Everyone wants to discover the next latest and greatest. Whether that’s music or art, it feels good to have your pulse on the newest undiscovered talents. The scene is a cold Chicago Saturday night. The streets of the intersection of Milwaukee and Damen are bustling with massive amounts of scenesters and hipsters alike. As they pass in and out of bars like Crocodile and Flat Iron you’ll notice some of them duck into what look like apartment entrances to upstairs lofts. For most who don’t pay attention it doesn’t seem like anything more than a few PBRs too many and a trip home for these folks. But upstairs to dozens of bars and retail stores is where the real art scene of Chicago comes alive. It’s like the modern equivalent of the speak easy, or a enhanced rave, minus the nitrous shots and annoying teenagers.

I happened upon one such loft gallery through a friend of mine from Columbia College where I received my B.A. in 2001. He always has the pulse on the latest artistic happenings and also the ones to get the best free cheese and wine. We looked at artist Max Derouche (don’t let the french sounding name fool you, he’s from the south side) who was presenting his thesis work from the Art Institute. Several glasses of vino and blue cheese cubes later we learned his personal stake in the painting realm. “I paint on everything from wood found in alleyways to vintage furniture ’cause it’s cheap and has more history. It has an aura in it, a life of it’s own.” Derouche is not alone in the found art movement which responds to artists needs to use materials that are easily accessible but also make aesthetic sense for their statement.

Derouche’s collection entitled “Super Spy 60″ involves a mixed media exploration on found art canvases ranging from old newspapers from the early 1960s to car floor mats from 1980s Volkswagen’s. “I wanted to basically recreate those old spy novel covers from the 1950s and early 1960s, and put a voice on it. We’re all kind of like spies coming in from the cold nowadays in this country.” Politics aside Max Derouche is presenting his gallery at mainstream galleries this fall in Chicago and writes a blog on http://nowthatsgreat.com/2011/11/17/max/ where he gives readers a sense of his work and his goals as an artist. So for the value of not only getting to meet a compelling artist, gaining personal knowledge of his artistic vision, and of course, drinking massive amounts of wine and cheese, Wicker Park’s hidden loft galleries are well worth the visit. Don’t have the local hook up like I did? Check out sites like chicagoreader.com for the latest gallery listings and you’re on your way to true enlightenment. Check out Chicago’s northside hotspot of Wicker Park for the artists of tomorrow. You’ll have the bragging rights of knowing them “way back in the day.”

By Kevin Cosgrove

Chicago IL USA