Let’s Avoid the Maze
New Work by Nate Otto

November 18 - 26, 2011

Opening reception on Friday, November 18th, 6-8 PM

The Meadow
2858 W. Montrose Avenue, Chicago IL, 60625

Let’s Avoid the Maze is a collection of new drawings and paintings by Nate Otto that act as a narrative about the disconnect between intention and outcome. The world is full of obstacles and the perception of these obstacles are as numerous as the eyeballs. What one sees as a maze, another may see as an insurmountable obstacle, or as an opportunity. Using semiotics, abstraction, and humor, Nate approaches the subject through a visual feast of styles. 

Nate Otto is a visual artist working in painting, drawing, and collage. He sees his art as a filtered reflection of his urban habitat tinged with an element of lightness and humor. The adults with developmental disabilities that he teaches are a big influence on his work and on his worldview. Nate is a graduate of Columbia College. He also makes music as part of Carpet Farm, does illustration, writes fiction, and is acting as curator for several upcoming art shows. He lives with his Fiancée, Megan Wright, a ballet instructor, on the north side of Chicago. 

FOLDED: Absurd Machines, Novel Topographies, Hybrid Creatures and Impossible Vistas

Curated by Krissy Wilson, in conjuction with The Meadow 

November 5 - 15, 2011

Opening reception on Saturday, November 5th, 2011, 6-8 pm

The Meadow
2858 W. Montrose Avenue, Chicago IL, 60625

FOLDED: Absurd Machines, Novel Topographies, Hybrid Creatures and Impossible Vistas
“Public domain books belong to the public.” —Google Books
FOLDED is a collection, curation, and recontextualization of documents left folded through the Google Books digitization process. Instead of being unfolded and photographed in a way that would include the information hidden inside, they are photographed in a closed position that results in the happenstance enjambment of two or more sides of the image. This can create absurd machines from mechanical diagrams, novel topographies from scaled maps, hybrid creatures from medical illustrations, and impossible vistas from printed landscapes, among others.

Krissy Wilson is a writer and researcher, curator, artist, and cataloger from Gainesville, FL. She is completing her fourth year at the University of Florida, studying children’s literature and art history. She conceived of and maintains the blog The Art of Google Books and recently curated the exhibitAnomalies and Curiosities of the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature at the George A. Smathers Libraries.

GEIST

New work by Mark Palmen, curated by Alex Calhoun and Roxanne Smith

October 7-28, 2011

Opening reception on Friday, October 7th, 2011, 6-8 pm

The Meadow

2858 W. Montrose Avenue, Chicago IL, 60625

visit themeadowgallery.com for additional information.

GEIST is a selection from an on-going series of works by Mark Palmen wherein contemporary horror-cinema is treated as a photographic subject through the process of re-photography. Mark Palmen is an artist and BFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduating in December, 2011.  He has worked for many years in Europe and the United States as a publicist, event planner and creative director for such clients as Vivienne Westwood, Target, Estee Lauder, Conde Nast, Proctor & Gamble and Adidas as well as championing the new crop of design talent in New York. GEIST at The Meadow is the first showing of his work.  

Sea Change!