Dan’s Apartment of Artful Assemblages

Name:Dan Price
Location:Ukrainian Village, Chicago, Illinois
Size:920 square feet
Years lived in:4 years, rented

Upon entering Dan Price’s apartment in Chicago’s North-Westside neighborhood of the Ukrainian Village, your first impression is of an abundance of textures: bare bricks, modified vintage-hybrid furniture, stainless steel appliances, granite kitchen counters, colorful cookware, old desks with meticulously ordered business records, contemporary artwork, repurposed found objects, and the traces of an older apartment layout that can be seen in the pattern of beams on the wooden floor.

This eclectic combination of found and assembled structures and objects brings a sense of ease and comfort when one realizes how carefully orchestrated the space is.

The apartment is a big open space with no doors, which makes it perfect for dinner parties and socializing. Dan loves cooking and having friends over. The kitchen is big enough to prepare food for about 12 people, and the ample space in the middle of the apartment can be set up with portable tables for a dinner party for a large number of guests.

The history of the space and of its current inhabitant is proudly exhibited. Previously an abandoned property, the apartment was renovated in the late 1990’s by artist Brian Bonebraker. Dan, also an artist and part of the full-time faculty atSAIC, has also been transforming the first floor apartment for the past four years. He plans his curriculum at the apartment and makes sculptures in a separate studio. However, many of Dan’s pieces and traded artwork from other artists are curated and exhibited in his living space. Some other sources of artwork are his students, local artists he met during his two-year stay in Africa, and native Caribbean artists, as well as his family. Another passion for Dan is collecting, fixing and repurposing old objects and furniture, thus creating a unique living assemblage.

My Style:Bohemian / Found-object.

Inspiration:Alabama Chanin / Natalie Chanin.

Favorite Element:The framed pictures.

Biggest Challenge:Living in a single room, loft-style apartment.

Biggest Embarrassment:The dust that accumulates in a 100 year old building!

Proudest DIY:Turning an antique bench into a hanging shelf for plants. I found the bench in a florist’s rubbish pile in Wicker Park and brought it home. It was majorly bowed from use. I flipped it to reverse the curve and forged four steel hanging rods to mount it in the front window.

Biggest Indulgence:Fresh flowers.

Best Advice:I tend to look for textures and colors to combine in layers. Bookshelves full of books and oriental rugs do this naturally. I apply this idea to other materials like stacks of postcards, dishware and the like.

• Stainless, damaged stock

• Sofa from Room and Board, Los Angeles

• Thrift store finds

• Home Depot

• Home Depot

• Oriental Rugs from Brooklyn Navy Yard

• Traded with friends

• Treasure Mart, Ann Arbor, MI

Thanks, Dan!

(Images: Georgi Ivanov)

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