Any diversion from popular cartoon-like art is much to be welcomed into the Chicago artworld. No garish colors and aggressive figuration here. These pieces resemble circular Petri dishes that have been marked up by bacteria on a thin film of agar. So what we feel here is a force of nature, not the hand of man. There was some gestural painting done at the beginning of the process, but it was transferred and layered onto another support.
From a distance, these meditative circles might suggest classical Chinese landscape painting - but there is nothing monumental or sentimental about them. It takes so much effort to feel how they pull together as a design, you might as well be looking at something that happened rather than something that was shaped. The swirling lines shown above might be the strands of hair pulled into the drain of a bathtub. Perhaps photography is the best way to create such effects - it's certainly less labor intensive.
Though not readily connectable to Chicago (as are the paintings of the other William Conger), this cool, earth-tone nature art is widely made in the Mid-west. (and the artist lives downstate). Before it’s closing, Perimeter Gallery was a good place to find it.
detail
These pieces feel less like a celebration than a penance.
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