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

Extended Gallery hours, special receptions and performances

May 5, 2007 Chicago, IL - The Wicker Park / Bucktown Gallery Association is holding a Second Saturday Gallery Walk on May 12, 2007 from 6-10 pm 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.

WPBGA will have a free shuttle service provided by our sponsor iGo Car Sharing for all those not into the "walking" part of the Gallery Walk or for those who just don't have a lot of time, but want to see all the galleries. Two cars will stop approximately every 15 minutes at each of the galleries participating in the Gallery Walk offering to shuttle patrons on to the next gallery. The drivers will announce themselves at each gallery, making it easy to jump on the shuttle!

1935 ½ W. North Ave.
Reading the Remains
Opening Reception May 12, 2007 from 6-11pm
aroundthecoyote.org, 773.342.6777

Around the Coyote and the School of the Art Institute are pleased to announce Reading the Remains, the first ever exhibition of graduates from the School of the Art Institute's Visual and Critical Studies Department. SAIC's new Masters program is designed for students interested in the scholarly and creative investigation of the production, dissemination, and impact of visual images, objects, experiences, and practices.

For this exhibition each artist weaves processes of making, seeing, writing, criticism, theory, history, and politics into his or her own hybrid practice. These explorations work to achieve recuperative analyses of how past and future remains fall apart and reform. By experiencing these disintegrating pieces transformed into images, language and feeling, there is hope that we become present and attentive -- even if only for a moment -- to the potential for change. Exhibiting artists are Dakota Brown, Ismiaji Cahyono, Mayi Carles, Sarah Jane Mallin, Julia Marsh, Kelly Mullendore, Ann Pandjiris, Michelle Sciumbato, and Garland Taylor.

1656 N. Bosworth Ave.
Group Show
Extended Hours May 12, 2007 from 6-11pm
blakepalmergallery.com, 773.342.6777

We will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary at our Bosworth Avenue space the entire month of May. Thanks to all of you that have supported our talented artists and exciting openings that have taken place here over the last 12 months. We will work hard in the upcoming 12 months to bring you the same and more.

This exhibition features work by Jim Dee, Gregg Hangerbrauck, Sandra Stone, Chadwick, Steve Amos, and Julia Ciaccio

2204 W North Avenue
Solo Exhibits of Katy Keefe & Benjamin Marcus
Opening Reception May 12, 2007 from 6-10pm
carodoffaygallery.com, 773.235.7400

In the main gallery Katy Keefe presents her most recent paintings to the public. These large-scale works, using dry pigments, graphite, mud and oil paints are a series of primal landscapes inspired by moments in time, natural elements and pattern. Keefe comments, "These paintings are the representation of what I see and experience; not what I see literally, but the way my mind works around, through and in an object". Using layering and line to achieve form and space, marks emerge and dissolve from sight; moments of clarity are built up and lost under layers; bold marks are reduced to ghostly scratches. The result is a visual diary as Keefe allows us to witness every step of her process through the raw honesty of her technique.

In the back gallery, Benjamin Marcus reveals his graphite drawings that explore the limitations of abstract versus representational techniques. By utilizing the tools that are normally attached to representational narrative work such as composition, subject matter and stunning marksmanship, Marcus draws his viewers in. As one stands before the work, time slows down and the gravity of the work forces the viewer to confront the absolute present. These beautifully constructed scenes of foreign places, animals and strange persons do not attest to past or future; they call attention to the time and place of observation itself.

1346 N Paulina St.
May Group Show
Extended hours May 12, 2007 from 6-12pm
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 May 12 including works by: Howard Finster, Miro, Christopher Makos, Joe Pellegrini, Rita Akao, Mike Winn, Michel Balasis, Herb Nolan, Marc Hauser, Andy Kane, Bill Eaton, Mitch Canoff 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 12-5:30pm and Sat 12-4pm. Or give us a call at 312-863-9045. DLG River North will host a reception for Legendary Rock Photographer Mick Rock in conjunction with the BBC America's Brit Bus Tour on May 24th from 6-midnight.

1646 N Bosworth Ave.
CROSSMEDIALE 2: An exhibition of American and International art in new media
Closing Party May 12, 2007 from 6-10pm
gosiakoscielak.com, 847.858.1540

CrossMediale 2 focuses on the concept of transcultural change and translation in a broader sense, as a continuation of the ongoing curatorial Transcultural Projects initially developed by Gosia Koscielak in 2000. Crossmediale 2 continues to investigate how complex identities, a multimedia reality, and the multicultural mosaic of humanity create the Global-Local world and GLOCAL identity through a variety of local and international artistic responses. Ultimately, the artworks featured change our understanding of transcultural society, and thus change our understanding about human existence. The exhibit focuses on new media works as well as on artworks that relate to this curatorial concept in a variety of media - including photography, video, drawings, side specific installation, virtual animation, website artworks/project, and virtual performance.

Participating artists in Crossmediale 2: Annette Barbier (Chicago); Hans Bernhard (Vienna); Drew Browning (Chicago); Scott Kildall (San Francisco); Lizvlx (Vienna); Erik Olofsen (Amsterdam); Silvia Malagrino (Chicago), Pat Badani (Chicago); Galina Shevchenko (Chicago), UBERMORGEN (Vienna); Patrick Lichty (Chicago), Susan Sensemann (Chicago), Richard Purdy (New York); Silvia Rozanka (Chicago); Ben Chang (Chicago); Deborah Boardman (Chicago); Janell Baxter (Chicago), Tracy Marie Taylor (Chicago).

2149 W Armitage
Craftsmanly Conceptualism
Opening Reception hours May 12, 2007 from 6-10pm
johnsonese.com, 773.252.8750

Our group show Craftsmanly Conceptualism features the work of artists who push the borders of conceptualism while still demonstrating professional technique.

This amazing group of artists includes Thomas Schmidt who is featured as an emerging artist in this month's 'Ceramics Monthly', Shencheng Xu whose sculptures have been selected for the 'Lincoln Park Community Art Initiative' for four years running, Kariann Fuqua who recently completed a major public commission for the expansion of McCormick Place, Stephanie Dean whose photographs were selected for the Cook County Treasurer's 2007 Women's History Month exhibit, Brian Graves whose paintings have been featured in both 'Chicago Home' and 'Midwest Home Chicago' magazines, Jeremy Ehly whose photographs have recently been added to corporate collections both in Chicago and Boston, Carl Corey whose first book of photographs was just published and David Kupferman who has work in the permanent collections of a dozen art museums.

1545 W Division, 2nd Floor
While Here In This Place
extended gallery hours May 12 from 6-10pm
lloyddoblergallery.com, 312.961.8706

Lloyd Dobler Gallery May group show is While Here In This Place. The artists included are Justin Berry, Natalia Ivancevich, and Cynthia Muir and are all working with the medium of paper as sculpture. Justin Berry is in the first year of the MFA program at the School of the Art Institute. He takes a first hand approach in his studio practice with paper installations made specifically for individual spaces. He will be creating a unique piece that will cease to exist after the show concludes.

Natalia Ivancevich works with large paper installations, using back lighting as means for definition. She layers the paper cut outs to create depth, and will be embarking on a large installation that continues through the wall at Lloyd Dobler. Transition plays a large part in Cynthia Muir's work. Her piece is the most interactive of the three. In her work, she creates what she calls a "garden". The viewers are allowed to walk through the garden, changing the path as they go, making their own choices as the loose paper will move around, and changing the next people's paths that they will then take.

1530 North Paulina, Suite F
Extended Salon Hours May 12, 2007 from 6-10pm
773.252.2218 (office)

Th!nkArt is an international art salon working with established and emerging artists. Through the world of fine art, we engage collectors and artists in a dialogue of ideas with images words and movement. Art is an opening for ideas to grow and flourish. Th!nkArt is that portal.

Th!nk Art is currently showcasing in its international art salon prints and works on paper of French artists Emmanuelle Renard, Fred Kleinberg, Pierre Marie Brisson, James Coignard, Monique Tello, Jean-Pierre Pincemin, Kijno, Herve Di Rosa, David Gista, Michel Haas, chalk on blackboard drawings by Nicolas Kennett (also a painter and sculptor) and prints and sculptures by Francois Weil. Also hanging in the salon are prints by Puerto Rican painter and printmaker Ricardo Ramirez, Argentinean artist Antonio Sequi, Todd Narbey of New Zealand, and American artists David Jansheski, Ed Paschke, Thomas Masters, and Tim Anderson.