Chicago Reader | Culture | Art | AAN.org

The Made-Up Life and Real Death of Clyde Angelnew

The identity of a popular but mysterious outsider artist is revealed. Or so it seems.

Chicago Reader | Jeff Huebner | 10-05-2009 | Art

Tags: Barry Marcus, Clyde Angel, mysteries, crime, Chicago, visual arts, folk art, outsider art

Crowd-Sourced Graphic Design Has the Profession on Edgenew

Widely perceived as the wave of the future, Crowdspring has also been characterized as the design Antichrist, a force that will destroy the profession.

Chicago Reader | Deanna Isaacs | 02-23-2009 | Art

Tags: web culture, computers & technology, crowd-sourcing, Crowdspring, graphic design

Chicago's Museum of Holography Could Soon Be Out on the Curbnew

Loren Billings lives out her days amid her memories at Chicago's Museum of Holography. But thanks to three mysterious "friends" and a million-dollar loan approved by Illinois state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, she could soon be on the curb.

Chicago Reader | Ling Ma | 02-12-2009 | Art

Tags: Alzheimer's disease, economic issues, museums, Chicago Museum of Holography, Loren Billings

It’s Good to Be the King’s Election Lawyernew

Chicago attorney Michael Dorf has thrown his hat in the ring for the job of head honcho at the National Endowment for the Arts. Here are his killer qualifications: from the time Barack Obama began his run against Bobby Rush for Congress in 1999 through Obama’s election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Dorf was his election lawyer.

Chicago Reader | Deanna Isaacs | 01-26-2009 | Art

Tags: National Endowment for the Arts, arts institutions, Michael Dorf

Stanley Tigerman Talks About His Design for the Illinois Holocaust Museumnew

He says the project really hasn't changed since he interviewed for the commission. He took "a little free-hand sketch" to that interview, he said, and "I've built the sketch. Developed dramatically, modified somewhat, but not in any way that is detrimental. I'd been waiting to do this building all my life."

Chicago Reader | Deanna Isaacs | 11-24-2008 | Art

Tags: Chicago, architecture, Illinois Holocaust Museum, Stanley Tigerman

Trevor and Ryan Oakes Have Invented a New Way to Drawnew

The easel the Oakeses invented to impose image on paper has forerunners that go back centuries. Their device is the first, however, that requires neither mirrors nor lenses.

Chicago Reader | Damien James | 10-27-2008 | Art

Tags: Chicago, visual arts, drawing, perspective, Ryan Oakes, split focus, the easel, Trevor Oakes

Chicago Makes it Easier to Panhandle than to Sell Art on Downtown Streetsnew

Unless you're at one of those cookie-cutter annual art fairs, you're not likely to encounter artists selling their work on the street here at all. If you do, you'll probably also see a cop rapidly approaching. Street sales are illegal downtown and -- at the discretion of the local alderman -- in other areas as well.

Chicago Reader | Deanna Isaacs | 07-28-2008 | Art

Tags: Chicago, permits, visual arts, public policy issues, Chris Drew, outdoor art, panhandling, public space

She Throws Herself at Mennew

Lilly McElroy rethinks the desperate woman.

Chicago Reader | Kelly McClure | 03-24-2008 | Art

Tags: visual arts

Art Therapynew

Now that he's sober, Bill Current runs a gallery for artists recovering from addiction.

Chicago Reader | Deanna Isaacs | 03-10-2008 | Art

Tags: visual arts

Is the Chicago Art Institute Renting Out its Treasures?new

The recent announcement that the museum will pack up 92 impressionist works -- the core of its flagship collection -- and send them off for an extended sojourn in Texas next year arrived like a stealth bomb.

Chicago Reader | Deanna Isaacs | 11-19-2007 | Art

Tags: visual arts