FLATS Studio Presents: Playtime

Doing their part to concur the "starving artist" epidemic, FLATS Chicago is an organization created by those who are passionate about the city's community of creatives and supplying inspiring, yet affordable living spaces for these individuals to thrive.

Their Mission:  The FLATS™LiFE is to live well. To create. To rearrange. And rearrange again. To be nimble, yet heard. To pioneer. To love community. To have a home with a soul. Value, individuality, and character make us tick. Authenticity is our addiction. We are anything but expected. We create our own finishes. We thrive on bicycles and great coffee. Dogs keep us running. We believe that living well is a necessity and we spend our lives curating what we simply call The FLATS™LiFE.

More than just a rental company, FLATS Chicago works to re-purpose buildings that otherwise would have been remodeled or demolished.  In addition, a collection of pop-up gallery exhibits have been curated in select FLATS buildings, giving life to FLATS Studio.

On the evening of Friday, November 21st,  FLATS Studio hosted their final show of 2014 at 1050 W. Wilson Ave.  Titled Playtime, the installment examined childhood innocence and sexual tendencies through sculpture, drawing, and self-portraiture.   

Jennifer Kaplan  describes her installment at the FLATS Studio Playtime show, 1050 W. Wilson Ave.

The show featured the work of eight individual artists; Luke Carlson, Alicia Everett, Jennifer Kaplan, Andrew Meyler, Edward Muela, Allison Zuckerman, Keith Tolch and Andrew Johnson.

Left: Edward Muela - Third Arm of Justice Right: Edward Muela - Finger Bangs

Left: Andrew Johnson - Dunes Day  Right:  Andrew Johnson - War On Breast Cancer

Architecture enthusiast and FLATS Chicago Co-founder, Jay Michael tells us that the start of FLATS Chicago and FLATS Studio was quite an organic process.  "I knew that we had all these buildings and a lot of them had these interesting pieces that were falling off the walls and I was like, why don't we see if we can find an artist who wants to do something with each building and do a pop-up gallery?," said Michael.

The first FLATS Studio pop-up took place in 2012 and was a surprising success.  "The show up was about 400 people, so we were like, obviously we are onto something," said Michael. 

The next FLATS Studio showcase is scheduled to take place in February of 2015 and we are so excited to see what wonderful new art it will hold!  For more information on upcoming FLATS Studio events, keep an eye on www.flatsstudio.com.