Heaven Gallery
A not-for-profit arts organization
I See Cat PeopleFriday, June 29, 2018 - 7:00pm to 11:00pm  I can hardly remember a time prior to the ubiquity of cat-related memes and the oft- celebrated/oft-derided sharing of adorable pics, gifs, and vids in which these felines present an array of subjectivities we daren’t publicize about ourselves; instead, finding fuzzy avatars to display our joy, our worry, and our vulnerability. In the gathering (mis)assumption that we distract ourselves with overloads of cuteness, we in fact find ways to cope with recognized and unrecognized difficulties, dealing with trauma through meowing pratfalls, unabashed grumpiness, elegance, (c)attitude, playful destructions of language, wide-eyed obliviousness, neediness, and defiance. However, the mobilization of the feline as widely circulated and highly regarded imagery is of course nothing new, especially within the realm of artistic depiction. As far back as the Egyptian tombs, cats have been visually ever-present in representation; offering companionship to the living, escorting the dead to the afterlife. The artists compiled in I SEE CAT PEOPLE acknowledge and pay homage to this grand history of imagery. They also, and perhaps more importantly, render not just images and objects, but something personal and affecting as well. The truth is, my first cat, St. Kitten, died over two years ago and I’m not completely done mourning that loss. I SEE CAT PEOPLE brings together a group of artists whom I think understand/understood loss better than I do. They also make, and have made, completely arresting artwork about the potency of companionship; how complicated, beautiful, and tragic it can be when we’re in the thralls of it, and also what remains when we lose it. I am beyond pleased to be having this conversation at Heaven. Artists: Artist Talk - MonsterSunday, June 24, 2018 - 1:00pm to 2:30pm  Please join us for a conversation between artist Santina Amato and scholar Jeremy Biles on Monster, Amato’s first solo exhibition in the US, currently on view at Heaven Gallery. Amato and Biles will discuss ‘embarrassment’ as a creative force and motivation in transforming the awkwardness of one’s personal life and the unappeasable need to make the private public into works of art available for unrestricted consumption by the public. The conversation will be followed by a Q&A. Jeremy Biles, PhD, is the author of Ecce Monstrum: Georges Bataille and the Sacrifice of Form. He teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Coffee provided by Starbucks The Smile Behind the Mask - Artist TalkSunday, June 3, 2018 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm  Panel discussion by the artists and curators of The Smile Behind the Mask Free event Coffee provided by La Colombe Classical Music Series - Chicago SolistiFriday, June 1, 2018 - 7:30pm to 9:00pm  Classical Concert Chicago Solisti joins Heaven Gallery for the third and final concert of the season. Chamber music and chamber orchestra collide in a program that features works by English, American, and Argentine composers. The lesser known but lush and Impressionistic Fantasie for Four Violas by York Bowen sets an adventurous tone that is then juxtaposed with the muscular and dangerous Last Round, an homage to famed tango composer Astor Piazzolla. The second half of the program begins with a discussion of William Grant Still’s role (or lack thereof) in the Harlem Renaissance, his distinctive compositional style influenced by both European and African-American idioms, and the inspiration for one of his most widely performed works Mother and Child, arranged for string orchestra by the composer himself. The evening concludes with an archetypal staple of Edward Elgar’s output; his Serenade for Strings, op. 2. Picturesque and emotive, the Serenade provides it’s audience with a scenic, charming, and sincere exercise in Elgar’s English style and a talent for lyricism evident in his larger work Chicago Solisti is comprised of musicians from the metropolitan Chicago area. They've performed individually across the country as soloists, orchestral and chamber musicians and hold degrees in performance, composition and music education from the most prestigious institutions in the country. Their mission is to provide the cultural landscape of Chicago with creatively programmed and varied format concerts in addition to presenting standard repertoire with fresh perspective. Refreshments provided York Bowen Fantasia for Four Violas
Michael Schneider
Kelly Larson
Danielle Taylor
Emma Strohbusch
Osvaldo Golijov Last Round
Alexandra Switala, violin
Danielle Simandl, violin
Meghan Faw, violin
Alexandria Hill, violin
Michael Schneider, viola
Danielle Taylor, viola
Magdalena Sustere, cello
Aaron Gottl, cello
William Grant Still Mother and Child +
Elgar Serenade for Strings, op. 20
Violin I
Alexandra Switala*
Danielle Simandl
Alison Tatum
Meghan Faw
Violin II
Danielle Taylor*
Alexandria Hill
Susan Miller
Viola
Michael Schneider*
Emma Strohbusch
Kelly Larson
Cello
Magdalena Sustere*
Aaron Gottl
Double Bass
Joy Rowland*
*denotes principal
The Smile Behind the MaskFriday, May 18, 2018 - 7:00pm to 11:00pm  The Smile Behind the Mask is about the fantasy in everyday. The process of manipulating appearance is common place in how we dress, act, and construct personal avatars on social media. The painters in this show who engineer a space through real life moments, color, shapes, and people, are no different. They employ bathroom humor, sexuality, body building culture, and drunken shenanigans- all while referencing visual tropes from art history. The works range from tender to unapologetically bragging and hope to champion individuals necessity to reconstruct reality.
The Smile Behind the Mask includes eleven painters all working in Chicago:
Caleb Beck
Chris Capoyianes
Hyegyeong Choi
Katie Hammond
Ellen Hanson
Roland Miller
Amadeo Morelos
Kailyn Perry
Tk Suh
Patrick Wilkins
Bryant Worley
Curated by Kenneth Heyne of Rover and Kailyn Perry
Artist talk date: June 3rd 2018
Exhibition runs May 18 - June 24
MonsterFriday, May 18, 2018 - 7:00pm to 11:00pm  Monster is the first solo exhibition in the US of Australian-born, US based artist, Santina Amato. In this exhibition, Amato contemplates the idea of performance in the everyday both within the public and private realm, presenting ceramic vessels designed to ‘perform’ using freshly made bread dough alongside a series of cryptic painted works on paper and an epistolary to an unknown reader.
The opening night of Monster sees Amato ‘activating’ one of the ceramic vessels on exhibit, making the fresh dough in situ. The rising of the dough physically transforms the sculpture during its live performance as it spews out onto its surface. Exhibited at once and all together but activated individually, the penultimate experience of the dough’s post-performance varying stages of decay, becomes an integral part of the work: the yeast ferments, consuming the gallery with the stench of the dough’s initial stage of ‘decay’, until it eventually dries out, becoming a brittle, yet essential, extension to the ceramic form. Referring to the work as Re-Performing Sculptures, Amato’s ceramic vessels require maintenance, care, and attention after each activated public or private performance: the ceramic vessel require its cavity to be cleaned out, post their prurient performance.
Assuming the role of supporting actor to both the ceramic vessels and the epistolary, the series of cryptic painted works on paper result in abstract reflections on the psychosexual nature of intimacy. They offer a pause among the exhibited works by acting as documents to a moment in an ongoing stage of metamorphosis.
An accompanying text, a rambling epistolary to an unknown reader where discussions on life, death, intimacy, desire, anxiety, the need for making art, and the thoughts leading up to the exhibition by the artist, provide a raw insight into questions of public performance, private expression, and the erotic tension that exists between these two modes of being. The writings reflect on public performance and private authenticity, ending in a space in which one finds a freedom from the loop.
Monster creates an environment that submerges the spectator into a constructed reality, a subjective experience where performing the grotesque aspects of female desire, manifests into a multidisciplinary stage for the Monster.
The works in this exhibition were created at ACRE Residency (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions), Wisconsin (2017) & Process Park Residency (Artslant & Chashama), Upstate New York (2018).
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Bio
Santina Amato is an interdisciplinary artist whose work addresses the basic notion of the intimate body, especially the female body. She was born in Australia to Italian immigrants, and has lived and worked in USA since 2010. She received an MFA (Photography) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017) and a BFA (Painting) from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne Australia (2009). Exhibitions and screenings include Governors Island Art Fair, NY, Leroy Neiman Centre, Chicago, IL, Detroit International Videonale, Kuntshalle Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art, MI CURRENTS, Santa Fe International New Media Art Festival, NM, ExFest Film & Video Festival, Chicago,; Brooklyn Public TV, New York,; and The International Women’s Day Video Screening in Melbourne, Australia. In 2018, she will present a solo exhibition at Heaven Gallery, IL, supported by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a co-curated group exhibition with Sarah Skaggs at HERE Arts Center in NYC and fulfil the role of Artist-in-Residence at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA supported by the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events (DCASE) Individual Artists Program (IAP) Grant and Crosstown Arts Center, Memphis, TN. Amato is Founder and Director of Moving_Image_00:00, a biannual festival in Chicago of moving image works created by Chicago-based artists.
Amato’s work is part of a collective photographic portfolio at The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection and The Art Institute of Chicago and video collection at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia.
Image Courtesy of the Artist.
Re-Performing Sculpture I, 2017, Ceramic and Bread Dough. Governors Island Art Fair, NYC.
Exhibition runs May 18 - June 24
Gallery hours Friday & Saturday 1-6, Sunday 1-5 Classical Music Series - CHAI Collaborative EnsembleFriday, May 4, 2018 - 7:30pm  The Gleam: Works by Whitacre, Trumbore, Bonis & Ripper CHAI Collaborative Ensemble (CCE) concludes its 2017-18 Season with a lively program of works by Eric Whitacre, Mélanie Bonis, and João Guilherme Ripper, and a World Premiere of The Gleam by Dale Trumbore, a song cycle for soprano and chamber ensemble setting the namesake poem by Robin Myers. This recent commission speaks to CCE's dedication to performing works by living composers and poets. The performance will take place on Friday, May 4th at 7:30pm at Heaven Gallery in Wicker Park, Chicago (1550 N. Milwaukee Ave., Suite #2). Tickets are $20/General and $10/Students & Industry. CCE is thrilled to present this program in partnership with Heaven Gallery, as part of their monthly music series. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-gleam-works-by-whitacre-trumbore-bonis-... The Program: The Artists: CCE is a collective of musicians dedicated to honoring history, advocating for new work, and engaging with communities through adventurous programming of mixed vocal and instrumental chamber music. Our repertoire runs the gamut, ranging from beloved classics to newly commissioned works, with many hidden gems along the way. We see music as a means of bringing people together, and we strive to provide joyful and convivial concert experiences for all our audience members, whether they are seasoned concertgoers or are attending a classical music concert for the very first time. All are welcome at our performances, and we want to share our music with as many people as possible. Contact: Laura Perkett & Talar Khosdeghian chaicollaborative@gmail.com Latinx Nation /18th Annual BenefitSaturday, May 5, 2018 - 7:00pm  Latinx Nation May 5 On Cinco de Mayo, Heaven Gallery commemorates Chicago’s Latin heritage and celebrates the victories Latinx Nation combines the celebration of non-binary, gender fluid people from all Latin cultures. Join us in moving towards inclusion in language as our generation creates a cohesive postcolonial identity for the descendants of the Americas. Our community recognizes the contributions that Latinx has made to this Nation and we honor them and give thanks. Dance in the spirit to music by Future Rootz: Fanita Banana /SloMo /Sound Culture. Aztec ceremony will be performed Silent auction featuring works by: Scott Mossman/ Kailyn Perry/ Robert Burnier /Celeste Rapone/ Chris Zain/ Jeffrey Grauel/ Alejandro Jimenez-Flores/ Santina Amato/ Olivia Valentine/ Alex Bradley Cohen/ Cathy Hsiao/ Melissa Leandro/ Noel Morical/ Ryan Pfeiffer & Rebecca Walz/ Azadeh Gholizadeh/ Anna Showers-Cruser/ Sarah Mosk/ Brandon Alvendia/ Danny Floyd/ Liz McCarthy/ Sherwin Ovid/ Iris Bernblum/ Gwendolyn Zabicki/ Andreas Fischer/ Caroline Liu/ Daniel Hojnacki/ Claire Ashley/ Frances Lightbound/ Soo Shin/ Mel Cook/ Kate Hampel/ Annie Kielman/ Jeffrey Michael Austin/ Yvette Mayorga/ Nina Rizzo/ Matthew Hilshorst/ Aron Gent/ Sarah & Joseph Belknap/ Hyegyeong Choi/ Caleb Beck/ Edra Soto/ Robin Dluzen/ Leo Kaplan/ Ivan Lozano/ Brendan Luchik/ Tanner Bowman
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