It's been 5 years since Gregory Scott has shown in Chicago, again at Catherine Edelman. My photography of his images look like shots of still, passive photographs, but embedded in each is at least one video screen.  It's been great to have follow Scott's career for over 10 years as his insights, confidence, knowledge and humor have grown along with the technology. The magic is in the evidence, which charmingly slows the art viewer down.  In the single image below their are two video screens that keep changing, and in the photo with 4 images that's all one piece in different points in its sequence. Great stuff.

Neil Goodman' sculptures have attained maximum elegance.  The subtlety and resonant patinas on view at Perimeter are consummate expressions of balance and grace with negative space as seductive as the bronze is powerful. His works are poetically juxtaposed with the rich works on paper by Yutaka Yushinaga.

Nearby, at Saslow Gallery Jordan Scott builds 'paintings' out of the zillions of stamps he's acquired over the years, but I'm particularly drawn to his move to 3-dimensions with a wonderfully seductive box.


Rene Romero Schuler's paintings of abstracted females forms are on view at Norbach. It's the knifed texture that makes these paintings as successful as they are. 


Zolla/Lieberman has undertaken a brave, yet intelligent, transition, moving upstairs for 6 months while rehabbing their space for better efficiency and exhibition of art. Enter through the main building entrance.  They're on the second floor.

Kim Piotrowski is what's happening in the West Loop, at Warren Projects, with a bravura exhibition, including a dynamic wall-painting.  This is another wonderful artist whose work just keeps getting better,

All the shows listed above open tonight.  Last night Dan Ramirez beautiful painting show opened at the Union League Club, which is open to the public.  Pretty much, they've been acquiring at least a painting a year since the Civil War. When you go, take a look around. Who else do you know who bought both a Claude Monet and a Kerry James Marshall right after they were painted?

Theaster Gates organized a powerful exhibit which opened a couple of weeks ago and is on view at 2 galleries in the Hancock Building; Richard Gray and Valerie Carberry.  A suite of works Mitchell Squire of repurposed police targets delivered a gut punch.

Art Lives.  Bring it home.
Paul Klein

Mary Lou Zelazny, who has a piece in in the Doremus show, makes large, subtly dimensional works that combine collage and painting to an extent that the layers are almost indiscernible at Carl Hammer,.  

AdventureLand is exhibiting new collages, by Tony Fitzpatrick.  Birds are the focal point of the stories they stimulate from the artist's vast and layered life. 

Thanks very much,

Paul 

I was particularly impressed with Monika Wulfers (above) and Jeroen Nelemans's elegant and humorous wall laserlight piece made from laser level elements. Paola Cabal, Dana Carter, Spencer Finch, Dana Major, Daniel Miller, Jason Peot, Morgan Sims and Jan Tichy also have strong contributions. 

               Jeroen Nelemans

               Jan Tichy

               Dana Major

               Jason Peot

               Morgan Sims

I enjoyed the exhibit, the installation, and the local focus.  Solid and resourceful, it was well worth the short field trip.

Thank you,

Paul Klein

Rhona Hoffman has two shows opening Saturday that would be outstanding at any museum.  In my book, Carrie Mae Weems is a giant.  She makes art that touches the soul, illustrating the inequities that permeate the human existence. Where she excels is in her ability to distill the tragedy of slaves' journeys from Africa to the United States and all that lingers.

There's familiar work and new work.  And upstairs, Rhona and team have converted an auxiliary viewing gallery into a convincing theater built to Weems specifications where they're screening a video, but it's so much more than just a video, which builds on Weems' brilliant photography and includes Weems and others dancing and acting out stories about girls and race. Painstakingly beautiful work.  

In the front room at Rhona Hoffman Gallery is a stunning installation of Anne Wilson's seductive, mysterious and slow-revealing, sewn works on family heirloom linens.  The subtly, the history, the honoring of domesticity, and the intricacy of the art is spellbinding. I'm a fan.

On view at Linda Warren Gallery, Jason Brammer's new work is amazing.  His hands are so good he could have been a surgeon.  What he does with his art is magic - trompe l'oeil, but with content .  Historically, the great trompe l'oeil (fool the eye) artists made captivating art with little no or no content.  Brammer goes a step further. His journey back to the beginning of time, with nautical emphasis, consistently makes me feel like Jules Verne's resident artist escaped to Chicago.  He's good - and we're lucky.

In Linda Warren's main room, Matt Woodward's oversized and overflowing drawings resembled battered and abused skins reminiscent of otherworldly documentation of human activity.  There's an archaeological aspect which slowly reveals the content and inner layers of his art and obsession.

These shows are of museum quality in commercial galleries.  The work is for sale, but unlike most museums there is no admission fee.  Art galleries provide a service not only to artists and collectors, but to "normal" culture seeking people, like me.  These galleries, and many others, deserve our appreciation.

Warmly,

Paul Klein 

As collectors, Diasporal Rhythms believes in art and artists.  I think it's safe to say most collectors believe in art, and often don't complete the equation to also expand the appreciation of the artists' work. Hopefully, more collectors here, and other collectors in other cities, with take note. 

This is the Logan Center's first year of existence.  This is a thoughtful and insightful interaction with their extended community.

The show is notable because of the high number and percentage of impressive pieces, often because they were previously unfamiliar, and are outstanding.  They're unfamiliar because the artists are African-American, I'm not and I don't see their art enough.  This exhibit expands my knowledge. 

As I've learned teaching my Klein Artist Works course there is not a singular art world, but many art villages. The dominant, New York centric, hyperbolic, high-priced, art village is but one of many. Quite a few African-American artists reference a different heritage, different life experiences, different agenda and correspondingly tend to have a different aesthetic; one with more and brighter colors (often primary), more figuration, and more references to Africa instead of Europe.

It's wonderful to encounter art and culture we are insufficiently familiar with.  We can look at art for the quality and significance it has without being swayed by the reputation or hyperbole that precedes it. A return to visual purity.  You have no idea the joy I get from seeing a handful of pieces that are truly memorable.  It doesn't happen often enough.

Thanks very much,

Paul Klein

Image with 2 pieces; G.L Smothers. 
Image with 2 mostly b & w pieces; Joyce Owens
Image with sculpture; Faheem Majeed
Image with boy in bus; Lowell Thompson
Image with sculpture; Marva Lee Pitchford Jolly
Image with multiple pieces; Malika Jackson

Expo Chicago is a solid art fair with a good mix of galleries.  Some are significant and brought great art.  Others are presenting riskier, younger, more challenging art.  There are treasures to be found throughout. Discoveries are around every corner.  A wonderful show for the art connoisseur and the novice.  I'll see you there.

Warmly,
Paul Klein

I just took a road trip to East Lansing, Michigan to see Michigan State University's new Eli & Edith Broad Museum designed by acclaimed architect Zara Hadid.  The building is thoroughly spiffy from the outside, looking like it had be delivered by aliens, Fascinating looking buildings of this sort are compromised by the slightest overlooked details like a driveway or university signage.

But the larger point is that the building seems more important than the art it showcases. This is because the interior, and the art therein, serves the building instead of the other way around.  Too many compromises pervade the museum's galleries and dilute the art-viewing experience. 

I'm not one who believes that exhibition spaces need to be rectangles, but when they are conical, narrowing at the far end, the subconscious response is to turn around.

Other spaces have bright, outside light, slicing into the room, with reflective surfaces that conflict with looking at the art.  I was disappointed. 

A decade or so ago Hadid did Cincinnati's Contemporary Art Center and I remember liking it better. I can think of numerous other new museums that have been wonderful for the art, gorgeously integrated into the landscape, and exciting in their own right, like Crystal Bridges in Arkansas.

I want the art to be the priority.  I want the architecture to serve the art. I don't mind that the building is a sexy attraction to bring lookers to, and into.it, but I'm upset when I see art take a back seat to the building.  When that happens, to my mind, the building fails.

Thank you,

Paul Klein

I point this out because it has been a pleasure to watch Linda Warren's gallery grow to where she is now celebrating her 10th anniversary as a gallerist.  Unequivocally she believes in her artists and goes to bat for them on a daily basis.  She and her staff show and support artists they believe in.  Sales are important, but there is much more.  And such is the case with Conrad Freiburg who makes thoroughly engaging and unsaleable art, except for a few pieces.  His large installations are often participatory joys - and a fabulous way to introduce kids to the thrill of art.

Thanks very much.  Enjoy the art!
Paul  Klein

Swapping/juxtaposing remnants from one culture and inserting them into another, like abandoned abodes in Chicago and Germany touches so many.  Here, we are a nation of immigrants and how we treat those who follow the paths of our ancestors says a lot.  Gates' art is compassionate, heartfelt and universal.  With passionate, referential objects, a full performance schedule and multiple videos, it's a victory lap for an artist whose trajectory is rapidly ascending - appropriately. 

And this isn't the only show opening at the MCA.  Think First, Shoot Later is a survey looking at mostly big, beautiful, photographs whose content is often not readily discernible.  I'm pleased that there are 3 Chicago artists in the show.

In the ongoing MCA/DNA series, the museum looks at conceptual abstraction created in Chicago from 1986 to 1995.  Key works by Tony Tasset, Gregory Green, Julia Fish, Buzz Spector and many more. Two decades after many of these artists dispersed and/or their art changed direction we see the best show of their work.  I remember many of these pieces, their beautiful materials, typically simple straightforward compositions and complex ideas. This is a wonderful overview. I loved seeing it in the process of being installed, but it's obvious I need to go back.

The Presence of Absence, curated by Debra and Dave Tolchinsky, in a project sponsored by the Contemporary Arts Council, presents provocative works by 7 Chicago artists who delve into what should be there and isn't, or what isn't there, but whose presence is felt. I've never been to the Hairpin Arts Center, in a part of town I don't often get to.  The space is gorgeous, the art solid, challenging, yet accessible. This is a wonderfully odd, powerful, thoughtful show with some weird hours, because much of the art looks better at night.  

I knew Stan Rosenstock for decades. He was the man who sold high end light bulbs to art galleries.  I was surprised to find out that he was a sensitive insightful photographer who documented much of the turmoil and angst that embroiled Chicago in 1968, from the Democratic Convention, to the protests that ensued after the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.  His impressive show at Eyeporium is either a poignant trip down memory lane or an education.

ExpoChicago was big news in its first iteration last September.  The fair was a success because of the exhibitors love of Chicago and Director Tony Karman's charisma. The question for many was what would the second year look like. Did gallerists and dealers sell enough to want to come back?  And now we have the answer. ExpoChicago has just released its exhibitor list for September 2013.  There's a substantial return rate, with enough attrition to invite new and desirable exhibitors to participate.  It's great news that the show is here to stay, with galleries and art worth travelling to see.  I'm excited.  Now I want to see some satellite fairs.

Lots of superb art to see,

Paul Klein    

There's a gorgeous show of paintings by Thomas Nozkowski at Russell Bowman. I represented Nozkowski for a stretch during the 1980's.  I have distinct memories about his home (an old church), car (a small station wagon with racks in the back for unfinished paintings so he could pull over and work on them while en route to or from Connecticut), and that he worked at Mad Magazine. The focus of these content full, abstract paintings and his unique engagement with his art make him and his art totally memorable.  There is a purity here that is special and moves toward balancing the hyperbole in today's art world.

Sanford Biggers is a powerful artist whose work often presents a contemporary take on his cultural heritage. At Monique Meloche his large window presents century old quilts he has painted and embellished.  These quilts may have been an Underground Railroad sign of a safe house.  His beautiful and contemplative art acknowledges a deeper past and contextualizes its contemporary relevance.  Also on view, in the gallery, are disarmingly beautiful and tough work by Kate Levant who investigates alternative uses of atypical materials in work that occasionally incorporates photographic images.