The SALVAGE exhibit is presented by AnySquared Projects & G Studio in cooperation with The Plant. Through paintings, photo-based works, and site-specific installations, the exhibition explores the metamorphosis of materials, objects, and/or concepts into a new means. Each artist reinterprets materials or concepts within their practice. Stimulated by the notion of transformation, each of their works express varying visions through conceptual methods, aesthetic tools, or through reuse of physical materials. | About the Exhibit (pdf) | facebook event

Artists
Michael Bolsinga, Mary Ellen Croteau, Miguel Guzman, Chyanne Husar, Tracy Kostenbader, Alexandra Lee (ATYL), Gary Lehman, Stephen Manka, and Luis Sahagun

Open during Open House Chicago:
Saturday, October 18 & Sunday October 19 from noon to 4pm (free)

Last staffed hours of exhibit.
Additional viewings by appointment: projects@anysquared.com.

Press
Gaper's Block "Artists Rethink Waste in Salvage"
DNAinfo | Timeout
Interview with Michael Bolsinga by Artists of Chicago
Interview with Tracy Kostenbader by Artists of Chicago



Michael Bolsinga is a self taught artist influenced by graphic design, political and rock posters, and pop art. Bolsinga uses acrylics and pen on various found medium to explore visual communication with patterns, colors and composition. Much of Bolsinga’s work focuses on the Political and the Environmental, as well as society’s reluctance/inability to make important decisions in both. Bolsinga currently resides and works in the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago.

Mary Ellen Croteau is also avid supporter of artists through various projects in Chicago and internationally including curation of her ongoing window gallery:
Art on Armitage.

Mary Ellen Croteau is a visual artist whose work discusses current environmental topics often overlooked. She creates her work with materials removed from their eventual trip to the landfill.

“The function of the visual in consumer culture is to overwhelm and imprint,  rendering us passive vessels for received wisdom. Vast databases of disconnected facts, driven by arcane mathematical formulae rather than by a creative or logical progression of thought, do more to confuse and disconnect us from the information we need to control our world than they do to facilitate it. My work is an attempt to counter this trend toward disembodied “intelligence.”

"I firmly believe in the power of the visual, and my work is my voice: a social critique and a visual challenge to all the cultural detritus we are force-fed every day. My art is about looking at things in a slightly different way, and is intended to undermine the status quo with wit and humor.”

— Mary Ellen Croteau


Miguel Guzman is a Chicago-based artist who works in a combination of digital printing, collage and paint. He uses his own photos in addition to appropriated photos and prints his photographic images on unconventional surfaces such as aluminum, plexiglass, hand-made surfaces, cardboard, found papers and objects. He also incorporates paint as successive layers of transparent acrylic washes both before and after the printing.

“While I take advantage of the flexibility that digital technologies give me in terms of what I make and how I can make it, I also feel a need for a strong human element, to work with my hands, for direct physical involvement with the work. This way of working keeps things engaging for me because merging the hand-made with the mechanical creates the challenge of balancing control with unpredictability.”

“Nationalism, economic and military rivalry, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and environmental disaster are some of the subjects that find their way into my work. These works are an expression of both a sense of wonder and disenchantment with the state of the world.”

— Miguel Guzman

“It is by design that architectural systems can work in building communities and togetherness.”

— Chyanne Husar

Chyanne Husar is an explorer and creator who uses architecture and constructed form as a medium to bring awareness of social and environmental concerns to the public and future designers. Founded by Chyanne Husar in 2010, husARchitecture is as an outlet for her vision. Focused on engaging the community, she resides in Logan Square, Chicago and works to incorporate local issues into our built environment.

Recent projects include chiNAgo, an artist residency at the High Concept Laboratories exploring impacts of rapid urban development on communities; and nÜwaste an exhibit for the 2013 Guerrilla Truck Art Show exploring closed loop waste cycles to create a localized model of sustainable food, waste, and materials.


Tracy Kostenbader (co-curator) is a visual artist and also has active role in developing Chicago art culture as her role as an organizer for AnySquared Projects' exhibits, events and programs.

Alexandra Lee (ATYL) reinterprets materials by integrating and reinterpreting them in site-specific installations, collage, and other mediums.

“I work in a variety of medium, including photography, computer generated/3D images, sculpture, new media and video installations and painting and drawing, depending on the concept behind each piece and the best method of communication."

"Generally, my work is about time and being, and the compulsions of day-to-day living and of love. It is about temporal versus eternal, the interrelation of art and science, and between humans and their tradition/beliefs within the environments they live.”

— Alexandra Lee


Gary Lehman (co-curator) is a visual artist and landscape architect. He deals directly with environmental issues and presents them with strong visual gestures.

“My work captures metamorphosis of memorable events and visions. The event, person or landscape is reinterpreted to grasp and extract the underlying emotional interaction. The process extracts the essence of the experience by revealing a raw emotional interpretation in a fluid use of line, form and color. Though the form and line are dominate, additional expressive layers with words or textures are added to refine the primary expression and tie closer to the memory.”

— Gary Lehman


Stephen Manka is a public artist. He expresses his work in the public environment with strong architectural projects.

“Public Art is a form of Acupuncture. It amplifies our public spaces and our shared experiences in these spaces. My main goal with public art has been to provoke a meaningful engagement with the community. The concepts need to react to a specific place and the unique situations. This exploration unlocks an array of materials and techniques, which often means opportunities for new collaborations.”

— Stephen Manka


Luis Sahagun adapts reclaimed materials into interesting forms that undergo a building and destructive process.

“My passion lies in creating paintings, sculptures, and objects out of repurposed street rubble such as; cardboard, concrete, metal, and wood. I enjoy replacing traditional tools such as paintbrushes and palette knives with reciprocal and circular saws. The objective is to use destruction/demolition as a vehicle to pursue a personal and unique artistic mark."

—Luis Sahagun


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Open Artmaking Day
Exhibits & Events
Cinema Minima


 

AnySquared Projects
AnySquared is an artist collaborative and network headquartered in Logan Square's AnyWhere Space. We are propelled by a deep sense of cooperation with our neighbors as we produce art events, projects and ongoing activities with the mutual support and participation of area artists and local businesses. | contact


G Studio
G Studio is a design and fine art studio in Chicago. Their work specializes in creating unique and creative experiences from outdoor gardens to paintings.


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Take a Tour
On June 21, arrive early at 2pm for a guided 60-minute in-depth tour of the facility to learn about everything from aquaponic farming to creating our own renewable energy. The $10 donation supports The Plant's projects. The Plant also has tours every week..

The Plant
The Plant is a building dedicated to promoting sustainable food production, entrepreneurship, and building reuse through education, research and development. Housed in a 93,500 sq. ft. retired meatpacking facility, The Plant will become a net-zero energy vertical farm. A complex and highly interrelated system, one-third of The Plant will hold aquaponic growing systems and the other two-thirds will incubate sustainable food businesses by offering low rent, low energy costs, and a licensed shared kitchen. The Plant will create 125 jobs in Chicago’s economically distressed Back of the Yards neighborhood – but, remarkably, these jobs will require no fossil fuel use. Instead, The Plant will eventually divert over 10,000 tons of food waste from landfills each year to meet all of its heat and power needs.

Exhibiting Visual Artists
Michael Bolsinga
Mary Ellen Croteau
Miguel Guzman
Chyanne Husar
Tracy Kostenbader
Alexandra Lee (ATYL)
Gary Lehman
Stephen Manka
Luis Sahagun

On Display June 21–October 19
About the Exhibition (pdf)

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SALVAGE
Opening Event
Saturday, June 21 | from 3:30pm to 8pm

facebook invitation
The Plant, 1400 West 46th Street
Exhibit opening is free
.

• 3:30pm
Music by Renato Anesi

Renato Anesi
is a composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist from Rio de Janeiro. Master of Choro music, Renato plays several Brazilian stringed instruments such as tenor banjo, tenor guitar, mandolin, cavaco, ten strings guitar and more.

• 5pm
Firebread

International Art Group Ensemble's
masked performance

Directed by Marianna Buchwald and performed by Nichole Harrod, Cherie Lockett, and Daniel Weinberg with musical accompaniment by Dominick Gray and composer Carl Weinberg on clarinet and sax.
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• Special Tours
Arrive early at 2pm
for a guided 60-minute in-depth tour of the site
and learn about everything from aquaponic farming to creating our own renewable energy. ($10 donation supports The Plant's projects).

During the event, sign up at The Plant's table for a farm tour of the aquaponics and outdoor farms ($5 donation). The exhibit opening event and performances on the 1st and 2nd floors are free.