TJ OKeefe: Venue I
TJ OKeefe, Assistant Clinical Professor of Industrial Design, has installed a site-specific outdoor work of public art. Venue I, is the first in a series of COVID-safe light installations intended to activate urban spaces that would otherwise remain dormant. The Venue Series exists in a space between gallery art, public art, and street art. Gallery art is curated and crafted but insular and exclusive. Public art is accessible and integrated but bureaucratic and often out of touch. Street art is the most immediate and current connection to culture, but it is limited in material and temporality. Using the medium of light, Venues intend to connect art with people and people with people while bringing attention and value to overlooked urban spaces. Venues are places of gathering. Please wear your masks to the socially-distanced opening: Thursday, September 3 7:30–9:30p 401 N. Wood Street, Chicago Masks required. Venue I is on view now from sundown to sunup... until it stops burning.