I stopped by the Plastic Club yesterday to see mural artist David Guinn’s small paintings (shown right, Mike) that he’s showing alongside the work of Plastic Club member Alice Meyer-Wallace.
Guinn, who’s in the process of painting an array of playing dogs on the side of the Morris Animal Refuge at 13 and Lombard, rented the Plastic Club with Meyer-Wallace, and sold nearly everything he put on the wall (shown left, “Connie,” and below right, “Your Old Friend,” which weren’t for sale).
His father, Michael Guinn, a second-generation member of the Plastic Club himself and also a painter and graphic artist, told me that for a flat $500, an artist can rent the Plastic Club space for a one-month show and take home all the profits on the painting (i.e. no commission).
I did the math, and I’d say David took home between $4,000 and $5,000 (his prices were mostly in the $300 to $900 range and he split the rental cost with Meyer-Wallace).
Of course, the down side is the Plastic Club, being short-staffed, requires a phone call for a visit, unless you visit during their class hours–Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; Thursday 9:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. and 6:30 to 9 p.m.; and Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m.
But Michael was a gracious respondent to my request, and he did point out that most work gets sold during the openings, so if it’s about selling more than getting seen, this is certainly a nice option.
I enjoyed seeing the small acrylics, some of which related to the pieces that grace the city (shown, his Crystal Snowscape mural) and some of which did not. Unlike the murals, which are complete and complex, many of these felt more like ruminations, sketches and experiments. The work ranged from intense and dark, with hints of violence, to upbeat reflections of personal ties.
And the personal ties carried over to the show. Meyer-Wallace, a family friend, Michael said, showed mostly appealing watercolor landscapes of Greece (she lives there half the year on the island of Paros) or figure-study collages, which hung interspersed with Guinn’s work in both the downstairs room and the huge upstairs room, which, by the way, is also for rent for events and meetings at $50 an hour.
