Samuel Schwindt

Comforting Ghosts: Big Chick’s Art Collection - Sixty Inches From Center Read about the stories behind the art collection located within an equally storied Uptown queer bar.

I've been going to Big Chick's uptown bar for years -- and their art collection is riveting, although secretive. I discussed it thoroughly with other people in the Chicago art community and the LGBTQ+ (along with conversations with the owner).

sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/comforting-g...

Review: Ari Norris' "Fully Filtered" at Artruss Ricocheting inside, Ari Norris' solo exhibition “Fully Filtered” is that cig at the end of the day on the construction site nearby.

art.newcity.com/2025/05/28/r...

Review: Mac Pierce at Bert Green Fine Art “Deathmatch,” a solo exhibition by Mac Pierce at Bert Green Fine Art, is an anonymous harbinger of war.

art.newcity.com/2025/08/07/w...

Review: Nanako Kono's "Doublespeak" at Western Exhibitions There's a difference between playful and experimental—one’s a hunch, one’s a hypothesis. Nanako Kono is the latter.

Been a minute Bluesky! But I’m excited to share updates on my writing. I’ve been busy with NewCity Art in Chicago. Follow along in this post for the latest:

art.newcity.com/2025/07/16/l...

Maybe it was the reverberations of snazzy jazz while sitting in the chair from the fifties, perusing his semiotic steel-like work on the wall, our conversations about gossip, or because of a full Expo week of hearing who was here, who was there, what they said here, what they said there.

Lewis Bag's Experimental Cocktails at Barely Fair, Chicago It’s a respite; illustrated cocktails on the far right greet after the circuitous path to the bar. It’s that feeling where you really need a Sazerac (or a “Bartender’s Choice”) to begin speaking to co...

“Someone here is going to tell me a secret I don’t want to hear,” I said to Tony Lewis. Check my latest review in New City Art :

art.newcity.com/2025/04/25/e...

A translucent raw hide leather, molded over an anatomical skull and spine.

It feels almost the crescendo to the epilogue of my leather era.

I’ve been scarring, scraping, and carving leather from, basically, my archival leather collection. Under the residency “Green Garnet Press,” at Christine Forni’s Mana Contemporary Studio. I have soaked, stained, roller-ed, and altered traditional printmaking techniques to make strange permutations.

Also a recent, but leather included

The latest from my studio. Custom-made acrylic paint with precious pigments, vermiculite (sourced from a special effects store used for “explosion” scenes). Then, of course, neon light. 💥💥💥

Art Review: Noah Kashiani's "Dubya Em Deez" at Cleaner Gallery & Projects “Dubya Em Deez” is a shrine to the need-for-speed, reflecting on grotesque gluttony (an unfortunately ontological human condition). And that’s Kashiani: an alien squirt-gun playboy on the surface, and...

A casual viewer could spiral into childhood nostalgia and Mandela effects (early 2000s Nickelodeon, MTV), But Noah Kashiani’s script is full camp: his fascination (obsession?) with toys rendered inert yet afforded venal vibes.
art.newcity.com/2025/03/13/t...

It’s a form of archiving lately in the studio — needing to preserve my leathers beyond a crate in the studio. So, I’ve been making prints of them.

I got the left yellow leather in CDMX (at a small shop, and stuffed into my backpack for the plane ride), the middle printed leather in Chicago (from Tannery Row of course), and the orange from Indy (that’s been around for 150 years (or so they say).

A news reporter in the 50s remarked the government scavenging to find gay men and expelling them from the government was “the maddest spectacle.” The lavender scare coincided with the red scare (about communism).

Thanks!!

My most recent sculpture:

“The cartographic figure, as a mad spectacle”

40 in (h) x 63 in (w) x 14 in (d).

leather (sourced from Mexico City, Chicago, and Indianapolis), lavender light, and cross-stitch sutures

Connected. 052- Samuel Schwindt Connected. · Episode

Listen to my podcast episode, where I discuss the curation process, here on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/6dzn...

Artists featured are Juliette Morris, Spencer Gale, Jordan Miller, Catie Burrill, Lucia Calderon Arrieta, and Sarah Whyte. Included their main gallery space and their new storefront for the neon works.

I curated a show called “Material Messengers: Ephemeral Environments” at Side Street Studio Arts in Elgin last summer, and it’s still on my mind. I sought out artists using brilliant material and craft gestures to construct political daggers, if you will, about issues facing Chicago and beyond.

“In queer ecology, supposed hiccups in flora and fauna relationships, such as non-reproductive sex and gender non-conforming behavior, aren’t perverted glitches in the matrix. They are studied, monumentalized, and celebrated.” Check my latest review:

chicagoartistwriters.com/queer-ecolog...

Me too!. It’s not a hide but parchment, cut like one., pinned into a velvet like surface. Alan Glass is the artist. DM me! I was going to dig deeper into the work I saw today / tomorrow.

A few more from Maia Contemporary as well, and some street art:

First image (fountain sculpture) was in a gallery below a rooftop queer bar — Revuelta. Otherwise, the images are from the Palacio de Bellas Artes

On the way home from CDMX. The art (although I wish I saw more) was incredibly revitalizing. Experimental materially and conceptually — and in that sense, just f*cking fearless. Color everywhere. Unrestrained. Every material imaginable. I got those art chills again, finally.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much!

I mean I’m also about to go teach rn and that’s important don’t get me wrong

My biggest stress and most important job right now is sending pictures of all the food I eat to my pregnant best friend. I get in trouble if I don’t. Totally fine with this being our relationship now. Guncle duties you know.

Fabric becomes the body - Chicago Reader At Ackerman Clarke, Caleb Schroder uses upcycled flannel to stitch and contort space through site-responsive works.

These are my two latest reviews in @chicagoreader.com — of Cody Tumblin’s solo and Caleb Schroder’s solo. Writing has always been learning for me. Also, it’s actually fun when I’m writing about someone else’s work?

chicagoreader.com/visual-arts/...

chicagoreader.com/visual-arts/...