Chicago’s ‘Pothole Picasso’ opens a studio/gallery in Uptown

Local artist Jim Bachor, who has been called the “Pothole Picasso,” has opened a gallery/studio in Uptown, with the hope to get back to his true calling, fine art mosaics.

The studio, located across from the Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom at 1111 W. Lawrence Ave., is about 1,000 square feet and is divided by a small gallery in the front and a larger studio space in the back, where Bachor said he will move his workshop from the basement of his Mayfair home.

The building has a few storefronts where local business development organization Uptown United assisted businesses with getting city grants to fill the spots. Justin Weidl, Uptown United’s director of neighborhood services, tried to get a grant for Bachor, who he knew because his group commissioned him to do a mosaic at the nearby Clifton Avenue Street Gallery in 2018.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

“Jim didn’t qualify because his finances didn’t show a pandemic-related loss, but the owner of the building liked him so much that he donated his storefront space to him for a year,” Weidl explained.

Bachor, 59, opened the space to a large crowd March 1 and plans to use it as a gallery selling his artwork, along with t-shirts, hats, pins, coffee mugs and even shoes that have images of his work, as well as a studio. He’s also considering doing workshops to teach aspiring mosaic artists.

Courtesy Jim Bachor

Bachor is aware of the irony that while he wants to use the new space to get back to doing fine art mosaics, it was his pothole mosaics that got him the attention that brought him many fine art clients and likely led to him getting the storefront.

Sitting inside his new studio the day before the opening, Bachor recalled what started it all, filling in a pothole outside his Mayfair home in 2014 that was annoying him for months.

“It was a stubborn pothole. The city would fix it and, a couple months later, it would re-emerge,” Bachor said, describing a frustration common to many Chicagoans. “I started thinking about patching it with this super durable material I had and decided to brand it as an authentic pothole.”

The result was Bachor’s first street piece, which simply said “Pothole” on top of an image of a Chicago flag around it.

Courtesy Jim Bachor

After that, Bachor would look for potholes around the city and continue to fill them in, topping them off with a mosaic and documenting them on his website. It wasn’t long before he got noticed by the press, which would lead to him doing them in other cities including New York, Detroit, Nashville, San Antonio and Los Angeles.

“Sometimes it’s a sponsored trip and other times it’s because I’m going for another reason,” Bachor said, explaining that he’s not independently wealthy.

In fact, only a year before his first pothole mosaic, Bachor and his wife, Angela Bachor, a cybersecurity executive with whom he has twin sons, agreed that he should leave his advertising job to pursue his passion.

While fine art mosaics sell for a good amount — (current Bachor pieces sell for between $900 and $5,500) — it was the pothole mosaics that got him the attention that led to many of his commissions.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

The pothole mosaics take between 8-10 hours in total, Bachor explained. The mosaics themselves are made at his studio on cheesecloth. Once Bachor finds a good pothole, he goes there carrying traffic cones and wearing an orange jumpsuit and reflective vest, pours the cement and then puts the mosaic on top. He then leaves the cones, which have his name on them, while the mosaic dries.

He then returns about eight hours later, which often equates to the next morning, to remove his cones. He added that because so many of his cones have been stolen, he now has painted “stolen from” above his name on them to give thieves a laugh.

Bachor said the length of time his pothole mosaics last in the streets has varied from three months to five years.

“The art doesn’t fail. Usually what happens is the street gets re-paved over them,” he said. That’s why he takes a picture of each completed mosaic to put on his website.

The themes of the artwork vary but usually they are a bit of a cheeky social commentary and often are influenced by his advertising background. Sometimes they reflect what’s going on at the time, like the mosaic of a roll of toilet paper during the pandemic.

While most are not political, in 2018 Bachor searched for a pothole near Trump Tower Chicago for a month and ultimately found one, installing a mosaic that said “Liar” on top of a Russian flag, in response to Donald Trump’s denial of collusion with Russia during the 2016 election.

Courtesy of Jim Bachor

Others include versions of artistic masterpieces like Warhol’s Elizabeth Taylor and Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks"; bouquets of flowers; luxury patterns like Burberry and Gucci; ice cream and other sweet treats; candy and cigarette boxes that appear to be trashed, and woodland creatures.

While Bachor’s art may last for 2,000 years, he is not sure if he’ll be able to afford the studio lease after the year is up. However, if recent history is an indicator, Bachor may pull it off with his blend of advertising smarts and artistic talent.

Courtesy Jim Bachor.