This week on ArtSlant.com my interview with Chicago painters Robert Davis/Michael Langlois is featured under the “Rackroom” area. You can go there by clicking here.  We talked about the basics of how two painters paint one thing and consider that a joint work, but then moved into their idea of the “metanarrative,” which I found quite fascinating.

Robert Davis/Michael Langlois. Face of God, 2008.  Oil on canvas.  Image courtesy of the artists.

Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin points out that Chicago’s central library the Harold Washington Library (seen below) received the dubious honor of being one of the 15 ugliest buildings in the world, according to Travel & Leisure Magazine the publishers of the list.  However as both Kamin and the list-makers concede: “The really ugly buildings, as the story accompanying the list says, are the anonymous ones where architects aren’t even trying to make a statement.”  Read Kamin’s whole article here.

Image: The Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago. Taken by Douglas Kaye, 2005

This week on ArtSlant: Chicago, Erik Wenzel heads out to The Suburban in Oak Park to see a tribute to a recently passed artist, and then visits Andrew Rafacz in West Loop.  Then he recommends a book by an artist-turned-porn star. Seriously.

Click here to go to ArtSlant: Chicago

That’s all he wrote.

This week on ArtSlant: Chicago Dan Gunn reviews Luis Gispert’s “You’re my favorite kind of America” at Rhona Hoffman, and Jessica Labatte’s “Bright Branches” at Scott Projects. Then he takes a road trip up to Sheboygan, WI, to visit the John Michael Kohler Art Center. Read it here: http://www.artslant.com/chi/articles/picklist

This week on ArtSlant: Chicago I write the gallery hop, click here to read them.  As I have mentioned before, most of my writing nowadays gets published on ArtSlant: Chicago, where I am City Editor, so check there each week for a new gallery hop written by myself or one of our talented staff.  This week I review the second exhibition of the Midwest Photographers Project, “MP3 II” at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and “Elements of Photography” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

This week on ArtSlant you can find my Rackroom interview with Chicago photographer and the Museum of Contemporary Art’s 12 x 12 Artist, Jill Frank.

Also if you read this on August 25th, Jill will be conducting an artist talk at the MCA at 6:30, see below for more information.

If my interview with Chicago photographer Brian Ulrich sparked your interest to learn more about him and his work, he will be speaking again today, Wednesday, August 5th, with Janet Babin on “The Story” broadcast on NPR. Here in Chicago and Illinois you can tune in at 2:00 pm to channels WBEQ-FM 90.7 and WBEZ-FM 91.5, if you are not in Illinois check your broadcast time by clicking here. Don’t worry if you miss the broadcast or will miss the broadcast! It is currently available via podcast by clicking here, for you to listen to at your leisure.

(Image: Brian Ulrich. Dominicks 1, 2008. 11″ x 14.” Edition of 15. Courtesy of the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery)

This week on ArtSlant: Chicago Robyn Roulo visits Corbett vs. Dempsey to see “Big Youth” and writes about some of the standouts there, then heads to the super new ebers|B9 apartment gallery to see more new work there and reflects on the advantages the current apartment gallery movement has. Finally it’s over to the MCA for some free jazz on their terrace on Tuesdays (and free admission to the museum).

Check it out: http://www.artslant.com/chi/main

Jeff Koons (American, b. 1955). Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988. Ceramic. 42 x 70 1/2 x 32 1/2 in. (106.7 x 179.1 x 82.5 cm). Photo © Douglas M. Parker Studio, Los Angeles.

The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica / © Jeff Koons