Chicago Urban Art Society Presents: Red Bull Curates

Chicago Urban Art Society is teaming up with Red Bull for the Chicago leg of Red Bull Curates, and together they’re sending three winners to Miami for Art Basel in December. These three winners will be chosen from a group of Chicago’s twenty heaviest hitting artists. Among them are some Gozamos favorites Hebru Brantley, Ruben Aguirre, Uriel Correa, Solo RM, Chantala Kommanivanh, Erin Minckley Chlaghmo, Revise CMW, Czr Prz, CLS, and Jake Castro. Rounding out the competition’s stacked field are the very talented Saro, Joey Potts, Codo, Bonus Saves, Tess Kisner, Don’t Fret, Stal, Christina Long (Baker), Goons, and Yams.

I don’t know about you, but I’m beyond excited to not only see who wins the votes of our city’s art lovers, but also to see the work churned out by this extraordinary group of Chicago’s most talented artists from different fields and levels of expertise vying for their ticket to be punched to Miami.

So, how are the winners determined, you ask? Well, each artist is going to paint a mini cooler which will be entered into the competition to earn your votes. An audience award, a judging panel award and another winner will be sent to the international art fest in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District that is Art Basel. It doesn’t get any fresher than this…

This event also went down on the West Coast in the predictable cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, so nine of these winners (three from each distinguished art city, respectively) will be traveling to Miami to work in some capacity at one of the nation’s biggest and baddest art events, Art Basel. Lydia Emily took the first win in LA, followed by Hans Haveron taking the audience award and Gregory Siff taking the judging panel choice. In San Fran, they threw a nice launch, and it’s our turn in Chicago to show the art world what we’re made of Thursday night. If you ask me, it’s about time Chicago gets its due on the national stage and these artists are given wings. Chicago artists have been doing great work, but the attention stays on the East and West and rarely on the North Coast.

“I’m glad Chicago was selected to participate in this project. It brought together a wide range of artists who might not be in the same venue at the same time otherwise, as well as has given Chi some spotlight for what’s going on here right now with this genre of art,” says Ruben Aguirre.

This event is not only showcasing the different styles and voices of our artists here in Chicago, but it also shows a contrast in styles among the three cities involved on the grand scale. The fact that Chicago is involved in this project is a huge step in the right direction.

Chicago Urban Art Society is the place to be on Thursday night.