Artist Story: Carl Baratta

I dig Chicago. I live and work here, teach part time at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and just had a solo show at Western Exhibitions. The show was well received and reviewed around the city last October. Generally, I try not to let myself get too happy with good reviews or bummed out when someone writes something negative, allowing myself 20 minutes of emotion. If it looks like I will run over on caring, I buy myself a hot meal. So, this fall things were looking up on a couple of fronts, which was great. And then the recession hit. This affected me in a couple of ways.

I had planned on showing again in LA with a couple of galleries I had met my last time out there. But all of a sudden, they couldn't afford out of town new kids so all that was put on hold. One gallery owner said that he was looking for more figurative art and that, although my abstract work was nice, he didn’t feel it would make sense right now. But check this out: almost every piece I have is a landscape and almost every landscape has figures in it. So, basically I find his reasoning strange.

Secondly and somewhat connected to the hold put on showing nationally, I cut back on teaching. Part time teachers who do not have any sort of contractual force field are getting a beat down class-wise (in case you haven’t heard). At the tail end of October or the beginning of November, I suddenly saw the career trajectory I’ve been following recede back into the mists of Avalon. It’s annoying, but I’m pretty new on the scene so I have plenty of time to get back on track. And, in the meantime, I’ve taken the opportunity to swear a lot and binge on BBQ.

What’s most annoying is that I never looked towards teaching as a way to make huge amounts of money anyway. In fact, I never look at anything art-wise for the money. There’s hardly any money to be made. I do it because I want to. It’s very simple in my mind. At its least exciting, having an artistic community to visit and hang out with helps me avoid conversations about normal-people-bull-shit I'll never be interested in. At its best, the art world, along with the people I meet, and the awesome meaty conversations I find myself in, is incredibly exhilarating. Being part of the Chicago art scene - and being able to give back some through teaching - has always been my intention.

So since that’s on hold, I am filling the gap by organizing shows here both in the city and surrounding suburbs. I have a group show I am co-curating that openned in June in Hammond, Indiana at The Paul Henry Gallery. It's at a 100-year-old hardware store. The artists that showed are great (yes, I'm biased but no, I’m not wrong) and the space is really weird and interesting.

I moved here six years ago from Philadelphia and while the scene in Philly is getting better, it’s still not great. I hate to be that way but until recently there was really no viable gallery to show with there. The two marginally OK places were totally taken over by vegan West Philly stinky burrito-types. They had ironic mustaches before Chicago kids did. Jealous? Nope. Me either.

There has been a recent reckoning with having to deal with all this economic horse shit. Since the market nationally has slowed down, I don't have to stress about shipping work across the states. Instead, I’ve been able to focus more time on making a pile of new paintings and work more with my collaborative printing cronies, Enkendu Publications. Since my big solo show in October, 2008, I've had a two person show in Southern Illinois with Isak Applin, and an upcoming group show at Corbett vs. Dempsey here in the city. After the group show I’ll have plenty of time and resources to make a ton of new work for maybe late next year or early the following. It’s a huge burden that’s been lifted in my studio.

When it comes to exhibiting, I’ve been very lucky. I have a very simple; straightforward and mostly fun relationship to gallery life. Scott Speh is great to work with. Western Exhibitions has a really strong stable of artists and Scott’s exhibitions program works hard to put on great shows. It’s really exciting working with people who are not happy staying still. So far it’s been a wild ride. Fun fact: almost all the guys in the gallery sport beards. Magnificent beards. A lot of good friendships have come from being associated with the gallery. I also have met a bunch of great friends in Chicago that are artists and writers and such. We keep each other going, visit each other’s studios and make sure we’re all OK.

I wouldn’t live anywhere else. Eventually the Winds Of Change may blow me somewhere different, but until then I’ll be more than content to live here. There are a ton of exciting things to see and do and lots of opportunities to show in interesting galleries. I know at the beginning I seemed like I was mostly complaining about the recession. But when Chicago artists, particularly the ones I love and respect, are actually making money they let it all hang out. Not to say any of us are really making any money right now, but way back (read: before last October) some of us were and the work was 100% more ballsy than anything I saw on either coast.

Now that the market is purging the weak, we have even less to worry about. We do not need to make work for an invisible audience, some sort of specter collector. I look at the market being slow as leg room for us to really explore our work without any distractions. I think for me and my friends, it’s the perfect time to attack this city and the nation and show how fucking bad ass we actually are.


Carl Baratta’s recent solo exhibitions include Western Exhibitions in Chicago, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, the Green Lantern (with Tsherin Sherpa) in Chicago. Recent group shows include Sullivan Gallery in Chicago and Lump Gallery in Raleigh, NC. For more information on shows, Enkendu Publications or up coming events please visit my website or visit Western Exhibitions