Katherine Desjardins:  Solo Project: A Provisional Proposition

A site-specific drawing/performance at the intersection of art, meat, and commerce.

Performance/Reception with the artist: Saturday, April 7, 5-7pm.

Click here for PR.

http://kasiakaygallery.squarespace.com/katherine-desjardins/

Rim Lee: Retrospective

Opening reception: March 2, 6-8PM.

Artist will be present.

For a preview of the exhibition, please visit Rim Lee's page on our website, and PR here.

October 28 - November 26, 2011

Opening reception for the artist: Friday, October 28th, 6-8PM / Artist’s gallery talk: Sat., Oct. 29^th, 12-1PM

(CHICAGO) September 30, 2011- kasia kay art projects gallery is pleased to present Enough Space in the Head to Breathe, Diane Christiansen’s second solo exhibition with the gallery that will feature several small scale oil on plaster paintings and one animation.

Diane Christiansen’s current work is about spaciousness and the experience of quieting the mind and moving things aside in order to create it.  The artworks themselves are paintings on plaster, which attest to the activity of addition (painting and drawing) and subtraction (erasure through sanding) through which they are created.  The slow, meditative, practice involved in their creation serves as an antidote to our current environment that is so full of speed, aggression and the barrage of information.

The selected for the exhibition works will include several paintings which focus on the abstraction of words through the blending of color. Collectively, her works present the physicality of the act of painting and sanding as evident attributes to the complexity of the finished product.  More so, this exhibition showcases the effects of addition and cancellation as recurring themes in Christiansen’s artistic process.

Christiansen’s work in the upcoming exhibit correlates with October Chicago Artist Month, the city’s annual campaign to support local artists that exemplify creative growth.

Diane Christiansen has been creating and exhibiting artwork for 20 years. She received her Master of Fine Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Master of Social Work from Loyola University, Chicago, and Bachelor of Art from Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA.  In addition to being a visual artist, Christiansen is a Psychotherapist, and plays in the band Dolly Varden. Since the receipt of both master degrees in 1990, Diane has shown at variety of venues in Chicago including Carrie Secrist, Gescheidle, and the Cultural Center.  In New York she has exhibited at Adam Baumgold and Pierogi. She has also exhibited in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Portland, Oregon. Diane is the recipient of two Illinois Arts Council grants, a CAAP grant and an SAIC Merit Scholarship. Her work is included in collections at the Ft. Wayne Art Museum, the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, and in the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum’s flat files. Diane is represented in Chicago by kasia kay art projects gallery.

For more information and images please contact the gallery info@kasiakaygallery.com or 312.944-0408.

Kasia Kay

Director, kasia kay art projects gallery

Under One Roof

July 28 – September 3, 2011

Gallery summer hours by appointment only.

Jazz for the eye

Curated by Stefania Carrozzini

June 24 – July 12, 2011

Opening reception: Friday June 24, 6-8pm

This year, Giovanni Marinelli’s selected work is included in Biennale di Venezia, and on view at Orto dell'Abbondanza Palazzo di Urbino, June 28 to Novembre 27, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi.

From a technical point of view taking photographs inside jazz clubs is a real challenge. First of all, in order not to disturb the musical performance of the artists it is not possible to use the flash, rather one has to learn to make use of the lights present on the stage.

One begins to understand then, how Giovanni Marinelli, an Italian photographer who lives and works in Pesaro, has brilliantly overcome this challenge. With his rigorously black and white shots, he has become the narrator and interpreter of a fascinating and evocative world.

The faces, the hands, the gestures, the instruments: all these details seduce the eye of the photographer who knows how to capture the instant of an emotion, to pick up on the thrill of the music under the skin, to give light to sound.

The works which make up this solo exhibition have been selected from among the countless pictures which Giovanni Marinelli has dedicated to Jazz and its protagonists.

His forty-year-long passion for photography has led him to explore different themes which all have in common the in-depth search for a visual dimension in its synthetic values         

The exhibition “Jazz for the eye“ is itinerant. It was held in Milan at the Renzo Cortina Gallery from the 12th to the 30th of April. “Jazz for the eye“ has been organized and produced by I AM, International Art Media – Milano – New York - Chicago, by Stefania Carrozzini. The exhibition is composed of 11 photographs in single copy. 

 Please contact the gallery for more images and an information about the artist: info@kasiakaygallery.com

The gallery enjoyed a successful year at Art Chicago. We were happy to see so many friends stop by! Kevin Berlin’s preview night performance was wildly entertaining!

April 15 – May 21, 2011

Opening reception for the artist: Friday, April 15th, 6-8PM.

(CHICAGO) January 24, 2011- kasia kay art projects gallery is pleased to present “The Secret Life of Ballerinas”: new works backstage at the ballet. Kevin Berlin’s first solo exhibition with the gallery will feature several large scale oil on canvas and an installation of 50 small works on paper.

"Life backstage at the ballet is like Shakespeare Theatre; you laugh, you cry, you go through the full range of human emotions. You are stabbed in the back, betrayed, you fall in love." - Kevin Berlin.

"I confess, I fell in love not with one of the dancers; but with them all.” -  Kevin Berlin.

Kevin Berlin is internationally recognized for his work as a painter, sculptor, and performance artist. For over 10 years, artist Kevin Berlin has been painting the secret life of ballerinas. In his large scale black and white with hints of color paintings, the artist captures the youth and glamour, and reveals the hidden motivations of the dancers. Focusing on moments backstage and behind the scenes, Berlin has worked with some of the most famous dancers and theaters in the world including Kirov Ballet, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Kirov's 230 year old Mariinsky Theatre was home to such artists as Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. In 2003 Kevin Berlin was invited to work backstage with the legendary theatre. For nearly a year, the artist attended rehearsals and performances where he worked from life painting and drawing over 40 dancers.

Kevin Berlin, also a performance artist and sculptor. He has created monumental portraits in bronze and cast glass posed for by Anastasia Volochkova, Maestro Luciano Pavarotti, and Maestro Valery Gergiev.

Berlin's works are found in the collections of Kim Basinger, Luciano Pavarotti, David Letterman, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Quincy Jones, and General Motors Corp.  The artist, a Yale Alumnus, has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Shanghai Daily, The Miami Herald, USA Today, MTV, Tokyo Television, BBC Radio and over 40 television stations across the United States. He was honored by President Reagan at The White House as a Young Arts Presidential Scholar in 1983. 

Kevin Berlin's recent major solo exhibitions include shows in Shanghai, China, Kiev, Ukraine, and in New York City, USA.

Berlin will be one of the featured artists by the gallery at Art Chicago 2011 Booth number 12-614. For more information please contact the gallery info@kasiakaygallery.com or 312.944-0408.