The Art+Design Opening at Las Manos Gallery!

Las Manos Gallery's ART+DESIGN show featured vignettes created by local Andersonville design shops. Each business staged furniture, lamps and objects in the space. The gallery paired art with each vignette.

People mingled and took the time to be in each space.

Sherry Elfstrom, left, the owner of Urban Mischief sits in the space she designed at the gallery. Artist Mitch O'Connell's paintings were paired with her boudoir-style setting.

Italian leather chairs were tested out and Ben Brant's piece made of Ipe wood was ogled.

Artist Christopher Ilth, left, sits with a few of his collage pieces on Friday night. At right Photographer Paul Clark talks about his 90-panel piece made up of small fuji insta prints.

Monika Wulfers and Derek Ottens discuss his piece "Chinese Mountains," at left. Ceramic vessels by Doug Reyes are seen in the image at right.

Artist Nathan Torrence tries out an electric guitar build by Phil Wright, who looks at artwork in the image at right.

Artist Jonathan Glick sits with a few of his "egg" candles. At left are his lanterns.

ART+DESIGN Show!

OPENING FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2nd  7-10PM

In order to have good design you must have original art. Las Manos Gallery is embracing this concept by working together with independently owned design shops in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago. Each business is invited to use their design method to create vignettes in the gallery.

Work by gallery artists will be paired with each unique installation. This gives the designers a chance to showcase their vision and give patrons an opportunity to understand how to incorporate new or existing artwork into their space with an eye towards good design.

Featured artists are Michael McGuire, Tricia Rumbolz, Patrick Manning, John Mosher, Ben Rosecrans, Rita Grendze, Michelle Peterson-Albandoz, Doug Reyes, Steve Green, Mieke Zuiderweg and James Peterson.

Manga book sculptures by Monika Wulfers

Artist Monika Wulfers creates a cone-shaped sculpture out of Manga - Japanese comic books for boys and girls. Wulfers originally started working with newspaper strips, weaving both American and foreign papers together but transitioned into this series after finding the colorful booklets intriguing. Several of her pieces will be on display during Las Manos Gallery's Art+Design show this month.

Upcoming show at the Gallery!

Incredible objects by Rita Grendze

Rita Grendze is a sculptor that lived and worked in New York City and now resides in Geneva, Illinois. Her sculptures are made from varying materials including steel and found objects. 

Grendze made the found object piece Fireplace after a long, tiring day of walking in the city. In observing the piece, it does exude a certain kind of hostile energy akin to the city; it's as if the piece might spontaneously burst into flames before the viewers eyes, just as Grendze felt like her feet were on fire after walking all day. Grendze’s steel sculpture Bountiful is more focused on contradiction, she uses welded steel in this piece to portray natural objects inspired by farming. The piece then becomes a bounty of obviously hand-welded steel as opposed to a bounty of homegrown food. This creates the contrast between city and country, man made and manufactured.

"Fireplace"

"Bountiful"

Lisa Whiting's Synapse

Lisa Whiting’s whimsical piece entitled "Synase" is entirely hand knitted, felted, and then stuffed with rice. The piece comments on the idea of meditating on knitting, and registering how the artist’s thoughts combine together both literally and metaphorically. Whiting says that in making the piece, “the knit became a montra”, she became completely absorbed in the process. Whiting is a local Chicago artist and she owns a knitting shop in Andersonville called Sifu Design Studio.

Click Here to connect to Lisa's site.

Each "synapse" was created by an individual pattern. The pieces were then felted- a process of running the knitted construction through heat and moisture to matt the fibers together. 

The tubes were also felted but fitted with electrical conduit to hold its form.

Photographs by Mieke Zuiderweg, Posting by Emily Eddy

Robert Burnier at Las Manos Gallery

Artist Robert Burnier's paper sculptures have graced the pedestals of Las Manos
Gallery for the past several months. The work was meticulously created by
observing the multiple angles and planes of a single crumpled piece of paper.
The lines were traced, transferred into Google Sketchup and augmented into
3D shapes. The possibilities of this single crumpled sheet are endless...

Yupo paper is a actually plastic material. It ranges from artwork to commercial
use. The top of tic-tac boxes are one example. It has strength, flexibility can be
recycled.



"CP 3B1"



A detail of CP 3B1.

Post and Photographs by Mieke Zuiderweg