Galerie F Breaking Boundaries in the Realm of Contemporary Art

Billy Craven has gotten off a few train stops early to take a longer walk to Galerie F ever since he opened it 7 years ago.

“I walk in the alleys and everything, and I just flick stuff all day long,” said Craven. “I prefer to walk several miles just so I can see what’s happening on the streets.”

One day, shortly after opening, he got off at Milwaukee and Ashland on the Blue Line, a route that he had taken before. This time, the view had been changed by some unfamiliar artist.

“He had just crushed the entire wicker park. He put up stickers and wheat paste. His style was not very trained. I likened him to an outsider. A fringe artist. My entire walk from Wicker Park up to Lincoln Square. And I’m like, ‘Oh, great. We’ve got another out of towner, coming to town and just deciding to crush it.’”

Craven decided to brush it off. At first, he figured that this artist must be an outsider. Later, he suspected maybe a student. The artist was called Penny Pinch.

Craven started to see Penny Pinch leave his mark in different neighborhoods around Chicago. It became consistent, so Craven reached out and dm’ed him. They met at Galerie F.

“I want to figure out who you are, what’s your deal?” said Craven.

The artist had never shown in a gallery, and never really thought about it, which made Craven like him more.

“His goal wasn’t to be in galleries. It was just to spread some positivity on the streets.”

Craven invited Penny Pinch to sell in the gallery. Now, Penny Pinch is consistently selling in Galerie F and creating murals around Chicago, with 97 percent of his work selling on opening night. He randomly has a really strong French following. People know his name in Paris, but he has no connection at all. Penny Pinch is a local, Midwest guy.

Billy Craven is a screen artist who appreciates local artists and feels like it is his duty to bring them to light. He fosters an inclusive and low-key atmosphere in his gallery, where he sells very legitimate work without the uppity attitude.

Craven came to Chicago for the first time 20 years ago. The area where Galerie F now is was completely boarded up. People lived there, but there was not much to keep the area alive, or inspire any engagement with the community. Craven came back again 11 years ago, and it was pretty much the same.

“If you don’t nurture the talent in those around you, who is? So I just opened the gallery out of a need and self-diagnosed responsibility.”

The gallery merges the contemporary art world with the streets.

“There was something really important happening that the vast majority of the world didn’t understand,” Craven said. “They tend to look it over, sort of like white noise.”

11 years ago, Craven noticed that there weren’t venues that focused on street art or graffiti. In many public art projects, local artists also take the backseat to outside or non-US artists.  

Craven began by knocking on doors of all of the boarded up buildings, seeing if the local community would give him their permission to install a mural. He continued to learn about the energy of the local community from his walk to and from the train to work, and from observing surroundings on a regular basis. He tracks down artists that he notices become consistent, and has picked up on some major Chicago players, including Hebru Brantley and J. C. Rivera.

All of the artists at Galerie F come from Chicago. Craven works closely with his artists, and trusts that they all have the best intentions for themselves, their community and the gallery.

As a curator, Craven’s job is to manage the property that the artist is given to work on. This job also covers taking care of external marks from advertising and graffiti. Craven believes that the worst kinds of invaders of the community walls are the corporate gangs. These brands hire marketing companies to find people on the street to illegally tack up advertisements on the walls. Corporate gangs are out of control throughout the city, but Craven controls the walls that he is given responsibility for.

Galerie F’s is completely legitimate when it comes to their public work.

“We are not selling a product. We are not a billion dollar corporation. We have asked permission,” Craven said.

The community is well aware of the work that Galerie F does. The city sanitation and government is well informed, as well as the locals. Craven makes sure that all of the public artwork that they do is P.C. He stays away from political messages that can jeopardize the freedom of the muralists. Galerie F is sensitive to the work that they are doing.

Right now, Craven has a current potential project on the rise that confronts this issue.

“There is a brand right now that reached out to us this morning. Their product is Mexican. The artist they want is Mexican. The neighborhoods they want to install these murals in are Mexican. So, the last thing I want to do is put a white person to do a mural based off people of color. That’s sort of, not kosher.”

Craven recognizes that there are extremely talented and capable artists who can create murals that feature cultures different from their own, but that it may be uncomfortable for the people of that culture to see this person create it for them. It is a Catch 22 situation.

But Galerie F does more than just public art alone. They use local talent of all identities for all of their products. In the gallery itself, paintings, silk screens, art prints, gig posters, and collectible items such as pins, t-shirts and more showcase local and upcoming faces in Chicago. Galerie F’s communal attitude is not only a part of the art that they create, but the atmosphere of the gallery. Community members and travelers that come through this Logan Square Gallery are all ages, genders and ethnicities. The gallery doesn’t discriminate towards dogs either, and the gallery has started dishing biscuits to a regular pup who comes by to visit. The gallery hosts both private and public events, bringing high quality to the all consumers.

Galerie F has created a niche: the next contemporary.