Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday December 3rd from 5-8 pm.

Joint Disassembly features the work of Steven Frost and David F. Hartwell. The works in this show explore the interesting and complex relationships between personal narratives, identifications, representations, allegiances, and how they relate to the broader public sphere and the creation of image culture in our society. Both artists draw attention to how the process of picking and choosing, assembling and disassembling is not merely the purview of art practice but an integral part of the way that individuals shape their lives. Playful and coy, the objects they produce demonstrate the extent to which individuals can control what is and is not revealed to others

To read more about the show please visit our website: robertbillscontemporary.com or our Tumblr: robertbillscontemporary.tumblr.com

Robert Bills Contemporary was named one of the top ten hottest galleries at Next 2010 by The Chicago Tribune. The gallery is located in Chicago’s West Loop at 222 North Desplaines Street at Lake on the lower level.  For general inquiries please contact the Gallery Director, Hannah Klemm at hannah@robertbillscontemporary.com, or call 312.234.9091.

To unsubscribe from this list respond to hannah@robertbillscontemporary.com

Cobi Moules, Kelli Connell, Molly Landreth, Steve Locke, Steven Frost

December 1 to 17, 2011

Opening, First Thursday, December 1, 6 to 8PM

This exhibition brings together the work of several artists who deal with gender identity, persona, and sexual orientation as conceptual frameworks for their art-making. Each of the artists approach the subject from different mediums, intensities, and points of view.

Steven Frost is fascinated by the spectacle and the often extreme masculinity exhibited in professional wrestling, particularly as played out in Mexican Lucha Libre culture. His fiber-based objects hint at the tension between masculinity and queerness through the use of everyday materials combined in visually surprising ways. In this exhibition, his painted, sewn, and transformed hand towels “address the perceived wrongness of my love of sweat, tears, and cum. They merge somewhere between: a cum rag crumbled under the bed; the athlete wiping himself during a bout; a towel used by Vegas-era Elvis then sold on eBay. This wrong-love translates into my assertion that fringe, sequins, gold, metal studs and floral motifs are not cheap or tasteless, but have a value given to them by their audience.” The titles of the works are drawn from various writings by Jean Genet. “Genet’s penchant for rough trade and lack of shame in expressing this “wrongness” moves through a lot of my work. In particular a quote from the Miracle of the Rose, ‘…beauty is the projection of ugliness and by developing certain monstrosities we obtain the purest ornaments.’”

Platform Gallery

114 Third Avenue South

Seattle, WA 98104

206-323-2808

www.platformgallery.com

Hours: Wednesday to Friday 11AM to 5:30PM, Saturday, 11AM to 5:00PM

Member: Seattle Art Dealers Association

Human Mansprings 

We are thrilled to have Steven Frost as our next gallery artist. Frost is a a formerly DC-based artist who lived on Georgia Avenue and worked at the Corcoran College of Art + Design during his time here. Frost left DC in 2009 to pursue his MFA in Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Steve is currently living and working in Chicago, and showing at a variety of galleries and alternative spaces across the country.

RELATED:
Pictures from the Opening
Washington Post Gallery Pick of the Week

  Men’s Work

Curated by Jeremy Sanders

The Box Factory – 865 Florida Street, San Francisco, CA

Nov 6, 3pm – Panel Discussion with artists & Tina Takemoto

Each artist in Men’s Work renders their particular experience of maleness through domestic forms, thereby subverting viewers gendered expectations of the objects and materials therein. Delineations of work and home are blurred and broken; questioning exactly what is Men’s Work?

Bren Ahearn
Victor De La Rosa
Cirilo Domine
Steven Frost
Kris Grey
Luke Haynes
Sam Lopes
John Paradiso
Jeremy Chase Sanders
Erik Scollon

September 23 – November 27, 2011
The exhibition examines the gap between cultural expectations of masculinity and the identities chosen by men. Touching on themes of readiness, ability, confusion, frustration, freedom and responsibility, the thirteen artists in the show explore this landscape in the present.

 
Steven Frost Marquess of Queensberry 2010    

Artists:

Jesse Burke, Providence, RI; Steven Frost, Chicago, IL; Jason Hanasik, San Francisco,CA and Norfolk, VA; Keith Hoyt, New Paltz, NY; Zihan Loo, Chicago, IL and Singapore; Darrel Morris, Heidrick, KY; Polly Motley, Stowe, Vermont; Andrew Mowbray, Dorchester, MA; Mark Newport, Ferndale, MI; Oli Rodriguez, Chicago, IL; Jules Rosskam (screening), Amherst, MA; Jeremy Arlo Simmons, Oakland, CA; Travis LeRoy Southworth, Brooklyn, NY

Curated by Nathan Suter  

SPLAY : Curated by Marissa Perel

August 26th – September 18th
Opening Reception: Friday August 26th 7-10pm

Roxaboxen Exhibitions
2130 W.21 St.
Chicago, Illinois
Gallery hours Saturday 12-3pm

SPLAY: An International group exhibition that explores sexuality as a platform for self-reflexivity. Through painting sculpture, video, performance and site specific installation, each artist questioned her/his own subjectivity in the face of her/his desires. How do we understand ourselves in the flesh in the midst of the digital, where personalities and bodies are framed for market consumption, singles networks and virtual cruising? Who is the real subject? Do we elude even ourselves as the subjects of our experiences, instead in the substituting or superimposing the fulfillment of fantasy over personal satisfaction? SPLAY is an exhibition that opens up a dialogue about the place of real pleasure within the manifold real and imagined identification of sexual identity. The work in Splay is a proposition to the the viewer as the artists attempt to be seen and satiated at the risk of alienation, rejection, or humiliation. What results is a subversive play (s-play) insinuating the viewer as a participant, voyeur or longed-for other.

Artists: Madeleine Baily (Chicago), Steven Frost (Chicago), Yasi Ghanbari (Chicago), Elise Goldstein (Antwerp, BE), Rachel Lowther (Glasgow, UK), Ivan Lozano (Chicago), Brian Maller (NY), Alison Rhoades (Grenoble, FR), Tessa Siddle (San Francisco), Fritz Welch (Glasgow, UK), Syniva Whitney (Seattle)

August 16–September 22
Reception: Friday, September 9, 4:30–7:00 p.m.

By favoring experience over interpretation, Experience is Never Unattached is rooted in exploratory and collaborative modes of making and viewing. This exhibition showcases new work by current MFA students and recent alumni and is curated by Leah Oren (MA 2013), curatorial assistant, Department of Exhibitions and Exhibition Studies and Jeannette Tremblay (MA 2011). Featured artists include Andrew Barco, Eric Baskauskas, Marissa Lee Benedict, Victoria Bradford, Craig Butterworth, Scott A. Carter, Federico Cattaneo, Benjamin Chaffee, Al Díaz-Palacios, Vicki Fowler, Steven Frost, Alex Gartelmann, Katya Grokhovsky, Antonia Gurkovska, David R. Harper, Akemi Hong, Ji Youn Hong, Kelly K. Jones, Cheng-Yung Kuo, Ei Jane Janet Lin, Ivan Lozano, Alfredo Martinez, Su Hyun Nam, James Alured Powers, Matthew Schlagbaum, Charlie Schneider, Jonas Sebura, Nicole Seisler, Soo Shin, Benjamin Stagl, Amber Renaye Thomas, Clare Torina, and Rafael Vega.

Pick up a copy of Headmaster Magazine No. 2 to see some of my latest work.

Other contributors include:

Stéphane Barbier
Jesse Burke
Heyd Fontenot
Krys Fox
M Kitchell
Steve Locke
Johnny Murdoc
Joseph Segal
Thomas Weidenhaupt

ACCESSIBLE OPENING EVENT JULY 16TH, 2011  5-9 PM

BY APPOINTMENT JULY 16TH-20TH
2130 WEST CHICAGO AVENUE, CHICAGO IL 60622

FEATURING

ADAM ROSE, ASHA TAMIRISA, ERIC STEFANSKI, FERESHTEH TOOSHI, HYEON KIM, JENNIFER GROSSMAN, KATE HAMPEL, MARCI RUBIN, MICELE BOCK, STEVE FROST, YOUNG JOON KWAK

CURATED BY EMMA STEIN

The exhibition will feature non-visual curatorial methods and artwork that is accessible by its multi-sensory nature.  In addition to advancing the field of art accessibility, the exhibition will also provide a meaningful experience for the sighted, giving participants an opportunity to branch out of strictly visual modes of engagement with artworks.

PLEASE TOUCH THE ARTWORK is a community-based and community-funded project.  While most of the artists represented are located in Chicagoland, the contributors to this project form a much larger, diverse community of activists who are working to increase the accessibility of art around the country.

For more information or questions about the accessible opening event, write to pleasetouchtheartwork@gmail.com,  or visit the project blog at pleasetouchtheartwork.blogspot.com