An Evening of Art Chicago Overload!

Yesterday I blew off my morning aerobics class, because 1.) I had lots of work to do in the studio and 2.) We had scored passes for the Opening Preview of Art Chicago!
Art Chicago is a massive "International Fair of Contemporary and Modern Art" held on the entire 12th floor of The Merchandise Mart.

I knew we'd be doing some (by 'some' I mean A LOT of) walking but nothing quite prepared me for what the evening had in store. First I made the trek to the gallery district to pick up Rob from work, had a lovely low-key dinner at Karyn's, fed the parking meter about 16 quarters (I can't believe it's up to .50 cents for 15 minutes!), then walked over to the Mart. Thankfully the weather permitted us to leave our umbrellas in the car.

I brought Digger (remember my previous post?) along to show him some of the downtown sights, but unfortunately the heavy fog obscured the Sears Tower... I'll have to try again on a sunnier day. Digger remained safe inside my felted wool handbag for the rest of the evening. So technically, Digger attended Art Chicago and now he can put that on his resume :O)

Not only was it Digger's first time attending Art Chicago but also mine. I was quite impressed with the Korean galleries. I would've loved to take pics of some stand out pieces I admired, but was unsure of the gallery etiquette (seemed I was the only one with a camera). But when I saw these fantastic sculptures at Gana Art I had to ask permission to take these pics to show you (it's beyond explaining):

Korean artist Yong Ho Ji animal sculptures made of recycled tires. The horns were very long and extended quite a ways, I couldn't fit them in. But just look at this face! Tires!

For goofiness sake, an enormous balloon sculpture...that was rotating, of course.

To summarize, the Opening Preview night was inspirational, intense, exhausting, and a mob scene. Though I typically try to avoid crowded affairs, it's a good thing that so many people support the arts! There was way too much art to squeeze into just a few (parking metered) hours, but we managed to see pretty much all of it, and say hello to some friends that we ran into.

It sure was nice to leave the bustle behind, come home to our quiet house, make carrot juice, and pop in a film noir. Going out makes me appreciate staying in :O)