Club Atletico Velez Sarsfield in Buenos Aires hosted an international cultural event in early December comprising more than 50 cyanotypes from workers in South and North America (and a few points beyond). The list of participants was so inclusive that chances are you know someone who exhibited.
Get over to Barrington Fortress High School to see the exhibit of work by the Spangler sisters!
We’ve seen three different dates for the show, but we’re going with the poster: the work is up until Friday, September 27. The place is a fortress now due to the gun violence epidemic. You’ll get buzzed into a small door off to the side of the former main entrance (now closed all day, every day); present an ID, which gets scanned; issued a copy of your ID, attached to a lanyard by new security people who may or may not not understand that you don’t have an appointment with an individual because you’re going to an art gallery in order to look at art; and escorted to the gallery by a paraprofessional.
(Kindly bear in mind that a spotlit gallery wall doth not a copy stand make.)
The show is excellent. Go.
It’s a useful conceit, it is, for perspective and/or as a cosmic scapegoat. Since this here blawwg has been dormant approaching the solstice, let’s get an inkling of what we missed.
This is from DePaul, during last summer. If we’d been a little sharper, we’d have alerted you to this show.
Here’s what’s up in… Amsterdam.
The photo community there has just published this free map of local points of interest. When was the last time Chicago did this? Ever? Never? It’s not the same to list places in a glossy handout or an SPE convention guide; we’re a visual bunch, nest pas?
Oh, here’s one.
By all means, do not miss this beautiful and comprehensive retrospective of the AACM at the Contemptible.
Illinois residents get in for free on Tuesdays.
Update: you missed that one as well! Were you in on this, in 1998?
You may even discover who made the last image on the poster.
Visit the National Veterans’ Art Museum at 4041 North Milwaukee Avenue to see 100 Faces of War Experience: Portraits and Words of Americans Who Served in Iraq and Afghanistan, a solo exhibition of paintings by Matt Mitchell. 
From the catalog: “Unlike photographs, portraits are artists’ interpretation and presentation of their subjects” (emphasis mine). 
“The artist met with each person to start their painting… Â Each meeting lasted between two and eight hours. Mitchell then continued working for 40 to 80 hours to complete each portrait.”
The gallery truly becomes a place for contemplation. Also on permanent display: “The Things They Carried.” From the website: “With artworks and objects created and collected by over twenty Vietnam veteran artists, The Things They Carried also provides visual interpretations to viewers, illustrating the war by those who were there.” This installation includes actual photographs.
At the Chicago Cultural Center, allow yourself to be engulfed by “Drury Brennan: Die Welt (The World).”
From the card: “With the heart of a beatmaker, eyes of a ‘Street Artist’ and mouth of a poet, Brennan seeks to unite these disparate traditions & concepts, making new systems of poetics to bring us together.” 
TONIGHT! the big reception and awards ceremony for the Harper Area HS Art Show! This year’s drawing/painting/photo display cases are a little thin on bombast and contrast, and imagination beyond the terms of each assigned project. Still, as Lee Friedlander said, “The pleasures of good photographs are the pleasures of good photographs, whatever the particulars of their makeup” (or the care invested in the making of their negative[s] and their prints). Regarding that, Kendall Free’s picture may be the best print in the entire show, and Buffalo Grove’s photography the best overall. Between the quality of the lighting and the size of the crowd, one may need a little luck in order to view all of the work.
The biggest thrills, however, are reserved for the other (almost secret) display area for the 3-D mediums. No amount of signage can be too much for directing tonight’s audience to this work.
The biggest expense for the participating schools is tonight’s refreshments. Go early; say, seven-ish.
The photographic North Star is the Milwaukee Art Museum. Get up there posthaste to see the important, wide-ranging, engaging show “Postcards From America.” The photographers, all members of Magnum, include Bruce Gilden, Jim Goldberg, Susan Meiselas, Martin Parr, Paolo Pellegrin, Mark Power, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Jacob Aue Sobol, Alec Soth, Zoe Strauss, and Donovan Wylie.
http://postcardsfromamerica.tumblr.com/
http://www.mam.org/exhibitions/details/postcards-from-america.php
The exhibit closes October 19.
What a turnout; what a love-in. Kelly commandeered the camera for the most part, so yours truly ended up in such a large percentage of the shots that this presentation is handicapped by modesty. Still:
 
The show remains on view in the Clair E. Smith Gallery, 616 West Main 60010, and in adjacent hall display cases until April 25.
“A word to the wise is sufficient.” -A. Stieglitz
We’ve never had a bad time in Milwaukee, and there’s a good reason to go there while the weather permits: a lovely little show at the Portrait Society Gallery in the Third Ward. It’s called “Certificates Of Presence.” There are new darkroom prints from Vivian Maier’s negatives (as always, one or two you’ve yet to see); iPhone pictures from J.Lindemann’s year of being grounded (for a very good reason); and prints from another “found” archive, 300 Kodachrome slides by Latvian-born Livija Patikne. It’s up through March 8, so go. Say hi to Tony for us.
http://portraitsocietygallery.com/
This past Friday evening was a success on a number of levels, among them well-seen/well-rendered pictures and a great turnout.
Vicky Molitor (BHS, ’92; Art Department Chair at Lincoln HS, Manitowoc WI) delivered a succinct tribute, during yours truly kept whispering to Marissa “Don’t make me cry, don’t make me cry.”
Here are some of the images on display from the series “Lump & Mention.”
See also https://www.facebook.com/#!/bhsphoto
Please come to BHS to look at 26 actual, physical prints. They’re on exhibit until the 14th.
See also: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/bhsphoto
Sincere thanks to Julia Beatty, Jeff Arnett, Grant Sahr and Laurie Mack. Annnnnnnnd, Vicky.
Creative Camerawork 