Painting Progress: Washington Mutual Sign

I need to finish these by May.

Painters I like: George Nick

I ran into the paintings of George Nick and I remembered that I had wanted to paint more snow and winter light. Oh well, next winter.



























I really like the books in this painting. I had a dream about painting books like this.

What are you working on right now?

I've finished stretching, sanding, and gesso-ing my newest paintings.











Yesterday I sketched out what I plan to paint. Total, the three paintings are 24 feet in length (life size).












They are paintings of the covered up Washington Mutual sign on Ashland and Division.

Artists I like: Dan McCleary

I'm really enjoying the epic-mundane paintings of Dan McCleary right now.
(Security, 2011 and Panel Discussion, 2011 above)

Tasty Spoonful Interview

Look at me! I was interviewed by AJ Aronstein for Tasty Spoonful:

http://tastyspoonful.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/covert-urban-chicago-artist-gwendolyn-zabicki/

New Work- midterms

This is the work I'll be showing for mid-terms. I'm also showing a drawing for the paintings I'll be doing in the spring. I had to write an artist statement too. I tired hard not to make mine too pretentious, but here it is:

My work examines ubiquitous objects that fill the urban environment and attempts to subvert the expectation that the ordinary should be synonymous with the mundane. Through experiments with size, editing, and technique, I aim to enliven the everyday and expose tensions and contradictions embedded in scenes of city life.

I am influenced by the themes and style of the Ashcan School (1908-1920), especially the painters John Sloan and George Luks. As precursors to Warhol, Lichtenstein and others, these artists were fascinated by advertising signage and the way it competes for our attention. Their work is marked by a subtle politics and an economy of mark-making.

Like the Ashcan painters, I am interested in the contradictions that images help us see. My most recent work of the backs of billboards and covered signs explores (un)spoken, (un)intentional, and (un)available meanings in the urban environment. The focal point of my work is in the dark places and areas of absence where there is a duality between covering and revealing.

Painters I like: Monica Tap

Monica's paintings are based on images from Quicktime videos taken during car rides.

Check out more of her beautiful work on her website: http://www.monicatap.com/

Painters I like: Ian Whitmore

Efficiency Study (after Gilbreth) by Ian Whitmore.

Two things I love..

...miniatures and thrift stores:

http://hyperallergic.com/17104/ledrays-thrift-store/

New Painting: A Mailbox

Look how pretty: Vija Celmins

There's a show of hers up right now in Houston,TX titled, Vija Celmins: Television and Disaster, 1964-1966. I wish I could go!


http://www.menil.org/index.php

Look how pretty: Elad Lassry

New Painting

More artists I like: Vija Celmins

Conrad Bakker

So basically Conrad Bakker has already done everything I've done in my studio this semester. Depression glass? Yes. Wastebaskets? Yes. Here is some of his lovely work:

new painting

New paintings

Painters I like: Alex Katz

I only knew about his portraits, which are ok, but it's his landscapes that are beautiful. I want to make paintings like this:

This guy is good: Ryan Johnson

http://www.guildgreyshkul.com/artist.php?id=91&show=works

New paintings- painted this week.

Tired Old Queen At the Movies

You should look at this:

New painting of Latkes and Pierogies (in progress)

Work by my new advisor

This artist, Tony Tasset, is going to be my advisor at UIC in the fall! Should be fun!

Video: Chicago's new eyeball: "
The Chicago Tribune looks into the making of downtown Chicago's newest sculpture, a 30-foot orb modeled after sculptor Tony Tasset's eyeball. Props to the motherland: The fiberglass ball was fabricated in Sparta, Wis., -- not so far from where I grew up -- by F.A.S.T. Corp., which made the world's largest fiberglass sculpture, the 145-foot-long muskellunge that makes up Hayward, Wisconsin's Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame.

Via C-Monster.

"

New Painting in progress

Painters I like: Sara MacCulloch

New work at work

A new Flower/Welcome display on the wall. Thanks Dad for giving me four of the old windows from your house.

Look who was in Time Out Chicago

My Hagia Sophia was a Critics' Pick in the April 15- 21 issue of Time Out Chicago.

Fancy Times

This morning I went to the home of a fancy art collector downtown. I met him a few years ago at work. I think I sold him a box of crackers. I said something like, "I'm really putting this art degree to work," and his ears perked up. He's always on the lookout for new painters. He and his wife have art covering every inch of wall inside their home, art which is probably worth more than the home itself.




That's a real Elizabeth Peyton watercolor in the background!

Girls at the Harlem stop

Look how fancy I am!

Lots of mentions of my show this weekend. Thanks Spoke Gallery!

http://onthemake.org/2010/04/17/gwendolyn-zabicki-hagia-sophia/

http://www.artslant.com/chi/events/show/100805-hagia-sophia-gwendolyn-zabicki

http://chicagoartreview.com/2010/04/15/weekend-preview-but-is-it-net-art/gwendolyn-zabicki-hagia-sophia/

http://chicagoartmagazine.com/2010/04/cam-weekend-listings-6/

http://chicago.timeout.com/events/events/333697/4416223/hagia-sophia

http://badatsports.com/tags/gwendolyn-zabicki/