CRACKADE GOES TO ART CHICAGO 2011

Spent a healthy 3 1/2 hours checking out over 200 galleries (not sure on the number) on the enormous 12th floor of the Merchandise Mart. As you may have heard, Shepard Fairey—better known as Obey Giant—has been popping up around Chicago, pasting up his most recent work from his  'Revolutions' exhibition through the Robert Berman Gallery. The bizarre part, he nor the gallery were listed in any of the Art Chicago materials. Needless to say, it took a little while to find the gallery because most of the workers had no clue what I was talking about. Go figure. Regardless, it was badass seeing it all in person.

So like I said, there was a lot of stuff. I took pictures of whatever looked fresh, interesting or just down right bizarre.  Overall, it was a solid showing, but lacked a lot of street art aside from the Obey Giants and a Mr Brainwash. Surprised I didn't see one Banksy on display.

Shot pictures using my iPhone 4 camera as well as Hipstamatic and Instagram apps. I think the quality is alright with me.

Favorite of the Show: Renaud Delorme,  Mixed Media.
(Above) Shotgun shells, tennis balls, yarn, cassette tapes and other collected artifacts
(Below) Patchwork, electric toy racetrack, pill bottles.

 World Currency Butterflies by Erica Harrsh. These were Hand Painted if you can believe that.

 (Above) Ryan Humphrey
(Below) Mr Brainwash "Madonna"

 (Above) Obey Giant Album Covers. Framed editions of 8

 (Above and Below) Yi-Hsin Tzeng

 (Above) Sarah Palin Stamps.

 (Above) Victor Sydorenko
(Below) Detail shot of the above piece.

 (Above) Kelly Ratchford
(Below) Christina Nederberger. Acrylic on Plexiglass 'Chandelier'

 (Above) Warhol
(Below) Ed Valentine

 (Above) Horse Drawn Hummer Carriage

 (Above) Peggy Kouroumalos
(Below) Christy Langer. Creepiest thing I saw all day.

 (Above) Arno Elias

 (Above and Below) Bates Wilson

 (Above) Most unique way of selling art: Threaten to destroy it. Part of the NEXT section of Art Chicago, this gallery placed a time limit on each piece. If no one offered atleast minimum wage x the amount of time it took to create the piece of art, well, then, it gets the ax. This one was saved for $80 dollars

Obey Giant hanging from the lobby of The Merchandise Mart. Balling.

BREW THIS

All your coffee addicted recipes stunningly illustrated for your enjoyment. via: Fastcompany

KICKFLIP HAROSHI McSCULPTURE

Hailing from Japan, Haroshi is putting old and tired skateboards to gorgeous use. As you can see, recycling skateboards can create awe-inspiring sculptures. And that's no easy task. They are comprised of a multitude of decked out wood after all. And that's where the challenge lies. Skateboards are not only comprised of many different particles, they also come in tons of shapes and sizes, making Haroshi almost a zen master of wood carving. That's not too far a stretch either as a common Buddhist practice is wood carvings. Via: Trendland

STAPLE GUN TO YOUR WALL

In a bit of rage, or perhaps aggression, Baptiste Debombourg takes a staple gun and goes to work, creating these incredible wallscapes in a few thousand clicks. Precise, impressive, simple and undoubtedly awesome use of a household object.

via: Trend Land

OBSOLETE ART WOULD LIKE YOUR CONSIDERATION

Take something that's obsolete, use it for mixed media art, and presto, you have the art of Nick Gentry. From VHS tapes to 3.5" 1.4 mb floppy diskettes, Gentry is giving useless objects a purpose again.