. Is this a commentary on life in invited to be a part of the “Modern David” photo, I didn’t have that certain look. But modern day America? Perhaps. Karson project. According to Karson, “It takes a just being on camera helped my told us how she came up with the name certain kind of David to allow themselves emotional recovery. And seeing the for this exhibit: “My creative process to be displayed in a vulnerable way, exhibition, I felt empowered just seeing often begins with a working title that is without control of final viewing. Only all those different shapes.” exemplified by images—I love puns and about five to ten percent of Davids that bad ‘dad jokes,’ so when you say the are approached or invited to participate words ‘modern DAY-vid’ it sounds somewhat like ‘modern day.’”34Newcity_D50_p33-40.indd 34 2/19/17 10:27 PM

THE UNATTAINABLE PERFECTION OF FORM CARRIES OVER AFTER CENTURIES, AND TODAY IS MOLDED BY RETOUCHING INSTEAD OF A CHISEL.Karson began this project at individuals rather than theleast two years ago, when no individual authority of oneone could have foreseen where great man.America would be today, but as Ezra Pound once famously said, Unattainable“The artist is the antenna of the perfection carries race.” over centuriesI asked Karson about theaesthetic organizing principle of We the subjects of thethe work, “The images as agrouping form a monumental “Modern David” exhibit are notwall of taxonomy in a paperdoll or quilt-type of aesthetic. a uniformly handsome bunch.At first, viewers may notice aDavid’s flaws or pose in There are sags here and there,relation to the images aroundthem before stepping back and undeveloped muscle, somefeeling that the images aregazing and judging them in droops and drops of flesh,return. The exact placement isdecided by arranging Davids to saggy tits—just a bunch ofwork in the configuration andcreate an overall composition: guys, most of us probablyBecause of varied heights,heads can appear larger or thirty and above, some of ussmaller, the skin tones are alsoplaced to exhibit a much older, and there arevariance (not all bald guys in agroup, vary from light to dark, handsome ones here andthick to thin, etc.) andtangential placement is considered.” there, but mostly we’re just everyday people, which was Karson’s intent, “The unattainable perfection of form carries over after centuries, and today is molded by F ROM MARI AH KARSON’ S “MODE RN DAVI D” SE RI E S retouching instead of a chisel.” As a project, ‘Modern David’ exemplifies a static reality of truth; the images are not monument to ego, Michelangelo’s and retouched. Because they are Florence. This was not the way it was presented in a larger-than-life size,The Davids in Karson’s exhibit, taken during shoots for “Modern David,” as viewers can examine every hair and pore MARCH 2017 Newcitycollectively, are indeed monumental, but David Fink, co-founder/owner of Acorn on each subject, details that are oftena monument made of individuals, not Theater in Three Oaks, Michigan, omitted from an image prior to publicpivoting on the power of a single explains: “I had to let go of my ego as consumption.individual, stronger together (yeah, you much as possible and trust her. Posing forheard me), highlighting variety and a photo doesn’t have be about vanity. It Viewing pictures from the “Modern David”diversity within the uniformity of a shared was about her vision and project and not exhibition with a friend, Norwegianbirth name. There’s a tension between about me. There is value in putting ego tapestry artist Berit Engen, Engen’s firstthe bigness of the work and the smallness aside.” reaction was, “Oh my god. They are soof each individual photograph. With exposed and vulnerable.” I asked KarsonMichelangelo, it’s all (with one critical In a sense, Karson’s “Modern David” is a how she felt about this other artist’s gutexception, smirk) about bigness. The critique of Michelangelo’s David, response. “The vulnerability offamous statue itself is, of course, a huge expressing the collective power of photographing someone is evident clothed or unclothed; a subject is allowing a 35Newcity_D50_p33-40.indd 35 2/19/17 10:27 PM

‘MODERN DAVID’ EXPLORES IF THERE IS A COMMON THREAD, AESTHETICALLY OR OTHERWISE, BETWEEN PARTICIPANTS OTHER THAN NAME. photographer to document how discomfort, an experience of they are seen by them. I did the present and static not anticipate that the clothing documentation of current self. removal would be such a challenge. Women are With modern media skewing consistently objectified and the perception of reality and asked to pose nude or topless. beauty, “Modern David” This was an opportunity to turn celebrates real people in a the tables and have men be static and straightforward way. vulnerable for a woman, Historical ideals and individual possibly objectified by a viewer perception of any viewer are in a gallery or online at a later challenged by the series date, the female gaze on a providing images of every man. I opted for topless willing participant, added instead of fully nude because I together to form a sum of figured that topless men are representation of modern socially acceptable in public, individuals and real beauty. unlike women. Society seesNewcity MARCH 2017 men’s nipples different than THE AUTHOR AS DEPICTED IN “Though we share a name, we women’s.” M ARI AH KARSON’ S “MODE RN DAVI D” SE RI E S are all just bodies,” muses Fink. “Different in some ways, The people in this exhibit are By photographing each participant very much the same in others. un-idealized, and yes, there is without normal identity cues such as I am not beautiful like a certain vulnerability clothing and accessories, in the same Michelangelo’s David. Viewing involved… a vulnerability lighting, pose and background allows the images while fully clothed, that’s absent in Michelangelo’s viewers to examine each David in relation no one in the room seemed to practically god-like David, to the others. recognize me. And when standing alone, naked, sling people talked to me, and I told over his shoulder, facing down As unique individuals who have existed in them I was in the piece, they the giant, ready for battle. society with one of the most common asked which image was of me. American names, many participants I guess clothes disguise us Reflecting on how this exhibit agreed to be photographed as an quite a bit.” came about, Karson said, “I began the individual quest for documentation or series ‘Modern David’ as a photographic validation of self. The portrait session For my portrait, I admit I wrinkled my documentation of people named David. serves as a forced self-experience, an forehead and glared just a little in This series is to be viewed as a collection, opportunity to find calm and comfort in emulation of Michelangelo’s David who, not any one image or individual but like it or not, is the David and likely to instead as a whole. ‘Modern David’ remain so for a long time to come. explores if there is a common thread, aesthetically or otherwise, between “Modern David” runs through April 9 as participants other than name.” part of the “50 x 50 Invitational” exhibit, Fourth Floor Exhibition Hall, Chicago 36 Cultural Center, 78 East Washington. (312)744-6630.Newcity_D50_p33-40.indd 36 2/19/17 10:27 PM

HOWTO INSTIGATE INVENTION COLLABORATORS AND EXPERTS DISCUSS THE LEGACY OFTHE BRAZILIAN ARTISTIC VISIONARY HÉLIO OITICICA BY CYNTHIA GARCIA MARCH 2017 NewcityNewcity_D50_p33-40.indd 37 37 2/19/17 10:27 PM

A BRAZILIAN ARTISTWHO CONFOUNDED THE ARTWORLD WITH HIS REVOLUTIONARY ENERGY IS FINALLY GETTING HIS DUE ATTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO,WHICH CURRENTLY HOSTS THE ARTIST’S FIRSTAMERICAN RETROSPECTIVE.Newcity MARCH 2017 Born in Rio, Hélio Oiticica’s anarchic collaborators spoke, including avant-garde an instigator of states of invention.” His socio-political ideals refused all filmmaker and artist Neville D’Almeida, oeuvre is plural and inclusive because he stripes of repression and criticized American artist and musician Lee Jaffe, works with concepts of invention created the staid influence of Western art in Cesar Oiticica Filho, Hélio’s nephew and by inventors in different times and mainstream Brazilian society. curator of his work since 1997, and art cultures. Beginning in the early 1950s as junior historian Paula Braga. Newcity participant in Grupo Frente, Rio’s interviewed all four about the legacy of What is the role of the viewer in neo-concrete art movement, he quickly Oiticica’s work. Oiticica’s work? emerged as an effervescent rebel who In the 1960s, the observant, distant created his Bólides, Penetráveis, Núcleos Cesar Oiticica Filho, the nephew of Hélio viewer is transformed by Hélio into an and Parangolés participatory works, and Oiticica, has curated his oeuvre since active participant free to turn himself into had a seminal role in the development of 1997 as head of the Projeto Hélio an inventor by reconditioning and thus the Brazilian Tropicália movement, which Oiticica. recreating himself. In his concept, the eschewed both Brazil’s conservatism of What concepts come to mind when you shackled, traditional spectator is allowed the right and its nationalism of the left. consider Hélio Oiticica’s revolutionary to reinvent his own existence, freeing Between 1970 and 1978, Oiticica lived approach to art? himself from a pre-fabricated life imposed in New York, exhibiting at the Museum of So many, but I regard as particularly by the cultural industry and other forces Modern Art and receiving a Guggenheim significant in this day and age the concept of power. Fellowship, before finally returning to a he named “Delirium Ambulatorium,” Brazil still under martial law. Two years which is taking a random walk through a Can you tell us about the Parangolés, later, a massive stroke took him at the city to gather experiences and then perhaps Oiticica’s best-known work? young age of forty-two. Heaping tragedy transforming them into works. It all began in 1964, when Hélio visited upon loss, many of his original works as the community of the Samba School of well as his meticulously documented Can you contextualize Oiticica’s Mangueira, in Rio’s favela, and saw with concepts and projects were destroyed in a Barracão concept? his own eyes that the collective creation massive fire at the home of his brother, It’s an anarchic collective Hélio in the school grounds (barracão) was an César Oiticica, in 2009. implemented with works done with explosion of pure vital force. The several artists from different medias and Parangolés are special reliefs over the “Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium” fields all tied to a unique proposition, dancer’s body. It’s a work that needs a began at the Carnegie Museum of Art in which is to create open shared works that physical body in movement in a place Pittsburgh and will travel to the Whitney are completed by other artists. where it can expand. Museum of American Art, New York, over the summer. The show’s title evokes a Art historian Paula Braga specializes in How would you sum up Hélio Oiticica? phrase by British curator and critic Guy Hélio Oiticica’s work and is the author of Hélio gave Brazilian art a radical upsurge, Brett, whose awe of Hélio’s advanced several books on the artist. as English art critic Guy Brett used to say, commingling of art and life led him to What were the driving forces behind by combining the making of art with a organize Oiticica’s first international Hélio Oiticica’s practice? social, political and ethical debate. He exhibit at London’s Whitechapel Gallery There are several concepts driving his in 1969. With the rising interest in work, but if I’d have to choose one it is ++++++++++++++ Oiticica and his legacy, São Paulo’s Invention. Invention is what is new that Galeria Nara Roesler exhibited “Barracão: remains new as time passes by. Nietzsche PREVIOUS PAGE: Hélio Oiticica, “NC6 Medium Hélio Oiticica,” in conjunction with the was an inventor, the Rolling Stones, Nucleus 3 (NC6 Núcleo médio 3),” 1961–63, at American retrospective’s Pittsburgh debut Duchamp, writers Shakespeare and Rua Engenheiro Alfredo Duarte, Rio de Janeiro, in late 2016. At the São Paulo opening, Brazilian Oswald de Andrade were n.d. César and Claudio Oiticica Collection, several of Oiticica’s friends and inventors. In a 1979 interview, Hélio said, Rio de Janeiro. “normal people become artists; I became38Newcity_D50_p33-40.indd 38 2/19/17 10:27 PM

HE IMPLODED THE STALE NOTION THATART IS AN OBJECT OF CONTEMPLATION BY ABOVE: Hélio Oiticica, “Filter Project––ForINTRODUCING THE CONCEPTTHATART IS A BEACON OF LIFE. Vergara (Projeto filtro––Para Vergara,” 1972, at Galerie Lelong, New York, 2012. Courtesy planted art in daily life. Through Hélio, end, Hélio and I invented the concept of César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, MARCH 2017 Newcity daily life itself becomes art. He imploded together as one. Our partnership was and Galerie Lelong, New York. the stale notion that art is an object of based on total freedom and deep contemplation by introducing the concept identification with one another, one of ++++++++++++++ that art is a beacon of life. those rare encounters in the history of art in any time. Together we created over two trips and bought the cheapest airline Neville D’Almeida is a filmmaker, artist, hundred works from installations, photos, ticket I could find. It took me twenty-three collaborator and friend of Hélio Oiticica. books, posters, boxes, performances. hours to get from New York to Rio with Tell us about your friendship and work There are still some works to produce, stops and change of planes in Miami, with Hélio Oiticica. since Hélio had the habit to put in writing Guayaquil and Lima. I had just enoughThe association of Art-Cinema and all the projects in the smallest details in money for a taxi to Copacabana Palace Cinema-Art by Hélio Oiticica and I had as his numerous paper notebooks. and a phone number for one of the core proposal, “To Do What Had Never surfers. Word spread and I was quickly Been Done Before.” The concept was Lee Jaffe is an American artist, very popular. Hélio appeared—a wispy“Programa in Progress.” We created the musician and collaborator and friend of mercurial presence with piercing eyes— first audiovisual, interactive, sensorial Hélio Oiticica. speaking English with a deliciously lilting installation in the history of contemporary How did you meet Hélio Oiticica? Carioca accent. We tripped and walked art with photos, slide projection, What was he like? the beach with heightened awareness of soundtrack and lounge music. It was so I lived in Rio during 1969 and 1970. the singing of the ocean and the clouds ahead of its time that it took twenty-five Before that, I had dropped out of college laughing phantasmagoric weaving around years to be shown. Another of our in New York and started a band. When the surrounding mountaintops. revolutionary concepts was to invite other our band’s equipment was stolen before artists to join us in works, rounding up our first-ever gig, a friend of mine who Hélio’s spacious house on a hill above the concept “Programa in Progress” with had just returned to New York from Brazil Jardim Botânico looked down to a their participation. It’s important to told me that he had discovered that you spectacular view of the ocean and stood understand that Hélio and I didn’t could sell LSD to the surfers at the Rio at the base of the rigidly steep mountain collaborate with one another, what beach at Arpoador for fifty dollars a trip. atop of which Christ the Redeemer—arms happened was something much more At that time in New York, you could buy outstretched—towered exaltedly above. profound. It was the fruit of long hours of one trip for twenty-five cents! I scraped conversation during two years and in the together $250 and bought one thousand 39Newcity_D50_p33-40.indd 39 2/19/17 10:27 PM

“NORMAL PEOPLE BECOME ARTISTS; I BECAME AN INSTIGATOR OF STATES OF INVENTION.” ABOVE: Hélio Oiticica with “P8 Parangolé Cape 5, Homage to Mangueira (P8 Parangolé capa 5, Hélio’s house was the epicenter of “Western art” was both naïve at best and Homenagem à Mangueira),” 1965, at the the Tropicália movement. His enormous at worst shockingly parallel to a Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1969. César and intellect and extraordinary warmth and consciousness of “American” imperialist Claudio Oiticica Collection, Rio de Janeiro. generosity were a powerful magnet attitudes of objectification. I was not drawing brilliant musicians, poets, artists prepared to find out that Minimal Art and + + + + + + + + + + + + + + and filmmakers who passed through daily, its break in the 1960s from European all bonded by a desire and tradition had in its own way been carried courageousness to create works that on a decade earlier by Hélio and other “Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium” would be both aesthetically compelling Brazilian painters. Furthermore, Hélio had shows at Art Institute of Chicago through and politically transgressive. It was a time not only taken Painting out of the frame May 7. It will travel to the Whitney when the Vietnam War was raging— as early as the 1950s but had liberated it Museum of American Art, New York, from assassinations of activists Fred Hampton from the wall, ostensibly obliterating the July 14 to October 1. A version of this and Bobby Hutton and Malcolm X, distinction between painting and interview was originally published in Reverend Martin Luther King and Robert sculpture. It was a real eye opener when Newcity Brazil as “The Instigator of Kennedy reverberated in Brazil as the Hélio made me aware of the Concrete States of Invention: Considering the CIA-backed military junta was viciously movement in Brazil, something that was Legacy of Artistic Visionary Hélio cracking down on leftist academics and immediately obvious to me as being more Oiticica.” artists and the threat of arrest and torture advanced than anything I had previously was palpable. Gilberto Gil and Caetano known. It was Hélio’s and my shared Veloso had been imprisoned and then interests in breaking down distinctions forced into exile, proving that and categorizations—cultural, geopolitical + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Newcity MARCH 2017 the Tropicália and Cinema Marginal and aesthetic—and our interests in music, movements were in imminent danger. performance and poetry that led to our How does Oiticica’s work remain proposal for the “Information” show at relevant today? MoMA in New York in 1970. Our intent was to transport a fragment of the When I first came to be acquainted with Amazon as a “suprasensorial” experience Hélio’s art I was shocked to find out that to Midtown Manhattan, to the cultural what I thought was my thorough belly of the beast. understanding of twentieth-century40Newcity_D50_p33-40.indd 40 2/19/17 10:27 PM

Blade Runner: The Final Cut Arts & Cultureopens March 24 at Music Box

FEBRUARY 16–JUNE 11, 2017 Emery Blagdon, The Healing Machine (untitled individual component), c. 1955–1986; oil paint and mixed media on wood;Raffaelo Monti, Veiled Lady, c. 1860, Marble. 24 1/2 x 41 x 1/8 in.; John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection.Collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.Admission is always free. All are welcome.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu Marie Watt, Witness, 2015, 71 × 180.5 in. Reclaimed wool blanket, embroidery floss, thread. Image courtesy of the artist. THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED New Perspectives on the Artist-Built EnvironmentLevi Fisher Ames, Emery Blagdon, Loy Bowlin, Nek Chand, Nick Engelbert,Ernest Hüpeden, Eddie Owens Martin, Fred Smith, and Albert Zahn

Art Oli Rodriguez, \"Archival Image #71: My Eagle Scout Son\" from “The Papi Project,\" 2010-2013Silence StillMeans DeathThe DePaul Art Museum Refocusesthe History and Present of theOngoing AIDS CrisisBy Kerry Cardoza“Stop erasing black people.” Protesters from the Tacoma Action statistics.” According to the CDC, in 2014 young people aged thirteenCollective printed these words on t-shirts and decals; it later became to twenty-four accounted for more than one in five new HIV diagnoses.a hashtag.The message was in response to the decade-in-the-making As of 2013, transgender people had the highest percentage of new HIVexhibition “Art AIDS America,” first shown at the Tacoma Art Museum cases, with black trans-women accounting for fifty-six percent of thatin late 2015. Of the more than one-hundred artists included in the show, population. Orendorff wants to show, especially as this exhibition is heldfive were black, and only one of those was female-identified. The on a college campus, that the AIDS crisis is not over.show’s dearth of artists of color garnered widespread attention, notleast because black Americans continue to be disproportionately “Ultimately that’s kind of the ambition for the show, to kind of make itaffected by HIV infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control clear that young people are vulnerable to HIV infection. It’s still a publicand Prevention, African Americans represented twelve percent of the health crisis, despite the fact that we often think of this as being anU.S. population but accounted for forty-five percent of HIV diagnoses illness that was designated to one time or place or community,” he says.in 2015. “I hope that young people seeing themselves represented in this exhibition will be led to educate themselves more on this illness,The landmark exhibition was brought to Chicago in December by the and the history of this illness, and how it correlates to social justiceAlphawood Foundation, a philanthropic organization. This iteration of struggles today.”the show has done a little better at representation; I counted ten blackartists, one of whom is a woman, in addition to the five included in the The main gallery begins with childhood. Photographs and an accompa-original show. It’s installed in a temporary gallery at the intersection of nying audio piece by Katja Heinemann tell stories from Camp Heartland,Fullerton, Halsted and Lincoln, just down the street from the DePaul Art a place in upstate Minnesota for young people who have HIV or haveMuseum, which is hosting something of an antidote to the primarily gay family members who died or are living with the virus. “Growingwhite story told at the original exhibition. Concern,” a color photograph by Shan Kelley, shows the artist’s daughter lying happily in her crib. Colorful letters on the wall spell outTitled “One day this kid will get larger,” the DePaul exhibition is named “What will you teach your children about AIDS?” The words take on afor an iconic print by the late David Wojnarowicz. The piece consists of potent meaning with the knowledge that Kelley is an HIV-positive parent.a childhood photo of the artist surrounded by statements about his As he writes on his website, “To teach about AIDS…is to teach aboutfuture, about how society will impose judgments and sanctions on him the human condition.” MARCH 2017 Newcitybased solely on his sexual orientation. Funded in part by Alphawood,the second-floor exhibition centers the experience of people who are of Nearby is a multimedia installation by the Chicago artist Oli Rodriguez,color, LGBTQ, female-identified, and/or indigenous. It tells a broad story a DePaul alumnus. “The Papi Project” includes family and found photos,of how HIV and the AIDS crisis affects everyone. textile prints of Lake Michigan and Craigslist correspondence between the artist and men who may have known the artist’s father. Rodriguez’ father died due to an AIDS-related illness in 1993. The resulting displayShan Kelley, \"Growing Concern,\" 2013 paints an intimate, complicated portrait of his father’s life.Curator Danny Orendorff organized the show into three themes, allsupporting the overarching focus on youth. As he notes in a takeaway A narrow gallery focuses the ways in which institutionalized structurespublication, the exhibition’s youth focus “is urgently compelled by educate or fail to educate young people about HIV and AIDS. A series 43

ART TOP 5 of black-and-white portraits by Lenn Keller, as Latham Zearfoss’ solo show at Andrew1 Hélio Oiticica: originally produced in 1989, depict black Rafacz Gallery, then there’s hope for it yet. To Organize Delirium.Art Institute of Chicago. teenagers shown beside their thoughts on There’s a lot to unpack here: artistic practiceA Restrospetive of the Revolutionary Brazilian Artist racism, gender and sexual relationships. versus the commercial art world, how one Who Transformed Art into Life. Almost thirty years old, the series remains person’s freedom can be another’s prison, to2 One day this kid will get larger. DePaul Art strikingly relevant. “AIDS to me is really scary,” an imagined conversation between Judith Museum. A Bold Show Refocuses the History and says Kishana, age sixteen. “I don’t think a lot Butler, gender theorist, and Octavia Butler, Present of the Ongoing AIDS Crisis through the Art of the of kids take it all that seriously because they science-fiction writer. The first room of the Struggle. don’t believe it will affect them.” gallery mimics a department store. A row of3 Watercolor Wisconsin. Racine Art Museum. flat-screen televisions, descending in size, sit Glowing Colors and Gentle Forms Abound in the Fiftieth Demian DinéYazhi, founder of the indigenous atop pedestals covered with poured paint.Anniversary of this Annual Show. collective R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Black, white, grey and blue paint ooze around4 Mariah Karson’s Survivance and Empowerment, shows a series the bases of the sculptures, aptly titled Modern David. Chicago Cultural Center. United Only by of screen-printed posters that contextualizes “Sculptural Object To Put A TV On.” The a Name, these Portrait-Sitters Reveal Themselves and the HIV and AIDS in the much longer history of smallest television is also the only functional Breadth of Human Life. white imperialism. The graphic works pair one; the others are covered in paint and5 Ben Murray. Monique Meloche Gallery. Abstract images and text to illustrate clear political lacquer. On it plays “The Butlers Did It,” a Paintings Imagine the Void Between Life and Death. points. In one print, two indigenous people video showing stock footage of a black stare at the camera with the words “Decolo- woman and a white woman in a hospital. Two nize Your Luvvv” printed boldly over them. Chicago artists provide voiceovers for the characters, in the form of popular quotations The rear gallery focuses on pop culture and from the works of Octavia and Judith Butler, nightlife and is decidedly more joyful. “I wanted taken from the website Goodreads. Zearfoss to show HIV-positive individuals coexisting and has brilliantly brought together these two partying and having sex with HIV-negative progressive writers to unearth a hidden individuals, in ways that are affirmative of life subtext through their subsequent conversation. and of joy and pleasure,” Orendorff says. Unfortunately when I visited I couldn’t hear the “Rainbows are the Shadows of a Presence,” dialogue, as another video piece, “Dirge,” had a mural by local artist Aay Preston-Myint spans overwhelmingly loud audio. In the back gallery, the back wall. A co-founder of the queer this work is projected onto a wall. It shows a dance night “Chances Dances,” Preston-Myint creaking, riderless escalator at the Fullerton fuses themes of nightlife, dance, art and CTA station. Mirror tiles are laid in a pyramid activism in this beautiful piece that is laced on the floor in front of the video, reflecting the with purple and yellow tones. The mural larger-than-life escalator ascending on an reflects the energy of the show’s looping infinite loop. Zearfoss has taken the audio of soundtrack, composed by Jacquelyn Carmen the scene and mixed it with singers mimicking Guerrero aka DJ CQQCHIFRUIT. Guerrero the machines’ notes, making an intense choral mixes pop songs about safe sex, music effect. A dirge expresses grief, so it makes by HIV-positive artists and news reports sense that the audio permeates the show. about AIDS. “Dynamite,” located in the first room, is composed of another poured-paint pedestal. One of the best-known images from the AIDS This one holds eighteen birthday candles tied crisis is the “Silence = Death” graphic, a simple in a bundle with twine. The piece is meant to textual message set beneath a pink triangle on celebrate the life of Laquan McDonald, the a black background. The work, created before Chicago teenager killed in October 2014 by the emergence of the advocacy group AIDS Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke. Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) but McDonald didn’t live to see his eighteenth quickly adopted by it, made a lot of connec- birthday. He was shot sixteen times, in a tions, but at its core was the notion that the period of fifteen seconds. “Dynamite” is an silence of people, notably the Reagan elegiac reminder.Near this work is the administration, to speak openly about AIDS, installation “A Room of One’s Own Making.” A led to many lives lost. The sentiment could not subtle homage to Virginia Woolf’s iconic essay, be more relevant today, as tens of millions of the piece blocks off a corner of the gallery with Americans are poised to lose health coverage handmade bricks of soap. The makeshift if and when the Affordable Care Act is room is revealed as patrons purchase bars of repealed. Representation in art matters just as soap. Zearfoss contrasts Woolf’s paean about much as it does in politics, this show argues. the importance of one’s own space to the cell “One day this kid will get larger” gives the of Chelsea Manning. Her release was communities most affected by HIV a chance to announced days before this show opened. In be heard—recognized—and a chance to see a statement on Zearfoss’ website, the artist that their lives matter. writes, “I’d like us to find a warmer criticality that does not deny the difficulty in truly “One day this kid will get larger” shows believing in anything anymore. If criticality can through April 2 at the DePaul Art Museum, find an optimistic register, then probability— 935 West Fullerton. belief, hope, change—will foment.” It’s a little Review over a week into Trump’s presidency, and Latham Zearfoss hope is palpable. Go see this show—Zearfoss’ optimism is catching. (Kerry Cardoza) Andrew Rafacz Gallery Is art criticism a worthwhile endeavor in Latham Zearfoss' \"Intents & Purposes\" shows Trump’s America? If the aim is to highlight through March 4 at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, work as visually and intellectually stimulating 835 West Washington

E Kapwani Kiwanga January 20 — The sum and its partsXH Ralph Coburn: Random SequenceI 16 February - 22 April 2017 arts.uchicago.edu/logan/galleryBITI 7-Panel Participatory Composition c. 1960. Cut paper on paper board, 7 pieces, 8 x 14O inches unframed, Private Collection, New York.N 201 East Ontario Street March 12 www.artsclubchicago.org Logan Center Gallery Chicago, Illinois 60611 [email protected] Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts 312.787.3997 @artsclubchicago 915 E 60th St Chicago IL 60637 UMBRAVIVIANE SASSEN MARCH 2017 Newcity January 26 - April 1, 2017 mocp.org Viviane Sassen, Yellow Vlei, 2014 45

EXHIBITIONSDEPAUL ART MUSEUM THE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY935 W. Fullerton Avenue At the University of Chicago773 325 7506 5811 S. Ellis Ave., Cobb Hall, 4th [email protected] / museums.depaul.edu 773 702 8670Mon-Tues closed, Wed–Thurs 11-7, Fri 11-5, Sat–Sun 12-5 [email protected] / www.renaissancesociety.orgJanuary 26–April 2 Four Saints in Three Acts Tues–Fri 10-5, Sat–Sun 12-5January 26–April 2 The Many Faces of Vincent de Paul: February 11–April 9 Robert Grosvenor Nineteenth-Century French Romanticism and the Sacred RHONA HOFFMAN GALLERYJanuary 26–April 2 One day this kids will get larger 118 N. Peoria StreetLINDA WARREN PROJECTS 312 455 1990 [email protected] / www.rhoffmangallery.com327 N. Aberdeen, Ste. 151 Tues–Fri 10-5:30, Sat 11-5:30312 432 9500 February 24–April 15 Susan Hefuna: [email protected] / www.lindawarrenprojects.com February 24–April 15 Derrick Adams: Tell Me Something GoodTues–Sat 11-5 or by private appointment March 2–5 The Armory Show 2017 – FOCUS Booth: Deana LawsonFebruary 18–April 15 Gallery X & Y – Scott Carter: Velocity March 1–5 ADDA The Art Show 2017February 18–April 15 Gallery O – Chris Smith RICHARD GRAY GALLERYLOGAN CENTER EXHIBITIONS 875 N. Michigan Avenue, 38th FloorAt the University of Chicago 312 642 8877Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street [email protected] / www.richardgraygallery.com773 702 2787 Mon–Fri 10-5:30, Sat [email protected] / www.arts.uchicago.edu March 1–5 ADAA The Art Show, Booth C5 –Tues–Sat 9-9, Sun 11-9, Mon closedJanuary 20–March 12 Kapwani Kiwanga: The sum and its parts Evelyn Statsinger: 1948-1955 March 23–25 Art Basel Hong Kong, Booth E307THE NEUBAUER COLLEGIUM SMART MUSEUM OF ARTAt the University of Chicago5701 S. Woodlawn Avenue At the University of Chicago773 795 2329 5550 S. Greenwood [email protected] / www.neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu 773 702 0200Mon–Fri 11-5, Sat–Sun closed [email protected] / smartmuseum.uchicago.eduThrough March 17 Fantastic Architecture: Vostell, Fluxus, Tues–Wed 10-5, Thu 10-8, Fri–Sun 10-5 February 16–June 11 Classicisms and the Built Environment Through June 11 Vostell Concrete 1969–1973April 3–May 13 The Past Sold: Case Studies in the Movement Through July 2 Conversations with the Collection: Belonging Through July 2 Jessica Stockholder: Rose’s Inclination of Archeological Objects

A HOUSEWARMING PARTY FRI, MARCH 3, 5 – 8 PMLawrence & Clark Join us for a party. Visit our This event is a component of 4755 N. Clark • Chicago • Saturdays 1p-5p website to see what you can House, an exhibition presented lawrenceandclark.com • 773-459-0586 bring to help furnish a new home by RED LINE SERVICE, through for two previously homeless March 25. Chicagoans. Weinberg/Newton Gallery 300 W Superior Street, Suite 203 Chicago, IL 60654 312 529 5090 weinbergnewtongallery.com Hours Mon – Sat 10 AM – 5 PMDerrick AdamsTell Me Something GoodSusan HefunaCityscapes VISUAL ART CULTURE OF SÃO PAULO AND BEYONDFEBRUARY 24–APRIL 15, 2017 VISIT US ONLINE www.newcitybrazil.com118 NORTH PEORIA STREET www.newcitybrasil.comCHICAGO ILLINOIS 60607WW W. RHOFFMANGALLERY.CO M

Dance A Dancing Island Malpaso Dance Company. Photo: Roberto Leon DANCE TOP 5 Havana's Malpaso Dance Company Makes 1 Chicago Flamenco Their Chicago Debut Festival. Spain's top companies perform month-long By Sharon Hoyer at the Instituto Cervantes, alongside Chicago companiesNewcity MARCH 2017 This month, Chicagoans have their first we didn't have in our repertoire any collective Clinard Dance, KANTUZ and opportunity to see Malpaso, the world-class work involving all the dancers of the company. Ensemble Español Dance Havana-based contemporary dance company, It was a great opportunity for those dancers Theater.Throughout March in motion. Malpaso visits the Dance Center of that were starting with us at the time to join Columbia College March 9-11, performing two the creative process. The piece is an abstract 2 Malpaso Dance works from their repertory: Aszure Barton's rendering of a day in the life of our dancers in Company. The virtuosic \"Indomitable Waltz\" and \"24 hours and a dog\" Havana. Somehow, through the improvisation Havana-based contemporary by the company's founder and artistic director, process, we reached the point in which the company makes their debut at Osnel Delgado. Delgado discussed the dancers turned out to be the characters of the the Dance Center of Columbia program and his five-year-old company in an story, which included an imaginary dog—a College. March 9-11 email interview. beautiful idea as most of us have pets, and dogs in particular. The work is structured in 3 lil BLK/NIC Kay. Why did you select these particular sections that resemble the routine of our daily Kay's experimental solo at pieces for the program at the Dance existence—Walking the dog, Working in the the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse Center of Columbia College? studio, Lunch time, Chased by a dog, Theater is inspired by New York The presenters have the freedom to select Daydream (duet), G street (Finale)—a gathering queer ballroom culture, punk from our repertoire the choreographies that place where young, diverse people meet and shows, butoh and praise dance, they consider would work best for their interact mostly at night, mostly on weekends. and wrestles with constraints audiences. I guess that usually there are It's a site very close to our headquarters. placed on the black female body. expectations on the new works and projects. March 16-18 Aszure's work, our most recent collaboration At first the idea was that Arturo [O'Farrill, with a guest choreographer, is very beautiful. Afro-Latin jazz composer and collaborator] 4 Hubbard Street Dance. \"24 hours and a dog\" conformed the program would compose the music. However, he Dances by the performed at the Joyce Theatre [New York] was so pleased when he saw the result of incomparable Nacho Duato are in our international debut; it has been in what we considered at the time a provision- the centerpiece of Hubbard our repertory for two years. It is a work that al work developed with existing music that Street's Spring Series at the we love very much and clearly expresses he didn't want to change it. He composed, Harris. March 16-19 both Malpaso's and my own choreographic though, an overture that was a dramaturgic features. necessity to the work, that he named \"24 5Joey Alexander. Musical hours in a dog's life.\" prodigies aren’t as common Can you tell me a little about the creation as they once were; but this of \"24 hours and a dog;\" how the develop- Our collaboration with Arturo has gone fourteen-year-old virtuoso jazz ment of music and movement came through three creative processes. Our last pianist is the real deal. March 24 together to evoke the streets of Havana? work is \"Dreaming of Lions.\" He created the At the time this choreography was developed, score to this piece.48

You've worked with several prominent American choreog- PRACTICAL ANGLEraphers, including Aszure Barton, whose \"IndomitableWaltz\" is on the program at the Dance Center. How did Picture Framers 161 E. Eriethese relationships develop?Aszure, as well as all the guest choreographers we have worked Spring Art Opening Nightwith, have traveled to Havana to meet the company. Aszure and Exhibition April 7, 5-8pmJonathan Emanuell Alsberry (Jojo) spent around four weeks andthe process was in two stages. The first to create the choreogra- Save the date!phy and the second to premiere the work in Havana—thathappened last September. Aszure arrived in the studio without Midwest Modernismpre-established choreographic material. She set specific patternsto the dancers to work in a process that showed positive and Emile Grumieaux (1897–1954) MARCH 2017 Newcityhidden aspects of each individual. It was a very interesting path.It was about quietness, patience, resistance and some light and 875 N Michigan Ave. Ste 2520 Chicago, IL 60611darkness coming from our inner beings. \"Indomitable Waltz\" is a 312.943.2354turning point in the company's journey and reveals the relevanceof learning from collaborations. Aszure faces the piece as a work mongersongallery.comin progress, deconstructing the material and remaking it over andover in constant change and evolution.Your company is hailed as versatile and virtuosic. What isyour philosophy on the training and development of danceartists in Malpaso?Our dancers are all graduated from the Cuban National eitherballet or modern dance schools. Some dancers had previousexperiences in established dance ensembles. They are alldifferent and very talented.Ballet is the daily basic training of the company. We think that it isimportant to have a unifying technique without suffocatingindividualities. Of course, every choreographer working with us iswelcome to teach; it is a way of approaching their singular stylesand the work that they would develop. We usually train rigorouslyon a daily basis to keep and improve our standards.We come from a dancing island; we manage movements quiteeasily. The challenge is to create interesting material to conveyconcrete and precise ideas. We prioritize the physicality and donot depend very much on scenography or props, granting to ourbodies total relevance as the main tool to transmit those ideas.Now that travel between Cuba and the United Statesis easier, how do you see dance making in Cuba (and theU.S.) evolving?It's true that during the last months we have seen some changes,a fruitful approach to both sides as we have much in common. Itis also worthy to encourage the enjoyment of the differences.That is a right that both Americans and Cubans have. On top ofthat, the Cuban artistic dance is tightly connected to theAmerican dance legacy, and there is much charm and sensualitythat we might share throughout dance, music and other artexpressions.As a dance company we have been collaborating with Americanartists before the establishments of diplomatic relations, and weare committed to working to continue under any circumstance.Is there anything else you'd like to mention?We will enjoy and love Chicago despite the cold weather…! Wehave very good new and old friends there and colleagues thatshared the stage with us in dance companies we worked withyears ago. It will be wonderful to be with them. That engagementwill close this leg of the tour through six cities. We hope that theaudiences enjoy what we have to offer.And to finish, I want to acknowledge that Malpaso is an associatecompany of the Joyce Theater Productions, that has beeninstrumental to our expansion and artistic development.At the Dance Center of Columbia College, 1306 South Michigan,(312)369-8330. Thursday-Saturday, March 9-11 at 7:30. $30.For more info visit colum.edu/dancecenterpresents. 49

Design Hiding In Plain Eyesight Reflectacles Ghost Glasses Redefine Privacy in the Face of Surveillance By Tracy Montes Scott Urban became an object designer when he accidentally broke a pair of his father's glasses frames. “It all started by necessity,\" he says. \"Instead of buying new frames, I decided to make a new pair myself.” He's now been creating, inventing and designing custom eyewear for more than ten years. What motivates Urban is avoiding the consumerist tendency to shop for new items every time something breaks. It's deeply engrained in his work ethic, lifestyle and identity. “My mom set that example for us by sewing our clothes and making things herself,\" he says. \"That taught me that when you want something, you can learn how to make it yourself. If my mom wanted a bench, I would work with wood and learn how to make one for her. It is more fun that way, because I'd rather spend time learning how to make something as I always learn new things throughout the process.” Early in his career, working with wood became The theme of privacy against surveillance is something Urban cares Urban’s material of choice, and he created a set of about deeply. “Chicago is the most surveilled city in our country,\" he unique wooden eyewear models. “As I continued to says, \"and nobody seems to perceive this as a serious matter. When I develop my wooden eyewear designs, I started to talk to people about cameras available to other organizations, nobody receive positive feedback from my community and seems to know or care, for them it is not a big enough of a conversa- the message of my work spread by word of mouth.” Engaging with tion. I am not approaching the surveillance theme in a political context his clients one-on-one is an important component in the process of since I am not an activist, but a creator of objects, but I do believe that creating each model, Urban says. This ensures that the frame design personal privacy is important.” The Reflectacles Ghost line is Urban's remains true to the needs and style of each client. “Each pair of frames designed response to the surveillance problem. is designed for a specific person, each client brings part of their personality and style,” he says. However, as the years passed by Urban noticed that nearly every eyewear shop began promoting some sort of wooden frame design. Working with wood to create frames felt creatively outdated. It became clear that it was time to go into uncharted territory.Newcity March 2017 Enter “Reflectacles.” The vibrant colors of the line (silver, gold, blue, The frames are made out of blocks of cellulose acetate, a type of green, orange and red) and versatile design make it a design that works bio-plastic that is used to create the design. After the manufacturer well for every gender and style. And the reflective quality of each pair has produced the frames, Urban applies the silver-colored reflective promotes safety for night joggers and cyclists, as the frames enhance material for each pair of Reflectacles Ghost. Each pair of Reflecta- visibility at night by reflecting light back to the direction it came from. cles is priced at $95 and the Ghost version is running for $125. The The effect is similar to that of an intense glow, a flash of colorful neon importance of quality is imperative for each: “I make sure everything light. After experimenting with the first generation of reflective eyewear, is of the highest quality it can be,\" he says. \"I am not going to put Urban introduced an updated version of the Reflectacles line dubbed my name on something I don’t believe in. I like to create things that Reflectacles Ghost. The Ghost model also reflects visible light, but with add value to people and I want those who wear each pair of an added characteristic that may appeal to privacy-minded individuals. Reflectacles to love them, and to get a sense that I care about Each pair of Reflectacles Ghost reflects infrared light, creating a barrier making each pair something special. From hand-signing and screen against surveillance cameras that use infrared technology. The Ghost printing designs on every package, I want the love for what I do to model creates a blinding silver glare that prevents any facial features of shine through.” the person wearing the frames to be captured by surveillance cameras. See more: Visit urbanspectacles.com.50