Artadia is pleased to be exhibiting at EXPO CHICAGO this September. This will be the fifth year that Artadia has participated in the fair.

Artadia will be showing paintings by 2004 Chicago Artadia Awardee Phyllis Bramson. Toby Kamps, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Menil Collection, Houston, TX, selected Bramson’s work from a pool of Chicago-based Artadia Awardees. Kamps notes “the dreamlike worlds and gemlike colors of Mughal miniatures, Japanese shunga, French rococo painters, and American outsiders like Henry Darger are some of the inspirations for Phyllis Bramson’s new paintings. But her genius lies in her ability to transmute these disparate sources into wild and wondrous new visions. Like her Chicago Imagist peers, Bramson conjures up delightfully deranged and exuberant amalgams of figuration and decoration that vibrate with spectacular and sexy new energies.” Recent exhibitions of Bramson’s work include Phyllis Bramson: In Praise of Folly – A Retrospective, 1985–2015 at Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL and Under the Pleasure Dome at Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL.

Artadia has been presenting Awards to artists living and working in Chicago since 2001. Subsequently, eight Award cycles have been held in the city, providing critical funds to nearly 80 artists. Partnering with EXPO CHICAGO provides Artadia with a platform to offer Chicago artists continued support and the opportunity to exhibit new work. Chicago Artadia Awardees include Nick Cave (2006), Theaster Gates (2008), LaMont Hamilton (2015), and Cauleen Smith (2015).

Why “Bad Behavior” and “Inappropriateness” Can Be an Artist’s Necessity in the Studio
Booth Talk with Phyllis Bramson and Toby Kamps
Friday, September 23, 2016 at 12:30pm

Phyllis Bramson and Toby Kamps will discuss the artist’s studio practice. Specifically, they will explore how “bad behavior” can be an important element in the process, using Phyllis’ new work exhibited in Artadia’s 2016 EXPO art fair booth as a reference.

Phyllis Bramson lives and works in Chicago, advising painting and drawing graduate students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the recipient of three National Endowments, a Senior Fulbright Scholar, Tiffany Grant, Guggenheim Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation Grant, and the Anonymous Was A Woman Award. She was selected as one of two artists for the Annual Distinguished Artist interviews during the College Art Association’s 2010 Conference in Chicago. Bramson has mounted over 30 solo exhibitions at institutions, including The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Cultural Center of Chicago, Boulder Art Museum, and Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. Group exhibitions include Seattle Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Contemporary Museum of Art, Chicago, Smart Museum, New Museum of Contemporary Art and the Corcoran Museum’s 43rd Biennial.

Toby Kamps is the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Menil Collection in Houston, TX. Prior to working at the Menil, Kamps held positions as Curator and Department Head, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Maine College of Art, Portland; and Senior Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College, the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art, and the Getty Museum Leadership Institute. In 2015, Kamps was a Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership, New York, NY.

Preview the artwork below:

[envira-gallery id=”8128″]