Cl*sterf*ck!

* about *

Okay, this is the plan. Invite a mess of our favorite artists to contribute work. Cut-up a bunch of really janky foamcore and give these oddly sized canvases to the artists. Measure the space on the third floor of the Subterranean. Randomly pre-determine where the work hang. See what the hell happens when everyone shows up with their art.

Cortney Groves

Candy
Digital prints on foam panel

Cortney Groves lived on the mean streets of downtown Cleveland, Ohio until the age of five, when her parents decided prostitute-gazing from the living room window was not the best hobby for their young and impressionable girl. After some years of small-town living, she came back to her big city roots and has been taking pictures in Chicago for four and a half years. She loves pie and pretty dresses, and aspires to one day have a dog named “Monkey”.

Craig Blakeman

With Wings of Rainbow Fire — D. Higgs
Oil on foam panel

Craig Blakeman is a painter living in Chicago. He has been an active member of Tense Forms since 2004.

Dominica Wasilewska

Abbie Snap Pants
Collage on foam panel

Dominica is a native of the Chicago-land area. She is very excited to be working with Tense Forms again.

Jaime Roche & Susie Harkins

Designer Imposter
Sequins on foam panel

Jaime and Susie have been friends for 15 years. This is what happens when two heads come together that have known each other for that long.

Jen Haybach

Telegraph
Mixed media on foam panel

Jen Haybach lives in Detroit with her husband and two cats. She walks, rides and skulks about railroad tracks, finding thing with which to create other things — paintings, sculptures, films sets and what have you. Her heroes include her friends, Bill Hicks, and her neighborhood Chinese ring-necked pheasant, “Biggie.”

Jen Jacobucci

Free From Harm
Mixed media on foam panel

Jen Jacobucci is a Chicago artist and is currently training to be a Chicago police officer. So don’t mess!!

Johannah Silva

Concurrent
Watercolor on paper on foam panel

Johannah Silva is a Chicago painter who loves serendipitous things. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently teaches in the City Colleges of Chicago.

Joshua Holden

Please Help Me, I’m Still Alive!
Latex & acrylic paint, sculpey clay, nails, broken mirror, feathers, googly eyes on foam panel

Joshua Holden, a Massachusetts native & acting based artist, gleefully returns to the Tense Forms playground after collaboratring with them on bringmayflowers this spring. Items Joshua grabbed from dorm on 9/11/01 during the evacuation of downtown: Julieta (stuffed racoon), photo albums, & his tub of FLUFF.

Kelly Reynolds

The Same Mistake Twice
Acrylic, ink, pastel, plastic on foam panel

Born in a Denver suburb, Kelly Reynolds spent her early years picking strawberries, collecting ladybugs and hunting ghosts. She learned to drive in the deserts of New Mexico by age 7, enjoyed poking toads with sticks (gently!) during family picnics on rock formations. Soon after, she traded sand for peat in a move eastward to Detroit. She now spends her life trying in vain to replicate the singular beauty of a sloppy letter “d” once drawn on a dry erase board by her dyslexic high school physics teacher. This pursuit is aided and/or hindered by her work as a framer and educator. Likes: looking up definitions, writing backwards, simplifying rational expressions, cutting glass, television, staring. Dislikes: onions, stepping on wet things, tendonitis.

Kirk Bravender

adversity
Mixed media on foam panel

Kirk Bravender was born in Benton Harbor, MI, not far from the beautiful beaches of Lake Michigan. He studied environmental science before changing interests to photography in 1999. During this time he studied photography at Columbia College Chicago until 2002. Inspired by the likes of Gary Winogrand, Lee Friedlander and William Eggleston his photography tends to reflect the study of the common man and woman on the street, urban decay and the hidden abstract treasures burried by human nature and neglect. This is his first attempt at real art. Please be kind.

Mark Benson

The Winning Wilds
oil on foam panel

Mark Benson is a painter living in Chicago. He likes to paint people and dogs, and will no doubt one day paint a fish. Other things of interest to him are graphic design, the drums, burgers and beer. He spends a considerable amount of time at the beach, so the onslaught of this winter has his high hopes drowning in the dregs. Well, that’s life on Earth.

Nora McComiskey

attempt
mixed media, photo transfer on foam panel

Nora McComiskey is currently living it up in Chicago. A photographer, weaver, and educator, she’s pretty busy most of the time. She currently runs a fully manual traveling photobooth, and is a member of Tense Forms.

RM5

Summer Keys
Mixed media on foam panel

Sangini Brahmbhatt

Holiday
mixed media on foam panel

Sangini Brahmbhatt is a Chicago native. While she was born and raised in America, she is closely tied to her Indian roots. Drawing heavily on the division of East/West, she is interested in mixing different medias (polaroids, textiles, patterns, etc..) to explore culture, nostalgia and nature. Sangini has shown her work at the Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago Art Department, DePaul University Museum and with Tense Forms.

t. Thomas Hardie

CBCDG (or Twenty Bones)
Digital Scan, Inkjet Print on foam panel

t. Thomas Hardie was born in or around Seoul, South Korea*. He was brought to the U.S. in the late 70’s while the exchange rate was still good. Since then Mr. Hardie has been spending his free time learning the customs and by-laws of this country.

*t. Thomas Hardie is not affiliated with Kim Jong-Il or the communist party… that’s North Korea.