A day after returning from Europe in late June, I suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.  These sorts of events only have about a 6% survival rate but my wonderful wife acted quickly and my life was saved.  I’ve been in and out of the hospital for the past two months dealing with various complications but I appear to be in the clear at this point.  Armed with a state-of-the-art pacemaker/defibrillator, I am better than new.  I am now ready to take my bionic self and get back into the creative process once again.

Needless to say, the summer was not productive for me.  I planned to get a lot more done in July and August.  I am currently working on enlisting some student assistants this Fall who can hopefully help me catch back up.  There will be more work on the way but it might take a while before it appears on the website.

So, please stay tuned and take note of the three exhibitions this month in Jacksonville, Chicago and Groningen, The Netherlands.

This month I am in Madrid teaching workshops at EFTI, a photography school here in the city.  They have me working four workshops this year instead of my usual two.  The extra money has allowed me to bring the whole family along this time.  Betsy and Inge have been enjoying our apartment in the Lavapies neighborhood while I’ve been working.

Next we travel by train to Switzerland to visit friends in Langendorf.  I will also be meeting up with Forence Baur and Katrin Weber at Art Basel.  They run Galerie f 5.6 in Munich.

We’re finishing the trip with a week in Venice to take in the Biennale and relax a bit.

I’m back at the end of the month and am looking forward to working on new material in July and August.  I will be working on finishing post-production for The Untitled Project, editing new video material, fabricating some sculpture mockups, and working out the details for some installation ideas.

Work in progress includes the last remaining works in The Untitled Project Chinese chapter, more video and still imagery for the Pulse project, and moving forward with 3D/installation ideas in the spirit of 2010′s Hanging Lighted Square.

I feel I have had a bit of a lull in promotion since the arrival of my daughter in November.  I am currently working with a grant writer to land some public art commissions and art grants to support my new sculptural and installation ideas.  Some of these ideas are very expensive to execute and will need substantial funding.  If we’re successful, keep an eye out in 2012 for some larger scale installation work.  Announcements will appear here.

I will be in Spain, Switzerland and Venice in June.  I’ll be doing my usual teaching in Madrid, visiting friends in Langendorf, possibly popping over to Basel for the fair, then a week in Venice to relax and take in the Biennale.

Work is still progressing on the Chinese chapter of The Untitled Project.  It has been curtailed somewhat by the arrival of my daughter but I’m still hoping to finish things out this Winter thanks to continued help from my assistants Pang and Kim.

I have two exhibitions coming up in January that I am beginning to prepare for.  I will have a small solo exhibition at Johalla Projects in Chicago that is associated with the ACRE Residency I attended in August.  I am particularly excited about this exhibition because it is largely self-curated, with help from Anna Cerniglia, the gallery owner.  This will be my first exhibition that isn’t exclusively photographic.  It will include the sculpture I built during the residency, two video pieces, some photographic work, and possibly some text pieces.

The other exhibition is call Art Imitates Artiface and is taking place at Cleveland State University.  It’s a group exhibition that includes Kerry Skarbakka and Nate Larson among others.  The show will feature works from the North American chapter of The Untitled Project.

Our basement studio renovation is nearly complete so Betsy and I will be spending some time this Winter settling back in to our space.  I have some more 3D projects I’d like to get started on during the colder months so I’m looking forward to having our workspace back.

The two weeks in July spent in Madrid and Paris were very fruitful for video material for the Pulse project.  I have a lot of raw material to work with but will probably not get to editing it until Winter at this rate.

In August I spent ten wonderful days at the ACRE Residency in Steuben, Wisconsin working on a sculpture for the yet-to-be-properly-named Structures project.  I put in over 100 hours on the piece at the residency but still wasn’t able to finish it out due to the high humidity warping my wood.  The piece just needs to be oiled now so it should be finished in another week or so.  It will be exhibited at some point over the next ten months here in Chicago.  I’ll send details when plans are solidified.

Festival Images, Vevey, Switzerland (by Hagen + Cherie Dost)

Work from The Untitled Project and Floating Logos is currently on public display in the idyllic town of Vevey, Switzerland for their Festival Images month of photography.  My good friends Cherie and Hagen Dost with their daughter Eva trekked down from their home in Langendorf to document the opening day for me.  Here is a taste of what you’ll see if you can make it before the end of the month.

In other news, my assistants have been working diligently on editing images from the Chinese chapter of The Untitled Project.  There are nine new pieces in the middles stages of completion.  I am putting all other projects aside for the rest of the year with the goal of finishing out the project by December.  Special thanks are due to Kimberly Kim whose hard work was much appreciated this summer.

WPB Make Believe in Wicker Park, Chicago

Last but not least, the WPB Make Believe public art event continues until the end of October in the Wicker Park/Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago.  My two video pieces Wangfujing and Sanlitun, will be running continuously until then at 1448 N. Milwaukee Ave..  They are rear projections so bright sun tends to wash them out.  They are best viewed in the evening.  If you haven’t already, please vote for me on the WPB Make Believe website.  The winning project receives $5,500.  If I end up getting the most votes, a portion of the proceeds will go to Johalla Projects for their help and support in making the project happen.

A great deal of thanks goes out to the many people who helped me while I was in Europe this time through.  In Madrid, Chilean artist Alvaro Rojas Sastre and Spanish artist Francisco “Monte” Reina as always made my life very pleasant despite the blistering heat.  Also caught up with Spanish artist Lola Guerrera and saw her amazing new project Delight in My Garden.

I owe a great deal of thanks to artist Charles Freger of  P.O.C. for helping me find help with my video projects in Paris.  French artist/student Pierre Mahieu was extremely helpful in executing the video projects and in helping me find what I needed in the city.  And, former Columbia College student, Lee Hoagland helped me immensely on the last day of shooting.  At 24 Lee has been very successful as a photojournalist and is moving to Abu Dhabi next month to work for a media agency over there.  Best of luck, Lee!

During my last days in Paris it was a pleasure to also catch up with Italian video artist Piero Steinle.  He is about to embark on a project for the Centre Pompidou in Paris and seems to be doing very well these days.

While I was away, my public video installation in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood was launched with the help of Johalla Projects who were kind enough to represent me at the opening night of WPB Make Believe.  The videos are running well but there are still many improvements to be made.  The installation can be seen at 1448 N. Milwaukee Ave..  The video projections are best viewed in the evening hours or under cloudy conditions.  They get overpowered by direct sun in the morning and afternoon.  The exhibition is up until October so expect visual and technical improvements in the coming weeks as I work through the issues of a medium I’ve never worked in before.

In two weeks I will be attending the ACRE Residency in Wisconsin where I will be working on building my first art objects/sculptures.  I still have a fair amount of research to do in terms of fabrication but I’m confident that I will finish the residency with at least one piece completed.  I have 3D renderings of the sculptures posted in my Structures project.

Lastly, if anyone is in Switzerland in September, I will be participating in Festival Images in Vevey where pieces from The Untitled Project and Floating Logos will be displayed on outdoor advertising displays around the city.  I’m very excited about this exhibition but will probably not get there myself as my wife will be 8 months pregnant by that time.

Summer 2010 is an extremely busy one with travel, teaching, public art projects, a residency and a baby on the way in November.  I will be teaching in Madrid the week of July 5 at EFTI school for photography.  The following week I will be in Paris working on photo and video material for the Pulse project.  Many thanks to Rachelle Friesen for lending me her Canon HD camcorder so I can execute a dual camera video piece while I’m there.

During the first half of August I will be attending the first ACRE Residency in Southwestern Wisconsin.  My ten days there will be spent in their wood shop working on sculptures for the new Structures project.  I don’t know exactly how long these things will take to make but I hope to complete at least one and make significant progress on a second.  I’m still learning about the ins and outs of fluorescent lighting.

All the while, my three assistants, Kim, Alice and Ilwon, have been working on finishing more Chinese pieces for The Untitled Project.  Currently there are three completed that are now posted on the website.  Ultimately, there will be 12-15 pieces in that chapter of the project which I’m hoping to finish out by the end of the year.

There are two public art projects coming up this summer if you are near Chicago or Vevey, Switzerland.  I will have a video installation piece in an empty store front in the WPB Make Believe exhibition in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago.  I will post documentation of the piece as soon as it gets installed but you can see a rendering of the idea on my Public Art page.  The exhibition starts around the middle of July and runs until October.

I am also participating in Festival Images in Vevey, Switzerland.  The organizers will be displaying pieces from Floating Logos and The Untitled Project outdoors on public advertising displays.  The exhibit is up during the month of September.

Now that my website is easier to use and update, thanks to the talented Ian Whitmore, I will probably be updating this page more often in the future.

I am happy to have a flurry of exhibition activity this Winter. A piece from The Untitled Project will appear in a group exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago early next month until the end of May. There is also an exhibition in Llieda, Spain and a proposed solo exhibition in Barcelona later this year.

The next few months will be spent working on completing more of the Chinese work for The Untitled Project. The goal is to complete this project in order to create more time for my newer project ideas.

Yes, the website still needs a serious update. That is also on the agenda for the Winter.