Dispensary33 Art Installation curated by Bob Faust
While 2020 has delivered an unprecedented series of challenges, it has also provided us each a refined perspective. The end of the year marks Dispensary 33’s fifth anniversary in Chicago. As a way to thank our neighbors and clients, and in an effort to share the expansive creativity of our community during these strange times, we proudly present “A Cannabis State of Mind.”
For this storefront installation, we connected with artists from the community to interpret the prompt “a cannabis state of mind” through their own perspective.
The Artists
Abhijeet Rane and Loren J Frank
Connect - Transfer – Release
Although both of us began our careers as painters, our frequent collaborative work since 2015 has varied in genre and medium from performance and video art, to nightlife event curation, costumes, and music. Here, in our first painting collaboration, we looked at models of the synaptic connections of neurons and explored our observations through a visual conversation between figure, paint pouring techniques and three-dimensional elements. Consistent throughout our work is a celebration of queer aesthetics through color, material, humor and fluidity of identity and form.
Tenderoni
Heightened State of Mind
My work explores the relationship I have with traditional sign design and modern themes. “Heightened State of Mind” is an homage to vintage advertisements and the idea of what a sign artist would come up with if the cannabis industry existed in the 50’s and 60’s.
Liz Flores
Whole New World
Liz Flores is a Chicago-based painter and muralist whose work experiments with how the human condition—-with its interplay between emotion and memory-—can be represented abstractly. She engages everyday human experience and the female body by using shape, color and the human form as a mode of visual storytelling. “Painting has always been my way of self-understanding and for viewers, it’s my hope that my work can spark self-reflection in their own life.”
Annissa Zak
A cannabis state of mind
Annissa Zak is an intuitive abstract creator currently based in Chicago. Her work aims to upset the glorification of mindless overworking by creating a meditative visual path for viewers to reclaim a moment of self-awareness and mindfulness. The non-repetitious and interconnected lines act in opposition to our daily encounter with time as a mundane experience fueled by habits viewed to achieve success as defined by capitalist society.
Tyler “Laila McQueen” Devlin
Sleepyhead
The work I create is typically an embodiment of my overwhelming feelings through whimsically illustrative figures and faces. With cannabis being a huge help for those who have trouble sleeping, “Sleepyhead” is inspired by the full body feelings of tranquil waves and vibrations that relax someone into a restful nights sleep.
Brandin Hurley
Air and Stone
Brandin Hurley is an installation artist who is influenced by the seemingly eternal and awe-inspiring patterns in both nature and mythology. This piece was inspired by the enhanced interest in details, textures, and natural elements while in a cannabis state of mind. The texture and pattern in this piece was drawn from microscopic photographs of cells and stem slices; it is made of mica stone, paper, and pins.
Daniel Wilson
Mind Body Spirit Soul
I wanted to represent cannabis’s potential for healing that it can offer: easing pain, soothing fears, mental introspection, expanding our experience.
Kyle the Creative 1
BUSYBOTS stained glass
My name is Kyle Intes Hudson, also known as Kyle the Creative 1. I’m a Chicago-based artist who creates funky, stylish, and innovative art that pops from all angles. My style is influenced by a combination of my 90’s childhood in the diverse city of Chicago, the smoke movement, and the latest trends. My goal is to give back to my community by creating beautiful, emotion-fueled art pieces that will inspire the next generation of artists.
Rosśa Crean
Éitear agus foirm (Ether and Form)
Rosśa Crean (they/them) is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist whose synesthesia is used as a primary tool in the liminal abstract artwork they create. Their paintings are generally inspired or centered around their own neurological responses to sound and color, occult subjects, and LGBTQIA+ issues. Rosśa paintings are known to unintentionally capture snapshots of the memories of others, and because of that they very much enjoy discussing audience members’ interpretations of their work to get as wide of a perspective as possible.
Left Handed Wave
Exotic Popcorn
With a resume strongly rooted in street art and graffiti, Left Handed Wave has recently transitioned into more sanctioned public art and private commissions. His latest works often convey a distinct visual narrative offering the viewer a unique sense of culture in a pattern-oriented composition. LHW’s work can be found all over the United States, but most notably in his hometown of Chicago, IL.
Samuel Nigrosh
Alien Lanes II
@samuelnigrosh / @trashcitycomix
“Ornament is nice because you can always stop or continue.”
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