CHICAGO — Internationally renowned street artist Dont Fret left his mark on virtually every corner of the city, from alleys to patios, boarded-up storefronts and galleries.
Dont Fret, born and raised in Wicker Park and considered a local art legend, died last week after a long illness, his family announced on his social media. He was 36.
The award-winning artist and writer, whose first name was Cooper, kept his identity secret and relished being an enigma, according to his friends and past interviews with him. His family declined to speak for this story and asked that only his first name be shared.
“Dont Fret was one of the most beloved and talented artists in the history of Chicago,” his family said in a statement. “He believed in, championed and [paid] tribute to the underdog, the everyday person whose labor is often taken for granted.”
Tributes for the young artist began pouring in after the news, with family, close friends and admirers remembering Dont Fret as uniquely Chicagoan in his work and spirit.
Perhaps best known for his wheat paste characters, drawings and musings that he placed on city streets and buildings, Dont Fret’s art became synonymous with the working-class Chicagoan — restaurant workers and owners, filmmakers, poets, city employees and veterans — through humor, irony and social and political commentary. He was a Columbia College Chicago graduate and part of the 2000s Wicker Park art scene, which largely disappeared amid gentrification.
Dont Fret also achieved larger artistic success and notoriety with large-scale murals Downtown and in New York, Miami, Denver, London, Helsinki and São Paulo. His work was also heavily featured in the locally acclaimed Netflix show “Easy” by Chicago filmmaker Joe Swanberg, where he also appeared on camera for the first time playing himself.
In 2020, Dont Fret was commissioned by the city of Chicago for a 55-portrait installation, “The People In Your Neighborhood,” which featured locals who “hustle,” he told the Tribune.
“My first love will always be putting work on the street and having that direct interaction with the public,” Dont Fret said in a Columbia College alumnus spotlight. “But I also love doing work inside spaces in galleries and, more recently, taking over abandoned spaces and throwing a kind of temporary experience.”
Some of these temporary experiences included creating fake dive bar pop-ups at the Gold Star Bar in Wicker Park and at Logan Square’s Emporium as The Light Times Club, “a nod to the past and an ode to what’s left of the present.” In recent years, he also hosted art shows, poetry readings and events with other artists at a short-lived gallery space in Wicker Park he called The Pirate Ship and later out of his home as the Home Away From Home gallery, his friends said.
Dont Fret’s partner, Eleanor Gorski, said he loved golfing, fishing, watching soccer and eating sausages — all topics found in his art. Before Christmas, the couple undertook a project to make several types of sausages.
“He found interest and beauty in the everyday working man, and his interests reflected that,” Gorski said. “I would often find him trying to help someone; if there was someone that was destitute on the street, Cooper was giving them a few bucks or talking to them and really treating them with the respect that they deserve. … Those are the things I really remember about him.”
Dont Fret was working on an all-immersive local show at the time of his death, set to open later this year, she said. Gorski and his family are looking to plan a celebration of life and showcase his new art.
Zissou Tasseff-Elenkoff, a close friend of Dont Fret and owner of All Star Press street art gallery in Logan Square, said the two met in Wicker Park’s art scene more than 15 years ago. He said Dont Fret’s distinct art style and personality, which always had a message wrapped in everyday consciousnesses, made him stand apart in Chicago’s cultural fabric. Tasseff-Elenkoff said Dont Fret made an impression on so many people through the social nature of his work.
“I guarantee that if he had 50 people who all knew him, they would have one silly story to tell about him,” Tasseff-Elenkoff said. “Those types of people don’t come around too often.”
Dont Fret participated in art shows at All Star Press over the years, and the gallery has a few Dont Fret works for sale that have been going fast since his death.
Tasseff-Elenkoff is looking into hosting a retrospective Dont Fret art show for his friends and family with archival items that could be a “nice sendoff and a way for his community to come together.”
“He is definitely up there in terms of how Chicago he is and how his work speaks to that Midwestern working-class mindset,” his friend said.
Despite Dont Fret’s mysterious public nature, friends remembered him as a kind and helping person who always brought humor along for the ride. Swanberg, who was a fan before asking Dont Fret to be part of “Easy,” said he asked him to contribute his instantly recognizable Chicago style to the show.
“Cooper was definitely a connector of people; anybody who was a Chicago artist, he was always making those connections. … He was so sweet and lovable,” Swanberg said.
In addition to creating much of the show’s art, seen prominently in the garage brewery storyline, Dont Fret designed shirts, dog treat logos, tap handles for the brewery and other items that were barely seen onscreen — “cool, ephemeral pieces of art” that Swanberg plans to showcase and give to Dont Fret’s friends and family, Swanberg said.
“His style was totally indelible. The reason I wanted to work with him is you just instantly recognized it,” he said. “His use of color and lines and everything was just totally his own; and ‘Easy’ was a global show, so it’s hard to count the millions of people that have been exposed to his art through that show. It’ll definitely live on.”
Swanberg encouraged anyone now missing the artist to revisit the show to get “a really fun, exciting sense of him.”
“He’s a rascal in the show; you gotta let him be himself,” he said.
As street art’s reputation and political culture has evolved over the past two decades, Dont Fret’s work is a reflection of Chicago that leaves behind a tangible and accessible legacy, his loved ones said.
“Mayor Daley had graffiti blasters, and they would strike down any little thing right away. [Cooper’s] legacy is he gave murals, graffiti and self expression in that way a respectability where now people look for it,” Gorski said. “People seek out these new mural artists that are coming up. They are doing walking tours of Dont Fret’s work. From 20 years ago, we had a total change in how we view this type of street art. And Cooper was on the forefront of it.”
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