EXPO CHICAGO, The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art, announces the summer series for /Dialogues in anticipation of the third edition of the fair, September 18–21, 2014. Presented with support by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, /Dialogues offers year-round panel discussions, conversations, and provocative artistic discourse with leading artists, curators, designers, and arts professionals on the current issues that engage them. A series of five /Dialogues panel discussions are set to take place in the West Loop gallery district the weekend of June 7–8.

Locust Projects, a not for profit exhibition space based out of Miami, will present four of the panel discussions through their program Locust Roundtables at Western Exhibitions (845 W. Washington Blvd), The fifth panel, organized by THE SEEN, Chicago’s International Online Journal of Contemporary & Modern Art, in conjunction with AICAD, will take place at Design Cloud (118 N. Peoria St. 2N). All five panels are set to align with the AICAD Conference, taking place June 7–8, and will participate in joining the abundance of art professionals and alumni who will be present from 43 of the leading art & design schools from across the United States and Canada.

Saturday, June 7
Locust Roundtables
Western Exhibitions, 845 W. Washington Blvd.

5:00–6:30pm | John Opera
Notes on Surface: Photography/Painting

John Opera will lead an open discussion on surface as it pertains to contemporary photography and painting, where surface can be treated as a point of transparency. Applying to painting the methodologies of systematic value control that one would use in the dark room, such as dodging and burning, the conversation will consider the potential to access the space behind or below a surface, real or imagined. In this context, Opera will discuss his own work and the concerns that have fed his development over the past five years, as well as the work of other contemporaries and painters that intuitively have investigated surface since the mid 20th century, such as Morris Lewis.

6:30pm–8:00pm | Chicago Artist Writers
Peer Review
Chicago Artist Writers (Sofia Leiby and Jason Lazarus) in collaboration with artist Brandon Alvendia present an art writing workshop that instigates a collectively authored review of an exhibition on view in the immediate surroundings of the 845 W. Washington building. The text will be published at the conclusion of the workshop.

Chicago Artist Writers is a platform that asks artists and art workers to write traditional and experimental criticism that serves non-profit, temporary, and alternative arts programming in Chicago. Brandon Alvendia is a Chicago-based conceptual artist, curator, writer, publisher, and educator. His interdisciplinary practice playfully engages spatial and social architectures to envision temporary utopias.

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Tags: AICAD, Chicago Artist Writers, EXPO Chicago, John Opera, Locust Projects, SAIC, Western Exhibitions