Around the Coyote Gallery, Blake Palmer Gallery, Caro d' Offay Gallery, Gosia Koscielak Studio & Gallery, and Johnsonese Gallery

Extended Gallery hours, special receptions and performances

Chicago, IL - The Wicker Park / Bucktown Gallery Association is holding a Second Saturday Gallery Walk on July 14, 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).

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.
Gameplay: Video Games in Contemporary Art Practice
Guest Critic Night with Paul Klein from 6-10pm. Beer generously provided by Peroni
aroundthecoyote.org, 773.342.6777

The Around the Coyote Gallery is excited to announce our July group show, Gameplay: Video Games in Contemporary Art Practice, curated by Jessica Cochran. Gameplay is an exhibition that addresses the innovative ways that artists incorporate video gaming technology and strategies into their work as a means to explore themes such as place, identity, community, politics, and resistance. Gameplay features an exciting lineup of Chicago and international artists including: the British collective Igloo, Stacia Yeapanis, Danielle Martin, Matthew Board, Andrew Bucksbarg, Alex Paik, Jenny Chowdery, Megan Boesen, Krista Wortendyke, Brent Gustafson, and Chris Reilly.

On July 14th from 6-10pm we will also be holding our first ever Guest Critic Night featuring a lecture by Paul Klein, private art consultant and author of ArtLetter.com followed by a portfolio critique. The lecture and reception are free and open to the public.

1656 N. Bosworth Ave.
Shootout
Conclusion is held July 14th, 2007 from 6 - 10pm
blakepalmergallery.com, 773.384.4142

5 to 8 Artists' will compete for a cash prize over a three day period. The artists will start with blank canvases and paint until Saturday night. Video will be shot and uploaded to YouTube.com documenting the whole process. A panel of judges will decide who the Shootout champ is and that painting will grace the offices of 303 Capital Partners A Chicago Area Hedgefund. Join us Saturday, July 14th, 2007 for the conclusion of this exciting contest.

2204 W North Avenue
Ben Brant: Mixed Media Installation
Opening Reception July 14th, 2007 from 7-10pm
carodoffaygallery.com, 773.235.7400

For the July 14th Second Saturday Art Walk, the Caro d'Offay Gallery will be holding the opening Reception for Ben Brant from 7-10pm. Ben Brant's mixed media installations are influenced by both architecture and engineering. Brant looks to connect the internal systems of our bodies, the invisible structures of our mind and psyches, and the complex relationships of systems in the built and natural environment such as power grids, radio transmitters, and natural waterways. There will be drinks compliments of Goose Island Beer Company.

1346 N Paulina St.
extended gallery hours July 14th 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 July 14th 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 Miro Ledajaks and Howard Finster on July 13th from 6-midnight.

1646 N Bosworth Ave.
Zafos Xagoraris: AnthroTopography
James Kao: New Paintings
Opening reception: July 14, 2007 6 - 10pm
gosiakoscielak.com, 847.858.1540

Zafos Xagoraris lives and works in Athens, Greece. He is a multimedia artist who successfully combines sound installation, painting, and video. His paintings on paper are predominantly black and white, with deep layers of black and sometimes midnight blue acrylic scumbled with deft brushwork and graceful gestural drawings of people and things on corresponding white space. His paintings often contain the simple but culturally complex form of a bell buried in the earth. Xagoraris's paintings and sound installations are based on recording and later broadcasting the silence of Cyprus's abandoned villages after the partition of the island between Turks and Greeks. Xagoraris took part in Paradigmata, Greek participation at the 9th Venice Biennale of Architecture, and in The 27th Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil.

James Kao presents a suite of new paintings that speak forthrightly to abstraction through direct observation. Kao's repeated motifs of tables and common still-life objects shed unexpected sentimentality as they dialogue with his convergent lebensforms paintings. In 2006 Kao graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing. In the past two years, Kao has exhibited in group shows at Around the Coyote Arts Festival, Heaven Gallery, and the Beverly Arts Center, and at the Gosia Koscielak Studio & Gallery. The artist lives, works and teaches in Chicago.

2149 W Armitage
Go Blue! III
Opening Reception: Saturday July 14, 2007 6 - 10 pm
johnsonese.com, 773.252.8750

Please join us to see the work of the people's choice winners from the most recent University of Michigan Club of Greater Chicago Alumni Art Show. While the three artists use different media, and have very different approaches, there is an underlying feminist aesthetic to the work.

Artist Kim Jackson's incorporation of video, sculpture and textiles into her work reflects her degrees in both art and fashion design from the University of Michigan, Parsons School of Design and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. An overriding concept of fabricating systems pervades all of her work. Tricia Koning has created a process that she calls "reverse color-altered photography". It combines film-based photography with drawing, collaging, painting and etching to create elegant miniature photographs that evoke a feeling of modest sensuality. Susan Clinard finds weathered wood with organic flowing curves and sees the human form within it. She adds ceramic heads and hands to the wood, illustrating the metamorphosis from one organic life form to another. The show runs July 7-28, 2007 at our Bucktown gallery.