Thad Kellstadt: This House Ain’t a Home

Thad Kellstadt: This House Ain’t a Home
Opening October 21, 6-9pm
244 W 31st Street
through December 1, 2011


Behind the wall, up in the ceiling and under the floor is an absurd landscape. Silent and out of view, this hidden support network waits, slowly transforming banal materiality into new substances.

The multimedia installation, This House Ain’t a Home, imagines possible interior
lives of objects and materials.


Kellstadt was born in rural Ohio in 1977.
He works in a variety of mediums from painting to video. His influences range from custom van culture to psychedelia to science fiction. Kellstadt has shown nationally and internationally at Space 1026 in Philadelphia, Lump Gallery in Raleigh, Co-Prosperity Sphere in Chicago, Alice Gallery in Brussels, Cell Project Space in London and PDX Film Festival in Portland, OR.

Kellstadt lives and works in Chicago, IL. He has exhibited at various locations such as Lump Gallery in Raleigh, Art Brussels, Space 1026 in Philadelphia and Cell Project Space in London.

Jolt: Janice Trecker

Eastern Expansion is pleased to present paintings by Janice Trecker.
August 12- September 12, 2011

Opening reception Friday, August 12, 7-9pm
Complementary beverages and snacks served.


"Most of my paintings reflect people and things I have seen. Although they are rarely painted from life, they are almost always collected from life, via the sketchbooks that I carry, especially to sporting events with my husband, Jerry, a sportswriter.

As a result, I produce a wide range of images, from portraits to fans at sports venues to museum puppets, that all have one thing in common: each emerged out of the daily flux of images to form a picture that suggested some of the radiance, energy and mystery of everyday life. To capture those things is my sole ambition.

My work is representational but very far from photographic, and the paintings are often exaggerated in both form and color in an attempt to capture the rhythms of the subject. I am especially fond of festive occasions and people in costume, especially children who see the wonderful weirdness of life, as well as musicians and theater people at work."

Bill Talsma : Things That Are Longing To Appear

Things That Are Longing To Appear
Eastern Expansion (244 W 31st St.)
Opening May 1, 2011
6-9pm

Admission: Free

“Things That Are Longing To Appear” is a storefront installation / window display by artist Bill Talsma that consists of six modified ‘open & closed’ signs presented at 244 W. 31st Street in Chicago. These signs—the kind usually displayed at small businesses—have been redesigned, rewritten and combined together to form a master sentence that spans the 6 objects. Subsequently, thoughts about the reappearance of things as reproduction are simultaneously woven across the signs (and through the master sentence) with smaller, prefabricated marquee-style letters.

As part of Version 11: The Community

Jordan Martins Strange Attractions

Opening February 18, 2011 6-9pm

Jordan Martins
Strange Attractions
Eastern Expansion
244 W 31st Street

Strange Attractions is a window installation that continues to explore Jordan's interest in Chicago-specific tradition of hand-painted, block-letter grocery signs which have come to be associated with Hispanic markets. As in previous installations with this source material, Jordan constructs patterns that simultaneously attract (through expressive gestures and fluorescent colors) and conceal (by extracting the rhythmic patterns from any content). In this sense he see's them relating both to natural camouflage and bright plumage used by animals to attract mates, or broader notions of visual stimuli to affect or sculpt behaviour.