"peterson principles - the writing and wisdom of keith peterson"…

jeffery mcnary

Keith Peterson is clearly attracted to books, to the work and business of letters. He is rarely averted from the genre with the exception of his occasional photography, which opens other boulevards, his wife Gail, and his bookstore cat, Hodge. He doesn’t devote much time to purple or yellow pages. His work is way too busy bursting out,…and offering suggestions.

Peterson’s first novel, “The Body in the Bookstore Sink”, a mystery, was driven by memories of a close friend, Steve, and stories about him. Father Stephan, the character based on the friend, is a Russian Orthodox priest. Here we find Seth Pearson, a laid back , used book dealer in Chicago were minding when Seth finds a dead body in the bookstore when closing up. There’s a movie star with a history, killers, and an Ed Wood appreciation society. He even tosses in a drug dealing gang rolling on Chicago’s West Side. Among other things, this unlikely crew’s coming together would help in funding the repair for the roof of Father Stephan’s church. There’s no mythic connection between his characters. They live in real time…in existing situations. Nothing dispiriting about that.

There’s a complexity to the writer, book store owner, author, poet, burlesqued minimalist, as his writing moves comfortably from one genre to another. “With fiction”, says Peterson, “one story at a time is the most I can manage, if that. A poem will occur sometimes now and then, but I can't explain how or why.”

Recently, the writer, proprietor did a read of his work in progress, “Lucky Buck” at SHoP (Southside Hub of Production),“ a community centered project that encouraged local culture making, etc in “Lucky Buck",
Peterson kick in with the 2003, Steve Bartman sticking out his hand for a foul, and devastating the Cubs run for the World Series. The baseball involved becomes  famous. Unknown to all but an old beer vendor called A-Train, the real ball was captured by Randy Buckly, an old friend of, yep, Father Stephan. A decoy he set loose was the one which was auctioned off for a huge sum. Now, a few years later, Randy is dead, a  thief is plaguing Seth’s bookstore, the 10 year old west side kid named Toy, living secretly in Randy’s apartment is on the run with the actual ball. Or is it the reall? Oh, and Pierre Tessouat Mather, an occultist, a retired mob bookmaker and Cubs collector are all vectoring in on that baseball.  Father Stephan wants justice,Hamid  wants  vengeance.

Peterson’s intimate rapport with the characters, and the static and frenetic coexist, in his work disparities of American culture entertainingly collide with a very subtle and yet sharp wit. They are simple deals, despite points of soaring eclecticism. ”In the Father Stephan/Seth novels, many of the characters are based, to greater or lesser extent, on real people. With some, I may take simply a physical appearance and fill in the blank with what I need. With many others - Father Stephan, Seth, Stan Wilson, Allison, Angel, Charlie Ruggles - these are the fictional versions of people I know”, Peterson shares.  “The only way I can spend time with friends of mine who have passed away is to write them into my books. So, I suppose I'm writing a kind of 'roman a clef'. The trick to keeping them in their lanes is to be able to hear their voices, because the way a person talks is so rooted in their personality.” He continues, “The big danger, always, is to have a character begin to talk like me. With the characters I completely make up, that can be a danger, and I do try to imagine more of their lives than I put in the book - it's the aspect of writing fiction about which I feel most insecure.”

I have to admit I've never considered the question - I think the authors you mention are more serious of purpose than I have been, at least with my bookstore novels. My characters, while often based on real people, would probably strike many as less 'realistic' than those in Algren's romantic naturalism, or Bellow, whom I won't attempt to categorize. I suppose my stuff is simply rooted in my own personal geography - my friends, what I've done for a living in bookselling and the characters I've met that way, my imagination, such as it is. A few characters are not very realistic at all, like PierreTessouat Mather and his weird little acolyte Edwardo.”

Peterson generally writes at the bookstore, (Chicago’s Selected Works) when given the time. “But there's no particular time, other than whenever I get a notion about what's going to happen next, or think of a line of dialogue that is perfect for the beginning of a chapter. Right now, at the stage I'm at with “Lucky Buck”, a strange tangle of plot lines need somehow to be resolved, so I spend my time thinking more about that - the what's going to happen in part.

“Besides Randy and Steve, there were only a couple other ball shaggers outside the ball park, it not having evolved into the trendy and competitive activity that it would twenty or thirty years later”, Peterson writes. “There was Eddie something or other - Old Time Eddie they called him. He must have been retired because every time Randy and Steve were out there, Eddie was there too, sitting on his metal milk crate, listening to the game on one of those transistor radios that were becoming more common lately as the prices dropped. And then there was another big kid leaning against a tree across the street. The big door to the firehouse was open too, but those guys sitting on chairs there didn’t count. They never got up to chase a ball”, it continues.
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When asked if and how his work fits into the vernacular of the so-called “Chicago Writers” school, Peterson responds, “I have to admit I've never considered the question - I think the authors you mention are more serious of purpose than I have been, at least with my bookstore novels”. Continuing, “My characters, while often based on real people, would probably strike many as less 'realistic' than those in Algren's romantic naturalism, or Bellow, whom I won't attempt to categorize. I suppose my stuff is simply rooted in my own personal geography - my friends, what I've done for a living in bookselling and the characters I've met that way, my imagination, such as it is. A few characters are not very realistic at all, like PierreTessouat Mather and his weird little acolyte Edwardo”, the story continues, “They had a radio on in the firehouse that you could hear. It was a 1:20 start, one of those famous Wrigley day games, and the stands were partially filled, like usual, though they couldn’t see much from where they were. That old ticket taker who’d been there for a million years at Gate N, the entrance to the bleachers, he usually wandered off by the sixth inning, and that was when they would sneak into the park. Then they could sit where they wanted - nobody really cared.”

It’s difficult to resist going futher without sharing,“ ‘Banks is up’ commented Old Time Eddie from his milk crate. Steve stopped talking and gazed over the outfield wall. The old red brick wall, the dark green of the scoreboard off to the left in the middle of the bleachers, and the blue afternoon sky way up above with one lone cloud, struck him as suddenly beautiful, or even deeper than beautiful, somehow. Inside the park, the fans started cheering, the kind of roar that meant something good was happening for the Cubs. Suddenly there was a flash of white and a thunk up above them, then a rattle and a soft crack, like. A couple leaves and a twig fell from the tree out onto the street. Old Time Eddie was up, and the kid across the street started running over to Randy’s tree. After another couple soft thuds from above, the Ernie Banks home run ball fell down directly into Randy’s mitt, cradled there in his arms as he leaned there against the tree. A couple more little twigs fell down too and one glanced off his head. The older kid skidded to a stop with an amazed and then disgusted look.,’Whooo!’ yelled Steve, jumping around like a maniac. ‘Nice catch, kid,’ said Old Time, with a mixture of sarcasm and awe.”

The author doesn’t introduce abstraction while driving home his encounters. “Randy stared unbelieving at the ball now in his mitt,un-crossed his arms and took it in his throwing hand. He put the mitt on his left, his catching hand. Now he was ready to catch something. His face reflected excitement, confusion, and deep pleasure”, the story continues, “You weren’t even looking and it fell right into your mitt, you lucky dog,” said Steve, calming down a little. “Lucky Randy Buckley. Lucky Buckley. No - Lucky Buck. That’s it. Lucky Buck.” Old Time laughed. “Lucky Buck. Yeah, kid, that’s you all right.”

Following all of those post-modern works attempting to release rein to their fancies, Peterson’s work pulls together some extrodinary approaches, hardly blandly dressed.

Peterson’s soon to be released chap-book of poetry, “At the Point and Other Poems”, offers overlapping, dancing verse which allows a recurring image of the peaceful hovering over a city currently at war with itself. The works are immediately striking. In his, “Imagine the River”, the writer enjoys:

“In the violet darkness,
fireflies on the ditchweed.
Tree crickets scraping music
on blossoming waterpepper.
At the water's edge,
dusk is lush with sweetness.
Farther out, perhaps,
boats are drifting,
trimmed with lights and bells”

Where does the author go next? “What's up next? ”he smiles, “The one somewhat shocking thing I learned when I finished the first draft of “The Body in the Bookstore Sink”, was that I wasn't done at all. Oh no. What was up next was re-write, after my reader/editors went through it and marked it up, pointing out weak passages, self-indulgence, awkwardness, and the like.” Continuing,  “It was a little deflating, but they were right and it took many months of trying to fix all that before it was more or less finished - a book is never finished, is it? So - if I finally finish this first draft, and re-write it so that it is deemed worthy - what then? I really don't know - maybe a more serious novel, but I shouldn't even say. It's like trying to say what meal I'm going to have two years from now.”

I expect we’ll be following Peterson and his character for some time. We need ‘em. They tend to tell us who we are, or at least who those around us are. Some suck, some nourish and enrich. Some rattle and discredit myths of racial or national superiority. Yet when bundelled, as Peterson does, they demonstrate our common humanity in a politic of cultural property the author puts forth.

Billy Tokyo: The Shape of Things to Come/John Dempsey: Urban Nature

 - his amazing light and technicolor flight based on a theme of mysterious and memorable allusions
Currently at the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 Cottage Hill Avenue
Elmhurst, Illinois 60126 thru August 25, 2012
jeffery mcnary
There’s a smart, sophisticated flavour to the sparkling Elmhurst Art Museum, a van der Rohe designed cultural center a short jaunt from the tag team wrestling arangements prevalent in nearby Chicago. And with the current exhibition of John Dempsey (aka Billy Tokyo), the vector of that sophistication has risen even more so. Full of delightful surprises, the show holds no freaky accidents. It steers far from deconsecrating the place.

“The Shape of Things to Come” explodes with color and laughter, inventing its very own reason for being. In case you didn’t know, Billy Tokyo is the alter ego and alias created by Dempsey in 2008. He’d been commissioned to produce illustrations at that time for Chicago’s Cubs baseball team. It’s said many of the pieces on that side of the boulevard are influenced by a form of Japanese Pop Art, with the painter embracing the landscape around him for inspiration.
“I was introduced to Billy’s work through a review by Jeriah Hildwine who was talking about the aftermath of the Art Loop Open show”, shared Aaron Ott, Curator of the Museun. “John’s painting “The Great American Landscape” won the top prize in that show. Hildwine spoke about his feelings about the painting and mentioned in his review the dual personalities of the artist (as Dempsey and Tokyo) and I decided that it was something I should investigate.”
It’s Dempsey’s first museum show, and he handles the tricky terrain with grace and panache, minus the works grasping the reins of the adventure too tightly. Oils of varying sizes dominate the outing. “I've experimented with almost every media imaginable, but I've always come back to oil paint”, he says. “ I want to create the perfect lines in my art, and oil flows off my brush with the consistency and color density I can control. Almost all my paintings are oil on canvas or linen.” He continues, “ Even though my artwork is composed of graffiti-like gestures I don't use any of the media used by the typical outdoor graffiti artist. I'm not a graffiti artist anyway so I guess this makes sense. I'm an oil painter using the visual language of graffiti writing to create my compositions.”
The exhibition is divided, Kantian-esque, with somewhat synthesized applications and structural clarity of Tokyo followed in an adjoining space by the flat yet deep pieces of Dempsey. It’s illuminating, recording scenes from the imagination…some in a more delicate vein…with greys and black exploding in un-predicted spasams of color. The exhibition begs the question how the artist can wrestle with the duality. “I have a large piece in my current show titled "Over the Underpass" that took me, off and on, about a year to complete because I kept changing it. I thought I was finished with it so many times, but when I would come in the studio the next day I would see that it was all wrong and white out whole sections. At one point it had a lot of color in it, which I eventually felt took the element of speed away from it,” adding “You just work on things until they feel right - until it looks like it's how it is suppose to be. There's no real way to define or explain it. But a piece can be overworked which can kill it. I guess that comes with experience - knowing when to say when.”

Dempsey, not at all trapped in a fluid set of influences there are those who have impacted his work. Albert Oehlen plays such a role. “I got a chance to talk to him last year about different ways to lay down lines. He can create lines that seem to change velocities - skillfully creating lines that look fast and slow and mixing bold with real subtle brushwork.” Another, he says is Shinque Smith. “She really introduced graffiti-like gestures into contemporary painting. I'm not talking characters or forms or writing like Basquiat and Keith Haring did, but the loops and swoops of the lines we see in graffiti writing and tagging. She's the only one, besides me, that I've seen that use this approach to create abstract art”. He continued, “She also takes street-found objects and places them in her compositions. She's not afraid to take chances. Her spirit really shows in her work - which looks feminine - which is great. I put one of her lines - a sort of line flair she makes - in my painting "Over the Underpass" to pay homage to her and her work.”

“We’ve been trying to lighten the mood at the Museum”, said Ott.” I mean, you know, sometimes art can get very serious, and there’s just an attitude to Tokyo’s work that makes me happy and makes me laugh. But that’s not to say it’s not serious either. His Las Meninas piece is out of control. That thing is really amazing and you kind of have to know a lot about art history and Foucault to really get all the nuances in that painting. And the nuances are hilarious. He winks at history and theory and painting and himself and childhood and wealth and privilege. It’s really a great work.”
When this writer sat down to describe the artist and his work i wrote ‘electrified’…then I began laughing aloud…it’s so more than that. You don’t peel the onion on this…you zen it…or it zens you…and you travel right through to the core and out the other side screaming, ‘hold it…hold it…damnit…talk to me’, and clearly the Curator experienced the similar. “I liked Tokyo’s style, in that I feel like it manages to retain an edge while still being largely approachable, relatively funny, and has a big heart. So I asked for a studio visit”, says Ott. “Studio visits can make or break shows. And his totally made it. He just had a ton of work and was working furiously on new stuff and had an energy that I found very compelling.” Going further, “… maybe it was the right place at the right time for me. I had just read Foucault’s intro to “The Order of Things”, which dissects “Las Meninas”, and the book was in my bag and then all of the sudden I was standing in front of this ridiculous contemporary cartoony investigation of it. The whole thing just felt right. So that’s when I said – ‘Just do whatever you want.’ You know? Like I felt like he had it all totally under control. So then he started doing the wood work, which is also really strong and which is getting a lot of attention, rightly so. But that is all brand new to his studio practice.”
I’ve remained in a giddy ballet with the artist’s work to date and eager to explore if there’s anything out there yet to leave us breathless. “I'm starting to create my two dimensional compositions into 3 dimensional sculptures. I'm cutting wood to look like my graffiti-style compositions and really want to get big, complex and tight with them. I want the viewer to get their eyes really tangled in them. I have a sculpture tilted "Wicker Park 2005", that is really the start of it. It hangs from the wall, but looks like it's flying out. I want to take that idea but expand it by fifty or so pieces that interconnect and go to the ground and come up at you. I like my work to get in peoples faces - and I want to do that physically with these new sculptures I'm working on.”

Ott holds,“ Tokyo’s pretty much at the top of his game and still ascending right now. It’s fun to watch.” With Dempsey promising, “For the most part my paintings have been very clean and crisp, but the new compositions I'm working on are more dense and textured with rougher graffiti-like lines and a more dangerous visual language. I'm adding flakes of charcoal into the oil paint to add a feeling of grit. I'm starting to make them a bit grungier. I want to get dirtier with them. I want to walk down that the dark alley.”

We have an artist involved with ideas here, and whether ordered or measured we would do well to follow his work and explore them as their central questions evolve.

FAVORITE POEM PROJECT HITS CHICAGO

(Chicago, IL) In the fine tradition of National Poetry Month, writers Keith Peterson and Jeffery McNary will host a, 'Favorite Poem Project' read on Friday, April 8th at 'Selected Works Books', 410 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

Participants are encourage to read their favorite published poem by a writer of their choice. The Project was intitiated by former Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky in

1997 to further an appreciation of poetry.

The event will begin at 6 PM and conclude at 9 PM.

(photo: robert pinsky with jeffery mcnary)

canticle

canticle… je vous ai voulu pour toujours
july, 2010
jeffery mcnary

arriving single-edged in all her forms...
amidst the swirling mist, un-veiled,
treasured and high minded...comes the rain-goddess,
with her wind blown hair... something from a fairy tale,
deliberate
and dressed for the occasion,
tipped sideward with invitations to view the world upside-down she smiled…
and waved…she behaved in that way....

ah, there you are…as a foreign film full of fiction and giggle…
there’s you,
enchanted,
repairing detachment with the giddy while draped in the elegance of your purposed simplicity… lingering long in scenes all of your own…there’s you…
…welcoming in the distance…

we’re collected works now …formed by believing, possibly defying…
we’re quick moments…messages startling and sudden…waded through…
we’re constructed histories with layers of edits...mediums carved from implication…
of passions and ambitions wailing…of stalled out anthems…
we both know paths. dicta and destinations,
should you care to notice…are more than meet the eye now

ah, there you are…amid the swish of painted, rustling silks with
your magic lamp.. your uncommon way…your roots grown deeper
than asked for from your traditional sources and rituals…
those grandly imperfect episodes of revealing, un-yielding, viewed
…with others eyes and subtle public magic…

i’ve seen those pilloried in past lives...faces on stamps. i saw a republic, with eyes missing. i believed in the wild and in spring, though not exactly. then i saw autumn
with a thousand faces at the door...i saw those who hated very much...those of whom
the poets sang and the ancients warned...then i saw you, with your warnings
and your own wide unblinking eyes.. ‘AAs’ as you said...shimmering in my desert...

i wanted to settle properly…brazenly…into casual tones…to wash your hair
with herbs…to wipe the moon with promise while experiencing the harmony
of all that without conjured things in patterns and alchemy…without
threads running between us. but mockingly you’ve kept a straight face,
…swearing off fantasy, and in the fullness of our brief days i dreamt your sigh…
……echoing…“envie de te toucher, tu es loin”… as i stepped from the shade and
……… righteously stepped back into circulation…now writing such things…

…there are no tenses today…no wrong answers…there’s just your rhapsody
…and little to explain, only to understand...and your way…your airy, ethereal way…
as fragile and gentle as a saffron metaphor
…as naked trees in a falling rain

i have left a chest of things there
…..linen and candles
……….things for the return
……………things and oils of earth tones and magus

listen for me…listen for my calling

ZG GALLERY SPRING GROUP SHOW

April 16 – May 22
jeffery mcnary
The ZG Gallery opened its powerful Spring Group Show with the works of thirteen artists, each laying out their individual imagery along side stylistic differences in a generalized dissociation. There is a delicate balance in such a vivid experience, with many of the works holding connections to the “natural”, the exhibitions curator, Meg Sheehy points out, “The show is seasonal, and serves as a boost and equal exposure. It’s a profile of the Gallery and demonstrates the kind of work we’ll be showing.” These are pieces to see, not just to look at.

Queried on her pieces, Anna Joelsdottir shared early on, “I understand that they have one wall and good breathing space which is tricky in a group show of many”. Joelsdottir’s work, “no one knew or will ever know”, mixed media on Mylar, reflects a softening adjective, ethereal which lingers on from her most recent exhibition at the gallery. “The transparency creates an added depth/space effect that is hard to do on canvas or paper”, she shares. “I started to use mylar for installation purposes, folded in 3d you wrote about my installation at Zg last summer”, reminding me of a previous review. The artist remains eager to explore how this would work, flat, as individual paintings. This is one such piece which has made her métier. “I also wanted to see if I could do small paintings that look like they are large or could be large.”

Ben Butler cast an enigmatic captivating slice of the show with an, ‘untitled’, ink with earl grey tea, presenting an organic feel. With his system the viewer comes upon small boxes with tiny X’s through them, establishing an overall unique design while producing somewhat of a meditative state with relaxed grace.

The viewer is casually launched in a different direction and toward a different style with Martina Nehrling’s bold, bright colors and their own language. “Often I begin a painting with an agenda of content and formal strategies in mind,” Nehrling says. “But sometimes I just start, acting on a whim. I was turned on by the vibrancy of acrylic colors and when I discovered an acrylic medium that created a texture and shine similar to the stand oil I most often combined with oil paint I was pretty much committed to continuing with acrylics, at least for a while,” she adds.

Her, “Keeping Faith”, acrylic on canvas, is a departure from her normal, typical brush strokes. There is controlled chaos in this work. That ‘language of color’ steps up, speaking loud and clear. The work is illuminating. The freshness of the brush stroke and sense of spontaneity on the surface is essential to the directness of this language. “I love the immediacy of painting”, Nehrling shares. “Probably most painters would admit to this on some. I use acrylic paint to be specific. I love the buttery texture and elemental odors of painting with oils but I switched from oils to acrylic paint to more expediently pour and combine different consistencies of paint.”
The art of Molly Briggs, Ben Butler, Amy Casey, Bill Frederick, Dan Gamble, Gregory Jacobsen, Mark Murphy, Martina Nehrling, and Jackie Tileston also hold even keel in the exhibition. As does the calming, “Still”, auto paint on Plexiglas, of Steve Hough.

Justin Henry Miller emerges more curio vs. ornament. These pieces develop, “out of conglomerating the leftovers or detritus”, Miller holds of his contributions to the show. “Like these byproducts, the vintage photos I collect have been forgotten or discarded. I seek to resurrect these commemorations and give them new life.” Miller also appears intrigued in changing the narratives in these photos with his addition of paint elements. Figures in these images have the potential to operate as armatures for stories that extend beyond their original context.

“My paintings on vintage photographs begin with a search for images that interest me in some way. I am drawn to personalities with intriguing poses, facial expressions, and attire”, he says. In his, "War Changes a Man", oil on photograph, the artist plays off the central figure's uniform and his relationship to his proud parents. “In my mind he could be a soldier who has returned from a war, now altered by the effects of that endeavor, but still loved by his family”, Miller adds. There are traces of Man Ray beneath the fold(s).

The show is more than an accumulation of the art of painters having visited upon the ZG in the past. There appears an innate desire in these works, a common effort and intelligent attitude to touch upon the now, the day-to-day. Group shows of this size hold the risk of being unforgiving. This exhibition sidesteps all of that.

MAUVAIS GARCONS

MAÇON de NOELLE - mauvais garçons Galerie de Thomas Robertello 9 avril-5 juin 2010 - jeffery mcnary Dans, les « mauvais garçons, » une exposition soloe de son travail, maçon de Noelle fournit une fin vers le haut, un regard aux notions « de la masculinité hysterique ». Les « mauvais garçons », elle écrit, « est au sujet de la représentation de la masculinité, ou du drag de `de la masculinité, et comment ce drag de `est ouvré par des vêtements, accessoires, ou dans l'esthétique du regard fixe cinématographique de `. ' » Mais l'exposition, actuellement à la galerie de Thomas Robertello, est environ, et fait, la manière davantage que cela. Ici l'artiste, au lieu de fournir les toiles de table propres artistiques, remet à zéro le secteur dinant entier avec une complexité critique et, prend la visionneuse sur un tour sauvage dans un monde de l'ultra-violence et des images terrifiantes souvent anesthésiées sur l'Evening News. Il cliquette les thèmes souvent vagues, d'utilisé d'un monde d'art développé accoutumé juste à l'embrouillement à travers, et roule, de mode synchronisée, par des événements et des communautés où vous ne voulez pas débarquer ou baiser en passant autour. On peut entendre le tir, juste au sujet de l'odeur la cordite. N'est aucune abstraction. Plutôt elle sonne de la trompette un paiement des droits artistiques et plonge profondément dans les pores de la poteau-modernité et de l'écoulement d'enveloppement d'un monde de plus en plus rugueux et dangereux accompagnant la période. « Je suis intéressé par l'idée du masculinity hysterique de `dans la référence à cette exposition, » des parts de maçon. « L'hysterique de mot étant dérivé de l'anatomie femelle mais est tourné sur sa tête comme comportement distinctement irrationnel des hommes et des garçons que dans la crainte de reconnaître leurs propres faiblesses cherchez à effacer des faiblesses de `par la violence et accessorizing. » Dans, le `rien beaucoup s'est produit aujourd'hui (pour Eric et Dylan) », 12pt. le coton a compté le X-point 32 x 40, l'artiste combine un travail croix-piqué, une image pixelated de Columbine haut School' ; vidéo surveillance de cafétéria de s prise pendant le massacre du 20 avril 1999. Son effort de cinq ans saisit l'image iconique représentant 1/30 d'une seconde de l'événement. Il est préparé comme « tissu ou évidence de deuil », et sert de taon à rouvrir de vieilles blessures. Il y a un doux, shadowiness au morceau. « J'ai commencé par le milieu du croix-point, et ai été dessiné au croix-point pour son tactility, la connaissance et le rapport avec le Pixel, » indique l'artiste. « La déformation de l'image une fois transformée en stitchery a semblé se rapporter bien à la qualité à basse résolution de la longueur de surveillance. » La continuation, « quant au sujet, Columbine s'est juste sentie exacte. Elle s'est sentie défaite, comme si elle a eu besoin de plus d'attention qu'elle a été eue les moyens, j'a dû la traiter d'une manière quelconque. » « Il y a une exploration de temps dans le travail. L'image iconique représente 1/30 d'une seconde de l'événement chez Columbine », elle continue. « Ce 1/30 d'une seconde est devenu quelque chose un genre beaucoup plus grand d'évidence. Chaque couleur de soie de broderie correspond à un Pixel sur mon écran d'ordinateur. Ce morceau est prévu pour rouvrir des blessures. La fois passée nous les avons fermées vers le haut que nous n'avons pas obtenu tout le poison dehors. J'essaye de découvrir quelque chose. Les meurtres de Columbine ont irrité la conscience publique pour demander pourquoi. Je ne pense pas qu'elle était assez. La plupart des personnes ont trouvé une réponse à cette question qui s'est insérée bien dans leur worldview et a alors cessé de demander. « Rien ne s'est beaucoup produit aujourd'hui » est prévu pour la faire irritant encore. » Un dilemme horrible, clairement. Avec, les « lettres d'amour », 39 mouchoirs brodés blancs, maçon revisite le mafia de manteau de fossé du `de Columbine par l'intermédiaire des écritures d'Eric Harris de membre. L'artiste pique soigneusement les mots et colère avec le fil noir, capturant la fureur et la crainte en termes comme, « aucun je ne suis pas fou. fou est juste un mot. à moi il n'a aucune signification. chacun est différent. mais la plupart d'entre vous des fuckheads dehors là dans la société, allant à vos travaux foutus journaliers et faisant vos choses shitty courantes journalières, je dis la baise vous et meurs. Si vous obteniez un problème avec mes pensées, venues dites moi et à mise à mort malade vous, parce que ......... le goddammit, les personnes mortes ne discutent pas ! ! Pour l'artiste, la surveillance implicite dans le travail, « rien s'est beaucoup produite aujourd'hui » est confrontée encore dedans, « partie de LAN », une instillation. Ces morceaux, l'artiste se reflète, « critique « le fetishization » de la surveillance esthétique dans la culture populaire. » La « partie de LAN », enregistrement vidéo de présents de l'armée américaine Force à bord des Irakiens d'un massacre d'hélicoptère d'Apache à travers par l'intermédiaire de la portée d'un modèle de menacer, fusil noir de tireur isolé de Remington M-700. Les écouteurs fournissent le bruit pour l'épisode, et par ceci, le téléspectateur devient participante. Combinés, ces morceaux, prises de maçon, « exposent le désir pour l'approbation publique par le drag'" hyper-masculin de `. « Je viens à mon travail d'un endroit de la crainte et de l'anéantissement. La sensation est proche de l'anéantissement sexuel ou de ne pas pouvoir trouver le bon mot, l'incapacité au temps d'arrêt ou comprendre la mort » le phénomène d'incliner-de-le-langue, » indique le maçon. « Plus spécifiquement je suis intéressé par la façon dont nous projetons nos craintes et désirs dans les objets culturels et alternativement comment ces technologies forment la construction de l'identité. » La « sonate », laser coupé sur le vélin, provient d'une vidéo d'Al-Qaeda décapitant. Ici l'artiste enlève le contenu visuel et réinterprète à la place l'horreur comme musique de feuille, et finalement le bruit. « Dans la sonate je remediated l'enregistrement vidéo des beheadings exécuté par Al-Qaeda pendant la dernière décennie. Les vidéos de décapitation qui sont prévues pour terroriser par la puissance de la vidéo ont été dépouillées de leur contenu visuel, » elle dit. « La sonate de mot signifie littéralement le sounded de `et est l'opposé de la cantate ou du `chanté. 'Cette transposition est apparentée à la traduction des images vidéo ou de la langue écrite dans l'objet de métier. Et met en référence thématique l'imagination de l'exécution masculine de la puissance dans la tentative de dominer par l'exposition explicite de la violence brutale. » Thomas Robertello, conservateur de l'exposition, et un flautist accompli est son propre droit, trouve les lancements et les rythmes du travail semblable à un raga indien du nord, avec l'energy mauvais de `à l'extrémité… dans elle est repos. L'exposition a des aspects de refroidissement, tout en uniformément contribuant à l'qui pique les actes agressifs esthétiques s'associaient souvent à la puissance masculine contre le doux, le fait main, le beau, le domestique. Elle des sooths, jure, précise et prêche. « Je suis principalement intéressé par la façon dont nous sommes manoeuvrés par non seulement le contenu du spectacle de médias mais par également le milieu des écrans d'ordinateur/télévision. En changeant la forme de contenu et du rapport spatial du spectateur avec le contenu », dit le maçon. « Je De-exprime les pensées de l'éditeur les images que j'emploie. Ceci ONU-qui empaquette fournit un espace alternatif pour la contemplation des événements spécifiques et a déstabilisé les médias tournent. » Quel prochain ? « J'ai actuellement commencé un nouveau corps de travail qui regarde le formalisme en tant que des moyens de comprendre l'esthétique représentative de la puissance. J'ai eu une pratique nomade pendant approximativement 5 années maintenant et ai récemment acquis un studio que j'attends avec intérêt une période d'expérimentation avec la forme et le milieu. » Bonne chance avec cela. Sûrement, si nous continuons à regarder des choses comme cet artiste la présente, nous sommes presque sûrs de s'ajuster d'une manière quelconque ou des autres.

justyna adamczyk : travaux recents

Justyna Adamczyk : Travaux récents

à la galerie de l'EC Par le magasin d'art de Chicago

le 25 janvier 2010 dans comporté,

revues Par : jeffery mcnary

« Je ne veux pas communiquer directement avec les pensées des personnes voyant mon art. Je voudrais fournir une exposition de route qui tient compte de la réflexion personnelle », notes Justyna Adamczyk. Son exposition courante, de nouvelles peintures à la galerie de l'EC est une rangée provocante vers cette ambition. « Dans mon travail, pendant beaucoup d'années, j'ai essayé beaucoup de médias, mais avec le temps je me suis rendu compte que je parle sincèrement dans les médias qui peint. La peinture me donne l'occasion de présenter ses observations sur ma réalité subjective. Les liés au travail avec les problèmes insignifiants mais inévitables de fatigue de vie quotidienne. » Théoriquement, au moins, elle tient cela dans un monde fortement structuré, là est le besoin de connaître la croissance spirituelle. La « peinture est ma valve, qui permet l'évasion et les transforme en images dociles. » Le « cannibale », acrylique sur la toile, comme dans ses autres morceaux, semble spontané, avec l'artiste étant là, pas simplement la copiant. Ici ses roses et orange sont staggering, comme si les cheveux d'une silhouette ont été embrasés. La toile de brun non traité et grisâtre remet la peinture plus d'à la visionneuse. C'est un nouveau romantisme. D'une façon déterminante, ses nuances et tache sur le tissu, le rose en pastel, les bruns, jaunes des tonalités variables, ont lu à haute voix du tissu, comme si après avoir été environ pour des âges. C'a pu être sang desséché. C'a pu être des gouttes cancéreuses. « J'ai été toujours attiré aux travaux des artistes qui se passent et leur vue subjective de punk », elle dit. On interroge, a l'artiste retourné à l'adolescence dedans, « gamme des saveurs », acrylique sur la toile. N'énonçant pas son inspiration directement, plutôt il joue avec la couleur, avec des formes, et parfois les brosses au sujet de la présence esthétique avec les figures épineuses, plues au moment par des rêves et des complexes Jungian sous forme d'expérience de laboratoire courent sauvage sur le travail. Il y a un genre spécial et différent d'authenticité dans cette expérience. Dans ces images le téléspectateur trouve des associations d'autonomie et de couleur, des visions et des insinuations. Certains semblent salis, et errent au loin, mais à peine dans le mondain. Là les cycles sont courts, mais dans là des récits de forme de brièveté. Adamczyk espionne Frida, marque Ryden, prise de bec de Matthew, et Kim Sooja en tant qu'influences sur elle travail. « Ce sont des caractères dont j'ai appris beaucoup. Ils sont complètement différents, dans les vues de la réalité », elle dit. « En plus de ceci elles diffèrent personnellement et intimement. Une question importante pour moi est l'impact sur la visionneuse. Je recherche la langue qui permet au téléspectateur de sentir mon idée. » Il est difficile de trouver l'excès dans les peintures. Elles sont presque involontaires. La provocation d'Adamczyk est au coeur de l'exhibitionnisme artistique. « N'importe quelle idée semble être parfaite quand je l'ai obtenue dans mon esprit ou sur un croquis », elle dit, « mais la bataille commence à l'heure du transfert… le mouvement à la vraie image. J'essaye d'être aussi étroitement que possible à ce qui résulte de la première pensée ou impression. » Que, elle maintient, est l'impulsion à la création de l'image. Avec elle, des travaux sont créés et conduits par une inspiration très personnelle. Ils sont des offres… à nous… et au quel reste dans chacun de nous individuellement. Ceci devrait être apprécié. Les travaux de l'artiste a été exhibés dans une foule de lieu de rendez-vous comprenant Biennale de la peinture « Bielska Jesien 2009, Pologne ; 9 concours Gepperta, BWA Awangarda Wrocław, Pologne ; Peintres I-XII, galerie de Bestregarts - Francfort sur Main, Allemagne de polisch de Joung ; 30 Premio Internacional de Pintura De Caja De Estrémadure ; Plus ou moins, Musemu DA Ciencia e DA Industria - Porto, Portugal et Aula de Cultura De Plasencia. Elle a reçu son AMF la de l'académie des beaux-arts en Pologne, Wroclaw en 2007. C'est sa première exposition des États-Unis. Justyna Adamczyk : Les travaux récents seront sur l'affichage à la galerie de l'EC du 15 janvier au 13 février. La galerie de l'EC est située à la rue Chicago, IL 60607 d'Aberdeen du nord 215.

REVUE d'art - JUDITH MULLEN

Revue d'art - Judith Mullen :
Aire par Jeffery McNary :

Aire Galerie de Linda Warren (l'espace principal) 22 janvier-27 février 2010 Chicago

Lors d'entrer dans la galerie de Linda Warren pour l'exposition courante de Judith Mullen, la « aire », la visionneuse réalise immédiatement que quelque chose l'excitation va se produire. C'est le pays des merveilles, un de captiver, bel art. C'est un cotillon de couleur, de sculpture, de la peinture de l'instillation. Ici l'artiste a le dramaturge devenu, captivant, avec une abondance de travaux dans des médias variables, et avec la générosité incroyable. « Toutes les peintures sont faites dans la technique de fresque et j'ai choisi cette méthode pour une série de raisons », des parts de Mullen. « Au commencement j'étais très tiré « à la blancheur organique » du plâtre, et car j'ai travaillé avec le temps j'ai commencé à apprécier pleinement les matières employées pour créer un panneau de fresque. » Les influences principales de Lee Bontecous et de Kandinsky sont trouvées dans ces travaux. Le « hommage à Bonteque III », des médias mélangés, est une peinture « pebbly » sur une surface mélangée du mastic de sable et de pierre à chaux. Ses nuances riches de la terre tiennent l'aura des schémas de caverne du prehistorics. L'artiste a importé le mastic de pierre à chaux et a trouvé le sable de fleuve, mélangeant une formule employée pour créer une base. Elle a alors travaillé le plâtre humide avec le colorant et le charbon de bois. « De cette manière je suis tout d'abord relié à l'histoire de la peinture pour inclure les peintres de caverne il y a de 30.000 ans », elle s'ajoute. « J'ai eu une occasion de visiter ces travaux remarquables en France (deNaiux de Grotte) et ils sont vraiment inspirés. » « Dans l'emplacement IV », des médias mélangés du colorant, charbon de bois, cire, encre, thé, de même que d'autres morceaux de cette série, inspirée par les présences des oiseaux, comme peuvent être vus dans le colorant d'ocre jaune du travail. « Image de oiseau a toujours apparu dans mon travail, toutefois de cette série, » dit l'artiste, « j'ai voulu la rendre avant et centrale, le point focal plutôt que le coup-de-pied latéral. L'oiseau semble dans ce morceau négocier avec succès sa manière autour d'un environnement compliqué utilisant lui doit posséder l'élan pour accomplir ce but. » Elle continue, « les idées du courage et le courage avec l'adaptabilité, l'acceptation et l'action si tout va bien sont produits par cette image. Peut-être c'était le chantier de nouvelle construction trouvé à travers la rue de mon studio dans la ville ou le téléphone/poteaux électriques qui pointillent le chemin de prarie en dehors de ma maison dans la banlieue qui a déplacé l'oiseau et son nid… dans l'un ou l'autre cas, la tâche de la reconstruction et de l'adaptation a été joué dehors. À un certain niveau je pense que nous pouvons tout identifier avec l'oiseau dans ce scénario. » Sa vision, les raccordements, que l'application et le détail trafiquent entre le conceptuel, de processus et endgame est exécutée parfaitement dans ce travail. Venez maintenant, « dans l'installation de médias mélangés de l'emplacement XIII », cette épopée l'audace dans le travail de balance lors derrière duquel les pivots d'exposition et à ce que la visionneuse est dessinée quant à un feu sur une colline éloignée. Centré au milieu du mur est un morceau énorme de papier très travaillé avec des barres obliques dans lui. Ce morceau de papier de traçage, Mullen enfonçait le charbon de bois dans un nouveau morceau de fresque. « J'ai été économiser ces gauche au-dessus des morceaux de papier de traçage pendant des années, jouant avec elles sur le mur, essayant de faire une certaine sorte du morceau sculptural à trois dimensions, » elle dit. « J'ai essayé d'ajouter la cire, ai employé toutes les sortes de renforts, vous l'appelle pour faire le papier affermir. En conclusion, j'ai décidé d'employer le fil sous le morceau et le ta-DA… que je n'étais pas en ligne et courant. » Il y a les roches bleues, « une idée que j'ai eu la natation autour dans ma tête d'un livre j'ai lu sur Thomas Merton et ses idées sur la spiritualité et les roches. » Ceux-ci sont au pied de l'installation, découpé et formé de la mousse de styrol. « Je me suis trouvé employer tous les matériaux que j'emploie dans les sculptures en arbre mais d'une manière différente… sur le mur. Mon interprétation du morceau est qu'elle est légèrement d'un combat entre la nature et l'homme fait monde, ying et yang de la vie, quelque chose le long de ces lignes. » Le travail effraye. C'est art ayant jeté sa peau, danse et enchantement comme si menant la visionneuse environ par la lanterne. Il y a la rue… les choses tombées de branches de cônes de rue de détruire-boule………, attrapées dans le chaos. Les sculptures en arbre de Mullen sont de nouvelles additions à son paquet. Elle continue l'utilisation des choses normales et… les branches, le papier de riz, le fil, le plâtre, la peinture, la mousse de styrol, les chiffons de studio, etc., etc. cassés artificiels et naturellement, des oiseaux. Voici plus de ses intérieur-pensées, sa chasse de luciole. « Les sculptures ont évolué hors du procédé de peinture, il y a environ 2 ans. J'ai toujours été tiré à la poésie du winter'" nu de `qu'elle dit, les « branches d'arbre et ont commencé à rassembler cassé trouvés comme je marche. Ainsi, chaque morceau commence par une branche qui alors est parfois attachée à une base ou est accrochée d'en haut. » Judith Mullen a reçu son BFA de l'école de l'institut d'art de Chicago. Elle a exhibé dans l'ensemble du Midwest, y compris des expositions au centre culturel de Chicago, le centre d'art d'Evanston, une exposition soloe récente à l'atelier d'art contemporain Chicago et a actuellement une exposition soloe de concurrent à Los Angeles à la galerie de JK. Elle également aura une exposition soloe cette année au centre d'art de Krasl au Michigan. Elle était le destinataire de nombreuses concessions et récompenses, y compris une camaraderie du Conseil d'arts de l'Illinois. Son travail est également dessus affichage au centre de schéma de l'enregistrement de l'artiste de New York. « Avec mes inspirations indiquées, je trouve toute mon inspiration des routines, des rythmes et des voyages de ma propre vie pendant qu'il intersecte avec ceux autour de moi. Je vis dans une banlieue entourée par la conserve de forêt et voyage à la ville chaque jour où mon studio est localisé », elle note. « Cela fonctionne pour moi. Il est où la nature et l'homme ont fait le monde intersecter et les diverses manières ceci des jeux dehors que je me trouve tiré dedans pour errer autour. » Il n'y a aucune couleur dominante dans l'exposition. Cela tout fonctionne ensemble, pourtant il est presque hors de commande, comme un spectacular, affichage contemporain de feux d'artifice, être bientôt fabuleux. Il extorque dehors chaque sens de l'imagination. Est-ce que « où je me vois me suis dirigé entends ? Pour moi, c'est toujours été au sujet du processus tellement si tout va bien que continuera à être le cas. Je suis ouvert là où de cette volonté me mène. » www.lindawarrengallery.com

MLK REVISITED

PIECES OF THE DREAM
re print ABDN PRESS
-jeffery mcnary
(Washington, D.C.) Almost forty years to the day of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a crowd of a few thousand gathered in the nation's capitol to recall, reflect, and attempt the resuscitation of a coalition of activists with diverse causes...some now on life support. On that afternoon, forty years ago, a youthful southern Black Baptist preacher named Martin Luther King, Jr., stepped to the podium on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and began his remarks with, AI am happy to join you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. By the time the blazing sun began its descent, casting late afternoon shadows through the stone garden resting places of Arlington and Northern Virginia, King's I have a Dream oration had red-lettered the day.
Bob Dylan was there. Lena Horne was there, as was Paul Newman, Heston, Brando, Josephine Baker, and many more ,Afresh from narrow jail cells. Julian Bond, a former Georgia state legislator and now Chair of the NAACP was there and shared with ABDN Journal that he Ahad the best job of the day...serving cold soft drinks to the celebrities. AI got to keep my arms, up to the elbows, in ice cold water for the better part of the day, a graceful Bond said.
Forty years in some genres can be a long time. Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison never saw 40. Neither did the vast majority of those whose birth names are etched into the black marble slabs of the Viet Nam War Memorial abutting the site of the demonstrations. Yet the enthusiasm and sense of determination of those recently gathered in renewal, provided a delicious bite of promise and piece of the dream.
The August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom came on the heels of bloody engagements through out the south...as well as economic violence in northern cities. There were calls for passage of the then pending Civil Rights Bill, desegregation of schools and housing, job training and elimination of racial discrimination in hiring, among other issues. The March had been initiated by A. Phillip Randolph, a labor leader and vice-president of the AFL-CIO. Randolph was joined in his effort by the leadership of five major civil rights organizations in the United States. Whitney Young, National Urban League; Roy Wilkins, National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); James Farmer, Congress of Racial Equality(CORE); John Lewis, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and King, Southern Christian Leadership Conference(SCLC). This was the so-called Abig-six@.
The 40th Anniversary found a loose knit coalition somewhere in the area of 100 groups, with Dr. Kings son, Martin Luther King, III, front and center...to the point of being almost apologetic, if not determined. He is sincere...in more than a Promethean fashion. African American males coming of age can rarely afford the Holden Caufield experience, even when those with middle-class parents find that preferable to the fraternities of Crips or Bloods. Those around King, III couched the 40th Anniversary as an event bringing together the ASit-in Generation and the AHip-Hop Generation, a kind of Baez meets Grand Master somebody. Those with years in the trenches eerily attempted to balance the need for increased voter registration with its established rich legacy. Jesse Jackson, in comments to a gathering of SNCC veterans said, A I'd rather have an old Thurgood Marshall than a young Clarence Thomas.
A transference of Athe movement was not the order of the day as much as a welcome aboard theme with most. Not long ago the young King had faced a challenge to his leadership and was rescued by the old guard, including Jackson.
While the SCLC held the Anniversary primarily to symbolism, the unveiling of a plaque honoring MLK, Jr...prayer vigils...a poetry jam, a more aggressive group, By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) took to the streets of Washington demanding the defeat of anti-affirmative action initiatives and a national boycott of Coors Beer, which, they claim, is a major financial contributor to the attack on affirmative action and civil rights. In early Spring, BAMN was instrumental in turning out over 50,000 demonstrators near the Supreme Court calling for support of affirmative action.
Shanta Driver, BAMN's fiery spokesperson, addressed a gathering of student and labor activists at the gates of Howard University prior to a five mile march to the Lincoln Memorial. AWe are the leadership of the new civil rights movement. You are the builders of the nations future. There are still people in this society@, Driver continued stacatto like, Athat are going to fight to realize the dream...not just commemorate what Martin Luther King stood for, but also make clear that there=s a movement in place, a new civil rights movement, to realize the dream. Across town, at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, former SNCC activists came together to review their expectations in 1963 and compare the struggles of 2003. John Lewis, now a Congressman from Georgia, and the sole survivor of the big six, was joined by Rev. Walter Fauntroy, a former delegate from the District of Columbia, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the current delegate from the District and others. ABearing Witness to a Dream Deferred, the forum was titled. Cong. Lewis (D-Ga.) now serves on the Democratic Steering Committee and as a young student participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides and endured savage beatings from racist mobs. Lewis is the real deal. AYoung Black men and women, young people, young children 7 and 8...9, 10, 11 and 12 years old were being arrested, jailed. Bull Connor, the police commissioner used the dogs and fire hoses on people, a visibly moved Lewis spoke. AMedgar Evers was assassinated...and then you had President Kennedy speaking to the nation...when he said the issue of race is a moral issue. On June 14, 1963 I was elected chair of ...SNCC. Eight days later I was invited to a meeting here in Washington at the White House....and it was in that meeting A. Phillip Randolph...spoke up and said. 'Mr. President, the Black masses are restless and we're going to march on Washington. And you could tell by the very body language of President that he didn't like what he heard. He started moving in his chair, one side to the other side, and he said >Mr. Randolph, if you bring all of these Negroes to Washington, and all of these Negroes in the streets, we will never be able to get a Civil Rights Bill from the congress. Mr. Randolph responded, AMr. President, Negroes are already in the streets."
Forty years later there was no such meeting. There was not even a message or messenger from the un-elected current occupant of the White House...something which should be unsettling, at best, to the thoughtful.
In a brief walk with this reporter, Cong. Lewis shared his concerns over the current state of affairs. AForty years later we need to pick up where Dr. King left off, and that is to humanize the American economy to meet basic human needs of our people. People need a little better of an income, people need jobs. Too many people are losing jobs. A large segment of the population is under paid, some receiving starvation wages, they're not receiving a livable wage. That's what we need to take care of. Lewis responded to a query on the recent California re-call initiative with, AIf that trend picks up and grows, it will make people much more cynical and less interested in the political process. We must find a way to put an end to what is happening in California, it must not be allowed to spread.
Political Science Professor Ron Walters of the University of Maryland expounded on this subject. It's probably a new trend because its a way that the Republican Party has of trying to seize power at the local level. They have done a good job, the radical right, seizing power of the national government. They now control the Supreme Court, the White House and both the House and the Senate, and that's a very formidable victory for them, said Walters.
Rev. Jesse Jackson echoed this perspective. Briskly heading up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, while pausing for photos with and signing autographs for, Jackson said, AThis is another attempt by the right-wing to de-stabilize government. They lost the election and this is an act to sabotage democracy. He was joined by former Ambassador and U.S. Senator Carol Mosely Braun, now a Democratic candidate for President., who referred to the re-call as a, Ahideous attempt to take power and create political chaos and to dis-enfranchise California voters, and I hope that it's rejected resoundingly by California votes. It=s not a matter of personality, it's whether or not an election will be allowed to stand or a coup de etat be allowed to happen.
The romantic tradition which tends to surround and enfold revolutions and movements appears to have taken a pass in the ameri-politic where issues of race are concerned. But most of the pieces of Dr. King's dream lay in jangled heaps across the lay of the land. Perhaps it is because of the close configuration of class and promise. The current Secretary of State is a Black man. The National Security Advisor to the President is a Black woman. The head of Time-Warner is African American as are a host of corporate directors and so-called Apublic intellectuals. Yet King's dream remains in pieces...much of it unfulfilled, in spite of Carter, his grits and grins and our collective collision with the Clintons. Perhaps a celebration is in order...one which shares a common vision, common goals, and time lines that transcend age and gender. After all...it's America...40 years late...peace out.

ART SHAY'S TRUE COLORS

Thomas Masters Gallery
January 15 – February 15, 2010
jeffery mcnary- NEOTERICART

Art Shay’s photography is brilliant. And should one be in search of art as solely objects of, and for, aesthetic enjoyment, the exhibition, “Art Shay’s True Colors”, opening Friday, January 15 at the Thomas Masters Gallery, is not that experience. It is not an imagined dream life. It is a collection, an exhibition of the works of a photographer who has managed to crystallize defining moments in the American experience in bright colors, without a bypass, on archive rag paper with digital print.

For the artist, simply telling a story is too easy. Shay’s photos appear to tell a story behind a story. There is a pattern of capturing his subject sans posing. There are athletes, and movie stars. There is Khrushchev in Iowa, and Johnny Cash, Daleys and Jordan. There is Warhol and Jack Nicholas, Vince Lombardi and Bart Star and other luminaries out of their usual. There are protestors and police faced-off tango style in Grant Park in ‘68…the viewer can practically whiff the tear gas and refer and hear the chants. There’s the Nixon, amped up with arms in that ‘v’ before the looming, “Goddess of Grain” in the background.

Some entrances and exits flow in this exhibition. In 1964, two years prior to returning to participate in an open housing campaign, Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Chicago and spoke at a rally for racial justice at Soldier Field. Shay was there, and captured a youthful civil rights leader being greeted by both police and the assembled masses, “King at Soldier Field”. Moving deeper into the exhibition there are more King photographs, King smiling, King speaking, King dead…in an open casket with his followers appearing stunned and in tears. Shay captured the riots following the assassination and the drama of the police search for the killer in Memphis with a dramatic and searing intensity.

“Photography has been my love since I was 12 and my Dad lent me his folding Kodak. I immediately began to shoot but also develop other peoples' rolls of Verichrome in the coal bin that made up part of the modest Bronx four family home we lived in,” says Shay. “I built my first enlarger out of a Maxwell House coffee can that slid up and down on the sandwiched 2 x4's I found in a junk heap. The sliding wood pieces came from the bottom of a long abandoned dining room table.”

The exhibition brings the viewer shots of Nelson Algren, (a friend of Shay and god father to one of his children) on the gritty side streets and back alleys of Chicago. Shay had followed Algren with a camera, shooting photos for a piece he was pitching to Life. It’s been written that they were, “masters chronicling the same patch of ground with different tools.”

Back to his early days, Shay continued in his ribald fashion, “When I was 16 an ancient divorcee of 35, professing interest in my work, professed wanting to learn enlarging, and in the process enlarged me sufficiently in 5 seconds to capture my virginity. This influenced me greatly as to the value of photography.”

Sharing more of his history, “I took a Leica into WWII and used it during combat flying of 52 missions. Just after the war, when I was thinking of becoming a professional writer… I was an English major in my only nine months of college before enlisting at age 20 in 1942…and the Washington Post took to printing Sunday features I wrote.”

Shay was soon hired as a staff reporter for Life Magazine. “It was my job at one time or another to schlep camera equipment around for perhaps 20 of Life's fotogs. Life reporters were verboten from using a camera under pain of firing, but in my three years as a staffer I must have had 20 pages in print under other (real) photographers' bylines- while carrying their spare cameras” It was at this point Shay opted to leave Life, going freelance, shooting mostly his own ideas and crafting his own stories, as well as shooting them in Chicago for Time, Life, Fortune, Sports Illustrated and other outlets.

The photographer holds the camera is an extension of the eye, but also the humor and world experience behind that eye as well.

There is an emotional heart to the exhibition. The iconic photos of JFK and Nixon prior to there now famous televised debate. King’s casket being unloaded from a plane from Memphis. Inner-city Chicago children playing in run-down playgrounds. There’s Jack Kennedy appearing in conference with a Native American chief, “Two Chiefs”. And there’s Jimmy Hoffa, in a suit, behind bars. “It’s called, ‘Hoffa in Jail’. I knew Hoffa,” Shay says, “We used to play handball in Detroit. Hell of a handball player. It’s in Lewisberg Prison, and he’s holding the coat to hide the handcuffs.”

The talent and skill of the artist appears through the passion, humor, and history of the show. In, “Masai Spear Thrower”, the photographer catches the hunter’s spear in flight, on it’s arc, the second it leaves his hand in Nairobi. All of the work at the exhibition is done ‘in-camera’.

“I am not an agonizer. I work in the equivalent of bolts of controlled lighting, getting ideas and varying the themes that make them publishable.” Shay explains. “In covering JFK addressing 100,000 farmers live in North Dakota, I didn't like the composition of Kennedy at one side---so I had the sponsors move a flagpole with flying pennants of different colors on it so it composed well across from Kennedy. I had just purchased the then new Widelux camera- 140 degrees- and my first picture of JFK with it ran in Time across two pages.”

For Art Shay, a chance to show "Art's True Colors”, “is an important segment of my life's work- at last.” And for others, this show provides lessons, and yet for others still, remembrance.

DANIEL KIM AND MICHAEL PARKER: STRUCTURE AND SPACE

Daniel Kim and Michael Parker: Structure and Space,

David Weinberg Gallery,Chicago

January 8th – February 20th, 2010
jeffery mcnary - NEOTERICART

Poise appears conscientiously injected into the current exhibition at the David Weinberg Gallery. The abstract paintings of Daniel Kim, combined with the photography of Michael Parker make for a very impressive introduction to the new year, stepping from the holiday vestibule into a pantheon of sometimes sharp-edge, yet eloquent art. It’s a fine gathering of work.

“In my work, monochrome paintings deal with very important aspect of painting”, says Kim. “In order for a painting to be successful I believe 3 things have to work together, and that’s color, image and the paint application. If the 3 work, it’s like flicking a switch and activating a painting to make it come alive. I do this to speculate what beauty might look like.” His work is not shy. Early on in the show the viewer catches his erudite use of basic grays, of fundamentals, of shadow and of space.

In speaking to his own work, Parker holds, “Architecture begins on paper. Photography is the method by which it returns”… my official slogan. I honestly believe the relationship between photography and architecture is a unique one. Architecture, being such a detailed medium is best recorded with photography for most purposes. Be it for commercial use, fine art, or historical record, photography is really the only way to put an immense physical structure into your briefcase or on the wall.”

Curator Aaron Ott has consciously ‘zig-zagged’ the works early on in the exhibition. Ott appreciates mixing mediums in joint shows, and in this instance pieces settle, more than dominate in such fashion.

In many of Kim’s paintings the viewer is introduced to cloud shapes, to explosions of chaos and areas of the larger works appearing to be paintings on their own. “Oil paint for me has enough range that I almost feel its part of who I am, and the paint becomes a tool to complete my other half,” he says. “The decision I make with the paint is personal and very much reflects who I am as person.”

Moving deeper into the exhibition, one comes upon large color works of Kim’s. Here the dialogue continues with traces of pastel whispering on the canvases of brilliant color. “Color paintings which are bit more challenging to make is also driven by my speculation of beauty, using the formal elements I know and composing them to become a interesting visual stimulation. In a simple term I try to make interesting paintings, because that is what visual artist do.”

Many of Parker’s works approach the mystical. The stark, geometrical designs freeze in camera. His, ‘Disney Concert Hall, LA, CA’, Pigment print, sweeps and slashes and swoons with the titanium of the structure itself. “When I step back from my work,” he says, “I realize that I am working with three elements that everybody loves…photography, architecture, and travel. The questions of “where? how? and what?” are easily answered… so the work is very user friendly. I purposely shoot with traditional B&W film in order to commit the images to a life of fine art. I considered shooting digital photos in order to maximize the value for various stock photo purposes but abandon the idea in order to preserve the integrity of the black and white.

Both artists share the trials of their work. “I wrestle with my work there are times in my studio where I spend more time starring and thinking about the paintings then executing” says Kim. “I actually enjoy the times when I am wrestling with my work, I feel that’s when I use my brain the most and try to squeeze out all the knowledge I have about painting and apply it on to my paintings.”

Parker adds, “Life is a constant struggle. Photography is no different. There are photos I love and there are photos that sell. Its pretty obvious, when you see the show you’ll see a few images of trees that are stretching the theme of the show, we sell so much of this work for its aesthetic appeal. The only problem I have with these images are that they overlap a bit with other photographer’s work, as an artist I really want to create something new and distinct.” He concludes, “The good news is that my abstract architectural work does well. I really believe that I’m on to something new.”

What now? Parker says, “I’m sticking with the plan. I’ve have standardized sizes, frames standardized sizes, frames, and printing methods, which has helped to make a recognizable a piece in such a crowded genre.” Sharing, “I simply intend to continually travel and expand my archive. I had a wonderful installation in Atlanta composed of fifteen wall size murals, all in black and white. Since I shot everything on medium and large format film the images were very sharp in the grand scale.”

“I use to be very inpatient after graduating from school, thinking I have to show in New York or LA”, says Kim, “but now I realize patience isn’t such a bad thing. All I can do is try to make good art and hope people will notice, so my answer is I am not really sure where my art is headed in the future, but I am very ambitious.” With many of his works, ‘untitled’, the show calls for revisits and imagination to roam and name them.

FIGUARATIVELY THEMED WORKS

West Loop Trilogy – Part 1 Contemporary Figuratively Themed Works EC Gallery ChicagoDecember 11, 2009 – January 9, 2010

jeffery mcnary NEOTERICART
It’s as if couriers have arrived, delivering storms of color and skillfully engineered works to the EC Gallery. With the current exhibition, “Contemporary Figurative Themed Works”, curator Ewa Czeremuszkin, has re-collected and filled full her right-size gallery with the art of both Tadeusz Bilecki and Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut. There’s a bright lawlessness in these handful of paintings, stimulating the senses, and suddenly enabling the visitor to exhale, and to glide from the everyday.
“The paintings, currently exhibited, belong to the ‘Pisz litery’ (‘Write letters’) series. The leading subjects are letters, which I sometimes see in advertisement photography or on billboards”, says Czeremuszkin-Chrut. “My work is very intuitive. I quickly draw specific lines which are my first concept, and which later on I change hundreds of times.”
“Fall Back”, acrylic and oil on canvas’, brings the viewer broad brush strokes blending color, grays and blues forced into purple. There are deep scratches topside through the layered paint. There’s washed pink near its heart with dark, questioning droplets directing toward the deep, the regal purple, the wondering, before shouting loudly, ‘where are you going?’, spreading its fever.
“The, ‘Fall’, series touches upon the topic of two people coexisting and the resulting psychological supremacy of one of them over the other”, the artist shares. “From these, risky combinations and contrasts of colours arise, which only seemingly do not go together.” These works do not wait around for the viewer to catch up. They’re off and fluid and one need leap in front of them.
Her, “Fell Down”, mixed media, brings more purple, and scraping on a broad swath of brown. There are written letters between two figures in this work. “I am often inspired by press, photography and lettering. However, I am not interested in the messages they carry. I dissect them, strip them of their meaning while giving them a new one,” explains. “The elements of lettering included in my works have no communicative value whatsoever, but only a visual one. In a way, they are a manifestation of the modern world. Images just fall into my head and evolve into new ideas.”
The ineluctable works of Tadeusz Belecki are both bold, powerful and have visited upon the gallery in the past. There’s an intriguing texture and immense dimension to his works. They embrace back and kick high. “There are influences, on every moment. They sometimes change the whole artistic searching process. Sometimes even in a drastic way. The influences come from art history or every day life,” he says. His stirring pieces are washed and dreamlike.
“The choice of colours is the result of an evolution, a research process which is always changing, sometimes in an unexpected way. More and more often, there are violent combinations of colours, sometimes accidental,” he continued. “Before, there were more thoughtful, calm, esthetic combinations of colours. Before, I was in search of harmony and balance. Nowadays, the colours I am using are more nervous, stressful, more chaotic.”
Czeremuszkin-Chrut meets that with a game changing, “The limitation of colours? I want my paintings to become sterile, monochrome and very economical. I am also planning to go back to mural painting of large format – contact with a wall arouses very different emotions in a spectator as well as in the artist…texture and scale of a wall are a huge challenge.”
Bilecki’s phenomenal, “The Apparition of the Geisha –suite”, acrylic on paper strayed early on from ready made shades in grid and forethought. The works are pastel like. They are comfortable in the conviction and flavor.
He does not fight for change or evolution in these works. “It is not useful”, he shares. “The need to create, artistic searching is much stronger of me. I am doing it during my whole life, and it is a long time since I stop from thinking about the use of creating, if the creation act is helping me or the other way round.”
Czeremuszkin-Chrut convictions sway differently. “Fighting is involved in each of my paintings because most of them are created through multiple changes of decisions regarding the way of painting (which leads to over painting as a consequence). When matter resists, rivalry and competition are born. The painting resists and demands; it does not allow me to ‘break’ it and shape it.”
Giving thought to future works she sees,”… evolution, and I carry out this process on purpose. I am interested in endless synthesis of human form, in making its personality traits disappear completely, “she says. “I aspire to create a new and individual human form – my own human form. Apart from anonymity, also biology characterized by hidden sexuality, is important to me. I would like to make my work deeper in a psychological sense: a human being as an anonymous entity and at the same time as embodiment of the crowd.”
“I like it very much to observe the evolution of my work, but only when observing the work already done (as if this was already historic)”, says Bilecki. “I never think about it when creating or when preparing my future art works. I have no idea! I leave it, the theoretic art, to redactors and great philosophers, as for instance you,” he shares in jest, “You always have a global look. I don’t.”
http://www.ec-gallery.com/

DRAGGING THE LEASH, LINDA WARREN GALLERY

West Loop Trilogy – Part 2 Juan Angel Chavez: Dragging the LeashLinda Warren GalleryChicagoDecember 11 – January 16, 2010

jeffery mcnary - NEOTERICART

Juan Angel Chavez’s solo exhibition, “Dragging the Leash”, now at the Linda Warren Gallery, lays out a sermon. It presents an emblematic voyagers tale told in pressed wood and street found jagged things tidied up and made to rejoice. It leads the viewer off the curb like an intruder, into circles of the semi-starved and discarded and the opera which runs aside such cultures. It bites, while not drawing blood. It’s way past that. “My work has always had a consistent theme that relates to the notion of being free while being tied to the responsibilities of civilization”, he says. “This is what I call feral work. Thematically speaking, it’s about the ingenuity of survival.” It’s the central activity of this show.
Upon entering the exhibition, “Otherside”, a 3-D collage, beckons the viewer to bend or squat, to take a look inside of the orange, battered construction barrel on its side, back lit, encouraging a peep. “On this particular body of work I’m focusing on the idea of being homeless, the consumption of decay and transient ways of life”, Chavez says. This piece, more or less, kicks off his tour, saddled upon cut waves of wood. Social demanding art has fascinated Shakespeare and many the philosopher – Aristotle, Plato, mac-man Machiavelli to name a few, and a posse or two of rappers. There’s rough shit in that landscape. Mouths move and words don’t come out.
But then…comes now, “Last Breath”, mixed media, with its near overwhelming narrative quality. “Last Breath” is about watching someone die in front of my eyes”, the artist rises. “It’s the contradiction…of life and death and the tranquility in the eyes as he went. I began working on layers until I achieved the feeling of that moment. That is my ultimate goal in the work. I want them to be felt while they are looked at.” Antlers reach from the work, along with tufts of fur, burned wood and a melted plastic letter. And it dictates sadly and clearly, in long hand, the story of another pilgrim’s engagement with concrete and cold.
The circular emerges in many of the artist’s works. Segments of “Deep Scars”, produce a star filled sky effect. Another side of the same work carries a wooden log, back-lit to portray a fire, camp or barrel, providing sympathy and warmth for the resident. The homeless often decorate their spaces and Chavez captures that with a small banner of a male and female figure hanging from the work. Each piece holds its own history. “Shine”, sneers out the memory of a deer, or man, or woman frozen in the headlights of a vehicle where they’d best not be.
Mr. Chavez’s career making art rolled out with his murals around Chicago’s neighborhoods. He has been a prolific figure on that scene with a major work, a mural on the city’s major transit line. “My grand mother drew me to art and the influences have been vast”, the artist shares, continuing, “My influence draws from Rushenberg, Chuck Close, Gordon Matta Clark and others. But, I’m also inspired by outsider art. I’m inspired by what I consider the battle against permanence, which includes daily displays of overcoming what we build and what we forget.” There are other works here one just must spend time with.
The step into the Linda Warren Gallery is a bold, and can be seen as a ‘breakout’ move for the artist. It’s charming. Such ether is a gear shift from the non-for-profit board driven options having housed much of his works and messages in the past and have provided limited choices, and visibility. Will such a move call for a new direction for the artist? Will the pieces fight back as they sometime do? “I wrestle with all of them but they all have a different fight”, he shares. “Some start out huge and end up small. Others are simple and complicated at the same time. When they get overwhelming I usually go for a walk until clarity appears.”
No one can predict the fate of Chavez’s subjects, or the terms and direction of his brilliant, conscious art. “I’m wanting to continue this same path. I have several projects I want to develop regarding this direction. So, it’s hard for me to say what’s the direction. I’m going with this work. I guess you are going to have to wait and see.” And that we will, sir, eager and anxious.
http://www.lindawarrengallery.com/

GO CRIMSON! YALE SUCKS!!

SCRATCH A YALE MAN WITH BOTH HANDS AND YOU'LL BE LUCK TO FIND A COAST-GUARD. USUALLY YOU FIND NOTHING AT ALL!

BRIGITTE RIESEBRODT : METAMORPHOSE

jeffery mcnary

CHICAGO ART REVIEW . NET

GALERIE DE ROY BOYD Rue de 739 puits de N. 30 octobre-5 janvier L'exposition courante à la galerie de Roy Boyd, Brigitte Riesebrodt métamorphose, tient le récit, la perception, et les traces de la foi. Ici l'artiste répand la peinture, littéralement et figuratif avec ses mains sur la toile, et distinctif sur les barres cirées du chêne incurvé et superficiel par les agents des barils une fois remplis du vin italien qu'elle a choisi d'employer. Il n'y a aucun aspect aléatoire dans son utilisation de couleur, beaucoup mettent à la terre des nuances des verts et du cuivre. Elle utilise une fluidité des médias. L'artiste a dépensé presque une peinture de décennie en Toscane, et a utilisé les fresques tôt de cette région et autour à d'Arezzo, en particulier ceux de de Giavanni et Pieve, les deux artistes de la Renaissance de XVème siècle de la région. Parfois les contradictions apparaissent, et le travail peut sembler aigu. Après tout, les fresques commissionnés du mid-1400 ont été daignés pour refléter les triomphes du christianisme. Les travaux de Mme Risesebrodt's sont des résumés, non représentatifs, avec les deux raccordements et interprétations exigeant une large portée. Dans la comparaison, ils sont près de bruit. Elle, « dîner de Leonardo le dernier », le pétrole et la cire sur le bois, sont apparus dans l'institut d'art de l'exposition récente de Chicago, « une caisse pour le vin », mais n'ont pas été tenus en tant que constante. La « rue d'ATF Angelico John », pétrole et cire sur le bois présente une autre série de barres de baril, encore en terre attrayante modifie la tonalité. L'artiste tient une appréciation pour le travail de Twombly et de celui de l'expressioniste danois, par Kirkeby, et exprime la facilité avec laquelle la genèse de son travail dévoile pour elle « Les seuls travaux que j'ai luttés avec sont les collages », les parts d'artiste. Ces travaux, sur la toile, prend le téléspectateur en variant les couleurs pastel, avec d'autres nuances piaulant à travers. Parfois le téléspectateur se demande où l'exposition va, autre que son mouvement vertical. « Ce, » des parts l'artiste, « est parce que la majeure partie de mes travaux précédents a été horizontale » Le travail de Riesebrodt saute avec élégance elle dans une arène des peintres techniquement habiles, et les notices de visionneuse qu'elle est clairement au-dessus de cette barre dès l'abord. Mais il y a peu d'autre pour expliquer, seulement pour comprendre et espérer seulement plus dans une exécution différente.