(2002)
Cream Co. began as a "critique group" among Marie Krane Bergman, Michael Kiresuk, and Adam Leech in 1997, when the three started graduate school in the Painting Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The three artists shared a commitment to painting and an interest in producing work that raised questions about roles of art in culture. In 1999, the group began presenting their work together and, after graduation in 2000, the artists continued working together and began to acknowledge their connection as a curatorial and art-making collective. Sasha Earle joined the group in 2002.
The group works together in a variety of ways. They share studio space, produce objects and paintings, and organize events which attempt to collapse boundaries between art and life. With Potluck, in 2000, the group invited artists and friends to "Bring a work of art, include it in the show and stay for the party". Over 70 people (including many non-artists and children) brought work and the event functioned in part like an art show and in part like a community picnic.
After producing a more traditional exhibit titled "Luxe", in 2001, the group decided to abandon their roles as "artist-curators" and begin to focus solely on producing art objects and hosting real-life events. In addition to creating traditional art objects, individually and together, the group serves "Free Lunch Fridays" and hosts events like a 2003 record-release party for Academy Records.
In January, 2003, Cream Co. produced their first gallery show, "Really Real", at Gallery 312 in Chicago. The group transformed the gallery into a collection of rooms (an outdoor space, a museum room, a library and a gift shop). In the "Museum", we presented a series of 17" square paintings from "Timelines", together with other art objects and everyday objects. Similarly, in the "Library" and the "Gift Shop", we presented art objects and things in ways which raise questions about the ways we use art in life. Ultimately, Really Real achieved one of the goals of the Cream Co. practice: to reveal ways we use art to make meaning of life and life to make meaning of art.