Tag Archives: Chicago
Not Homesick Yet: Finding Chicago Art in New York
The CAA Conference offers many reasons to get excited. The amount of information and art combined with the excellent list of people presenting it–that alone is more than enough to bring out the geek in any art historian. Add the fact that the conference is held in one of the most culturally rich cities in the world and you’ll end up with a sensory explosion.
The task I have challenged myself to during my time in New York is not only to attend most of the sessions I am interested in, but also venture out to other places. I started yesterday during a late night studio visit with Columbia University MFA candidate, Chicago native and friend Caitlin Cherry. Sometimes it is nice to see the things on the opposite end of art history—the history in the making. For me, being at the Columbia University studios and then coming to the conference provides a balance between past, present and future.
In the Studio with Columbia University MFA Candidate Caitlin Cherry. February 8, 2011. (Image Credit: Tempestt Hazel)
What I love most about Cherry is that throughout her undergrad at the School of the Art Institute and now at Columbia University, she has stood firm for her love of painting. In an age of new media it takes a certain amount of courage to do that, in my opinion.
Reclining on Baroque Couch (Portrait of Mayor Richard M. Daley), 36 x 48 inches, acrylic gouache and oil on canvas, 2011. (Image: Courtesy of the artist)
At Cherry’s studio I got to see works in progress, including a very timely portrait of Mayor Richard M. Daley that she has been working on. In case you have not had a chance to catch up on your Chicago politics, the Windy City art community has been preparing for a big switch of administration from Chicago’s decades as a Daley-run city. The art community, which Daley’s reign has proved beneficial for in many ways, is doing what it can to let the incoming administration know that the arts are important in Chicago, and we will be heard. (See Mayoral Meet & Greet by Chicago Urban Arts Society or Arts Power Chicago).
The other places outside of the conference I plan on stopping at include the David Hammons show at L&M Arts, Dawoud Bey’s Harlem U.S.A. show at the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Ellen Gallagher show at Gagosian Gallery. See you there?
Notes From Seat 16A
Detail of Plane Ticket to 2011 CAA Conference. February 8, 2011. (Image Credit: Tempestt Hazel)
My flight was a little delayed. Even so, what has been on my mind while preparing for the CAA Conference has been mainly two things: 1.) What is there to learn from last year’s CAA Blog experience, and 2.) How can I clone myself between now and Laguardia so that I can make it to every session and every event of the conference that I want to go to?
While everyone was focused on the Super Bowl, I was focused on plotting out my strategy for the conference. Similarly, as the Packers and Steelers were making game plans, so was I. It looks like we art scholars have more in common with athletes after all.
Some of the panels I am having the most difficult time deciding between for Wednesday are the following:
- Nation Building: The Politics of Space in the African City
- The Aesthetics of Sonic Spaces
- Oral Histories and the Archive
- Gender and Sexuality in the Art Museum
- High Heels and Leather Masks: When Fetish Becomes Art and Art Becomes Life
- Recurating: New Practices in Exhibition Making
- Interdependent Identity: Paradigm and Paradox in Contemporary Israeli and Palestinian Art
…and that’s just the first day. So, how do you be everywhere at once? If you’re looking for me, I’ll be the one on the run.