The Green Lantern Gallery is now closed.

I started The Green Lantern Gallery in 2005 at 1511 N Milwaukee Ave., in Chicago Illinois. You can read more about that space in an article I wrote for AREA Chicago a few years ago, but basically I lived in the back of a 1,500 sq foot apartment and used the front 600 sq. feet as an exhibition venue. For the following four years I continued to host exhibitions for local, national and international, emerging artists. Dedicated to the intersection of various mediums, I also hosted performances, screenings, music events and readings. Nick Sarno, the first GL editor, and I started The Green Lantern Press, a small slow-media  publishing house. In 2006, we released our first two titles, a collection of short stories about the city, Urbesque, by Moshe Zvi Marvit and a debut novel by Nick Sarno, God Bless The Squirrel Cage.

In 2009, the city shut the space down for lack of a business license. The second-story loft-style apartment was not zoned for a public business, and although we got 501c3 status in 2007, no official documents had been filed with the city. While the practice of apartment galleries is common here, it was not something our buerocratic system knew how to file. I spoke to numerous city officials, all of whom were very friendly; many asked that I not shut down the space, but were unable to come up with options short of moving to another location.

In 2010, I re-opened the gallery on Chicago Avenue. Abby Satinsky came on board as the new Gallery Director and we put on three shows, which you can see by clicking on 2010. In addition, Zach Dodson designed and implemented a new, on-line independent bookstore The Papercave,while Devin King began a cultural series of public programs under the moniker The Corpse Performance Space. Rather than focus on the interplay between domestic habitat and public space (what was the focus of the first Green Lantern), we were interested in creating an ecology between different cultural activities. As such all of our events, exhibitions and publications centered around that same theme of ecology. By using a common, thematic platform we hoped to better bridge our collective action. You can read more about our shared vision by going here. This space was closed in January of 2011.

While some traveling shows will be posted here, this site is primarily be used to archive past Green Lantern Gallery exhibitions. Check back over the coming months to see these updates. The Green Lantern Press continues to publish books, the Lantern Daily is regularly updated and The [New] Corpse (now relocated to the original 1511 N Milwaukee location) organizes public programs at various venues. Press and Corpse events will be announced on their respective sites and on the blog.

Special thanks, as well, to those volunteers and friends who have spent long afternoons helping with the day-to-day of all things; in particular thanks to Sarah Stickney, Lily Robert-Foley, Young Joon Kwak, Tobias Amadon Bengelsdorf, Basia Kapolka, Daryl Meador, Christina Seo, Shea Lawrence, Jason Bacasa, Baron Maidenwald, Adell Magaram, Sean Keenan, Meredith Koi, Moshe Marvit, Christine Crosby, Rachel Shine, Naomi Henderson, Shira Leon, Kerry Schneider, Tim Kinsella, Halle Butler, Stevie Greco, Dan Monfried, Kenny Rasmussen, Cecilia Vargas, Camille Altay, Elizabeth Chodos, Nick Liberty, David Colville, Mat Daly, Nick Butcher, Nadine Nakanishi, Dan MacAdam, Sean Stucky, Dan S. Wang, Alana Bailey, Aay Preston-Myint, Dan MacAdam and all of the artists, writers, readers, listeners, advisors and visitors.