2021
!AWARD WINNER!
Meier Achievement Award 2021
Morgan Frank, Sam Jaffee and Zack (“Beverly Fre$h”) Ostrowski recognized for innovation, past achievements, and community contributions.
The 2021 Meier Achievement Award recognizes past work of mid-career arts professionals with checks for $40,000. Since its inception, the Foundation has presented 53 Chicago-area artists with awards. There are no applications, no project to submit, and no outcome measurements. This follows Tim Meier's directive, "No strings." For more information, see www.meierfoundation.org.
DESIGN MIAMI
Nov 30, 2021 – Dec 5, 2021
Beverly did all the surface design for Ania Jaworska's latest series of furniture on view at the Volume Gallery booth at Design Miami.
!AWARD WINNER!
URC Grant funding awarded for a new artist album: a recorded audio and physical object, contextualized within a contemporary art context, that takes a deconstructivist approach to form and a conceptualist approach to the creative process. With this project Beverly Fresh will resurrect a collaboration with two stimulating artist/musicians he has worked with on the album "BED." Jason Furlow (Nosaj) was a member of New Kingdom, an inventive psychedelic hip-hop group that has toured internationally and worked with some of the most inspired contemporary musical acts today including David Byrne (Talking Heads), Tricky, and Armand Hammer. Blair French is an award-winning, multigenre producer known for his original score for the documentary film, Detropia. Furlow will be a collaborative writer and vocalist on the album, and Blair French will be the project's producer
and audio engineer.
!PUBLICATION!
WITH EYES OPENED: CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART SINCE 1932
Beverly Fresh is profiled in With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932 the first book to expansively chronicle the history of this influential and singular art school. This 624-page book includes profiles of 200 artists associated with the Academy over more than eighty years.
!EXHIBITION!
BRICKS - For her most recent solo exhibition at Volume Gallery (Chicago), architect and designer Ania Jaworska collaborated with Beverly Fresh for the surface design of a new series of furniture.
!WEBSITE!
BF did the new visual identity system and website for his collective SUPERIORBELLY.ORG, which features curated projects, music and experimental interviews.
!PODCAST!
Beverly makes regular contributions to the Weird Rap podcast including critical discussion of seminal albums and in-depth interviews with pioneers of experimental hip-hop.
!EXHIBITION!
Zur Kenntnis genommen (Curated by St. & St.)
Pandion, Berlin
Opening:
Wednesday, September 22th 2021, 6-10pm
Saturday, September 25th 2021, 7-10pm
Finissage: Sunday, October 2nd 2021, 7-10pm
Artists of the exhibition:
Kayan Böru | Jorge Chamorro | Tiny Domingos | Michael Ebert | James Edmonds | Kate Fallon-Cousins | Beverly Fresh | Petra Graf | Lan Hungh | Cosimo Jones | Jennings Jones | Nancy Jones | Frnaz Ka | Koik | Nada Kracunovic | Terry Lloyd | Agata Mann | Thomas Monses | Pravin MW | Dimitri Orlac | Natalia Irina Roman | Josias Scharf | Lars Schmacher | Susanne Schumacher | Ssmidd | Stoll & Wachall und Andrea Esswein | Kai Teichert | Danil Yordanov
!PUBLICATION!
BEVERLY FRESH - REALLY SOMETHIN ELSE
(University of Chicago Press / DePaul Art Museum)
A 270-page experimental “expanded catalog” chronicling the recent work and 2018 solo exhibition of artist Beverly Fresh, the book not only documents and contextualizes the work in the exhibition, but also includes research, sketches, production stills, inspiration and other works not on view in the exhibition. Featuring essays by DePaul Art Museum Director Julie Rodrigues Widholm, DePaul Humanities Center Director H. Peter Steeves, and DePaul Professor of Sociology Greg Scott, and designed by Beverly Fresh himself, the catalog captures the distinct aesthetic of the exhibition.
BUY IT HERE (Amazon)
OR HERE
MAS CONTEXT MAGAZINE
The Character Issue
The Classy Order - a visual essay by ASSOCIATES ASSOCIATES (Ania Jaworska and Zack Ostrowski) is published in print and online in the latest issue of Mas Context.
https://www.mascontext.com/issues/32-character/the-classy-order/
BUSINESS
Associates Associates operates in the unsettled areas of art, design, and architecture. Founded by Ania Jaworska and Beverly Fresh.
ASSOCIATESASSOCIATES.COM
!AWARD WINNER!
SOCIETY OF TYPOGRAPHIC ARTS
BEVERLY FRESH'S interactive installation 4A GOOD TIME CALL is honored with an award from the Society for Typographic Arts (STA). 4A Good Time Call, was a window installation facing the Chicago Transit Authority train service platform advertising a good time. New outgoing messages created bi-weekly, and new incoming messages are left daily by curious callers. Fliers and graffiti were also left in back alleys, bathrooms and hallways around the city advertising the number (872) 222-8493. Give it a call.
!$HIT I DID!*&%$$$$$$$$$$$%$%!!!@!!!!!!!ALLLLREADY!!!!!!!!****!*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!!*!*!!!
6.07—3.11.2019
ASSOCIATES ASSOCIATES
OFFICE OF THE FUTURE
ADD TO THE CAKE
Transforming the roles of female practitioners
Curated by Foreign Legion – Vera Sacchetti and Matylda Krzykowski – a globally active curatorial initiative.
Dresden Kunstgewerbemuseum, Dresden, Germany
4.25 - 8.11.2019
Beverly Fresh designed graphics and identity for exhibitions NEW AGE, NEW AGE and Eric Garcia at DPAM
PRESS//
Interview and Feature on LVL3 Gallery
RADIO//
Culture City WDET Feature
PODCAST// A LOT YOU GOT TO HOLLER
Architecture requires massive amounts of money, time, and effort to come together. It’s serious business. Most of the time. But here in Chicago there are a handful of designers that work humor into their architecture whenever they can, as a way to satirize the practice of architecture and the cultures that surround it, or as a way to invite new people into the conversation. For A Lot You Got to Holler’s fourth episode, we’re joined by Stewart Hicks and Allison Newmeyer of Design with Company, as well as Ania Jaworska and artist/musician/designer Beverly Fresh. Free with each download: Design with Company’s theme park ride of Midwestern folkways, Ania Jaworska’s peerless knowledge of Polish interior design folk tales, and Beverly Fresh’s proposal for the Graham Foundation bookstore that’s truly, truly ahead of its time.
LISTEN HERE
5.24.2019
Beverly Fresh Live: First Contact
w/ Blacks Backbone
Wilmette Theatre
1122 Central Ave, Wilmette IL, 60091
8PM
5.02.2019
Beverly Fresh Live: First Contact
w/ Blacks Backbone
Wilmette Theatre
1122 Central Ave, Wilmette IL, 60091
8PM
!BUY TICKETS!
4.19.2019
MODERATION IS A MEMORY
3-Person Exhibition with Kelsey Elder, Nicole Killian, Beverly Fresh
Curated by Rachel Ferber
PLUG Projects
1613 Genessee Street
Kansas City, MO 64102
4.01.2019
Beverly Fresh & The Crooner Perform Hits
Lyp Sinc Show
DFBRL8R Gallery
1029 W. 35th St., Chicago, Illinois 60609
6-9PM
1.17.19 - 3.31.19
Beverly Fresh designs graphics for solo exhibitions by
KG and Betsy Odom at the DePaul Art Museum.
4.26.2018 - 8.5.2018
BEVERLY FRESH - REALLY SOMETHIN ELSE
Solo Exhibition
Artist, musician, and back-road drifter Beverly Fresh takes on the incongruities, social rituals, and archetypes of the rural Midwest. Pulling from age-old performance traditions, juvenile graffiti, backyard debauchery, adult social clubs, amateur living room theater, and pig wrestling, “Really Somethin Else” is a keyed-up regurgitation of rural Midwestern symbols, behaviors, and vernacular. His immersive installations take visitors through peripheral elements of American culture.
*4.26 Opening reception 6pm
DePaul Art Museum
935 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago, IL 60614
8.02.2018
EXHIBITION CATALOG SIGNING AND CLOSING PARTY - REALLY SOMETHIN ELSE
For the closing of his exhibition Beverly Fresh releases an expanded experimental catalog including work from his solo exhibition as well as related work, essays, process work, sketches, field notes and new work specifically for the catalog. Designed by Beverly Fresh and published by University of Chicago / DePaul Art Museum. The event will be a potluck celebration and feature music, talking and sounds from the Wild American Dogs!
*5:30-7pm
DePaul Art Museum
935 W Fullerton
Chicago, IL 60614
HUMANITIES CENTER FELLOW
Beverly Fresh was awarded a humanities center fellowship for 2016-2018 to produce a body of artwork for his solo exhibition titled "Really Somethin' Else."
7.11.2018
Halfway to California: A Conversation about Midwest Aesthetics
On the occasion of "Really Somethin Else," an exhibition of work by BEVERLY FRESH that explores ritual and performance in small towns across the rural Midwest, we will convene curators and artists who examine subjects of the Midwest that raise issues around gender, religion, class, and taste among others. What does it mean to make work in a region that is positioned by its name as halfway to somewhere else? Can we reframe the cultural production of so-called flyover states as worthy of examination on its own terms? The panel will foster a discussion about notions of the center and periphery looking at artists such as Mike Kelly, Jim Shaw, BEVERLY FRESH, and others while refuting the idea that the Midwest and rural areas are devoid of culture.
5:30pm
DePaul Art Museum
935 W Fullerton
Chicago, IL 60614
5.30.2018
WILD AMERICAN DOGS REAL BIG TENT REVIVAL (CHICAGO)
One night only! With songs, stories, jokes, cries, grunts, moans, squeals and hollers, this call-and-response show will let you air your lungs out real good! So pick your purse and watch your watch because the WILD AMERICAN DOGS are REALLY SOMETHIN ELSE! Come and see with your own eyes and get ready to be inside of it all!
5:30pm - 6:30pm
DePaul Art Museum
935 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago, IL 60614
6.6.2018
CURATORS EXHIBITION TOUR - REALLY SOMETHIN ELSE
DePaul Director and Chief Curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm gives a tour of “BEVERLY FRESH: Really Somethin Else”, the first Chicago solo museum exhibition of multimedia artist, performer and DePaul Professor Beverly Fresh.
12pm (noon)
DePaul Art Museum
935 W Fullerton
Chicago, IL 60614
BREAAAKING NEWS!
BEVERLY FRESH (Zack Ostrowski) has been named the visiting Designer-in-Residence of Cranbrook Academy of Art's 2D Design Department for the fall 2017 semester. Current 2D Designer-in-Residence Elliott Earls will be on sabbatical.
4.25.2018
Fake 5: Who AM I Now? The Art of The Con
We are performing our identities at all times, and there is no “true” self beyond such performance. But some of us explore and perfect this way of being with true artistic brilliance. Andy Kaufman performed as Tony Clifton, Foreign Man, and a variety of other personas, once claiming that “Andy Kaufman” was the true fake. Andy’s sister, Carol Kaufman Kerman, joins us to tell stories about what it was like to be in Andy’s family when Andy was exploring who he was and wasn’t. On the eve of his solo show opening at the DePaul Art Museum, we are also joined by DHC Fellow Zachary Ostrowski—a graphic artist, musician, and performance artist who often performs under the personaes of Beverly Fre$h and Mr Midwe$t. The DHC is honored as well to host headliner Alan Abel, the greatest prankster and hoaxer of the past century, who will discuss his life of brilliant cons and put-ons. The evening also features a live musical performance by world-renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti (accompanied by the Bach and Beethoven Ensemble). Come as you are—or as someone else—and ask, “Who am I now?” with the DePaul Humanities Center!
Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at 7:00pm to 9:00pm
DePaul Student Center, 120 2250 N Sheffield Ave
10.24.2017
MAS CONTEXT ISSUE 32
Beverly Fresh collaborated with architect Ania Jaworska on a design essay for the magazine's theme
"Characters in the Theater of Everyday Life."
Launch / Panel Discussion
Chicago Architecture Biennial
CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER - CLAUDIA CASSIDY THEATER
6:30pm - 8pm
10.6.2017
INSTRUMENTAL Performance Festival
WILD AMERICAN DOGS REAL BIG TENT REVIVAL SHOW
Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, Michigan
Featuring Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys and Esham
9.28-9.30.2017
INVERSE PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL
Beverly Fresh - MR. MDWST
Thursday 9/28
5pm-10pm
HJ Miossi Gallery at Cuesta College
San Luis Obispo, CA 93403
09.16.2017
SCREENING: BATHTUB SONGS AND OTHER EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITES
The Nightingale
7 PM
1084 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
Film Info: www.bathtubsongs.com
6.01-0.04.2017
RAPID PULSE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL
Screening of "THAT SWEET SWEET MTN DEW"
rapidpulse.org/video-series/
4.21.2017
LECTURE: SOMETHING ELSE(Process)
As part of the DePaul University Humanity Center Fellowship lecture series
(Invitation only event)
3.13.2017
LECTURE SERIES: PERFORMING IDENTITY
!MR.MDWST! BUT WHY?
As part of the DePaul University Humanity Center Fellowship salon series
(Invitation only event)
3.02.17
READING WITH GEORGE SAUNDERS: Lincoln in the Bardo
Chicago Humanities Festival
7-8PM
Music Box Theatre
Beverly Fresh joins "a dazzling chorus of voices" to help narrate the latest work of literary master George Saunders live on stage.
2.15.2017
LECTURE: BEVERLY FRESH
As part of the DePaul University in the Arts lecture series at DPAM.
Wed, February 15, 2017
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM CST
DePaul Art Museum
935 West Fullerton Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614
2.14.2017
PERFORMANCE
Cabaret Series: ha haha (the Funny, the Witty, and the Grotesque)
7 to 9pm
Storefront for Art and Architecture gallery, New York
With Beverly Fre$h, Brian Hubble, Vivian Lee, Tucker Marder, Thom Moran, and Mike Perry
Part of an exhibition by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe
11.17-20.2016
PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL 'CIRCLE OF TIME'
Centrum Stuki Wspolczesnej
Center of Contemporary Art, Torun Poland
10.2-11-23.2016
Screening of "That Main Dew" and "Pancakes"
Straight To Video Exhibition
Curated by Jon Rubin
DAAP Galleries, University of Cincinnati
8.3 - 6. 2016
THE MAGICIAN/THE FOOL (Abbots 70th Get Together)
Beverly Fresh and the Wild American Dogs present a new live interactive production at the annual magic festival in Colon Michigan.
04.23.2016
INVERSE PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
Beverly Fresh brings "MR MDWST (REVI$ITED)" to Arkansas for the grand finale of this inaugural performance festival. Saturday 4/23 at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
inverseperformanceartfestival.org
4.6.2016
DePaulyWood Squares Game Show Event with special guest star Beverly Fresh
7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Room 120 of the DePaul University Student Center
05.02.2016, 5.03.2016
Alan Abel in Chicago
The Wild American Dogs (Beverly Fresh and The Crooner) bring the legendary Alan Abel to Chicago. Provocateur, hoaxer and public interest champion Alan Abel is coming to DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus for two special events next week. Abel has been tweaking the news media with elaborate hoaxes and spreading his unique brand of satirical activism for nearly 60 years to, as he says, “give people a healthy kick in the intellect.”
9.11 - 12.19.2015
Outside Design
Sullivan Galleries, 33 S. State St., 7th floor, Chicago
Graphic design and publication design for the exhibition by Beverly Fresh, Exhibition Design and furniture by Ania Jaworska, Curated by Jonathan Solomon.
Outside Design, a collateral event of the first Chicago Architecture Biennial, will explore the turn in art and design towards biotechnology and ecological systems.
12.01.2015
Figural Monuments and the Image of the 21st Century Midwest City
Chicago Architecture Biennial Official Lecture Series
Chicago Cultural Center
The roadside vernacular is often associated with California, but it also has roots in the Midwest (Route 66 started in Chicago). These giant shapes and signs become icons of belonging and community in a landscape that needs beacons. Today, many Midwest architects are exploring ideas of image-architecture (such as the World's Largest Ketchup Bottle) to find new ways (and invigorate old ways) that architecture can create place, community and a sense of belonging. As Midwest cities begin to re-urbanize and regenerate, the issues of how we make the image of our society is more pressing than ever. The panel is a conversation with Design with Company and Beverly Fresh. Organized by Matt Shaw, The Architects Newspaper (NYC).
9.30.2015
BATHTUB SONG AND OTHER EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITES
Experimental Feature Film
!OFFICIAL MIDWESTERN PREMIERE!
The Hide Out, Chicago
Doors 7pm / Show 8pm
BATHTUBSONGS.com
6.06.2015
Grinnell Summerfest, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
MR. MIDWEST’S Traveling Tent Revival Show
In this session, Beverly Fresh and Greg Scott (aka WILD AMERICAN DOGS) will guide participants through an intensive 45-minute workshop on collaborative approaches to narrative and conceptual performance art. Following the workshop, Fresh and Scott will work with participants to organize an impromptu variety show that consists of the performances developed in the preceding workshop. Participants’ performances will give insight into “Our Town” (i.e., life in Grinnell). In addition, participants will have the opportunity to help produce several small experimental documentary films about the variety show and/or the lore, myths, legends, and everyday details of life in Grinnell, Iowa.
6.08.2015
Ode to Montgomery: Restless Desperation and Artistic Process in the Rural American Midwest
Performance / Lecture
LASS research colloquium
DePaul University
Student Center 314A
12:00-2:00
5.19.2015
Live to Tape Festival: The Sitcom Set
Talk Show hosted by Sean Joseph Patrick Carney (BHQFU) NY
7:00 pm @ Links Hall At Constellation, Chicago, IL
Tickets: $10.00 - $12.00
4.15.2015
The Sound and the Sample, sponsored by the DePaul University Humanities Center
Cortelyou Commons @7pm
WILD AMERICAN DOGS Present:
Inside of the Night - The Crooner, The Bingo Caller and You
In this 22-minute performance, Beverly Fresh leads you through to the inside of the night. An elusive interior area where the Greg "The Crooner" Scott warbles his jaw and Bingo gets called. In this area you will hear yourself sing with the cicadas and you will watch with your eyes the words that you will sing.
4.8-4.12.2015
Ethnografilm Festival 2015, Paris France
OLD GEORGE a short film starring Beverly Fresh, Filmed by Greg Scott, Produced by WILD AMERICAN DOGS will premiere at Ehtnografilm
3.1.2015
AFTER LAUGHTER
Presented by BEVERLY FRE$H, Featuring Lynne West
CRANBROOK ART MUSUEM
12:30pm-1:30pm
Beverly Fre$h presents “AFTER LAUGHTER” a guided session in Laughter Yoga (Hasyayoga) conducted by certified Laughter Yoga Leader Lynne West “The Mistress of Mirth.” This afternoon workshop will explore the various methods and benefits of prolonged voluntary laughter. There will be no complicated poses, just laughter and a real good time. Comfortable clothing and yoga mat suggested.
3.1.2015
LANGUAGE IS A HOUSE
Presented by BEVERLY FRE$H, Featuring Bry’n Lambert
CRANBROOK ART MUSUEM
4:30-5pm
“LANGUAGE IS A HOUSE,” is an inspirational keynote presentation that wanders the unsteady ground between nightmare and ecstasy. Inspired by Heidegger’s claim that “language is a house in which man dwells,” this program demonstrates how language calls together our basic exigencies and builds a place for us to reside. In this presentation, Beverly Fresh will introduce Bry’n Lambert, a former reporter who has reinvented himself as a visionary real estate agent. Bry’n will talk the audience down his path of reinvention and present some of his latest concepts. This event is open to the public – real estate agents, architects, contractors and interior designers are especially encouraged to attend.
2.26.2015
BATHTUB SONGS
Special Detroit screening of the experimental feature film by the WILD AMERICAN DOGS
Purdy Kresge Library Auditorium, Wayne State University Detroit
6pm-8:30pm
BATHTUBSONGS.COM
2.13.2015
Beverly Fresh Presents "On the Outskirts"
MID AMERICA COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION ALTERNATIVE EXHIBITION
College Art Association Conference NYC
2.8.2015
Beverly Fre$h Presents “Whats All This?”
Cranbrook Art Museum Lecture Series
WATCH IT HERE//
Using Power Point, a state-of-the-art presentation software designed especially for effective communication, Beverly Fre$h (Zack Ostrowski) will discuss his most recent work including “OUTSKIRTS” and “MR. MDWST.” These works expose audiences to new methods of examination, focusing on the peripheral elements of American culture and the often-marginalized context of the rural Midwest.
2.6, 2.8.2015
MR. MDWST A REAL GOOD TIME (Performance / Reception)
Cranbrook Art Museum
PRESS//
Detroit Free Press Feature
"Pancakes, Yoga & Rap"
1.17.2015
BATHTUB SONGS !LA! Feature Film Premiere
Los Feliz Vintage Cinema, LA, CA