4 artists worth checking out at the Metro’s screenprint gallery, Metrospective

Metrospective, a pop-up gallery that celebrates the Metro’s thirty years of music through art, kicked off last night at the Inland Steel Building in Chicago’s loop. Featuring three decades of art, posters and photos from the Metro’s robust archives, the exhibit is a dream come true for any graphic design enthusiast or music fan.

As of today, the gallery, located at 77 S. Dearborn St., is open and free to the public Monday through Friday from 10am to 6pm.

Here are a few featured artists we recommend checking out:

Aesthetic Apparatus

Founded in 1998 to combine designers Dan Ibarra and Michael Byzewski’s mutual interest in printmaking and music, Aesthetic Apparatus is a perfect fit for the Metro’s love of quirky concert prints. The Minneapolis-based duo favors an experimental aesthetic frequently incorporating mixed media—typeface, photography and illustration sometimes all appear on the same poster.

Delicious Design League

Another design duo, Delicious Design League was founded in 2006 by Jason Teegarden-Downs and Billy Baumann. Their aesthetic features hand drawn designs and a unique use of white space that aids in creating a dramatic contrast. Their signature combination of fine line details and use of mixed media produces a serene image.

Spike Press

Spike Press uses clean, graphic illustrations to get his message across. With his carefully chosen color pallets and use of shapes and patterns Spike Press’s (real name John Solimine) designs have a minimalistic feel to them. Known for placing a personal twist on recognizable images and creating dimension with unlikely colors, Solimine is a huge fan of hand drawn lettering, making custom letters a standard in his work.

Ryne Estwing

Simple shapes and iconography with a heavy focus on clean digitalized typefaces define Ryne Estwing’s work. In addition to being a proficient graphic designer and digital animator, Estwing is a member of three bands. Like all the other artists featured here his works serves as a piece of art, not simply an advertisement.

Metrospective will be on display until August 3rd. Those looking to get involved with the exhibit can join Doejo on August 3rd from 3pm to 5pm for a live screen-printing session featuring Screwball Press.