Wicker Park says goodbye to its colorful history from the Lumpen Buddy days, to the Around the Coyote art fair and now the Double Door. Everything Must Go! reflects the selling of our neighborhood and with it our art and culture. This new wave of corporate colonization is being felt all over the city with Google’s tech boom in the West loop, displacing artists and galleries.

Historically Wicker Park was home to artists. By the late 70’s artists that were gentrified out of Old Town and Lincoln Park began settling there in large numbers. As more artists came they began to transform loft space into livable studios, storefronts became galleries, music venues, coffee shops, and bars. Roberto Lopez a native and long time superintendent of the Flat Iron Building said “Wicker Park wasn’t just a place it was a state of mind.” At it’s peak was Around the Coyote that began in September of 1990, this art fair changed the cultural landscape by drawing tens of thousands of visitors–and hundreds of thousands of dollars–to the community. A victim of its own success, this new bohemia attracted economic investment. The neighborhood feared yuppies and “Lincoln Parkization.” They recalled how the visual arts industry created a real estate boom on Manhattan’s lower east side, that ended in the Tompkins Square anti-gentrification uprising of 1988. The community feared that Wicker Park’s unique ethnic and artistic diversity was at risk and that its growing popularity would lead to their displacement. “Anytime a community is discovered, the indigenous population is forced out and the new colonizers reap the benefits.” Theories of gentrification indicate that capital follows culture and identify artists as the main agents for gentrifying working class neighborhoods. Whatever pandered to the “commodification of the artist’s lifestyle in the service of a real estate market” was fair game for protest wrote the Lumpen Times in the mid 90’s. Back then anti-gentrification groups and radical neighborhood activists printed flyers and used guerrilla tactics. They sabotaged businesses by gluing their doors shut, breaking windows, and spray painting “The Natives Are Restless” and “Gentrafux”. Many people fought to keep the neighborhood but as time went on one by one they all left. The nail in the coffin came in 2012 when Wicker Park was featured by Forbes as one of the 5 hippest neighborhoods in the U.S.

Everything Must Go! speaks of the loss of authenticity and to a new era of political passiveness where people are carried by the wave. Over the past 15 years many artist and independent businesses have been priced out of Wicker Park. Heaven gallery that was established in 1998 in the Flat Iron building and in its current location for the past 16 years is one of the last stands that reflect the spirit of the old neighborhood.

Claire Molek and Heaven Gallery invite galleries and curators to rummage through works they have on hand. The exhibition is a celebration of unique producers, and recalls the collective histories of artist neighborhoods and street art fairs. Intersecting the boundaries between a clearance sale and an art fair, the exhibition further explores the magic of unknowable context, and what it means to encourage practice over product, or product over practice.

Galleries include Chicago Artists Coalition featuring work by Amina Ross, Sanaz Sohrabi, Jaclyn Jacunski and curated by Teresa Silva; The Franklin, featuring work by EC Brown, Jeremy Foy, Diana Gabriel, Jessica Harvey, Daniel Hojnacki, Kelly Reaves, James Jankowiak, Catie Olsen, Nicole Lane, Melissa Oresky, Victoria Martinez, Michael Rea, E. Aaron Ross, Luis Sahagun, Christopher Smith, Dan Sullivan and Edra Soto; Heaven Gallery, featuring work by Sarah and Joseph Belknap, Morgan Sims, Sarah Mosk, Annie Kielman, Soo Shin, Jessica Caponigro, Marissa Lee Benedict, Ilan Gutin, Lesley Jackson and Arianna Petrich;  LVL3 featuring work from Allison Wade, Frances Roberts, Josh Reames, Paul Kenneth, Guy Conners, Matt Nichols, Marianne Wehr, Kate Bonner, Michael Rocco and Ruglio-Misurell; Woman Made Gallery, featuring work by Maira Egan, Juliet Eldred, Olivia Rogers, Renee Robbins, Tiffany Funk, Sarai Redmond, Yevette Mayorga, Alessandra Hickman, Tonia Hughes, Michael Zhang, Lisa Vinebaum, Martha Morimoto, Vivian Le, Michelle Miller, and Annie Grossinger;  Boyfriends Gallery featuring work by Kiam Marcelo Junio;  Fernwey Gallery editioned prints and multiples and Co-Prosperity Sphere prints & books.

Curators include Claire Molek, featuring work by Ariel Baldwin, Banrei, Marcelo Eli, Julia Haw, Lindsey Liss, Stephanie Burke, Kira Scerbin, Lucy Ellerton, Steven Vainberg, and Xiao Tse; Janice Bond, featuring work by David Anthony Geary, Una Delic, Sonja Henderson, Zakkiyyah Najeebah, Martha Wade, and Reisha.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Alessandra Hickman, Allison Wade, Amina Ross, and Annie Grossinger, Annie Kielman, Ariel Baldwin, banrei, Boyfriends gallery, Catie Olsen, Chicago, Chicago Artists' Coalition, Christopher Smith, claire molek, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Dan Sullivan and Edra Soto, Daniel Hojnacki, David Anthony Geary, Diana Gabriel, E. Aaron Ross, EC Brown, Everything Must Go, Fernwey Gallery, Frances Roberts, Guy Conners, Heaven Gallery, Ilan Gutin, Jaclyn Jacunski, James Jankowiak, Janice Bond, Jeremy Foy, Jessica Caponigro, Jessica Harvey, Josh Reames, Julia Haw, Juliet Eldred, Kate Bonner, Kelly Reaves, Kiam Marcelo Junio, kira scerbin, Lesley Jackson and Arianna Petrich, Lindsey Liss, Lisa Vinebaum, Lucy Ellerton, Luis Sahagun, LVL3, Maira Egan, marcelo eli, Marianne Wehr, Marissa Lee Benedict, Martha Morimoto, Martha Wade, Matt Nichols, Melissa Oresky, Michael Rea, Michael Rocco and Ruglio-Misurell, Michael Zhang, Michelle Miller, Morgan Sims, Nicole Lane, Olivia Rogers, Paul Kenneth, Reisha, Renee Robbins, Sanaz Sohrabi, Sarah and Joseph Belknap, SARAH MOSK, Sarai Redmond, Sonja Henderson, Soo Shin, Stephanie Burke, Steven Vainberg, Teresa Silva, The Franklin, Tiffany Funk, Tonia Hughes, Una Delic, Victoria Martinez, Vivian Le, West Town, Woman Made Gallery, Xiao Tse, Yevette Mayorga, Zakkiyyah Najeebah