Twenty-seven-year-old Dolan Geiman, a charming, well-mannered, and extremely handsome Shenandoah Valley expat (and man, does he milk that), is a regular Renaissance boy–he silk-screens, he collages, he paints, he reconstructs clothing, and he creates art for shops and bars on a for-hire basis. On March 7 he launched an e-commerce site, dolangeimanartist.com, and the next night he threw a party at Rockit Bar & Grill (where he designed back bars and frames for the TV) to promote it, focusing on his Rescued Clothing line. Partygoers were encouraged to bring along a garment that had been hanging too long in the closet; for just $53.29, Geiman would “rescue” it by applying hand-printed and -stitched patches and other “accents.” Proceeds went to his Rescued Family project, which supports rural families dedicated to “ecological farming practices.”
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Geiman moved to Chicago in 2002. For his first winter he ran Gallery 1313 in a three-story building owned by a friend of his uncle. It was slated for demolition, so he was allowed to stay there for free and do whatever he wanted to the place as long as he paid the utility bills. He pulled out carpet and knocked down walls and turned it into a gallery. After it was torn down in April 2003, he and his girlfriend, Ali Walsh, moved to Pilsen and started Hockshop, a sort of roving gallery, selling art out of cars and bars. Last June Geiman took a ceramics residency in Virginia; he has plans to start a dinnerware line this fall. He and Walsh came back in November to “reconnect with clients,” Geiman says.
Getting warm texture like that out of a screen print takes a lot of talent, but the canvas in a case like this has just as much to do with the result as what’s on it. You can use the shiniest thread to sew the prettiest swatch of silk bearing the clearest, coolest image of a gun onto a boxy, pilled, olive green Henley from the 90s and it’ll still hang like a boxy, pilled, olive green Henley from the 90s.
So on Saturday night I went to see the Gentlemen Callers at the Theatre Building, where they’ve been performing most Saturdays at 11 PM or so since February 5. This coming Saturday is their last performance of the run and their last with original member Spain Willingham, who’s moving to San Francisco to start a similar troupe.
Plus, they had some actual jokes. A president has the same mentality as a serial rapist, said Bermont, in character as a presidential candidate: “You have to love people enough to fuck ’em even if they don’t want you to.”
