Firecat Projects

Formerly the studio of artist Tony Fitzpatrick, Firecat is now a gallery founded by Fitzpatrick and Stan Klein, and recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. In addition to giving one-person shows to deserving local and emerging artists, Firecat has a rare business model in that the gallery takes no commission from sales.

Firecat Projects
2124 North Damen
(773)342-5381
firecatprojects.com

Audience choice:
Western Exhibitions
119 North Peoria
(312)480-8390
westernexhibitions.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Smart Bar

Established in 1982, it may be older than most of its patrons and even house music itself, but Smart Bar puts the lie to the idea that club goers want flavor-of-the-minute nightspots with velvet ropes and bottle service. What they want is great music and a dance floor where people actually dance. This DJ-driven dance club will certainly give your ears a much needed rest from top-forty remixes since you’ll hear music—techno, dubstep and house—spun by Chicago’s, and the world’s, top DJs. The delightfully diverse crowd is always there to dance, not just to sway back and forth or, heaven help us, fist-pump, and at Smart Bar you actually have the room to do it. And, hopefully the funds too. If not, on Sundays, you can time travel for Dollar Disco with resident DJs Michael Serafini, Adulture and Kid Color. Featuring excellent house, nu disco and electronica, as well as old disco hits that never really get old, Smart Bar’s Dollar Disco is worth the lag in your Monday morning.

Smart Bar
3730 North Clark
(773)549-0203
smartbarchicago.com

Audience choice:
The Mid
306 North Halsted
(312)265-3990
themidchicago.com

Best of Chicago 2011

“Soirée” by Michael Rea at the Elmhurst Art Museum

Founded in 1980, and located in the middle of upper-middle-class suburban DuPage County, the Elmhurst Museum graciously sports Mies van der Rohe’s McCormick House on its grounds. It’s a clean, quiet place that got down and dirty this summer hosting Michael Rea’s delightful mess of an exhibit, “Soirée.” Rea uses unfinished wood to create monumental installations of objects as varying as bongs, spaceships and weaponry. His work is humorous and a perfect fit for Elmhurst’s uptight environs.

Elmhurst Art Museum
150 Cottage Hill, Elmhurst
(630)834-0202
elmhurstartmuseum.org

Best of Chicago 2011

Michael Kaysen

For some unjustifiable reason the Chicago art scene has not taken on the habit of tweeting its guts out to the world unlike peeps in places like New York, Texas and even Puerto Rico. However, there are a few exceptions in Miguel Cortez, director of Antena Gallery (@lapsus5), and the Museum of Contemporary Art (@mcachicago). But it is the director of SideCar Gallery in Indiana, Michael Kaysen (@sidecarhammond), who reaches the far confines of the twitterverse by engaging in inflammatory discussions about art and politics with the likes of star critic Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz).

Best of Chicago 2011

Manifest Exhibitions

Run by SAIC graduates Josh Reames and Amber Thomas, this quaint and cold underground space in Logan Square has been the talk of the town. So what’s so special about it? Respected artists like Richard Hull, Eric Lebofsky, Jeff Parrott and Tyson Reeder have graced its walls—but it’s the affordable prices that have everyone excited.

Manifest Exhibitions
2950 North Allen
manifestexhibitions.tumblr.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Printworks

Since 1980, Printworks has been exhibiting mostly works on paper by Chicago artists in an intimate setting. Many of the Printworks artists have been showing in Chicago for decades. This level of sustained commitment and support is rare and indispensable.

Printworks
311 West Superior #105
(312)664-9407
printworkschicago.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Marilyn Monroe sculpture at Pioneer Court

Seward Johnson’s gargantuan sculpture of Marilyn Monroe showing off her panties was an ode to masochism and kitsch. A tourist trap set by the Zeller Realty Group channeled through the Chicago Tribune’s incessant PR campaign to promote it across the globe gave stark proof that controversy always sells and they got you talking about it from day one.

Pioneer Court
400 block of North Michigan Avenue

Best of Chicago 2011

Peanut Gallery

Don’t be fooled by the funky name. Peanut is not a comedy club but an artist’s collective; think of them as a punk band formed by artist and writer Kelly Reaves and artists Charlie Megna and Brandon Howe. The type of art they promote is gutsy, crafty and hardcore—didactic conceptualism has no place here. One of our favorites in their roster is Jack Edinger, who makes dramatic photographs of amateur wrestlers in their natural habitats.

Peanut Gallery
1000 North California
(312)291-1739
peanutgallerychicago.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Kay Rosen’s “Go Do Good”

If you thought Tony Tasset’s giant fiberglass eyeball was nothing more than an expensive roadside attraction in a time of austerity, then you must have been unpleasantly stoked by the unveiling of the Chicago Loop Alliance’s new public art extravaganza “GO DO GOOD,” Kay Rosen’s six-story mural above the Old Navy on State and Washington. The idea was to motivate people to carry out thousands of good deeds but the text was too designy, and people had trouble making out the words. To make things even worse, “GO DO GOOD” had the appearance of a state-sponsored marketing campaign—and people just don’t like to be preached at while shopping.

Best of Chicago 2011

It’s a tie! Mindy Rose Schwartz and Heidi Norton

We should be so lucky. On one hand we had Mindy Rose Schwartz’ odd pottery, large vintage credenzas and ceramic water fountains occupying the whole of Threewalls, and on the other Heidi Norton’s impressive fossilized plants, encrusted in heavy glass plates, proved that it was time for Ebersmoore to aim higher and move into a bigger space where they can show off their stable. Between these two artists there’s so much sculptural dexterity to melt the surface of the earth. It’s time to include them in the next Whitney Biennial by any means possible.

Threewalls (Mindy Rose Schwartz)
119 North Peoria #2c
(312)432-3972
three-walls.org

Ebersmoore Gallery (Heidi Norton)
350 North Ogden, Suite 100
(312)772-3021
ebersmoore.com

Best of Chicago 2011