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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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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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Alienated Production
by Erik Wenzel
Liam Gillick at Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA)
October 10th - January 10th, 2010
Posted
10/19/09
"Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario" is the midcareer survey of New York and London-based artist Liam Gillick. The show takes on the idea of what a mid-career survey is, as its subject. In dealing with institutions Gillick has a propensity for problematizing the relationship between artist and venue. For each stop of the exhibition, he “gifted” half of the space back to the venue. This forced the interactions between artist and curator out into the open. Gillick contributed four ele... [more]
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Coffee and Conversation about Iraq
by Marla Seidell
Jeremy Deller at Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA)
October 10th - January 10th, 2010
Posted
10/19/09
"This is America's war," artist Jeremy Deller tells me at the press preview of his show, It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq. Leave it to a Brit to sum things up succinctly and without apology. America got us into the mess that is Iraq, so it's only appropriate that Deller's socially conscious and political, yet unpartisan, exhibition has found it's way to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (on view through November 15, 2009). The most compelling aspect of the show... [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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Hey Julian
by Erik Wenzel
Tilman Hoepfl, Carl Suddath at The Suburban
September 20th - October 25th
Posted
10/5/09
It was almost exactly a year ago that Julian Dashper presented “The,” a curatorial project shown at The Suburban. Dashper also delivered one of the most memorable artist talks I’ve had the pleasure to attend, at the University of Chicago. At that time, and until recently, I was unaware that Dashper had long been suffering from a disease that he finally succumbed to in July, 2009. So it was surprising to receive the news that Dashper had passed away via the statement that Tilman... [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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