Gallery Hop River North Friday or Saturday

Tonight is a good night to gallery hop in River North. Openings at Addington, Andrew Bae, Carl Hammer, Ann Nathan, Perimeter, Printworks, and Ken Saunders. (For the record - that oxford comma - that's for you Liora.) Also, if you're in my neighborhood, I highly recommend the Iceberg. A private space run by collector Dan Berger, Iceberg is really unique and thoroughly unmatched in terms of quaintness.

So Ann Nathan is opening and I'll stop by for that since our openings often coincide, I rarely make them. Ann is, well, Ann. There is totally no one like her. Over this last Art Chicago, I stopped in her booth just to check it out and Ann was showing a client some work by Rose Freymuth-Frazier. Ann's assistant (sorry, I forgot his name - but then again - they could have that info posted on their site, but don't so . . . anyway) Ann's assistant was busy with another client and couldn't help get the work out of their little storage area. Keep in mind, Ann is, like, 84 or something and Fraizer's artwork is (often) giant. So I was standing there and Ann is trying to yank this, like, six foot piece of work out of her racks, so I, being the gentleman that I am, said, "Ann, I can get that out for you." So Ann turns around and looks me up and down, like, sizing me up, giving me a little bit of a look that said, "And who the hell are you?" I forget what she actually said, which is too bad because I remember it being kind of funny, but not the kind of funny where I was supposed to be laughing out loud, so I had to try to keep a straight face, but it was along the lines of "Do you know how to handle artwork properly and who the hell are you?" So I showed her my badge and she let me help her get the piece out. I don't know if they sold it but I hope they did. That would make me feel good. As of several weeks ago though, they hadn't sold (or at least were still showing) Frazier's piece Hounded. Now, this isn't normally the kind of work I jump at, but there is just something so strange and arresting about this painting. I really like it. And remember, you can buy it.

Rose Freymuth-Frazier, Hounded, Oil on linen, 72x58, available at Ann Nathan Gallery

If you can't make it out tonight for hopping, feel free to join me tomorrow morning at 11am for a River North Gallery Tour that I will be leading. Every Saturday morning Chicago Gallery News hosts a gallery tour which visits 4 galleries in the district. With over 40 to choose from, each week there's something new to see. Plus, each tour is led by a gallery representative (often owners and/or directors) and at each stop a representative from that gallery gives the history and background on the current show. It's always enlightening and I often hear at the end of the tours that people are surprised that everyone was so nice to them. We get reputations for being bitches, but that's all misconception. I mean really, for sake of argument, Dan Addington and Ken Saunders are two of the most outgoing engaging people in all of Chicago. It's fun, I promise. This Saturday we'll meet, as always, at the Starbucks at 750 N Franklin (Chicago and Franklin) at 11am and visit, Habatat, Russell Bowman, Catherine Edelman and our very own David Weinberg Gallery. See you there.