Tony Tasset unveils Eye + Art Loop Open offers artists $50K

Tony Tasset's Eye has already stared down State Street passersby for more than a week, so the Chicago Loop Alliance's official unveiling of the 30-foot eyeball sculpture (pictured in our slide show, above) this morning felt a little anticlimactic. But the event yielded some important info along with a string of hoary eye-related puns. ("I hope it's an eye-con," quipped Tasset, "not an eyesore.")

CLA executive director Ty Tabing announced that Eye and its companion piece Cardinal (a series of banners along State Street, which depict our state bird in flight) will remain in the Loop until October, when the CLA and Chicago Artists' Coalition launch Art Loop Open, an exhibition and competition continuing the CLA's promotion of public art downtown.

Starting August 1, local artists can apply to participate in ALO, which will display about 200 pieces in Loop businesses such as Macy's and the Wit as well as in public spaces from October 15 through mid-November. (The jury selecting the works includes independent curator Susan Aurinko, artist Theaster Gates, SAIC exhibitions director Mary Jane Jacob and Museum of Contemporary Art associate curator Tricia Van Eck.)

Once the art goes on view, the public can—wait for it!—vote for its favorites. The candidates will be winnowed to ten finalists October 22, and on October 29, prizes of $25,000; $15,000 and $10,000 will be distributed to the top three. In light of this and this, I'm dying to know what, if any, restrictions will be placed on what artists can show. But the sophisticated Eye, Bean and Crown Fountain prove Chicago's public art doesn't have to suck, so I'm cautiously optimistic.