Crystal Lake boxing gym owner, Gary Dobry, and Chicago Blues Legend, Bumble-Bee Bob Novak, get together for a 2-man art exhibit opening at the Art Matrix Gallery at the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago on June 17th at 7PM.
Dobry met the "Bee" when he was a teen-ager sneaking into Chicago blues clubs like the Kingston Mines where Novak was a mainstay siding for local blues icons like Hound Dog Taylor, Pine-Top Perkins and Chicago Slim. Novak graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago the same year as another Chicago icon, Ed Paschke. At the School of the Art Institute Novak and Paschke, best of friends, studied under Isabelle MacKinnon, a student of Hans Hoffman. Dobry was an apprentice to both Novak and Paschke and was himself admitted to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on the strength of reference letters from both Paschke and Novak.
Dobry and Novak paintings and drawings will exhibit through July 15th and they will also be playing the same blues they played in the clubs and streets of Paris in the early 1990's at the June 17th opening. Dobry will also be exhibiting in, and sitting on the panel of, the 'Tattoo' exhibition opening in August at the Jack Olson Museum Gallery at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb. For more info on the Zhou B Art Center exhibition contact Art Matrix gallery director, Daniel McClenaghan at 773 254 4020 or Gary Dobry at the School of Hard Knocks in Crystal Lake, 815 356 6572