OhNo!Doom is gearing up for their group show this weekend (opening July 7th, 6 - 10pm). 'Septenary', a group show of 7 sculptors, gathering on the 7th day of the 7th month.  Septenary is the space's second sculptural show, a follow-up to Imaginary Menagerie (the gallery’s sold out sculpture exhibit of 2011). Returning artists Chris Ryniak, Amanda Louise Spayd and Lana Crooks (all currently 2012 Designer Toy Award nominees) are joined by Jake Waldron, Melissa Sue Stanley, J.Shea and Melita “Miss Monster” Curphy. They are seven of the most exciting sculptors in the character scene today using fabric, clay, silicon, wood and wire to bring monsters, creatures and fantastic beings to life.

Grand opening: July 7 6pm - 10pm

Exhibit closes Aug 4

Preview list sign-up available through www.ohnodoom.com

Available artwork sold through- http://shop.ohnodoom.com immediately following reception.

Where:

OhNo!Doom

1800 N. Milwaukee

Chicago IL 60647

www.ohnodoom.com

Hours:

Thurs & Fri 5pm-10pm

Sat 12pm-7pm

info@ohnodoom.com

The Artists:

Lana Crooks loves the antique, the creepy, the cute and the mysterious. She began her artistic life as an illustrator but became a sculptor of fabrics and found objects. She constructs all kinds of creatures (commonly those from the deepest oceans but even the ones from under your bed). These cuddly monstrosities have been spied at places such as: Munky King, Rivet, Rotofugi, G1988 and Art Basel and has frequently been spotted teaming up with other artists to help create the monsters within their heads. Crooks has also partnered with the OhNo!Doom collective and operates a gallery in Chicago, IL. But, on an average day, you can find her at the studio surrounded by model ships, books, skulls, faux fur, glass eyes, a menagerie of stuffed friends and a cat named Tanuki. www.lanacrooks.com

Chris Ryniak was born in 1976 in the suburbs of Detroit. He spent his childhood basking in the warm glow of Saturday morning cartoons and flipping over rocks in search of insects, reptiles and ghosts. A sculptor and painter of all manner of critters, he has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world. His work has also been published in numerous books and periodicals in the US as well as in Europe and Singapore. Chris is also a toy-designer and sculptor of numerous instantly sold-out editions of designer art toys and figures. http://www.chrisryniak.com/

Amanda Louise Spayd’s mixed-media work combines the textures and colors of antique domestic objects, the natural world, and an obsessive attention to detail. At once endearing and unsettling, her fabric creatures evoke ideas of cast-off children’s toys and ill-conceived taxidermy experiments with crooked human teeth. Because of their aged, antique appearance, one is left to wonder about the origin, past experiences, and past lives of these creatures. Do they look like this because they were abandoned, or because they were literally loved to pieces? The idea of an unknown past story, combined with the possibilities of their future, is a central theme of her work. Her work is highly sought after by collectors around the globe, and she has exhibited her work in galleries, boutiques, and conventions across the United States.http://amandalouise.com/index.html

Jake Waldron, was born in 1986. Grew up in Connecticut and ended up going to college in Boston in 2004. I started school as a photography major and ended up jumping around to things like circuit bending, electronics, and computer programming. I would do something for a few months then decide to move on to something new. Finally in late summer 2007 I started sculpting and have been doing it since. Other than that, I am a pretty boring person.http://jakewaldron.com/

Melita Curphy, A.K.A Miss Monster attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago ’96-2000 after graduating from the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts in California. She taught herself illustration techniques for (almost) four semesters at a community college in Texas, leaving to work on the animated film A Scanner Darkly in Austin. Moving back to Chicago, she worked as a graphic designer at Motorola while doing freelance work on the side. After leaving the corporate world she started making art full time. Melita is a sculptor of fabric, clays and a myriad of other items and spends the majority of her time running her online store out of a studio basement. 
http://www.missmonster.com/

Melissa Sue Stanley is an artist using a wide variety of media to create a wide variety of work.  At the moment she's focusing on watercolor paintings, graphite drawings, and sewn or crocheted soft-sculpture.  Her sculptures and stitched monsters are collected internationally and have shown in galleries around the United States.  In 2012 she began  work on a large series of narrative watercolor portraits. She enjoys making things, expensive beer, and bluegrass - preferrably all at the same time.  If you come to visit her in Chicago she will probably want to draw your face.

http://melissasuestanley.weebly.com/stitched.html



J.Shea was born in Boston,Ma. and is now based in Porltand,Or. Shea creates mixed media sculptures out of small discarded gadgets and lost cultural icons, these assembled parts are fused together with hand sculpted figures and animals forms carved out of clay and wood modeling mediums, imbuing them with a sense of adaptability, transience and animism as they are pulled out of context, repurposed and re-contextualized.

http://jshea9.com/home.html

A little about the gallery:

OhNo!Doom is a commercial gallery and store front that specializes in showcasing emerging and established artists who work in a variety of contemporary mediums.  Six young creatives founded OhNo!Doom in 2005 in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago as a headquarters for their art collective and a space to display theirs (and others) work. OhNo!Doomgrew quickly and now resides in a much larger space in the Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood.  Still independently owned and operated as a collective, OhNo!Doomdisplays work they personally feel should be shared with the world.