Allright so my computer is fairly f-ed and therefore this show note will be even less witty than usual. A bunch of post-its are wedged between the keyboard and the video processor to hold it in place. Curse you IBM.

Duncan and Marc LeBlanc talk to Caleb Lyons of Old Gold Gallery and formerly of Art Ledge. 

Duncan talks to artist Lisa Boumstein-Smalley about her new show at the Alfedena Gallery.

Brian Andrews and Marc LeBlanc talk to Justin Hansch about Justin’s Museum of Contemporary Art. We collectively apologize for the crappy sound quality on this one but we are working to correct the problem.

Sarah corrects BAS on their grammar.

This Week: Guest interviewer Lisa Dorin talks to German artist Jana Gunstheimer (see the blurb shamelessly lifted from the AIC website, below). ALSO we get two different perspectives on the fight over the Public Art Program and how they handle the selection and approval process. Kathryn talks to Olga Stefan Executive Director of the Chicago Artists' Coalition at Monday's protest rally, and Duncan talks to Gregory Knight, Deputy Commissioner/ Visual Arts of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs after the vote was in. This conflict has been actively discussed on our blog, see what the hoopla is about!

Richard spent a lot of time chuckling to himself about the music cues in this weeks show.

German artist Jana Gunstheimer combines her academic training in ethnology with a refined figurative drawing practice to observe and comment on aspects of her own culture. Gunstheimer responds to the transformations she sees taking place in contemporary German society including postindustrial desolation, drastic unemployment, and rising levels of aggression among people of her generation by way of a semi-fictional organization she calls Nova Porta. Complete with a logo, Web site, and an actual membership, the organization offers  People without Social Function a semblance of structure through group cohesion and rigid hierarchy.

Adopting impenetrable rituals, tireless evaluation procedures, and managed leisure, the organization's stated goal is risk management and its activities are driven, if not wholly fabricated, by the artist. Under the conceptual framework of Nova Porta, Gunstheimer effectively parodies hierarchical structures, bureaucracy, and, most importantly, society's need to define one�s worth in terms of work.

Focus: Jana Gunstheimer is the artist's first solo museum exhibition in the United States. In one all-encompassing installation, the exhibition features exquisitely rendered, photo-based grisaille watercolors on wood panel, a large-scale paper cutout, a site-specific wall drawing, and a newspaper intervention work that all reference the initiatives of Nova Porta, adapted to the specific context of Chicago.

This week Michelle Grabner and Duncan interview Gaylen Gerber.

"Gaylen Gerber's work often incorporates the artwork of other artists in its realization. Gerber asks other artists to cooperate with him and let their work be installed against the ground he provides. In doing so he focuses our attention on a central aspect of perception, which is that to perceive something at all you must first be able to perceive it as distinct from its context or background. By positioning his work as the contextual ground against which we see another work of art, Gerber draws attention to the permeability of the distinctions between object and context and fundamentally questions the stability of perception itself. Gaylen Gerber has exhibited widely including recent exhibitions and cooperative projects at the Musee d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg, Luxembourg; FRAC-Bourgogne and Musee des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, France; Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland; and The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

Photo Caption 

Exhibition view of Gaylen Gerber's 2006 Mudam exhibition featuring Gerber's work with Kay Rosen, Sam Salisbury and Remy Zaugg. Zaugg's text roughly translates: and if, as soon as I act, I was not being anymore. Photo: Jean-Noel Lafargue."

The closing song goes out to Duncan.

Are you tired of all the self obsessed, cynical, angry art that’s out there today? Well Alex  Jovanovich is out there to fix what ails you and point you in the right direction! Terri talks to Alex about his Loveliness Workshops.

Next, Kathryn talks to Paul Klein about the screwed up stuff going on with public art funding in Chicago. Paul is working of some interesting activist stuff and we will post a letter/manifesto on the recent events, on our blog. 

Then, Mark Staff Brandl checks in from the Central Europe Bureau!

Last, Mike Benedetto, with another Art Superstar Cinema Spotlight. The Supertsar is Monique Meloche. The movie is Volver directed by Pedro Almodovar. Might made his own bed music for this bit. Wow. 

Wow, what a whole lot of show.