Video Link from 2005 exhibition called "Artistic and Spiritual Legacy" which included the spiritual art of Turtel Onli and the Pentecostal  Biblical Charts created by his late grandfather, The Rev. Samuel David Phillips.  This special and important exhibition was at the Munster, Indiana,  Center For Visual and Performing Art.

This is the home of ONLI STUDIOS. 34h and South Racine in Chicago. 4th floor with open house each 3rd Friday 5pm to 10pm.

I am a Professor at Harold Washington College in downtown Chicago where I teach Drawing and Art Appreciation. Art Appreciation is about how to use a set of standards to evaluate creative works without attacking them. Context matters. Web site link is for folks that may want to arrange to review or experience some of my actual artwork in my studio. ONLI STUDIOS

Rhythmistic bio & history:

Notice: They graciuosly extended the exhibition another month until June 30th, .

The Visiting Artists Series African-American Cultural Center University of Illinois at Chicago

Solo Art Exhibit “Passion Fruit: The Other Chicago Art Movement”

Exhibitor Turtel Onli

Dates May 2 to May 31, 2011

8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

Monday through Friday

Location Addams Hall, Room 207

830 South Halsted street

Opening Reception May 6, 2011

5:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Addams Hall, Room 207

Reception lecture “Passion Fruit: The Other Chicago Black Movement”

Lecturer / Rhythmistic Artist Turtel Onli M.A.A.T.

Lecture 6:00 - 6:40 p.m.

Discussion 6:40 - 7:00 p.m.

Hors d’oeuvres 5:00 - 6:00 p.m.

7:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Description Turtel Onli’s exhibit

“Passion Fruit: The Other Chicago Black Movement”

is a collection of watermelon themed images, posters, photographs and original artworks that explores the American watermelon, not as a fruit, but a former symbol of racial stereotyping that needed to be transformed into a positive cultural icon.

The exhibit also pays tribute to the youthful Chicago based Black Arts Guild (BAG) that Turtel Onli founded in 1970 and directed until 1978.

BAG featured members like Jim Smoote, Obie Creed, Dalton Brown,the late Kenneth Hunter and Espi Frazier when they were all college students in art with immense talent, yet often denied options due to being considered “too young” in professional and Black cultural circles.

This self sufficient guild not only helped to launch their careers but adopted the Red, Black & Green watermelon as its logo and initiated a creative battle to change the negative applications of watermelon related images into a positive and creative symbol.

Several of its members were featured in exhibitions at the Younger Gallery in the 1980s as well as exhibits held nationally at several universities. A BAG reunion retrospective show was held in 1991 at the Prairie Avenue Gallery. Although BAG was disbanded in the summer of 1978, most of the artists are very active in the arts to this day. Onli morphed this philosophy to the growing Black Age movement.

Biography

Onli is a creative artist whose career has touched upon a variety of disciplines in fine and applied visual art.

He has been an art therapist, educator and illustrator. He has also distinguished himself in painting, drawing, illustration, publishing, fashion and multimedia production.

Onli earned a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and Masters in Art and Art therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

He studied in Paris at the Sorbonne and the Centre Pompidou.

He has exhibited in France, and the United States. He is a four-time Visiting artist at the University of Illinois.

Onli has been an illustrator for the Rolling Stones, Motown, Mode Avant Garde Magazine, and Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

His work is in many collections including those of the Cool Globes Public Art, the Chicago Children’s Museum, Johnson Publishing Company, Alice Coltrane, the Miles Davis Estate and the DuSable Museum of African-American History.

Onli has received many awards including Honorable Mention in the Salon at the Munster Center for Visual and Performing Art and the Prix Arts Electronics, a laureate in the Concours des Dessins with the Foyer Internationale d’Accueil de Paris.

His work was selected for presentation at Festac 1977: The second World Festival of Black and African Art and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria.

In 2007, he published a book of Rhythmistic artwork titled ”No Evils.”

Onli formerly taught at Columbia College, he currently teaches Art and Graphic Design at the Chicago Public Schools, and he is an adjunct Professor of Drawing and Art Appreciation at the Harold Washington College.

Cost Free

Who May Attend Open to art collectors, curators, the academic community and the public

Information (312) 996-9549

If you have a disability that needs accommodation in order to participate in this event, please call prior to the event. The African-American Cultural Center is serviced by the elevator in Burnham Hall. A ramp on the second floor connects the two buildings.

Google Xero Error Xpanse to learn about this hot project outta Dubai. They were cool ennuf to be featured in Future Funk and returned the favor on their blog recently. The creative world just got a little smaller for Rhythmism and the visual art of Onli.