4TH FLOOR GALLERY

Outside the Practice II

September 20th – November 1st, 2019

Legendary architect Harry Weese once posited that “every building is a landmark.” In OUTside THE PRACTICE: MONUMENTS AND PLACES OF MEMORY, Chicago-based architects and designers present distinctive and original visions on the topic, relieved of the constraints of conventional architectural practice.

Curated by Stephen Wierzbowski, FAIA, Edward Keegan, AIA, and Lelde Kalmite, works include drawings, paintings, sculptures, photography, watercolors, installations, mixed media, and sketchbooks.

Presented by the Bridgeport Art Center, the exhibit is a partner program of the Chicago Architecture Biennial and sponsored by AIA Chicago.

THE BORDER CROSSED US

July 19 – September 6

Opening Reception: July 19, 7-10 PM

The Border Crossed Us presents 68 prints by 37 artists from portfolios of work that were produced in Chicago by Rene Arceo’s Arceo Press. The works reflect a search for meaning in the complex cross-border migrant experience. Curated by Eugenia Macias, the exhibit was first shown at the UNAM, Morelia Campus (National Autonomous University of Mexico) in October, 2018.

Artwork: Rene Hugo Arceo, Transforming Nahua

GLOBAL VISTAS: Depictions of Nature
from Around the World

May 17 – July 5, 2019

Opening Reception: May 17, 7-10 PM

Featuring artworks from:

• Jacqueline Moses – Chicago
• Aleksejs Naumovs – Latvia
• Didier Nolet – Chicago
• Valda Oestreicher – Canada
• Patricia Glee Smith – Italy
• Valerie Taglieri – Indiana

7TH ANNUAL ART COMPETITION

March 15 – May 3, 2019

Awards Ceremony: March 15th 7-10 pm – 4th Floor Gallery

You are cordially invited to the 7th Annual Art Competition at the Bridgeport Art Center. This competition was created to showcase the exceptional talents and abilities of Bridgeport and Chicago area artists.

Click here for a list of selected Artists

CURATORS CREATE SECOND BIENNIAL EXHIBIT

January 18 – March 1, 2019

Opening Reception: Friday, Jan 18 | 7 – 10 PM

Locally and globally, curators create compelling experiences of art, culture, and creativity that change how people understand themselves and the world by stimulating new perspectives, ideas, and feelings. – From the mission statement of the Association of Art Museum Curators (Aamc)
Although Aamc represents art museum curators, its mission statement can be seen as an aspirational description of curatorial work in general, including that done at colleges/ universities, galleries and art centers.

Bridgeport Art Center’s second Curators Create biennial exhibit features work by nine artist-curators, and includes oil paintings, ceramics, encaustics, graphics, textiles, digital art, and sculptures. The exhibit presents work by some of the region’s most notable curators who are also prominent practicing artists.

Artists include: Dan Addington, Sherri Denault, Deb Flagel, Lora Fosberg, Suzanne Cohan Lange, Yaoundé Olu, Corey Postiglione, Doug Stapleton and Christina Warzecha

Photo: Installation of 2017 Curators Create exhibition. (Work by Stano Grezdo).

CONSIDERING THE CIRCLE

November 16 – January 4, 2019

Opening Reception: Friday, November 16 | 7 – 10 PM

Artists consider the circle from numerous viewpoints and in various media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, calligraphy, photography, film and video, tapestry and others. The Greeks saw it as a symbol of perfection, but is this concept still valid? With guest curator Carole Harmel.

Adele Friedman, Alexandra Lerner Harmel, Arthur Lerner, Susan Sensemann, Carol Rosofsky, Carole Harmel and Mica the Cat, Caroline Mars, Cindy Stutzel, Corey Postiglione, Daniel Lerner, Deborah Maris Lader, Eleanor Spiess-Ferris, James Mesplé, Jason Lamantia, Howard Miller, Joe Harmon, Judith Raphael, Julia Blake, Kathie Shaw, Ken Josephson, Lialia Kuchma, Manuela Hung, Marco Ferrari, Mel Theobald, Mel Winer, Paul Lamantia, Jen Boldt, Robert Benjamin and Julia Gay , Sandra Binion, Stano Grezdo, Tony Phillips, Virginio Ferrari and William Conger.

PATTERNS OF NATURE

September 21 – November 2, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, Sept 21 | 7 – 10 PM

Throughout history, artists have been fascinated with the depiction and interpretation of nature, especially as exemplified in landscape painting. Today, many of the underlying patterns and relationships in the natural world that have been revealed by science and technology are providing new inspiration for artists as expressive themes and images.

Ilze Arajs
Shar Coulson
Helen Dannelly
David Krzeminski
Raúl Ortiz
Peter Van Ael

THREE-DIMENSIONAL: CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE BY ILLINOIS ARTISTS

July 20 – September 7

Opening Reception: Friday, July 20 | 7 – 10 PM

Sculptors present free-standing work and wall pieces in a variety of materials and media, including glazed ceramic, cast bronze, glass, wood, acrylic, metal and others.

Lollie Bennish
John Denis
Donna Hapac
Robert Krawczyck
Yvette Kaiser Smith
Jay Strommen
Marshall Svendsen

LOVED ONES

May 18th – July 6, 2018
Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony: Friday, May 18 | 7 – 10 PM

Friends, relatives, colleagues, celebrities – artists pay homage to the important people in their lives through naturalistic depictions, symbolic representations and imaginative interpretations.

Stephen Butzlaff
Mercedes Cardenas
Hale Ekinci
Jan Gardner
Beverly Nash
Mary Porterfield
Rahmaan Statik
Joseph Turner
Obi Uwakwe

Bridgeport Art Center’s
6th Annual Art Competition

March 16th – May 3rd, 2018
Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony: Friday, March 16 2018 | 7 – 10 PM

This is the 6th year for the juried art competition and exhibition, awarding $3,000 in prizes to Chicago and vicinity artists in an awards ceremony. The Annual Art Competition was created to showcase the exceptional talents and abilities of Bridgeport and Chicago area artists.

The competition is open to all artists, aged 18 and over, who live or have studios within a 150-mile radius of Chicago. Work must have been created within the last three years. The competition accepts a broad spectrum of art media and styles.

Click here for a list of participating artists

Click here for a list of the winning artists

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CREATIVE FURNISHINGS 2

November 17 – January 5, 2018

CREATIVE FURNISHINGS: A Collection from Chicago Designers + Makers is an exhibition brought to you by the CREATIVE FURNITURE DESIGNERS ASSOCIATION and the BRIDGEPORT ART CENTER.

Highlighting the unique perspective of individual designers and their take on furniture and decorative arts for your home and living spaces, this exhibition offer the finest works from the Chicago region. Awards will be presented during the OPENING RECEPTION on Friday, November 17th.

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ENCAUSTIC 2017: Rebirth of an Ancient Medium

July 21 – September 8, 2017

Encaustic painting is one of the oldest painting techniques, dating back to the ancient Greeks, who used it to caulk ships and paint funerary portraits on sarcophagi. In Greek, the word “encaustic” means “to heat or burn in”. Encaustic consists of natural bees wax and damar resin (crystallized tree sap). Heat is used throughout the process, from melting the beeswax and resin to fusing the layers of wax.

The artists included in this exhibition embrace the use of wax, not as just another option in a wide range of available art media, but as a dynamic, organic, almost living medium that manifests the seductive qualities of tactility, translucency, and mystery through their work in a singular way.

Photo Credit: Helen Dannelly

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PAPER ARTS:

TWO- AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL
WORKS EXPLORING THE MEDIUM OF PAPER

March 17- May 5, 2017

Artists explore the seductive versatility and sculptural potential of the medium by cutting, folding, tearing, creasing, binding together, weaving, or otherwise transforming one of the oldest art materials, paper, to express ideas and emotions.

Andrea Peterson
Azadeh Hussaini
Carole Harmel & Lialia Kuchma
Erin Cramer
Joe Fournier
Katherine Nemanich
Kevin Fair
Rebecca Wolfram
Tamara Wasserman
Yoonshin Park
Phil Ponce

Photo Credit: Katherine Nemanich – “The Woods So Wild”

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