Wanderlust: A Walk Through the City, from Holabird and Root to The Kelpies

Wanderlust, by Boyan Marinov (click images for larger view)

Boyan Marinov's Wanderlust sculpture at Clark and Aldine Streets is part of this year's Chicago Sculpture Exhibit, which has placed over 20 works from Bucktown to Lakeview.   It was the perfect starting point for a walk of discovery along Chicago's lakefront on the kind of beautiful day that can make you forget that the season of warmth and flowering is drawing to a close.

The Mandel Brothers warehouse, 3254 N. Halsted, Holabird and Roche, 1903.

This fall Chicago has one of the greatest displays of art ever.  Not only is there the Studio/Gang Designed Expo Chicago 2012, next week at Navy Pier, not only is there the Chicago Sculpture Exhibit, but from October 4th through the 6th, Chicago will be host to the International Sculpture Center's 2012 conference.  Leading up to that event, Chicago Sculpture International is finishing placing well over 50 sculptures along the lakefront from Grant Park to Belmont Harbor, where the work above was found.

You can see a comprehensive survey - with much better photos -  of all the riches currently in place on Jyoti Srivrastava's  indispensable website, Public Art in Chicago.

. . . Diversey Harbor.

. . . outside the Lincoln Park Conservatory

. . . and inside. (Sinuous, by Sheila Ganch)

Along the Lakefront promenade, near the Museum campus, we were lucky enough to encounter sculptor Suzanne Horwitz polishing up her striking work, Nautilus.

We finished up with Andy Scott's shimmering Kelpies, which came all the way from Scotland just to look out over Lake Michigan.  See more pictures here, and read the full story here.

We also had an an interesting encounter with Emanuel Swedenborg, Daniel Burnham's great influence, but the more I looked into the strangely-placed sculpture, the more interesting the story became, so I'm going to cover it tomorrow.