Frances A. Cox ~ Still Life Portraits

Frances A. Cox, Conversation, oil on canvas, 24" x 28"

Save the Date: Friday, December 13th 5-7pm

Last week, I received an email from Frances Cox inviting me to her Rogers Park studio. The invitation was an offer to preview a series of paintings that she created for an upcoming exhibition. I accepted.

The solo exhibition—titled “Still Life Portraits”—will be presented at the Renaissance Court Gallery of the Chicago Cultural Center from December 13th through January 26th, 2014. The Opening Reception is scheduled for Friday, December 13th from 5-7pm. You should plan to attend. This is a “must see” exhibition.

Cox—a prolific painter—utilizes plant forms as metaphor for human emotions. She openly points out…

“When I look at plant forms, I view them as botanical singularities having the characteristics of other living things.”

Her ornate images guide the viewer on a journey through the picture plane—exploring gestural botanical forms and structures alluding to humanity. The images are sometimes a singular “figure” while others define relationships.

The most current images are brilliant. Cox has pushed her color palette to explore stronger contrasts—making the images pop off the surface of the canvas. The glistening oil shimmers with fluid emotion created through a combination of silhouette and beautifully modeled forms. The mixture of modulation lends to the complexity of the elaborate compositions.

Frances A. Cox, Two Eccentric Vases II, oil on canvas, 28" x 34"

Join me at the opening reception of Still Life Portraits on Friday, December 13th from 5-7pm. The Renaissance Court Gallery is on the first floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, located at 78 East Washington Street in Chicago.

Gallery Hours: Monday through Thursday; 9am–7pm, Friday; 9am–6pm, Saturday; 9am–6pm, and Sunday; 10am–6pm

Frances A. Cox, White Vase with Hanging Pear, oil on canvas, 28" x 30"

Frances A. Cox was raised in Chicago, IL, graduated from Marquette University and attended the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited in many state group shows as well as regional juried exhibitions across the Midwest and has earned numerous awards from Midwest Museums of Art.

​Solo Exhibitions of her work have been held at the Freeport Museum of Art in Freeport, Illinois as well as the South Bend Museum of Art in South Bend, Indiana.
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Carol Luc ~ Vestiges

AM Interlude, oil on canvas, 30 x 24"

A wonderful exhibition opened this past weekend at the Chicago Cultural Center. Located in the Renaissance Court Gallery, Carol Luc presents a series of introspective and thought-provoking paintings and drawings. The show—titled “Vestiges—presents architectural studies exploring segments of environments defined by the light that moves through them. The images reflect a quiet—inspiring—moment in time, the kind of moment when you find yourself daydreaming… staring at dappled light dancing across a window-lit stairway.

In defining the work, Luc’s statement points out that…

“Paradoxically, it is within the nothingness of empty space that the most substance is found. The element of light is filled with a psychological weight that demands the viewer’s attention. In exploring the relationships between light and space, objects and emptiness, the work strives to make the viewer conscious of the links between the material world and the intangible by expressing quiet and reflective emotional states.”

“Vestiges” runs though August 26^th at the Chicago Cultural Center located at 78 East Washington Street in Chicago. Luc will be at the Renaissance Gallery on Wednesday August 1 at 11:30am-12:25pm—to talk about the exhibition. The lecture and exhibition is free. Exhibited work is available for purchase, with only one exception. Visit carolluc.com to see additional work.

Remnant, oil on canvas, 30 x 24"