Chicago - June 10, 2009

Final Frontier

The Suburban Art Exposition Space

Chaps and chew gave the West a bad name.

Fret not, cowboy. Rope your hoss and head west of Austin Boulevard to The Suburban, an under-the-radar indie art space in Oak Park.

Husband-and-wife Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam (both art professors) converted an abandoned cinder block outbuilding into a tiny gallery where anything goes. Major artists from New Zealand, London, Scandinavia, and beyond display everything from video projections to abstract paintings to sound installations.

A newer building houses larger exhibitions, but artwork often overflows to Grabner and Killam’s neighboring 1907 four-square home, where the bathroom and kitchen are fair game.

Sculptures by Danish artist Henric Plenge Jakobsen and a politically skewed installation by German collective Konsortium are on view through midsummer.

Admission is free.

So you won’t have to pony up.

The Suburban, 125 North Harvey Avenue, at Lake Street, Oak Park (708-763-8554 or thesuburban.org). By appointment only.