Omar Velazquez at Corbett Vs. Dempsey

Vocetero, 90’ x 62"

Sixty years after the Hairy Who conquered the Chicago artworld,  a new member has appeared - though he’s far from being another white Midwesterner.  Omar Velazquez (b. 1984) lived in Puerto Rico until coming to Chicago for an  MFA. Like his famous predecessors, he combines painterly skill with adolescent attitude.  No anger here - just the conviction that the world of adults is all a big joke - appropriately expressed by the styles of popular art - especially comic books — or, in his case, the digital art of video games.

Pastillo (detail)

The overall aesthetic may be banal - but the execution of detail is professional - and sometimes delightful.  That’s why these pieces are so much better seen in person than reproduction.  Like an old master, Velazquez is in complete control of pigment and pictorial space.  Unlike an old master, however (or, at least most of them) he cultivates alienation and absurdity.

No people are depicted, just domesticated animals - always juxtaposed, and often precariously balanced, with something unexpected - like a hogtied crocodile for example.  The Bronze Age technology of the mule is set against a jet aircraft. Artifacts of  ancient Taino sculpture contrast with the flat contemporary cartoonish look of the painting itself.

There is something gentle, timeless, and folkloric about all this.  But as "Flood", the title of the show, proclaims, a natural disaster is unfolding.   The pack mule in "Vocetero” is loaded up with what the artist wants to save ( musical equipment, Taino sculpture, and the wildest of wildlife) and heading for the hills.  There’s a certain sense of humor here.  Where in the verdant forested hills will you plug in those stage monitors ? -  and why does a crocodile need to be saved from water?  And who would take the risk of saving this dangerous beast anyway?   It’s all a big joke.

But apparently Art as joke still plays well in Chicago , here  enhanced with possible political references to post-colonialism and racial justice - since these images are immersed in Puerto Rico. I suppose that’s a step up from the defiant self-centeredness of the original Hairy ones - but not a huge one.

Yulia Gasio at UIMA

 

Yulia Gasio, Escaping Violence, 60 x 72, 2019

Born in Ukraine around the time it emerged from the Soviet Union,  Yulia Gasio left for America at age 21 and soon earned an MA in art history and an MFA .  Whether or not she studied studio art in her homeland, her narrative style does seem to reflect the official art of the Soviet Union. It’s no-frills storytelling - direct and unambiguous.  And sad.  Soviet Art always feels sad - even when smiles are plastered on the faces of happy workers.

But the above piece is more than sad - it also feels fearful, anxious, and depressing - amplified by that bright light pouring  in from the window. And then there’s the weird details:  the corpse-like suit in the suitcase; the ghost-like white drapes in the window; the ghost-like figure adjacent to them; the open casement window whose corner defies physics to inter-penetrate the corner of a wooden table; the cheesy furniture obviously purchased at Goodwill or salvaged from an alley.

Yulia Gasio, Home, 60" x 48"

Here’s my other favorite - the aftermath of violent destruction that feels as much like a Milton Resnick painting as a convincing record of war atrocities against civilians.

Gasio did not choose these tragic themes so much as she grew up in them.  The paintings are her response as a person who studies art history.  She is far from being an outsider artist.

What will she do when the war is over ?  Contemporary American art is mostly about itself if it’s not ironic or promoting some racial/ethnic/gender identity.  She is certainly capable of strong, compelling, narrative painting.  Every American except for a few deluded MAGA’s are concerned about the fate of Ukraine.  How else can she connect to her new homeland?

Laura Myntti at Epiphany Art Center

 

Laura Myntti, After Milton Avery #16, 20x30

Many of the modernists born between the 1860’s and 1880’s. (like Matisse and Picasso for example) wanted to show the world through  recognizable images almost as much as they wanted to maximize their expression of personal energy through the effects of paint on canvas.  Perhaps you could call that the legacy of Van Gogh.

Laura Myntti (b. 1961) has picked two of them, Milton Avery (1885-1965) and Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) to do something of a refresher course as she enters the final decades of her career.  

Avery gets totally transformed into the ABX painter he never was - which is not really a bad idea.  I’m not sure he had anything to express other than "Hey - this is Modern Art!".  It’s not too surprising that nothing of his is now being shown in Chicago, the Met, or MOMA. Myntti seems to take his paintings as an invitation for free improvisation in a more complex pictorial space than she usually creates.  None of her earlier work is in this show - but judging from online images, the above is a step up in excitement.

Gallen-Kallela was a bit more engaged with modern life, both social and personal.  I’ve never seen his landscapes in person, but they seem to be both observational and mythic - as if to say "this is our sacred land".  That’s rather distant from Myntti’s impetuous American individualism - but still Myntti’s variations are as joyful and vigorous as a Charlie Parker solo.

Curiously, the two observational landscapes in this show, scenes of a river valley in northern Wisconsin, are  even more vigorous in brushwork, but kind of exhausting and tiresome overall.  The Chippewa Flowage was just an excuse for action painting.  Maybe she should skip representation entirely. Or, on the contrary, skip the vehement self expression and go for appealing, tranquil beauty.

Milton Avery, Red Rock Falls, 1947

(Milwaukee Art Museum)

Laura Myntti, After Milton Avery #7, 36x36

Akseli Gallen-Kallela  ,Lake Kaiteli, 1905

Laura Myntti, After Gallen- Kallela,  36x36

Laura Myntti, Chippewa Flowage #6 , 24x30

Tyler Bernard Anthony at Very Serious Gallery

 

Tyler Bernard Anthony , Melting Lake Michigan, 30" x 30"

The above seems to depict the artist himself as some kind of puppet being placed upon the stage that is our city - in this case, the shore of Lake Michigan.  Kinda upbeat - kinda wacky - kinda juvenile.   But also luminous and eyecatching.  It’s his own, personal avatar - a kind of cartoon super-hero whose super power is survival.

Nothing about art schools or college degrees are mentioned on the gallery website, so I’m guessing the artist is self taught - which usually means that issues of form and concept are preceded by a concern for immediate impact - as in cartoons or advertising art - especially as they are combined on cereal boxes.

I’d say this work has got that.  I’m sold on the idea that he is embarking on the great adventure of life - even if these pieces, like even the best commercial art, do not have the formal intensity and sensitivity to draw me back for repeated viewing.

Judging from the many pieces sold in this show, it may be a good business decision for Tyler Anthony to build his self-puppet into a recognizable brand- as Hebu Brantley did with Flyboy and Joseph Perez (Sentrock) has done with his Bird City Saint. But I hope not.  I’d like to see Anthony address his life as it matures.   It’s way past time for Chicago’s Imagist tradition of adolescence to grow up.