Visual Language

Amy E. Herman, Visual Language (2016)
Borrowed from the Chicago Public Library

 Talks at Google - June 22, 2016

Glass House

Phillip Johnson Glass House
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

My World 1957

Sixth Birthday
Photo: Merwin Wolf (1957)

Continuous Span - Bridge 2022 Group Exhibition

This exhibition is work of the artists who participated in the HPAC Bridge Program 2022.

Opening Reception: Monday, October 3, 2022

Continuous Span 2022 - Opening Reception
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

Continuous Span 2022 - Opening Reception
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

Continuous Span 2022 - Opening Reception
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

Continuous Span 2022 - Opening Reception
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

Continuous Span 2022 - Opening Reception
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

Continuous Span 2022 - Opening Reception
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

Continuous Span 2022 - Opening Reception
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

Continuous Span 2022 - Opening Reception
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

Continuous Span 2022 - Opening Reception
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

Continuous Span 2022 - Opening Reception
Photo: Larry Wolf (2022)

Transient Utopias - Artist Statement

Utopia, from Greek for no place. These are worlds that exist as memory or fantasy. They are transient, from Latin for going beyond, of no fixed abode. Places I never have been or where I might be again.

Yet I desire them: 

ancestors who are alive; 

collaboration with my artist mother; 

wild and gnarly sunflowers; 

nature entwined with essential infrastructure;

fractured urban surfaces opening to the cosmos.

T-shirts are functional, washable, wearable art. They are hand-crafted imperfect mechanical reproductions; a celebration of everyday life.

Larry Wolf (2022) 

Design Credit: DaJona Butler (2022)

October First

Larry Wolf, Washington/Wabash (2022)

Nelson Algren - Chicago - City on the Make

 

Nelson Algren, Chicago City on the Make (1951/1961/1983/2001)
Cove Photo: Art Shay

Epigraph

With heart at rest I climbed the citadel's 

Steep height, and saw the city as from a tower, 

Hospital, brothel, prison, and such hells, 

Where evil comes up softly like a flower . . .

Whether thou sleep, with heavy vapors full, 

Sodden with day, or, new appareled, stand 

In gold-laced veils of evening beautiful,

I love thee, infamous city!

-Baudelaire 

 

From Page 60

Every day is D-Day under the El.

 

From Pages 72 - 73

By nights when the yellow salamanders of the El bend all one way and the cold rain runs with the red-lit rain. By the way the city’s million wires are burdened only by the lightest snow; and the old year yet lighter upon them. When chairs are stacked and glasses are turned and arc-lamps are dimmed. By days when the wind bangs alley gates ajar and the sun goes by on the wind. By nights when the moon is an only child above the measured thunder of the cars, you may know Chicago’s heart at last:

You’ll know it’s the place built out of Man’s ceaseless failure to overcome himself. Out of Man’s endless war against himself we build our successes as well as our failures. Making it the city of all cities most like Man himself -- loneliest creation of all this very old poor earth. 

 

From Page 76

A rumor of neon flowers, bleeding all night long, along those tracks where endless locals pass.

 

From Page 77

While we shall leave, for remembrance, one rusty iron heart. 

The city's rusty heart, that holds both the hustler and the square. 

Takes them both and holds them there.

For keeps and a single day.

Art Making Purgatory

Larry Wolf, Transient Utopias (2022)

Printing t-shirts has become an exhausting challenge - logistically, technically and emotionally - much more than I imaged it would be. The phone photo looks more like what I want than the actual t-shirt. Learning. Learning. Learning.