Shout to Cool Art Show

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com

Last night a friend and I checked out the SMart Show in the Flat Iron Building in Wicker Park/Bucktown. It kicked all kinds of hiney. Here is the page of (almost) all the artists that showed.

Some of my favorites were not on that page which is too bad because I'd like to give them a shoutlink as well. But two I'd recommend are JayBoeldt's acrylic abstracts and Michel Balasis's works which I think would be fair to say are similar to what Lichtenstein would be depicting if he were around today.

Boeldt's pieces, to me, were like a mix of impressionism and abstraction, and even looked digital at some points. They're not so abstract that you have no idea what the subject is, however. Being that the medium is a mixture of acrylic and enamel on wood, the pieces are really shiny looking, which I like. Really eye-catching stuff.

Michel's work is, like I said, could fit under the name of Neo-Lichtensteinian. Many of his works are the Lichtenstein-esque comic book characters complete with dialogue bubble. His works just have a more modern twist in tune with the modern technological age.

I spent a few minutes talking to each of these guys and they're both as cool and pleasant as you'd hope an artist to be while admiring their work.