Can of Culture: September 9, 2005 And So It Begins Falling into a New Season of Art
Tomorrow night marks the start of Chicago’s fall art season. After the sleepy summer season, galleries across the city have been gearing up for this big night. In the River North, West Loop, and Pilsen art districts, serious art collectors will co-mingle with curious art students, all with wine cups in hand and eyes baited to look. With nearly 100 galleries all hosting openings, you can’t beat tomorrow night’s bang for the buck. Well, take that as a metaphor, because art gallery openings are free. Here are a handful of suggestions for shows not to be missed. Enjoy!
“Compassionate Beauty” Catherine Edelman Gallery 300 W. Superior (312) 266-2350 Edelmangallery.com hours: 10 a.m. – 5: 30 p.m. Tuesday – Saturday through October 29; opening reception Sept. 9; 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Perhaps it is fitting to show Joel Peter Witkin’s photography in time with the fall season, when the elements and our moods become a bit more dramatic. Though this photographer’s infamously Gothic aesthetic has lightened in recent years: images of disfigured people and “grotesques” have given way to costumed characters, broken Greek statues, and collaged scenes of sculptures and ready-made objects. Also showing at the Edelman Gallery is a group show, featuring many of the gallery’s mainstays, devoted to considering the fragile divide between human kind and the animal kind. Looking for a show that is both beautiful and wild? Check out these twin exhibits.
“The Cartoonist’s Eye” A+D Gallery (Columbia College) 619 S. Wabash Ave. (312) 344-6156 Hours: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tuesday – Saturday Through October 22 Opening September 8; 5-8 p.m.
If you find yourself hanging out for hours in Quimby’s Bookstore, flipping through New Yorker magazine just to see the cartoons, or if you just love comics, this show is a must for you. Opening tonight in the new, much larger location for Columbia College’s A+D Gallery, “The Cartoonists Eye” features 250 pieces of cartooning by the most impressive names in the medium: R. Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Daniel Clowes, Art Spiegelman, Joe Sacco, and Chris Ware, to name six out of a list of artists too long to count. The exhibit is a preview of Ivan Brunetti’s upcoming Anthology of Graphic Fiction (Yale University Press) due out later this month. As part of tonight’s opening, cartoon artist Seth will present his slideshow, “Brief Stories about Cartooning” at 6:30 p.m., and famous Chicago cartoonist Chris Ware will be present.
“Gladys Nilsson” Jean Albano Gallery 215 W. Superior (312) 440-0770 Jeanablanogallery.com Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday; 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tuesday – Friday; 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday Through: October 18; opening September 9; 5 – 8 p.m.
It was the infamous “Hairy Who,” also known as the “Chicago Imagists,” the group of School of the Art Institute painting students who banded together in the late ‘60s to rebel against the notion that New York was the center of the art world both in terms of their wild, satirical, and irreverent subject matter and techniques. At the heart of this movement was Gladys Nilsson, who continues as a presence at the School of the Art Institute community, now as a professor. She continues to paint wild, humorous, loud, and satirical paintings in watercolor, which is no easy technical feat. Rarely do paintings make you laugh, be assured that Nilsson’s will as they capture the trials and tribulations in the daily life of average people. This exhibit features her latest works.
“Surrealist Hybrids” Gruen Galleries 226 W. Superior (312) 337-6262 Gruengalleries.com Hours: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday – Saturday. Through: September 28; opening Sept. 9; 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Should Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon find herself in a painting she would undoubtedly inhabit the kind of mythical environment created by Karena Karras. Working in the traditional Flemish style of oil painting, building up layer upon layer and including meticulous detail, Karras’s techniques and imagination are otherworldly. The long-necked women who are at the heart of the stories that Karras’ paintings tell are accompanied by metaphorical symbols and creatures, blending fantasy, fiction, and human nature into a curious swirl. Anna Pales paintings are also on view at Gruen Galleries this month in her solo exhibit “Landscapes.
“Borderlines” Roy Boyd Gallery 739 N. Wells (312) 642-1606 Royboydgallery.com Hours: 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Tuesday - Saturday Through: October 18; opening September 9; 5 – 8 p.m.
Few artists devote themselves to fabric, so it is a rare and beautiful occasion to see so much revealed through a material often used for concealing and covering. Using the kinds of materials often associated with shelter and domesticity, meaning felt, wool, and thread artist Joan Livinston has worked magic. These fabric sculptures, though soft and malleable, have strong affects.
