J. R. Kortman Center for Design / Kortman Gallery

    From larger than life urban murals to whimsical reverse paintings, Rockford artist and musician Brett Whitacre’s career is flourishing. His feel good works have been brightening walls on buildings, galleries, and homes across the country for two decades.
    After living in Chicago as an artist and touring Europe as a drummer with the band Legendary Shack Shakers, Whitacre has returned to Rockford and the Kortman Gallery is presenting his latest small scale paintings. The show titled, “Plant-based Material” is opening Friday, July 9th.
    “During the shelter in place order, we filled our living space with an inflated amount of natural plants and imagery to bring the outdoors in,” says Whitacre. “A healthy obsession with house plants inspired a fun exploration of their form and setting in good fodder for art.”
    The result is Whitacre’s almost abstract, mater of fact modern paintings of plants!
    “The graphic nature of Brett’s verdant, simple images are at once whimsical and sophisticated,” says Kortman Gallery director Doc Slafkosky. “His bold, colorful art just makes you feel good. The paintings are no nonsense works that just fit in wherever they are!”
    Whitacre had an exhibit in the Kortman Gallery back in 2007. The show, “Hearts & Helicopters”  featured his pop images painted on window panes hung on the gallery walls and his painted suitcases displayed in the baggage claim at RFD.
    Besides this Kortman exhibition Brett’s work can soon been seen in Loves Park in a large scale mural on the side of CD Source Records (the old Park Theater Building), and on a wall in Pecatonica. Both are part of the CRE8IV urban art project spearheaded by Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau’s placemaking and public art efforts designed to enhance our region for both residents and visitors.
    The “Plant-based Material” exhibit will also feature small scale original work which is a sneak peak of a mural set to be painted on a State Street building in Downtown Rockford.
    And if that isn’t enough, you can hear drummer Brett Whitacre performing with the band Prairie Smoke throughout the region and beyond.
     Opening reception for “Plant-based Material,” featuring new works by Brett Whitacre  is Friday, July 9th from 5:30 to 9pm. The  Kortman Gallery is located upstairs at J. R. Kortman Center for Design, 107 North Main Street in Downtown Rockford. The exhibit is free, and open to the public..
    The exhibit will run though August 31st. For more information call 815-968-0123.

"it's an odd world" exhibition by odd aka Andrew Harlan has been extended through the end of June. Stop by the Kortman Gallery and see this unique exhibit featuring paintings, drawings, photography, and sculpture by this emerging, young artist. Also in the store, see the newest designs in small kitchen appliances by Italian architect Michele De Lucchi for Alessi. We're open Tu-Fr, 11-6 & Sa, 11-5.

    “Odd has become a constant for the way I respond to and digest the world around me,” writes Harlan in his Artist’s Statement for his Kortman Gallery exhibition, “it’s an odd world” opening Friday, April 23rd, Spring ArtScene weekend.
    Harlan’s idiosyncratic exhibition presents an eclectic mix of media including painting, illustration, photography, and embellished found objects. But all together, his seemingly unrelated works reflect his personal feelings and view of the world around him.
    “With the abundance of unknowns and possibilities in life, it can be easy to live in fear of the mystery and uncovered truths,” says Harlan. “However, stepping back and realizing how strange, how odd, living this human life is, helps me set aside fear.”
    “This is Andrew’s, or should I say odd’s first solo exhibition in the Kortman Gallery,” said Doc Slafkosky, gallery director. “His artistic perspective is definitely peculiar, but refreshing coming from a young, talented artist who is difficult to categorize. “it’s an odd world” is definitely an appropriate title for his intriguing, and often facetious works in this concept installation.”
    Opening receptions for “it’s an odd world,” featuring mixed media works by odd/Andrew Harlan is Friday, 5-9pm, and Saturday, 4-9pm, April 23rd & 24th (ArtScene Weekend) in the Kortman Gallery, located upstairs at J. R. Kortman Center for Design, 107 North Main Street in Downtown Rockford. The exhibit is free, and open to the public. Covid safe guidelines will be followed.
    The exhibit will run though May 31st. For more information call 815-968-0123.

Explore J.R. Kortman for an intriguing shopping experience in Downtown Rockford. Don't miss "Balance: Art of the Mobile" the current exhibition upstairs in the Kortman  Gallery, featuring unique mobiles created by eight artists, including Molly Carter, John Deill, Lynn Fiischer, Joel Hotchkiss, Jeremy Klonicki, R. Scott Long, John Verl McNamara, and Matt Richards. The exhibition will run through the end of January.

THANK YOU to all our customers for a successful holiday season here @ J.R. Kortman!

Holiday Hours: Open Tuesday & Wednesday (Dec. 29 & 30), 11-6, Thursday, Dec. 31, 1-4...Closed January 1-4.

We will resume normal hours Starting January, 4th: Tuesday-Friday, 11-6; Saturday, 11-5

    Artists Joel Hotchkiss and Matt Richards may live on different coasts, but they have two things in common: they both have made a career out of creating mobile art, and they both have their mobiles on exhibit in the Kortman Gallery.
    Hotchkiss of Stonebridge, MA and Richards of Portland, OR join six Rockford artists in “Balance: Art of the Mobile,”a holiday exhibition which is now open in the Kortman Gallery, Downtown at 107 North Main Street.
    “We are excited to show Joel and Matt who have years of experience creating mobile art, from small desk top kinetic sculptures to large public art installations,” says gallery director Doc Slafkosky. “But we also thought it would be great to challenge six Rockford artists who don’t normally work in this genre, to participate in this exhibit. And the result is a wonderful “moving experience” just to see what cool and fascinating works they’ve created.
    “Mobiles have been a part of the contemporary art world for decades since Alexander Calder created ‘moving art’ in the 1930’s inspired by the paintings of artists such as Mondrian and Miro,” says Lynn Fischer, Rockford ceramic artist and professor at Rock Valley College. “It was a little challenging for a clay artist to create mobile art, but I had a great time learning something new and be able to participate in this fun exhibition.”
    Mobiles are traditionally made of light metal that will move freely to make kinetic art. However, this exhibition, with featured works by artists like Lynn Fischer, John Verl McNamara, John Deill, Molly Carter, Jeremy Klonicki and R. Scott Long there are mobiles made not only from light metals like aluminum, but clay, wood, glass, steel, fabric, plastic, mylar, found objects, and even concrete!  
    “Balance: Art of the Mobile,” featuring mobiles by eight accomplished artists in mixed media is now open in the Kortman Gallery, located upstairs at J. R. Kortman Center for Design, 107 North Main Street in Downtown Rockford. The exhibit is free, family friendly and open to the public. Covid safe guidelines followed. The exhibit will run though January of 2021. For more information call 815-968-0123 or visit www.jrkortman.com.

 Rockford artist Valerie Olafson has reached another milestone in her life. In April she turned sixty years old. And as she starts a new decade in her life, Olafson has created an exhibition of her newest photographs in the Kortman Gallery, opening Friday & Saturday, October 9th and 10th

       The exhibition, titled “Old Bag” is the third in a series of photography shows she has exhibited in the Kortman Gallery…the first in 2000 when she turned forty, and the second in 2010 when she turned 50.