'Five to Life – A Very Serious Reenactment' at Volume Gallery

5 year anniversary show

Volume Gallery is pleased to announce its 5 year anniversary show Five to Life – A Very Serious Reenactment, opening March 13th 2015.

Five to Life will be a celebration of the last 5 years, presenting work from the previous shows as well as new works by various designers. The pieces will be presented in an exhibition designed by Norman Kelley and with text by Peter Bognanni creating unnerving situations, demanding that the observer question the designer’s original intent and the object’s lasting appeal.

In March of 2010, Volume Gallery had its inaugural show, The New, by Jonathan Nesci, at the Andrew Rafacz Gallery in Chicago, IL. That kicked off a series of shows that were site specific – pairing newly commissioned work by young designers with the environment acting as the final contextualization in the process of presenting the pieces. Continuing in this manner with shows by Felicia Ferrone, Rich Brilliant Willing, Jonathan Muecke, Thaddeus Wolfe, Snarkitecture, RO/LU, Charlie O’Geen/Frank Fantauzzi, with each exhibition moving to a new location.

A permanent gallery was established to allow for a more active schedule, and shows by new designers quickly followed: Tanya Aguiñiga, Norman Kelley, Matthias Merkel Hess and Sung Jang. The permanent location has also allowed numerous group shows to take place, and have included work by Jonathan Olivares, Leon Ransmeier, CMMNWLTH, Anders Ruhwald, Stephan Burks, Brian Anderson, Sterling Lawrence and Jojo Chuang.

While continuing exhibitions in Chicago, Volume Gallery has also produced catalogues for each exhibition, a book in conjunction with the Home Front series at the Museum of Arts and Design, along with multiple group exhibitions in New York, Louisville and Chicago in addition to participating in design fairs such as Design Miami and Collective (New York).

Peter Bognanni is a native Iowan and a former student of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His first novel, The House of Tomorrow (Putnam 2010) won the L.A. Times Book Award for First Fiction an American Library Association Alex Award. Peter’s short fiction, essays, and humor pieces have appeared in the New York Times Book Blog, The Huffington Post, Large-Hearted Boy, Five Chapters, Gulf Coast, The Bellingham Review, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Paper Darts, and Revolver. He was the winner of the 2013 American Academy of Arts and Letters Rome Prize.