Snack Time Report, Friday, January 8th

One glass of wine down, and many to go.  We headed across the hall to Catherine Edelman for a photography show.  Edelman is one of the two galleries in Chicago dedicated exclusively to photography (the other is Stephen Daiter), and she consistently shows strong work.  I always make it a point to hit her openings, despite the fact that she closes earlier than anyone else, and serves only fizzy water.  I'm embarrassed to admit, I'll hit a place that shows good work, even if the snacks are lacking.

Lauren Simonutti, in front of her work, talking to some guests.

Up the stairs, then, to Judy Saslow.  The work at Saslow is generally a bit tame and conservative for my tastes, but I always give it a look since a.) it's right upstairs from Edelman and Zg, and b.) they usually have good snacks.  This week the snacks were limited to a bowl of pretzels, but they did provide me with my second glass of white wine of the night.  Thanks for the wine, Judy Saslow!

Steven Blutter, "Leap of Faith," 2009, at Judy Saslow.

Next we headed up one more flight of stairs to David Weinberg.  Weinberg is also a pretty mainstream space, but while Saslow shows work by "intuitive, outsider, and self-taught" artists, the work at Weinberg tends to be more slick, polished, and highly crafted.  Again, not normally my cup of tea, but I thought these photographs by Michael Parker were pretty neat.  Not particularly "challenging" or whatever, but cool to look at, and well made.  Everybody there is super nice.  They offered us wine, but we were still working on our glasses from Judy Saslow!  Thanks anyway, David Weinberg! 

Jeriah at David Weinberg. Photographs by Michael Parker. Wine from Judy Saslow gallery, downstairs.

That rounded out our experience at the 300 W. Superior building, our typical first stop in River North.  We then headed across the street to 311 W. Superior, another building with a number of galleries in it. 

Jeriah hits up the generous snack table at Russel Bowman Art Advisory.

My first stop was Russel Bowman Art Advisory, one of my favorite spaces in River North.  As a secondary market dealer, Bowman shows work by artists you may have actually heard of, rather than young, emerging talent.  For a collector, they represent an opportunity to collect works by established artists.  For the rest of us, Russel Bowman Art Advisory is like a little museum of modern art, right in River North.  Unlike most museums, they're free, and they serve good snacks at their openings.  Plus there's a bathroom in the building.

Snacks at Russel Bowman Art Advisory: cheese (brie and gouda, I think), crackers, a cup of nuts, pretzels, and grapes. I actually didn't try the grapes this time, but the cheese was good.

Russel Bowman provided me with my third glass of wine of the evening, red this time, and some much-needed snacks.  There was also some good work on display; I particularly liked the Philip Pearlstein.  Also the people at Bowman are always very friendly and helpful.

Jeriah, on his third glass of wine, in front of work by Philip Pearlstein.

After a quick potty break (the 311 W. Superior building has a public restroom), I hit the other two spaces on the ground floor of the building, those being Printworks and Gallery KH.  Each of these provided me with a glass of white wine, bringing my running total to five, and getting me righteous buzz.  Then we headed over to Ann Nathan.

A really nice charcoal drawing: Jeriah in front of work by Christoper Ganz.

Ann Nathan provided me with glass number six (another red), and had some good work up.  My favorite was a large charcoal drawing by Christopher Ganz, up in the back room.  Ganz apparently had a show at Ann Nathan recently, but I missed it.  Too bad, because this image was really good.

My friend and fellow artist Elise Goldstein was a fan as well.

Ann Nathan rounded out our River North experience.  My wife Stephanie Burke then led us to the West Loop.  We took the Brown Line down to the Loop and then took the Madison bus over to the West Loop.  Our first stop was Rhona Hoffman. 

First stop in the West Loop: Rhona Hoffman. I'm apparently standing in the middle of an exhibition by Richard Rezac, but I'm also on my seventh glass of wine, so don't expect any insightful analysis.

Rhona Hoffman was packed.  I grabbed a glass of wine (red, I think), socialized for a few (and man, if ever the term "rubbing elbows" was appropriate, this was it), then headed upstairs to Walsh.  I didn't see any snacks, although the title of the show was "Simply Fresh" and all of the artworks depicted lettuce leaves.

Work from "Simply Fresh" by Han Seok Hyun. That might be my leg.

Food-themed work, perhaps, but no snacks.  I headed upstairs to Dubhe Carreño for my eighth glass of wine (red) and artworks by Ann Drew Potter.  Somehow I can remember they had a bowl of weird little candies on the desk.  I stuck to the wine.

Installation view of Ann Drew Potter's work.

Eight glasses of wine under my belt, and three galleries to go.  We headed downstairs to Peter Miller's new location on the ground floor.  Showing was new work by Ron Laboray:  big, shiny abstract paintings in automotive enamel, loosely based on imagery from popular culture, particularly cartoons.  I don't remember any snacks but then, I had my drunk on pretty good by this point.

The much-needed restroom at Packer-Schopf.

Our next stop was our old favorite, Packer-Schopf Gallery.  Three exhibitions were opening:  DEATHMETALHIPPIEKILLER by Jason Lahr, Moby Dick by Tim Vermeulen, and Vent Figure Fun by Gene Hamilton.  As usual, Packer was serving white wine.  This made it my ninth glass.  In my defense, gallery glasses are about half the size of normal ones...or so I keep telling myself.

On of Jason Lahr's works from DEATHMETALHIPPIEKILLER, featuring what I believe to be Castle Grayskull from the He-Man animated series. This image actually looks derived from the playset toy.

Well stupefied, I had one last gallery to attend.  This was ebersmoore, right around the corner from Packer.  They had the usual bucket of cans of Pabst, and a dish of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  I had one of each.

Reese's and Pabst at ebersmoore.

The show, Mark Mulroney's "Weatherbee's Revenge," was really fun, too:  one of my favorites yet at ebersmoore, and one of my highlights of the evening.  Someone, I think it was Grace Hartigan, once told me that her father allowed dirty jokes at the dinner table, "as long as they were more funny than they were dirty."  Weatherbee's Revenge meets this criteria.  The works are both clever (in the good way) and raunchy (which is pretty much always good for me, as long as it's well done).

Work by Mark Mulroney at ebersmoore. Jeriah approves.

Seriously, this stuff is good.  Get over to ebersmoore and check it out! 

My friend Osvaldo Budet showed up, and joined us for the tail end of our adventure.

Well, ten drinks in, and relatively few snacks, and we were all pretty ready for dinner, so we headed over to the Exchequer for burgers and beer.  Actually I had the fish and chips, which were awesome.  Thanks to Stephanie Burke for taking care of my in my drunkenness, buying me fish and chips, and regulating on my crass and abrasive sense of humor.  It was time for this snacker to get home and sleep off another night of looking at art...the Jeriah way.

Jeriah is an artist, educator, writer, and snack enthusiast.  You can see his work at www.jeriahhildwine.com, and read his columns at Art Talk Chicago and Chicago Art Magazine.  Jeriah lives and works in Chicago, with his wife Stephanie Burke.