- July 9 – September 27, 2016, at the Chicago Cultural Center
- Artist Residency and Exhibition Creates Large-scale Diagrams and Records with Scheduled Blimp Flights As If Seen From Space
CHICAGO, 2016-Jun-21 — /Travel PR News/ — For his premier solo exhibition in Chicago – Paul Catanese: Visible From Space – the artist creates an interdisciplinary artwork at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington St., Sidney R. Yates Gallery, 4th Floor North) this July 9 to September 27 that ponders the design of Earthly drawings so large that they could be seen from the Moon. Following experiments involving camera-equipped aerial vehicles – from kites to rockets to drones – flown over high desert settings, this artist residency and exhibition will create both operating theater and theater of operations in an embrace of the scientific, military and pedagogic connotations of these terms. Catanese will compose large-scale diagrammatic drawings on the ground level using various props and then, at regularly scheduled flights, pilot a 12-foot helium-filled blimp to fly over, observe, project and record aerial footage of the evolving “viewed from the Moon” works. Viewers are encouraged to visit multiple times to witness the evolution of this project intermingling an artists’ studio, film set, black box theater and site-specific installation.
Internationally-exhibited hybrid media artist Paul Catanese blurs the lines between visual, performing and media arts in a diverse range of works that include installation, printmaking, sculpture, handmade paper, artists’ books, video and projections. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, NY), SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery (San Francisco, CA), La Villette (Paris, France) and the China Academy of Art (Hangzhou, China) and screened at the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (Bangkok, Thailand), Stuttgart Filmwinter (Stuttgart, Germany), FILE (Sao Paulo, Brazil), ANIMAC (Barcelona, Spain), ExUrban Screens (Melbourne, Australia), New Forms Festival (Vancouver, Canada) and ISEA2014 (Dubai, UAE). He has received commissions from Rhizome.org and Turbulence.org and, most recently, was awarded a 2014 Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship. Catanese is Associate Professor of Art & Art History and Director of the Interdisciplinary Arts & Media MFA Program at Columbia College Chicago.
Public Programs
Tuesdays–Saturdays, 10am–5pm
Artist working on site
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Noon
Scheduled blimp flights
Sidney R. Yates Gallery, 4th floor north
Friday, July 8, 5–7pm
Exhibition Preview with the Artist
Sidney R. Yates Gallery, 4th floor north
Wednesday, July 20, Noon
Conversation: A Lunch Hour of Curiosities with City of Chicago Cultural Historian Tim Samuelson
Sidney R. Yates Gallery, 4th floor north
Wednesday, August 17, Noon
Artist Talk
Sidney R. Yates Gallery, 4th floor north
Tuesday, September 13, 6:30–8pm
Lecture “Aereality: How We See the World from Above” by William L. Fox of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno
Claudia Cassidy Theater, 2nd floor north
Project support for Visible From Space provided to Paul Catanese by the Efroymson Family Fund and Columbia College Chicago. This project is also partially supported by an Individual Artist Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Chicago Cultural Center Exhibitions
Admission to the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street, and its exhibitions is FREE. The building and 1st floor galleries (including the Michigan Avenue Galleries and Garland Gallery) are open Monday–Thursday, 9am–7pm, Friday–Saturday, 9am–6pm and Sunday 10am–6pm; upper floor galleys are open Monday–Thursday, 10am–7pm and Friday–Sunday, 10am–6pm; closed holidays. All exhibitions are presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. For information, visit chicagoculturalcenter.org, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @ChiCulturCenter.
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) is dedicated to enriching Chicago’s artistic vitality and cultural vibrancy. This includes fostering the development of Chicago’s non-profit arts sector, independent working artists and for-profit arts businesses; providing a framework to guide the City’s future cultural and economic growth, via the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan; marketing the City’s cultural assets to a worldwide audience; and presenting high-quality, free and affordable cultural programs for residents and visitors. For more information, visit cityofchicago.org/dcase.
Christine Carrino christine.carrino@cityofchicago.org, 312.744.0573
Jamey Lundblad jamey.lundblad@cityofchicago.org, 312.744.2493
###
Paul Catanese, Visible From Space Field Test, Sidney R. Yates Gallery, 2015. Photo courtesy of the artist.