polvo benefit: silent art auction

Polvo Benefit
Friday March 2, 2007 from 6pm-10pm

Come support and help us continue with our programming for 2007. Rents are raised, neighborhood is changing, but we are still here. We plan on doing a silent art auction. We rarely do benefits but this year we need to do so in order to continue. For those who do not know us that well, we are a non-commercial alternative art space run by a collective of 3 (Miguel Cortez, Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa, and Jesus Macarena-Avila). We have been organizing art exhibits for more than a decade in Chicago. We showcase contemporary art in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

Artists donating work:
Steve Amos
Adriana Baltazar
Virginia Boyle Lopez
Burtonwood & Holmes
Elke Claus
Juan Compean
Miguel Cortez
Minerva Cuevas
Chris Diers
Hector Duarte
Brad Farwell
Finishing School
Dolan Geiman
Gisela Insuaste
John Lenting
Roberto Lopez
T.W. Li
Patrick Lichty
Jesus Macarena-Avila
Silvia Malagrino
Trevor Martin
Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud
Jaime Mendoza
Mark Nelson
Huong Ngo
Jesus Oviedo
Naufus Ramirez
Allison Rentz
Michael Robert Pollard
Eufemio Pulido
Odie Rynell Cash
Edra Soto
Greg Stimac
Jeremy Tubbs
Paola A Valera
John P. Weber
Sallie Wolf
Christopher T. Wood
plus many more...

Silent art auction with your host MC Nopal

POLVO
1458 W. 18th St. 1R
Chicago, IL 60608
info@polvo.org
773 344 1940
http://www.polvo.org
HOURS: Saturdays from Noon-5pm or by appointment

Jesus invades Mexico!!

“PUNTO DE REGRESA / POINT OF RETURN: JESUS MACARENA-AVILA”

Opening: Friday, 8 April 2007
8 April – 25 May 2007

“PUNTO DE REGRESA / POINT OF RETURN” is the first solo exhibition in Mexico for Chicago based artist, Jesus Macarena-Avila. This exhibition features site-specific installations examining cultural reclamation. Aside from the installations, a series of large-scale digital prints will be presented making commentaries on bi-culturalism, class and race. They are inspired by Mexican and South African social relevant graphics with the political satire of 1970’s African-American and Chicano visual aesthetics.

The installations make historical references to Diego Rivera’s 1915 “Zapatista Landscape” painting exploring culture linked to displacement, landscape and memory. Through the usage of fiber and popular textile art, the concept and material intersect aesthetic concerns belonging to folk and popular art forms. Since the late 1960’s, Chicano/a artists in the United States have artistically focused their artwork on reclaiming Mexican heritage.

“PUNTO DE REGRESA/POINT OF RETURN” feature installations exploring culture linked to displacement, landscape and memory.

Chicano artist and scholar such as David Rosales wrote on Rivera’s “Zapatista Landscape”: “This painting painted in Europe in 1915 could be painted in California in 2000 and still be relevant to the concepts of assimilation and misplaced histories of Chicano peoples. This painting was done by a Mexican who is far from home and working within Western Art historical means, but expressing colonial concepts of aggression and survival within assimilation issues.”

Macarena-Avila has MFA degree from Vermont College of Norwich University and studied at the School of the Art Institute, where he earned his BFA degree. He has obtained a high level of artistic accomplishments and experiences exhibiting his work in both the United States and internationally including Argentine, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Senegal, Spain and Zambia.

Publications such as ArtUS, Art Throb, Dialogue, Gravy Magazine, New Art Examiner and El Portaliano/ Fundacion Diego Portales have highlighted Macarena-Avila’s studio work and community art projects. He has lectured at Antioch College (Yellow Springs, Ohio), Columbia College Chicago (Chicago, Illinois), Witts University (Johannesburg South Africa), Centro Cultural Mapocho (Santiago, Chile), Community Arts Project (Cape Town South Africa), Bellview Art Centre (Bellview South Africa) and the Victorian College for the Arts (Melbourne, Australia). In Chicago, he is the co-founder of Polvo, an alternative cultural space for contemporary art.

CENTRO CULTURAL CASA PURCELL
Hidalgo #231, Centro Histórico, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico
Tel: (01 844) 414 50 80 / 414 55 36 Website: www.casapurcell.net
Tuesdays – Sundays: 10:00 am - 7:00 pm
Mondays: closed, free admission

“PUNTO DE REGRESA / POINT OF RETURN” is partially supported by a CAAP grant from the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

polvo @ bad at sports

The Bad At Sports crew interviewed Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa of Polvo:

direct download: http://media.libsyn.com/media/badatsports/Bad_at_Sports_Episode_76_Rodney_Graham.mp3

more info: http://badatsports.com/blog/?p=93

Miguel Cortez, Edra Soto and the return of John Held Jr

Miguel Cortez, Edra Soto and the return of John Held Jr

Opening Saturday, February 17, 2007 from 6-9 pm
Feb 17 - to March 18, 2007

MFA Gallery hosts two artists from Polvo for this exhibit; co-founder and gallery director Miguel Cortez and Edra Soto. Miguel Cortez's work deals with the dichotomy involved between the abstract and political. His digital prints voice criticisms of the Iraq war and the Bush regime as well as gentrification and environmental concerns. Miguel Cortez was born in Guanajuato Mexico and now lives in Chicago. His work has been exhibited in Chicago, Mexico, and Spain. Recent exhibitions include Pool Art Fair in Miami, Milwaukee International Art Fair, a show in Austin at Studio 107 Gallery, "Lo Romantico" at Glass Curtain Gallery in Chicago and "Lies that Bill Gates told me: Exploring the Digital Divide" at VU Space in Melbourne, Australia.

Edra Soto's work examines the ordinary process of taking snapshots in order to review our tendencies, impulses or compulsions. Her photo based installations present questions about the social concept of family and our extended family of friends and pets. Edra Soto was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1995 Edra 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 2OOO. Immediately after, she attended a 2 months residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has exhibited in Puerto Rico, Paris, Australia, Spain, Russia, New York, St Louis, Milwaukee and Chicago. 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 4OO, NIU Museum in Chicago, and Polvo in Chicago. A solo show of her latest instalation was on view at Polvo, Chicago on January of 2OO7.

John Held Jr. has been an active influence in the development of Mail Art and Rubber Stamp Art since 1975. Facets of his collection are included in the Getty Research Library in Los Angeles and Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has authored books on artist postage stamps and correspondence art and his prints and stamp art have been exhibited in Moscow, Paris, Brussels, New York and San Francisco. He also lived in Dallas from 1981-1995 and was the owner/director of Modern Realism Gallery. He now resides in San Francisco. For the MFA show he will be exhibiting some of his artist stamps inspired by the Fluxus and Dada art movements and the mail art of Ray Johnson.

mighty fine arts is an artist-run gallery located in the scenic and historic Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. Artist Steve Cruz started the gallery in June of 2004 with the intention of providing an alternative space for innovative and underrepresented artists. mfa presents an eclectic array of shows with the guiding criteria of presenting work that is resonant, thoughtful and highly accomplished. From mid-career to fresh and unknown artists, mfa hopes to enlarge the perceptions of contemporary art in North Texas.

Mighty Fine Arts
407 N.Tyler between 8th and Davis St.
Dallas, Texas
Gallery hours are 12:00 to 5:00 Saturday and Sunday or by appointment: phone 214-942-5241. Email: steve@mfagallery.com

tonight's opening!

http://polvo.org/san-antonio-blog/february07/index.htm

Finishing School

WWFSD?: Finishing School

mini-exhibit: Lucia Gomez
flatscreen DVD: Amelia Winger-Bearskin

Opening Friday February 9, 2007 from 6pm-10pm
February 9- March 3, 2007

Finishing School’s new project, WWFSD?, which is primarily formatted as a blog, investigates specific ideas that they feel influence their practice. This introspective exercise helps them become more critically conscious of themselves and the world around them. Their goal is to share one idea each day for the year 2007. The installation at Polvo will include a selection of pieces from this project. You can visit the blog at www.wwfsd.blogspot.com

Finishing School (FS) is a collective identity that investigates the many intersections between critical, covert, and common subject territories. All FS projects attempt to demystify cultural production and engage viewers into various participatory models. The collective has been open for business since 2001. You can visit them at www.finishing-school.net

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mini-exhibit: Lucia Gomez

Lucia Gomez (born in Guatemala) is pursuing her B.F.A. in Photography with Columbia College Chicago. Her exhibited work deals with identity politics, dealing with her bi-cultural heritage. Presently, Gomez is documenting the Immigrant Rights Movement, photographing the life of activist, Elvira Arellano. Her photographs have been published with "Hoy" Newspaper and can seen on "Deviant Art" website.

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flatscreen DVD: Amelia Winger-Bearskin

Amelia Winger-Bearskin is currently an MFA Candidate at the University of Texas in Austin where she is majoring in Transmedia, the study of time based art which includes Video Art , Performance art, and time based Installation. Amelia is greatly interested in exploring the 4th dimension in art, and to challenge the visual experience in addition to the temporal connection to artistic experience.

She was classically trained as an Opera Singer in Rochester NY at the Eastman conservatory of music, and then pursued an undergraduate degree in the area of sculpture and Performance art at George Mason University outside of DC. Growing up in Rochester NY , close to her seneca-cayuga tribal lands and the site of their largest city, was influential in shaping her narrative and outlook of her current work. Her mother is a traditional native storyteller from the Seneca Cayuga tribe of the Iroquois nation. Stories of all kinds weave themselves into her works and are re contextualized to shape her work, unfolding destination, space, and time. She is currently working out of Austin Texas, and is showing works with live performance art and digital video. Amelia Winger-Bearskin has shown in various galleries in major US cities, as well as in Mexico and Central America, where she lived for many years. She has received various grants, fellowships and awards in the artistic fields, and has a large body of collaborative artwork in addition to her solo pieces.

POLVO
1458 W. 18th St. 1R
Chicago, IL 60608
info@polvo.org
773 344 1940
http://www.polvo.org
HOURS: Saturdays from Noon-5pm or by appointment