secondBEDROOM

UP NEXT-HANDSFREE

2010-06-17T20:45:00.001-07:00

HANDSFREE publications present
NO MONEY NO PANCAKES

Delivering the highest caliber in news and reporting from esteemed syndicated columnists such as Mr. Potato Nose and Ye Olde Peglegger, HANDSFREE’s coverage of local and global issues has become the go to source for credible news reporting. Covering an eclectic range of topics including pig’s milk, sports, porn life, child birth do’s and don’ts, Steven Tyler, pre-ski workouts, and much more. Come peruse all the issues including the new full color edition now with spell check! Oh yeah and FREE WAFFLES. Seriously. FREE WAFFLES. Featuring work by Ben Smith, Brad Rogers, Pete Sutfin, Tim Armour, Bart Jones, Rick Davenger, Chris Fetter and more! Plus-ALL YOU CAN EAT FREE WAFFLES ya Peepee face. BYOB.

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 26, 7-11pm

UP NEXT-VINCENT DERMODY

2010-04-22T19:20:00.000-07:00

death of a death of a salesman

Dear Second Bedroom,

I’m responsible for the Recession. Well, not just me, but myself and my ilk: Telephone Salespeople. I’ve died and gone to Hell, and I’m a living, speaking tongue of flame selling ad space in trade pubs for Nybbas out of a boiler room in Malebolge. The last ten years of my life on earth were spent misappropriating marketing funds from dopes

in some of the worst hit parts of the country. Vain business owners threw tens of thousands of dollars my way for fake magazines in every godforsaken industry under the sun. This bucket of crap is known as the Profiles Industry, it’s kind of like Vanity Publishing but creepier, and it’s the only future for printed publications in end times.

Everything I said was made up. Taking everyone from idiot executives of Fortune 500 companies to family business owners, 250 calls a day. I separated them from their coffers with insider information (and football talk) that was smuggled via bogus research made for cover stories that would never be written. Lies became truth with practice, and we would do anything for a stale beer and box seats at the hockey game sitting on the boss’s knee: “It doesn’t matter if the vice-president was killed in a car wreck – call the C.F.O. at home on his cell phone. We have a fish-fry target to hit.” So, I risked being pulled apart by horses for five hundred years to send you and

your readership this sales script.

Arrrggghhh!

Vincent Dermody

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 15, 7-11pm

UP NEXT- IN PLACE OF DREAMS

2010-03-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

IN PLACE OF DREAMS

Alberto Aguilar and Alexander "Turbo/Buster Bear" Cohen

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, April 10, 7-11pm

Armed with ADHD, skittles, and raw unadulterated man-child silliness secondBEDROOM becomes the battleground for a war against sleep. With play at stake, our slumber party soldiers Alberto Aguilar and Alexander "Turbo/Buster Bear" Cohen will brave the harsh biological demands of their bodies for art, a la building forts, swapping stories, confessing crushes, and making prank phone calls, the product of which will be the material for the exhibit. United for the cause since September 2009, the duo has collaborated on countless drawings, two major installations, video, sound works, and has formed the band "The Loookers" which will perform opening night.

Alberto Aguilar

Raised in the notorious mob run town of Cicero, IL. After five turbulent years of high school he enrolled in The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he received his BFA in 1997 and MFA in 2001. For five years Alberto taught part-time at various colleges throughout Chicago and painted several public murals with assistance of students. In 2004 he decided to give up painting due to a growing skepticism

towards the sloppy medium and a feeling of isolation brought on by his studio practice. Alberto got a full-time job teaching Art History in 2004 at McHenry County College. During this time he started documenting exchange with others, family life and household chores and designating them his artwork. In 2006 he received a position at Harold Washington College in downtown Chicago where he teaches painting and drawing. In 2007 Alberto started Pedestrian Project, an art initiative dedicated to making art accessible to people from all walks of life. He regularly collaborates with others under various guises.

Alexander Cohen

Alexander Turbo Cohen the wildest creature. Knew to taking tyme and developing ideas, werks of pureness. Straight from his curls and the soul he breathes creativity. Mic check one two one two. He aspires to be a poet but hes stuck in a painting. A painterly werld he knows and he expresses that. Stay tru he myte wall ride your house and tri to eat kandi wyth your daughter. awkward amongst the prettiest of humans he has enough fokus to get werk done. An artist pure no skillz just keepin it reelz. Must make someone smile as hes livyng.

UP NEXT-JIM ZIMPEL

2010-01-22T23:52:00.000-08:00

"by George"
new work by Jim Zimpel
Opening: Friday, February, 12, 7-11pm

Jim Zimpel exposes the scam, the myth, the hornswoggle, the hoodwink ,the great con of our most perpetuated American notions of landscape as it relates to "liberty" and American male identity. His large scale sculpture and installations acknowledge our collective fabrication of this myth with affection as well as acknowledgment of his position well within the effort. In other words Jim knows his way around the table saw, the cattle brand, the buck knife and the TIG welder.
Carrying on in this vein for "by George" Zimpel willfully inherits the aesthetic and "practical" decision making of his grandfather, Grandpa George. By the looks of it Grandpa George is a collector, a bit of a pack rat even, with stock piles of kitchen knifes, foam brushes, painter's masks and countless other trinkets and doodads all "systematically" housed or displayed by an apparatus of Grandpa George design. Zimpel closely observed the organization and construction techniques of these odd collections and adopted these methods to inform this new body of work featuring but not limited to ice fishing stations, golf ball collection containers, and other apparatuses for storing the weird and the cherished.

NEXT UP-THAD KELLSTADT

2009-09-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

what we do is a secret
acrylic on canvas
17x16
2009

AFTER EFFECTS
by Thad Kellstadt
OPENING-Saturday, October 24th, 7-11pm

Thad Kellstadt's After Effects attempts to explore the possible afterlife of objects, once dependent on human touch, now neglected but possessing a new presence. Some believe that the breaking of a mirror brings a lengthy stint of bad luck due to the soul confiscating power of the mirrors reflective surface. After Effects investigates the animism of life's less lustrous objects. In an attempt to kill time at the office a ceiling tile fatefully gets caught in the crossfire, walls are captured in senseless decay, a corpse of one of the countless botanical casualties happening everyday across the country plus many more examples of the grizzly and mundane horrors of the deceased!

Thad Kellstadt is a multi-disciplinary artist born and raised in Ohio. His work deals with the teenage spirit, displacement, enlightenment, and modern rural mysticism & myth. He has shown nationally at Space 1026 in Philadelphia, Lump Gallery in Raleigh and Heaven Gallery in Chicago, as well as internationally at Alice Gallery in Brussels, Cell Project Space in London and SKOL in Montreal.
He currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.

Atlantic O is up till September 25th!

2009-08-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

Irene Perez
Evaporating tears of joy, nostalgia, and fear.
the artist's tears captured in a glass canister

You missed the Pisto Manchega, Tortilla de Patatas y Calabicin, Tortilla Española, Albondigas en Salsa, and the Paella de Marisco, but you can still check out the body of work she created exploring the body of water connecting/dividing her two "homes" between Spain and the States.  Irene Perez's exhibit Atlantic O is up till September 25th by appointment.

Upcoming Show for August 15th!

2009-07-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

Atlantic O
by Irene Pérez

For Atlantic O artist Irene Pérez presents a conceptual and material exploration that investigates the body of water that both separates and connects the American and European continent. In Atlantic O this massive expansion of salty fluid and fluid emotional states are at odds due to Perez’s return “home” to Spain after a 10-year absence.

Irene Pérez is an emerging visual artist making work that explores place, perception, cultural identity, and language. Irene works on projects in a variety of media, including works on paper, fiber pieces, and installations. Born in 1975 in Terrassa, Spain, near Barcelona, she currently lives in North Aurora, near Chicago, Illinois. Her studies include work in art history at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and photography and fine arts at the College of Dupage in Illinois. Irene received a BFA in studio arts with a focus in sculpture and painting at the University of Illinois at Chicago in May of 2009.

OPENING:SATURDAY, AUGUST 15th, 7-11pm

That You Can Carry

2009-07-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

That You Can Carry by Allison Yasukawa is up till August 7th by appointment.

UP NEXT-ALLISON YASUKAWA

2009-06-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

That You Can Carry
New work by Allison Yasukawa

OPENING:FRIDAY,JULY 17, 7-11pm
For Second Bedroom Project Space, artist Allison Yasukawa proposes new forms of engagement with ethnography. Experimenting with art based research techniques; Senegalese expatriates were asked to create drawings from memory of their Senegalese neighborhoods allowing for an experiential relationship with the past. The drawings as well as interviews with the expatriates were used to inform the construction of a series of hats embedded with the recorded audio from the interviews. Come and experience if the ethnographic hat will make the man.
Allison Yasukawa is a Chicago-based artist. Her work is multi-disciplinary and addresses questions about embodiment and communication through low-tech interactive works. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

UPCOMING

2009-06-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

Sleeping Around
an installation by Anni Holm
Opening Reception: Friday, June 19, 7-11pm

In the creation of Sleeping Around Chicagoland based Danish artist Anni Holm explores personal relationships prompted and/or developed by sleeping in someone’s guest room. For her installation at Second Bedroom, Holm collaborates with friends and family to recreate specific objects from these spaces in order to explore their commonalities and divergences.

Anni Holm is a conceptual artist working with photography, installation, performance, and collaborative art. Born in Randers, Denmark, Anni holds a Studenter Eksamen in math from Randers Statsskole, Denmark and attended here after Krabbesholm Art College. She graduated with a BFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago 2004, where she received the Albert P. Weisman Memorial Scholarship twice. In 2005, she received an artist residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, was a Featured Artist during the Chicago Artists Month in 2006, and was named a Break Out Artist in Newcity Chicago in 2007. Anni has performed and exhibited her work at various locations nationally including Ohio University Gallery, Ohio; Waterloo Center for the Arts, Iowa; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota; Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, New York; Space 301, Alabama; along with the Glass Curtain Gallery, the National Museum of Mexican Arts, the Chicago Cultural Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, all in Chicago. Since 2006 Anni has also toured the country with the ever-expanding NetWorking knitting project. International exhibitions include the group exhibitions at Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark, Hafnarborg Institute of Culture and Fine Art, Iceland, Amos Andersons Konstmuseum, Finland, Ljungbergmuseet, Sweden and Norsk Folkemuseum, Norway. Anni co-founded Art Walks Chicago, an annual public performance art series on the streets of Chicago, with former performance partner Nyok-Mei Wong in 2004. She is the founder and curator of the three-day multimedia art exhibition artXposium and artINcorporators umbrella arts organization, both based in West Chicago, Illinois, where she also resides.

*Image: Anni Holm, Bedroom window, DeKalb, 2009

Exciting News!

2009-05-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

Second Bedroom will be participating in Artist Run Chicago at the Hyde Park Art Center presenting new works by Rafael Barontini, Laura Boban, Ben Brandt, Anna Campbell, Adam Farcus, Anni Holm, Kevin Jennings, and Edra Soto.

Artists Run Chicago, an exhibition showcasing the energy and audacity of some of the most noteworthy artist-run spaces that have influenced the Chicago contemporary art scene over the past decade on view from May 10 – July 5, 2009 in Gallery 1. Chicago has long been known for cultivating a strong entrepreneurial/Do-It-Yourself spirit in business and the arts. The participating artist-run venues have transformed storefronts, sheds, apartments, lofts, industrial spaces, garages and roving spaces into contemporary art galleries testing the notion of exhibition while complicating the definition of art. Coinciding with the Hyde Park Art Center’s 70th anniversary, Artists Run Chicago reconnects the Art Center to its beginnings as an artist-run space by bringing much deserved attention to those outstanding spaces that continue to reinvent the mold unique to Chicago.

Opening reception: Sunday May 10th 3 - 5pm @ Hyde Park Art Center

Warm/Cool Decorator

2009-05-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

Ben Brandt
Warm/Cool Decorator
Opening Reception: Friday, May 22, 7-11pm

The role and criteria of the interior designer is uprooted and then rerouted to accommodate a bedroom bathed in urgent blue police light. In doing this, the boundary between the body and architecture is blurred with floral arrangements, flannel, site-specific paintings and sculpture.

Ben Brandt received a B.F.A from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has shown at Contemporary Art Work Shop, Caro d’Offay Gallery, Estudiotres Gallery and others. Ben lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.

The High Mayors of Chicago

2009-04-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Richard M. of Bridgeport
spraypaint on wood

The High Mayors of Chicago by Kevin Jennings will be up till May 15th, by appointment. Hope you can stop by and check it out.

The High Mayors of Chicago

2009-04-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

The High Mayors of Chicago
works by Kevin Jennings
April 18 – May 15, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday April 18th, 7-11pm

Second Bedroom Project Space presents The High Mayors of Chicago, a group of works by artist Kevin Jennings conflating the powerful Irish mayors from Bridgeport and the High Kings of Ireland. The artist will explore the link between the history of the Irish mayors form Bridgeport and the mythology surrounding the High Kings of Ireland and their coronation process, which, according to Irish legend, occurred when the Stone of Destiny on the Hill of Tara would give a roar that could be heard all over the island when touched by the true High King.

Kevin Jennings lives and works in Chicago. He received his MFA from UIC in 2004. Locally, he has shown at places like Experimental Station, C.O.M.A., VONZWECK, Old Gold, 312, and 1/Quarterly. Kevin currently works for the University of Illinois and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Edra Soto

2009-03-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

LESSON PLAN

by Edra Soto with special guests Dawn and Carl!
Opening: March 20th, 7-11pm

For the next installation at the SBPS, Edra Soto; a high school art teacher, had her students develop cardboard skyscrapers that reference the forms from notable architectural works across the world while considering the personas of the studied architects. Soto will then use the SBPS as a site to connect her student's work with her own. If that does not sound radical enough for you, Carl Warnick and Dawn Reed will "mix and mash" the students top 5 songs with some favorites of Edra's to create an audial parallel to the sculptural installation. Boing!
P.S.
The aforementioned artists have all exhibited at institutions and spaces much cooler than this one and have ample street cred!
toodles.

HUNGRY

2009-01-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

HUNGRY

a project by Raphael Barontini

February 20th-March 13th, 2009

Opening Reception: Friday, February 20th, 7-11pm

Coming up artist Rafael Barontini explores the complexity of simple delights. Late night milk and cookies, temporary alliances as a product of inebriation, juice boxes perhaps, as well as other reworked signifiers of our fleeting pleasures.

Up till March 13th by appointment, or, you could take a walk down Morgan St. and take a gander at this odd crystal formation growing out of the SBPS.

Ping Pong of the Gods- Round 2

2009-01-09T14:37:00.000-08:00

Back by public demand!!!
FRIDAY JANUARY 16TH, 2009 7 TO 11PM
One night only event

Second Bedroom is having another Galactic Ping Pong session before our 2009 exhibition season starts. Come and play a game of ping pong that requires skillful abilities to avoiding asteroids, stars and black holes.

Refreshments and some snacks will be served!

Taking a break

2008-12-20T12:46:00.000-08:00

Second Bedroom Project Space is taking a short break for the holidays.

A new show with works by Rafael Barontini will open February 7th, 2009.

We are also accepting submissions for exhibitions at this time, so please contact us at secondbedroom.project@gmail.com for more information.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!

Images and video from our last event
Galactic Ping Pong

Galactic Ping Pong

2008-11-21T17:34:00.000-08:00

THE PING PONG OF GODS
December 19th, 7-11pm
Come experience the leisure of Gods!!! With minimal effort YOU can bat terrestrial objects (planets, asteroids, comets, meteors) through the vacant recesses of space! Parallel to the processes of the universe, like a supernova explosion that plants the material for the foundation of new life, the refuse from deceased installations at the Second Bedroom Project Space will become BORN AGAIN!!! The refuse handling specialists at the Sodomize Brutality Performance Squad will transform our excess of material into a cosmic ping pong experience! Hope you can participate!

Getting Strong Now

2008-10-31T17:48:00.000-07:00

Getting Strong Now
An installation by Anna Campbell
November 1 – December 5, 2008
Opening Reception: Saturday November 8th – 7pm to 11pm

The spectacle, visceral charge, and cultural significance of boxing have been central to much of visual artist Anna Campbell’s work. For Second Bedroom the artist is creating Getting Strong Now, an installation part of her Making Contact project, recreating a micro-gym environment. The installation will have sculptural, video and interactive elements engaging the visitors into the environment of the boxing practice.

From the artist:
“My work as a mixed media and installation artist indulges in the guilty pleasures of romanticizing failure and idolizing drive for its own sake, but the high stakes attached to unromanticized failures, whose consequences are particularly disabling for marginalized people, tempers this idealization and creates a central tension in my work.”

Anna Campbell is a visual artists that currently lives and works in Grand Rapids, Michigan and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Design at Grand Valley State University.

Wrapping Diary, video still, Anna Campbell, 2007

Because It All Shifts

2008-09-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

Closing Reception
Because It All Shifts
Mathew Paul Jinks
Friday, October 10th, 7-11pm

Due to massive flooding of the greater Chicago area, we will be hosting a closing reception for Mathew Paul Jinks because he is a super duper artist! Now that your basements are dry we hope you can check it out.

Because It All Shifts

2008-09-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

Because It All Shifts
An installation by Mathew Paul Jinks
September 13 – October 12, 2008
Opening Reception:
Saturday September 13th – 7pm to 11pm

Second Bedroom Project Space presents Because It All Shifts, an installation by artist Mathew Paul Jinks. Based upon memory fragments, Mathew will create a room size diorama that offsets the myth of personal history against that of a fabled cricket match.

From the artist:
“A cracked riverbed near to the scene of Paul Anthony Jink’s death in 1988 is re-imagined as a field of play. The summer of 1988 was the summer of the ‘Four Captains’ heralding the English Cricket teams defeat against the West Indies. Catastrophe and trauma are players in this game. A personal autobiographical text and textual analysis of this defeat are offset against each other, the denouement overseen by the embodiment of the umpire.”

Mathew Paul Jinks is an International artist based in Chicago, utilizing video, sound, sculpture and performance to explore themes of myth, belief systems, loss and memory. Mathew completed his undergraduate studies at The Glasgow School of Art in Scotland U.K, in 2005. He then moved to the U.S and completed his MFA at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2008. Mathew has exhibited both in the U.K and the U.S and has solo shows planned for 2009 in Chicago at both Green Lantern Gallery and Gallery 400 ‘At The Edge Series’.

ANNOUNCING OUR NEW SISTER SPACE-MEDICINE CABINET

2008-08-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

Thats right! Medicine Cabinet, a space dedicated to the diorama will have its first opening the same night as the Mathew Paul Jinks show. Medicine Cabinet is a medicine cabinet in the same apartment that houses the Second Bedroom Project Space. Check out http://the-medicine-cabinet.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Shadows, track and traces

2008-08-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

Shadows, tracks and traces.
an installation by Michael Una
August 2 – 31, 2008

Second Bedroom Project Space presents an installation by artists Michael Una.
Shadows, tracks and traces seeks to make people aware of the omnipresent, ambient surveillance going on around us all the time by audiovisually representing the evidence we leave as we move through info space. As the viewer enters the room, they will come within the recording field of a video camera and a microphone. An automated system will record and processes the audiovisual data generated within the room and presents it back to the viewer in a dissociated, fragmented stream coming from all directions.

Michael Una is an audiovisual artist living in Chicago. His work investigates wave motion and rhythmic coincidence, with an eye toward complex systems interaction.

Yet another great opening

2008-08-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for coming and participating in Michael Una's interactive installation.

Irene Pérez, Michael Una, and Chris Smith.

FREEZE

2008-06-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

Freeze is the first show at Second Bedroom and the work will be on exhibition from June 21st to July 20th.

FREEZE by Adam Farcus is up till July 20th for spelunking.

Thank you

2008-06-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

After few weeks of hard work, Adam Farcus's Freeze show opening was a success.
Thank you to all of you who stopped by. Those of you who couldn't make it we hope you can come to visit us soon.

Chirs Smith, Adam Farcus, and Irene Pérez.

Making Some Progress

2008-06-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

There are few things as satisfying in life as coming home from a long day at work to notice that strange angular cardboard objects located in the second bedroom in your apartment are reproducing themselves. I must have missed the elusive Adam Farcus, hard at work earlier that day. Anyway, just wanted to show a slight glimpse of the process of Adams constructions. June 21st, 7-11 pm, Freeze, by Adam Farcus.

WE HAVE A RESIDENCY PROGRAM!!!

2008-05-17T18:46:00.001-07:00

Well, its sort of a pseudo-residency program. If your proposal is accepted by the curatorial board here at Second Bedroom, you will have the option of occupying the futon to aid in the completion of your project for those long labor intensive nights. I also have a blanket and a pillow! The residency program is BYOB.
Chris

... and I can cook for you! ;oP
Irene

How to get to the space

2008-05-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

secondBEDROOM

2008-05-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

East wall

North wall
West wallThe room is aproximately 7 x 12 feet with 9 foot ceilings.

Proposal Submission

2008-05-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

For proposal submissions please e-mail us at secondbedroom.project@gmail.com and we'll send you a space layout map. We are excited to hear your ideas.

About

2008-05-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Created by Chris Smith and Irene Pérez, Second Bedroom is a project space that encourages risk taking and experimentation as long as the intended project can operate without resulting in the loss of Chris Smith's security deposit and/or an eviction from his apartment. Second Bedroom, located in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, is an approximately 7 by 12 foot space with 10 foot ceilings and an intruding Chicago Police Department flashing blue light.
The initiative at Second Bedroom is to provide an individual exhibition space for an emerging artist for a specific project. The exhibit should not be of previous work but a place to carry out a project that deals with the many attributes of the space while relating to the individuals' art practice. Our hope is that artists will take this as an opportunity to help them develop as artists and to take initiative for promoting them-selves with the intention of advancing their practice. Second Bedroom is open for proposals from all artists. We hope to hear from you.

Check out the photos of the space or come visit us to stimulate some ideas and let us know what you are thinking.