Rec | MIDWEST ART SCENES

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Midwest art scenes

Put the indie in Indiana!

@evilthespian

Sep 12, 2024

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Chicago show cal

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@jackiespry

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Western Pole

Located at the intersection of Western and Cermak in Chicago, the Western Pole is a makeshift rotating exhibition space on a city-owned light pole. It’s run by the artist and curator Jesse Malmed and is one of the single most delightful things in my life. I get to walk by it on my commute to the train and see the exhibitions change at a seemingly random cadence. They’re usually poster-based in format but I’ve seen a very cool sculpture of a birdhouse affixed to the pole and sometimes the work is interactive, using phone numbers, QR codes, and even links to artist’s Venmo’s. I’m aching to know how artists are picked and what the general “infrastructure” of running the pole is. But also, I’m addicted to the mystery and in love with the reclamation of The Commons. Chicago has a gorgeous and historied community of alternative art spaces, including an ecosystem of apartment galleries and non-traditional exhibition spaces. We have Barely Fair, a miniature art fair with tiny booths. There’s a gallery run out of someone’s purse and a now-closed space that existed inside of someone’s medicine cabinet! One curator commissioned artists to make earrings and used her earlobes and neck as an exhibition space. I’m even in on it. My husband and I ran Curb Appeal Gallery out of our living room for a year and a half! I guess what I’m trying to say is, be scrappy, be nimble, and be creative. You want to do a show, build up your artist CV, get into curatorial work? Make the spaces you want to be within. They can be as simple as a city light pole.

@salad_valet

Feb 25, 2025

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lucky enough to live in chicago

corncob buildings, Carl Sandberg’s poetry, Wilco and Horsegirl, corner taverns, concrete (and sand) beaches, best skyline, miles and miles of parkland, distinct neighborhoods, nostalgia for the chocolate smell of the Blommer Factory, labor history and labor rights running through our veins, green rivers (the drink and the actual river), Sufjan Stevens and Djo have us covered, tacos and Italian beef and Chicago-style with all the fixings, the tamale guy going dive bar to dive bar, the wax wrapper encasing your Tootsie Roll, Kashmir Pulaski Day, from Monadnock to Mies we’ve got the best architecture in the world.

@salad_valet

Feb 18, 2025