Poor Man’s Paradise
@ Project Onward
1200 W 35th St, 4th Fl, Chicago, IL 60609
Opening Friday, August 15th, from 6 PM - 9 PM
On view through Saturday, September 27th
The Maxwell Street Market, with its cacophony of voices haggling in different tongues, might have been Chicago’s best shot at the American Dream. This was where newcomers and outsiders came to get by in the big city and maybe leave their mark on it too. Maxwell’s story – its origins with turn-of-the-century immigrant pushcart vendors, its post-war innovations in the electric blues, and the neighborhood’s later neglect and demolition in the name of “urban renewal” – offers us themes that are relevant today.
In Poor Man’s Paradise, “outsider” artists pay tribute to this outsider economy. Michael Bryant, Bill Douglas, Andrew Hall, David Holt, R.J. Juguilon, Fernando Ramirez, Ricky Willis, and George Zuniga present paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Some work, like Bryant’s acrylic painting Off the #8, illustrates a personal memory – in this case, hopping off the Halsted bus to haggle for a switchblade. Other pieces, like Willis’s assemblage sculptures Scrapper Truck and Blues Bus celebrate the diversity and grit that gave the market its texture.
The artwork is exhibited alongside over 50 artifacts spanning the history of the Market, generously loaned by the Maxwell Street Foundation. Shop signs, rusty bird cages, and bespoke musical instruments tell their own stories and act as portals to different chapters in Maxwell’s history.
In conjunction with the August 15 exhibition opening at our galley, Project Onward will also be a vendor at the new incarnation of the Maxwell Street Market on August 10. Visitors are also invited to dive deeper with a guided visit to the exhibition (along with a musical performance) on Saturday, September 6th (2 – 3:30 PM).
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Tags: Andrew Hall, Bill Douglas, Bridgeport, Chicago, David Holt, Fernando Ramirez, George Zuniga, Maxwell Street Market, Michael Bryant, Poor Man's Paradise, Project Onward, R.J. Juguilon, Ricky Willis, Self-Taught Art
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