Art at The Acorn: Open House for Tom Eslinger – Dance With Me In The Disco Heat

Saturday, Jul. 12 | 12:00pm ET (11:00am CT)

The Acorn Center for the Performing Arts transforms into a visual art space with our initiative Art at The Acorn. We are proud to welcome our new artist, Tom Eslinger, and his exhibit Dance With Me In The Disco Heat.

Please join us for an Open House with the Artist on Saturday, July 12th from noon to 2pm ET with an Artist Talk and Q&A at 1:00pm ET.

Artist Tom Eslinger combines his experience as a giant of international advertising with his pop sensibilities to create pieces that engage, entertain and enthrall his collectors, creating one-of-a-kind artworks combining his lifetime obsessions with music, typography and stickers. Tom’s design work can be found in the Permanent Design Collection of New York’s MOMA as well as the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Collection.

The Open House is free and open to the public.

• Artist Talk and Q&A moderated by Janet Davies
• Cash bar available
• Doors open at 12pm noon ET

About the Artist:

Artist Tom Eslinger combines his experience as a giant of international advertising with his pop sensibilities to create pieces that engage, entertain and enthrall his collectors. Following a rockstar career as Global Creative Director for Saatchi & Saatchi as well as Burson Marsteller and five-time Cannes Lions Jurist (twice as Jury President), Tom creates one-of-a-kind artworks combining his lifetime obsessions with music, typography and stickers. Tom’s design work can be found in the Permanent Design Collection of New York’s MOMA as well as the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Collection.

Tom studied at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design (MCAD) and counts Charles Spencer Anderson and Scott Makela as his mentors and great influences. Tom maintains residences in Chicago and New York City, continues to consult for select brands and is a Professor of Communications at Columbia College Chicago.

Artist Statement

In this new series, I’m diving deep into my colorful childhood and teenage experience, drawing inspiration from a kaleidoscope of influences that span decades. Imagine the sensory overload of my childhood full of a disco singles collection, the rebellious thrill of sneaking peeks at David Bowie and Sylvester's tantalizing late-night TV performances, seeing gay men holding hands in public on a family vacation in California and more recently, scrolling through the vivid, sordid and often heart-breaking stories captured in the Gay New York of the 1970s and ‘80s Facebook Group. Memories layered, rewatched and rediscovered on the internet and social media, remixed and redrawn through my life experience decades later: this work is me figuring out how that little kid took all that in and where all of those ideas and memories will and should go next.