The Curious Peach

The work of Vivian Maier has long captivated us at the Peach.  As soon as we heard of this exceptional street photographer, who was active in Chicago in the 1950s onward, we were smitten with her amazingly prolific body of work.  Though she has only achieved recognition after her death, the story of the nanny with the uncanny ability to capture the essence of subjects in one shot has been lodged stubbornly in our brains.  

Since seeing the Chicago Cultural Center’s exhibition, “Finding Vivian Maier”, last year, we’ve wanted to gobble up all the work that we can find!  Which is why we’re beyond excited that Corbett vs. Dempsey will be hosting a display of her photographs from June 29 through July 21!  See you there…

-Jessie

Sarah and I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Chicago Design Museum in its current temporary home, a repurposed stove factory in Humboldt Park.  Intrigued by their pop-up museum premise, we went to see for ourselves how well they achieved their goal of creating a more intimate space than typically found in traditional brick-and-mortar museums.  We must say that we were truly wowed by the beautiful space and the varied work selected for the graphic design-focused exhibitions.  We were both charmed by a collection of whimsical hand-painted signage inspired by the fluorescent signs dotting colorful local grocery stores, designed by a series of artists specially for CHIDM.  Particularly of note were the movingly dramatic textural essays of New York artist Debbie Millman, which artfully bridged the gap between everyday objects and true design.  A snippet of her pieces is pictured above, but the entire essay, displayed similarly, was truly a heartbreaking work.  Beautifully written and constructed, her work was by far the most compelling section of the wonderfully open gallery space.  

And in case you were wondering, they won high marks for their desired intimacy with an incredibly cheerful and knowledgeable curator of sorts available to answer all of our questions, and even offer us beverages!  Highly worth a trip, if you can make it before the Museum closes its doors on June 30th.  We can’t wait to see what they do next…

-Jessie