This was the website for Tanya Tucci's the Ugly Step Sister Art Gallery, located in Chicago. The domains registration expired and the new owner of the domain has chosen to create a loving a reminder and tribute to this former gallery that was committed to showcasing emerging visual artist. Content from the site's 2012-2013 archived pages. Information about shows at the Ugly Sister Art Gallery from 2013 - 2014 can be found at: http://uglystepsisterartgallery.tumblr.com/.
The gallery in no longer open as far as I can tell. I moved to the Maryland in 2014 and have not been back to Chicago since. Now another job offer is taking me back to ChHicago. Fortunately the Baltimore company that is moving my household goods is a full service agent for northAmerican Van Lines and their global network of storage facilities. Recommended by a neighbor, their name, Von Paris Moving & Storage, has been synonymous with quality. I figured that since Von Paris commitment to excellence along with our total quality service is why we have been chosen to handle the corporate relocation needs for many Fortune 500 has been chosen not only by two Presidents of the United States and many professional sports teams, but also has been named the official Mover of the Baltimore Orioles, the Baltimore Ravens and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, they will be able to handle my stuff. I was disappointed that the Ugly Step Sister Art Gallery is no longer presenting emerging new artist. I saw a great deal of wonderful art at their S. Union Avenue location. Oh well. I hope to discover another great gallery within walking distance of my new condo.
Ugly Step Sister Art Gallery was founded in 2008 by owner, Tanya Tucci, in a rented storefront on Fulton Market in the West Loop art district. Tanya's vision was to offer an approachable art gallery with affordable contemporary art from Chicago artists whose work she admired. In 2012, Ugly Step Sister Art Gallery moved to a permanent location on 1750 S. Union Avenue in the core of the vibrant Pilsen East Arts District. After extensive renovation of the new space, the gallery is also very excited to have partnered with Juhl WInd to create the city's first 100% wind-powered "green gallery." Staying true to Tanya's original vision, Ugly Step Sister Art Gallery continues to be dedicated to showcasing emerging and established artists in a wide variety of disciplines, and features new exhibitions on the 2nd Friday of each month, open from 6-11pm.
The gallery's 1500 square feet is also available for event rental, such as, wedding receptions, photo shoots, fashion shows, birthday parties, etc. Please feel free to inquire for pricing and scheduling.
Lauren Zens uses acrylic paint on slabs of masonite to create prismatic abstract and geometric paintings. Her work has been exhibited at Dose Market, The Den Theatre and Sacred Art. She graduated from Columbia College in 2012 with a BA in Music Business. This is her first solo show.
Friends of my world is a selection of recent paintings from the artists' collection. The subjects in the pictures shift from the artist's literal self to her imagined self, to the more recent work that ventures into the realm of deciphering and depicting others. Each canvas holds within its bounds the artist's world. In this unfolding world the hidden becomes visible and the animate and inanimate intermingle. It is this oscillation between the real and the imagined that has the power to transform and suspend time. In this space of looking; getting lost in a fold of fabric or a tuft of unruly hair- something is revealed letting us in on this sculpted moment between the artist and the sitter or between the artist her camera.
PILSEN — Many of painter Amanda Joy Calobrisi's friends are naked and brightly colored.
At least, they are in her portraits.
Paintings of Pilsen artists, cats — real and fake — and many self-portraits make up "Friends of My World," Calobrisi's new show at Ugly Step Sister Gallery.
Calobrisi, who received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute in 2008, said the show explores the lines between fantasy, reality and being a crazy cat lady.
"I have three cats which I think is borderline cat lady so, I mean, cats have always been on my mind cause they're all around me," she said of several self-portraits of herself and a cat mask.
In one, "Las Hermanas" (The Sisters), two girls with flower headpieces framed by a brightly-patterned flower wall stare off to the side as if deliberately avoiding eye contact with the viewer. In another painting, a naked woman lays her head on a large naked man with a powdered wig.
The man in the wig is Pilsen performance artist José Hernandez and the woman is his friend, musician Heather Lynn.
For their portrait, Calobrisi kept saying she wanted "blonde hair, flesh and leopard," Hernandez said.
After meeting Calobrisi through the Pilsen network almost four years ago, Hernandez said she became like a big sister to him.
Her work, he said, captures the rawness in people.
"There was also like a vulnerability that came through that really shows who we are. That's something she's very good at…being able to show you people," he said.
The exhibition, was scheduled to open Friday at the Ugly Step Sister Gallery, 1750 S. Union St. with a 6 p.m. reception with food and Duvel beer to complement the cats and naked neon Pilsenites.
The exhibition runs through June 9th.
Working collaboratively, Hayden Myrick and Eliot Taguiam present, "At Home and Away," a show that aims to define how each artist feels about perceiving truth in the world around them and explores notions of sentimentality, facade, ideas of absolute truths, and ultimate falsehoods. Curated by Edward Rossa, a graduate of the Art History and Theory Departments of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. At Home and Away is a collection of photographs that meet in the middle of two very different, and to some degree, opposing philosophies. Myrick's work examines the fabrication of meaning within the material world, while Taguiam's body of work exemplifies his absolute faith in the concept of certain realities with special attention to the complex notion of "home." Each artist will show approximately 7 - 10 photographs within the gallery, printed close-to, or at 17 x22in. mounted and framed.
Ugly Stepsister Art Gallery is pleased to announce its first exhibit of 2013 featuring "Vacancies" a new work by Eric Stefanski. In his first exhibit at the newest gallery in the Pilsen Arts District, Eric presents a series of work that addresses vacant properties in Chicago and their social implications.
Working first hand with low income and Chicago Housing Authority tenants, Eric has seen the psychological effect that occurs when your neighbor's home becomes vacant. This has led to a series of work that includes materials from vacant and abandoned homes. By recycling the windows, photographing the properties and using plywood as a signifier for desolation, he creates a dialogue between the audience and the stigma of poverty.
Going through desolate neighborhoods in Chicago it is apparent that the success of a small minority does not translate to a broad prosperity for all. What are left are board-ups, over grown fields and remnants of lost purpose. These "Vacancies" become monuments of social despair.
Unlike racial discrimination that affects specific groups of people, poverty is color-blind. Out of respect to these communities, Eric and Ugly Step Sister are asking all attendees to bring a donation of non-perishable food to be collected on the night of the opening and throughout the remainder of the exhibition.
The gallery and the artist are donating a portion of the proceeds from this exhibit to The Chicago Greater Food Depository.
Eric Stefanski is a Chicago-­‐based artist who lives and works in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. His work has been featured at leading galleries throughout Chicago. For more information, visit Eric's website at www.ericstefanski.com.