I / We / Can / Did

Me: “Sorry about your wall.”

Roy, Variable Space owner-turned-friend remarkably tolerant of my tomfoolery: “No you’re not.”

Me: “You’re right I’m not sorry at all.”

Photo by Sophia Nahli Allison, 2012.

Press from Friday: Here’s the NPR clip in case you missed it live. I love how I CAN DO THAT was an “activist-style pick” and one of the ways to “change the world.” (Because I genuinely believe art can change the world and, to take the conviction one / many step(s) further, isthemeaningoflifebuuuuuuuut that’s an entirely different blog post.) And here’s another feature on Chicagoist.

Thank you. Everyone. I CAN DO THAT has been such an adventure. Everything I do is always getting bigger and bigger and better and better, and none of it has been / is possible without your support, encouragement, and passion. As always, if you took any photos at the closing reception, please email them to artists.on.the.lam{at} gmail {dot} com. Videos—like an interview by Gozamos (thank you, Abraham Velázquez Tello and Jennifer Patiño!)—coming soon.

My next adventure? Summer travel—three days until my Beijing / Shanghai / Hong Kong trip! And in June, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ll be in Switzerland and Germany—specifically Zurich, Basel, Geneva, and Berlin, and possibly Lucerne, Bern, and Lausanne. (Speaking of travel, I just saw that my postcard project was featured on Roadmonkey. I don’t know who you are or how you found me but I love you.) I’ve RSVPed to the craziest things at ART HK. Get ready—you’re about to see the art world through the eyes of a young Logan Square-living artist slash writer slash entrepreneur slash troublemaker subsisting mostly on cereal like you never have before.

All good things must come to an end // But live forever on blogs

Tune in to WBEZ at 5:50am and / or 7:50am CST to hear some cartoon character me ramble on about I CAN DO THAT. I’ll also provide a link once the clip is available online. Thank you, Alison Cuddy, for the interview!

Congratulations to participating artist Glendalys Medina—she is a 2012 Visual Arts Rome Prize Fellow! The announcement ceremony was in New York just last night, so press photos and the like are forthcoming.

The show closes tonight! Expect more of the magic from the opening reception, plus new ways to interact with the art, like an audience participatory performance by Caitlin Bergh, who was featured in the Tribune yesterday. Don’t miss it!

Happy Medium // Yes that’s partially a Wrinkle in Time reference // Blew my 11-year-old mind quite frankly

As I’d alluded to before in previous posts, I will be traveling to Hong Kong in May and Switzerland in June to attend ART HK and Art Basel, respectively. Today I am pleased to announce that I have been invited to participate in, well, invite-only events at both international art fairs as a VIP. Stay tuned throughout this summer for exclusive—like, literally exclusive—looks inside the art world!

Now, to invest in shoes that look neither like these nor these…

Video ______ the art star?

I got vidz.

All related to I CAN DO THAT, of course.

First, here’s the web version of One Mic, the participatory performance piece by Bronx-based artist Glendalys Medina, whom I’d met at Bronx Calling: The First AIM Biennial during my most recent trip to New York. Read a couple of her interviews here and here. (Thanks, Alissa, for providing the TV!)

At the opening reception, Peggy Shearn recorded the following outburst from art critic Prof. Arthur Typpe. (The greatest thing about this clip is the fact that you can see some visitors continuing about their artistic business as if nothing’s happening a mere three feet away from them. Behold! The power of art.)

And check out a new video of street artist Left Handed Wave doing what he does best:

(Come to the closing reception and deface a banana man. You know you want to.)

But wait! There’s more! Peep the ever-expanding list of press coverage, now with added articles from Gozamos, Arts America, and Columbia Chronicle. Thanks, all! And look out for a feature in the summer issue of Landfills Magazine, due out this June. Thanks, Po Zimmerman, for a fun interview last week and for capturing me with Avisheh Mohsenin’s I Left A Piece Of Myself In…, which was built to Avisheh’s size. Which also happens to be my size. Huzzah for the small! (Please excuse my offensively dirty hair.)

Photo by Po Zimmerman, 2012.

Lastly, thank you, Lee Eun Young, for the lovely afternoon of food, drink, and conversation. Eun Young, creator of Love Story, grew up in Korea, was educated in Paris, and has been living and working in The Netherlands for much of her life. Fellow citizens of the world, I salute you.

Drop cloths for everyone! // No really we probably should’ve had more drop cloths

Thank you, Sophia Nahli Allison, for taking great photos of the I CAN DO THAT opening reception! View them here on Flickr and / or Facebook.

Photo by Sophia Nahli Allison, 2012.

And ICDT is on Sixty Inches From Center! Thank you for the write-up, Amanda Mead!

More photos to come!

Art can be fun // I can cram hundreds of people into a stucco-walled loft

THANK YOU, everyone, for making Friday night’s I CAN DO THAT opening such a great success!

The turnout was insane (I’m talking shoulder-to-shoulder packed—well, in my case, more like shoulder-to-forehead), and, more importantly, it was wonderful to see how engaged with (participating artist Nikolas Burkhart told me about one visitor who spent 45 minutes trying to replicate one of his paintings) and even invested in (I had the privilege and honor of being witness to a group of visitors cheering when they managed to suspend a mass of pop can tabs in the middle of Angela Hearld’s sculpture via strings of hot glue) the art everyone was. Simply put, people had fun.

Unlike most other gallery openings where you show up, make a beeline for the booze, socialize with the people you know, and then leave, all without so much as even glancing at the art (errr, not like I’ve done this myself or anything…), this art show was and is all about one thing: the art!

If you took any photos, took any videos, have any questions or comments (ones I got that night: “This isn’t art time—it’s play time!,” “This is the most fun I’ve had at an art show ever,” “This is like a children’s museum… but for adults,” etc.), have any interesting or funny stories, and / or counted how many penises were drawn / painted / sculpted?… please email me at artists.on.the.lam {at}gmail {dot} com.

And please save the date for the closing reception on Friday, April 27! More art, more fun, more madness, new performances! See how everything evolves over the course of two weeks! There will also be live nude painting. Now it’s a true art party.

Until then, drop by anytime M–W, 10am–4pm (or make an appointment if those hours don’t work for you), and say hi!

The hour approacheth

I CAN DO THAT opens tonight!

Be there. Challenge yourself to interact with every piece in the show!

One more day, one day more // [flag wave]

A couple announcements before I get to more installation photos:

• I CAN DO THAT is in Time Out Chicago! I particularly enjoy the tags…

• Between the opening and closing receptions, gallery hours will be M–W, 10am–4pm, and by appointment.

And more photos! 

(From top to bottom, art by: Left Handed Wave, first profiled here, with another cameo by yours truly; Peggy Shearn, former Exquisite Corpse participant; Imaginathan (Nathan Stanton), quoted below; and Gabriel Garcia-Fraire, with an arrangement that allows gallery-goers to mimic the way he works.)

On artists: “You’re creating. You’re creating something that didn’t exist before. That’s miraculous.”

Wise words from participating artist Nathan Stanton, who literally gives away and leaves his artwork out on the street for the public to take. Part of a 2-hour-long conversation we had that included geeking out over the Beats, discovering that we share the same birthday, and thinking about putting a Slip ‘n’ Slide in the gallery, except with feathers instead of water. (Clarification: No, there will not be a Slip ‘n’ Slide at this show, which features nearly 70 works of art. Someday, however. Someday.)

Tomorrow!

The phrase “sneak peek” is proof that the English language is in major need of a spelling overhaul

Craziness—craziness!—from the first two days of I CAN DO THAT installation.

(From top to bottom: detail of DRIP-EX, a painting machine created by Chris Wille and Melanie Scott-Dockery; detail of Love Story by Lee Eun Young, who flew in all the way from Holland; Chris Busse’s potter’s wheel set-up—clay forthcoming!—and a cameo by yours truly; and detail of Avisheh Mohsenin’s conceptual piece—it is now suspended from the ceiling and looks even more beautiful than it does here.)

And more. (Seriously, so much more. There are over 40 participating artists, after all.)

…shakalaka?

I probably should’ve waited until next week to make a press roundup since these are popping up daily now, but… I CAN DO THAT is on Chicagoist!

The show opens in exactly one week!

Boom

A quick update to say: I CAN DO THAT is in The Huffington Post!

Also: One week and one day until opening night!

The world is not enough // Renaissance wo/men unite

I CAN DO THAT is on Fear No ART Chicago as one of this month’s highlights! Thank you, Elysabeth!

An excerpt from a GOOD article that I had to share:

But increasingly I've realized that for people like me, one creative outlet isn't enough. The most interesting, creative people I know express themselves in a variety of ways.

So. True. I’ve always been That Kid who did everything, but no matter what, I always want(ed) / need(ed) to do more.

Aaaaand the view count on my postcard project Flickr album has pretty much doubled since the last time I told you about it. Unbelievable. And, since then, I’ve been thinking that, in addition to a book, I’d like to create a related website encouraging others to launch postcard-dream-map-whatever-projects (clearly I need to come up with a title for this) in their own cities. Go go global network of dreams!

Eat your art out

Release the Kraken I CAN DO THAT press… release! Read it here. The image used is Anti by participating artist Brandon Kirkman:

Image courtesy of Brandon Kirkman.

At the show, a special guest / art critic will be making an appearance. He may or may not yell at you. Until then, you can follow his blog on the hip and not-dated-at-all platform that is LiveJournal.

Ummmm so my postcard project Flickr album has been up for less than a week, yet it has, as of this typing, over 1,200 views already. Just… I mean… what. Seriously and simply: thank you. For sharing it and spreading the word, for your enthusiasm, for your excitement. I’m floored—the response has been downright overwhelming. People have been emailing me, telling me that they want to start the same project in their own cities, that they feel inspired to take action and realize their own dreams. And many of you are urging me to turn it into a book. And you know what? I will!

On ubiquitous banana men, palm readers, and maps

If you live in Chicago, you have seen the banana dude.

This one ironically not in Chicago but Brooklyn.
Image courtesy of Left Handed Wave, 2011.

For I CAN DO THAT, the prolific young street artist known as Left Handed Wave will provide a large-scale black-and-white banana man for show-goers to fill in / add to / go nuts with. After the collaborative effort is complete, he'll paste it up on the street. It will be grand. Check out this video of LHW in action:

Left Handed Wave/Mossberg 2 from Left Handed Wave on Vimeo.

(More videos here and here.)

Sadly, I’m allergic to bananas. And kiwis. And fabric softener. But rest assured that I’ll never be allergic to awesome art.

Thank you to another I CAN DO THAT artist, Mister Vibe, for giving me a palm reading. Apparently I’m a “Fire Hand.” Note that I’m also a Leo and was born in the Year of the Fire Rabbit. So that’s three fire signs. And I’m an only child. Basically, I was predestined to be a troublemaker / be obnoxious.

Speaking of which… gather ‘round and allow me to tell you about an old, still-untitled personal project I did a few years ago when I was in New York: From Fall 2008 through Spring 2009, I obsessively created hundreds of pre-stamped, self-addressed postcards, omitting my name. Written on each postcard was the prompt, “Tell me one thing you dream of doing before you die. Use this card as your canvas,” as well as a code on the bottom corner. I then left these postcards in public spaces all over Manhattan, using the codes to record where I placed each one. When the postcards returned to me, I was able to tell where each had been found, and I gradually pieced together a map of the city from all these people’s dreams.

It was an exploration in breaking down barriers between the private and the public (by its nature, letter-writing is an intimate act—although with postcards, anyone who intercepts your card can read what you wrote—and here were these people sharing their deepest fears and hopes with me, a nameless, faceless stranger, perhaps emboldened by the safety net of anonymity, or motivated by that very human desire to connect, to know that someone, anyone, knows about you), between artist and audience (I may have been the originator of the project, but was I the artist or were these people the artists, or both?), and between geographical boundaries (did the dreams of Upper Eastsiders differ that greatly from those in Alphabet City? on Wall Street? would the fine upstanding citizens there even pay attention to a handmade postcard taped up onto a street light? etc. etc.).

I’ve mentioned this project before, but learning about the new “Before I Die” installation in Pilsen is what prompted me to finally scan the postcards and try to share them online. For now, you can view them (uploaded in no particular order) here on Flickr (some replies NSFW).

Lastly, happy vernal equinox! Although it’s been much more like summer here in the Chi. If I were a beach kind of person, I’d totally be at the beach right now. (#vampireproblems / we skipped leather jacket weather / no but seriously when will I be able to wear my blazers and leather jacket)

The Chosen Ones // T-Minus 1 Month

The artists for I CAN DO THAT have been selected! They hail from across the country and around the world, and there’s plenty of local talent as well. Congratulations to Alyssa Trainor, Angela Hearld, Avisheh Mohsenin, Brandon Kirkman, Brooks Golden, Caitlin Bergh, Carisa Mitchell, Chris Barrett, Chris Busse, Clarisse Perrette, David del Bosque, Dead Squirrel, DRIP-EX, Dubi Kaufmann, Emmanuel L. White Eagle, Fernanda Quaglia, Gabor E. Nagy, Gabriel Garcia-Fraire, Glendalys Medina, Gracie Cannell, Imaginathan, Janet Mamon, Jared Haberman, Kathleen Enright, Kev Anderson, Kyra Termini, Lee Eun Young, Left Handed Wave, Mister Vibe, Nancy Bechtol, Nikolas Burkhart, Noel DeGaetano, Pancho Panoptes, Patricia Biesen, Peggy Shearn, Peter Dzubay, Predrag Djordjevic, Rachel Dennis, Robin Jiro Margerin, Scot West, Sioban Lombardi, Zachary Trebellas …and you.

Previews of the art to come!

wolf in Lam's clothing

The artwork submission window for I CAN DO THAT is now closed! (Of course, almost half the total submissions came in the last couple days. Ahh, human nature. But at least no one did what I would’ve done in similar situations / in college, which would entail searching for and finding a corrupt file on my computer on Sunday night, renaming said file, and then attaching that file to an email, to which the poor professor it addressed would respond saying s/he can’t open the document and I’d email back after some time all “golly I wonder why Prof well see if this one works” and then attach the real completed assignment and still manage to get an A okay I do not condone this behavior nor will I ever fall for it.) (Sorry, professors.)

To everyone who applied: Thank you! You’ll be hearing back from me by the end of the week. To everyone else: Many of the submissions are brilliant. I am beyond excited for this show.

I Can Spell // Sorry, Time Out Chicago magazines

Artist applications for I CAN DO THAT are due in 1 week!

If you live in Chicago, you will be seeing this (or a variation of it) around. Most likely hanging at the eye level of a hobbit.

Note to ransom note-makers: The “D” was surprisingly difficult to find. Note to no one in particular: The figure is from a scan of a photocopy of a cut-out print-out of a scan of a print of an intaglio etching I made a few years ago. I am my own Richard Prince.

I’ve added new buttons on the sidebar to make it easier for you to follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn (which I desperately need to update), and more. You’ll be kept up to date with all that I find is interesting. And thank you for following / visiting this blog in the first place! Thanks to you, when I Google myself (don’t front—we all do it) now, I actually show up on the first page of results. Nothing short of a miracle considering there are about a billion (this is a fact) Jenny Lams in the world; I even know two others (one of them is an aunt of mine, but technically I came first, since she married into the Lamily). Continue being awesome!