JASON
BRAMMER
Photo by Michael Scarapelli
"My mural at Gin Alley explores the translucent nature of leaves, the transcendent quality of flowers, and the phenomenon of heliotropism where plants naturally seek out and grow towards the sunlight."
Friday 2/5
Kicking us off is Jason Brammer. He is the artist responsible for the most visible mural in Gin Alley.
The green tendrils reach out onto Peoria and pull you in. Brammer is a Chicago-based visual artist known for his murals, site-specific installations, distinctive paintings, and mixed media hand-painted assemblages. Read on to learn about his concept for the mural and check out his website here.
" In this work of art, I interpret growing botanical form as a mythical ladder to a luminous, otherworldly realm, with swirling vines reaching upwards and drifting off into the ether. In addition, I aim to draw passersby into Gin Alley through an organic gateway with tendrils extending out of the alley onto the façade of the surrounding buildings on Peoria. It is an honor to add some vibrant artwork to help welcome viewers into this reimagined, classic Chicago locale.”
- Jason Brammer
Photography by Michael Scarapelli and Ashley Rose
"My work at Gin Alley is inspired by relational interaction: initiating, experimentation, intensifying, integration, and bonding. I wanted to create a fun and adaptive design in overlaying jewel tones that playfully carries throughout the walls of the common areas."
EMMY
STAR
BROWN
Photo by Field Creatives Chicago
Friday 3/5
Emmy Star Brown is a Chicago-based painter, muralist, and calligrapher. Her clean and monochromatic palette is reflective of her graphic design background, as well as her love for modern design
Emmy's designs are the first things you see when you enter the lobby of The Lofts at Gin Alley. Pulling you in and up the stairs that overlook the bustling streets of Fulton Market below.
Her seamless designs are all hand-painted. Emmy is best recognized for her lettering, patterns, and array of original commissioned work. She paints with graceful precision across various materials, including glass, canvas, wood, and mirror. Her custom work ranges from personalized paintings to large-scale murals. Emmy loves collaborating with individuals and creative brands alike. She has years of experience creating artwork for residential and commercial projects, as well as painting live at events. Check out the full range of her work here.
"I’ve long been fascinated with lines. Their simple yet versatile applications can channel everything from the organic beauty of the natural world to the most stylized and dynamic of typefaces. With each piece, I seek to highlight the elegant interplay between both shapes and negative space to story-tell. It’s that same layering of lines and carefully placed marks that provides ample room for visual interpretation.
Inspired by Alexander Calder and Girard, both my mural and canvas work begin with a meditative and color-intuitive approach that focuses on creating connections and visual balance. The result is a deeply personal work that feels equal parts accessible, intentional, beautiful, and hopefully a catalyst for thoughtful dialogue."
-Emmy Star Brown
Photography by Field Creatives Chicago and Ashley Rose
Photography by Ashley Rose
STEFAN
MATIOC
Photo by Any Morris Churdar
"The neon lights at Gin Alley blend his continuous line drawing style with a boxing glove and heart rate monitor. The modern and abstract flavor adds an extra punch to the state-of-the-art training facility."
- King Art Collective
Friday 4/2
When you enter the fitness center at The Lofts at Gin Alley you know you are in a unique space like no other. Fitting of the Fulton Market neighborhood, the space combines state-of-the-art fitness equipment for the residents with the industrial street art vibe of the area.
Stefan Matioc is a visual artist based in Madison, Wisconsin. His signature flowing line style takes many forms, ranging from t-shirts to large-scale murals to neon lights. He splits his time in between client-facing work: animation, murals, logos, commissions - and personal projects like comics and screen-printing. Check out the full range of his work here.
Photography by Ashley Rose
TANNER
WOODFORD
"When the vinyl is installed, only the letterforms are transferred—the area around the letterforms is discarded. This piece was inspired by those materials, creating something beautiful from the spaces between the vinyl texts for Great Ideas of Humanity"
Tanner Woodford
Friday 5/7
Tanner Woodford is the Founder and Executive Director of the Design Museum of Chicago. His site-specific piece at Gin Alley is inspired by his collection of works titled Cutting Room Floor.
It is made from the remains of the vinyl lettering that was installed as part of the wall text from Great Ideas of Humanity: Out of the Container. In the exhibition, ChiDM partnered with 826CHI, asking a series of designers to make posters based on phrases written by 5th- to 8th-graders. We then asked other students to answer, in their own words, “What is a great idea?”
Woodford’s unique design lines the exterior windows at the entrance to The Lofts at Gin Alley located at 120 N. Green Street.
Woodford also teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and makes Iterative Work. As a designer, educator, and entrepreneur, he has taught, lectured, and led workshops on design issues, social change, and design history in classrooms and at conferences. He is irrepressibly optimistic, believing design has the capacity to fundamentally improve the human condition. He lives and works in Chicago. Learn more about Tanner Woodford here.
Photography by Ashley Rose
LUCY
SLIVINSKI
Photo provided by King Art Collective
"I live in the collaborative space of ideas, conception and construction. My process with materials is focused on found objects integrated into conceptual art making, inspiring me by all connections and contributions. My work is the investigation of connectivity."
- Lucy Slivinski
Friday 6/4
Between the first and second floors of The Lofts at Gin Alley lies a vertical corridor where you can find Lucy Slivinski’s one-of-a-kind iron chandelier.
Sculptor and installation artist Lucy Slivinski works with found objects to create conceptual spaces of human connection. Drawing upon ideas of recycling, regeneration, and interconnectedness, the works in Soul Touch seem at once repelling and inviting, asking the viewer to consider the materials as objects of consumption and waste, but, more importantly, as tools that generate discourse and encourage energetic, physical engagement. In posing complex dynamics such as this, Slivinski's work lends a unique and innovative tint to notions of decay and beauty, promoting neither one nor the other, but rather intertwining and even collapsing the two together. Using bottles, wire hangers, chairs, mufflers, and a vast array of other found and recycled materials.
"I am both humbled and amazed at the regenerative power of life.... Through recycling, we have blessed opportunities to reshape things that are perceived as decay, into replenished mysteries of beauty.
I am a true believer and a seer of the creative possibility."
Learn more about Lucy Slivinski and her work here.
Photography by Ashley Rose and provided by King Art Collective
LIZ
MARES
Photography provided by King Art Collective
"Rudimentary shapes have always been a fascinating subject to me. I become lost in how simple figures can exist on their own or form deeper connections to each other. This is how I view humanity, also, as a constant shift between being solitary or as a complimentary unit. And this concept (in my opinion) fits perfectly in such a space as the Lofts at Gin Alley"
- Liz Mares
Friday 7/2
Liz Mares is a contemporary artist living in the Chicago-Land area. Her works are heavily influenced by the use of the line, architectural structuring, connection, and negative spaces. Her beautiful jewel-toned geometric designs bring light and movement to the halls of The Lofts at Gin Alley. Her murals greet you the second you open the door and playfully flow you through the winding halls of this once industrial building. Liz Mares’ works have been in exhibitions at the Customs House Museum (Clarksville, TN), Wolff Gallery (Portland, OR), 33 Contemporary Gallery (Chicago, IL), and Roman Susan Annex (Chicago, IL.)
"I want the viewers of my work to be able to see past the aesthetic and find the freedom to explore their own thoughts and imperfections. To follow the lines, I’ve laid and internalize their own emotions and sense of humanity; whether that be individually or communally. I want viewers to experience growth, independence and mental clarity through simplicity"
Learn more about Liz Mares and her work here.
Photography provided by Ashley Rose and King Art Collective
PAMELA
STAKER
Friday 8/6
Pamela Staker is a Chicago-based contemporary artist. She began as a Math Major at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign and after 1 ½ years migrated to the Art Department where she graduated with a BFA in Painting. Her vibrant contemporary abstract mural can be found in The Lofts at Gin Alley. The large deliberate brush strokes combined with portions of detail draw you in closer to explore the colorful piece in your own space.
Staker examines abstraction through a compiled visual language of urban elements, geometric shapes, unusual color combinations, and pops of nature. She often employs the figure as a structural means when building a composition to introduce line, discover shape, and contain color. The “Therapy” series, in particular, examines how we as organic beings find balance in our urban environments. Her process is energetic, creating works that are animated fragments of modern life – sometimes messy, often beautiful.
See all of her work on her website here.
