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Bucking Tradition
by Robyn Farrell Roulo
Group Show at Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA)
November 14th - February 14th, 2010
Posted
11/21/09
“Italics: Italian Art Between Tradition and Revolution 1968-2008” sheds light on nearly a half century of contemporary art not otherwise seen outside of Italy. The brainchild of international curator, writer and critic, Francesco Bonami, and co-presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the exhibition gives new insight to the conventional definition of “Italian Art”. Presenting work by more than 100 works from nerly 80 artists, “... [more]
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Artists in Analog
by Dan Gunn
Alex Olson, Lisa Williamson at Shane Campbell Gallery
November 14th - January 9th, 2010
Posted
11/16/09
In Alex Olson’s and Lisa Williamson’s first show at Shane Campbell Gallery they find in each other an interesting analog. Alex Olson’s paintings reference different forms of written text like announcements, editorials, or shorthand writing. Their pictorial flatness emphasizes their texture over an optic space and nods to the paintings’ source material. However, these references appear to be really just a way to organize shapes on a two-dimensional surface, to give it a reason to... [more]
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Illuminating a Recession
by Dan Gunn
Jan Tichy at Richard Gray Gallery
October 9th - January 9th, 2010
Posted
11/16/09
It’s rare that an economic downturn has an 'upside' but without the downturn Jan Tichy’s show “Installations” for Richard Gray Gallery would not have been possible. Mr. Tichy’s video installations are literally embedded in the vacant offices and abandoned conference rooms of an entire floor in the Hancock Building. Stepping off of an elevator into an empty and dimly lit level of corporate offices is already an evocative enough experience on its own and is heightened by what... [more]
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HALFEMPTY
by Erik Wenzel
Kay Rosen at Gallery 400
August 25th - November 21st
Posted
11/9/09
I have grown to love Rosen’s unique deadpan combination of careful text manipulation and minimal aesthetics over the years, but this group of work tends towards disappointment. This exhibition at Gallery 400 collects a video, a display case of works on paper with more works on paper on the walls. It has changed over the course of its run since opening alongside Michael Ruglio-Misurell’s “Project #12” in August.
An interesting moment occurred in the exhibition as Ruglio-Misurell’s... [more]
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Imagining Poland
by Dan Gunn
Allan Sekula at Renaissance Society
September 20th - December 13th
Posted
10/26/09
For his show at the Renaissance Society, Allan Sekula placed little 8 1/2” x 11” printed paper texts around the exterior walls. These texts and his manuscript “Polonia and Other Fables” show Mr. Sekula’s attachment to the written word, which forms a context for his photography. The show, also titled “Polonia and other Fables,” reflects Sekula’s interest in capitalist economic systems and the structuring of societies that emerge from those systems. There are endea... [more]
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Reassessing MiddleCoast Art
by Dan Gunn
Design 99, Cody Critcheloe, Jeremiah Day, and Whoop Dee Doo, the Midwest Radical Cultural Corridor's Compass Group, Scott Hocking, Kerry James Marshall, Greely Myatt, Marjetica Potrč, Julika Rudelius, Artur Silva, Deb Sokolow, Carnal Torpor, Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop at Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago
October 1st - January 17th, 2010
Posted
10/26/09
If “Heartland” at the Smart Museum were only another tired attempt to define “Midwestern-ness,” it would have failed before it began. Exhibitions that fall into this trap of showing “Midwestern-ness,” inevitably end up in condescending generalizations, or in forced comparisons, made to prove that “Midwesterners have culture too” which is equally condescending. Fortunately, “Heartland” is not such an exhibition. “Heartland,” is an exhibition that, for once, take... [more]
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Disappearing Act
by Erik Wenzel
Selina Trepp at Andrew Rafacz Gallery
September 11th - October 24th
Posted
10/5/09
Upon entering the dimly lit gallery, one encounters a tasteful pile of smooth rocks under a spotlight. How poetic, in a bad way. But looking up, we see the fire retardant black foil, focusing the flood light into a spot. That is a good relationship, having a very tasteful, Crate and Barrel-like arrangement of attractive stones offset by crude but useful black foil. Many moments in this installation by Selina Trepp allow the utility of makeshift solutions to deflate an otherwise polished... [more]
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Bright Branches
by Dan Gunn
Jessica Labatte at Scott Projects
September 12th - September 25th
Posted
9/21/09
Jessica Labatte’s photography in “Bright Branches” at Scott Projects presents a humorous approach to twisted and transcendental still lifes. (Untitled) Space Weeds is a digital print of a still life with requisite vase and flowers on a table plus pink balloons and a ripped out magazine image of a supernova. The vase and flowers cast a blue hue on the wall and the balloons languid pink echoes in the burst of the supernova. Nearby is a related shot called Poster an image of... [more]
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Another American Story
by Dan Gunn
Posted
9/21/09
JOHN MICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER
608 New York AvenueSheboygan, WI 53081P: 920.458.6144F: 920.458.4473
Wisconsin is Chicago’s other. I live near Palmer Square Park in Logan Square. So I thought I lived in a verdant environment, until I visited Wisconsin this last weekend. Now I knew beforehand that the coast of Wisconsin held rolling green hills, grassy meadows and luminous views of Lake Michigan. But I hadn’t counted on the lushness of the Cheese Curd State (I don’t know if that’s... [more]
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A Brief Art History of Wine
by Marla Seidell
Group Exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago
July 11th - September 20th
Posted
9/14/09
On view until September 20, the Art Institute's impressive and wide-ranging exhibition, "A Case for Wine: From King Tut to Today," is interesting not only for its plethora of drinking artifacts but for what it says about the history of human interaction with alcohol. What is clear is the dissolute nature of man and woman in regards to drink over the ages. From an ancient Greek terracotta bowl decorated with men reveling in Bacchic frivolity to an English silvered brass wine ci... [more]
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