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Sometimes art happens by accident - and/or, we don't recognize that it's happening.  Frank Paluch is the director of Perimeter Gallery and he is having a exhibit of his art, up the street, at Judy Saslow.  Frank doodles when he is on the phone and he makes rather elaborate renderings that have a relationship to the person with whom he is speaking.  Fortunately, I could not recognize myself in any of Frank's drawings. It was perceptive of Judy to notice Frank's large drawing pad and make the appropriate leap to offering Frank a show. 

One of the core messages in the Klein Artist Works program is that artwork should resonate with the artist's heart and soul.  In so doing the artist can explore what makes them unique and present that distinctiveness to their audience.  Distinctive art - art that is distinguishable from all others is of primary importance.  I've always found Joanne Aono's masterful art distinctive; with the invariable pairings of atmospheric water imagery, realistically rendered objects and obscured text.  Meaning is ostensibly withheld though we are given enough clues to construct our own truths.  Aono is showing at Images Gallery, a cooperative that annually reaches outside its membership for a show that draws from the community - like this one.

I'm impressed that Walsh Gallery can continually work directly with Asian artists and do well enough from a Chicago base to perpetually present strong exhibitions like the one which opened last night with Zhu Ming.  In his bubble/balloon performances there is balancing of the real and the dream, reality and imagination, fact and fiction; the two different parts that occupy us and balances our existence.  In Zhu Ming's work these forces are in greater balance than in my life.  And though the photographs of the performances seem in contrast to the glow-in-the-dark paintings presented here, each body of work delves into the balance and the dichotomy.