Vertical Gallery is excited to partner with the Chicago Culture Couple for their third curated show, ‘The Hunt.’ The exhibit, featuring work from Swoon, DAIN, Bradley Theodore, PichiAvo, Alex Senna, Millo, Martina Nehrling, Fintan Magee, Icy and Sot, Tony Sjöman, Daleast, Nicolas Holiber and 1010, runs March 5 – 26, with an opening-day reception on Saturday, March 5 from noon-6pm.

THE VIEW EXHIBITION

The Chicago Culture Couple, Julia and Jake Oher, are avid street art enthusiasts. For over a decade, they have traveled the world to see artists’ work up close, seeking out murals on the streets, visiting artists studios, and forming connections with artists. Like all art enthusiasts, they are always on ‘The Hunt’ for the next great work. Having curated two other shows at Vertical (‘Searching for Surfaces’ in 2017 and ‘The Power of Paint’ in 2015), they are returning with an incredible group of artists, some showing at Vertical for the first time.

Caledonia Curry, known as Swoon, is a contemporary artist and filmmaker recognized around the world for her pioneering vision of public artwork. She is one of the first women street artists to gain international recognition in a male-dominated field, pushing the conceptual limits of the genre and paving the way for a generation of female artists. 

DAIN is one of the most influential street artists to emerge from New York. His genre-crossing work combines wheatpasting, silkscreening, spray paint, collage, and acrylic, fusing the visual language of graffiti with vintage collaged portraits of Hollywood glamour stars. Many of DAIN’s pieces are created back and forth between the street and the studio.

Bradley Theodore is a multi-disciplinary contemporary artist who was born in Turks and Caicos. He started his career adorning the streets of New York City with vibrant, chromatic murals of skeletons depicting contemporary pop culture and fashion royalty. Theodore’s iconoclastic approach to art can be found internationally, from 10-foot murals on the streets of Tokyo, Paris and Milan, to sold-out solo exhibitions in London and NYC.

PichiAvo are a street-art duo from Spain who have gained international acclaim for large-scale murals and sculptural installations that fuse classical art and Greek mythology with contemporary graffiti aesthetics. Since 2007, the pair have collaborated to make work that pays homage to the techniques and figuration of Renaissance masters.

Alex Senna is an artist and illustrator from Sao Paulo, Brazil. His expressive murals, which usually feature lanky characters and address themes of love, romance and friendship, bring an overwhelming softness to their grey, urban surroundings. A self-taught artist inspired by creatives such as Speto, Vitché, Twist, Ziraldo, Walt Disney and Will Eisner, Senna combines illustration, comics and graffiti from the 1990s into a playful poetic narrative.

Italian artist Francesco Camillo Giorgino, known as Millo, paints large-scale murals that feature friendly inhabitants exploring their urban setting. He uses simple black and white lines, with dashes of color when necessary, and incorporates elements of architecture into his multi-story paintings.

Martina Nehrling is an American abstract artist whose dynamic and richly textured paintings evoke kaleidoscopic worlds of pattern, color, shadow and form. Her work is internationally exhibited and part of many public and private collections. She lives and works in Chicago.

Fintan Magee is a Sydney-based social realist painter specializing in large-scale murals. Magee’s work is driven by his recognition of the power of murals to communicate political and social viewpoints, and thus divide or unite communities. His paintings, which often inhabit the isolated, abandoned, and broken corners of the city, are found all over the world.

ICY and SOT are brothers and stencil artists from Tabriz, Iran, currently residing in Brooklyn. They are known for work depicting human rights, ecological justice, and social and political issues. Their stencils appear on walls and galleries throughout the world.

Brooklyn-based mural and studio artist Tony “Rubin” Sjöman was raised in the working-class housing projects of Gothenburg, Sweden. This gritty upbringing inspired him to write his first tag in the city’s tram tunnels. Rubin is now known for a complex, abstract-geometric style with muted color palettes and clean lines. He has painted all over the world, and his work has been shown in galleries throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Chinese-born DALeast is a prolific, multi-faceted artist famous for his large murals, in which uncountable metal shards form beautiful shapes. He has been making art since he was three, and studied Sculpture at the Institute of Fine Arts. He is fascinated by every form of art and has worked on everything — painting, sculpture, installations, synchronizing performance, and digital art.

Nicolas Holiber is a Brooklyn-based artist known for large-scale public works and mixed-media paintings. Holiber combines found and reclaimed objects with artistic materials, drawing inspiration from the fragmented remains of ancient sculpture and the artwork of past civilizations. His art is characterized by its vivid use of color, composition and line, producing multi-dimensional pieces that merge aspects of painting, drawing and sculpture.

1010, pronounced “ten-ten,” is a Hamburg-based contemporary artist known for obscure street pieces underlined by amazing optical-illusion effects. His works seem to burrow into the sides of buildings, suggesting portals into a dark abyss. Although he has been active for more than a decade, 1010's identity remains shrouded in mystery.

‘The Hunt’ curated by The Chicago Culture Couple
March 5 – 26, 2022
Opening Sat March 5, noon-6pm
Vertical Gallery, 1016 N Western Ave.