Sixty Three days: First Year Graduate Show 2012

Sixty Three days: First Year Graduate Show 2012

First year MFA candidates at Northern Illinois University will be exhibiting at

215 N. 4th St DeKalb, Illinois 60115  

 

 

Location: 215 Art Gallery 

Exhibition Dates: Nov 1- 9, 2012

Opening Reception: Thursday, Nov 1 at 7p.m. 

Free and Open to the Public!

Gallery Hours:

Tues: 12 noon to 5 p.m. 

Sat: 12 noon to 5 p.m.

 

In my world- expressive mark making (NIU)

I am at NIU!!! Holla!

Soooo I have not blogged in a super long time. I have been really busy, as of August I have been at Northern Illinois University in pursuit of my MFA.

I spent a year at GSU as an MA graduate and with the artistic guidance of Javier Chavira I was able to build my portfolio and get accepted to NIU for my MFA. :)

Time flies!! I cant believe how fast time is going by. I am living in a new place, going to a new school, and making new friends.. I am going to cry..Dear Diary... lol

I am in love with my new life. I miss my family and friends, I miss Union Street Gallery and I miss working with Jeff Stevenson at the Visual Art Gallery!! But this whole concept of me sleeping whenever I want, making art as much as I want..well that is just pretty darn amazing.. I want time to slow down, I am in a three year program and I do not want it to go by fast.. Real life STINKS!!!

I have met amazing people here at NIU, and an amazing artist and teacher Katie Kahn :) every teacher here has been great and I cant wait to meet and study under other teachers next semester!!

anyways enough talk...Here are pics of the Art that I have been making at NIU!! yes..in my very own studio...holla!!

enjoy the pics...

 This is the first time in a while that I have drawn on paper.. it was a lot easier than drawing on cardboard I tell you.. It is 6 ft tall and 3 ft wide (i think). I will get into the concept of the subject matter in another post :)

 

Boxes!!!!! Staying true to my first love- Cardboard!!! I am slowly making more sculptural work. still being expressive and having fun!! I found that living in dekalb forces me to recall childhood memories..most if not all of the work I did this first semester is all about memories I have..This is also about 5ft wide and 3ft tall.

 Staying true to the Technique Mixte.. Here I am just exploring and learning more about the actual technique of glazing.

 More Technique mixte :) adding color to my work with the use of collage! Thinking about negative space and connecting shapes to other shapes..puzzle like.

This is modified image in Photoshop... FUN!



I will soon be posting a video of a performance / sculpture that I did.!!!!

Holla!!!

Threshold Exhibition

Union Street Gallery presents : Threshold April 13- May 5th , Opening Reception Friday April 13th- 6-9pm

"Threshold features 8 emerging artists from Illinois. These artists are at the beginning of their careers, but their work is beyond expectations. These artists have creating smart, dynamic and cohesive bodies of work and have already begun to establish themselves as professional  artists. Work exhibiting is exciting, engaging, provoking, cynical, whimsical, nostalgic, and fun.

The opening reception will be Friday April 13, 6-9pm. This exhibit and opening reception are free and open to the public. Many of the exhibiting artists will be present to engage the audience." -as described in Union Street Gallery News letter

http://www.unionstreetgallery.org/

I have the honor of exhibiting my current work at this exhibit. The opening reception will be this friday, April 13th from 6-9pm.  The list of artist may be found below!! Its going to be a great exhibit, the work from the other artist that are also exhibiting is AWESOME!!! check them out below!!

Jonathan Casserilla http://www.jonathancasserilla.com/index2.php#/home/
Adrian Chin http://adrian-chin.com/home.html
Rebecca Chmielewski http://rebeccachmielewski.com/home.html
Lauren Harlowe http://www.laurenharlowe.com/paintings/older-works/4840392
Hector Manuel Hernandez http://hectormanuelhernandez.com/home.html
Luis Sahagun http://www.wix.com/lsahagun2/artanddesign
Amanda Voltz  website n/a
Michael Webster  http://michaeldwebster.com/section/272696_Mark_of_Work.html

Botanic / Organic 2012

 Botanic / Organic- National Exhibition 2012

February 29-March 31 | 2012  

Juried by Elizabeth Whiting, Curator for the Union League Club, Chicago, IL

Opening Reception Friday March 2nd | 6-9pm

This was a great exhibition! Alot of governors state university student artist work were in the exhibit, along with the university's alumni and current professors.  You may go to this link to see the online exhibition as well  http://www.unionstreetgallery.org/botanicorganic2012.htm

It was exciting for me to hear that Juror Elizabeth Whiting selected my work to receive Honorable Mention!! Thats a total of 2 awards this year!! haha sry can you tell its my first art awards :)

But please check out the online exhibition there are some pretty awesome pieces there!!

G.I JOE- COBRA "In progress"

SOOoo im drawing a 5 foot tall Cobra G.I Joe soldier..it is about 95 % done, I need to go back in and render things a bit tighter (in some areas). this was truly a project about process, and alot of time management. Working 2 jobs and making time for this project was a challenge. But one that I was able to handle! I divided it into sessions, a total of 7 session to add up to roughly 25 hours or drawing time. YIKES!

Its actually about the time it takes for me to do a painting as well, actually a painting probably takes alot longer! anyways, this was nuts, it was fun and i hope people like it. I have been getting pretty good responses from the people that have seen it thus far! So i Hope some more of that to come.

OK! concept: the idea is about. how "life" represented by the COBRA soldier  is brutal! so when we are children, our way of coping with problems is through play-  play becomes our meditation.   Our childhood however gets almost raped and attacked by real life tragedies and this is what the toy represents.  this piece is only 1/3 done I will have more soldiers in a Swat like position getting ready to attack more happy toys, video game and cartoon characters.  So hopefully there will be a huge contrast between color in the piece and also happy vs evil.

At this point the toy by itself doesnt convey the message- so for now its a piece that may be shown alone, kinda becomes a one liner.. but i think its still effective by itself, its drawn well enough to stand alone. People are sucked into it because the fact thats its a drawing of a huge toy! people can relate to it, and you can even argue that conclusions could be made as to what this toy (alone) represents. I think its successful. well see what others believe.

what do you all believe??!

2012 Illinois Community College Juried Exhibition

The Visual Arts Gallery located in Governors State University,(where I work as a graduate gallery assistant)is having their 2012 Annual Community College Juried Exhibition. It is for all student artist enrolled in a community college in Illinois. This has been a super tough exhibit to organize but it has also been a lot of fun and a great learning experience (working with young students). I was responsible for designing the Prospectus, promoting, doing all the data entry for the exhibit, and well all the good stuff that goes into doing a large exhibition. The exhibit is up and running, there is some awesome artwork come check it out!! Reception and awards ceremony is Saturday March 3rd from 1-4pm.. Here is a link to the exhibit facebook page http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.339432779420521.84788.164905230206611&type=1 ICCJE Numbers 2012 Entries: 236 art works from 93 students from 9 schools 11% College of DuPage 1% Heartland 1% John Wood 23% Joliet Junior College 31% Kankakee Community College 1% Malcolm X 9% Parkland 10% Prairie State Community College 8% South Suburban Community College 12% [unknown – entry forms incomplete or missing] Selected Work: 55 Juror’s selection (55 art works from 34 students from 7 schools) 23% Percent of total entries (77% were eliminated from the competition) 6 College of Dupage 0 Heartland 3 John Wood 17 Joliet Junior College 8 Kankakee Community College 0 Malcolm X 11 Parkland 6 Prairie State Community College 4 South Suburban Community College 0 [unknown – entry forms incomplete or missing]

"Urban Realism" an exhibition by Luis Sahagun- Jan 19th

Using the street environment as my inspiration allows me to blur the line between high and low art. By using urban materials and a contemporary process I create a merge between academia and street art. Furthermore, I connect my artwork with historical context such as Greek / Roman mythology and symbolic meanings from nature. The outcome challenges the audience to re-evaluate their preconceived notions of which materials are accepted as beautiful in art. It also allows them to examine antecedent subject matter with a new and distinctively personal interpretation.- Luis Sahagun

Holla at yo boi! k sorry had too much coffee. Just wanted to post that I will be having a Solo exhibition titled Urban Realism at Moraine Valley Community College in the atrium walls located at 9000 W. College Pkwy., Palos Hills, IL 60465.

The reception will be Thursday Jan 19th from 2-4pm. If any ones to come out and say hello I will be there.

My work will be located at the atrium of the building that houses the theatre and gallery at Moraine Valley Community College. There are a total of 8 52" x 52" display cases- about 3 inches deep. My work is in there and quite honestly it made for a strong exhibit.

You can find a 50" x 50" chicago heights hydra, which is a personal interpretation of how i deal and attempt to over come or kill this chicago heights hydra of a beast! Mostly in reference to government officials like police, ice and the court system..

Just keeping it real..haha



For more details on the exhibit you can go to the Moraine Valley website at http://www.morainevalley.edu/fpac/Season/gallery_atrium.htm

for more details on my work you can go to my website at http://www.wix.com/lsahagun2/artanddesign

or at my behance portfolio at http://www.behance.net/gallery/Urban-realism/2756943

"I Shall be released" an exhibition at Union Street Gallery

I Shall Be Released, is on the 2nd floor at Union Street Gallery, runs January 11-February 11, 2012

Juried exhibit featuring 30 artists from the Midwest chosen by juror Sergio Gomez of 33 Contemporary.

This is a great exhibit taking place at Union Street Gallery, yours truly had the honor of being accepted to the exhibit. I actually received honorable mentioned for my work titled "Janus on Cardboard". You guys should def come check this exhibit out.

The reception passed already :( sorry, but there is still time to go see the exhibitions.

You can also find my painting titled "prisoner" which is a work in progress , in the front window display at Union Street Gallery.

awesome show! don't miss out!

Holla!



I Shall Be Released Exhibiting Artists
Scott Anderson
Aaron Coleman
Cleveland Dean
Sherri Denualt
Babara Edwards
Tanya Gadbaw
Margie Glass-Sula
Diana Leviton Gondek
Hai Ri Han
Sarah Knill
Liz Kolben
Marina Kuchinski
Jonathan McFadden
Jennifer Moore
Nancy Mueller
Diane Ramos
Barry Reithmeier
Stephan Roll
Marina Ross
Luis Sahagun
William Sclater
Jessica Segal
Eva D. Smith
Mimi Solum
Amelin Spinney
Aaron Tinder
Jennifer Webster
Michael Weigman
Margi Weir
Peter Wilhelm