News

Vertical Gallery presents their annual Holiday Group Show Dec 13 - Jan 4. This year, the gallery asked 9 artists to each create a collection of work. Featuring Margie Criner (US), Pollyanna (PH), Jerome Tiunayan (US), Morgan Nicolette (US), Delisha (US), Julieta XLF (ES), Andria Beighton (AU), Noelle Berexa (US), and Jenia Cher (US).

Holiday Group Show
December 13 - January 4, 2024
Opening reception: Friday December 13, 5:00-8:00pm
Vertical Gallery, 2006 W Chicago Ave. #1R, Chicago

Vertical Gallery is very excited to return to the Miami Art Fairs! We will be returning to the AQUA Art Fair this year with an all-star group show featuring: ADi (AU), 2CHOEY (TH), Jake and Josh (US), Steve Seeley (US), Flog (FR), Laura Catherwood (US), Louis (Masai) Michel (UK), Collin van der Sluijs (NL), Sergio Farfán (US), and Blake Jones (US).

VIEW THE SHOW HERE

ADi is an Australian contemporary artist renowned for creating totemic wooden assemblages that explore society's fixation on popular culture, brand recognition, and nostalgia. His distinctive works, often referred to as "false idols" or pop cultural artefacts, reimagine traditional religious iconography, positioning modern cultural symbols as new-age deities in place of the ancient worship of nature and gods. His practice uniquely intersects sculpture and designer toy art, extending into modern interior and object design, offering a fresh take on the cultural artefacts of our time.

2CHOEY is a Bangkok based self-taught artist. With a background is in Urban Architecture, 2CHOEY was an art director in an ad agency. He soon started selling paintings and realized he enjoyed painting more than working in advertising. 2CHOEY’s signature characters, ‘Fingies’, reinterprets pop culture icons within the framework of hands, fists and fingers in his playful and very unique style. Vertical presented his first USA solo show in 2023, and also presented a solo show at the Urban Art Fair in Paris.

Flog discovered a passion for drawing at an early age. He studied graphic design at the Pivaut Nantes school and made it his profession, finding his balance in producing work from illustration to the publishing world. Inspired by graffiti and pop culture, Flog's mixed media technique- aerosol spray, acrylic, and oil on road signs or canvas- reveals precision in the details. Flog’s show with Vertical at SCOPE Miami sold out in 2023. He has also had sold-out shows in Paris, Rome, and Taiwan.

Jake and Josh are a dynamic duo of twin artists who have captivated audiences with their unique blend of creativity and sibling synergy. Their work often explores the intersection of playful storytelling and creative line work, resulting in thought-provoking pieces. Their intricate attention to detail and meticulous craftsmanship invite viewers to immerse themselves in the layers of meaning within each work.

Laura Catherwood is a Chicago-based painter focused on delicately emotive illustration of plants, animals, and quiet creatures. The sense of an intimate, mysterious narrative in her work invites contemplation and extends empathy to the viewer. With soft textures and sensitive gestures, she diagrams our ambiguous feelings toward the natural order of things.

Louis (Masai) Michel is a UK-based painter, sculptor and muralist. He uses his art in the form of murals, paintings and installations as a way to highlight climate change and species equality. The subject or species, is created in the style of a cuddly plush toy, thus highlighting that if one doesn't preserve the existence of the species depicted, only toys and souvenirs will remain. Within the composition of the species are intricate details exploring cultural fabrics, popular culture and elements of conservation. 

Collin van der Sluijs is a renowned painter and illustrator from Maastricht, The Netherlands, where he lives and works. He is widely recognized for his extraordinary dream-like depictions of everyday stories that question our personal pleasures and struggles, as well as society at large. Collin’s exceptional work has been published in magazines and books, and shown in galleries across the world—in The Netherlands, Germany, France, England, Belgium, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, and USA.

Sergio Farfán blends the experiences from his hometown in Peru with the life he’s lived in Chicago to create works that focus on the struggles, dreams, and emotions that people go through in their life. Farfán began to draw as a form of therapy as he struggled through his anxiety. Whatever was troubling him or whenever he just wanted to forget what was going on in the world around him, he found refuge in his art and would draw his favorite cartoon characters he would see on TV.  

Steve Seeley is an artist whose work draws inspiration from a wide range of pop culture sources including superheroes, celebrities, cartoons and comic books. Technically gifted, his artistic practice spans multiple media with a fresh sense of experimentation. His work has been exhibited throughout the US and is held in private collections worldwide.

Blake Jones is a Chicago based artist. Blake’s use of graphic line work and bright color palettes illustrates narratives of complex worlds inhabited by his own iconic characters, objects, and landscapes. Blake’s work has been exhibited in multiple mediums and forms such as print, paintings, gallery exhibitions, sculptures, and murals.

Aqua Art Miami at the Aqua Hotel
1530 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139
Vertical Gallery Room 107

VIP Preview:
Wednesday, December 4 | 3pm-10pm

Public Hours:
Thursday, December 5 | 12pm - 9pm
Friday, December 6 | 11am - 9pm
Saturday, December 7 | 11am - 9pm
Sunday, December 8 | 11am - 6pm

A collector's preview will be sent out Saturday November 30th. Email us to be added to the preview list. Note: Some works will be available in-person only. If you need a VIP pass for the fair, please email us.

Vertical Gallery, RYCA pay homage to hip-hop history with ‘All My Heroes Are Dead’

Vertical Gallery, Chicago’s premier urban-contemporary art gallery, is very proud to present ‘All My Heroes Are Dead,’ showcasing multidisciplinary pop artist RYCA.

‘All My Heroes Are Dead’— RYCA’s first solo outing at Vertical, following group show appearances and co-headlining efforts — pays homage to the American hip-hop masters who shaped the East London-based artist’s life, bringing together silkscreens and sculptures immortalizing fallen heroes Tupac Shakur, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Big Pun, MF Doom and the Notorious B.I.G. The exhibit runs November 1-23; Vertical’s flagship West Town location (2006 W. Chicago Ave. #1R) hosts an opening reception Friday, Nov. 1 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. 

‘All My Heroes Are Dead’ transports viewers back to hip-hop’s pre-millennium golden age, with an emphasis on the early 1990s — a period synonymous with striking evolutions in rhyme schemes and production techniques. RYCA’s tributes take many forms, from Andy Warhol-inspired portraits to 3D busts to glass lyric pieces in the style of Victorian pub signage.

“There are genres and themes that recur throughout my work, and hip-hop is a theme I’ve touched on a hell of a lot. So for ‘All My Heroes Are Dead,’ I challenged myself to celebrate my favorite music in many different mediums and formats,” says RYCA, a.k.a. Ryan Callanan. “There are always people who come into a gallery for the first time and ask ‘Is all this work by one person?’ when it’s actually a 20-artist group show. But in this case, yeah, it’s all by one person. I can’t make a whole show of one style. It doesn't interest me anymore.”

‘All My Heroes Are Dead’ reserves its greatest affection for Christopher Wallace, the late, lamented Brooklyn rapper and street stoic known to the world at large as the Notorious B.I.G. “He was the voice that got me really sucked into hip-hop. His stuff is mad. It’s like poetry — fucking crazy metaphors,” RYCA says. “Trying to catch someone's attention in today's world is really hard, but art is still a tool for that. If even one person comes to this show and it makes them Spotify Biggie, or a rapper they’ve never heard before, then I’ve done my job.” 

RYCA hopes ‘All My Heroes Are Dead’ inspires others to acknowledge hip-hop’s megaton impact on contemporary art and design. “I don't think there's enough hip-hop art out there. There's a massive void that needs to be filled, because this music is not celebrated enough,” he states. “Instead, every time I look at Instagram, all of the artists I thought were cool are doing cringey content. Everyone’s trying to tell jokes or to be quirky. I want to see art that stops me in my tracks. It’s time to bring the old school back.”

RYCA studied 3D design and modelmaking at London’s Barking & Dagenham College, and worked as a sign maker before embracing street art and screenprinting. In addition to solo exhibits in London, Miami and Paris, he has collaborated with artists ranging from DJ Fatboy Slim to Ben Eine. In 2016, RYCA featured alongside Brad Novak and Chris Cunningham in Vertical Gallery’s ‘ICONS,’ going on to contribute to Vertical’s anniversary group shows in 2019 and 2020.

RYCA
‘All My Heroes Are Dead’
November 1 – 23, 2024
Opening reception Friday November 1^st, 5:00-8:00pm
Vertical Gallery, 2006 W Chicago Ave #1R, Chicago

Vertical Gallery, Alex Face make their ‘Impressions’ on New York City

Vertical Gallery, Chicago’s premier urban-contemporary art gallery, is very proud to present ‘Impressions,’ celebrated Thai street artist Alex Face’s first New York City solo exhibit. 

‘Impressions,’ produced by Vertical Gallery, commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Impressionist movement, projecting Alex Face’s signature child characters into dreamlike landscapes inspired by Claude Monet and other fin-de-siècle French masters. The show runs Oct. 10-26 at 247 Elizabeth Street, NYC, 10012, kicking off with an opening reception on Thursday, Oct. 10 from 5:00 to 9:00 pm ET.

‘Impressions,’ which follows roughly two years after Vertical Gallery’s Chicago flagship hosted Alex’s solo showcase ‘Faces,’ reinterprets Impressionism’s spirit and sensibilities for the 21st century, embracing the movement’s most enduring innovations — among them discontinuous brushstrokes, shimmering colors and radical contrasts between shadows and light — while remaining true to the Bangkok-based painter’s stylistic hallmarks and thematic concerns. 

“I studied fine art [at Bangkok's King Mongktut University Institute of Technology] and I love graffiti and street art, and I wanted to mix them together,” Alex (born Patcharapol Tangruen) says. “When I first saw Impressionist painting, it made me want to be an Impressionist artist. I always carried my canvas and paints outside to paint landscapes, and Impressionists were the first artists to paint outside. What they did is really no different from street artists spray-painting graffiti on a wall.”  

Alex learned Impressionist techniques firsthand when he worked for a Thai company that sold reproductions of Impressionist-era paintings. “I painted a lot of reproductions, and I learned a lot. I even tried to mix the exact same colors of paint they used, but there’s almost too much color in those paintings for your eye to see,” he recalls. “When I had a chance to go to Europe to see real Impressionist paintings, I realized they were so much different than they seem in books. It’s not only one layer of paint. They painted over and over and over. That’s what I’m doing for this show: I paint the first layer and let it dry, and then I paint another layer and let it dry. I want that same texture.” 

‘Impressions’ breaks with Impressionist trademarks and tools by incorporating spray-painted images of children in fuzzy animal costumes — avatars instantly familiar to longtime Alex Face enthusiasts. “I paint little children because they represent the future,” Alex explains, noting that the show prominently features wolf and rabbit characters (signifying hunters and prey, respectively). 

Alex Face made his Vertical Gallery debut in 2019, co-headlining the exhibit ‘Mythical Creatures’ opposite fellow Bangkok street artist Muebon. He subsequently contributed to Vertical group shows including ‘Atomic Number 13’ (2021) and ‘Ode To…’ (2023). In addition to solo outings in Los Angeles and Singapore, his work resides in MOCA Bangkok’s permanent collection.

Show Details:
Vertical Gallery presents Alex Face “Impressions”
October 10-26, 2024
Opening Thursday, October 10^th, 5:00-9:00pm
247 Elizabeth Street, NYC, 10012

Email us at sales@verticalgallery.com for the collector's preview.

Vertical Gallery, Chicago’s premier urban-contemporary art gallery, is very proud to present ‘B-Sides,’ an immersive multimedia showcase featuring illustrator, designer and muralist Blake Jones. 

‘B-Sides,’ Jones’ first solo exhibit at Vertical following a series of group show appearances and collaborative efforts, channels the artist’s lifelong passion for music into an array of canvases, drawings and bespoke objects celebrating the sensory delights of collecting records. ‘B-Sides’ runs October 4-26; Jones will attend the show’s opening reception, taking place at the gallery (2006 W. Chicago Ave. #1R) on Friday, Oct. 4 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.  

‘B-Sides’ transforms Vertical’s West Town space into an ersatz record shop, highlighted by more than 100 original drawings packaged inside polyethylene LP sleeves and displayed in bins fabricated by Chicago designer Jacob Polhill. The exhibit also incorporates hand-painted cassette players, custom neon signs and myriad other totems and talismans familiar to music retail habitués the world over. 

“‘B-Sides’ pays homage to the musicians who blew my mind when I was growing up, as well as the new music I’m discovering today,” Jones explains. “When you flip through the drawings, each one includes a QR code that goes to a 8.5-hour playlist I created for the show. I also designed fake record label logos and graphics, and I’m projecting short animated videos inspired by old-school MTV music videos. This is still an art show, but it’s branded like a real record store to make it more cohesive and more interactive.”

While ‘B-Sides’ retains many of the hallmarks of Jones’ recent projects (including his vivid color palette, striking line work and menagerie of anthropomorphic characters), its emphasis on interactivity harks back to the Texas-born artist’s earliest endeavors. “When I was in my teens and 20s, I used to love doing installation work and making my own little videos, but I haven't done that stuff since I moved to Chicago seven years ago. In fact, a lot of people here have no idea that’s what I used to do,” Jones says. “‘B-Sides’ brings me back to that more experimental, DIY mindset. It’s about the stuff that I'm into as a person. I want the show to feel like a pop song — the kind that’s undeniable when you hear it. Most of all, I want people to have fun.” 

Jones came of age in La Porte, Tex. and studied design at the Art Institute of Houston. Prior to ‘B-Sides,’ he headlined solo exhibits in Chicago, New York City, Tokyo and Hong Kong, and partnered with brands including UVD Toys, Collective Arts Brewing and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls.

Email us at sales@verticalgallery.com for the collector's preview.