Reviews Liz Magor “Blowout” at The Renaissance Society Annette LePique June 12, 2019 The Renaissance SocietyLiz Magor It is this pinprick of tension that draws out an audience’s emotional response. Magor’s alteration of items like thrift store shoes, blankets, fabric, and stuffed animals, edge their material disposability and anonymity into a state of alterity.
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 “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 Jesse Meredith and Mia + Máire, “Reckless Comfort” at Extase Willy Smart January 6, 2019 ExtaseJesse MeredithMia+Máire ‘The recklessness of the perpetual now is no longer supported on this device.’ Damn. If only we hadn’t updated to the new operating system.
Reviews “S-W-O-O-$-H” at the Chicago Artists Coalition Ciera Mckissick December 30, 2018 Chicago Artists CoalitionMatthew WeadÓscar González-Díaz The most striking work is the vinyl lettering on the wall reading “America is canceled, Mexico esta cancelado, and L’Canada est anulee,” while there is some poked humor behind it, underlying those words are dire issues.
Reviews Gaylen Gerber “Supports” at The Arts Club of Chicago Alex Chitty November 11, 2018 The Arts Club of ChicagoGaylen Gerber Lipstick, eyeliner, foundation, and blush are cosmetics used to emphasize but also to hide.
Reviews “not to scale” at Heaven Gallery Gareth Kaye October 14, 2018 Heaven GalleryMatt BrettShir Ende The user of these strange shapes and shelters becomes aware of a multiplicity of potential functions and experiences contained within the structure that goes far beyond the depths of the image/thing’s surface. In this sense, the mutual interdependence of both architecture/object and the human body/object establish an actual intimacy by not privileging ease of use, but rather the action of use.
Reviews Stella Brown “South Works Deep Geological Study” Elizabeth Lalley September 26, 2018 Chicago Park DistrictStella Brown The most striking remnants of the area’s industrial activity are the enormous ore walls that still exist within the park, running perpendicular to the lake and looming like ancient geologic monuments. Between the walls are deep green corridors, dense ecosystems of trees, plants, and boulders, birds diving in and out of sight.
Reviews Claire Pentecost “The Persistence of the Unsorted” at Garfield Park Conservatory Bert Geyer August 1, 2018 Garfield Park ConservatoryClaire Pentecost Something is awry though. The bison-person with its lateral bovine eyes simultaneously looks at us monocularly, off starboard, and binocularly ahead to the palm canopy. It seems vigilant and stoic.
Reviews Santina Amato “Monster” at Heaven Gallery Janet Cheung July 7, 2018 Heaven GallerySantina Amato When the dough was ready, she broke it into balls and stuffed one after another into the small vessels––as if injecting a fertilized egg into a womb. This anomalous conception beckoned chaos.
Reviews “& Eat it Too!” at the Condo Association MK Meador July 5, 2018 The Condo AssociationCake Butt CollectiveEdward CabralErik PetersonJillian Hansen-LewisJoshua Michael JenkinsLauren CarterMatthew HilshorstProtest CakesYvette Mayorga Cake may be sweet, but it isn’t all that simple.
Reviews Emily Jones “Sand Dollar Sea Biscuit” at Prairie Micah Schippa April 11, 2018 PrairieEmily Jones At any given moment, at any given scale, Jones’ work skateboards back and forth (or perhaps tendrils out like a cephalopod) between organism, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere, almanac, or even dramaturgy.
Reviews S. Nicole Lane “Carved from Sausage” at Sustain Annette LePique March 14, 2018 SustainS. Nicole Lane All of Lane’s pieces are formed through their practice with latex. Globular, dripping, and draping, the pieces function both as referents to the human form and sculptural abstractions. Lane shapes this playful indeterminacy to highlight the fragility and grotesqueness of existing with/in a body; wherein people both shape themselves and are shaped by outside forces.
ReviewsEssays Decentering Biennial Culture: Haiti’s 5th Annual Ghetto Biennale Sabrina Greig February 12, 2018 Alexandra AntoineAtiz RezistansCameron McKeeLeonce LoveLionel St. EloiTi Moun RezistansWhit Forrester The labyrinth of architecture comprising the neighborhood contained intimate alcoves of acrylic paintings on display salon style and sculptures made of natural materials like metal and wood. Many of these sculptures were meant to personify lwas, “spirits,” in the form of repurposed electronic devices and found objects from the surrounding industrial areas.
Reviews Kay Hofmann “Forever Young” at 4th Ward Project Space Kelly Kaczynski November 27, 2017 4th Ward Project SpaceKay Hofmann In doing so, the artist is sensitive to the natural physical properties of the stones’ veins, textures, and densities. This affects not only the way Hofmann’s stones are shaped toward depiction, using the veins or sediments to persuade the image, but also some sense of shadowing a stone’s life as a particular rock encountered in the field.
Interviews Bawdy’s House: An Interview with Cameron Clayborn Miles Jackson June 28, 2017 BoyfriendsCameron Clayborn I like tracing back, or finding out how these identity politics run up against sexuality. You can almost never ignore that shit, cause you’re attracted to who you’re attracted to. It makes you wonder how these histories reveal themselves in aesthetics alone.
Reviews Ruby T “TENSES” at The Back Room at Kim’s Corner Food Annette LePique June 21, 2017 The Back Room at Kim's Corner FoodRuby T The word “tenses” descends the page while growing in surety and size, font lines straightening and intensifying the juxtaposition of the term as a reference to modes, periods of existence and grammatical wordplay.
Interviews Interior Monuments: An Interview with Susan Giles Dan Gunn May 30, 2017 Susan Giles The walls are wonky, the staircase is very steep, there are no handrails. Her gesture is huge and enveloping, and I think that gesture conveys that sense of [Susan gesturing widely] her body in that space. That sense of being overwhelmed. She goes around and around and around.