Deanna Krueger: Shards

Deanna Krueger, Thalassa, Acrylic monotype prints on recycled medical diagnostic film, [X-Ray, MRI film], staples 62" x 63"

After living on the planet for a while, life begins to fall into a comforting rhythm—until that repetitive beat gets unexpectedly disrupted. In that startling moment, everything seems to freeze. Once breath reenters the body, there is reassessment, reinvention and an attempt to continue forward. The disruption acknowledges fear and mortality and yet offers an opportunity to explore human resilience.

These thoughts are triggered by the fascinating works created by Chicago Fine Artist, Deanna Krueger, currently on view at the Olympia Centre, located at 737 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I’ve known Krueger for a number of years and have exhibited with her on numerous occasions. The surfaces that she creates are both abruptly haunting… with shards joined by thousands of staples—and peacefully mesmerizing as the multi-faceted surfaces, glisten like a tranquil lake in the moonlight.

Krueger works in metaphor. She offers the viewer an unspoken narrative with her large-format wall pieces that exist somewhere between a two-dimensional painting and three-dimensional sculpture. She alludes to a storyline, simply by her choice of materials. Utilizing medical diagnostic film—an obsolete material that was used to obtain detailed sectional images of the internal structure of the body—now extinct due to the technology of medical digital imagery. Krueger applies loose layers of paint over the film and then shreds the visual evidence of the medical findings. The aggressive invader—that has been caught on film—is disguised and denied. The film is painted, torn, repositioned, and then stapled together to create beautifully semi-reflective multi-faceted surface. The final piece is so much more then the sum of the individual parts. The shimmering surface creates a mesmerizing, gem-like appearance reminiscent of the flickering mosaics. Krueger implies a life torn apart and pieced back together—better than it began. The work implies both a physical and psychological transition.

But is this truly the artist’s intention or just an observer’s projection? Sometimes the viewer can only bring to a work of art, their own experience. Sometimes you have to look elsewhere to be able to comprehend the realities of life.

If you’ve never experienced the work of Deanna Krueger—or met the artist in person—here is your opportunity. “Deanna Kruger: Shards” which opened to the public in March, continues through May 31. A Reception for the artist is scheduled for Thursday, May 12 from 4:30 to 7pm. Olympia Centre is located at 737 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago… Enter via 151 E. Chicago Avenue. The exhibition is free an open to the public. The space is open everyday from 8:30am to 7pm. This is a “must see” exhibition.

Deanna Krueger, Thalassa-detail

Michigan born, Chicago Artists, Deanna Krueger has exhibited at the Museum of Santa Severa – Italy, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, The Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago, Berliner Liste, Aqua Art Miami, Rockford Art Museum, Gallery UNO Projektraum in Neukölln – Berlin, and numerous other venues. Her work has been included into corporate, private, university, and museum collections around the United States and in Europe. She received her BFA Summa Cum Laude from the University of Michigan in 2002, MFA from Eastern Michigan University in 2004, and studied abroad in Italy in spring 2003. She has received several awards, professional development grants, and has completed residencies at Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts in Saratoga, Wyoming, The Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois, and at Contemporary Artists Center in North Adams, Massachusetts.