WALKING ON THIN ICE

Chiplis/Ingenuity 2013

Yesterday we went from this

to this, for Chiplis’ installation at Ingenuity Fest 2013.

Chiplis is in the small segment of artists whose medium is neon/argon tubes. And in that thin slice, he’s the only one I know who works exclusively in used tubing.

He gets a lot of his art supplies from dead Cleveland buildings. He figures if they’re being demolished, he can save the old signage for art. I helped him take one off an abandoned restaurant years ago, which was a lot of fun because it was technically illegal. Now days restaurants ask him to take their signs when they go under.

Don’t know how many shows Chiplis has been in past couple years . . . there’s the solo at the Butler Institute of Art in 2010, Ingenuity Fest 2009-13, the Busta Gallery last February and NYC’s Scope Art Fair 2013 a month later, a permanent installation in the new underground Cleveland Convention Center, last month’s group show at the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, and at least a couple more out-of-towners and probably a few in I heard of, and probably some I haven’t. Is good when good things happen to good people.

Yesterday poet/artist Kevin Eberhardt and I helped him install a 60 x 10 foot installation titled “The Greatest White Mountains, the All Argon Hills, and the Cold Cathode Plains” for Ingenuity 2013 down at dock 32 on the lake front. All these tubes use argon gas.

Ingenuity runs this Friday-Sunday at docks 32 and 30 on the lakefront north of the Browns Stadium and Great Lakes Science Center, is free and open to the public.

Jeffry Chiplis also collects carrot bags from around the world, was born on February 29th so only ages once every four years, landscapes, gardens, is a certified Bar-B-Q judge, has been on the board of SPACES art gallery for 30-some years and my friend almost as long.

He was also our landlord for two weeks to two months when we stayed in his 2-room love shack out back after we sold our place in 2006, again when we briefly returned to the US in 2007, and finally on our return in 2009 . . . it was a fairytale shack, with the glass shower in the kitchen between the refrigerator and the stove.

detail of Chiplis sculpture at Ingenuity Fest 2013 – fotosmith

Chiplis MoCA montage

Here’s my fotomontage of Chiplis’ 3 sculptures and talk at Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

He’s in a 4-artist show titled “Everything All At Once” with Jennifer Omaitz, Elizabeth Emery and Dana Depew which continues at MoCA through October 13, 2013: MoCA show & talk Aug 24th, 2013, curated by Liz Maugans.

Chiplis at MoCA – fotosmith

3 Chiplis at Museum of Contemporary Art

“I Can’t Quite Focus” by Jeffry Chiplis
neon, argon, steel
50 x 53 x 4 1/2 inches, 2013

Here are three neon & argon sculptures by Jeffry Chiplis in the group show “Everything All At Once” curated by Liz Maugans in the Toby Devan Lewis Gallery at MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) which opened last Saturday and runs from August 24, 2013 — October 13, 2013.

This is quite a feather in his cap, especially when added to his commission for the “Land, Lake, Sky” sculpture installed last month at the new Cleveland Convention Center and his one-person show at the Butler Institute of American Art in 2010.

I’ll be putting up a foto montage of the show and gallery talk in the next few days at agentofchaos.com/chiplis/index.html.

All neon and argon tubing used is reclaimed from dead Cleveland businesses and buildings.

“The Show-off Chameleon” by Jeffry Chiplis
Argon, steel
21 x 29 x 5 1/2 inches, 2013

“An Invitation to Dine” by Jeffry Chiplis
neon, argon, steel
38 x 38 x 6 1/2 inches, 2013
Collection of Rick Cassara
– fotos Smith