The Suburban- Shana Lutker / Stephen Berens

Today was the opening of the first summer show at The Suburban. Included in this exhibition are two artist's from L.A., Shana Lutker and Stephen Berens. Stephen's photographs which documented a posting for a lost dog throughout a neighborhood in Los Angeles, lined the walls of one of the exhibition spaces. He also had some of his books on display of courtyards and plazas, a trip to Italy, and more imagery similar to that of the documented dog poster. In the other gallery space Shana Lutker's large books lay opened on a table for viewers to peruse for a single minute or all day if desired. Many of the books were part of her craigslist ad collection while a large red book seemed to be a collection of her dreams for the past 2 years all laid out as if they were individual newspaper articles.


The opening (as always) was an enjoyable social event on the lawn of Ms. Grabner and Mr. Killam's home. The show is not to be missed and I highly encourage anyone in Chicago to try to make it out to Oak Park to see these compiled collections of books and photographs.


For those of you not familiar with the independently run artist exhibition space in Oak Park, IL I have included a bit of their statement below:
"The Suburban is an independently run artist exhibition space in Oak Park, IL. We give complete control to the artists in regards to what they choose to produce and exhibit. Thus it's a pro artist and anti curator site. The Suburban is not driven by commercial interests. It is funded within the economy of our household. Its success is not grounded in sales, press or the conventional measures set forth by the international art apparatus, but by the individual criteria set forth by the artists and their exhibitions. In this, The Suburban is more closely aligned with the idea of studio practice than that of the site of distribution."
-Michelle Grabner & Brad Killam



Shana Lutker stands beside her book at The Suburban.



Stephen Berens is photographed here beside his installation.


For more information about The Suburban please visit http://www.thesuburban.org