DONT FRET

Consummate wiseguy, documentarian of working people, and vaguely anonymous human Dont Fret is one of Chicago's most visible street artists, best known for his wheat-pasted characters and snarky musings that populate city streets worldwide. Simultaneously sardonic, biting, and fond, the bluntness of his figures and texts--often belonging to the neighborhood they inhabit--skewers the obvious and reflects the normalized-until-numbed issues of the city back at the passerby experiencing them firsthand. While his work has stretched from São Paulo to Helsinki, he remains a true Wicker Park native, digging into the character(s) of Chicago--the stew of down-and-out and up-and-up, the meatpackers, the artists, the street-wise, and the stupid. The first comprehensive survey of Dont Fret's work/life thus far, this monograph showcases a decade of his street and gallery work and features memories and anecdotes from fellow artists and friends, as well as a foreword by writer and Brooklyn Street Art co-founder Steven P. Harrington.