Reviews Roni Packer “P.S. My Favorite Color is Green” at Slow Jill Danto April 24, 2019 SlowRoni Packer Packer’s paintings thus far have been defined by yellow. Not just any yellow, but a yellow which feels like it could eat you up and spit you out as another yellow thing.
Reviews AJ McClenon, “Led Zeppelin Can’t Steal My Daddy’s Black” performed at Links Hall Holly Lee Warren April 21, 2019 Links HallAJ McClenonJamillah HinsonSimone SimoneXris Espinoza There is no southern mystique.
Reviews “All Well and Good” at Circle Contemporary Cody Tumblin April 17, 2019 Circle ContemporaryAd MinolitiAndrew MasulloAnna KunzDave KruegerHubert PoseyLindsey WhittleMaria VanikRobert Chase HeishmanSusan Pasowicz These strange images fill the space entirely and evenly across all surfaces in the same disorienting way that a disco ball’s dancing light causes the whole room to spin. AWARE’s fragmented projection suggests a constellation of suspended memory, ultimately disrupting the gallery’s own physical structure.
Reviews kg “Some Kind of Duty” at the DePaul Art Museum Emma Dwyer April 14, 2019 DePaul Art MuseumKarolina Gnatowski The artist had to live their whole life in order to acquire these objects and the emotions that went into making them. More apt labeling might be “1980-2018.”
Reviews “Stateless” at Baby Blue Gallery Annette LePique April 7, 2019 Baby Blue GalleryKevin DemeryRaelis Vasquez However, the inclusion of a dissected, broken swing-set provides a devastating intimacy to the piece; it both expands and signifies what is lost to the oppressive framework of black childhood and state-sanctioned violence.
Reviews “Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection” and “Smart to the Core: Embodying the Self” at the Smart Museum of Art Ciera Mckissick March 16, 2019 Smart Museum of ArtAmanda WilliamsAna MendietaBethany CollinsCarrie Mae WeemGeng JianyiGillian WearingGlenn LigonHank Willis ThomasKevin BeasleyLeonardo DrewLynette Yiadom-BoakyeMelvin EdwardsNorman LewisSam GilliamSamuel Levi JonesShinique SmithTavares Strachan Williams, continuing her art-meets-architecture exploration of Chicago’s geographic racial and resource inequalities, references the practice of ‘redlining’ by filling in cracks in the tile floor with red enamel paint throughout the museum’s foyer.
Reviews “object/item/material/me” at Annas Annette LePique February 17, 2019 Fontaine CapelJanelle MillerJennifer SovaJulie ArredondoKimberly EnglishMegan ClinePolina ProtenskoRiver Ian Kerstetter Unlike texts and art practices within object-oriented ontology that erase difference, object’s recognition of race, class, and gender allows for the show to develop strands of commonality and community.
Reviews Jenn Smith “Divine Ventriloquism” at Apparatus Projects Cody Tumblin February 13, 2019 Apparatus ProjectsJenn Smith Lined with rows of corn on either edge of the painting, a half-finished white snowman shape sits on top of a Pepto Bismol pink background, a tiny red top hat perched on its head.
