Heaven Gallery

Wild Dream: Re-imagining the Ballet Russes
Renovar Spring 2014

"We are witnesses of the greatest moment of summing up in history, in the name of a new and unknown culture, which will be created by us, and which will also sweep us away"
-Serge Diaghilev

The Ballet Russes was the impresario Serge Diaghilev's wildest dream. He created an art enterprise that manufactured excitement and celebrated modernism. His theatrical spectacles combined traditional narrative with emerging art, enabling him to promote his taste and making him reputable to his collaborators. He was neither a composer or artist, yet he managed to assert an unprecedented influence on art in the early 20th century.

Serge Diaghilev started his career as an art exhibitor, curating a show of 4000 works in St. Petersburg. He later was part of a collective that created the art journal Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) and held art lectures and discussions. Later he applied his curatorial eye to the ballet, in association with the migration of artists and nobility that fled Russia from the Bolshevik revolution, Diaghilev exported Russian culture and artists to Paris. In 1909 his Ballet Russes was a instant sensation, beginning his legendary collaborations with artists, composers, choreographers and fashion designers. Among his collaborators were Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Leon Bakst, Sonia Delaunay, Jean Cocteau, Coco Chanel, Vaslav Nijinsky and Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. The Ballet Russes unification of all mediums made it much more than the ballet, with Picasso's cubism applied to set design and Chanel's simplicity to costume, it gained international fame. With glory also came controversy. Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring", inspired by Pagan rituals to spring, met with outrage for it's primitive dance and jolting score that ignited the infamous riot in 1912.

Over a hundred years later the cultural phenomenon of the Ballet Russes continues to intrigue with exhibitions popping up all over the world. Recent exhibitions included, When Art danced with Music at the National Museum in Washington D.C 2013, Elegance in Exile:Between Fashion and Costume, the Diaghilev Era at the Palazzo Moceniza Museum in Venice 2011, Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes 1909-1929 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London 2010, and Ballet Russes Art of Costume at The National Gallery in Australia 2010, all showcasing the elaborate costumes and visuals from the rich history of The Ballet Russes.

Wild Dream, Renovar's Spring 2014 collection gives in to the daydream of becoming a modern ballerina, inspired by the explosive and kinetic costumes of The Ballet Russes. While maintaining a contemporary context, Renovar pairs sumptuous blasts of color with whimsical styles to recreate spectacle. The costumes are both thrilling and shocking with bold geometry and dripping pearl
accessories.

$15 sugguested donation

Night Without Sleep

work by Jessica Bardsley, Gwynne Johnson, and Ashley Thomas

Oct 18th- 27th

“… a shadow is a simultaneous memory…”

“From the outset, perception belongs to recollection.”

Night Without Sleep presents a world drawn in shadows, revealing the contours of our guiding drives, passionate attachments, and forgotten remains. Gwynne Johnson’s photographs and objects reveal the unconscious of domestic life through the rhythms of celestial and corporal bodies. Ashley Thomas’s noir-palette drawings and collages depict the objects of her fixation larger than life or swimming in darkness, while Jessica Bardsley’s constellation of archival film and photographs activates historical residue to trace the ocean’s haunted past. The artists of Night Without Sleep remake common objects and archival materials according to their memories, perceptions, and desires, illuminating the periphery of the visible, or quietly revealing what goes unseen by day.

PROTEST HEAVEN jazz and improvised music series

FANDIÑO/KIMMEL/STEPHENSON/RIORDAN

Daniel Fandiño - guitar
Jeff Kimmel - bass clarinet
Graham Stephenson - trumpet
Marc Riordan - drums, piano

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GHOST TREES (Charlotte, NC)

Brent Bagwell - tenor saxophone
Seth Nanaa - drums

http://www.ghost-trees.com/

9pm, donation suggested

Image by Laura Mackin

Heaven Presents "Being a Woman in an all Women Show"
18 women art exhibition

work by:
Marissa lee Benedict
Soo Shin
Sarah Weber
Bea Fremderman
Jessica Taylor Caponigro
Laura Mackin
Chelsea Culp
Ann Chen
Betsy O'Brien
Meg Duguid
Samantha Bittman
Robin Kang
Emily Green
Caroline Carlsmith
Kristina Paabus
Chloe Seibert
Selina Trepp
Ilene Godofsky

I have been accused of secretly wanting to be a man. This comment was made recently during a studio visit with a fellow artist, who saw how uncomfortable and wary I became as she steered our discussion towards gender politics.

I do not harbor the desire to undergo a sex change, but I also do not want to be seen solely as a female artist. It is from this position of defensive resistance in which I find myself "being a woman in an all women show."

There are many ways to experience discrimination in the art world; gender inequality is just one of them. To be defined by one's gender as a female artist is to be limited. A colleague recently brought to my attention the fact that the most reputable galleries here in Chicago all represent far more male artists than female. This inequality is made even worse when one realizes that our city's art schools are enrolling more women than men. An admissions counselor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago informed me that women compose roughly 70% of its student body. A woman can be trained (and pay for that training) as an artist, but it is not the same as her becoming one. "Being a woman in an all women show" is an effort to make up for this blatant discrepancy.

Not all artists consciously implicate their gender while making their work, and yet gender remains a determinant factor in how artworks are curated and disseminated. It seems unfortunate that an all-female exhibition is unusual enough to serve as a curatorial platform.

With this exhibition, Heaven gallery is pleased to exhibit the work of eighteen artists, who all happen to be women. These are good artists, not good-for-being-female artists. With this exhibition, let us hope that the exceptional work of each artist is seen as expected, and not a surprise.
Sarah Weber

PROTEST HEAVEN jazz and improvised music series

BERTUCCI/LAVENDER (NYC)

Lea Bertucci - amplified bass clarinet
C. Lavender - guitar, electronics

http://clavender.net/
www.brokendiorama.com

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CPA

Christopher Preissing - flute
Peter Maunu - guitar
Albert Wildeman - bass

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SUMMERFIELD/HATWICH/DAISY/ROSALY

Toby Summerfield - guitar
Anton Hatwich - bass
Tim Daisy - drums
Frank Rosaly - drums

9pm, donation suggested

PRESENT:

Daniel Crane (Nesey Gallons) is a semi-famous performance artist traveling and touring around the country, entertaining small enthralled audiences in the living rooms of houses with his awkward and sometimes alienating acts. On Halloween weekend, he finds himself with a few days off in Asheville, NC, staying with his kid sister, Dorothy (Faith Callaway) who works as a waitress at an old mom and pop Diner.

When a couple leaves a book at the Diner, Dorothy and Daniel decide to revisit the small town where they grew up. Along with Dorothy's roommate Cassie (Mariana Templin), they set out on a trip to Mount Airy, NC, discovering the things they once remembered are vanishing, and realizing things they've kept inside themselves since childhood never go away.

Director BIO:

Born and raised in North Carolina, Joe Chang spent his childhood playing outside, pretending, and moving around a lot. He attended and dropped out of the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking, and moved back to Asheville, NC along with filmmaking friends to form The Papercookie Picture Company.
His first feature, Neutral, was a surreal and existential drama lauded by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) as "beautifully written and bursting with sweet sympathy for its whimsical characters." He produced the 2010 SXSW award winning feature, Passenger Pigeons, a quiet Appalachian coal mining drama that went on to play festivals worldwide. He also plays guitar and sings in the indie rock bands Kovacs & the Polar Bear and Gold Light. Present is his second directorial feature.

Hereafter Fest VII (2013)
Friday and Saturday August 30 and 31 – 9pm-12am
suggested donation $10

Saturday August 31, 2013 – 9pm-12am
David Boykin Expanse featuring Josh Abrams on bass, James Baker on piano, Marcus Evans on drums, Alex Wing on guitar, David Boykin on saxophone and vocals (11pm)

Microcosmic Sound Orchestra featuring Jayve Montgomery on reeds, Alex Wing on guitar and bass, Dan Godston on trumpet, Elliel Sherman Storey on saxophones, David Boykin on drums and reeds. (10pm)

DJ Ayana Contreras spinning soul 45s and rare groove (9pm)

Hereafter Fest VII (2013)
Friday and Saturday August 30 and 31 – 9pm-12am
suggested donation $10

Friday August 30, 2013 - 9pm-12am
Pianist Satoko Fuji and KAZE with special guest Renee Baker, Dan Godston, and David Boykin (11pm)

Microcosmic Sound Orchestra featuring Jayve Montgomery on reeds, Alex Wing on guitar and bass, Dan Godston on trumpet, Elliel Sherman Storey on saxophones, David Boykin on drums and reeds. (10pm)

DJ Ayana Contreras spinning soul 45s and rare groove (9pm)

PROTEST HEAVEN jazz and improvised music series

WREST

Jack Wright - saxophone
Evan Lipson - bass
Ben Bennett - percussion

with special guests:

Carol Genetti - vocals
Jeff Kimmel - bass clarinet

http://www.springgardenmusic.com/Wrest.htm

8pm, donation suggested

Fred Lonberg-Holm/Ken Vandermark Duo

Time: 10:00pm. Admission: 15. Age restrictions: All Ages. Address: 1550 N Milwaukee Ave.. ESS presents an evening of performances by Ken Vandermark & Fred Lonberg-Holm and Katherine Young, at Heaven Gallery on Saturday, September 21st. All proceeds will support the Malachi Ritscher Legacy Commissions, a new initiative of the Creative Audio Archive. Artists who feature in the recordings of the Ritscher Collection will be paired with musicians newer to the scene to advise them as they use the materials in the collection to inspire and inform the creation of new work.