As an emerging hub for digital art and NFTs, “The New Digital: Born in Chicago” showcases the many ways Chicago inspires creativity — from the city’s architecture, to the culture of the Midwest, and its vibrant neighborhoods.
This genesis exhibition from imnotArt Chicago features seven artists who were born or raised in Chicago, each with work reflecting a unique aspect of this great city. Together, starting with this exhibition, we are building something special right here in the 312. Welcome to The New Digital.
All work from this exhibition will be displayed both physically and digitally in our Cryptovoxels virtual gallery. By showcasing NFTs in both our physical and virtual galleries, we hope to model the potential of digital art to serve as a bridge between these previously separate sites of social and cultural experience.
I’ve taken many miles worth of long walks in 2020 & 2021. It’s a thing of strange beauty that something so simple can provide so much clarity amidst chaos. ‘Memory Control’ is a series of works that contemplates how we deal with stark contrasts. ‘Lifetime of Peace’ is a brief moment of calm versus calamity.
When you think of this city, where does your mind go? To the people? The food? The clothing? Where does the city and its people draw their inspiration from? The answers; like the community of creatives that live here, are as broad and diverse as the shoulders in the Chicago's namesake.
When I think of Chicago, I think of the names that put the city on the map (for better or for worse): Al Capone, Chance the Rapper, Ye, Michael Jordan and the powerhouse Chicago Bulls team — and their classic firetruck red. This "Second City" is second to none; we're seen as the underdog but I always had a heart for the underdog anyway. There's no place I'd rather be. Chicago is home, and here are my flowers to those that defined it, and all of those to come.
I recreation of a moment in my life following a low point in my sobriety, I found myself completely alone, staring up at the sky wondering if you could see the same thing I saw. Years later I returned to the spot and took this photograph.
I’ve taken many miles worth of long walks in 2020 & 2021. It’s a thing of strange beauty that something so simple can provide so much clarity amidst chaos. ‘Memory Control’ is a series of works that contemplates how we deal with stark contrasts. ‘Iridescent Swamp’ is a shimmer of color in the mud.
A follow-up piece to "Flowers for Chicago," "And Flowers for Its Women" is a celebration of the ladies that make up Chicago (and art...and NFTs...) but go unnoticed, underrepresented, and undervalued, time and time again. We deserve our flowers, too, and I'm ready for us to get 'em.
This animation captures the essence of deep dish pizza using only one line. Deep dish pizza was invented by Ike Sewell in Chicago where he established the first deep dish pizza restaurant “Pizzeria Uno” in 1943. This is my first one line animation that incorporates fields of color within the composition. Each frame is hand drawn.
HOW. WHAT. WHEN. WHERE? You tell me.
Like how Ernest Hemingway used to describe Paris, but instead of the the European city, to me, Chicago is a Moveable Feast. When I am within the city itself, it ignites my passion to explore, but when I am away, it always stays with me wherever I go. No matter where I am, it keeps inspiring me.
It is also a place where I gather my thought and memories in between the last and the next adventure, and when the time comes, it pushes me to set sail for a new journey to a faraway land and awaits until we meet again.
This animation captures Chicago’s vibrant energy and connects the 6 iconic locations that shape the city’s culture. This is the first one line animation in my “city” series. Each frame is hand drawn using one line only.
Chicago Skully is an ode to a vibrant city with a rich history. A cultural hub for music and art. A place that is always right in the middle of the artistic revolution.
Established in 2004 at the age of 18, NoPattern Studio is the Chicago-based practice of artist, designer, photographer and creative director Chuck Anderson. Known for his surreal use of color & light, pioneering juxtapositions of traditional & digital mediums and endless experimentation, Chuck’s work has become highly sought-after by a wide spectrum of brands and collectors. In 2010 at age 25 he was named a ‘Design Icon’ by Computer Arts Magazine and now 35, Anderson’s client list includes ESPN, Apple, Nike, Microsoft, New York Times, Vans, Target, Burton, and the Chicago Bulls, Cubs, and White Sox. With an outstanding grasp on the use of color and boundless desire to explore what is possible within digital programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, this is just the start for Chuck Anderson.
"My name is Sophie.
I'm an American contemporary artist, self-taught and self-starting. My business is my art — my work focuses on the woman's body, interpreting her as strong in her vulnerability and beautiful in her femininity through abstract figuration. A woman’s beauty is like nothing the world has ever seen; she has a unique ability to be strong, but kind, and powerful, but soft, simultaneously.
In agreement with Leonardo da Vinci that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” I use few, precise strokes, each as significant as the next — intentionally stripping all of the unnecessary, allowing the viewer to read between the lines.
Though I'd wanted to be an artist since I was 5, I began pursuing art seriously when I was first living alone in a studio apartment in Seattle, recovering from an eating disorder and an abusive relationship.
At first, art was an avenue for healing and restoration, and to learn how to love being a woman again. And now, others are finding healing and triumph through my work, too, and that's the dream.
I exist to celebrate the beauty and body of the woman, and I create to make you — woman — feel safe, and sexy, and at home in her own skin."
Joey Miller was born in a small town in Northern Indiana. He has been involved with the arts from a young age and attended an internship at the Snite Museum of Art at the university of Notre Dame at the age of 15. After high school, Miller and a friend drove down the east coast, a trip which would ignite his interest in photography as a fine art.
Joey Miller is known for his work that addresses the isolation that comes with mental illness. Photography became an outlet as Joey battled with Borderline personality Disorder during his college years, inspiring him to create his colorful nighttime scenery.
Joey studied 2 years at Columbia College Chicago but left to pursue photography full time, with the hopes of returning to school with a stronger portfolio and more knowledge of the industry.
Willea Zwey is a Chinese-American digital artist and multidisciplinary illustrator who is currently based in Chicago.
With an extensive background in Architecture, she approaches art from an eccentric perspective, which gives her a broad vision to perceive and process ideas that pushes boundary of disciplines. Zwey's work features and celebrates spatial expression and 3D elements. She creates artwork as scenes rather than a structured composition, it provides space for moments and its attachments such as feelings, thoughts and actions to be collided, encountered and captured. Colors and details are essential in Zwey's work as they help to archive compelling visuals and build depth. Zwey tends to use gentle and visually pleasant elements to depict topics with deeper meaning with a slight hint of sarcasm in a surreal way.
Artist, musician, animator, explorer of the metaverse. Generative art, creator of Loosies, Technology + Art.
HÜMBAN. ARTIST. WEIRDWILDWORLD.none of this matters. Make art you care about, share art you care about and keep it going so we can ALL eat. It's very simple.
"My name is Connor Sinclair, and I am a self-taught, abstract artist from Chicago, IL.
My artistic journey began when I started drawing multiple faces using one line to express the idea that we are all connected. Each of my artworks depict a different, unique form of connection that we as a society may often overlook.
I am inspired by people and the world around me. Whether I am painting, drawing, or animating, I am constantly experimenting, finding new and better ways to express myself. The way I create depends on the idea that I am trying to communicate. Sometimes my work is simple, sometimes it is complex, but no matter what, my art is always deeper than what meets the eye."
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