The Art of Human Rights - Save the Date

On February 25, 2011 the Junior Board of Heartland Alliance, will host "The Art of Human Rights" (formerly Art Against AIDS), at the Gruen Galleries, located in the heart of Chicago's River North gallery district at 226 West Superior. The event will feature live and silent fine art auctions. This after-work cocktail party boasts a variety of mediums by artists from all over the country. Above is the piece I donated this year. It is a mixed media piece titled "Monument 2" from 1992. It measures 5.5 inches square and is framed roughly 16 x 22.

Proceeds from the event will help Heartland Alliance provide housing, healthcare, economic security, and legal protections services to more than 200,000 people whose lives are threatened by poverty and danger, including those living with HIV/AIDS.

You can find more information on the event at: heartlandalliance.org
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Josh Moulton at ZIA Gallery

Tomorrow night, ZIA Gallery will be hosting an opening reception for Chicago artist, Josh Moulton. Moulton's paintings capture various facets of city life... street corners and building facades. The reception is from 5-7:30pm and the exhibition will continue through January 29, 2011. Moulton's work is well collected and can be found in numerous corporate collections including Deloitte & Touche, The NMH Prentice Women’s Hospital, and Oncor International, in addition to numerous private collections.

ZIA Gallery is located at 548 Chestnut Street in Winnetka, Illinois. Additional information can be found at ziagallery.net

Hope to see you there!

Roland Kulla - ZIA Gallery

I became aware of ZIA Gallery a few of months ago. Located in the village of Winnetka—17 miles north of Chicago—The gallery specializes in contemporary American photography, painting and works on paper. It represents established and emerging artists in a range of styles and media.

A day late... the Roland Kulla exhibition closed—yesterday—at the ZIA Gallery. Pieces, may sill be available... Contact Zia Gallery at ZIAgallery.net for additional information.

The Kulla exhibition—which opened at the end of October with a wonderful reception—presented a series of large scale paintings, pencil drawings, and prints which define the complex beauty of steel bridge structures. Following Kulla's career for a number of years—and seeing the work's evolution—I've come to my own conclusions about the metaphorical content of the imagery. The bridge symbolism seems obvious... the element needed to move from one point to another. But there is something more. I see the screen-like, steel-woven structures as symbolic of the barriers we need to navigate to acquire our "clear blue sky" goals. The works seem to be symbolic of achievement on so many levels. From Kulla's artist statement:

I am fascinated by the built environment. I reflect on what the structures tell about their builders as well as their interaction with nature and the results of time. Since 1998 I've focused on the engineering ingenuity that created Chicago's many bridges. Structural elements are abstracted from their context and painted with a hard-edged realism on a scale that highlights the monumentality of the forms and the creativity necessary for their existence.

Although people are not the direct subjects of my work, they are integral to it. The structures stand as proxy for human experience. I create places and moods that invite the viewer to enter into the work and form their own relationship to it.

Zia Gallery is located at 548 Chestnut, Winnetka, IL 60093. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday 10-5. Call for additional information: 847.446.3970.

Learn more about ZIA Gallery through this link.

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The Rebecca Moy Reception at Gallery 180

The Rebecca Moy Exhibition opened this past Friday, at Gallery 180, with a wonderful reception catered by the Culinary school of The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago. The Moy exhibition consists of eight large-scale canvases, elegantly manipulating the spacial relationships of line, form and color. If you're in Chicago's Loop, this is a "must see" exhibition. The show continues through January 17th.

Gallery 180 is free and open to the public. All works will be available for purchase. Gallery 180 is located at 180 N. Wabash—at the corner of Lake and Wabash—in Chicago’s Loop. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 8am-8pm; Friday, 8am-5:30pm and Saturday 9am-5pm. Additional information can be found at gallery180.com.

Nancy Rosen ~ More is More

I received a call from Artist, Nancy Rosen last week. We haven't talked in awhile and she wanted to get together. She told me that she had an exhibition up and that she wanted me to see it. And so I did.

The show—of more then 100 paintings—was hung in an unconventional space on West Hubbard. Hung salon style—in a number of rooms—the variety of paintings offers the viewer some insight of Rosen's figurative journey. Covered with patterns and textures, the nontraditional renditions of women—primarily of their relationships with other women—cover almost every wall of the industrial loft space. A well-attended reception was held last month but their is still time to experience the work by appointment. If interested, contact Nancy Rosen through her web site nrosen.com

Rebecca Moy: Visceral Reaction

"Against The Grain", Acrylic on Canvas, 44" x 60"

Gallery 180 of The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago will be presenting the paintings of Rebecca Moy from November 15 through January 17th with an opening reception on Friday, November 19th from 5:30-7:30... so save the date!

Manipulating the spatial relationship of shape and color, Moy creates an intriguing world with hard-edged abstraction. The works explore the reactions that she—and the viewer—has to variations of color and form relationships. Moy explains:

“I’ve always been fascinated with the reaction of the body and mind to the visceral relationship between color and shapes. …This series of paintings becomes the physical embodiment of this investigation, as it takes place within me. I’m intrigued by the thoughts and feelings evoked by precise orchestrations of color and shape. Layer by layer, these forms create a place to remember, or perhaps a place to forget… to wonder and wander through the times and places we’ve all journeyed; perhaps these are the moments and memories which define us.”

Moy works in an abundant sanctuary—her studio—were massive canvases surround a central workspace. Here, she obsessively applies layer after layer of acrylic, inventing—and reinventing—new meditative imagery, which addresses psychological reaction to line, shape and color. Some of the compositions are presented in quiet color palettes while others seem charged with electric vibrancy... each conveying an individual mood or personality. The paintings seem to explore the color theories of Stanton MacDonald-Wright [1890-1973], which defined specific psychological interpretations of color. Moy takes these color theories a step further by incorporating shape and line into her imagery. These images provide an intriguing sensory experience.

The work of Rebecca Moy will be presented at Gallery 180 of The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago through January 17. An Opening Reception will take place on Friday, November 19, 5:30-7:30 pm. Gallery 180 is free and open to the public. All works will be available for purchase. Gallery 180 is located at 180 N. Wabash—at the corner of Lake and Wabash—in Chicago’s Loop. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 8am-8pm; Friday, 8am-5:30pm and Saturday 9am-5pm. Additional information can be found at gallery180.com.

Also, take a moment to drop by Gallery 180 to visit the amazing paintings of Frances Cox through November 11th.

Filter Photo Festival

What a wonderful idea...

With a mission to bring fine art, commercial and documentary photographers together with some of the Midwest's top gallerists, photo editors, educators, and curators, Chicago's Filter Photo Festival will take place this October 6-10th at the Chicago Photography Center. Included in this year's event are workshops, exhibitions and lectures with world-renowned photographers. Also included is a portfolio review segment where photographers have an opportunity to meet face-to-face with educators, photo editors and curators, for feedback. The reviews are scheduled to be held on Saturday, October 9th and Sunday, October 10th from 9 am – 5 pm. Participants can sign up for either 4 or 8, twenty minute reviews to receive candid advice about their work, as well as tips for getting photographs published and exhibited.

On Sunday, October 10th, I will be participating as a reviewer.

The Filter Photo Festival will be held at The Chicago Photography Center, located at 3301 North Lincoln Avenue. Find more information on this event at chicagophoto.org
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