Nick Costas, Proximity correspondent, sends us this news:
“Acclaimed British artist Michael Landy has transformed the South London Gallery into a 600m³ container for the disposal of works of art. Artists and collectors are invited to bring works to the SLG to create ’a monument to creative failure’.
Works can be brought to the SLG to be [...]

We are on a field trip to The Netherlands to present Proximity magazine and art works featured in its pages!
Our friends at Trendbeheer are hosting our  exhibition at the Rotterdam art space Singer Sweat Shop and it will take place Friday, March 12. Our agenda is pretty full. We are meeting up with old and [...]

Our interweb universe is back in orbit. That means the Version 10 Online Submissions Form is in operation and we are back in motion. March 3 is the final deadline for Submissions! Due to the minor disaster we forgot to post some other stuff. For one we like you to please take a peek and [...]

Some of issue #6  is now online. You really can’t imagine how much more there is until you pick up a physical copy.
Our hope is that we can tease you enough to find a physical copy or order a copy directly from us. Either way, enjoy the new issue.

This February has been really busy for us here at Public Media Institute and Proximity magazineland. This weekend marks an end to our recent programming madness . We hope the following events will provide motivation for you to battle this Chicago winter and give you a chance to check out some exciting new shit.
On Thursday [...]

Some Dispatches.
First Fridays at the MCA: Art, Absinthe, and Loneliness, Just in Time for Valentine’s Day by Theresa Rothschadl and Review of American Radical by Matt Muchowski. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago we were given the opportunity to work with the Chicago Loop Alliance, a chamber of commerce-like organization that serves the downtown loop area merchants. They started their Pop-Up Art Loop gallery project and gave us the old Ritz Camera store to engage with a project.
We are opening a new joint project [...]

Lumpen magazine printed a shadow CAA program in issue 114.  There is a lot to check out, so good luck.
” The College Arts Association (CAA) is the country’s most important gathering of professionals in the visual arts. It takes place in Chicago this year from February 10 to February 13, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency [...]

Hey all. Most of you know that issue #6 is already out. It was released a couple of weeks ago and we are working to get some of the new content online for you to check out.
Stay tuned in the next week when we refresh and add the new issue. In the meantime, you should [...]

VERSION FESTIVAL 10:
Infrastructures and Territories
April 22, May 2, 2010
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: March 1, 2010.
Version is an annual springtime convergence that brings together hundreds of artists, musicians, and educators from around the world to present some of the most challenging ideas and progressive art initiatives of our day.
This is the Ninth edition.
Submit your proposal online:
http://www.lumpen.com/V10/theme.html
Please spread [...]

We are excited about the release of another issue of our sister publication, Lumpen magazine. Issue 114 should be out this Friday, February 5, during the Save the Whale fundraiser at the Co-Prosperity Sphere.  Plural Design’s tender care in creative direction makes printing on paper worth it.

There are only a few weeks left before our deadline. Please contribute to the next issue. Read about the theme here.

We are going to miss all of our new friends from the Tupajumi Foundation. Their exhibition at the Co-Prosperity Sphere was a great example of how  awesome a group show can be.
You can check out documentation of the C-PS show here and here. We look forward to working with them in the future. And you [...]

Proximity magazine contributor Anna Mayer raised consciousness at the LA Anarchist Book Fair this past Sunday.

The great folks of the Tupajumi Foundation are showing their work at Co-Prosperity Sphere this weekend only! See over three dozen works by as many artists from around the world. January 22, 7pm is the opening reception. A performance program with Waterbabies, Joe Kisser and Publicist (from Trans Am) follows at 9pm to 1am. [...]

Long ago in a world without internet, a few critical publications helped inspire and activate insurrection and counter cultural thinking here in the U.S. These publications provided real cultural coverage and analysis of how our lives were being consumed, co-opted and recombined by The Corporations.  The Baffler was one of them. Their critique was a [...]

One of the most interesting public art projects we have ever seen is taking place on a lake in Minnesota. Check out  how Art Shanty Projects unfolds. It opens tomorrow!

Good magazine and coudal tipped us off to this.

Please help us create our next and most ambitious installment of the magazine.
Proximity isue 007 is themed “A Catalog of Strategies.” The issue will feature a lengthy directory of participatory, collectivist and interventionist projects and initiatives. We are seeking short entries, essays, and texts about alternative, counter, or oppositional practices and projects, created by individuals, [...]

Wow! Jeffrey Deitch! Read about the controversy on Bad At Sports.

Ok here is our last celebration of what we loved last year. Rachel Hewitt wraps it up.

Abigail Satinsky shares her favorite events at the Orientation Center on Studio Chicago
Time Out says small is beautiful
Vocalo shares the high and low points of architecture in Chicago from 2000-2009
Chicagoist’s Top 9 Of ‘09
Steve Ruiz likes five from last year
New City’s Jason Fouberg high fives it, too.

Read our second installment of our top picks for 2009.  Bert says:
I am writing in hopes that our city starts to appreciate a balance rather than a conflict between sumptuously decadently beautiful and/or repulsive commodity-fetish art (which may never sell) and research-focused project-based community art (which may not really help that many people), both of [...]

Here is the first installment of our year-end round up of art projects, exhibitions and actions in Chicago which made a difference to us here at Proximity and the Public Media Institute. Some top ten art exhibitions and other lists will be forthcoming.
Please let us know what your favorites were and email ed (at) proximitymagazine.com [...]

Photographer Carlo Gianferro’s Gypsy Interiors series won a World Press Photo 2009 prize. Enterprising reality tv producers should get on this.
Gypsy Interiors”is a series of portraits capturing the private world of these outwardly loud, vivacious people. Here he finds a rich and profound intimacy, hidden but exhibited among antique furniture, tapestries, paintings, religious images, china, [...]

Issue #006 is themed (An)Other Art Worlds and weighs in at 184 pages.
We invited our friends and friends of friends to contribute to our annual geographically and territorially-based examinations of some other art worlds.  This not so random survey of under-represented art scenes, movers and shakers, artist run initiatives, groups, spaces and theoretical constructs helps [...]

Trendbeheer, our Dutch partners in art crime, are in Chicago setting up their this weekend-only show at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Please come by this Friday December 18 for the opening and party or visit Saturday, December 19 for the Rotterdam VHS Film Festival program. Check out some photos of the  work in progress. The Art [...]

Tonite we had the great fortune of briefly visiting the Don Celender exhibit by Public Collectors, an archive and research project created by Marc Fischer. Marc is a trailblazing researcher, formidable conceptual artist, and socially engaged art worker and I love the fact that he puts so many amazing hard to find materials on the [...]

This year the Whitney Biennial curators have picked fifty-five artists for the 2010 snapshot of contemporary art in America. Chicago artists Julia Fish, Theaster Gates, Jim Lutes, Curtis Mann and Scott Short have been included in the 2010 show. Congratulations you guys!
Curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari announce the artist list for 2010 in the [...]

Painter Richard Wright, whose painting work includes striking and large-scale frescos, has won this year’s Turner Prize.The Glasgow-based artist, who is inspired by architecture and space, beat Roger Hiorns, Enrico David and Lucy Skaer to take the prize.
Wright works predominantly with paint and gold leaf directly on walls to create intricate and unique graphic designs. [...]

Nancy Klehm is featured in Time Magazine discussing Humanure.

“At one point, Klehm invited her “nutrient loopers” to a potluck and was surprised to see who had agreed to participate. “It was the white collar people, not the ragtag anarchists. Mostly, they were delighted that they got this wacky proposal,” she says. “They didn’t know how [...]

Art Forum scenester report
An Art Burn report
Sylvester Stallone’s Artwork Sells for as Much as $50K at Miami’s Art Basel
Kavi Gupta makes some much needed cash at NADA
Performance art is happening again.
Art Miami Sucked while Pulse Miami did fine.

Temporary Services‘ Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin and Marc Fischer are involved with a great new project called Art Work: A National Conversation About Art, Labor, and Economics at the Cleveland art space , SPACES.  ” Art Work is a newspaper and website that uses SPACES as its distribution hub. It consists of writings from artists, [...]

We were delighted to receive in the mail a KC-135 Ground Tracking Guide and discovered a project that might be of interest to some of our readers. You can view more about the event here. You may participate in the event this Wednesday at Midnight. Join the Intermod forum to see what is going on. [...]

Reality art star tv show, School of Saatchi, is playing on BBC, without Saatchi.
Now might be a good time to check out a residency in Rotterdam.
AREA Chicago is having a Wants and Needs Fundraiser Dec 11.
Phil Collins is the Guardian’s Artist of the Week.
Chicago Art Review interviews Brennan McGaffey, a cool dude.
Will someone explain to [...]

A quick look at all the wonderment that occurred  at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. November 20, 2009

We are almost finished installing the Super Bad Ass Show. Here are some photos that I took from the past few days. Stop by this weekend, buy some art from Hui-Min’s Seeking Art Bargain Basement, enjoy hot new musical sounds, drink fancy Hornswoggler cocktails and potions, and dig the fantastic work by some of our [...]

Our annual Select Media Festival opens at Heaven Gallery this Thursday Nov 19, 2009.
Program one features work by Tim and Eric, Douggpound and some of their friends. Program 2 features videos by Peter Glantz and Caton Volk.
The works are exceptional.

Transborder Immigrant Tool helps Mexicans cross over safely

Online Maps: Everyman Offers New Directions

The FBI tracked Studs Terkel.

Hans Ulrich Obrist has a conversation with Raoul Vaneigem.

Chicago’s Camera Network Is Everywhere

Old Gold presented Future Facing last Nov 13. It contained works by Aline Cautis, Josh Mannis and Andy Roche. Video documentation below:

Bad At Sports Episode 220: Liam Gillick
Hui-Min Tsen is opening up some interesting questions and relating quite nicely with our neighbors in Bridgeport.
Jesus! Where the hell have we been? Sharkforum is now Blogtastic!
Ack..It’s harder to stay with this guy.
Our Online Editrix posted some pics from here recent show.
And really, please… bittorrent this film.

It was  difficult to decide whether this film was a parody spoof project. Thanks Trendbeheer!

We made some of the Yes Men sit down and conduct an impromtu interview while they were at our space, The Co-Prosperity Sphere. It’s probably worth checking out. Visit Lumpen TLVSN for a gander.

LUMPEN TLVSN (interview) – The Yes Men at Co-Prosperity Sphere from lumpen on Vimeo.

The Artists Run Chicago Digest is out. Researchers, historians and art educators should not sleep on the beautifully JNL designed, limited edition journal. Co-produced by Green Lantern Press and threewalls it contains:
Interviews, essays and responses along with floorplans, exhibition histories and other visuals archive and present a 10-year time period in Chicago’s artist-run culture while [...]

Call-for-Entry : The Seeking Art Bargain Basement
Artists need CASH?? Do you have surplus ART??  Clear out your studios and make way for new work all while earning some extra money to continue your practice — the Seeking Art Bargain Basement is back. Check out the details here.

Bad At Sports interviews Temporary Services.
Our patron, Reuben Kincaid, brings the Radar Eyes print show to NY.
Art Review magazine’s Power 100 meet the The Top 20 Most Powerless People in the Art World
Saturday November 7 is Media Democracy Day.
A sweet Satellite Alphabet set

threewalls and TheGreen Lantern Press release The Artist’s Run Chicago Digest at HPAC [...]

The Baffler is coming back! Old news but good news to us!
Minneapolis doctor gives artists a health care option.
Damien James writes about the October 29 Yes Men event at Co-Prosperity Sphere on Bad at Sports. Thanks DJ.
Paddy Johnson’s  Art Fair As Economic Indicator: Are Things Looking Up worth the speculation.
The pavilion that should not have [...]

Danish collective Superflex has created a series of films about the financial meltdown in which the artists treat the crisis as a form of psychosis to be treated by a hypnotist. Featured at Frieze Art fair and on BBC channel 4.
The Financial Crisis (Session I-V) is a new film work in which SUPERFLEX address the [...]

The Yes Men will be in Chicago for the premier of their new film The Yes Men Fix the World. Lumpen Magazine will be hosting an event for them at the Co-Prosperity Sphere, Thursday,  October 29, 2009 at 7:30pm.
There will be a presentation of their recent work and a workshop for an action will be [...]

Shepard Fairey lied about his Obama source material.
McDonald’s restaurant  to open in the Louvre.
Mud stencils activism in Wisconsin and some from Illinois.
The Yes Men Make Chamber of Commerce Look Like (Bigger) Dinosaurs.

Our friend, Scott Thomas, was the Design Director of the Obama presidential campaign. He has collaborated with artists and designers to create Designing Obama, a chronicle of the art and design from the historic campaign. Support the project by pre-ordering a book using the innovative Kickstarter website that helps individuals and groups fund their ideas [...]

Good Magazine’s Good 100 features Nance Klehm’s Chicago Humble Pile project. Visit spontaneousvegetation.net.

Proximity presents an exhibition by Jenni Rope and a few visiting artists from Finland this weekend @ C-PS.
We also present an installation by Ryan Mandell @ Eastern Expansion this Friday.
There is a Fest/Fair bonanza to check out this week.
Frieze Art fair power brokers expected to kick ass.
Impakt, one of our favorite media festivals starts this [...]

We are going to this:

39 Verbs, Produced by Industry of the Ordinary

Packer Schopf Gallery
942 W. Lake Street
773.301.7162
www.industryoftheordinary.com
One-night exhibition: October 11, 5-8pm
Examine. Disperse. Impregnate. Cook. These are a few of the “39 Verbs” featured in the latest happening produced by Industry of the Ordinary, a collaborative initiative of Chicago artists Adam Brooks and Mathew Wilson, that [...]

Thanks Norway and the rest of Europe in forgiving us for the Bush Presidency.
“In one sense, the award was a rebuke to the foreign policies of Mr. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush..” – NYT

While all the real estate agents, Daley cronies and various other business/politician types are all mourning the loss of the Olympic bid Roger Ebert has written the most sensible and poignant article I’ve read in months. I cannot thank him enough for writing this.
Anyone on that Olympic committee could see, as most of us do, [...]

Go see The Heartland show this thursday at the Smart Museum
The awesome guys, Rob Davis and Michael Langlois are featured on Bad At Sports.
Yes Men and friends released a parody of the New York Post for last weeks Climate week.
We wish we were at to the New York Art Book Fair.
Pictures of the recent Berry [...]

Patrick Holbrook is the mastermind behind the tiny, but awesome Humboldt Park art space, Eel Space. Links to some wonderful videos, maps, photographs and graphs..

Nate, our captain of tranquility, suggests we all listen to philosopher Boris Groys on the aesthetic responsibility via Frieze podcast
Writer, curator and philosopher Boris Groys gave a keynote lecture on how design today functions as a leading medium of self–revelation and self–positioning in public space

Adam Farcus sends his top ten links as well as his chest size. Here he’s pointing out some sports logos, the SI database, and more. Don’t miss his lecture Oct 3 at the SAIC for the Accidental Publics symposium.

We thought we would share this from our Inbox:
CVAE CLUB is a Chicago based community of like-minded visual art educators, scholars, practitioners, activists, visual artists, and writers. The goal of this collective is to re-imagine the field of Art Education, generate awareness of our practices, establish commonalities, and advocate for a more critical visual art [...]

New York City Garbage. For $100.

View 160 pages of Proximity magazine in less than 20 seconds

We’re happy to announce that a week after the pre-release of Issue #5 in print form we have put together a sampling of Columns, Features, Interviews Portfolios, Studios and Reviews for you to view here at our wonderful web site. You can also download a sample pdf here.
We believe whole-heartedly in the power of printed [...]

Did you miss the massive, signed, $15,000, 1999 limited edition of SUMO? You could go see a copy in the collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art or pre-order your own trade edition from Taschen.
You’ll need this book in your collection alongside the Fall 2009 Proximity: The Photography Issue.

If you haven’t already, you really must listen to Bad At Sports Episode 210 with the Director of the Chicago MCA, Madeleine Grynsztejn.
Art World magazine to end, perhaps due to the fact their idea of an Art World doesn’t exist?
The Bruce High Quality Foundation University opens in NY-  pedagogy as art action.
It must be a [...]

We are super happy to have been chosen to exhibit at Publish and be Damned. The event is held in conjunction with the London Art Book Fair and introduces some of the planet’s best independent publications to each other. Our Man in Spain, Jorge Miñano Ramírez, will be holding down our stand for Proximity.
“Surveying a [...]

Enjoy a review of the socially responsible Bi-Rite Grocery Store by Stuart Keeler. Makes us want to open one in Chicago.
Advanced tech and art knowledge is transferred via Ten Links with Christopher Hudgens.

Attention authors, artists, cultural workers of the world! We want you to contribute texts and images for issue 006 of Proximity magazine. The theme is (An)Other Art World.
The next issue is a follow up to our first “cities” issue where we presented a series of investigations of under-represented art metropoles around the world. We loved [...]

Perhaps we were too busy hawking our magazine and drinking the free grolsch, but  we missed seeing anything that was worthy of much mention from the past weekend’s art overload. Then again we only managed to make it to a few dozen spaces.
What we liked:
EveryBody! Visual resistance in feminist health movements, 1969-2009 at Ispace
Robyn O’Neil’s [...]

The fifth issue of Proximity magazine will be pre-released this Friday, September 11, at threewalls* in the west loop during the opening salvo of the fall gallery season.
This issue is devoted to International Contemporary Photography. For a preview pdf of the table of contents and some sample spreads please come back later.
Artists and authors featured [...]

Last night talk-show host Glenn Beck debuted as the Fox News art critic.
Roberta Smith of the NYT chronicles the crisis in The Mood of the Market, as Measured in the Galleries.
As Annie Leibovitz fights her $24 Mil lawsuit an Italian shooter claims she stole his pictures.
Given the state of things its hard to believe that [...]

Damien Hirst in vicious feud with teenage artist over a box of pencils
“17-year-old graffiti artist Cartrain [...] was arrested, released on bail, and is waiting to find out if he will be formally charged with causing damage to an iconic artwork worth £10m.”

Post from Konrad Becker:
THESIS: Art is dead, truly dead, and activism hasn’t moved in a while and is starting to smell funny.
Seriously. The fun is OVER.
This is a WORKING PROPOSITION of an upcoming 10 September conference, “Critical Strategies in Art and Media: Perspectives of New Cultural Practices,” and we want your explicit opinions. Not just [...]

America’s Most Stressful Cities
Chicago for the second year in a row the country’s most stressful city. Crowding, poor air quality, a high 11% unemployment rate and free-falling home values have created a cocktail of constant worry affecting many in the Windy City.
Facebook Exodus
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Facebook, the online social grid, could [...]

The cacophony of voices declaring the death of print is a topic of great concern, but don’t believe the hype. Yes, mainstream newspapers and the corporate publishing houses are in decline, but independent and niche publishing is on the rise.
The unique analog properties of books and indie magazines deserve some attention, some celebration.  For this [...]

A few reads worth the diversion:
So Surreal: Thrift Shop Art May Be by Dalí
Several works attributed to the Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dalí are currently on display at a Salvation Army Family Thrift Store in a seedy industrial neighborhood in Houston.
30 things about art and life, as explained by Charles Saatchi
He rarely gives interviews, but a [...]

The juggernaut of arts podcasting from Chicago turns four this week. BAS player Kathryn Born profiles Team Bad At Sports at Art Talk Chicago and explains how they turn out a podcast once a week never missing a beat.
How do they do it?:
When funds dry up during economic downturns, many organizations are forced to disband. [...]

Forwarded from Facebook:

Club Nutz is a website/tv show and a comedy/music label that’s an actual club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. We will be recreating the Club Nutz experience for four days this fall in the main tent at Frieze Art Fair in London.
Club Nutz : a 4 x 4 meter miniature night club featuring a [...]

Online Editor Ian Whitmore is featured in Vague Paper, A UK-based photography magazine. Ian’s recent work centers around ignored spaces of our built environment. These spaces in between are often invisible to passers by and sometimes badly decorated by its planners. But there is beauty in the planters and melancholic landscape design behind “Nowhere.” Take [...]

One of our longest running projects, Lumpen magazine, is undergoing a major remodeling. The printed publication is being relaunched and re-designed. And starting this fall Lumpen will be available for free in NYC, LA as well as here in Chicago. Our new distribution model  will function as a way to connect further with other art [...]

Indian art pushing boundaries
[Chicago] Gallery owners feeling pinch of recession
New Frida Kahlo Collection Denounced as a Fake

LANDSCAPES OF QUARANTINE
A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY DESIGN STUDIO
Landscapes of Quarantine is an independent, multi-disciplinary design studio, based in New York City, consisting of eight evening workshops, from October 6 to December 5, 2009, in which up to 14 participants will gather to discuss the spatial implications of quarantine. The results of the workshop will be presented in [...]

Our friend Jim Duignan from the Stockyard Institute talks about the “The Cafeteria Sessions” program with The Multicultural Arts High School on the most recent Bad At Sports episode. Required listening for all you pedagogy heads.

One of the best architecture magazines in the world came out with their latest. Issue #20 of Volume looks mind blowing. The review at fantastic We Make money Not Art made me want to have it now! The theme for this issue is Storytelling:
This past year numerous dramas have competed for our attention: sub-prime mortgages, [...]

For those of you who like illuminated urine containers as street art please check out the most recent lighting installation by Luz Interruptus.

Kathryn Born has been increasing the visibility of the arts in Chicago with the Art Talk Chicago blog, a project run by the Chicago Tribune Company. For years the Tribune Co. has spent way too much money figuring out this internet thing. The recent series of blogs they created are a little too little too [...]

The Art Shanty Project is a groundbreaking festival or sorts that takes place each year on a frozen lake in Minnesota. For the past seven years they have been doing this incredible project. They are: Seeking visual artists, musicians, composers, media artists, architects, poets, scientists, dancer/choreographers, writers, builders, fisher-people, outdoors-people, naturalists, puppeteers, set designers, vocalists, [...]

Before you slip out into the weekend action, stay here a second and read some new items in our On-Line Content Section of the site. This week we feature an Interview with Dee Clements of Simple Gallery. You should also check out Casey Smallwood’s Top Ten Links. Delicious.
http://proximitymagazine.com/2009/08/casey-smallwood/

Picked up the Chicago Reader and read Deanna Isaac’s column, As 4Art leaves for Bridgeport, yet another storefront in “Podville” goes dark. We are very familiar with the history of the Pod Empire and have watched the so-called “Chicago Art District” lose the vitality it maybe once had. When Pod  III decided to move  artists [...]

Society of the Query conference
13 – 14 November, Trouw Amsterdam in Amsterdam
With the Society of the Query conference -stop searching, start questioning-, the Institute of Network Cultures aims to critically reflect on the information society and the dominant role of the search engine in our culture. What does the dependency on the engine to manage [...]

The Gallery Crawl has a great intinerary up on their blog – Please note that the Well Hung Show is not opening at the Co-Prosperity Sphere – We reccomend that you check out Spoke and ANTENA on Friday, The Busy Beaver Button Company Grand Opening on Saturday and Mess Hall on Sunday. Happy art action.

On Wednesday, August 5th NPR program The Story will air a peice on Chicagrapher Brian Ulrich. This is an excellent follow up opportunity for those of you who have read our interview with Brian in Issue #4. For those of you who haven’t read it (it isn’t available online, yet) we encourage you to sit [...]

This Friday we suggest you check out work by some Chicago ex-pats and local heroes.
Don’t miss: Public Works: Chris Eichenseer, Justin Fines, Cody Hudson, Andy Mueller @ Andrew Rafacz, and also go to Believe Inn for new work by Chris Silva & Lauren Feece.
On Sunday you better go to Ben Russell. This guy is tearing [...]

Besides wading in the black hole of the publishing business we also got our hands dirty with some art. Last weekend the Co-Prosperity Sphere hosted the excellent Get It Together Show. Check out our flickr site to see some of the work. We promise you will never have to hear 1000 variations of Kruder and [...]

Click here for the photos from last weekend’s openings of “control c, control v” at ebers, Rod Hunting at the coop, “Unusual Suspects” at 2612 space, “The Diorama Show” at The Home Gallery, “Matthew Harris: Beyond China”, “Glenn Wexler: Transit 2″ &  “Spellbound” & “Signs of the Apocalypse/Rapture” at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Here at Proximity Magainze (on-line) we pride ourselves on well-organized information and well-planned site navigation. Let’s face it Web Users Are Lazy and we know the value of being able to reach any essential piece of information within two clicks.

A number of our readers visit the site to check the blog as well as our [...]

We are pleased to announce that PR, our companion publication, now has its own home here at proximitymagazine.com.
PR is published in between each issue of PROXIMITY. It includes reviews, extended essays and a large graphic/art piece  printed in a broadsheet style. You can find PR all over Chicago and they are FREE. So while you [...]

Proximity went out and took some photos of last weekends action at Roots and Culture, Eastern Expansion, ThreeWalls, Spoke, Spudnik Press and Chicago Art Department. Check out the Flickr set .

Conflux 2009 » ConfluxCity 2009
Through an open submissions process, ConfluxCity will provide a platform for artists, urban geographers, technologists and others to organize and produce innovative activities dedicated to the examination, celebration and (re)construction of everyday urban life.

This weekend is a busy one for shows in Chicago. Please stop by Rueben Kincaid’s Eastern Expansion gallery in Bridgeport for a special installation by Chris Smith. Then head north and beyond for other action. Don’t miss No Other One Is @ Three Walls and check out The Chicago Project III @ Catherine Edelman Gallery. [...]

Images from the recent “Sal Ch Ex” exhibition that opened July 4th, 2009 at C-PS. “Sal Ch Ex” is a show about self-improvement through self-denial. Closes July 18th, 2009 at C-PS. Visit the calendar for more information.

Non-specialist readers and recruitable art enthusiasts have a lifeline to the amorphous, mysterious Chicago Art World via their new Art Critic, Lori Waxman.  A long time contributor to many on-line and print art publications, Lori’s appoitment is a glimmer of hope in the declining arena of arts coverage in Daily papers. Some recent reviews are [...]

Call for Entries – Deadline July 31, 2009!
transmediale.10
festival for art and digital culture berlin
03 – 07 February 2010

Cindy Baker put out a small fire in the kitchen. from lee Walton on Vimeo.
Lee Walton has been re-enacting the things his friends post on facebook. Six months and 44 videos later… Take a peek.

Happy Birthday America.
Video By Jacob Ciocci

Proximity is based out of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and we are very excited about the new show that is opening July 4th at the space. Along with the recent Second Stories: Artists Making Do & Fixing Up show at Zolla Lieberman, we expect the “Sal-Ch Ex” show to be one of the best group exhibitions [...]

A post gay pride march moment. We were very pleased to find that the Smiths were in the top ten twice.
A resurgence of geighties music is weaving its way back into the Chicago underground (maybe it never left?). And coincidentally we are preparing a geighties nite on July 22 at Sonotheque. Want to suggest some [...]

Old news is still news. Whether or not you liked the City Gallery in the Historic Water Tower (which doesn’t even have a decent website)  it was at least a venue that brought contemporary art to a much wider public and audience. The City Gallery on Michigan Avenue is going bland again. For over two [...]

Reblogged everywhere on the artblogosphere Bravo is now casting their reality based show called the Untitled Art Project. They are seeking emerging and mid career artists.
Here’s your chance.  Now go to the Bravo casting call site for full details:
Casting Calls for The Untitled Art Project are as follows:
LOS ANGELES
Saturday, July 11 & Sunday, July [...]

We just stopped into our local B & N to see if one of our distributors is actually doing their job.  We are pleased to report seeing a pile of Proximity magazines prominently displayed at a local outlet. But we have a problem… We want to make sure every store is carrying our publication. So [...]

We are working on a piece in the next issue of Proximity where we are using our social networks, blogs etc to see how our friends and readers might respond. If you are reading this post then please send an email to ed@proximitymagazine DOT com and send us the name of your favorite photographer and [...]

Our sister publication, Lumpen is celebrating 18 years of publishing this Friday, June 26, 2009 at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Stop by for some Korean Polish Bar B Q and enjoy performances by a bunch of one (wo)man bands. You’ll be able to pick up the current issue as well as some back issues. Check the [...]

On the heels of  the recent layoffs at the Art Institute we have heard  further disturbing news about some local art institutions. Over the weekend Llyod Dobler, a long-running apartment gallery in West Town, was visited by City of Chicago police officers and told they can no longer host art events in their residence. We  [...]

Our friend Melinda who runs the long running  web project Ausgang has launched the Summer09 edition. There are new submissions from:
Jill Adams, Lulu Callier, Salem Collo-Julin, Andrew Early, Alison Eastley, Marc Fischer, Dan Gleason, Jana Roon, Deborah Stratman, and J.J. Tindall

On Saturday, June 6th in Chicago, local artists partnered with the Tamms Year Ten coalition to protest state-sanctioned torture at the supermax prison in Southern Illinois. And they did it with mud.
Read:
llinois Torture Publicized with Ecological Art: Chicago and Milwaukee artists boost Tamms Year Ten message with mud stencils
Or check out Lori Waxman’s article at [...]

In our effort to bring you new and (semi-)frequent content we have just added three new pieces to the On-line Content section.
Check out Andrew Ek’s Top Ten Links, Alex Robbins’ piece In Defense of the Philosophy of Art, and Jessica Cochran’s review of a current exhibition at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
Enjoy!
(*ian)

Don’t miss these recent pieces about making art in Chicago from our local artblogosphere:
New City Art’s Art School Unconfidential: What the city’s burgeoning MFA programs mean for the future of artists in Chicago is a great read comparing the students and programs of the big 5 Chicago universities.
The Bad At Sports Artists Run Chicago Episode [...]

On Sunday May 31, 2009  Public Media Insitute (Proximity’s dot.org parent) will release issue #002 of Pr, our broadsheet newsletter,  at the Hyde Park Art Center. It is part of the Artists Run Chicago Exhibition and features and essay about the history of artist-run spaces in Chicago from the last 25 years by Dan Gunn. [...]

The Chicago Sun Times reports that Chris Kennedy, a son of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy, will announce his candidacy next week for the US Senate seat occupied by Rolland Burris.
Chris Kennedy is the president of Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., a Chicago-based property owner and management company. The Mart also runs several art fairs including [...]

Each year Public Media Institute, our parent .org, co-produces the Version festival. We just found time to post images from the recent Version 09 Immodest Proposals. Here are links to the NFO XPO and the Chicago Art Parade. The Version Flickr Pool has some nice documentation as well. Enjoy.

Sadly we have to report that one of the artists who participated in Version 09 as part of the Bridgeport WPA project had his mural censored and painted over by local Bridgeport Alderman James Balcer.
Gabriel Villa had been working on the mural throughout the festival and was shocked to discover that the Graffiti Blasters had [...]

Well, part of it is anyway. We have a full PDF preview available of the table of contents so you can see what you are missing. We think now is the perfect time to support independent publications so we don’t see them die off the way that galleries and various non-profits are starting to.
Check out [...]

Every year the Southern Graphics Council hosts a massive conference that proves exactly why the printmakers are always the cool kids at art school.  Glutted with panel discussions, exhibitions, lectures, and of course, parties, the conference can prove to be both exciting and energy draining.  Here are a couple of peeks into the mayhem from [...]

Steve was featured in Issue 003 of Proximity.  We are excited about his new show in LA at the Charlie James Gallery.

Steve Lambert solo show walkthrough from Steve Lambert on Vimeo.

This Sunday, May 10 the Hyde Park Art Center will open its Artists Run Chicago show in Gallery 1. Proximity and its related tentacles will  participate in quite a few ways.  First we asked our friend Michael T Rea to bring over his Spacesuit for Steven Hawking to represent Reuben Kincaid Artist Management. As part [...]

Friday May 8th get on the Halsted bus and ride it all the way past West Town, Greektown and UIC to Pilsen [Get off at 19th street]. There are more openings than you can handle not to mention that the Skylark (at Halsted and Cermak) has their Fish Fry—seriously good. We will try to post [...]

So last night NEXT and ART CHICAGO kicked off at The Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago. After some ping-ponging around the building my friend April and I found the Rueben Kincaid booth, as well as various out of town friends.
Along the way the buzz was, of course, the economy accompanied by swine flu and the [...]

Please drop by and say hello to us at the NEXT Art Fair taking place this May 1-4. Meet Proximity staff members and contributors. And  pick up a copy of our latest issue and some of our sister publications.

With the official launch of Issue #4 we are gearing up to present a sampling of new content on-line. Coming soon…wait…what’s that?….you can’t wait? Oh well then by all means…subscribe and we’ll send a beautiful new copy out to you ASAP.

We have been working hard to make this spring happening.
For one we are releasing our one year anniversary issue (#004) this Friday, April 24 at the big Version Festival shindig taking place at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. It will be one nice feature of an action packed evening we have been planning for months. We hope [...]

In anticipation of Issue #4 (coming soon) we’ve decided to dish out a great deal more from Issue #3.
We’ve added Features, Reviews, Studios, Columns and so on. So read up and get excited for the next issue.
Keep in mind that we belive that ‘printed matter … matters’ so we don’t put everything on-line. Our magazine [...]

Stephanie Burke has outlined the art crawl nicely this weekend. Paul Klein rocks out some promotion and we are hosting  a Version Festival Fundraiser tonite.

April 16, 2009
A little late on this one…Columbia College’s Photography Department presents the final lecture for Spring 09

Frank Gohlke
April 16th
618 S. Michigan Ave. Building @ 6:30 PM

Franklin Rosemont, celebrated poet, artist, historian, street speaker, and surrealist activist, died Sunday, April 12 in Chicago. He was 65 years old. With his partner and comrade, Penelope Rosemont, and lifelong friend Paul Garon, he co-founded the Chicago Surrealist Group, an enduring and adventuresome collection of characters that would make the city a center for [...]

We are very pleased to announce the launch of  our online content editions. Our Online Editors Rachel Hewitt and Ian Whitmore will be navigating the waters of the Proximity editorial ocean to bring you more up to date and timely reviews, features, and visits to artist studios. Enjoy the Easter Edition: Check it out here!

So, the list has arrived for this year’s recipients. We all (should) know that a Guggenheim Fellowship is one of the most prestigious and sought after awards in the world. So we should all be thrilled that Chicago is well represented this year, especially in the arts.
The short, windy city list:
Ryan Cohan, Composer.
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Artist.
Wilhelm [...]

A group of Dutch and Palestinian artists/peace activists are taking orders through their website, where for a small fee they will spray-paint any message you desire on the Palestinian side of the West Bank separation wall. Read more about this project here.
Last year Chicago-based artist Jason Lazarus sent a message. You can see the work [...]

One of the best shows to have debuted since last year is Cody Hudson’s and Corey Arnold’s jam at the Andrew Rafacz Gallery. Take take a peak before the show comes down May 9.  If you don’t know Hudson you should read this recent interview conducted by the cats that design Proximity magazine: The Post [...]

We just ran into Git this weekend during a foray into some pretty mediocre art openings in Chicago. Somehow we came across John’s blog while discovering Brian Ulrich on the 50 States Project (post below). Ahh the internet.. So John has been asking friends to curate some YouTube vids recently. Yes, that might sound [...]

The 50 States Project has brought together 50 photographers from across the USA.
Each photographer lives in one of the 50 States and during the year long project each photographer will represent the State [...]

Clio-award winning Luden’s cough drops commercial from 1967 with a Frank Zappa soundtrack. Thanks Richard Metzger.

We don’t know why we have to look at trendbeheer all the time to find out what is happening in Chicago. Those damn dutchies find the darndest things. Like this blog, We are Supervision, which posts some lovely gangbanger artwork. This might make it to a real gallery near you.

From March 5 – April 9, 2009, the Chicago Public Library challenges you to showcase your creativity by designing a poster that’s inspired by the library and uses the URL chipublib.org.
The Chicago Public Library will then select 30 Finalists to move on to a Judging Night Event on April 23, 2009, held at the Harold [...]

Our friends Ray Noland and our buds at  the The Post Family are co-curating, “Officially Unofficial”, an exhibition of prints, posters, photographs, and videos that emerged in 2008 as icons of the art movement in support of Barack Obama for President. The exhibition will include official campaign materials as well as independent work by artists [...]

Please take the chance to check out this year’s Southern Graphics Council Conference
“The 2009 Global Implications Conference features exhibitions, demonstrations, lectures, panel discussions, private collection viewings, and special events at over 40 locations around Chicago.
Keynote speakers include Kathan Brown, Enrique Chagoya, Anne Coffin, and Jane Hammond.
Bad at Sports will be podcasting a series of shows [...]

We think they will still accept submissions!
Call for Submissions
For King Ludd’s Midway Arcade
Version Fest 09′
Curated by Material Exchange
Calling all gamers, artists, engineers, tinkerers, hackers, manipulators…
The Midway Plaissance in Hyde Park was the home of the World’s Fair of 1893, an international celebration of the landing of Columbus in North America 401 years earlier. It involved [...]

Completely Worth the Visit

Our release party last Saturday was a blast. Thanks for coming. Even if you didn’t get a fresh copy of the new publications  we will make it easy for you. Download a preview copy of  Matériel at the magazine’s website.  You can purchase one at Golden Age, Quimbys, No Coast, Rotofugi, and Penelope’s. They [...]

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR MONU – magazine on urbanism #11 – CLEAN URBANISM
Download the new Call for Submission – Poster for Clean Urbanism and post it in your faculty!
When it comes to Clean Urbanism – i.e. an [...]

Margot Harrington and Chad Kouri just finished designing our new sister publication,  Pr. Pr is a “Posterletter”–half newsletter and half poster–and it rocks!  The over sized broadsheet confabulation features an interview with Paul Chan, whose recent exhibition at the Renaissance Society garnered rave reviews.
Also featured is a beautiful poster designed by Margot and inspired by [...]

Bad At Sports is kicking serious as lately.
“They discuss Chris’s work and career and much, much more. … Much mirth, music, and mayhem is had by all. This show is not to be missed!!!” Photo by Tom VanEndye.

We had the honor of being a part of the The We Love Magazine Library that was unveiled as a beautiful exhibition this past Saturday in Tokyo.
Have a visit.

This is no surprise:
Artnet: A report by “wealth-research” firm the Spectrum Group confirms what dealers at the recent Armory Show fairs probably already suspected — the nation’s millionaires are hurting. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of households with a net worth of more than $1 million dropped by 2.5 million from 2007 [...]

March 21, 2009

March 21, 2009, 8pm
Co-Prosperity Sphere
3219 S Morgan St

$10 Suggested Donation.

Matériel Magazine and Pr Launch Party and fundraiser for Version Festival
Please come and help us raise funds to pay for Version>09 Immodest Proposals. We will be giving to everyone who attends a complementary copy of our new publishing projects, Matériel and the new Pr [...]

BASwire: “This week: The San Francisco Bureau continues their series of critics’ roundtables. Patrica and Brian are joined by the curator [and Proximity contributor] Joseph del Pesco, as they take a look at the early exhibitions of 2009 in the Bay Area. During the conversation they discuss Dave Lane, Henry Darger, Mads Lynnerup, Paul McCarthy, [...]

From Chicago Breaking News:

A 50 percent admission fee increase — jacking up the price of entry to the Art Institute from $12 to $18 beginning May 23 — was approved by the Chicago Park District’s Committee on Programs and Recreation Wednesday morning and is expected to win full board approval later in the day.
“We recognize [...]

Nor were we. We were looking for some news regarding the big spring art kick off in NYC and found a few crumbs worth digesting about the Armory Show and other fairs.
Paddy Johnson’s reliable commentary and rated reviews can be found here.
Some NYT items:
Toplessness and Taxidermy in a Bottoming Market
A Painting Called Good, but Only [...]

Artists in a Year of Recession: Impact on Jobs in 2008 examines how the economic slowdown has affected the nation’s working artists.
The study looks at artist employment patterns during two spikes in the current recession – the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008. This downturn reflects larger economic declines: a Commerce Department report last [...]

Read Flatfile Flatlines
The effects of our bad-news economy are starting to kick in, and it’s not just the deadwood that’s falling. This week, one of the largest and liveliest art spaces in the West Loop, Flatfile Galleries, announced that its current shows will be its last. It closes March 27.

Proximity Magazine invites you to participate in the (Con)Temporary Art Chicago Guide. The Guide showcases the best cultural offerings in Chicago during the Spring season – late April to early May 2009. We are  creating a map and publication – including directories, articles, and interviews – about what’s happening at places both prominent and secret [...]

NYT reports that an exhibition of works by the French-Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed has been prevented from opening in Turin while a prosecutor ponders whether it is illegal to display video clips showing animals being bludgeoned to death and fighting for sport in an arena. The show had already been postponed for weeks at The [...]

Art Review reports:
Cai Mingchao, a Chinese national who in 2006 paid a record HK $117 million ($15 million) for a Ming Dynasty Buddha, said he placed the winning bid for the two Qing bronzes auctioned in Paris last week — and won’t be paying, reports Bloomberg.
The National Treasures Fund, a group backed by the Chinese [...]

It’s  a sign of the times now that city officials are targeting art spaces for revenue and fines. New City reported last week that local non profit art space, Green Lantern, was fined for not displaying a proper permit. Also disturbing is last Friday’s visit to the AV Aerie by a dozen CPD officers and [...]

Our longest running publication, Lumpen, was just released as issue #111. You can download a pdf of it now. Coming this month will be the release of Matériel, and Pr, a Proximity Publication.  On April 24, 2009 we will release Issue #004 of Proximity as well as the (Con)Temporary Art Chicago Guide. Did we mention [...]

Paul Chan is an important and provocative artist whose influence on contemporary art and culture is immeasurable. Please make an effort to see his exhibition of new work and hear him speak at one of his talks.
The Renaissance Society presents three lectures related to an exhibition by Paul Chan, March 1 – April 12, 2009

Paul [...]

Momus, aka Nick Currie, blogs about the death of print. It’s not looking good for pulp in Chicago after the bankruptsies of the Tribune and The Chicago Reader as well as the collapse of print titles like Stop Smiling and Prompt. One interesting fact he pulled out is that for  every magazine pronounced dead in [...]

We forgot to mention earlier last week that that one hundred years ago, on February 20,  the Futurist Manifesto was presented on the frontpage of Le Figaro. Well, Dutch Art mag Metropolis M didn’t forget nor did many other European art fags. Here is a handy link to Futurist Cookbook recipes that we can all [...]

Here is nice concept to emulate next Valentines day:  exhibit  some very tasty treats amidst some delicious art. Artist and Contributing Editor, Mike Genovese, sends some warmth and cheer via photos from a fundraiser that took place at Oh Wow in Miami. Pictured here is artist Jen Stark hanging with a nice lad.  Wish we [...]

The Stinger may be your future condo.

Our friend Niels Post posted his Connect 4 video that aired on national television in Holland some years ago. We bet we could kick his ass in a game.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
“The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. This project was completed as part of my thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at [...]

Magedelena Bors makes household items turn into exquisite sculptures.

We are sending our sort of top secret broadside magazine project to the printers this week. Matériel is an oversized, newsprint publication that’s a collection of the best/brightest designers/illustrators/photographers work we can find – creating a showcase for their submitted work.  It’s a sister magazine to Proximity providing a ‘design’ counterpoint to Prox’s ‘art’ focus. [...]

Since it’s so cold out we thought we’d illuminate it some more.. During the 2008 Festival of World Cultures in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland,  German artist Edgar Mueller, a Master of 3d Pavement Art,  transformed a huge slice of the East Pier into a dramatic ice age scene.

We are going to start blogging links to individual artists whose work we find inspiring. Please take a look at Sam Winston’s work. His typographical skills are paired with an advanced  illustrative craft that is the envy of Design school kids and Book art afficionados everywhere. His installations are not have bad either.

Last year Public Media Institute (Parent dot org of Proximity) held Select Media Festival with the theme of Infoporn. We  haven’t lost that love of the art of information design. Good magazine, purveyors of the finest inforporn in America, just posted this graphic describing the Most Used Subway Systems In the U.S. And Around the [...]

Not quite the plan some of us expected but the extra $50 Million to the NEA might help out in ways we have yet to measure.
NEW YORK. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Smithsonian Institution have secured a small allotment of federal funding as part of the $787bn American Recovery and Reinvestment [...]

Yves Saint Laurent Art Sale’s 1st Night Brings In $264 Million
PARIS — Despite the global economic crisis, a lot of money seems to be left over. On Monday, the private collection of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner became the most expensive one ever sold at auction, bringing in more than $264 million on the [...]

Stephanie Burke, a gallery crawl guide for Chicago, has explained all of tonights openings very nicely for you on her blog.
The Co-Prosperity Sphere is not going to be crazy tonight. However it will be showing some of Dave the Lightbulb Man’s colllection of recent works.  Dave may conduct some interview sessions for his tv show. [...]

Video of the controversial Renaissance Society Panel, Is there such a thing as a Chicago artist anymore? is on YouTube. Enjoy. There are twelve in the series!

We thought it was over a year or so ago when we started Proximity, but now that the New York Times decides… it must be so! Read what every art dealer going to the New York Art fairs has sitting on their desk this week. The article, The Boom Is Over. Long Live the [...]

Photo credit: MILC
Hundreds of piñatas filled with space blankets were installed beneath underpasses throughout Chicago to bring attention to the issue of homelessness in the city.
Watch the video about the Pinata Factory project put together by Coop Image Group and others.
” The piñatas are the output but are far less important than the community activity [...]

Our  contemporary art media buddies at Neoteric Art feature Proximity Magazine as one of their One Question interviews. They asked “What are some of your long term goals for Proximity?”  You can read a response here.

Proximity is in Rotterdam to take part in Trendbeheer Presents @ Art Rotterdam.  We posted a few images of the show (a few pre-show and some from the opening night) to give you an idea of the action. We are in the middle of our research mission and will upload some more stuff later.

An art parade, temporary housing structures, video sweat lodges, an artist run art fair and expo, a reincarnation of the depression era Public Works of Art Project, a social networked free public school, boring theoretical nonsense, the revamping of a local community center, mapping projects, an open source design agency for social movements, and korean [...]

Trendbeheer presenteert @ Art Rotterdam starts this Tuesday. Proximity magazine is taking part of this massive group exhibition featuring many Chicago-based and Holland-based artists. We will be posting images of our Excursions in Rotterdam soon.

The sixth annual Art Shanty Projects is happening right now on Medicine Lake in beautiful Plymouth, Minnesota! Proximity contributor Nate Lee just returned and we posted some great pics that are located here.
Art Shanty Projects is going on until February 14, 2009. Visit their site at www.artshantyprojects.org. Now is as good a time [...]

Art Shanty at Iron Studios (2006)
Proximity Magazine invites you to participate in (Con)Temporary Art Chicago. This 80-96 page book, to be released along with the next issue of Proximity Magazine, will showcase the best cultural offerings in Chicago during the art fair season – late April to early May 2009.
Our goal is to showcase Chicago [...]

Is it possible that online trading sites and virtual worlds like Second Life are pointing to a new business model for art fairs? After the decline in revenues at recent fairs and the continuing crisis in the markets many galleries are just staying home. Some see this as an opportunity. After launching their own [...]

The ten first steps that Barack Obama could take to renew the arts by David A. Ross The Arts Newspaper
Obama’s call to arts The Christian Science Monitor
What Will Obama Do for the Arts? By Deanna Isaacs Chicago Reader

Golden Belt is hosting the first (and perhaps only) BAILOUT BIENNIAL in response to the current economic crisis and scandals surrounding the $700+ billion bailout.
“This charged, provocative exhibition delves deeply into capitalism, the global economy, post- industrialism, and greed. And unlike most biennials—blockbuster affairs with multi-million dollar budgets, superstar artists, and pavilions—this one was organized [...]

Paul has been conducting some surveillance and documentation of Chicago art activity.  Check out his Flickr page.

Our friend Daniel is publishing a series of five articles  in <H>Art Magazine in Belgium> the series is: ” an introduction to Chicago, Illinois USA and it’s local critical cultural experimentation, written from the perspective of a magazine editor and curator committed to navigating the city. Look for three more articles in 2009 dealing with [...]

An art parade, temporary housing structures, independent contemporary art space networking, one day only exhibition formats, video sweat lodges, an artist run art fair, a reincarnation of the depression era Public Works of Art Project, a social networked free public school, impressive performances, boring theoretical nonsense, the revamping of a local community center, mapping [...]

Just added at the Bureau of Public Secrets website:
DON QUIXOTE ATTACKS THE WINDMILLS
Miguel de Cervantes’s “Don Quixote” is one of the most wonderful books in the world. A middle-aged country gentleman, brain addled by reading too many chivalric adventure stories, adopts the trappings of a medieval knight and sets out to rescue damsels in distress [...]

Art Fag City’s Worst of the Web 2008 is both funny and critical. Good job Paddy! I always had a hard time navigating that site too. Looks like a “new media artist” allowed his dreams to be confounded by the whims of Mr Deitch. But who knows who to blame?
I would like to nominate [...]

We Joined Facebook after realising LittleSis.org (see post below) was cool. Please add us as your friend while you are browsing the universe.

Some new media art fags might remember Josh On’s politically astute and generatively exciting TheyRule.net.  His site allows visitors to visualize connections between people who are on multiple boards of  fortune 500 companies. Users of the site can conduct and upload their own research to create their own power maps of elite players.
But this concept [...]

“Although this pursuit may seem to be inevitably elusive and fruitless, I am hoping to gain whatever understanding I can through the process.”
Brad and I studied photography together as undergraduates in Nebraska, he has since gone on to grad school at Yale and continues to make images that stir the mind and the soul. [...]

Photoshop Adbusting subway street art.

Portraits: The Obama Administration
Check out this interactive set of portaits by Nadav Kander from the New York Times.

Proposals for selection for ZOOart 2009 are now welcome. ZOOart is a public art event, open to young artists. Now in it’s eighth year it is organised by the Art.ur association with the support of the Cuneo City Council.
For details please visit www.zooart.it
Miss Michela Giuggia
tel./fax 0171 689960
cell. +39 339 690899
Email
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Notice:
Attention Chicago:
A highly organized, internationally recognized, massively marketed, thoroughly branded, and extremely expensive series of sporting events is coming to your town. This is not it.
From Saturday January 24 to February 14 2009, InCUBATE and person-in-residence Anne Elizabeth Moore will host a series of games called the Unlympics. They will consist of real [...]

You can finally subscribe to Proximity using credit cards via our Paypal account.  Get the next 3 issues delivered to your mailbox for $30 a year.

Post Family Reblog: Sam Post and the good gang at One Design have officially opened The COOP. The COOP is a mixed use creative space nestled in Chicago’s Fulton Market available for rent by day, week or month.The space includes a T-1 Internet Connection, Kitchen & Bathroom, Desk, Security Camera, Office Dog (included) and it [...]

Looking into the past to see the future.
100+ Abandoned Buildings, Places and Property

JUNK JET
fanzine for electronics and aesthetics

INTERNATIONAL POSTER COMPETITION
17th Edition of Graphisme dans la rue to the theme of THE CITY
For the past 16 years, the annual event known as “Graphisme dans la rue” (“Graphics in the Streets”) has been inviting graphic artists to create large-format posters addressing the theme of “the city”, then posting the works on billboards throughout the [...]

Proximity magazine is joining a group of Chicago- based artists at Trendbeheer presenteert @ Art Rotterdam! We will be presenting and sharing publications from Chicago and spend a few weeks conducting research for our first Proximity City Guide. If you are in Holland during the weeks of February 1-14 please come by the show (Feb [...]

We would like you to find a moment to enjoy the opening of the Winter Art Season. Much to do in neighborhoods throughout the city.
Check out our calendar for details!

New York based artist Lindsay Ballant and friends have created a website campaigning for the world’s largest going away party for George W. Bush. It’s called Bush Bash. We’re going.
The idea is to create a network of “Bush Bash”-themed parties across the nation (or world??). We’re also asking people to post their Bush Bash [...]

Amanda talks to Nick Lucking and Tim Ivison about www.spcmkr.com and their various projects. Listen here.
SPCMKR facilitates and documents space exchanges, providing a site through which to organize a gift-economy between users. The web-based component of the project provides an interface for locating and contributing resources, arranging for temporarily inhabiting surplus spaces, and documenting both [...]

Proximity is hosting an open meeting this Sunday January 4 at 3pm at the Co-Prosperity Sphere (C-PS). We are going to unveil our general plans for the new year as well as talk about the forthcoming issue and some future initiatives. C-PS is located at 3219 S Morgan Street in the lovely neighborhood of Bridgeport.

Our friends at the Impakt festival in Utrecht sent us news of their new media project Impact Online. They host one of the most interesting media festivals in the EU. Check it out.
About the project:
Impakt Online exhibits art projects designed for the Web. We invite and support artists to create new work.
In the “It’s About [...]

NYT’s year in review for art is worth looking at..
Out With the Fat, in With the Hungry
By HOLLAND COTTER
IN the past eight years American art and American politics had a lot in common. Both favored big money, insularity and retrograde conservatism. Now come changes.
In politics the old order was voted out. In the art [...]

Proximity was inspired in part by Fucking Good Art, a Rotterdam-based art rag that has taken flight and finds itself coming out with special issues from festivals and biennials from all around Europe. Given our focus in interpreting the machinations of various art worlds we find their Swiss Issue instructive and illuminating:
‘Greed is the [...]

Perfect gift for the holidays. We hope to send these to all our friends.
Repost from our buds in Rotterdam, Trendbeheer.

What We See, What We Hope:
Declaration of Solidarity with the Uprising in Greece
We want first of all to say a collective yes! to the uprising in Greece. We are artists, writers and teachers who are connected in this moment by common friends and commitments. We are globally dispersed and are mostly watching, and hoping, from [...]

The Animation Festival 2008 is happening tonight at the Public Media Institute’s Co-Prosperity Sphere. The program looks great. Come by for some fresh work and popcorn.

Last month our hard working friends at Area Magazine launched this interesting survey and questionnaire about making socially engaged art in Chicago . We post this link to give you a nice survey of the great projects and the processes behind them.
The Questions:
* Who is your audience and how does your work mobilize them toward [...]

Public Media Institute, the non-profit that puts out Proximity and co-produces Version festival
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Thanks to all of you that joined us at out Proximity 003 release party last weekend. We really enjoyed your company, the fantastic art show and the very entertaining readings by Erika Mikkalo, Jerry Boyle and James. Hope you liked the cookies!
Photos from the event are located here on our flickr site.
Oh. And if you [...]

Hello everyone, we are happy to announce the launch of our new, content filled web site as well as Issue #3. We are still adding a lot of content to this site such as Artist and Studio Profiles.
Also, we owe a big thanks to Media Temple, they have graciously partnered with Proximity’s parent group Public [...]

January 16, 2009
More information TBA. Contact the Co-Prosperity Sphere if you are young, Polish and an artist.

December 12, 2008
The release party is this Friday, December 12th, from 7pm-midnight at the Family Room (1821 W Hubbard).

If you are interested in supporting critical arts coverage from Chicago then please check out the subscription page.
We are entering our second year publishing this magazine, we are very excited and look forward to the many issues to come. Get on board and you’ll have three new, content filled issues coming to you in 2009.