A review of John Himmelfarb "How things Stack up" at the Koehnline Museum
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
John Himmelfarb at Koehnline Museum
Saturday, June 22, 2024
Sol Kordich at Mariane Ibrahim
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Bill Conger at 65 Grand
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Entre Horizontes : Art and Activism between Puerto Rico and Chicago
A review of Entre Horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico
at The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
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Allegedly, this exhibit "examines the artistic genealogies and social justice movements that connect Puerto Rico with Chicago"
But what's really interesting were the above paintings on display. They demonstrate a quite fruitful connection between Puerto Rico and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Two of the above artists are currently faculty members ( Alvarez and Lerma), while the rest all studied there. They have brought so much beauty and joy to a regional art scene that has mostly been interested in other things.
And though it’s anathema to a Modernist sensitivity, most of their work is saturated with nostalgia. If squeezed, the tears could fill buckets. That’s probably why the curator chose to emphasize something more fashionable like "Activism".
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As Lori Waxman wrote for Hyperallergic:
Sunday, May 5, 2024
Rebecca Morris at Museum of Contemporary Art
A review of Rebecca Morris 2001 - 2022 , Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
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Saturday, May 4, 2024
Nicole Eisenman at MCA Chicago
A review of Nicole Eisenman : What Happened at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago—————————————————————————————————————
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So I’m not going to assert, as Sebastian Smee recently did in the Washington Post, that "Nicole Eisenman is one of the best American painters working right now." Aesthetics still matter - at least to me. Everything else is just subject matter- maybe you identify with it - maybe you don’t.
Smee does, however, make some sharp observations about how Eisenman’s painting has changed over the decades shown in this retrospective.
And we may note some ambivalence in his concluding paragraphs:
Art, at its best, starts from a premise of aliveness. Aliveness (in the forms of humor, sensuality, richness of response) is attached at the hip to awareness. Awareness (the human brain and body liberated from sentimentality, propaganda and all other forms of denial) involves registering the full extent of the debacle. But acknowledging the debacle, in turn, plunges us into depression — the very opposite of aliveness.
Awareness also involves registering the full extent of the miracle - before which we must believe the debacle is just a bump on the road. For those who love the awareness of miracle in form - Eisenman’s paintings are indeed depressing —- the larger they are, the more so.
Something like this dynamic inheres in Eisenman’s work. Her paintings and brilliant sculptural ensembles are atotally alive — sometimes almost maniacally so. But they’re also continually collapsing into a stunned stasis. When they emerge again, it’s into states of bafflement as the artist tentatively gropes after community, which she tenderly, gratefully celebrates.
Yes - stunned stasis is what I’m feeling here - and it’s repulsive - however tenderly community has been embraced. A serious adult public space - like an art museum - should not have the aesthetics of a feel-good daycare center.
BTW - Smee’s essay was quite impressive. If he didn’t pay proper respect to the judgment of the marketplace, he wouldn’t get published. But if he didn’t subtly undercut it, he wouldn’t be an art critic.
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Nor am I as comforted by these paintings as Annettte Lepique was in New City when she concluded
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Johan Wahlstrom at the Swedish American Museum