Author Archives: Marcia E. Gawecki

James Emmett Jankowiak wonders why hip-hop got a bad rap. “People assume hip-hop is all bad,” he says. “The hip-hop music I grew up with didn’t mention guns or violence. ‘Rapper’s Delight’ talked about improving yourself as a person.” Even when a song glorified guns, “it didn’t make me want to go out and buy […]

Last month a member of Governor George Ryan’s delegation in Cuba complained that he’d been bitten on the arm by a prostitute with whom he had struck up a friendly conversation. The Sun-Times reported that he ended up paying the woman $10 to go away. That $10 could probably feed the prostitute’s family for a […]

Last February Daniel Hernandez was in town for an exhibit of his photographs, which were inspired by the 36-year civil war in his native Guatemala. A former photojournalist for Reuters and the Associated Press, Hernandez had volunteered to help identify the remains of thousands being exhumed from unmarked mass graves. During the excavations, he decided […]

Roberto Lopez loves women. The 49-year-old gallery owner has photographed women of every age, race, culture, physique, social status, and sexual orientation. Some of his subjects are actresses, artists, models, designers, writers, and poets; others are prostitutes, drug dealers, and lunatics. Some have died, moved away, or simply vanished, while others still come to visit […]

Jorge Felix’s painted constructions resemble body parts. But that observation only goes skin deep. He mixes and matches, combining male and female genitalia. The edges are jagged, and sharp objects protrude, breaking the “skin” to reveal raw “guts” beneath the surface. The work provokes a bit of a shock, especially when you learn that Felix […]

Aron Packer doesn’t like to be called an art dealer. “‘Art dealer’ sounds a little underhanded, kind of like a card dealer in Las Vegas,” he says. “Gallery owner” would no longer be accurate either, at least not since he closed his Wicker Park gallery in October. But during his five years there he gained […]