CHICAGO | April 9, 2015 -

On this Saturday, April 11, as part of EKPHEST: A Festival of Art + Word, I'll be doing a public reading of work inspired by the sculptures of Dr. Charles Smith. Following the reading, Dr. Smith and I will have a live conversation about his work, the work of another acclaimed outsider artist, Mr. Imagination (whose work will be on exhibit in the gallery), and how their work resonates in artists making work in the contemporary mode. If you are in Chicago, you won't want to miss meeting Dr. Smith in person, and engaging the conversation he continues to make around the specifics of making art for the purposes of our memory.

Official information below:

April 11, 2 - 3:30pm Intuit: The Center for Intuitive & Outsider Art with RJ EL and guest Dr. Charles SmithOffi 756 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60642 RJ EL will read his work inspired by Like Father, Like Son-Eternal Slave, by Dr. Charles Smith. Afterwards, he will be joined in an Q&A with Smith, a self-taught artist, Vietnam war veteran, and gifted orator. They  will discuss RJ El’s work, and life as a self-taught artist by analyzing the work of Dr. Smith and the work of Mr. Imagination, a nationally recognized Chicago artist who made jewelry, decorative objects and other small works from found objects, and is the subject of the retrospective Welcome to the World of Mr. Imagination currently on view at the Center.