Most of Chicago has seen some of CRO’s work before, either on the street all over town, or on blogs like Gapers Block, Chicagoist, and Time Out Chicago. He’s gotten a lot of notoriety for his stencils of Rod Blagojevich, depicted running from dogs and setting fires, and for his amazing “Go Tell Mama” posters, a series of pantone posters promoting Barack Obama (that popped up at least a good six months before Shepard Fairey’s similar “Hope” image started making the rounds)

I’ve been a fan of CRO (which is short for the Creative Rescue Organization, nee Ray Noland) for years now, and it was great to be a part of his new show, and see what he was capable of in a gallery setting. The Chicago Urban Art Society (a new entity from the people behind Bridgeport’s much beloved 32nd & Urban) is a huge space, with a great layout that Ray was able to transform, repurposing scrap items and urban detritus to make corners of the gallery look like the facades of boarded up buildings and fenced in lots that his stencil work has always lived in. What blew me away though, was his large scale paintings, juxtaposed next to each other with images of Chicago politics, American racial politics, black culture and black popular culture (although it could be argues that some of the figures portrayed, like Dr. Cornel West, Lil’ Wayne, and Tracy Morgan, while black, are very much a part of white culture, and possibly just culture, period).

Sadie Woods, Revel and Solson spun music all night, and the gallery provided some ridiculous beer for the occasion (in addition to the traditional Pabst cans, a gross of different brands of Shanghai beer was picked up nearby) and to add to the celebratory mood of the night, volunteers worked the floor with trays of little Blago cupcakes)

Our backdrop for the night was made special by Ray Noland; for more info on him and his art, hit up the Creative Rescue Organization website. For more info on this show and others coming up at the space, hit up Chicago Urban Art Society’s tumblr.

Here are all the pictures from the night. Right-click any image to open in a new window and download!

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