4x4: Contemporary Art in Chicago | Season 1

Stream Now, Free on YouTube!

Pentimenti is thrilled to announce the streaming premiere of 4x4: Contemporary Art in Chicago, an annual series of four short documentary films about practicing local artists, each directed by a Chicago-based filmmaker. The series profiles a diverse array of artists working in different mediums, based in distinct neighborhoods, and at varying stages of their careers. Each film is a collaborative process between the artists and filmmakers, resulting in four stylistically unique works, unified by a quintessentially Chicago sensibility. 

4x4 Season 1 filmmakers and artists pairings feature: filmmaker cai thomas with artist Jenn Freeman | Po'Chop; filmmakers Erin Babbin & Michael Sullivan with artist Errol Ortiz; filmmaker Alex Morelli with artist Deb Sokolow; and filmmaker Kevin Shaw with artist Bernard Williams. The series aims to capture Chicago's rich and vibrant contemporary arts scene in a way that reflects the creativity and iconoclasm of the artists and filmmakers involved. 

4x4 premiered to a sold-out audience at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in May. The MCA Chicago screening was followed by a talkback featuring the artists and filmmakers moderated by curator Lola Ayisha Ogbara, which is also now available to stream.

we are two. (dir. cai thomas)

An intimate portrait of artist Jenn Freeman | Po’Chop, whose practice merges the worlds of dance, storytelling, drag, and striptease, as they perform at queer burlesque clubs, stageTHICK: a crumbling freak show, and maintain House of the Lorde, a Black feminist studio & gathering space. 

Errol Ortiz: Headspace (dirs. Erin Babbin & Michael Sullivan)

Despite producing hundreds of paintings over the span of seventy-plus years, Chicago Imagist Errol Ortiz has received too little attention from the wider art world. This observational documentary surveys Ortiz as he works on a new painting from start to finish, while musing on his art school days, the influence of the cityscape, and the challenges of working as an aging artist.

Beneath the Surface of the Everyday (dir. Alex Morelli)

An observer of quotidian strangeness, Deb Sokolow creates semi-fictitious drawings and books commenting on architecture, politics, and pop culture. Shot on 16mm and adopting the style of 70s paranoid thrillers, the film traces the evolution of Sokolow’s speculative ethos, detailing a shadowy encounter at McDonald’s and her fixation with Rocky Balboa. 

I Dreamt of Cowboys, Cottonfields, and Clouds — Bernard Williams (dir. Kevin Shaw)

An excavator of American history, painter and sculptor Bernard Williams draws inspiration from seminal, but under-appreciated figures such as Black cowboys, farmers, and a unique female aviator. Taking us on a journey from Chicago to Indiana to Alabama, the film follows Williams as he debuts a public art installation and visits a 90-year-old family friend who informs his work.