June 2022
Welcome to the June Newsletter
You will find:
NEIU Studio and Gallery Tour
News from the CSI Committees
3D4D Gallery exhibits and a Call for Submissions
Ongoing Member Exhibitions
Above: NEIU Art Gallery
CSI tour of Northeastern Illinois University's art studios and Fine Arts Gallery & General Membership Meeting
CSI Members are invited to tour NEIU's art studios and Fine Arts Gallery.
5500 North St. Louis Avenue, Chicago, IL
Saturday, June 4
12:00 - 2:00 PM
The art studios tour will begin around 12:30PM, with a 1:00PM meeting in the lecture room to discuss CSI business. We ask that those interested to RSVP and meet at 12:00PM in the Fine Arts Gallery. Refreshments will be served.
To RSVP, please send an email to info@chicagosculpture.org and provide your name, phone number, and number of guests (if applicable).
Information regarding travel directions and parking can be found here.
News from the Board
Hello Members,
If you have questions about your membership or upcoming submissions, please contact our Managing Director, Gene Skala at: info@chicagosculpture.org
He can help with problems with getting into your account, questions regarding your dues, and issues with upcoming RFP's, etc. Also, he can find the right board member to help you in other areas. Gene has been with us for 10 months and has done a fantastic job. Thank you, Gene!
News from the Indoor Exhibitions Committee
SCULPTURE INVASION 2022 / CSI Biennial
Koehnline Art Museum
There will be 48 CSI members participating in the upcoming SCULPTURE INVASION 2022 / CSI Biennial at the Koehnline Museum of Art at Oakton Community College.
Here are the important dates:
Drop off pieces: Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Opening reception: Thursday, July 14th, 5-8pm
Last day of show: Friday, September 30, 2022
Pick up: Monday, October 3, 2022
News from the Outdoor Exhibitions Committee
RFP: Public Art Projects in Big Marsh Park
Chicago Sculpture International (CSI), in collaboration with the Chicago Park District, is seeking experienced artists and artist teams to create original, site-specific, public sculptures for Big Marsh, a 280-acre park on the Southeast Side.
Big Marsh had been the site of a waste and slag dumping ground from surrounding industrial operations since the late 1800s. In the early 2000s, the City of Chicago and the Chicago Park District teamed up to restore this area to a healthy habitat and eco-recreation park.
This is an opportunity to create an artwork that will emerge from the park; the majority of the materials used will be found in the park. There are available natural materials such as rocks, stones, standing dead trees, logs and certain plants—for example, the plentiful phragmites. And although Big Marsh has undergone an extensive renovation in this century, one can still find remnants of its industrial past, such as shipping containers, tires, bricks, cobblestones, cement fragments and slag; these materials can be used for the artwork as well. Durable sculpture materials such as stone, metal and wood that artists need but cannot be found in the park can be brought in to create the artwork.
Artists will be asked to commit to two talks about their completed projects at the Ford Calumet Environmental Center in Big Marsh Park.
Stipend: $10,000-$30,000
Timeline: Submissions due on Friday, June 3, 2022, at 11:59 pm CST. Projects must be finished by November 30, 2022.
Click here for more information about Big Marsh, the call, and image galleries of the Big Marsh area as well as possible sites and materials for sculptures.
News from the Education Committee
Virtual Art Classes for Summer (dates TBD)
We look to implement more classes for Fall. Send your ideas to anthonyheinzmay@chicagosculpture.org
Example of a miniature park, by Anthony Heinz May
Anthony Heinz May
Miniature Parks
Summertime is a time of year typically reserved to celebrate nature, the outdoors and our parks, especially in Chicago. Chicago has more parks per capita than any other city in the United States. Using found natural materials alongside a few other additions of artistic media, this workshop will encourage participants to create models of their own parks. Twigs, construction paper-cut leaves, water-based clay, and a secret recipe of ingredients will be used to create miniature park replicas to celebrate importance of our natural worlds.
Micki LeMieux
Crepe Paper Flowers
Reconstruct nature through beauty of expression using delicate paper compositions. Flowers celebrate life through gradients of color. When given, they offer care and kindness; they hold emotional value. Flowers are reminders of the fragility of nature. They can be easily crushed and once picked, can only last indoors as long as water in vases will allow them. Paper flowers last much longer. They can't be found on e-Bay/Amazon because you made them yourself.
Kara O. James
Copper Wire Trees
Bend, twist and snip user-friendly gauges of copper wire to create small tree sculptures that can be decorated with beads as leaves. Trees breathe in what we breathe out (CO2) and breathe out what we breathe in (O2). Perhaps the most underrated educational lifeforms on Earth, we can learn so much from trees if we only listened to them more. Copper gives unparalleled conductance in so many of the things we use, allowing for human communication like roots of trees that hold conversations with one another. This symbolism presents and reinforces both old and new ways to look at life. Trees for Peace.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the recent Mindscapes exhibition whether as an exhibiting artist or an audience member.
A special shout out to all our gallery sitters (presented in order of “appearance”): Patrick Wilson, Tomas Co, Victoria Fuller, Boruch Lev, Nicole Beck, Amanda Gentry, Peter N. Gray, Fred Klingelhofer, Ellen Lustig, Philip Spangler, Nancy VanKanegan, Gene Skala, Barbara Goldsmith, Micki LeMieux, Howard Sandroff, Suzanne Horwitz, Caroline Jacobson, John Upchurch, Berthold Boone, Suzanna Pratt and Chris Wubbena.
And, of course, a dozen gold stars for Micki Lemieux who coordinated the show (with support from Gene Skala and John Upchurch).
Upcoming Exhibition: Scale
Show runs from June 3rd through July 9th.
Opening Reception: Friday, June 3, 5 -8 PM
Opening Reception: Friday, June 3rd. 5-8 PM
3D4D Gallery presents an exhibition that plays with the concept of scale, where tiny things are made huge, or life-sized objects and installations are reimagined in miniature. These 24 artists use perspective and scale to draw attention to and affect the ways people perceive and respond to their work.
The show will include miniature works, micro galleries, maquettes, and oversized 2D and 3D artworks and installations.
The exhibiting artists are: Sharon Bladholm, Berthold Boone, Tomas Co, Michele Corazzo, Christine Forni, Victoria Fuller, Set Gozo, Celia Greiner, Carol Hammerman, Irene Hoppenberg, Fred Klingelhofer, Gary Kulak, Laurie LeBreton, Micki LeMieux, Margot Mcmahon, Bobbi Meier, Scott Mossman, Thomas Plum, Howard Sandroff, Samuel Schwindt, Paul Gerard Somers, Nancy VanKanegan, Marjorie Woodruff, Chris Wubbena and Plamen Yordanov.
Let's Talk About Scale
A workshop with Steve Mueller from Vector Custom Fabricating, sharing successful ways of working with fabricators for Public Art Projects at 3D4D.
Date: June 16, Thursday
Time: 6-7 PM
Where 3D4D Gallery, 1912 N. Damen Ave, Chicago
Call for Art: By Degrees
(student/recent graduate exhibition)
July-August Exhibition at 3D4D
Often an artist’s most groundbreaking work comes from being immersed in a culture of study and intellectual pursuit. Chicago, home to some of the most globally revered academic arts institutions, could be considered a sort of proving ground for tomorrow’s most promising contemporary emerging artists.
Chicago Sculpture International (CSI) is calling for artists who are enrolled, or recently (2021 or later) graduated from a degree-seeking program to submit works of sculpture, installation and media work to be featured in the juried group exhibition By Degrees, which will run July 15 - August 19, 2022 at 3D4D Gallery in Chicago. If you are a degree seeking CSI member, you are eligible to apply. If you know a degree-seeking artist who is not yet a CSI member, forward this call to them.
Artists can submit up to 3 works for consideration. Other media work can be shared via URLs to a hosting site. Accepted artwork must be able to fit into a normal single door storefront. Costs for shipping work to and from the gallery are the responsibility of the artist. There is no fee for entry, but accepted artists will be required to gallery sit for at least two 3-hour shifts during the run of the exhibition. This call is not limited to students and graduates of Chicago-area institutions. Accepted artists who are not CSI members will be granted a one year non-transferrable student membership to CSI.
To apply to By Degrees, please complete this form. Deadline for submission is June 19th at midnight Central time. Notification of works accepted will be sent on or before June 30th. Artists are responsible for delivery of work to 3D4D Gallery. In person delivery will be accepted July 10th and all shipped works must be received by July 9th.
Member News
Ongoing Exhibitions
Yoonshin Park: Finding Space
Northeastern Illinois University
Fine Arts Center Gallery
May 31 - June 17
Artist Talk: Noon, Wednesday, June 8
Howard Sandroff and "The Obsessive Image"
Sunday, June 19th
3 pm
Northfield Library presents "The Obsessive Image" a lecture by sculptor and musician Howard Sandroff about the unique relationship between musical compositions and sculptural objects.
Northfield Library presents “The Obsessive Image”, a lecture by sculptor and musician Howard Sandroff about the unique relationship between musical compositions and sculptural objects, an enlightening discussion about multisensory experiences and how the same aesthetic concerns can be applied to sound and steel
Northfield Library
1785 Orchard Lane
Register online or by phone
(847) 446-5990
Sculptures by CSI members recently installed at Marquette Park, IN
While you're here...
Have any news to share? Shows, awards, residencies et al.? Send the particulars along to info@chicagosculpture.org, and we'll include them in an upcoming newsletter.
While you're at it, your profile and images on CSI’s website are important. When CSI applies for grants and upcoming shows, images are solely chosen from those you have uploaded to our website. Please take a minute to look over what you have posted and make sure you are presenting the best work. Member Shelley Gilchrist sgilchristart@gmail.com has volunteered to help you if you need it, so feel free to contact her.
