Dogmatic Gallery is creaming itself with retarded glee to be hosting KlusterCRUSTS, an exhibition organized by Paul Nudd. KlusterCRUSTS is a celebration of rickety homemade constructions, lo-fi cheapness and weird painting. KlusterCRUSTS will be primarily a major survey exhibition by local sculptor Nick Black, but will also include recent silkscreens, drawings, paintings, sculpture and video by Mariano Chavez, Matthew Steinke, Ryan Christian, Chris Kerr, Paul Nudd, and the collaborative team of Daniel Bruttig & Joseph Cassan.

Nick Black is best known for his large scale kinetic sculptures that recontextualize the crustier nuggets of popular culture. He aggressively exploits the unmistakable and eerie artlessness of excessive plastic. His most memorable pieces include a giant inflatable chip wrapper hand, a tower of oozing shaving cream, a pom-pom fountain, and a sculpture comprised of dozens of small plastic bubble-blowing butts. For a good while, Nick exhibited large globby masses of melted toys. For KlusterCRUSTS, Nick will be re-building a few classics, but will also be presenting a series of new hybrid animatronic toys, first exhibited last year at the peculiar Uncle Freddy’s Gallery in Highland, Indiana. These hilarious sculptures are in fact assemblages made from unlikely combinations of commercially available toys. With titles like Dino-Rock, Ear-Bott, Happy Cannibal, Fart World, and Elmo Rapper, we’re all in for a fun and enjoyable, if not crack-pot evening.

Nick Black was born in Chicago in 1958. He has attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, DePaul University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Massachusetts College of Art. Recent exhibitions include Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, Uncle Freddy’s Gallery, Highland, IN, and Joymore, Buddy Space, and Klein Art Works, all in Chicago. Nick has had key works at Art Chicago, the Stray Show, Version Fest, and the New Chicagoans.

Other highlights of the exhibition include a silkscreened poster review by Mariano Chavez. Chavez’s paintings and pastel drawings of menacing troll-headed porn actresses have previously been shown at Bucket Rider in Chicago. Paul Nudd will be showing the most recent episode of his ongoing slop and gunk videos. Ambiguous and unnameable, these works offer glimpses into a strange and beautiful nether-world of abstract porno-gore. Ryan Christian, a recent graduate of NIU’s painting program, will be presenting his brand new “GLOBFuck” drawings, which depict formless mounds of hot copulating fat.

A two-run, hand colored silkscreened poster by Mariano Chavez made especially for the exhibition is available, as well as a sixteen page catalog with silkscreened and hand-tinted covers by the KlusterCRUST artists. Additionally, the catalog features a provocative essay by local arts writer Bert Stabler.

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Tags: Bert Stabler, Chicago, chris kerr, Daniel Bruttig, Dogmatic, Joseph Cassan, KlusterCrusts, Mariano Chavez, Matthew Steinke, near west side, Paul Nudd, Ryan Christian