CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: POLVO MAGAZINE

It's time again for another issue of Polvo Magazine! The FALL 2006 ISSUE!!

If you are not familiar with our magazine check out the web site: http://polvo.org/mag.htm

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: This issue's theme is installation art and activism. If your work fits this or if you have an essay/art review about either subject then email us your submission: info@polvo.org

"Installation art is art that uses sculptural materials and other media to modify the way we experience a particular space. Installation art is not necessarily confined to gallery spaces and can refer to any material intervention in everyday public or private spaces. Installation art incorporates almost any media to create a visceral and/or conceptual experience in a particular environment. Materials used in contemporary installation art range from everyday and natural materials to new media such as video, sound, performance, computers and the internet. Some installations are site-specific in that they are designed to only exist in the space for which they were created.

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument. The terms activism and activist used in a political manner first appeared in the Belgian press in 1916 in connection with the Flamingant movement. The word "activism" is often used synonymously with protest or dissent, but activism can stem from any number of political orientations and take a wide range of forms, from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism (such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing preferred businesses), rallies and street marches, strikes, or even guerrilla tactics and hacktivism. In the more confrontational cases, an activist may be called a freedom fighter by some, and a terrorist by others, depending on whether the commentator supports the activist's ends." - from wikkipedia

DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 25, 2006

RELEASE DATE: MID-OCTOBER 2006

GUIDELINES:
POETRY--please submit your work using rich text format or Word document - indicate your contact info and bio in the document.

ARTWORK--please submit your work using jpeg format (high resolution 300dpi-- for better printing quality) indicate your contact info and bio in the document.

ESSAY--please submit your work using rich text format or Word (if your essay comes with images send them in jpeg format-- high resolution) indicate your contact info and bio in the document.

ABOUT POLVO MAGAZINE:Polvo Magazine is edited and contributed by a volunteer and an international team of artists, critics, and writers. Polvo Magazine is distributed FREE to Chicago's artistic and cultural community as well as in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, South Africa, Australia and Mexico. Polvo Magazine is published through Polvo, a Chicago-based alternative art space: http://www.polvo.org.

SUPPORT THE ARTS!
ADVERTISE IN POLVO MAGAZINE, CHEAP RATES, FREE DESIGN INCLUDED! EMAIL FOR MORE INFO: info@polvo.org

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POLVO FILM SCREENING

Polvo wil screen this film
Oct. 14, 2006 @ 6:00pm
FREE ADMISSION
DIGITAL VIDEO PROJECTION

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when profit is the only objective in a war zone.

In his new documentary, acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of corporate greed in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private security companies making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

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Tracey Rose is coming to Chicago!!

TRACEY ROSE: ¿LE MOLESTA QUE DÉ DE PECHO AQUI?

This will be Rose’s first solo exhibition entitled, "¿Le molesta que dé de pecho aqui?" in Chicago. The "broken" Spanish title comes from her recent performance piece she did in the Canary Islands. Rose explains, "I wrote and performed in Spanish where I de-mythologised Christopher Columbus, it was at opening of the exhibition ‘Olvida quien soy’ at Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in Las Palmas, the audience grew irritated and participatory while I read and reread this text in broken Spanish."

Rose will be a visiting artist and lecturer with the Liberal Education Department at Columbia College Chicago, Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, Columbia College Chicago and the SAIC Visiting Artists Program and Performance Department. Her work reflects on the cultural, economic and political differences that mark the world today, along with identity-related and ethnic issues. Rose graduated from the Fine Arts Department from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Her career as an artist started at that moment, with a series of exhibitions that included the Johannesburg Biennial (1997) and most recently, her work has been included in the critically acclaimed exhibit, "Africa Remixed" travelling in museum venues around the globe.

Mini-exhibit: Cape Town: Contemporary Prints by Sipho Hlati, Velile Soha and Ernestine White

Sipho Hlati, Velile Soha and Ernestine White represent three generations of Cape Town based print media artists in South Africa. The work explores history, identity politics and artistic experimentation. Their exhibit histories include museums such as the South African National Gallery and galleries such as Bell-Roberts Gallery. These works had traveled with an exhibit curated by Jesus Macarena-Avila and Anna McCullough Tyler with Beacon St. Gallery, Elgin Community College and Northern Illinois University. Amongst the exhibited work, White will show her newest series. She explains: "In my recent body of work titled ‘Banal Illusions’ I explore the relationship between the camera, myself and my immediate environment in an effort to begin to understand the role (power) one has in altering one’s perceptions of reality. At first glance, the environment seen ordinary; they are places that signify a human presence."

Flatscreen: Sonia Báez-Hernández

Sonia Báez-Hernández holds a MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, an MA in Sociology, from University of California, Los Angeles, and an ABD from the European Graduate School and a BA in Political Science from the University of Puerto Rico. She has exhibited her work at the Museum of Modern Art, Dominican Republic; Juchitán Casa de Arte y Cultura & Calles y Sueños, Mexico and the Printmaking Society, Los Angeles; International Miniature Exhibit Del Bello Gallery, Toronto and other locations.

Báez-Hernández will be showing documentation of her performance work, "Trans-Body" with Polvo. She explains: "’Trans-Body’ unveils multiple fragments of my body transformation and my becoming-woman. My body enters into a rigid territory through breast cancer, mastectomy, chemotherapy, and breast reconstruction. Breast cancer or illness is aporia, anguish and confusion." Performance, choreography, voices and costume by Sonia Baez-Hernandez, videography and editing by Jean-Rene Rinvil with music and voice by Diego Pérez. She will be a visiting artist with the Liberal Education Department at Columbia College Chicago where her documentary, "Territories of the Breast" will be premiered (co-directed and co-produced by Jean- Rene Rinvil/ Sonia Baez-Hernandez and music by Diego Perez). For details see www.vf-media.com

This exhibit is co-presented by and partnering with the Liberal Education Department at Columbia College Chicago, Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, Columbia College Chicago, Radioarte, and the SAIC Visiting Artists Program and Performance Department. Light refreshments provided by Nuevo Leon Restaurant, 1515 W. 18th Street.

Mini-exhibit: Cape Town: Contemporary Prints by Sipho Hlati, Velile Soha and Ernestine White
Flatscreen: Sonia Báez-Hernández

Opening Reception: Friday, September 15 from 6 pm to 9pm
September 15 - October 7, 2006

SEE MORE INFO HERE

Polvo
1458 W 18th Street 1R(entrance on Laflin St.)
Chicago, IL 60608
773-344-1940
hours: saturdays from noon-5pm or by appointment

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polvo@unitb gallery opens september 15, 2006

Yanaguana: Polvo Est. 1996

Candace M. Briceno (Austin, TX)
Scott Kildall (Chicago, IL)
Amie Robinson (Brooklyn, NY)
Edra Soto (Chicago, IL)

Unit B Gallery begins the fall by inviting Miguel Cortez of Polvo to curate a show. This is the second time he has organized a show in Texas this year. The first one was in Houston's CSAW space titled "Six Flags: Polvo Est. 1996" in February and now this one titled "Yanaguana: Polvo Est. 1996". Both titles pay remembrance and respect to Texas history; Yanaguana was the name of the land which is now San Antonio given by the Payaya Indians many centuries ago. And also both shows celebrate Polvo's 10 years of curating, coordinating, and organizing contemporary art exhibits. Polvo is a grass roots cultural space based in Chicago since 1996. Most of the artists exhibiting with Polvo are creating work in subversive formats: socio-polical critiques, aesthetic investigations and alternative media. For more info on Polvo go to www.polvo.org.

Candace M. Briceño is a mixed media artist who combines acrylic paint, pencil drawing, sewing and hand dyed processed felt fabric to create 3-dimensional mini vignettes of small artificial landscapes. Briceño earned an MFA degree in painting and drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002 and a BFA from The University of Texas at Austin in Visual Arts studies in 1994. Since then, she has been featured in The Austin Museum of Art’s “22 To Watch” show which was on view at The Austin Museum of Art Museum, The Galveston Arts Center and The Dallas Contemporary Museum. Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions in Austin, Houston, Dallas, Chicago for example a group show at David Castillo Modern and Contemporary Gallery in Miami, Florida and Dunn and Brown Contemporary in Dallas as part of their prestigious I-35 biennial invitational show. The past few years Briceño was a nominee for the Joan Mitchell Award, the Texas Art Prize, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation biennial nominee and is currently short- listed for the 2006 ArtPace residency. This past year Briceño has two solo exhibitions, one in April at MFA space in Dallas, TX. and another in June at Women and Their Work Gallery in Austin, TX.

Scott Kildall creates sculptures and installations incorporating video, audio and electronics to examine themes of personal and collective memory. He uses humor, recognizable objects, repetitions of the physical and video monitors as psychological windows to provide entry points for the audience. He was born and raised in Northern California. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Theory from Brown University and a Master of Fine Arts degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has exhibited in San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and Romania. He has also produced and edited numerous documentary video works on social justice issues.Amie Robinson received an MFA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. She has exhibited her drawings and animations in spaces including Gallery Art et Amiatiae in Amsterdam and Artower in Athens, Greece. She has also curated several exhibitions including Presence, and Flock and Fable, at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, where she teaches art to children with special needs.

In 1995 Edra Soto received the Alfonso Arana Fellowship to work in Paris, France for a year. She attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she obtained her Masters degree in 2000. Immediately after, she attended a 2 months residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Some of her latest presentations include a live performance at El Museo del Barrio in New York, a solo show and live performance at El Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, UIC Gallery 400, NIU Museum in Chicago, and Polvo in Chicago.

About the curator:
Miguel Cortez is an artist/curator living in Chicago and born in Guanajuato, Mexico. He has studied filmmaking at Columbia College and fine art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Miguel is a founding member of Polvo, an art collective since 1996, and has organized various shows throughout the years at the Polvo space and other cultural alternative spaces. The most recent one being February 2006 at Commerce Street Artists' Warehouse in Houston, Texas. Future curatorial projects include a show in Maine and another in Georgia. Miguel also has exhibited his work for more than a decade. Recent exhibitions include a show in Austin at Studio 107 Gallery, "Reencounter" at Prospectus Art Gallery, "Lo Romantico" at Glass Curtain Gallery and "Lies that Bill Gates told me: Exploring the Digital Divide" at VU Space in Melbourne, Australia. Future exhibitions include a two person show in 2007 with Edra Soto at Mighty Fine Arts Gallery in Dallas.

Opening Reception: Friday, September 15, 6:30-10pm

Closing Reception: First Friday, November 3, 6:30-10pm
September 15 - November 3, 2006

See more images and info here.

Unit B (Gallery)
500 Stieren and Cedar Streets
San Antonio, TX 78210
(312)375.1871
unitbgallery@yahoo.com

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Day of the Dead in Chicago 2006

Polvo is going to participate in this year's Day of the Dead exhibit at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago by doing an "ofrenda"/installation to remember a good friend of ours who passed away this past april, Michael Piazza. The show opens late september. See the video which will be part of the installation below:

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Polvo in St. Louis this november!

Today Gilberto Pinela, a tv host of Enterate, a tv show of latino culture in St. Louis on the UPN network, stopped by on a saturday afternoon to interview 3 artists from Polvo who will be showing in St. Louis this november. Check out UPN in St. Louis this november before the show opens or our polvo site for a link to the web video program. Below is more info:

"ACCUMULATED MATERIAL: CONTEMPORARY ALTARES AND

OFRENDAS"
November 7 – November 18, 2006
Opening reception: Tuesday, November 7, 2006 from 4 to
7 pm.

This exhibition will examine installation artistic practice through the Afro-Caribbean and Mestiza traditions of altar making found prevalent in Latin America. Three Chicago based artists will create three installation projects. Giselle A. Mercier of Panama, Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa of Mexico and Edra Soto of Puerto Rico will participate in this special exhibit coinciding with the “Dias de los Muertos” festival in St. Louis’s Cherokee community. Jesus Macarena-Avila, co-founder of Polvo, an alternative cultural space in Chicago, curates this special exhibit. Mercier, Rodriguez-Ochoa and Soto will also lecture and lead community art workshops in UMSL departments and in St. Louis’s Cherokee community. For more information of the related events, please call Pat Johnson, Director, Gallery Visio at 314 526 7922.

Curator Jesus Macarena-Avila explains the premise of this exhibition: “Material culture has been with us since the beginning of time starting with the ancient civilizations that used natural materials, including seed pods and stones for ceremonial purposes. This period in time was the early development of material culture based on meaning and sources. Within the context of contemporary culture, material has been translated into belief systems - forging the religious and the superstitious, as well as implementing the utilitarian purpose.

For Latin American countries, the act of recycling material is commonly practiced; material culture can be metaphoric with layers of culture, history and memory. Fusing these meanings and sources onto common found material become itself a transformation, a hybrid. Using this premise, “hybridity” or a state of fusion combines belief systems with the understanding that all is in one, not separated. Sometimes people tend to separate its meaning when it is to be accepted as is. With this exhibition ‘ACCUMULATED MATERIAL: CONTEMPORARY ALTARES AND OFRENDAS’ will examine installation artistic practices through the “afro-Caribbean” and “mestiza” traditions of altar making, which is prevalent in Latin America, the Caribbean and Latina/o communities in the US.

Three Chicago artists will create installation work, Giselle A. Mercier (originally from Panama), Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa (originally from Mexico) and Edra Soto (born in Puerto Rico) for this exhibit. Their topics put into perspective Chicago’s Latina/o communities, utilising the working-class sensibility, subverting “Eurocentric” academic theory into their artistic
pursuits, identity politics and lastly looking in their own communities for inspiration.”

Giselle A. Mercier will create an interactive installation entitled, “The Grotto of Revelations” that will… “Take the form of an “Urban Grotto”. The premise of this work will be in the tradition of Christian European manifestations of faith, where the populous attributes miraculous powers to apparitions of saints. The outside of the “Grotto” will be an interactive message wall. University and community members are invited to reflect on their religious beliefs and “to explore their own similarities and differences with the artist and wall icons’ lives by leaving their thoughts and/or “ofrendas” (offerings) as part of the Grotto’s premises.”

Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa will create her installation entitled “Ofrenda to Carlos and Marianna (Drogitis) Cortez and Michael Piazza” in homage to Carlos and Marianna (Drogitis) Cortez along with Michael Piazza, three Chicago artists who have past away. “The three of them were very influential to me in different ways,” states Rodriguez-Ochoa. “Carlos was the ‘Abuelo’ of the Chicago community arts scene, he served as an elder, an example as to what is means to work with the community instead of at it, what it is to reflect your culture without disrespecting others. Mariana was a beautiful, loving, open soul that made you feel comfortable around her. Michael was a collaborator and a teacher; I got to understand him as a person and an artist when I was his student at Columbia College Chicago. It will reflect the
diversity of the communities they came from as part of reflecting the diversity in Chicago.”

Edra Soto will present her installation project, “Documentation 2004: A Year in Review (Ornamentos)” where she took on the task of "a narrow-minded historian" by documenting a detail of the daily news for the year 2004. In a manner inspired by Mexican folkloric art, Soto traced directly onto sheets of metal as many as five newspaper images per day, from publications such as ‘El Nuevo Dia’ in Puerto Rico and the ‘Chicago Sun Times’. The metal tracings are a detailed documentation of popular culture inspired by Mexican folkloric art (Saints Without Body). Soto explains… “Through this manner of gathering information I become (symbolically) what I call a narrow-minded historian. History being written in first person and accepted by educational institutions is a universal theme worth exploring, if not realistically, at least in a symbolic way.”

Gallery Visio, University of Missouri - St. Louis, 170
Millennium Student Center, One University Blvd., St.
Louis, MO 63121-4499, galvisio@umsl.edu or 314 516
7922

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some photos from tonight's opening

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Polvo in Milwaukee October 2006

International art fair in Milwaukee?
Milwaukee the center of the art universe?
by Mary Louise Schumacher: Art City--Journal Sentinel Milwaukee

Well, we do sit at the center of North America, the heart of the land, as they say, or so say some local artists, curators and gallery owners who are working to put on the city’s first alternative, international art fair.

From the looks of things, what these art savants have in mind is the kind of fair that typically might be a “satellite” to a larger, more established fair like New York’s Armory or Art Basel Miami. Such big fairs are costly to the galleries that partake, galleries that pay high prices for tiny booths which are trolled by collectors with money to burn. The satellite events, like Scope or DiVA in New York or Chicago’s now defunct Stray Show, though, are more about bringing art and ideas into contact with people (and crossing fingers for sales).

The fair, which has a working title of Milwaukee International is tentatively scheduled for October, may not be a done deal, but those who are apparently signed on so far are evidence of something new and promising in the making. Local participants include General Store (which closed its physical gallery some time ago), the relatively new Green Gallery, Hermetic (also no longer a physical gallery but a curatorial force, among other things), Jody Monroe and Hotcakes Gallery.

The lead organizers include John Riepenhoff (of Green Gallery), Kiki Anderson (of Jody Monroe), Nicholas Frank (of Hermetic) and Tyson Reeder (of General Store).

From outside the area, the following have apparently said they’d like to come: Gavin Brown’s Enterprise from New York, Angstrom Gallery from Dallas, Jack Hanley from San Francisco, Locust Projects from Miami, Western Exhibitions from Chicago, Galeria Comercial from Puerto Rico and Polvo from Chicago.

It’s hoped, too, that Milwaukee International will feature spaces occupied by participants from Canada, Mexico, China and Japan. It will be a rare opportunity for Milwaukeeans to experience art in ways they generally don’t here, if this fair comes off as well as it could. P.S. Speaking of Hotcakes, check out some of the art from the "Exchange" exhibit, which opened over the weekend.

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SANTIAGO GATHERING

Fellow Polvoite Jesus Macarena-Avila is participating in this event:

Crossing Horizons;context and community in the south
October 2006 in Santiago, Chile

http://southproject.org/Santiago/Santiago_home2.htm

Participants / Participantes
Mai Abu ElDahab (EGYPT)
Christina Barton (NEW ZEALAND)
Tony Birch (AUSTRALIA)
Marcelo Brodsky (ARGENTINA)
Francisco Brugnoil (CHILE)
Beatriz Bustos (CHILE)
Jon Bywater (NEW ZEALAND)
Carlos Capelan (URUGUAY)
Elicura Chihualiaf (CHILE)
Sandrine Crisostomo (FRANCE / CHILE)
David Cross (NEW ZEALAND)
Ticio Escobar (PARAGUAY)
Khwezi Gule (SOUTH AFRICA)
Hoffmann's House (CHILE)
Jesus Macarena Avila (USA)
Manos Nathan (NEW ZEALAND)
Tom Nicholson (AUSTRALIA)
Pat Hoffie (AUSTRALIA)
Zara Stanhope (AUSTRALIA)
TRAMA - Irene Banchero / Mauro Machado (ARGENTINA)
Jeremy Wafer (SOUTH AFRICA)
Ian Wedde (NEW ZEALAND)
Francisco Zegers (CHILE)
Pam Zeplin (AUSTRALIA)

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Regin Igloria: Gone Backwoods

Polvo's summer continues by showcasing the work of Regin Igloria. For this show Regin will exhibit a series of drawings and artists' books. He describes his work: "My drawings and books utilize the tactics of popular imagery seen in catalogs, outdoor magazines and public phenomena—examples of cultural media—to convey this emotional plight. Longing to be elsewhere, of finding a home which may never be lived in is a joy in itself. The physical act of creating my work is a slow, methodical process. I participate in such an activity as I might on an outdoor hike, experiencing its difficult moments, continuing forward, finding a place to stop and rest, and moving forward once again."

Regin has an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is responsible for active recruitment for Ragdale, collaboration with other arts organizations, managing all phases of the application process including panel selection and review, serving as a liaison between residents and staff during residency and establishing a strong alumni program.

mini-exhibit: more stuff from the polvo archives/collection
flatscreen dvd: Michael Gumhold (Austria)

Opening Friday August 18 from 6pm-10pm
August 18 - September 9, 2006

POLVO, 1458 W. 18th St. 1R, Chicago, IL 60608
(773) 344-1940 >>>>see map
HOURS: Saturdays from Noon-5pm or by appointment

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