guerrilla truck show 2013

The Guerrilla Truck Show was last Tuesday, and this year we went on purpose! We had a great time and ran into some great people.

The Guerrilla Truck Show happens once a year in the Fulton Market neighborhood of Chicago.  Artists rent moving trucks, create a gallery of their work in the back, and pull the trucks up to the loading docks along the industrial buildings on Fulton St.  It's really fun to see what people have been able to rig-up in these temporary spaces.

Last year was the first time we went to the Guerrilla Truck Show. We were in the neighborhood for another gallery opening and kind of stumbled upon it (it's hard to miss a crowd of people and 60 moving trucks!).

This year I was pretty impressed with quite of few of the trucks, here are some of our favorites (please forgive the blurry photos, it was too packed to stay in one place long enough to get a clear shot):

This bookshelf by Thomas Oliphant caught The Man's eye.  He also had some big and beautiful floor lamps I wouldn't mind taking home.

 I loved the textile designs of Katie Chappuis.  Her patterns are so fun and playful, and I love her color palette.

 This truck was filled with work by both Tandem Made and Squared Furniture.  Both are companies from Minneapolis, who came all the way down to Chicago to be a part of the show.  They had some really great pieces, like those pendant lights (by tandem) and the awesome shelving system on the back wall (by squared).

We also saw New Breed's work again (they were at the show last year too).  Everything they make is fantastic, but I hadn't seen these stools before .... and I love them.

We even saw some slightly familiar faces pedaling some high-quality wares.  This truck displayed work by Munie Designs.  Jeff dabbles in a little bit of everything, but his main focus are these gorgeous handmade backpacks and totes.  We got to talking with Jeff and his beautiful and equally talented wife Louisa, and learned that the show is really just an exhibition of your work.  You are not allowed to sell anything during the show.  So instead of awkward conversations that are cut short the second the maker realizes you aren't going to buy something, you get to have genuine conversations about their products and their passion for what they do.

(I was instantly drawn to this lamp he made out of laser cut veneer - I Want One!)

We had such a good time, we might even go on purpose next year!