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Parting stings
Vespine closes with "Retrospect" after more than seven years in Pilsen.
When you hold a party every month, you learn a few things, Doug Thome assures us: “Don’t feed your stranger guests tons of wine,” for instance. Keep an eye out for dudes trying to steal unflattering portraits made by their artist ex-girlfriends. Make sure the floor won’t collapse. Serve brownies.
Thome, wife Jamie Lou Thome (both 38), Shawn Sheehy and Leah Mayers (both 43) have gained managerial, curatorial and diplomatic skills from running Vespine, the Pilsen gallery they cofounded in 2002. Unfortunately, the space—one of our favorites in the Chicago Arts District—closes January 29 when its final show, “Retrospect,” ends, leaving another empty storefront in a neighborhood full of them.
The four friends met through Columbia College, where Mayers, Sheehy and Jamie Lou Thome studied book and paper arts. They took over Vespine’s lease from one of their instructors, initially intending to use the live/work space as a studio. (Sheehy, who occupies the apartment attached to the gallery, pays five-eighths of the rent.) But soon after they moved in, their landlord, John Podmajersky III, informed them they would have to leave unless the “work” part of the ground-floor storefront became a commercial venture—i.e., a gallery.
Vespine operated as an unofficial nonprofit. Instead of taking a typical 50 percent commission from sales, the gallery charged artists an up-front fee to exhibit their work. Mayers emphasizes, however, that Vespine wasn’t a vanity gallery. “The fee was just to keep it going,” she tells us. Submissions were competitive, and only artists approved by all four founders were eligible to show.
We’ll miss Vespine partly because it was one of a few venues to highlight book and paper arts, tapping innovators in the field such as Audrey Niffenegger (the Columbia alums’ former prof) to guest-curate shows. Other notable artists who’ve passed through include letterpress printer Amos Kennedy, photographer Cecil McDonald Jr., performance artist Nicole Garneau and painter Regin Igloria. The latter’s charming works on paper are on view in “Retrospect,” which brings together prints, handmade books, photos, drawings, sculptures and other pieces by past Vespine artists.
The four founders explain the gallery’s closing for financial reasons. Sheehy needs to move out to purchase his own home, and they can’t afford to relocate the space. When we spoke with them, the good-humored group seemed resigned to the loss. Even though they “were so super relaxed” about running Vespine, Mayers says, “It’s a hell of a lot of work.”
“Retrospect” runs through January 29 at Vespine.
