Asherman uses odd and somewhat aggressive pairings, such as poop and the color pink, to create tension and a humorous juxtaposition. She treats these objects as precious and refers to them as “experiments” that provide answers to her curiosities, theories and beliefs. Swider similarly uses her practice to resolve or answer questions about her surroundings, and she also has an aggressive approach. One example of this is through her obsession to “hunt” for photographs at every corner of the city and surrounding suburbs. Her work varies from medium format to grainy 35mm and this is a testament to her conviction to keep making new connections and also to not resign herself to a standard for image making. Heart Brain Lung Gut generously and un-forgivingly finds a balance between innocence and sentimentality with a tongue in cheek sarcasm.

“From the Pentagon to the Kremlin nations cringed before the mysterious flying object which could perform feats more deadly than any known weapon…They had a plan that meant taking the future of the world into their own hands.”

Taking its title from Agnew H. Bahnson, Jr.’s book of the same name, “The Stars Are Too High” is an exhibition of photography, installation, sculpture, and new media that relates to science fiction in its past, present and future forms. The concept of the show and title stems from the idea of a future that is unattainable, one that is fabricated through fantasy and dream. Referencing science fiction literature and film, each artist reserves a vision of their own ‘future.’

As a whole, science fiction (or Sci-Fi) represents our desires, fears and predictions of the world to come. Even if the predictions are not true they become important in how our society reflects on itself. Space travel, cell phones, internet and avatars were all predicted and thought about long before their invention. This show relates and connects the art world and Sci-Fi culture through references to William Gibson, Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey and even The Vision of Buckminster Fuller.

The Stars Are Too High connects all the concepts for the viewer to read and interpret in their place and time. Like the genre this show embodies, it is up to the viewer to link their experiences. No aspect of Sci-Fi was left unnoticed, may it be the cosmos or our own world this show encompasses the genre as a whole.

Katter’s work addresses a balance of spontaneity and composition in photography. An enthusiasm for the medium’s vast possibilities is made hyper-present through his playful approach. A photograph of a figure’s shadow on the back of a person in a nondescript landscape dramatizes anonymity and nods to the third figure, the viewer, who once again mimics the gesture and stands in place of the photographer. Buck uses a similar strategy of personal intervention in his photography where the photographer is the one being described through the represented object or person. Hani’s concern with authorship motivates his own mark of presence in the image; recycling and vandalizing iconic imagery of beauty. Swider steps further away from the subject, presenting wider photographic space in the landscape. Along with confusing scale through perspective and focusing on geometric composition, she, like Katter, creates a playful dynamic between herself and the subject. A house cat hunts the prey that is outside of the frame and Swider, armed with the camera, hunts the cat. In this way, the photographer becomes directly related to the meaning and reading of the subject matter.

From Jason Smith: What are the visual ways you might interpret thoughts about reading without written language? What does it mean to be “well read”? What kind of information does one need to accumulate knowledge? Where would you find it? I began to think about objects, and metaphors, and contexts to create an installation that would visualize the aspects of this effort. The more I thought about it the more I realized how complex this piece could become. Then it occurred to me, rather than focus on many different elements, I would focus on one, color. The obvious choice was red.

In their ongoing collaborative project, Leo Kaplan and Caroline Carlsmith paint almost invisible murals of clear gel medium onto flat, white gallery walls. Nearly impossible to see as a whole, figures shift into and out of focus as the viewer moves and light catches on one part of the painting, then another. As the images resolve themselves they reveal boxers in the climax of violence, falling and bleeding; a faint sheen on the plain walls.

(Fig. 4)is a show that explores ideas of space, assembling and instruction. Each artist was asked to react to the interior structure of pentagon and creates work that considers and affects the nature of an alternative gallery, that is, in the limitations and opportunities that it presents for each artist. Due to geographic distance three of the four artist could not participate in installation of their work. By means of letter, email, phone calls, diagrams and video conferencing the curators take on the role of installing site specific works. By not physically being a part of the space the artist must interpret and understand the layout through digital means and respond in the same way. For these reasons the curators and installers for (Fig. 4) become collaborators with the artists — mediating their ideas and instructions; by which the final work becomes an interpretation.

Sofia Leiby collages, screen prints, and paints landscapes. She creates spaces delineated by intuition and personal affect where fictional and nonfictional memories and occurrences coexist.

Austin Eddy uses manifolds of media to paint spaces that have a narrative portrait of possible inhabits. He allows viewers to visually and psychologically inhabit these rooms, using their own terms of the room they are in.

Bill Bacarella paints foreign structures in barren settings, obstructing the environment. Abandoned and deteriorated, these spaces foster a history of the past inhabits, and correlate with the failures of modernist architecture and human needs.

Access addresses one’s influences and how these forces are evoked in the production of work. This exhibition analyzes how cultural aspects play a vital role in the contemporary. As producers, we are exposed to the many examples of the socially relevant; not only do we produce it but also are exposed to its plethora of enablers. The question is begged to ask, what is the contemporary? Multicultural Student Association defines it by displaying each individual’s exposure.

Living Treasure is a shadow of Pentagon Gallery’s first opening Nemesis, a show that engaged cultural others and darkness in music, film, literature and athleticism. Living Treasure attempts to take note from Nemesis but focuses on current global issues and America’s involvement with in them. Each artist transforms ideas of violence, destruction, environment, religion, and sexuality by utilizing different mediums and engaging the viewer to be critical of their own social nature. The show it’s self might seem sinister but stays satirical with subject and matter. The show will be paired with a free private resident screening of the 1980s film Flash Gordon and will be shown twice through out the night (7:00pm – 8:52pm & 9:00pm – 11:00pm). The purpose of the film is to utilize the space of Pentagon as a apartment gallery and to bring light to the work being shown. Living Treasure will have video, painting, drawing, sculpture, and film.

The artwork featured in this exhibition examines the effectiveness and importance of heroics in contemporary American culture. Images and stories of heroic athletes, soldiers, astronauts, cowboys and other saviors are transformed to expose the idiosyncratic, dangerous, sincere and sometimes necessary efforts of American heroes. The Pentagon Saves the World will feature video, photography, sculpture and film. Come early for soup and beverages.

Human curiosity can be described as an internal pursuit to understand the environment one encounters; artists just so happen to examine the dichotomies involved in the process of making and reflect the curiosities they see in the world.

Submission will feature painting, mixed media, photography and video by Maria Jönsson, Aaron Ross, Jolie Cota Flink, Laura Boban and Jake Myers.

Work by Eric Fleischauer, Chris Edwards, Xavier Jimenez and Liz Nielsen.

Twelve Galleries began as a roving exhibition series featuring the work of emerging artists over the coarse of one year. With each new month, a new location was selected and a new gallery was formed. For its next venture, Twelve Galleries will focus its attention on twelve curators. Every quarter of the next year, within an existing Chicago gallery, three curators will collectively organize a themed exhibition as part of the Quarterly Site Series.

Pentagon gallery is proud to present its first opening with six up and coming Chicago based artists. The title and the artworks featured have themes of oppositional culture and call into question what is socially constructed as evil. Depicting haunting, spectral, forgotten and intimidating themes the show lurks in between moments and memories. Nemesis is a collection of video, installation, and photographic image work.

Gallery hours by email appointment at pentagon961@gmail.com.