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The dreamlike distortions of Marcelo Suaznabar occupy the space between symbolism and surrealism, where hidden spiritual truths meet the wild, unfiltered currents of the unconscious mind.

Suaznabar (@marcelosuaznabar), the youngest of six brothers, was born and raised in the Bolivian mining town of Oruro. He first exhibited in group shows at the age of 16, going on to attend painting classes at the Catholic University of Chile. Since relocating to Canada in 2001, Suaznabar has been a fixture in galleries across North America, Latin America and Europe, with more than two dozen solo exhibitions and 100-plus group shows to his name. 

Suaznabar made his Vertical Gallery debut as part of our 2024 Summer Group Show, returning the following spring for our 12-Year Anniversary Show. Now he’s one of close to four dozen artists featured in Vertical’s group exhibition ‘ASCENDING,’ presented in partnership with Frame Chicago (1627 N. Clybourn Ave.). Learn much more about Suaznabar’s life and work in the latest installment of our web-exclusive Artist Spotlight series. 

Vertical Gallery: Tell us about "El reloj sigue marcando" and “Tres ojos,” the two oil paintings you’re contributing to ‘ASCENDING.’ 

Marcelo Suaznabar: In these two works, my interest was in exploring a portrait format, depicting figures who stare directly at the viewer with an intimidating gaze. These distorted figures are very characteristic of this stage of my creative process.

Your homepage includes the following quote: “I need to express something… thoughts, ideas, visions, and to express visually with the language of colour.” What thoughts, ideas or visions are you expressing through these two pieces?

Ideas and emotions are abstract until they take form on the canvas. My process begins on paper, where thoughts and visions first materialize as raw sketches before evolving into full paintings. 

With these two works, I am expressing the tension between the inner emotional world and the external viewer. The distorted, characteristic figures act as embodiments for feelings and memories, staring directly out at the observer to create a visual dialogue shaped entirely by the emotional language of colour.

What role does your subconscious mind play in relation to your conscious mind? 

I love generating new ideas that can contribute to something unique, letting my imagination flow and my conscious mind directly manage what can be created. The subconscious acts as the mediator of attitudes, memories and emotions, and thus they complement each other perfectly.

You’re a Bolivian artist based in Canada. How has living and working in these two radically different societies and cultures shaped the art you create?

Moving to Canada marked a profound shift in my work. Living in a completely different cultural environment has altered my daily rhythm, expanded how I process information and exposed me to new creative perspectives. Yet, despite the geographic distance, my memory continuously anchors me back to Bolivia. This duality fuels my art. 

As Canada shapes my present environment and process, my mind frequently travels back to revisit childhood memories, roots and the vivid atmosphere of my origins. My paintings exist in that bridge between past and present, blending the quiet reflection of my current surroundings with the deeply rooted memories of home.

You’ve cited inspirations like Salvador Dali, Bridget Tichenor and Remedios Varo. What role does surrealist art play in this increasingly surreal world we occupy?

From the enigmatic, visionary works of Hieronymus Bosch, who anticipated the surreal centuries ahead of his time, to our accelerated modern world where every image feels already seen, surrealism remains essential. In a time dominated by noise and constant movement, surrealism pulls us out of rigid, daily reality and immerses us in a dreamscape. It gives us a space to step back, process internal truths and reconnect with wonder, imagination and the subconscious.

What do you hope Vertical’s audience takes from experiencing your work? 

I want to create a compelling moment of observation that pulls the viewer in and encourages them to linger. Rather than offering a definitive answer, I aim to give the audience complete freedom of interpretation. I hope experiencing these pieces unlocks something personal within them, whether that is a sudden feeling, a distant memory or simply a new way of seeing. Ultimately, I want the work to act as a mirror for the observer’s own emotional landscape.

VIEW THE 'ASCENDING' GROUP SHOW EXHIBITION HERE

Jenny Frison is a cover star. The Chicago-adjacent illustrator ranks among the premier comic book cover artists of her generation, producing sensuous and painterly depictions of four-color icons from Wonder Woman to Red Sonja. 

Comic shops are not the only place where you can view Frison’s work, however. From Monday, Sept. 14 through Sunday, Oct. 18, she’s one of close to four dozen artists featured in Vertical Gallery’s kaleidoscopic group exhibition ‘ASCENDING,’ presented in partnership with Frame Chicago (1627 N. Clybourn Ave.). Frison (@jennyfrisonart) tells all in the latest installment of our web-exclusive Artist Spotlight series. 

Vertical Gallery: Tell us about the two pieces you’re contributing to “ASCENDING.’ 

Jenny Frison: I don't do a lot of gallery work, so when I do, I treat it as a bit of an experiment from how I do comic book work — like “There's nobody telling you what to draw, so draw whatever you want.” 

When I get to do whatever I like, it’s usually something that’s character-driven. I focus on the character’s strength and vulnerability, and I want things to be sort of ethereally beautiful. For ‘ASCENDING,’ I just decided to draw my favorite things, which are women's faces, hands and flowers. 

Your contributions to previous Vertical group shows featured mythological characters like Medusa and Persephone — archetypal symbols of feminine power. You’re also synonymous with Wonder Woman, another symbol of power rooted in Greek mythology. What draws you to these figures?

I loved mythology growing up. I hyper-focused on books about mythology when I was little, when nothing else could hold my interest. I still find it really interesting now. 

I also loved images of Wonder Woman. When I was very little I had a Wonder Woman children's book called Cheetah on the Prowl, but I didn't read a lot of Wonder Woman comics when I was a kid — I was reading Barbie comics and Archie comics instead. But when I was about 13, my older sister worked at a bookstore that carried a Wonder Woman art book. I remember looking at it and thinking “This is the coolest image I've ever seen.” I finally started reading the comics in high school, when I saw Adam Hughes’ first and second Wonder Woman covers on a spinner rack at the airport, and it blew my mind. 

From there I went back and read [writer/artist] George Pérez’s Wonder Woman reboot, which focused on the Greek mythology aspects of the character. I was already interested in Greek mythology, and I was already interested in Wonder Woman, so they simultaneously fed into each other.   

You detail your process on your website. Are there technical differences between how you approach gallery work compared to your comics work? 

I still sketch out each piece on the computer, and move everything around so that I get the composition that I want, with everything in proportion. Once I have the full drawing, I'll print it out on paper, and then finish drawing or finish painting or whatever. With comics, I just do a black and white drawing with the intention of finishing it with bright colors in Photoshop. I'm thinking about rendering — I'm not thinking about a finished art piece. 

The thing about commercial art is that there’s not really a ton of room to fuck it up. I always have the ability to fix something. With gallery work, whatever I get on paper is what gets turned in. I can't fix it on the computer later. So I approach it by trying to figure out what I can experiment with and still be successful at.

What goes into being a cover artist, anyway? How do you distill the essence of someone else's story into a single image?

It's so much more technical than you might think, because it really just depends on what I get to work with. I might get everything, or I might get nothing. 

Covers are one of the first things done on a comic, sometimes before they’re even written. Covers promote the books in the solicitation catalogs sent to comics retailers, and the catalog comes out months before the comic is published. So sometimes I'll have a full script, sometimes I'll have entire issues, and sometimes it’s “Draw Catwoman. We don't know what's going on in the book, just draw her being Catwoman.” 

I work mostly on variant covers, which means it’s the exact same comic inside, but with a different cover. There's always the A cover — the main cover — then there’s the B, the C, sometimes all the way to Z12 or something. The variant usually has less to do with what's going on inside than the A cover. I recently did a whole run of covers for Marvel where the editors only told me who the character was. I don’t think they even knew which book the cover was for. They just add my work to their backstock, and pull it out whenever they want to put it on a cover. 

If I get nothing, then I focus on what the character means to me. I'm just trying to draw something that I would pick up off a shelf — something with a limited color palette, and not too much detail. Something focusing on the character and some emotion, or a total lack of emotion, or somewhere in between.

You recently produced a variant cover for DC’s Absolute Batman, the best-selling comic in the U.S. market. What’s next?

I did a Wonder Woman cover for the 30th anniversary of DC’s Kingdom Come. That comes out next month. I also have a NSFW cover for a queer erotic body horror book from Boom! Studios called Gastronomique, and I’m doing ongoing covers for Hello Darkness, a horror anthology also from Boom! Studios.

Something Is Killing the Children is another hot book. The creator and writer, James Tynion IV, also worked on DC’s Swamp Thing for a really long time. I don't know how he did it, but he somehow got Boom! and DC to do a crossover, Swamp Thing Is Killing the Children, and I did a cover for that that was really fun. There’s a strong character who has vulnerabilities, and there's also blood and scary monsters, so it's the perfect cross-section of things I love to draw. 

Email us at sales@verticalgallery.com to inquire about available work from Jenny.

Vertical Gallery and Frame Chicago are very proud to present ‘ASCENDING,’ a kaleidoscopic group exhibition spotlighting close to four dozen artists from across the international urban-contemporary landscape. 

‘ASCENDING,’ which runs Monday, Sept. 14 through Sunday, Oct. 18 (including an opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 17), brings together 44 artists in total, representing 11 countries. The lineup includes mainstays of Vertical’s ongoing programming efforts, old friends returning after extended absences, and new friends exhibiting with Vertical for the very first time — a veritable who’s-who spanning a broad spectrum of styles, sensibilities, and price points.

“There’s something in this show for everyone,” says Vertical owner Patrick Hull. “Each artist in ‘ASCENDING’ has their own unique aesthetic. None of them could be mistaken for anyone else.”

The ‘ASCENDING’ roster, in alphabetical order: 

2CHOEY (TH), Adrian Armstrong (US), AJ Ainscough (US), Alex Senna (BR), Angel Onofre (US), Bird Milk (US), Blake Adams (US), Blake Jones (US), CABNOV (PH), Carlos Fdez [The Penrider] (ES), Chris Cunningham [Clean Cut Visuals] (UK), Christy Grossmann (US), Copyright (UK), Daniel Sueiras Fanjul (ES), Danny Martinez [Van Dam One] (US), Dwight White II (US), E.LEE (US), Florist (UK), Grant William Thye (US), Greg Gossel (US), Hama Woods (NO), Jaime Sancorlo (ES), James Lipnickas (US), Jamie Jones (CY), Jenny Frison (US), Jeremy Yamamura (JP), Jerome Tiunayan (US), Jordan Ferguson (US), Joseph Renda Jr. (US), Juliet Schreckinger (US), Laura Catherwood (US), LIE [Jay Turner] (US), Marcelo Suazabar (BO), Marcus Troy (CA), Martin Whatson (NO), Melrick Steele (US), Morgan Nicolette (US), Nate Otto (US), Pipsqueak was here!!! (NL), Pizza in the Rain (US), Rae Denise (US), Sergio Farfán (US), Steve Seeley (US), Troy Lee (US). 

‘ASCENDING’ features two original works from each artist, both sized 11 x 14 in. (30 x 40 cm). “This show is very much in the tradition of old-school Vertical group shows,” Hull says. “There’s no specific theme to the work. We’re allowing the artists to create just what they want to create.”

‘ASCENDING’ is presented in partnership with Frame Chicago, located in picturesque Lincoln Park. The 45-year-old custom framing business has doubled as an exhibition space since 2019. 

“We've partnered with Vertical Gallery in various capacities over the last several years, but this is the first time we’ve partnered for an exhibition. It’s also Frame Chicago’s first time showcasing international work,” says owner Alisha Rajani. “When viewers see all these pieces together in our environment, it's really going to make an impact.”

‘ASCENDING’ kicks off Thursday, Sept. 17 at Frame Chicago (1627 N. Clybourn Ave.) from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Email sales@verticalgallery.com to receive the advance digital collector's preview

Joy Machine and Vertical Gallery are excited to share their first collaborative exhibition, Wanderland by Collin van der Sluijs. This marks the artist’s sixth solo exhibition in Chicago and more than a decade in partnership with Vertical Gallery. It’s his first presentation at Joy Machine.

Wanderland comprises a new body of work developed during a two-year period. Spanning enormous mixed-media paintings, intimate drawings, and skate decks bearing the artist’s signature birds, the exhibition reflects both the momentous and mundane, particularly loss, grief, and the therapeutic powers of nature.

View the show here.

A portmanteau of wander and wonderland, the title evokes van der Sluijs’ continued devotion to imagining a vast, dreamlike ecosystem. For the past decade, he’s produced various bodies of work as a sort of world-building exercise, intuitively selecting a blend of oil paint, acrylic, watercolor, and more to render dynamic still lifes and portraits of figures subsumed by chaos. Wanderland continues in this vein, once again presenting hazy bouquets that allude to the artist’s Dutch heritage and a melange of symbols and markings referencing his background in street art. "Collin works in such a wide range of styles—like a modern twist on classical painting, with graffiti and illustration mixed in," Patrick Hull, Vertical’s owner and curator, shares. 

Each collection emerges through a lengthy process of trial and error, and often, van der Sluijs will work on a piece for years, even turning it around to face the wall periodically to provide a brief respite while in his studio. “I really need to make big mistakes and fight my way out of it,” he adds. In this way, cultivating wonder and an unceasing desire to explore his inner emotional and external landscapes is an essential part of the process.  Wanderland is about “a walk to the visual world that you create around yourself, like wandering around. But it's also like diving into the unknown.”

Following a collection of darker pieces made in the early years of the pandemic, Wanderland emerges with more levity and hope, albeit not without difficulty and grief. While working toward the exhibition, the artist broke his ankle, rendering it impossible for him to stand while painting larger canvases hanging on the wall. Instead, he had to sit, stretching himself across the horizontal surfaces and contending with a novel, challenging mode of making.

And despite his physical limitations, van der Sluijs also spent more time venturing outdoors during the last two years. Making small works on paper amid natural settings was a sort of balm in processing the recent death of a friend. “All those personal stories, they make the context of a show,” he adds.

To celebrate more than a decade of collaborations, Vertical Gallery published a book commemorating the occasions, titled Wanderland: 1991-2026. Its pages juxtapose the artist’s exploits as a painter, muralist, and graffiti writer with the more personal moments that define his roles as husband, son, father, and friend. 

Wanderland runs from July 10 to August 22. An opening reception will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on July 10. The artist will be present.

Collin van der Sluijs: ‘Wanderland’
July 10 – Aug. 22
Opening reception: Friday July 10, 6:00-9:00pm
Joy Machine, 4148 N. Elston Ave., Chicago

View the show here.

Florist fills the cracks of urban life. The London-based artist’s hand-cut, pixel-patterned mosaic installations transform blight into beauty, bringing color and purpose to forlorn spaces across Europe, India and Africa. 

Now Florist (@florist.ldn) is setting his sights on America. On July 1, Vertical Gallery will release “Stars, Stripes and Stems,” his first screenprint for the U.S. market, produced in celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Learn all about Florist’s blossoming career in the latest installment of our web-exclusive Artist Spotlight series. 

Vertical Gallery: Tell us about “Stars, Stripes and Stems.” 

Florist: It's a symbol of affection for your country — for your culture and your way of life.

There's an artist here in England called Fat Cap Sprays, and we went out for a walk the other day. He said to me “It was really refreshing to hear you say on one of your Instagram videos that you love America. That’s a very controversial thing to say.” Which I think is absolutely bonkers. There are parts of any presidency that people aren’t going to like, but I'm not here for that. I'm here for the America that I loved seeing on TV when I was growing up — the films, the cartoons, the stories, the history. 

I’m sure somebody's gonna pick apart all these things. That's the time we live in, where everybody's arguing over everything. But I just really love America, and I'm not afraid to say that. 

You’ve installed mosaics everywhere from Manchester to Mumbai. Where and how did you learn your craft?

I lived a lot of my life going off the beaten track, and not being as productive as I wish I was. I was drinking and taking drugs and stuff like that. When I got sober, I decided I needed to do something with my life. I had a folder with mosaic photos I’d saved from Instagram, and I was like “I want to do that.” I wanted to create something that would last, you know?

I started out by watching videos on YouTube. I scoured [French street artist] Invader’s videos, trying to learn how to make it efficient and quick. But the process is very confusing to get across in a video, so I became quite stuck. I then paid for a very short course at the London School of Mosaic, which has since closed down. They liked what I created, and said that I should apply for a scholarship. I got the scholarship, but I only stayed there for one term. To be honest, it was too slow, and I already knew what I wanted to do: I wanted to fill these bits of plaster that have fallen off of buildings or whatnot. 

At first I wanted to fill them with quotes, or proverbs, or famous lines from films or songs. But it was too complicated. The biggest mosaic I did read “In the blue of this life,” which is a line from the Beach House song “Lazuli.” It meant the world to me. But when I showed it to a friend of mine called Joe, he said “What the fuck does it mean?” He didn’t know the song. I realized anybody walking by is gonna objectively look at it and be like “It’s meaningless.” I needed to focus on images, so that people can draw from them what they want. 

What is your process? What kinds of materials and tools do you use?

Originally, I would make old-style mosaics laid by hand, the way the Romans and the Mesopotamians made them. The name for that is Andamento [an Italian term for the visual flow, movement and directional lines created by a mosaic’s tiles, known as tesserae]. Putting them up in the street is a real challenge, though. The version I do now is called “pixelated,” and it’s a lot quicker. You just slap the tiles down. You can do a square meter in about three days, whereas a square meter in old-style mosaic will take you a week.

If you’ve ever seen mosaics laid out in grid fashion inside a swimming pool or a sauna or a steam room, there are grout lines in white or black or grey. I don't like grout lines, so I had some trays 3D-printed to remove them. The tiles sit next to each other, held in place using industrial-strength glue. The rest is just my eye — knowing which colors look good, where to put the piece on the street, visibility, and stuff like that.

It takes so long to make a mosaic. A lot of thought goes into it, and it's expensive, so it's kind of soul-crushing when the stars don't align and one gets removed. But with some of my mosaics, the stars have aligned, and they're still there. They're the best ones. Someone recently shared with me an image of a piece I did last year in Barcelona. I love the art, but I'm more interested in the fact that it's still there. It means I did a good job.

Where did this passion for mosaics originate in the first place?

I love repeating patterns. I’ve looked into why using a bit of ChatGPT — Freudian psychology, Jungian psychology and stuff — and it's probably to do with the safety of predictability. The cityscape is chaos. It's lights, it's police sirens, it's this and it's that. A repeated pattern that fills a space gives people a sense of calm very deep down.

I’m most interested in mosaics and alfresco wall paintings from the antiquity period — art that’s stood the test of time. When I was young, I went to a Roman villa, where I saw a mosaic of Medusa. I vividly remember my teacher saying to me “Don't stare at it, or you'll turn to stone.” 

Why did you adopt the Florist alias?

I’ve always been fascinated by the relationship between humans and flowers, and how that must have come about. Flowers are just the most beautiful things in the world. They’re arranged for weddings, anniversaries, deaths — the most profound moments in our lives. I remember reading in a book by [self-help author] Eckhart Tolle that flowers could have been the first form of currency.

There was also a game I played when I was younger, called Final Fantasy VII. I loved this game so much. A character in it is called Arieth, and she was a florist — a flower seller. Arieth gets killed in the game, and my friend Dean and I have always said that moment was kind of our first introduction to grief. It was just so sad. 

What’s next for you?

I’m in ‘Ascending’ [Vertical Gallery’s September 2026 group exhibition]. I've spent the last few days thinking about what to submit. This will be my first U.S. gallery exhibition. I'm excited for that. 

I've also been toying with what to put in Brick Lane, a spot near where I live in London. During the daytime, there’s a lot of commerce there — people buying stuff. At nighttime, there's a lot of addicts running around, and a lot of drunk people. It's the last place you would go for tranquility. I want to do a waterfall: rocks and flowers and a blue sky. Something that would really stand out. It's all about creating little moments of serenity.

PURCHASE "STARS, STRIPES AND STEMS" HERE