About Rare Nest
Located in Chicago's Avondale neighborhood, Rare Nest Gallery opened in the Fall of 2017. Since then, we have mounted 19 major exhibitions and produced over sixty events including the world premiers of documentary films and music along with lectures and readings. Rare Nest is a retail art enterprise, welcoming novice and seasoned collectors. In addition to a lovingly restored 19th century storefront interior, rarenestgallery.com offers original artwork. Rare Nest represents 10 established, living artists and 3 important estates (Herbert Brun, John Miller, Otto Neumann).
Rare Nest offers periodic off-site tours and visits to important private collections. The gallery endeavors to be an integrative partner with community-based organizations through philanthropic engagement and other support.
The e-commerce platform (rarenestgallery.com) is content driven with valuable archival content. We are interested in understanding the context of an artist's life.
Rare Nest artist's lives are at the center of our inquiry.
Press:
The Third Coast Review’s article by Megan Williamson: Rare Nest Gallery in Avondale: Keith Bringe Creates Community Beyond Art
View the Chicago Reader's review of CARONE CENTENNIAL CHICAGO
Crain's Chicago Business Top 10 Things to See and Do.
Rare Nest Founder and Director Keith Bringe
Keith Bringe by Nancy L Abrams, September 2017, Terra Alta, West Virginia. Copyright Rare Nest.
A native Chicagoan, Keith Bringe studied art history and museum administration and worked in non-profit administration for over 30 years, in the fields of historic preservation, family violence, the arts and HIV/AIDS. From 2008 to 2015, Keith served as Director of the Chicago Art Deco Survey Project which documented, researched and cataloged over 900 area buildings, sites and monuments, 200 artists and 150 manufacturers from the modern period 1915 - 1945. The Art Deco Survey forms the basis of the upcoming book “Art Deco Chicago” (2018, City Files). Previously, from 2002 to 2006, Keith served as Executive Director of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple Restoration Foundation. Bringe is a past board member of the Society of Architectural Historians Chicago Chapter and served as co-president of the Chapter from 2006–2010. Keith consulted on documentary films such as “Louis Sullivan: The Struggle for American Architecture” and “Robert A. M. Stern: Presence of the Past” for WTTW and others. He served as Executive Producer of the feature length documentary “Out of the Box: Ending the Cycle of Incarceration” directed by Zarko Mladenovic (2018, Enlightenment Films). Bringe has lectured for Alliance Francaise, the Coalition of Art Deco Societies at Havana Cuba, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Chicago Art Deco Society, Landmarks Illinois, among others. His architectural photography has been published internationally. Bringe is also a working artist.
