"What is this?," you may ask. This is what you get when you Google search "quarter back fail", which is what I, as a busy, freaked out figure of the Chi-town art world feel like right now. I have many of a commitment breathing down my throat, and yet I continue writing, in an attempt to share my thoughts on this beautiful world of Chicago art I see. So here is what you get, if you want it: a few sentences of madness of what I've seen. I hope this can help some of you think a little more, to take a second look, to, oh, I don't know, be inspired, give a shit, do whatever it is you beautiful Chi-town art people do that makes me love ya'll so damn much! Here's what I thought (drunkenly and stressing about lectures I must give)...
4/1
Casey Riordan Millard at Packer Schopf -
Ok, so there's this thing, Shark Girl. Jeriah and I have been enamored with her, the creation of Casey Riordan Millard, since we've been in Chicago. Shark Girl is the epitome of the awkward creature we all are. She is us, and we are her. She will fuck you up, but won't ever realize she's doing it. This show is, from what I understand, a semi-finalization of Shark Girl, or at least the images made of her up to this point, so come, collect her visage (buy some art people! We do it, so can you!) before she passes into the aether. Look, think, and you too will fall in love.
Brooks Cashbaugh at Peter Miller -
Like so much of what I enjoy at Peter Miller, this is odd-ish figurative realism. It is hyper saturated, and of a style most appropriately described by my buddy Alyse (a practitioner of this style) as the "colored Band-Aid" approach to painting. There is a painting, that for the life of me I can't remember the name of, which features a woman cowering in a rural Midwestern field before a house, that informs all of this work. It's sloppy, colorful, and feels like the end of the world. For us navel-gazing Homo Sapiens, ya'll should at least appreciate this chromatically charged look at who we are, where we are, or where we may go. Look and contemplate your destruction.
Maria Calderon at Fill In The Blank Gallery -
"Maria Calderon is a Peruvian American Artist based in Kansas City whose
paintings are colorful reflections of the global village." Yup, that says the basics, as any sort of press release is supposed to say. But this misses a lot of what you would actually experience. You went to the Ren, you patted yourself on the back at reading the usage of 60's and 70's visual vocab to explore the contemporary, but did you bother to check out this burlap-and-bright-colored explosion looking to the global village for visual inspiration? No? Well, get your ass to somewhere you haven't seen. The vocab may not be as nuanced as the well-versed Ren, but there are commentaries on the (semi-)failed utopia of the love generation still stalking us, for better or worse. And for those of you with anarchist leanings still informing your viewing, brush up on your NAFTA documentation and go see the show.
4/2
Country Club Presents 'Abstract Location' and John Opera at Andrew Rafactz -
Ok, so here's the deal: you have County Club with a selection (made by the Rafacz crew, I believe) of the best of the best, and a series by John Opera, all in one place. You can't go wrong. The selection of work from Country Club gives something for everyone. I have my loves, but there is something for everyone. You will see something you like. As for John, well, I must say my opinion is biased. I love Chi-town people, but there are some pretentious peeps in our midst. Opera is not one. He makes some insanely contemplative, quiet, and introspective work, that, like himself, if you take the time to investigate you will find comical, smart, and insanely beautiful.
4/8
Ok, so I know Heidi, and I've seen her work. So it made total sense when Dominic said (this is what I can remember, so don't quote me) Heidi has decided to just show what she'd been making images of. The result is (yet another, though not in a bad way) reference to the semi-utopia of the Age of Aquarius gen of imagery, rendered here through plant and wax sculpture. All of my concerns for the plant's welfare aside, I actually enjoyed the work. It was the embodiment of that question made to all photographers of the "still-life" of why not just show the "sculpture" itself. Usually this is an annoyingly stupid art school required question, but in this case, actually interacting with the objects made sense, outside a merely academic "what if" scenario. It was visceral, creepy, painful, and sad, for all the right reasons.
Adam Pendleton at Shane Campbell -
So, I'm not sure exactly what the point of all this was, but I liked it. It was, again, playing off the love generation era imagery, but the best part of the exhibition was the awkwardness of the viewer. The pieces, each of which are mirrored prints, require the viewer to either view their reflection in the piece, or view the piece from an oblique (pure) angle. The navigation of the space was fun. Alphabet correspondence with women, perhaps I was too drunk to get at the time, but I'll tell you this much, regardless of my drunkenness at the time or my subsequent sobriety, I wanted to buy one.
Filed under: Art Talk Chicago, Monday Morning Quarterback
