Chicago Arts Team Members nepheley and myself (along with a very patient boyfriend) gathered at Chicago and Franklin Friday evening to partake in the River North Gallery openings.
Our tour began at The Byron Roche Gallery, featuring the heavily textured paintings of Sandra Dawson. Dawson's work focused on one or two objects (or persons) and highlighted them among thin layers of plaster covered by boldly colored paint. Dawson's work was often matted on canvas by a two or three inch border that contrasted the background of the central image. As we toured the gallery we were taken aback by some "stock paintings" (work that the gallery has previously shown or stores) near the back--which was to happen often during our tour of the galleries--nearly black small canvasses with one detailed object under a bright light by Ronand.
Next door at the sophisticated and smallish Stephen Kelly Gallery, Lisa Caplan's bright color palettes and perspectives (the show was titled Euphoria and Vertigo) were paired with abstract and dreary (by comparison) paintings of Central Park and other locales in New York. Caplan's use of golds and bronzes made each landscape regardless of its locale (from Venice to the U.S.) look as if they were holding the rising sun.
The Mary Bell Galleries-Group Show, featuing Betty Fulmer, Leslie Tejada, and Tamar Kander was completely stolen by Leslie Tejada. Her abstract, ethereal scenes were captivating and full of interest.
Also on display were the lovely sculptures of Greg Milne, which were breathtakingly beautiful. Milne pairs rustic metal fire painted to a brilliant palette of blues, reds and purples with the smallest accent of crackled white ceramic porcelain.
As on previous River North Gallery Walks, the place to be was the Judy A Saslow Gallery. Not just because of the enormous space and the exciting work on display, but also the excellent food table and bar. The place was packed with people and to encourage their comfort, a coatrack was on hand. As we munched, we looked at work seemingly influenced by comic book art, which felt at once fresh and interesting though slightly repetitive.
Our next stop was to the Melanee Cooper Gallery to view "Urban Landscapes," Solo Show, Kathleen Waterloo, encaustic work and in the second gallery, James Leonard, squeegee paintings. We walked past all of this to view paintings from a previous show of Cheryl Warrick's that were still up in a smaller space and were so strikingly beautiful that we were compelled to ask about taking images for this site. One canvas is filled with different size squares of paintings, almost to a "quilted" effect. Next to them, Waterloo's delicate yet large abstract pieces featuring soft stripes broken up by bits of color looked like repetitive pieces of bathroom art, which in short means that the color palette reminds one of water and the image is not too displeasing to the eye. Warrick's work showed that restricting one's work to a form does not have to be boring.
Our next stop was to the relatively empty Andrew Bae Gallery to view wood block prints by artist Kwan Jean Park. The prints were beautiful in rich fall tones and rendered so carefully onto the paper, you could almost sense the pressing happening before your eyes. Layered onto multiple backgrounds, the work was beautiful without any extra framing. We were all drawn to the storage area of "stock" work and the exquisite hand crafted wooden furniture.
We took a respite at the Catherine Edelman Gallery and viewed photographs taken in New York and Chicago by Bruce Davidson. Black and White scenes of subways and streets from twenty years or more ago had clean lines and excellent contrast.
We crossed the hallway to the Zg Gallery, an exciting new gallery for emerging artists. A group show that was excellently organized and displayed tried to attempt to show the artist's process from scraps of paper to models and then finally, the finished product. It was extremely interesting, yet if felt like the sort of information you glean in a museum.
At the Lydon Fine Art Gallery, Trevor Bell's minimalist and oddly sloping canvasses called us past the fussy fresco art of Genell Miller. With bright bold colors, Bell's work evokes a well-someone-had-to-do-it response followed by awe by the size and shapes of his canvasses. A tiny panoramic painting about two inches in height with no identification card was alone worth the winding trek through the gallery.
We tried to make it in time for the galleries on the northeast corner of Franklin, but they were closing (relatively) early. Pity, since the Schneider Gallery's opening night of Luis Gonzalez Palma's work was considered a must see for this reviewer. The glimpse I got through the darkened windows looked as promising as his last show here; gold leaf covered in layers of resin over a translucent silver gelatin print. Art and Photography have never made such a perfect match.
We reluctantly entered the library like confines of the Habatat Galleries, only to find the delightful and whimsical work of Toots Zynsky in the main gallery. The artist herself was on hand (even that late) to answer questions, as is customary in most gallery openings. The lighting was perfectly executed to show every detail in molded glass rods that nearly resembled large seashells. Also on display, a select group of Chiluly glass work resembling flowers.
At the Gruen Galleries, the glazed pottery paintings of Anna Pales' trees were exquisite and far from repetitive. The colors alone were perfect and the glaze only highlighted each stroke of paint. We were also impressed by Dionisio's asian inspired paintings, as well as Erin Parish's geometric work.
Our last stop of the evening was The Perimeter Gallery featuring the work of Don Pollock. Haunting and evocative, this work ended our evening in the perfect way, leaving us wondering what was ahead for our evening.
Hit: Mary Bell Galleries-Group Show, featuing Betty Fulmer, Leslie Tejada, and Tamar Kander
Habatat Galleries-Toots Zynsky
Lydon Fine Art-Lucy Clink & Genell Miller: Paesaggi e Giardini
Perimeter Gallery-Don Pollack
Schneider Gallery-Luis Gonzalez Palma