Exhibition Closing Celebration & Performance - Without Permission
- 22 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Art of Paul Sierra, Kevin C. Lawler, & David Hauptschein
Closing Reception Friday, May 29
6:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Chicago Grand Gallery
2842 W. Chicago Ave.
Chicago Grand Gallery presents the fabulous three-man show Without Permission, which runs through the month of May & closes May 29. The show, curated by Luna Prysiazhniuk, will have a special celebration on closing night (Friday May 29), complete with a performance by the legendary actor Charles Pike. Pike will be reading David Hauptschein's deranged & hilarious There's a Worm in My Toilet, a true story. Also, special guest Max Fitzpatrick will warm up the room with his own short story. For those who want to see the exhibit before it disappears into that place we call history, the gallery will open at 6:00 p.m. that evening. The performance begins at 8:00 p.m. sharp & lasts about one hour, after which everyone will be invited to hang around until last call!
If you want to view the show before May 29, contact Chicago Grand Gallery at
224-355-2166
Three Approaches, One Unstable Conversation
Paul Sierra’s paintings move through identity as something in flux — shaped by memory, migration, and a constant negotiation between past and present. Forms emerge and dissolve, never fully settling, as if the image itself is trying to remember where it came from.
A Cuban-born artist, Paul's tropical palette is based on childhood memories, and his trademark vibrant colors provide a cultural corridor between his turbulent heritage and his adopted country. His beautiful yet often haunting paintings are transmitted directly from his fecund imagination to the blank canvas. Color and gesture become a language for navigating the space between past and present.
Kevin C. Lawler approaches painting through material and surface. His background in gilding and conservation is visible, but not restrictive. The work carries a sense of time — built, layered, and altered — holding a tension between control and spontaneity that resists easy resolution.
Kevin approaches painting through material and surface. With a background in traditional gilding and conservation, his work carries a strong sense of craft while remaining visually immediate. His compositions often hold tension between control and spontaneity, where texture and surface act as a record of time.
My own work continues an exploration of artificial intelligence as a tool for picture-making. Not as an author, and certainly not as an intelligence, but as a mechanism that generates material. The work begins afterward — in the selection, rejection, and reconstruction of what the machine produces. The resulting images are less about answers than about narrative possibilities, often unsettled and open-ended.
If you’re curious, come see it in person before it vanishes into only memory. The work tends to behave differently when you’re standing in front of it.
