iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Artists and those interested in the arts gathering for fun, mutual inspiration and support. Thanks to Olya for the invite and see you next month… Featuring curated playlist and video by Nubes substack.com/profile/1488...

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Olya Salimova leading the latest of her monthly 15th Element arts gatherings, this time at WellRounded vintage shop in Pilsen, Chicago, Sep 15th. www.instagram.com/fifteenth_el... www.olyasalimova.com www.instagram.com/shopwellroun...

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

where the traditional practices of literate communication are noteworthy now only in the absurdity they embody.

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Although in the show’s notes curator Alex Wilson claims emphasis on diversity and broadness of concept in his choices, he has (diversity notwithstanding) hit on a consensus of artistic reaction to the current moment — depiction of a post-legibility era...

120

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

...of artists setting aside brightness, bombast and carefully crafted pop-culture idiocy; shuffling away from the class show-off toward the one in the back passing around tightly folded-up notes written in smudgy pencil.

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Also got to see the exhibition on display there, "Sacred Containers: Capsules, Conduits and Other Stories." chicagoartistscoalition.org/events/sacre... Art by: Cecilia Beaven FÁTIMA bex ya yolk

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Fun and stimulating evening Wednesday the 3rd at Chicago Artist's Coalition for Speed Networking Night. Everybody had a good story to tell. Made it a lot easier to feel optimistic about this city. chicagoartistscoalition.org

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

If you see this, repost with a vampire that is not Dracula

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

July 18th, the Zhou B Art Center in Bridgeport, Chicago, opening of “We Built This: Making Through Migration,” a show that endeavors to illustrate how artists reflect the experience and perception of immigrant culture and other hybrid outsider identities. www.ohartfoundation.org/webuiltthism...

020

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

“The Ocean Between VIII: Luminosity” exhibition opening at Oliva Gallery, Logan Square, Chicago, July 18 www.olivagallery.com

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

“Chinese Lotus Shoes: Exploring the Cultural Prestige of Footbinding in Imperial China” at the Heritage Museum of Asian Art, Bridgeport, Chicago. www.heritageasianart.org

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Exhibition opening, "The Landscape is Changing", Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, July 18 www.bridgeportart.com/the-landscap... #chicago #chicagoart

010

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

The plight of the art commentator… Drawing by Temo artbytemo.com

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Rough night as an art commentator when you run into this at a gallery… Weaving by Kira Dominguez Hultgren www.kiradominguezhultgren.com

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

School of the Art Institute Low-Residency MFA Thesis Exhibition public reception, July 12. www.saic.edu/events/low-r... #chicago #chicagoart

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

6/ A green silk Balenciaga evening dress from 1963, and a child’s silk dress and hat from c. 1885:

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

5/ Ready for these accessories to come back into style (late 19th century):

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

4/ Two modern outfits, an ensemble by Chicago designer Maria Pinto from 2015, and the “Poliakoff” dress by Yves Saint-Laurent, 1965:

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

3/ A silk dress, French, dated to 1866, an early example of brightly-colored fabric thanks to recently-invented chemical dyes:

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

2/ Link to exhibition page: www.chicagohistory.org/exhibition/d... Including: a fantastic purple leather coat and hat by Chanel, 1925:

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

The Chicago History Museum has one of the biggest fashion and textile collections in the world, reportedly over fifty thousand items. The exhibition they have up now, "Dressed in History" is a small but fun sampling of the collection’s highlights. More at: forwardfolio.substack.com/p/dressed-in...

110

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

5/ A green silk Balenciaga evening dress from 1963, and a child’s silk dress and hat from c. 1885:

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

4/ Ready for these accessories to come back into style (late 19th century):

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

3/ Two modern outfits, an ensemble by Chicago designer Maria Pinto from 2015, and the “Poliakoff” dress by Yves Saint-Laurent, 1965:

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

2/ A silk dress, French, dated to 1866, an early example of brightly-colored fabric thanks to recently-invented chemical dyes:

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

The Chicago History Museum has one of the biggest fashion and textile collections in the world, reportedly over fifty thousand items. The exhibition they have up now is a small but fun sampling of the collection’s highlights. A fantastic purple leather coat and hat by Chanel, 1925:

110

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Congratulations to Kimberly Oliva at Oliva Gallery (olivagallery.com) for hosting a successful seminar “Leverage Your Art Career,” w/ Nancy Pirri (Pirri Art & Design), Claireasa Golden (Golden Arts Communication) & Melissa Stanley (real estate broker, ArtHouse Chicago, Baird & Warner) #chicagoart

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Work by Jonathan Melo, Berkley Reddick, Fia Kim.

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

4/ More at forwardfolio.substack.com/p/another-fr... colorclub.events #chicagoart

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Oliva Gallery opened "Offering", featuring paintings by Laura Peterson and ceramics by Nikki Renee Anderson, Friday June 13. More at forwardfolio.substack.com/p/another-fr... www.olivagallery.com #chicagoart

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

"Doublespeak" by Nanako Kono at Western Exhibitions, Friday June 13. Bulbous foody shapes, pop art references with a little Hairy Who thrown in. #chicagoart

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

I dashed/dallied through six gallery openings on Friday night, seeing a lot of new work, but giving myself time to linger where warranted. Speed-learning about contemporary art through the gusher of the Internet has taught me the value of being exposed to new works at volume. #chicagoart

110

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

McEwen establishes a new form of intent, a discourse within the work of color, space and scale, that produces a new form of presence, a gregarious solipsism, the twentieth-century sense that the work is both center and circumference everywhere.

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

The exhibition quickly makes clear that there is something beyond obvious formalisms that separates McEwen's mature work from his predecessors, though what it is is difficult on first encounter to express.

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

When I first read about the exhibition of Rory McEwen's work at the Driehaus Museum, he was pitched as a modernist artist, but I was skeptical of that notiion. However, the show not only changed my mind, it helped me clarify for myself just what twentieth-century modernism is and means.

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Reed Richards and Susan Storm.

000

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

#expochicago Alec Soth, "Untitled (trumpet vine)" A deceptively simple photograph, one of a series. As I looked and tried to understand its attraction, I noticed that the lighting and color created a sort of compressed suspension between flatness and fullness in the flower and parts of the stalk.

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

#expochicago Antonio Santin, "Torrubia". Oil on canvas. The oil is applied to the surface so that an intricate 3D texture is created.

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

#expochicago Simon Benjamin. A retrieval and a resuscitation. The image is a still from a film shot in 1914 of boys diving off a Caribbean island, blown up to several feet in dimensions.

110

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

#expochicago Amoako Boafa, "Umbrella" My intuition is that new art movements originate out of new approaches to the human form. Here Boafa paints with oil on canvas then texturizes the flesh with finger painting.

110

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

9. A well-chosen triptych of Sam Gilliam, Alma Thomas and Norman Lewis at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery NYC 10. An unusual early abstract work on paper by Alma Thomas, 1962

010

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

5. Simon Benjamin at Swivel Gallery NYC 6. Jacob Hashimoto, "Zero Probability of Escape" at Rhona Hoffman Gallery Chicago 7. Alec Soth @alecsoth.bsky.social at Weinstein Hammons, Minneapolis 8. Antonio Santin, "Torrubia" at Marc Straus Gallery NYC

100

forwardfolio.bsky.social @forwardfolio.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

#expochicago Sunday Apr. 27 There were fewer surfaces that captured my interest this year compared to last. The works that struck me broke out beyond two dimensions and into multiple scales. 1,2. Amoako Boama, "Umbrella" at Allouche Gallery NYC 3,4. Edra Soto at ENGAGE Projects Chicago

110