Around the Coyote Gallery, Blake Palmer Gallery, Caro d'Offay Gallery, David Leonardis Gallery Wicker Park, Gosia Koscielak Studio & Gallery, Johnsonese Gallery and Lloyd Dobler Gallery

Extended Gallery hours, special receptions and performances

The Wicker Park / Bucktown Gallery Association is holding a Second Saturday Gallery Walk on March 10, 2007 from 6-10pm at multiple venues throughout Wicker Park and Bucktown. The WPBGA is an organization of galleries in the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhood (roughly defined with the southern border at Division, the northern border at Fullerton, the western border at Western, and the eastern border at the Chicago River). Membership is by invitation, and is limited to: curated spaces that exhibit multiple artists throughout the year; galleries that do not charge their artists a fee to exhibit; galleries that operate within the contemporary art dialogue; galleries that operate within the ethical and professional practice guidelines developed by the Wicker Park Bucktown Gallery Association.

The WPBGA works to promote Wicker Park and Bucktown as a visual arts destination for collectors and art world professionals, while actively working to attract new galleries to the neighborhood. WPBGA promotes the artists and programs of its members through advertising, public programs, and collaborative events.

1935 ½ W. North Ave.
GeoPhonoBox: Sonic Surveys of Place
extended gallery hours March 10 from 6-10pm
aroundthecoyote.org, 773.342.6777

Around the Coyote is pleased to present GeoPhonoBox an exhibit curated by Chicago based visual and sonic artist Zoe Asta and Associate Professor in the Department of Film, Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Rob Danielson. This exhibition will feature sound recordings about "place" created by sound artists, nature recordists, ethnographers, composers, pedestrians, geographers and other practitioners from around the world. Each submission in the show is to represent one geographic place within the realm of a cardboard shipping box.

This is the first sound art exhibition at the Around the Coyote Gallery, and one of the few contemporary sound art exhibitions held in Chicago. The importance of the use of noise or sound in modern and contemporary art can be traced back at least to the 1913 publication of The Art of Noise by Luigi Russolo; however, as opposed to the early sound artists who were rightly preoccupied with the political, social and art historical implications of noise as an artistic medium, contemporary sound artists can take an understanding of noise as medium for granted. The debate over musicalized or non-musicalized noise is no longer automatically relevant. GeoPhonoBox: Sonic Surveys of Place shows how sound, once we get beyond the conceptual debate over the medium, can be used like any visual medium to describe and evoke.

1656 N Bosworth Ave
The New Breed
reception March 10 from 6-10pm
blakepalmergallery.com, 773.384.4142

The New Breed is a group show featuring the work of local Chicago artists; Frol Boudin, Edgar Cuarezma, Pamela Johnson, Scott Johnson, Alyse Liebovich, Gabriel Mejia, Terry Dixon, Gosia Podosek, Brett Richards, Tifanie O'Riley and Marshall Svendsen.

2204 W North Avenue
First Annual Audio April: Todd Carter
special event March 10 from 6-10pm
carodoffaygallery.com, 773.235.7400

Caro d'Offay Gallery kicks off the First Annual Audio April with special events Saturday nights in March. The events include site-specific audio collaborations with the existing audio installations by Luftwerk in March and Jesse Seay in April.

On March 10, Todd Carter interacts with the current exhibit using sound clips recorded in Chicago. Todd Carter is an audio engineer who creates a digital archive of Chicago's diverse musical and artistic communities. Carter has also been involved in creating sound installations in the Pilsen, Hyde Park, Wicker Park and downtown/Loop neighborhoods of Chicago; New York, and San Antonio.

1346 N Paulina St.
March Group Show opening reception March 10 from 6-10 pm
www.DLG-gallery.com, 773.278.3058

David Leonardis Gallery has been a leader in the Wicker Park Bucktown Gallery District for fifteen years and a land mark for Contemporary, POP, Folk Art, and Photography. DLG Wicker Park will be presenting an exciting group show for the WPBGA Second Saturday Gallery Walk on March 10th including works by: Howard Finster, Miro, Christopher Makos, Joe Pellegrini, Rita Akao, Mike Winn, Michel Balasis, Herb Nolan, Marc Hauser, Andy Kane, Bill Eaton, and Chris Peldo.

With the September 2006 addition of DLG River North, the David Leonardis Gallery has been able to reach an even broader demographic of art lovers. Please stop by and see us at 217 W. Huron St. #5, Mon - Fri 12-6pm and Sat 12-4pm. Or give us a call at 312-863-9045. DLG River North will host a March 9th Group Show. After our March 9th Group Show opening at DLG River North we will be embarking on a series of two-person shows for four months.

1646 N Bosworth Ave.
James Kao: Dilations - New Paintings
extended hours March 10 from 6-10pm
gosiakoscielak.com, 847.858.1540

Dilations is the debut solo exhibition for James Kao at Gosia Koscielak Studio & Gallery. The show will feature 12 new oil paintings, mostly still-life paintings alongside a few landscape and abstract works, which compel the viewer to stop, slow down, and to intently look.

Though representing familiar objects, Kao's still-life paintings operate in the realm of mysticism. Kao observes the same elements, such as a table, orange, chopsticks, or a bowl and repeatedly reiterates their positions. Quietly and slowly, he paints in a darkened studio, where the practice evolves into a "private mediation" that transforms our normal expectations of seeing.

2149 W Armitage
The Faces of March
opening reception March 10 from 6-10pm
johnsonese.com, 773.252.8750

The Faces of March, a solo show of contemporary portraiture by Polish-American artist Krzysztof Wasko, will be open March 10th - 31st at the Johnsonese Gallery. An opening party will be held at the gallery from 6 - 10 PM on Saturday March 10th to celebrate the show.

Wasko is an experienced painter with a BFA and a MFA from Chicago's Colombia College and a MFA from the National Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland. He has had solo shows in both countries, and his work is included in museum collections in both countries as well. Wasko's paintings in this show can be seen as contemporary interpretations of pre-Renaissance European portraits. The large scale of the paintings gives them an almost supernatural feel, yet the humanity that the painter obviously sees in his subjects can be read in their eyes.

1545 W Division, 2nd Floor
(Un)Restricted
extended gallery hours March 10 from 6-10pm
lloyddoblergallery.com, 312.961.8706

Lloyd Dobler Gallery starts off the spring season with an exhibition exploring the unique differences of mark making in contemporary painting. The exhibition will run until April 6, 2007. For these three artists the mark is a carefully constructed idea that, over time, becomes the life within the canvas or page.

Christian Rieben returns with new works on canvas after receiving his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. Ann Tarantino's first exhibition in Chicago involves new pieces with new ink and paper paintings, begun while living in Japan. Dominick Garritano will receive his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago this coming May. In his paintings, he is allowing for the exploration of nuance in color shifts and paint handling within each form in his large abstract pieces.