NOTICE-- CLOSED and A Unique Marquee

Spudnik Press has taken over Wicker Park’s Heaven Gallery, at least for the time being. Currently on show is A Unique Marquee comprised of work from Spudnik artists, and NOTICE – CLOSED a body of work created by Jeremy Lundquist while an artist in residence at Spudnik. Having the solo and group shows side by side worked out really well. The common denominator of printmaking makes for an overall cohesiveness, and A Unique Marquee helps wet the audience’s appetite for a closer look into a single body of work.

The focal point of NOTICE – CLOSED is 21 etchings Lundquist made using a single copper plate. He draws upon tourist culture by collecting signage, pamphlet materials, and his own drawings from Illinois historical sites. By layering these images on one plate, each new image sits on top of the ghost images of past prints. The effect is a sense of loss through the creation of new memories and histories. The tourism theme is carried through a pamphlet for the series that gives a brief description of the attraction and its “points of interest”. NOTICE – CLOSED also includes Adjournment Drawings, which are even more reductive in their imagery and wording than Lundquist’s etchings, and Drinkwater’s Lincoln: Complain/Make Sacrifices, which consists of the words “of course we could all” on the wall. The inclusion of these works support his etchings, by distilling prominent elements to help consider the relationship between text and imagery.

A Unique Marquee features several artists working at Spudnik Press that represent a broad range of style, subject matter, and printmaking processes. While all the works employ new and interesting takes on the classic, and often over looked medium, some resonated more than others did. Meng Yang and Angee Lennard borrow from mid-century advertising and posters to create works that rally support for local industries. Nostalgia and the current economic situation combine to make their work feel simultaneously timeless yet extremely relevant. Also on show are works by L Born, such as Fish Dinner and Irreconcilable Differences. The works are slightly grotesque and read like one-liner jokes, in a hip, fresh way.

Niels Strobek "Modern Danish Master"

While his work shows an intense understanding of historical painting, and his mark making the sign of a seasoned hand, viewer be wary of dismissing Niels Strobek’s work as traditionalist. Modern Danish Master features 11 of his portraits and landscapes, all of which follow the trajectory of realism. Strobek’s work has a sense of timelessness, but just enough detail to modernize the style. Details like the woman’s facial piercing in Irishat, and the architecture in Yellow Farm date the subjects to contemporary western culture. A majority of the work relies on this dichotomy between modern subjects and traditional technique, in a way that exoticizes our own culture. While historical style brings content to one aspect of his work, it becomes quite problematic in another.

Not only does Strobek participate in the western canon’s depiction of female subjects by male artists, he repeats many of the same problems pointed out through history. The women he depicts are very much aware of the male gaze. Most make eye contact with their audience, and are subtly suggestive based on their class. The wealthier women, denoted by their dress, show sexuality through powerful poses, like a woman in Sisters, with her knee bent exposing her bare leg, and her chest square to the audience. Compare to the woman with laundry in Basket, who is equally as engaging, but through submission as she turns her back to the audience and peeks over her shoulder. Images of candles next to cups, pins piercing flowers, and a woman holding an apple add an allegorical level to the way Strobek depicts the subjects’ sexualities. What further complicates these portraits is their placement next to landscapes. While the two subject matters seem to come from different lines of thought, they are equally valued by displaying them together. This reinforces the cliché correlation of women to nature. His depiction of women undermines his attempts to progress canonical painting. As wonderfully rendered as Strobek’s paintings may be, as long as he continues to repeat gender blunders of the past, his work will remain in limbo between modern and traditional.

SUBSTANCE (for Julian) at The Suburban

The Suburban is currently hosting ‘SUBSTANCE (for Julian)’ a collaboration, or rather integration, of work by artists Julian Dashper and Tilman Hoepfl. The exhibit, created by Hoepfl, memorializes the recently deceased Dashper. It features an artist book and installation, both specifically made for the show, by Hoepfl, complemented by Dashper’s audio track, “Untitled/ Studio Door”. The exhibition reveals the commonalities between the artists’ work, through its focus on the minimalist and deductive qualities of both.

Julian Dashper, who passed away on July 30 of this year, was one of few New Zealand artists to make it onto the international stage. He worked in several media including sculpture, film, photography, and sound. Work that ranged from “Untitled (The Warrior)”, a drum set with colored disks as drumheads, to films like “Untitled (the last 15 seconds of the last Venice Biennale”, all functioned to abstract the familiar. “Untitled/ Studio Door”, a part of the SUBSTANCE exhibit, is a 1 minute 15 second sound recording of a door opening, rocking back and forth, and closing. The work balances the banality of a creaking door, by manipulating the sound into a soothing hum. The result is a heightened attention to the sound’s character, and dissolution of its source.

For the exhibition, Hoepfl created a site-specific installation of alternating strips of red chromolux and white bristol board encircling the room. The work employs a similar technique to Dashper’s sound piece, in the way it draws attention to the familiar by sharply contrasting it. The white board blends with the white wall, but the red draws it out; in the same way, the droning highlights the door creaking. Hoepfl continues using red and white stripes in his artist book. The book, which consists of rectangles of varying widths, allows the handler to manipulate (to a certain degree) the ways in which the two colors interact.

The similarity between Hoepfl and Dashper’s work, and the contrast between media makes them wonderful complements. By integrating Dashper’s work subtly into the show and working around it, Hoepfl has created a beautiful living memorial to his fellow minimalist.

As We Live and Breathe at Carrie Secrist

On Sinking at Tony Wight

On Sinking is a continuation of Robyn O’Neil’s vision of an apocalyptic future. Her past works show men fighting for their lives; whether it is drones on rafts with a threatening sky above, or hanging by a wire above a tumultuous sea. Her newest work seems to suggest that despite their best efforts, the end has come. Where O’Neil used to render figures against dominant backdrops, there is nothing left but nature and a sole survivor.
The new drawings do not necessarily tell a linear narrative, but rather work together to create a mood. O’Neil’s modes of representation vary from straightforward in Quiet and A Song of So Many Beginnings, to poetic in The Dismantled Ship and Turbulent Beliefs. The tension between the two types of work is periodically interrupted by images of the back of a man’s head, like in Turn to the Left. While some scenes sprawl across the paper, others exist as floating images. The variety within the body of work prevents it from reading as a beginning to end story, and instead places emphasis on individual works that would have otherwise been means to an end.
While the works at times seem disparate from one another, a few motifs unite them not only within On Sinking, but also with O’Neil’s entire body of work. In her signature graphite on paper, she continues to render sky and sea in exaggerated sweeps that are simultaneously ominous and peaceful. She takes advantage of the dark material and white paper by varying which represents sky and foreground; nothing is safe, because the world can easily exist inverted. Certain shapes are repeated throughout the show. For example, the shape of a cloud over a man’s head in Occurrence is used for the shape of an overturned boat in The Dismantled Ship. The subtle repetitions throughout the show pull the pieces together in a unified vision, albeit of the end of the world.

You're My Favorite Kind of American at Rhona Hoffman

The diversity of work on display for You’re My Favorite Kind of American made it seem more like a group show than a one-man exhibition. Drawing on inspiration from hip-hop culture and his Cuban heritage, jack-of-all-trades Luis Gispert uses photography, film, and sculpture to investigate notions of the individual, customizing, and consumer culture.
The show features several photographs of customized vehicles looking out over landscapes. The pictures, all taken from the cockpit or front seat, seek to show how the individual manipulates things to taste. While the owners of the vehicles have chosen how to manipulate them, Gispert changes the landscapes to suit his own taste. In untitled (L.V. Escalade), the Cadillac is modified with a white leather interior featuring the iconic Louis Vuitton monogram. It overlooks a field in winter where two blank billboards sit in a small grove. The lack of advertising on the billboards contrasts the overworked car interior. These newer photographs, while exploring similar themes as his past work like the Cheerleader series, show a growth and maturation.
The other works on show feels secondary to the photographs, but have equally important ideas. In a short film Rene, Gispert, who actually has a BFA in film from SAIC, follows a Cuban immigrant through his daily life. The film shows a development and more natural approach than his previous work like Smother. The show also includes two sculptures in the shape of crack cocaine with heart shaped cutouts for speakers. One sculpture, They All Can’t Be Big Ideas, rests on a box of grape soda, and the other, Green Grocers Apostrophe, is propped upon a box of Newport cigarettes. The craftsmanship of the work is somewhat reminiscent of Robert Gober. The work tries to give a like life quality to reproduced items, but the presence of the artist’s hand is still visible. If Gispert’s work speaks to hip-hop culture, then it needs to be polished and streamlined like the customized vehicles. Realistic rendering would also direct focus towards content rather than craft, and put the sculptures on par with the photographs and film.

Kim Curtis "Perception" at Kasia Kay

With a history that ranges from the Hudson River School to Claude Monet, contributing to landscape painting can seem a bit like reinventing the wheel. Kim Curtis’ Perception, her fourth show at Kasia Kay, combines elements from her forerunners with more contemporary art practices to make the genre feel fresh again. The body of work on display is oil paint on panels, and consists primarily of vistas in exaggerated horizontal formats, all 3.5 inches tall and trimmed in red. Works vary in size from the largest Long View II at 113 inches long and consisting of seven panels, to a 20 inch single panel A Somewhat Shorter View. Her work uses a palette reminiscent of Turner, with dull or dark colors punctuated by moments of vibrant color that seem to radiate off the surface. The application of paint is intuitive and blithe. The loose brushwork recalls the Impressionist movement and its desire to capture moments as time unfolds. While Curtis refines the surface of her paintings, a record of previous incarnations is visible beneath, adding to a sense of uncertainty and unfulfilled recollection. Curtis is able to recombine elements of traditional landscape in a way that is specific to her work, and makes the genre feel like after all these years landscape still has something more to give.
Curtis’ work straddles the line between representation and abstraction. While the titles of her paintings and their format point to landscape, their ambiguous forms and handling of paint leave the images open to interpretation. The result is a seemingly vague memory or scene glimpsed in passing, in which the general information is there but the details are unclear. Curtis provides enough visual cues and information for the viewer to reconstruct the scene, but withholds enough so that each person will come to their own conclusion. The work addresses a hurried culture, where details and moments pass by the wayside. By constructing someone else’s experience, the viewer becomes aware of the elusiveness of his or her own memories.

Donald Young Gallery

The Donald Young Gallery is located on Michigan Avenue inside the Santa Fe building. With a prime location probably comes a prime real estate cost, and so the gallery is forced to take advantage of all its space. It has a small front room set up like a more traditional gallery, but the rest of the works are packed in a small hallway, around the reception desk, and inside two offices.
The artworks outside the main space are positioned in places that make the viewing experience awkward. To view Rodney Graham’s A Glass of Beer and Vancouver Sun, one has to hang around the reception desk while people are working there. Some works located in the offices are difficult to spot, like bear figurines on the desks, and Bruce Nauman’s work on a computer screen; other works don’t recieve their proper space like Chromatic Modernism and photographs from the Glass House Series. In a business sense, displaying work in an office allows potential buyers to see works in a less formal space. However, the choice to use the offices seems to have more to do with space, rather than curation.
In the front room, works are displayed in a more traditional fashion (white walls and pedestals). The contrast between how works are arranged on the south and north sides of the room is distracting. The south side houses four sculptures arranged by color and size. At the center is Rosemarie Trockel’s Abuse of Beauty, to its left is Martin Puyer’s Facedown and to its right are Joshua Mosley’s George Brown and Freidrich Hayek. Mosley and Puyer’s works face in towards Abuse of Beauty. Mosley’s works are placed next to each other and both given white pedestals. This gives the works a sense of unity, and together they are a comparable size to the other two works. The north side of the gallery is not as neatly arranged, and the disparity between the two sides of the room is distracting. It needed to be one way or the other, both was just weird.
The current show is not worth going to see. However, the next exhibition in September will be of Dan Flavin’s work. It is a little surprising to hear his work will be on show, and it will be interesting to see what kind of space solutions the gallery comes up with. While they may have been able to get away with work in offices during the current group show, it will be near impossible with his work.

Cy Twombly: The Natural World

The Cy Twombly exhibit, The Natural World, at the Art Institute divides his floral inspired works from 2000 to 2007 into a few clumps of work meant to represent the overall body of his later years. Located in the newly opened Modern Wing, the exhibit seems to be very self-conscious. Somehow, the curators have made the normally assured and unregulated work of Twombly seem tame and aseptic. His works on paper are tied down by frames, and every sculpture has a pedestal. All but one of the rooms had his works arranged perfectly symmetrical by form and color. On one door leading into the galleries, it denotes that the patron should enter the other doors so they can experience the exhibit the way it was meant to be seen: from lighter colored works on paper and sculptures at the beginning, through progressively larger and darker paintings at the end. The curation seemed so strict and opaque, it undermined the intuitive nature of the work itself. Twombly's work continues to stretch the ways we taxonimize art with combinations like photographs of sculptures and paintings/drawings, both on paper, and the continued incorporation of language. Despite the presentation, Twombly's newer works prove that after all these years, he still has not gone soft.

A New Home for Old Friends: The AIC Modern Wing

The Art Institute Modern Wing, which opened in May of this year, is still attracting masses a few months later. The wing brings a sense of pride to Chicagoans and has become a destination for tourists. It is the defibrillator the Art Institute needed. While the museum has always boasted an impressive collection, the works now in the Modern Wing never really had a proper home. They always seemed sparse, tucked away, or just oddly placed. However, now they all have one home that gives them proper due.
The Modern Wing was designed by architect Renzo Piano, whom is probably best known for his work on the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Piano used as many opportunities as possible to highlight the relationship between the museum and the city. The Nichols Bridgeway connects the museum to Millennium Park, and offers brilliant views as the patron passes over Monroe Street. The Bluhm Family Terrace offers a special view of the city from within the museum, but there are plenty of skyline glimpses available from within the galleries as well. Even when viewer enters the wing from the main body of the museum, they get a North facing view of the skyline from within Griffin Court. The frequent views of the city, which one does not find often in museums, are a constant reminder of the symbiotic relationship between museum and city.
Griffin Court, the atrium of the wing, can be entered from the North by way of Nichols Bridgeway and South through the museum. The center is opens to all three stories, and the specially designed skylight floods the wing with natural light. Piano's use of glass, open spaces, and stark white walls make the Modern Wing feel breezy and light, a welcomed contrast to the stoicism and gravity of the museum's main body Neo-Classical architecture. The only aspect of the wing that breaks the mood is the obligatory donor names plastered everywhere; but hey, you gotta make money somehow.
The deceptively slim looking atrium, leads to a surprising amount of gallery space. Just off Griffin Court on the first floor are the Abbott Galleries and the Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum Gallery. The Abbott Galleries, located to the West, will house different exhibitions. This is where the Cy Twombly works from 2000 to 2007 are being shown. On the East side, the Bucksbaum Gallery now houses the museum's photography collection. The Contemporary and Architecture and Design galleries are located respectively on the East and West side of the second floor. Both collections have had some recent additions, but the most surprising were the acquisitions for the Contemporary collection. Along side old favorites from the likes of Eva Hesse and Gerhard Richter are recently purchased works by Jeff Koons, Robert Gober, Charles Ray, and Bruce Nauman. The museum has really made an effort to build up their Contemporary Collection, as well as bring out pieces patrons have not seen in a while. Upstairs, the third floor houses the Modern European Collection, containing works by Picasso, Matisse, Dali and others.
A hefty collection is to be expected, but the sheer amount, quality, and diversity of work the museum has on show, combined with the architecture itself, is absolutely breathtaking. The Modern Wing far exceeded my expectations. I would highly recommend it for visitors to the city, and would expect Chicagoans to check it out to welcome the newest member of the city.

(under)Exposed

(under) Exposed at Carl Hammer Gallery, was a sort of pupu platter of contemporary work. Work ranged from a painting of refugees by Grace Graupe Pillard to a dodecahedron of “Cloud Gate” by Nathaniel Smyth. While it is difficult to judge the show as a whole because of the disparity of work, there were a few artists who stood out amongst the pack.
Alex Fleming's Flying Carpets were tucked away behind the gallery desk and didn't receive the visibility they deserve. The work consisted of two Persian rugs cut into the shape of airplanes. While the two were similar, the more successful was when the carpet was cut to mimic the interior forms of the plane. Whereas the other just seemed to be two scrap pieces combined to fill the space. Fleming's work addresses the issue of globalization in a very simple yet sophisticated way.
South Korean artist, Seung Wook Sim, displayed the work Black Mutated Ornamentation. The piece was a black, oblong blob consisting of layered hot glue on top of a non-visible metal structure. While the work itself is nothing new (actually somewhat reminiscent of some Eva Hesse work), it was a great opportunity to see some of the work coming out of Korea.
The most exciting pieces in the show came from artist Rebecca Kardong. Her works Reverse Alchemy and Inverted Void look like two cherubs gone horribly wrong. The works, which are an extension of her early work with dolls and figurines, are like over exaggerations of fleshy baby dolls. The figures bulge and twist in a way that show off Kardong's strong knowledge of anatomy, to the point she can manipulate it into a believable contorted form. The forms are finished of with iridescent coats of paint, which contribute too their eeriness. I was impressed by what I saw of Kardong's work in the gallery and then online, I highly recommend you take a look.

Framework

Framework, a show hosted by the David Weinberg Gallery, featured the sculpture of Bob Emser and photography of David Weinberg. Overall, the two artists' work complemented each other well, because the general focus of both bodies of work is the breaking down and building up of structures into their component parts. While this was the focus, the most interesting aspect of all the work was the interaction between structure and light.
Bob Emser's work consisted of maquettes for larger public sculptures, and sculptural wall hangings. His materials include steel, wood, and glass and create an overall industrial feel that is furthered by his minimalist, clean lined construction. The work itself is a microcosm of architecture and design, and begins to address the question as to how these differ from fine art. As stated above, the element of light is what gives Emser's work life. The shadows created by the work are probably the most interesting aspect of the work. The level at which some of the sculptures were hung became very distracting. They quickly went from art to shelves when hung at eye level. While the work borrows from design and architecture, I don't think it wants to mimic it exactly, so next time just hang it a little higher to avoid misinterpretation.
David Weinberg's black and white photographs are abstract images of buildings. His works, which are titled Deconstruction and assigned a number, rely on making the familiar unfamiliar. He does so by photographing reflections of buildings, or zooming in on different parts of a structure to eliminate their use and focus on their form. Part of the fun of looking at his work, is trying to figure out exactly what is being photographed. In one of the secondary gallery rooms there is a photograph of an entire greenhouse that explains what the other photographs are of, and really ruins part of the experience. The strength of his work is really in not knowing, and having to appreciate form itself.
Framework was a successful show. The work complemented each other well, and worked towards a common goal. However, the minimal aesthetic combined with notions of construction and destruction, and industrial materials really make for a masculine feeling show.

Gallery KH

Gallery KH's latest show celebrates new work from artists Michael Fitts and Cristine Guerrero. While both artists have very different content and style, the ways in which they paint are very similar to one another. In both cases, the artists paint on flat backgrounds; Guerrero on stark white and Fitts on scrap metal. The two also paint in a photo-realistic way. While from there on, the two bodies of work diverge, these common denominators make for a solid pairing.
One man's trash is Michael Fitts's treasure. His body of work consists of paintings of throw away items on pieces of metal. The subjects, which were meant to be hauled off to the garbage dump to eventually decay, are now memorialized on a material that will span the test of time. Items Fitts has chosen to freeze frame include a Twinkie package, paper planes, a popcorn box, and dress patterns. While the other subjects are classic items that resist dating, the dress patterns are clearly from the 1960's era. They also stand out because the subject matter being painted is flat and more readily shows flaws in creating form, making these works appear less realistic than the others. Overall though, Fitts's body of work is a very poignant way of addressing throw-away culture.
Cristine Guerrero's work consists of several pairs of images in which the formal elements mimic each other. In Dulce IV, a woman wearing a shiny-red dress with a sweetheart neckline is matched up with a red heart-shaped lollipop. Fresquita Como Una Rosa II pairs a pink frilly skirt with a pink rose. A woman's behind is paired with ice cream in Quedarse Helado. These and all the other works juxtapose parts of women's bodies with food, flowers, or objects from traditional women's work (i.e. sewing needles). The work has good intentions in addressing the commodification of parts of the female anatomy and clothing contributing to this, but the way the work is executed takes away from the content. Each juxtaposition is created by accentuating common formal elements between the two images, and the work goes directly to the same sort of strategy used in advertising a few years back.

Magnificent Mile Arts Festival

The Magnificent Mile Arts Festival was a major let down to say the least. I had good expectations for it, considering it was a juried show, but left thinking , “Who's responsible for this mess?”
The general set up of the festival was not clear. It was easy to navigate, but there was no flow or continuity from tent to tent. The show had painting, photography, sculpture, and jewelry. It felt really odd going from a jewelry tent into a painting tent. It seemed like it was set up so there were different types of work sprinkled everywhere, but it failed to create any sense of unity within the festival as a whole.
The show featured very traditional work, and didn't try to push the envelope. It was weighed down by paintings of landscapes/seascapes, flowers, and abstract work. One of the most interesting phenomena I noticed were a number of “self-taught” women painting in a type of abstract expressionist style (wrong gender and 70 years too late). The show ignores art movements from the second half of the 20th century, let alone post-modernism. The show just felt very pedestrian, and like connoisseurship was put on hold so the work would appeal to a greater audience base (and most likely have a greater chance of selling). However, to show watered down work to people only perpetuates the “my five year old could make that” attitude towards contemporary work. I'm not saying the whole show needed to be super progressive, but maybe challenge the viewers (just a little)?
On top of expecting a higher caliber of art, because it was a juried show, I expected the artists to be there to talk. I don't know the exact rules for being nominated, but I do know they are expected to show. However, a number of artists were not there; some had a friend or family member in their place (who typically didn't know much about the work) and others had no one. I feel like if you're going to have proxies at the festival, you might as well just have gallerists representing their clients work.
There was good art there, but it was overshadowed by the festival's faults. I will do those artists a favor and not mention their names. The names I should be mentioning are the jurors, but unfortunately I couldn't get a hold of them.

Kasia Kay Summer Show

The work on show as part of the Kasia Kay Art Projects Gallery's summer show was all top notch. Amongst the work there was a black plexiglass cutout of a chandelier by Sandra Bermudez, a gouache and collage piece on paper by Diane Christiansen and Jason Dunda, and figurines by Duncan Anderson (with a title like Mercy Killing (once you realize it's pointless, it's easier that way) forcible, fatal anesthetization of inconsolable, irrational ghost: dismembering and disbanding pleasant but useless and irrelevant memories), how could you go wrong?).
The artist who really stood out from the rest of the pack was Maleonn. His photographs were playful, whimsical, and nostalgic. Days on the Cotton Candy #1, shows a woman standing inside a tub, in a giant bathroom. She's holding a vacuum and looking surprised as it produces clouds of cotton candy. Postman 1 shows a postman, with his bicycle and parachute, about to jump off the roof of a building. In both pieces, the incorporation of older objects like the vacuum cleaner, bicycle, and suitcase add a nostalgic feel to the photos, which is then furthered by the dusty color saturation. The contraptions and their functions feel a little Michel Gondry-esque, and are equally as fun as his work. The photographs are very sweet and whimsical, but with just enough edge and uncertainty.

Interactive @ Woman Made

Interactive was curated by Karen Hamner, a Chicago based book artist, and hence book art was well represented in the show. Book artists such as Alex Appella, Lucy Childs, Amanda Meeks, and others were represented. Book art seems like too easy a solution for the prerequisite “interactive,” and hence the show's more interesting work took other forms.
Abstract Hexaflexagon: To and Fro, In and Out, was a combined effort between Susan Finsen and Jane Bortnick Griffin, in which one painted the object and the other created the form. It is a hexagon that the viewer can manipulate in order to create different ways of viewing the abstract surface. In this way, the viewer becomes the third contributer to the project.
Catherine Blackwell Pena had two works in the show: Viewers of Views and Visual Green. Both critique the ways in which experiences are constructed for people, by creating ways for viewer to experience her work. In Viewers of Views the patron is invited to stand on a cement platform to view a photograph of someone standing on a cement platform to view a landscape. The work invokes ideas of the construction of tourism, and the notion of “must see” sites and of certain ways of viewing them. This idea carries back into the gallery, in that the work is chosen for a show, tacked on the wall, and expected to be viewed a certain way. Visual Green is a photograph of a couple having a picnic on a grassy median in a city locale, and then extends into the gallery with a patch of grass surrounded by a street curb. The misuse of a designated space again address institution, but in a more successful way than her first work. In Viewers of Views the act of going along with the plan is so natural that the intent can be lost on some, but the breaking of rules in Visual Green makes the content more apparent.
One of the most interesting works in the show, was unfortunately hidden downstairs. For the Birds, by Jessica Witte invites viewers to take her work outside the gallery FOR FREE!The work consists of two different types of birdseed arranged in a type of doily arrangement, as a record of the artists labor, and then invites viewers to rearrange it and create their own images and/or take the birdseeds outside the gallery and feed birds. The concept of interactivity in this piece is great, but the preciousness of her designs makes participating feel more like destroying.
On top of Interactive, The Woman Made Gallery is also hosting a solo show for Kong Xin Shi, a Buddhist nun. Her work addresses one of the three Buddhist Three Marks of Reality: change. The show features a setup of beautifully arranged stones at the center, which is surrounded by works of forms evolving. Her work Who I Am is a morphing of a nose into a kite form sprouting hands, and then to a body, and this morphing is continued in all the other forms. The highlight of the exhibit was a sculpture titled Here I Am, that consisted of an old sink dripping water that morphed into a human like form, that was then dripping snot that was flowing down the drain. The mood of the exhibit was very serene and joyous, and it was a pleasure just to sit and enjoy.

Taxonomies @ Thomas Robertello

Taxonomies at Thomas Robertello Gallery featured the work of Sarah Hicks and Peter Barrett. The two artists' work did not complement each other well, which was a shame because each body of work could look better if placed with something else. The title Taxonomies also has to be called into question; it applies readily to Hicks's work, but takes a bit of a stretch for Barrett's. Basically, the fault with the show lies in curation, not in the art itself.
Sarah Hicks ceramic work is both elegant and playful, and borders between decoration and toys. The work, which is divided between “spores” and “specimens” distorts the familiar and sheds new light on the everyday. Hicks takes ordinary objects, casts them in ceramic, and rearranges their parts. She uses a color palette that seems to draw from contemporary interior colors, but arranges them in an unexpected way. Some pieces are glazed so carefully they resemble the skin of an apple or grape, and are absolutely wonderful. The smooth surfaces of the work is contrasted with tiny dots carefully arranged so as to look like mechanical mold. Some of the pieces displayed by themselves on the wall are interesting, but Hicks's work has the most impact when several of the pieces are arranged together, like they were on a mirror at the center of the gallery.
Peter Barrett's work can easily be written off as op-art. Within the several hexagons around the gallery, he uses pattern and color to create illusions of form and movement on paper. What really supports his work is that it is all done by hand. The same outcome could be achieved quickly on the computer, but the fact that he made an arduous process of the work brings it to a new realm and questions what is an artist in the age of computers.

David Leonardis

Tucked away, just off Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park, sits the David Leonardis Gallery. The gallery is small on space, but takes advantage of every bit of wall space by hanging work from floor to ceiling. Upon first walking in, visual overload takes hold which is only furthered by trying to figure out which work is what from the gallery listing. After deciphering the gallery list, it becomes clear there is some method to the madness. The chaos helps support a lot of the work in the gallery, which mainly draws from popular culture icons. The visual bombardment mimics what we experience in everyday life. Amongst the hodgepodge, three artists stand out for very different reasons: Sue Zola, Chris Peldo, and Laura Collins.
Sue Zola's work is small in scale and executed using glitter. Her choice in material, colors and subject matter make the work seem childish, in the best way possible. Three of her works feature cupcakes at the center with 60's inspired patterns in the background. The background colors are either orange and gold or green and blue, and clash with the cupcakes. All her choices are nostalgic, naive, and indulgent to the point of sugary. This holds true with Lucky Charms and Kiss as well. Zola's work straddles the line between kitsch and too much, in a way that feels as much like idolatry as it does a social critique.
Chris Peldo, has the most work in the gallery. His works range from small scale screen prints of layered pop imagery to frames filled with everyday things. His smaller works are much stronger than his larger ones. The sheer amount of images piled into a small space, addresses the issue of pop culture much more readily. In his larger works, Peldo fills the frames with garbage and Heineken bottle caps. The frame fillers seem very contrived. In Garbage Head and Garbage Cross the 'garbage' doesn't feel candid, its clear Peldo combed through his trash and selected things to try and create an image for himself. The Heineken caps give the same sort of vibe, although hats off if he drank all those on his own. His work also has a reoccurring theme of heads with mapped out brains, but the labels change from head to head. For two heads placed next to each other its interesting to compare the differences, but when almost all of his larger scale work is this its redundant and becomes boring really quick.
Laura Collins work stands out, because its not pop or kitsch, but rather rooted in real life. Collins has a washy style of painting, that shows off her great brushwork. Her work includes two paintings Sunburn and Untitled, and a series titled Fight. All are reminders of the body and flesh, and their part in life and death. Sunburn is an image of a woman's torso that has been burned in a yellow bikini bottom, and set against a stark white background. Untitled is a black and white painting of two skeletons huddled together, and is executed in a very graphic style. Her series Fight features several vignettes of women fighting with one another in public places. The works become a type of competition to see which was the juiciest fight, while at the same time bringing up the issue of how women relate to one another. Collins's work strikes an equal balance between content and appearance.

Take Your Time @ MCA

I originally attended the Museum of Contemporary Art to review Elements of Photography, but instead fell in love with Olafur Eliasson's show Take Your Time. The show engaged all senses through its use of kaleidoscopes, light, wind, and other natural elements. Take Your Time is an art experience, rather than an act of viewing. Eliasson's work makes for a heightened sense of awareness of not only the apparatus, architecture, but also the viewer in relationship to all these things. The show was fun and exciting, and overall the best art experience I have had in a long time.

Through his use of scale and form, Eliasson creates a heightened sense of self in relationship to and experience of his artwork. This feeling is evoked in many of his pieces including One Way Colour Tunnel and the Mirror Door series, but it is most pronounced in Moss Wall (1994) and 360° Room for All Colours (2008). Moss Wall is self explanatory: an entire wall covered in real moss. The fresh, earthy smell it emits combined with its alluring texture makes smelling and touching the piece impossible to resist. The moss has already begun to turn from green to a whitish color, and as the show goes on it will continue to die. This combined with the large scale of the work, and the smallness of the viewer in comparison, are a reminder of the fragility of life, and the insignificance of the individual. In 360° Room for All Colours, the viewer is surrounded by a round wall with an ever changing color arrangement. The viewer is forced to rotate to view all the changes occurring. The change in color, and direction of rotation alter the perception of color. This gives the viewer some choice, in an otherwise powerless situation. In both works, Eliasson uses architecture and scale to manipulate the way in which the viewer perceives themselves in relationship to the work.

Take Your Time also features works in which Eliasson recreates natural phenomena. In Beauty (1997), the viewer is first struck by the smell of fresh water as they wander down a dark hallway. As they turn the corner, they encounter a pitch black room with a light at the center, highlighting a mist of water. Ventilator (1997) consists of a fan hung from the ceiling that oscillates above the viewers head. In both pieces, Eliasson makes the apparatus clear. The availability of the construction, in conjunction with the inability for a person to recreate the actual experience of mist and wind points to the limitation of human beings in comparison to nature.

The work of Olafur Eliasson tests the traditional relationship to work in a museum, in which you look and do not touch. The work tempts you to physically interact, and by simply walking through the exhibit the viewer becomes a part of the work itself. There is a heightened sense of surroundings, and an awareness of oneself, nature, and architecture that sometimes goes unnoticed in other work. Take Your Time was magical, and I highly recommend you experience it for yourself. It will be on show at the Museum of Contemporary Art until September 13^th.