"Contemporary Citizens" -- also called"12 Chicago" -- was a one-night show that seemed to be more for artists than collectors, sort of like the "Meeting of Styles" that gathers together the graffiti community. It took place in a warehouse on the near west side owned by artist/collector/art-mover Ronald Montanez, and it drew a number artists from mostly the nearby neighborhoods to the south and east.
Sergio Gomez and Mario Gonzalez Jr.
Several pieces were collaborations between Sergio Gomez, and artist, curator, and gallerist associated with the Zhao B Center-- and Mario Gonzales Jr, also known as Zore, a well traveled graffiti master, whom I once wrote about here
Lately, Zore's paintings have gotten almost too dark to read. On the other hand, Sergio Gomez usually gives his upbeat, figurative paintings an intense, inner glow. Maybe too intense.
Which makes for a very enjoyable collaboration between these two extremes.
Ish Muhammad Nieves
Here's another artist who has taken graffiti from the urban landscape to the gallery wall.
Like many artists, and almost all poets, he has another career (power plant engineer). But that does not seem to have detracted from a single minded devotion to visuality.
Olga Knopf (Rybchenko)
This fiery landscape demonstrates how much a traditional Russian studio artist has in common with the Latin street artists in the same show.
Olga Knopf runs a large art restoration business with her husband, who, coincidentally, is the son of this noted Russian painter who spent his final years at the Palette and Chisel in Chicago.
