Greg Ruffing and Brandon Alvendia Exhibit Works by Over 30 Participants

Posted Thursday, November 7, 2024

Installed as part of Practices in Proximity, Greg Ruffing and Brandon Alvendia’s Standards Variance is a group exhibit of speculative proposals around what is possible for urban space (empty lots, abandoned buildings, storefronts, green-space, etc.) in Chicago.

Something radical?
Something practical?
Something fantastical?

What would it look like? What would happen there? How would it function? What needs or wants might it help fulfill that perhaps aren’t currently being addressed?

The exhibit includes contributions from over 30 participants: Julia Arredondo, Stella Brown, William Camargo & Yvette Mayorga, Monica Chadha & Carlo Parente, Angela Davis Fegan, Flor Flores, Alfredo Garcia, Danny Giles & Sharmyn Cruz Rivera, Jaclyn Jacunski, Leo Kaplan, Morten Kvamme, Kirsten Leenaars, Ruslana Lichtzier, Fran Lightbound, Kelly Lloyd, Lora Lode, John Lusis, Jesse Malmed, Nicole Marroquin, Victoria Martinez, Gabriel Montero, Josh Rios, Bailey Romaine, Luis Rodriguez Rosario, Edra Soto, Third Object (Raven Falquez Munsell, Ann Meisinger, Gan Uyeda), Selina Trepp, Rafael E. Vera, Lisa Vinebaum, Aaron Walker, and Latham Zearfoss.

Don’t miss Greg Ruffing’s participation in “Proximities: conditions of exchange” on Friday, November 22 from 5:30-7:30 PM!

In Greg Ruffing and Brandon Alvendia’s own words,

“Standards Variance is a collection of speculative proposals around what is possible for Chicago urban spaces: empty lots, abandoned buildings, storefronts, green-space. It considers what the future might hold in an era of volatile market optimism, political turbulence, and widespread uncertainty. This installation opens a discussion around land speculation, resources, and real estate, and moves toward a more expansive and inclusive set of concerns derived from a grassroots level. This project is not necessarily against development—but it is, in many ways, anti-developer.

Standards Variance enlists the creative thinking of artists and non-artists alike to imagine alternative notions of urban space that are perhaps more egalitarian, useful, critical, inclusive, accessible, or progressive, and potentially utopian, whimsical, anti-commercial, experimental, absurd, and far-fetched. The proposals were not [limited] by concerns such as budget, zoning, availability of space, feasibility, or the laws of physics. The collaborators recognize, embrace, and indeed hope that this would yield a wide variety of incongruent or conflicting proposals, whose differences would reflect the diversity of our communities as well as the pluralistic modes of commitment.”

In the middle of summer of 2014, I was phoned by a curator of the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, inviting me to curate a show in an abandoned storefront, currently housing the expanded portion of Star Liquors and adjacent bar called The Walk In. I was inclined to say yes to every opportunity, especially one that would potentially see a few hundred neighbors and large raw space to play around with. The rub was that the festival was happening in three days so I opted to “curate” a fake show with fake artists and fake art made by real artists who shall remain anonymous.

The show was called “Something For Everyone” and was a chance to hang out in a space and root around the debris of a failed law firm that from the look of it had to jettison their business very abruptly as evidenced by the scads of personal files strewn about the space. So after three days of tearing up moldy carpet and tossing out debris and making arte povera-ish art onsite, the festival began with a happy landlord (NOT Fishman btw) popping by with an approving look on his face yet also saying, “When is the art coming?” The show was a blast to make and observe the public’s interaction and though I wasn’t paid, I walked away with a sweet Danish bookcase that would have been tossed in the trash.

However, the storefront karma immediately came back to me, and while the festival was happening and unbeknownst to me, my own storefront project space was being measured out by workers to convert into an apartment room (“John didn’t tell you?”), ending the 3-year run of a project partially funded by a Propeller Grant, which saw dozens of collaborators and visitors throughout its time. RIP Storefront 2011-2014.

The Storefront at 2606 N. California Avenue was a multi-purpose non-commercial/non-non-profit institution- as-art project that operated according to the logic of a gift economy. Its mission was to support very temporary short-term projects by local cultural producers of all kinds, while promoting the idea of artists as local community producers working within the history of a 21st century global discourse.

Open to the public in 2011, The Storefront was located in a very ordinary, modestly sized storefront space in the changing Logan Square area of Chicago. Hidden in plain view and nestled comfortably within its surroundings, The Storefront positioned itself within the ebb and flow of everyday life. Its mission was to balance a playful absurdity with a high level of critical discourse and professionalism to challenge the monotony of an urban cycle of work/life/work/life for life.

–Brandon Alvendia

What does a more equitable and inclusive neighborhood look like, and what role can art play there? A few months ago I attended a discussion in Logan Square about artist-run spaces, mostly centered on gentrification concerns, galleries’ part in community, and how to form meaningful neighborhood relationships. As the room split into breakout sessions, my group focused on cultivating awareness and respect for the diverse histories and cultures in one’s neighborhood, how art spaces present themselves to the public, and suggestions about programming. We then reported back and added our thoughts to a broader, collective list.

Yet spiraling out of that evening’s discussions, there are other unmentioned and unresolved questions — probably more like sticky notes of work left unfinished: What are some additional ways of re-defining how art spaces function? How can galleries become more accessible neighborhood spaces and resources? And, even when they’re committed to supporting marginalized artists and voices, shouldn’t art spaces also consider how to extend that work beyond art itself, to help bridge gaps between creative aspirations versus more immediate needs (spatial or otherwise) in the neighborhood? These prompts and conversations feel particularly urgent today, but are also connected to ongoing, long-simmering questions about art’s relationship to everyday life.

If we’re interested in how to make neighborhoods more inclusive places of belonging, then applying those same concerns to art spaces can be one starting point. But there’s also room for action beyond that — maybe within the artist-as-neighbor-to-neighbor-as-artist dynamic: that the artist recognizes themselves within a larger community, and that our artist-to-neighborhood relationships are just as important as our artist-to-artist relationships. In this way, the artist-as-worker can stand in solidarity with other workers, and the artist-as- neighbor can stand in solidarity with neighbors, even where differing needs exist.

–Greg Ruffing