What to See in the Final Weeks of Chicago Artists Month
October 18th, 2011
With one more week of Chicago Artists Month, there are so many gallery openings and ongoing exhibits to see including Ray Noland’s “Let Them Eat Cro” exhibition (through Oct 28, 2011), this week’s post focuses on the artists selected for the Merchandise Artists in Residence Program (through Oct 31 2011) sponsored by the Chicago Artists Coalition. This program is meant to “help create a new audience of supporters and collectors for the resident artists” through the CAC’s mission of making art viable i.e. a source of income.
These artists share common threads by their use of etching and line (Lisa Goesling, and Zachary Mory) to create movement, form, negative and positive space, and impressionistic color rather than literal transposition. One artists collage work (Mark Moleski) converts everyday inorganic objects into more familiar forms while photos from another artist’s native land refer to the politics of capitalism and western modernity on gender, justice, and tradition in Chinese culture (Alexandra Lee). See the art in action on Vimeo.
Lisa Goesling
Life-long artist, Goesling’s experience in drawing, painting, sculpture, and graphic design all find their way into her sensual portraits of ornamental flowers. Where as the subject could feel shallow outside of a greenhouse, Goesling’s Composition of A Coleus (pictured right) is etched on Black Claybord and colored with India ink. Goesling says “I don’t use pencils, only the etching tool that etches out the layer of India Ink. The image appears in the bottom layer of porcelain clay” on the black board. The effect appears pencil drawn but has a living, breathing sculpturesque dimension emphasized by the black backgrounds, creating a positive and negative space rarely seen in life surrounding florals. Her art directing and public relations has helped make hers and her colleagues art marketable. Lisa was juried into the Corporate Gallery Program with the Northwest Cultural Council in 2008 and has presented her work in galleries throughout the Northwest Suburbs, Wisconsin, Los Angeles and now, the Merchandise Mart. A full portfolio of her work can be found at www.lisagoesling.com.
Jaime Lynn Henderson
SAIC-trained whimsical painter and movie lover values the skill it took to build Wizard of Oz set and is not far from Marc Chagall’s floating-in-air caricatures. She readily embraces nail polish, sharpies, cut outs and abstract expressionistic strokes. Old Broadway, Hollywood and pulpy surface stuff including fashion, jewelry, and beauty. Henderson reinterprets renaissance frescoes or Egyptian reliefs, scrolls, and wall painting. She portrays the Old Testament Babylonian orgy or the Kentucky Derby, which tell many stories within one frame. Henderson’s obsession with a whimsical crossroads between fantasy and reality came to life when she was featured as a contestant last year on Bravo TV’s “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.” http://www.bravotv.com/work-of-art A fabulous in-person interview and tour of her gallery are available at www.jaimelynnhenderson.com.
Alexandra Lee
Self-titled “multimedia interdisciplinary artist,” Lee has the benefit of reflecting on her origins in Hong Kong from the perspective of an artist trained at the School of the Art Institute in her adopted home of Chicago. Her international subjects maintain their place in her work, which has been exhibited and published internationally in such venues as the ARC, Evanston Art Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Jasper Art Center, Old Town Art Center, and Women Made Gallery. This connection to local art communities is a perfect compliment to the CAC’s mission of strengthening the vitality of art. More art is on view at www.ATYL.com.
Lee’s most recent work with a visual art focus is Fabrica, which is an ‘episode’ of Project Silkworm. Her photographic work is presently included in The Billboard Art Project (through 10/23/11) and “Together” at Harris Gallery, OTS (through 12/16/11). One of my ‘analogue’ pieces will be in Bare Essentials: Minimalism in the 21st Century, juried by Ingrid Fassbender, at Woman Made Gallery (11/04/11 to 12/22/11).
Moleski uses collages with mixed-media silhouettes that are future-looking and almost translate as digitial information, which is simultaneously tangible and intangible. See more silhouetted forms at www.markmoleski.com. In March of 2012, Mark has a solo show at the Rotunda Gallery in Lincolnshire, IL.
Mory’s work gives the impression of Chuck Close’s photo-realist pixel paintings with an essence of molecular flow and M.C. Escher-like optical illusion. Weaves and waves of pencil marks grow into towering tsunamis or an Aurora Borealis. The grayness of the graphite pencil fulfills its potential with Mory’s many large-scale abstractions, keeping the eye in constant motion across the image. More at www.zachmory.com.
Svoboda’s pieces have been on view in Prudential Plaza, River East Art Center, and the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan. Her installations take the shape of brain cortexes, the ink blot test, or blooming flowers. Each piece is so organic, it’s hard to image that they are an artist’s impression, which goes to show how in tune Svoboda is with natural forms.
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