Artists' Reception: Thursday, October 11 | 5 - 8 pm
Hotel Chicago West Loop
1622 W Jackson Blvd Chicago
ph. (312) 243-2900
We are excited to announce our collaboration on The Annex | Murals at The Hotel Chicago West Loop has expanded. Since Fall 2017 we have been consulting on an arts initiative, The Annex at the Hotel Chicago West Loop. In spring of 2018 the Hotel Chicago began recruiting Chicago-basded artists to create murals inside guest rooms, and two murals were created by Asend and JC Rivera. This fall, four more works will debut. Asend was invited back by popular demand, and three new artist were selected to make contributions: Elloo, Josh Grotto, and Brandin Hurley. This second wave of mural additions marks dedication and success of the program.
Preview Pictures & Artist Info:
Asend’s career in urban art dates back to the 1990’s and has become more practiced, versatile, and studied since. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2006 and has contributed to initiatives far and near. His work can be seen throughout Chicago, and the US, as well as in annual events such as Art Basel, Miami, The Onou Festival in Tahiti, and “Nomad Ink” in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and Beijing, China. Asend’s work is both traditional and progressive. It has a fluidity and is capable of bridging otherwise disparate visual aesthetics to connect historic themes and realistic treatment with a bold and even gritty street aesthetic.
Elloo’s work is a loveable compilation of her favorite things, memories, and experiences. She hails from Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, and has fond memories of trips to ice cream parlors or pastry shops with friends and family. This mural features her honeybear and classic doughnuts. She is also famous for her monsters. An art historian may claim Elloo’s figures reference Alfeñiques or Day of the Dead skeletons, a friend may say its a spin of a personal love of drawing old people, but its more fun to think the best in life can be rolled up into one adorable every-monster.
Josh Grotto studied painting and graphic design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work draws from urban culture literally and figuratively. He develops type characters from fragments until something universal and recognizable solidifies. Grotto’s works is graphic, gritty, but altogether seductive. It references cubism, abstract expressionism, traditional portraiture, and collage. Like all of Grotto’s work, this piece is visually catchy and deeply meaningful. It is a visual reference to a short story/poem by National Book Award winning author Nelson Algren called “Love is for Barflys” from Chicago: City on the Make.
Brandin Hurley is a visual artist more focused on sentiment than materials. Her portfolio includes site-specific installations, light boxes, set design, and resin based fine art, but she seems capable of working with anything she can get her hands on. The piece she created for The Annex is elegant and dreamy, brilliant and soft. Her aim is to create work that transcends, and moves us to another state of mind, “I have always been fascinated by the blurred line between waking life and dreams, reality and perception. As an artist, I try to live in a space full of awe and wonder. My role is making it visible to others.”
Links:
Asend
Elloo
Josh Grotto
Brandin Hurley
Videographer+Photographer: Keenan McCarthy