Chester Alamo-Costello

Chester Alamo-Costello (born 1967) is an American artist, educator, publisher and writer based in Chicago, Illinois. He is known for his international "Art Drop" series (1998–present), which places art into non-traditional settings such as public parks, and for photographic books that have been noted for their rawness and everyday immediacy. He has exhibited widely in the public domain in Europe, the United States and Canada, as well as at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and Hyde Park Art Center. His photography and projects have been reviewed or published in the Chicago Sun-Times, De Telegraaf (Amsterdam), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Magazine, Nerve, and on Chicago Public Radio. His books of photography, art and writing include: Somewhere In-Between Chicago, The Globe (2010), and Grandpa Danny (2008).

Alamo-Costello is also the publisher of, and a contributor to, The COMP Magazine, a digital art and design journal. He is a professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois and at Sichuan University of Science and Engineering in Zigong, China. Chester Alamo-Costello, "New Agenda Art Drops" (Series 1, details); left, Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli, Milan, Italy, May 18, 2011; right, New Street Agenda Art Drop (White Devil), Series 1, 2007.

Early life and career Alamo-Costello was born Michael Christopher Costello in 1967 in Indianapolis to a blue-collar family of German, Irish, and Italian immigrants that valued practical skills. After developing an interest in art and graduating from Southport High School, he studied graphic design, painting and photography at the Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI in Indianapolis (BFA, 1990). He moved to Chicago in 1993, and initially photographed artists, musicians, and transients while living in a warehouse district on the city's South Side, near Chinatown. He began his teaching career at Columbia, before moving to the University of St. Francis in 1999. Alamo-Costello lives and works in Chicago with wife, Sandy.

Work Armpit, Urban Totems (Installation detail), 1400 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, August 5–November 15, 1994. Although Alamo-Costello's work has included drawings, painting and journals, his artistic practice primarily lies in two areas: art-related public interventions, performances and social experiments that may be site-specific or placed in public space; For the first drop, "Searching for Geomantricks" (1998), Alamo-Costello created sixty lightboxes with abstract color images inlaid in glass and encased in stained oak frames, which he placed in 20 Chicago public parks for passersby to find, keep and respond to; each was accompanied by a note describing the piece and project, a pen, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope for responding.

Between 1999 and 2004, he produced "Appleseed International"—named for the American folk-hero, Johnny Appleseed—in which he distributed 280 similarly conceived works to 20 U.S. and 20 international city parks. For New Street Agenda (2005-2013), he created 280 framed graffiti-like prints that comment on contemporary modes of deceptive communication and distributed them in 80 international cities from St. Petersburg, Russia through Europe to the United States. The book was noted for its emotional universality, capturing in unpolished, snapshot-like compositions of "unusual rawness and immediacy," the interactions of fans, clubs, and televised contests. Since 2023, Alamo-Costello's photographic work and research has focused on China, specifically portraits of art faculty, students and staff at Sichuan University of Science & Engineering where he has taught for part of each year since 2019. The work, which compares Chinese and U.S. teaching philosophies and practices, was supported in part by a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs grant.

Publishing and writing Alamo-Costello launched The COMP Magazine, a digital publication focusing on art and design, in 2014 with Egzon Shaqiri. Moholy-Nagy, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the Japanese photography and performance movement “Provoke” and the Hairy Who, Chicago's underground music scene, comics, and video games. Maria Gaspar, Melissa Ann Pinney, Colleen Plumb, Corey Postiglione, Alison Ruttan, and Bob Thall.

Prior to arriving at USF, he taught photography at Columbia College Chicago (1995–2001), lectured at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, and was an instructor at John Herron School of Art.

Books Alamo-Costello, Chester. (2018). Somewhere In-Between Chicago, Artist Edition, Chicago. Essays by Max King Cap, Juan Angel Chávez, Anya Davidson, and Paul Melvin Hopkin. Alamo & Costello, Chester. (2010). The Globe, Chicago: Dark Lark Press. Alamo & Costello, Chester. (2008). Grandpa Danny, Chicago: Dark Lark Press.