I stumbled across the work of Brian Guidry not so long ago. It was a quite pleasant experience as I am a fan of gorgeous geometric abstractions, shapely surfaces, elegant finishes, and lovely colors. See more after the jump.
April 7th, 2011
Samantha Bittman makes good-looking opstractions. They are painted on handwoven textiles, which adds a nice ripply surface to go with the hand painted lines. If you focus and un-focus your eyes they get even better.
March 31st, 2011
Chris Kerr uses the fantasy aesthetic of wizards, unicorns, beer cans, and psychedelic swirls; but in his best work Kerr adds a disorienting dose of reality. In the process creating what philosophers might describe as a parallax view. Kant referred to this sort of arrangement of irreconcilable ideas as antimony, the purpose of which is to create a “decisive experiment, which must necessarily expose any error lying hidden in the assumption of reason.” In Kerr’s work, where we see both the hip iconography and reality, something starts to skew inside our heads. It’s a message written in two languages which you already know how to read, but it takes a long time to read them together.
November 17th, 2010
Ted Gahl is making some beautifully paired down paintings. They are amazingly suggestive for the minuscule amount of information they present. The painting above feels, to me, like portraits in profile, but is it really? I’ve never seen a face like these pink hieroglyphs. It’s interesting what a painting can make you think you see, and with just a few clues. Gahl is in a bunch of upcoming shows: The Power Of Selection 3, curated by Ryan Travis Christian at Western Exhibitions, in Chicago; 2020 at the Above Second Gallery, in Hong Kong; and Color Me Bad(d): Joshua Abelow, Ted Gahl, and Hugh Scott Douglas at Nudashank in Baltimore.
September 28th, 2010
Slept on artist- extraordinaire and all around good guy, Ben Stone, just broke out his 3rd solo show here in Chicago @ Western Exhibitions. Full of ambition and humor, these new sculptures are NOT meant to be missed. More after the jump…
July 9th, 2010
I apologize for shameful self-promotion, but I really couldn’t help myself. Here are some shots from The Power of Selection Part 2, the second installment in my 3 part conquest to bring work to Chicago that otherwise doesn’t get shown here. Check it out!
July 8th, 2010
Daniel Albrigo is a young New York based tattoo/visual artist. Mr. Albrigo has some serious talent in all facets of his art making, just check out these Genesis Breyer P-Orridge inspired paintings…
May 5th, 2010
Rachel Niffenegger
John Parot, who was featured in our B/D Book 3, and Rachel Niffenegger currently have exhibitions up at Chicago gallery Western Exhibitions./(which, coincidentally enough, also stocks B/D Book 3!) John Parot, with his exhibition “Hobbies,” continues his poetic musings on gay urban living, and focuses in on internet dating to reflect how identity, meaning and love are constructed under the auspices of Web 2.0′s arrow. A multi-hued pie chart displays Facebook-esque likes and dislikes: “hot fudge sundae,” “enough with the man-scarves,” and “no beige!”
Rachel Niffenegger, in Gallery 2, creates sculptures and ephemeral-washed paintings dealing with the grotesque nature of the human body, executed with a hauntingly beautiful hand. Drawing its title from an ancient epitaph, “As you pass by and cast an eye as you are now so once was I,” the exhibition seems to conjure the ghostly spirits from beyond the gravestone she references.
