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.