Cushicle Screenprinted Poster (misprint) by Mat Daly (19' x 25')

Item Purchased: Cushicle Screenprinted Poster by Mat Daly (19' x 25')
Location Purchased: Mat Daly / Renegade Craft Fair / 1419 W. Blackhawk / Chicago, IL
Price: $10.00 w/tax

Review: Renegade Craft Fair did a bang up job curating their winter craft fair. Not only were there a more diverse group of crafters, artists and artisans this time around, but I felt that the crafts appealed to a more diverse audience. Yes, the primary browser/customer was the 20-something female, but as a late 20-something guy with varied tastes, I found a lot of things that piqued my interest amidst all of the cutesy jewelry and knitted everythings that were on site.

One of those piquing products was the printwork of Mat Daly. Daly is one of the few Chicago artists who is a regular with the now famous silk-screen print shop, The Bird Machine. His work is stark and heavy on the contrast, making use of bold geometric shapes arranged in a seemingly chaotic jumble that takes the viewer by surprise with its inherent (yet dischordant) harmony. Those elements couldn't be more perfect for this poster.

The particular print I purchased is an ad for the free jazz group, A Cushicle, who perform intermitteantly on Tuesday nights at Rodan in Chicago's Wicker Park. Dischordant harmony is a perfect description of their sound.

Though Daly's official prints nearly all cost $20.00, I found this one in a stack of misprints that were half price. I would gladly hand over twenty of my hard earned dollars directly to an artist for a piece of his work that I like, but in the month of December, during the holiday shopping season, I had to take the low road toward high art. Luckily for me, slight misprints and off-center layers of print don't bother me. To me, imperfections are perfections in the art world. I would even say that Daly's style lends itself to the beauty of mistakes. Either way, this print makes a dischordant harmony out of my apartment's otherwise empty wall. Perhaps after the holidays, I will head over to The Bird Machine to purchase more of Daly's work.

Daly-fy your walls: Matdaly.com / TheBirdMachine.com

Rating: 4.5 / 5

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