Guest Editor Alex Jovanovich
Blood and death and poor as dirt
Can't leave bed--it all just hurts.
The days are shot and people are rotten--
But fuck all that: Beauty's not forgotten!
Art is magic and life can be nice
Even when festooned in shit and lice.
So dry your tears, babe, you ain't no tool,
And enjoy this most magisterial of editions--
The One And Only: Charm School.
Allan Bailey
Allan Bailey was raised in Portland, Oregon and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Allan Bailey is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Amber Hawk Swanson
Amber Hawk Swanson, born 1980, is a New York-based artist born in Davenport, Iowa. Hawk Swanson's video and performance work blurs lines between victim and victimizer, care and punishment, self-love and self-objectification to examine the still unresolved questions in contemporary feminism. Recent exhibitions and screenings include Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Denny Gallery (NYC), Momenta Art (Brooklyn), and Locust Projects (solo, Miami). Recent residencies include Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, LMCC, Workspace (NYC), MacDowell (New Hampshire), Yaddo (New York), Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program (NYC), Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (Maine), Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida), and Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (NYC). Recent visiting artist lecture appointments include Columbia University (NYC), NYU's Tisch School of Arts (NYC), McGill University (Montreal), Hunter College (Studio Arts and Film, NYC), and FIT (Photography, NYC). Her work is included in the permanent and MPP collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago) and has been profiled and reviewed in The Drama Review (TDR), Criticism, GLQ, The Huffington Post, and by The Associated Press. Hawk Swanson holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Studio Arts, 2006) and is a recipient of a 2014 Franklin Furnace Fund Grant.
amberhawkswanson.com
Amber Hawk Swanson is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Emily Mae Smith
Emily Mae Smith was born 1979 in Austin, TX and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA from Columbia University and BFA from the University of Texas at Austin. Recent US exhibitions of her work include: "Novelty Court" (solo exhibition) at Junior Projects, New York, "Help is on the Way" organized by Sean Landers at Wasserman Projects, MI, and "Parallax Futured" at the Skirball Museum, Cincinnati, OH. International exhibitions include the 2010 Portuguese Biennial and the SOMA Museum of Art in Seoul. Smith's work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Artforum.com, and Art Papers magazine.
Emily Mae Smith is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Francine Spiegel
Francine Spiegel is from Miami Beach, FL and currently lives and works in Saugerties, NY. Francine received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Art and Design in 1997. She works in painting and performance art. Francine is represented by Loyal Gallery. Previous exhibitions include: The Visit, LOYAL, Malmö (2010 solo); Con Amore, Leif Djurhuus Collection, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark (2011); Dadarhea,curated by Jim Drain and Devin Flynn, CANADA, New York (2011) and OHWOW, Miami (2010); Portugal Arte 10: A Survey of Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal (2010); Mud and Milk, Deitch Projects, New York (2009 solo); New York Minute: 60 Artists on the New York Scene, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow (2011) and MACRo Future Museum, Rome (2009); Mail Order Monsters, curated by Kathy Grayson, Max Wigram, London and Andreas Melas Presents, Athens (2008) and Peres Projects (2007); The Ice Cream Show at LOYAL in Stockholm (2008); How Could You?, Bas Fisher Invitational, Miami (2007 solo).
loyalgallery.com/gl037_francine_spiegel.html
Francine Spiegel is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Isak Applin
Isak Applin’s recent paintings celebrate the lost legends, love stories and eccentric characters unique to the mill towns and seaports of the American Northeast. Isak’s paintings and drawings have been exhibited throughout the US, Canada, Germany and, most recently, at the Hughes Gallery in Sydney, Australia. An avid printmaker, his graphic work may be found in New York Public Library’s Special Collections and the Boston Public Library Print Collection. He currently resides in Chicago.
Isak Applin is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Jason Martin
Jason Martin is a visual artist and musician. His current works include a series of performances, videos, and photographs called Power Animal System: Species and gender-queer explorations of mysterious forces channelled through hybrid beings from elsewhere. As a musician with an extensive discography and touring history, Jason has played in many ensembles and projects including leading a multi-media performance troupe Brown Cuts Neighbors (1989 – 2002), based out of Schenectady NY’s local Public Access television station, featuring countless members. He has an extensive history in community media and Public Access television as both a creator and teacher. Jason retuned to school, receiving an MFA at New York University in 2010.
Jason Martin is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Jerome Acks
Jerome Acks was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He resides in Chicago, IL. Acks received his MFA in Painting and Drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was a recipient of the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship. His practice stems from painting, but his work crosses over to other media. A few past exhibitions include smooth square soft, soft circle at 65GRAND in Chicago, IL, Night Sky at Evanston Art Center in Evanston, IL and Real Time at NudaShank in Baltimore, MD. Jerome is also a member of the collective, Adds Donna, who run a gallery space in Chicago, IL. Adds Donna have exhibited in Portland, OR and Vienna, Austria.
Jerome Acks is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Jessica Lauffer
Jessica Lauffer was born in Northwestern Pennsylvania. After earning her MFA in Poetry at the New School, she still resides in New York City. Her poems have been featured in B. E. Literary and for the Reader’s Pick on the Birdsong Micropress website. Her poems are often obsessive reflections of her passion for cult stars, underground films, slasher movies, monsters, and Catholic imagery.
Jessica Lauffer is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Lamar Peterson
Lamar Peterson received a BS from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. Inspired by elementary school bulletin boards, educational activity books, and crepe paper streamers, Peterson creates graphic portraits of an irrational world where happy characters are resolutely accepting of grotesque misfortune. The plague of absurdities presented in these paintings is rooted in popular culture as much as it is in old-hat surrealism. Issues of community and social and economic upheaval are candy-colored and darkly comic. Smiling faces are unrelenting. Peterson never allows his people to be fazed. They never notice the nightmare. And it is here, within this pitiless deadpan that his work resonates. Lamar Peterson lives and works in Minneapolis, MN.
fredericksfreisergallery.com/artists/peterson/
Lamar Peterson is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Libby Rothfeld
Libby Rothfeld was born in 1990 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She received her BFA from New York University in 2012. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Libby Rothfeld is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Mindy Rose Schwartz
Mindy Rose Schwartz is a sculptor and installation artist living in Chicago. She makes work that shows the morphing effect use, experience, and emotion can have on our perception of things. Schwartz has shown her work at The Gowanas Ballroom, NY; Three Walls Gallery, Chicago; Renaissance Society, University of Chicago; Old Gold Gallery, Chicago; Rose Museum, MA; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and the Spertus Museum, Chicago. Publications/Bibliography includes: Studio Life by Sarah Trigg, Bad at Sports, Art 21 Blog, ArtForum, Flavorpill, Frieze Magazine, New AmericanPainters #71, Art in America, Mouth to Mouth, Dialogue, WBEZ, and AJS Perspectives. She is the recipient of a Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Charitable Foundation for the Arts award and recently had a solo show at QT gallery in Chicago.
Mindy Rose Schwartz is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Nicole Pérez
Nicole Pérez is a painter based in Chicago for the last 25 years. Born in New Orleans, she spent her teen years in rustic west Texas. These vastly different terrains have generously contributed to Nicole’s absorption with color, space, detachment, connection, and pleasure. Nicole earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006, and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004.
Nicole Pérez is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Ross Moreno
Ross Moreno graduated in 2005 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an MFA in Sculpture, also studying performance and video. He received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001, having also studied at the Edinburgh College of Art and the Maine College of Art. Moreno has performed and exhibited in cities worldwide including Hong Kong, Berlin, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. His work has been reviewed in Time Out Chicago and New City. Additionally, Moreno has been interviewed as part of the Art Forum 500 words series and lectured about the intersection of magic and art at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Moreno attended the summer residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2003, receiving an artist fellowship, and in 2009 he attended the Vermont Studio Center with a full fellowship. Ross Moreno is the recipient of grants from the Visiting Artist Fellowship Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Illinois Arts Council. Moreno has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Carthage College, Kenosha, WI. Moreno is a current member of the Society of American Magicians.
Ross Moreno is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Ryan Richey
Ryan Richey was born in 1979 in Bloomington, Indiana. He attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received a BFA and MFA. He currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.
Ryan Richey is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
Shari Elf
Shari Elf is a singer-songwriter, fashion designer, raw food chef, community builder, life coach (with training from Dr. Pat Allen's WANT Institute in Newport Beach, CA) and maker of art from trash. Harvested from her travels or mailed from patrons, trash is transformed into magic, with poignant and exuberant slogans framing creatures, landscapes, and scenes from dreams we all wish we had every night. Shari Elf received a BFA from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington in 1983 noting that she does not think her formal art education "damaged her creativity" too much. She also received a degree in Fashion Technology from Maui Community College. She created her own clothing line and ran her “Elf Wear” brand for several years, sewing one-of-a-kind hand painted knitwear to the better boutiques on Maui and Oahu. Shari performed at the 2003 TED Conference, singing songs from her 2001 debut album "I'm Forcing Goodness Upon You." She currently lives in her cabin near Joshua Tree, California.
Shari Elf is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Alex Jovanovich
