Frederick Nitsch: The Nervous Circus

Open Studio Project’s Gallery 901 presents The Nervous Circus, a solo exhibition of recent works by Chicago-based collage artist and abstract painter Frederick Nitsch (b. 1984). Nitsch builds complex tones and ethereal textures through the accumulation of layers, bounded in sharp-edged shapes and often varnished for a brilliant sheen. Many works incorporate fragments collected from vintage magazines, including black and white photos of faded grandeur and staccato snatches of text, the phrases often deployed as provocative riddles. Nitsch describes his work as a kind of process art: “It’s like I’m doing an exquisite corpse with myself.” Frederick is a studio artist at Project Onward in Bridgeport. A defector from the world of academic philosophy, Nitsch originally made art to escape thinking, but now believes he can use art to do thinking. Nitsch currently lives in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood with his cats Wendy and Wally. He was a founding member of Chicago’s cooperatively run Agitator Gallery.