Don't Miss the Naked July Gallery

Once again, the halls of the lobby of the National Pastime Theater are filled with outstanding examples of artwork created by some of the most talented artists in the Chicago metropolitan area. As you might expect of an art gallery created in conjunction with the annual Naked July festival, the works all celebrate the beauty of the human form. The art pieces on display represent a wide variety of media including ceramics, chalk pastel, charcoal, photography, silkscreen, and mixed media. Gary Schirmer is serving as the curator of the art gallery again this year, and he has included a few pieces of his own work in the collection. Here are some examples of the artwork in the gallery along with some information about the artists who created the pieces.

Jennifer Prucha is a passionate student of art and works extensively from the figure in a number of different mediums. She is also very interested and active in oil and watercolor painting, as well as photography, outside the genre of figure painting.  Her work with the figure has focused on experimentation with medium mixing and handling, the development of textural nuance, and the anatomical subtleties of the human form. Her work has been an invaluable asset to her personal fulfillment and growth.

Dorey Kronick is a mixed media artist, graphic designer, photographer, and an art and music curator who is freshly moved to Chicago from San Francisco. As a nomadic soul, she has worked all over the state of California in the creative field for over three years. Before, during, and after graduating with a BA in Graphic Design and a Minor in Studio Arts in 2009, she's been developing an ever-expanding list of dynamic art/design projects for a wide range of unique clients. A majority of her design work has been done with non-profit organizations, small businesses, entrepreneurs, private clients, musicians, and artists, with the exception of a few corporate clients. Outside of these endeavors, she has also instructed group 5th-9th grade classes in both Graphic Design and Digital Photography, as well as written a Graphic Design summer program curriculum called “Creativity for Life”.

Louis Mustari is a retired professor of Art History from Northern Illinois University and draws regularly from the human form. He also brings local artists together and maintains a drawing group with figure models in Dekalb. His work carries not only a personal discipline, but the discipline of the classical tradition of the rendering of the human form. 

Roy Villalobos is a self-didactic artist who finds in art the way of bringing to light the deepest feelings of the spirit and soul. He believes that art is a cleansing process that exposes the weaknesses and strengths that reside within him and that noble gifts come from a divine source. He leaves his subconscious to guide him through the creation of surrealistic metamorphic human figures. These figures become a reaction of personal experiences lived with all relations searching for the muse that will bring about balance.

More pieces from the NJ collection will be showcased in future blog posts in the weeks ahead. The artwork will be on display during the entire run of the 2012 Naked July Festival, and all of the pieces are on sale. When you come to see the performances on stage this month, be sure to arrive at the theater lobby early so that you have time to look over these outstanding works of art. Members of the NPT staff will be on hand to answer any questions you might have about purchasing a piece of art.