Art Bites

When I was 22 I had a drug induced psychotic break. Reality stopped having any meaning and for a few days there, I felt like everything I’d been experiencing in my life until that moment suddenly came rushing out in vividly artistic psychedelic animations. When I sank back into consciousness, I was surprised to find out my “real” world no longer existed. I had to rebuild. From scratch. So I made a painting. And then another one. And another one. And slowly but surely, a new world emerged. My paintings are the way I create my world. I live something and then I paint about it. Or I paint something and then I live it. I’ve created thousands of pieces. And each one corresponds to a part of my self and my experience that I can only express through a painting. I’m classically trained and appreciate the foundation that gave me to explore my insider roots to teach myself new techniques. The broad range I’ve been able to master lets me create in virtually any style from 17th Cen...

Allison Manasse is a Chicago-based painter whose work focuses on color theory and the emotive qualities of color in an organic and meditative manner. Her work is intuitive, insightful and inspired by in-the-moment choices and reactions.  For Allison, painting is an opportunity for self-reflection and a kind of emotional therapy.  Her work is driven by experiences and people, particularly those who are no longer alive.  Her paintings are filled with colors and moods that reflect her interconnected relationships with people, places, and, for Allison, icons, which emulate those who are significant to her.  Allison received her Bachelor's degree in 2007 from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI in Studio Art and Art History.  She has shown her work in Appleton as well as Chicago since graduation.  While at Lawrence University, Allison's art focused on drawing and figural studies.  In Art History she gravitated towards the Abstract Expression...

James Schneider’s art has an approach to beauty, which is somewhat unconventional. Having his studies in the Classical styles of Painting and Drawing formed through his education at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, his focus has always been to understand that which he finds beautiful, in that fine line between the lovely and the confounding. His method of creating this beautiful melancholy we gradually realize that his naturalistic pictures have a deeper meaning, in that all beauty is spiritual in its nature. James’s studies during the years he spent with Chicago Imagists Michiko Itantani and Phil Hanson in the Advanced Painting Studios at SAIC were enhanced by concurrently working under Peggy McNamara, Artist in Residence at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. Whether it’s a finely manicured graphite portrait or a painting of old growth urban decay he found that the most adequate way to convey emotion is through the laws of logical li...

Education      Chicago School of Art Institute Graduate,1953. Studied with Boris Anisfeld.      Traveled in Europe Studying Art in 1955 -56 after 2 years in the  US Army. Solo Exhibitions     Harold Decker Gallery, Norfolk. Va,  1964.     Cudahy Gallery, Richmond, Va. 1965.                                                                                                          ...

Ryan Antonio Karey was born in LaGrange, Illinois. He earned his B.A. in Graphic Design from Eastern Illinois University, where he studied under master watercolorist, Walter Sorge. upon graduating, he went for a 2 week personal study in Florence, Italy. Ryan Karey is a self-defined oil painter, which he finds to be the truest conduit of his artistic soul. Ryan's work is a combination of beauty and raw emotion, texture and smooth strokes of paint on canvas. His color usage is truly unique and innovative. Since dedicating himself to his art, Ryan has had work displayed at various sites around the Chicagoland area. In March of 2008, Ryan's work was featured at many galleries in and around Chicago including Gallery Swarm and a 2 month stretch at Thomas Moser Gallery which was entitled "Beautiful Things," and focused mainly on various forms and expression of human emotion. Since then Ryan has expanded himself professionally to include an ever-expanding c...

  My work revolves around la joie de vivre .  I find this joy of life expressed in the panoply of colors that we experience everyday; the sun beaming down on one’s face and the intricate subtleties of people.  My paintings remind viewers to recognize these colors as wondrous, rather than mundane. Realizing as well that there are many complex truths behind the facades, I find joy in other aspects of the world around me as well.  My portraits reveal that, despite the mere one percent of genetic coding that differentiates us, individuals display diverse psyches and distinct souls.  These human wonders become animated in their possessions; boats illustrate so much about their owners, and houses reveal the lives and deaths of their inhabitants, exposing eras of war and peace, prosperity and decay.  My paintings can be read as narratives as well as placed in a space and time. Informed by the everyday-ness and individuality of my subjec...

    Che is an artist that works in many mediums including music, visual art, and writing. Che grew up in south florida but has most recently lived in chicago. One of the things that makes che unique is his ability to express himself without traditional education in his mediums.

Gallery Swarm has an extensive private collection cultivated by founding member Samuel Gillis.  Featuring artists that range from complete unknowns like Madelyn to great American artists like Ed Paschke the collection is available for viewing and purchase of select pieces by appointment.