Interest is growing in the street photography of Vivian Maier, and a current exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center, “Finding Vivian Maier: Chicago Street Photographer,” is a chance to explore it in person, through early April 2011. To summarize from the terrific blog/website Vivian Maier – Her Discovered Work: Maier was a street photographer from the 1950s to 1990s, whose work was discovered by photographer John Maloof at an auction in Chicago where she resided most of her life. (She was a nanny to Phil Donahue, among others!) Her discovered work included over 100,000 mostly medium-format negatives, thousands of prints and countless undeveloped rolls of film. A quick link to the unfolding mystery can be found here.

.

I found the Cultural Center exhibit to be good (it includes a mix of Chicago scenes as well as a lot of New York City and global work), but was hoping it would be in the more expansive upstairs gallery. Still, great to see her getting recognition, and terrific to see which prints were selected and to see their flow and juxtaposition. A number of the pieces selected instantly made me smile, wonder, and consider my own photography and curating in a new light – just what you want an artist and an exhibit to do. (And yes, on a different scale, this is what last year’s Cartier-Bresson exhibit did for me at the Art Institute.)

.

I also wonder how many viewers might be temporarily confused, at least, by the juxtaposition of this exhibit against work by unrelated photographers in adjoining galleries. Presence of signage is a challenge for distinguishing all the work on this floor, I think. Don’t mean to overly criticize as we know the Cultural Center, and arts in the city in general, is dealing with big budget cutbacks these days. (On the plus side: the exhibit that is currently housed in the upstairs gallery is a knockout: don’t miss Violence, Women and Art. I hope to blog on that separately later.)

.

A side note: a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a documentary on her work has exceeded its goal of $20,000 and now stands at more than $81,000. (And no wonder! 300 lucky early sponsors got this great offer: “You’ll receive one of Vivian Maier’s actual film spools from a roll that has been developed. Comes with authenticity paperwork from the collection.”) Check out the Kickstarter campaign here.

.

Related:

• Follow ArtWithinReason on Twitter for updates on posts like this as well as links to items of interest for contemporary art and photographer, in Chicago and beyond.

your ads here (468x60) - after 1st post.

CHICAGO}  Just when I’m about to give up on Facebook and all its trivial distractions, along comes along a cool breeze of inspiration to keep me coming back. This morning was treated to this wonderful photo collection, the portfolio of my friend Tom Slazinski who is the creative director for windows and interiors for the Anthropologie chain of stores. (Tom is based in Chicago but many of the images are for other locations.) A few of my favorite images are presented here, Read more

CHICAGO} Visiting the historic Chicago Cultural Center? Have an interest in outsider art (and/or an open mind in general)? Then don’t miss a visit to the studios and gallery of Project Onward, a unique and fascinating surprise tucked away in the middle of the building’s ground floor. Here’s the description from their website:

“The mission of Project Onward is to support the creative growth of visual artists with mental and developmental disabilities. Project Onward provides studio space, art supplies, and professional guidance to emerging artists in a communal workshop environment. With the program’s support, Read more

Always love catching up with my pals at the M2 Studio in the Kibera slum while traveling through Nairobi, Kenya, and today was another great visit. (Such encounters are one of the upsides of having to put the Chicago gallery to sleep over the winter, as I focus on travels and photography pursuits.)

The M2 guys were excited about the prospect of procuring the deed to their studio. It’s a ramshackle, 2-story shack, basically, but it’s a wild explosion of colors and materials and spirit, and in my eyes, an amazing  anchor of life and hope in this little corner of the 1-million population Kibera.

They also showed more of their political portraits, including some fun new Obama stuff; talked about bursting at the seams with participating artists; and shared their excitement over an upcoming show in Nairobi. You can view a photo set of the artists and their current art here. You can see a previous set of photos here, from spring 2008.

within(Reason) is proud to have supported the M2 guys via donation to help them purchase the deed and make the home a permanent one. For information about seeing more of their art, procuring anything you might see here or in my albums, or sponsoring the studio, email me at any time, at ron@artwithinreason.com

Wanted to share this very well done interview about my current show, by Amy Mikel for Chicagoist.com. It gives a good overview of the show, and my efforts to use art to help raise funds for children’s programs and a library in the slums of Kenya.

[Back in Chicago, finally!] So, bummer that I had to miss Art Chicago at end of April this year – was called out of town for work. Last year at the inaugural event, took in just about all I could, and absorbed a tremendous amount in such a short time. The main exhibit hall, the Intuit show, the private home tours – all excellent, just made Chicago shine. Was really looking forward to seeing how they could top it.

On the up side, however, I made the most of my time overseas, and put together my own cavalcade of contemporary art, overwhelming in its own way:

• Visited an incredible exhibit in Dubai called “Word Into Art,” sponsored by the British Museum, showcasing the beauty of Arabic lettering in every possible medium. Just stunning.
• From there made my way to Kenya for an extended stay with my day job. A life-changing series of visits to the colorful, exotic, sad and hopeful Kibera slum resulted in photography and art that will be shared at my first gallery show in Chicago in June.
• Later visited a very cool artists cooperative called the Godown, off a Nairobi side street (closeup of a work in progress is above) which also featured a stunning photo exhibit about the crisis in Kenya earlier this year.
• Next, a side trip to Egypt took me to Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery, where, despite being shuttered for most of my time on site, ended up being an artistic journey of a different sort.
• Finally, a quick visit to Lagos, Nigeria with a new client showed me artistic surprises of a different sort.

You can read about all these adventures in longer blog posts below, and/or linkable via archives at the right.Yes, would have been nice to do Art Chicago this year, but I think I had a pretty good substitute with my do-it-yourself ad hoc international tour. Along with observations from the Chicago scene (including the very cool Upset Show which just closed today at Co-Prosperity Sphere), these are the kinds of things I’ll be writing about and sharing on this blog, and showcasing as time/money/energy permits in my new within(Reason) space in Pilsen.

I hope you continue to stop by the blog (go ahead and comment!) as well as the space in Pilsen! Peace …

[Nairobi] Here in Kenya for an extended visit with my day job. Not a likely place, perhaps, to dive into contemporary art, but surprisingly, found some awesome stuff in a small informal collective of self-taught artists in Nairobi’s notorious Kibera slum. I was lucky enough to make friends with a Reuters photographer who took me on an intense, up-close-and-personal-and-inside tour of the place. Within 15 minutes, I felt like I was in Bartertown (from “Mad Max”) – but a colorful, awesome version. Yes, hardship exists, but glorious street graffiti lit the place up, and even the rubble from January’s violence had been festooned with pro-peace messages. I about fainted when quickly thereafter, I met the Banksy of the slums, who led a collective of artists working out of a 2-story shack.

I’ll be showing/selling a sampling of the work (think outsider/folk/self-taught/street) at my June 13 gallery opening in Chicago, “Hope in a Hard Place. Any proceeds from the show will go back to art programs for the kids in Kibera, which I’m really excited about. The kids here have nothing; to escape the place is to face impossible odds. I made several trips into Kibera and am so excited about showing my photos, along with the work of its artists, at my first show.

A few weeks later, I stumbled upon a fantastic photo exhibit at the Godown Arts Centre called “Kenya Burning.” While my show in June will highlight some of the hidden beauty of the country and its people, this exhibit deftly gathered many of the powerful news images captured during the sad and horrific post-election violence of January of this year, all in one powerful fell swoop that I had not anticipated. I had seen a few random photos here and there, online, and also reviewed some of the images published by my client, The Standard. But here, the work of Standard photographers and others was gathered in an extremely powerful narrative, showing the barbarism, the suffering, the hope of recovery. Huge bonus that I got to see it on the last day. In particular, the work of Standard photographer Boniface Mwangi and Yasuyoshi Chiba stood out as especially powerful. (Read a short story from last week’s Economist about the exhibit and its impact.)

Also at the Godown, chatted with and viewed the art of about a dozen local artists (painters and sculptors) who are working in a buzz-worthy collective that I’m eager to return to later in the year, possibly to bring back and share with Chicago. Watch this blog and the mother site later in the year, I hope, for more exciting stuff from Kenya.

Proving that art is what, and where, you make it: Here’s a short video of an original work by composer Eric Roth and performance artist Hugh Musick, in Chicago on Oct. 6, 2007, a large group of “percussionists” making music on the Clark Street Bridge.