Jonathan Gitelson

Jonathan Gitelson's conceptual work in which text and photography are brought together, humorously describes different states and facettes of American culture as well as pure human values, often crossing cultural borders. In a sense Gitelson often uses the tools of conceptual art creating a kind of persiflage true to our postmodernist age. Gitelson emphasises the process, which is clearly evident for the viewer to delve into and ask different set of questions.

He often works as part of the group of "Chicagraphers" with fellow artists Matt Siber and Brian Ulrich, who are also represented by Galerie f5,6. This loose grouping, without a radical political manifesto of an artist's group such as DADA, ZERO, the Blue Rider, the Surrealists, the Minimalists etc. of the last Century, simply states "A small sampling of the many good talents in our city by the lake." All artists incorporate new media in particular the web and within this the blog into their art. Gitelson in the end is asking a whole set of questions that force the viewer to look at his/her surroundings differently. But in contrast to most other contemporary art this is done with irony, persiflage and above all humour, to ask the underlying question: "What does it all mean?"

Jonathan Gitelson received a BA in literature from Marlboro College in 1997 and completed his MFA at Columbia College Chicago in 2004. He is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

Gitelson's work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Canada and is in the permanent collection of various institutions that include The Museum of Contemporary Photography, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Museum of Modern Art New York and The Milwaukee Art Museum. He is the recipient of the College Art Association's Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowship, The Puffin Foundation Fellowship and the City of Chicago Community Arts Assistance Program.