Zygman Voss Gallery often showcases 17^th-20^th century masters, but the gallery’s latest exhibition features work by Chicago-based an artist, Elsa Muñoz, who stands her ground compared to the famous Dutch and Romantic realist painters who came before her. Muñoz, born in 1983, received her BFA from the Academy of Art in Chicago in 2006. Zygman Voss is excited to show her work because her talent and technique have been considered on par with old masters, while her subject matter presents a modern touch to each work.

Muñoz’s technique is detailed, while her subject matter is a twist on the Romantic’s idealization of beauty in nature. Three different series jumped out to me as I wandered around the gallery: Nightshore, Controlled Burn and Nightforest. I had the chance to talk to Ahron Zygman about the latest exhibition, and he told me a little about the meaning behind these three. Ahron explained to me that each had to do with the idea of fear in nature. Muñoz, who is afraid of the ocean, painted the Nightshore series as a way to combat her fear while portraying the unease that lies at the ocean shore. By portraying the shore at night with an ominous red tint to the sky, she draws the unknown out of the ocean. The work is beautiful while causing a sense of awe about the unknown.

Ahron informed me that Muñoz once watched a controlled forest fire, in which people burned part of the forest that was not producing much life in order to restart new growth. While there Muñoz experienced an element that many people understandably fear; even as the fire was controlled she could still recognize the great power of the flames. Muñoz captures this sense of awe mixed with fright in Controlled Burn.

Muñoz returned to the site after the fire had diminished and found the ash filled forest now with little patches of green sticking out in various places. In the pieces entitled Nightforest she brings a beautiful closure to the flames. This dangerous occurrence of a fire raging through a forest is no longer such a terrifying experience when the flames are controlled and one is able to see the good that is produced.

On view through June 1

Zygman Voss Gallery, 222 W. Superior, Chicago, IL 60654

www.zygmanvossgallery.com

Nightshore

Controlled Burn

Nightforest

Coming up at the Chicago Art Source Gallery in Lincoln Park is an exhibition titled Chicago Six, opening Thursday, April 4 and featuring diverse works from the following Chicago artists: Mark Phillips, Eric Holubow, Sheila Ganch, Lynn Basa, Kristin Komar and Michelle Gordon. The focus of the group show is to allow each artist to represent what they find inspiring, challenging and rewarding about living in Chicago. Though these Chicago-based artists are not all originally from Chicago, they have all made the city their home.

The six artists I will be discussing cover a wide range of mediums such as printmaking, photography, sculpture and painting, while still representing the theme of Chicago life found in the buildings, the people and the busy streets in each work.

Mark Phillips works with metal, printmaking and paint to represent the gritty El stations, the graffiti-clad walls and the busy streets that have become visual embodiments of his urban life in Chicago.

Eric Holubow photographs abandoned churches, theatres and warehouses in an effort to capture the beauty in these dilapidated structures, revealing a different side of Chicago architecture.

Sheila Ganch shapes abstract sculptures portraying the people that grab her attention in the city, such as the form of a couple bent over a table in thought, maybe waiting for their food at a local restaurant or playing a game of chess in the park. By creating different bodies in varied positions, Chicago becomes their common denominator. 

The three painters in the exhibition see the city in more abstract, color-filled ways. 

Lynn Basa creates tableaus of color springing forth from city lights and buildings.

Kristin Komar pairs unnatural shapes and colors on a background of dripping paint that represents the man-made buildings placed up against natural parks and lake and river.

Finally, Michelle Gordon piles color upon color to portray the diverse spectrum of people and places that life in Chicago has to offer.

Chicago Six

April 5-June 22

Chicago Art Source Gallery

1871 N. Clybourn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614

Chicago Gallery News relocated to a bright new office at the end of 2012, and since then, we have been packing, unpacking, hanging loads of covers and art, organizing and reorganizing – dealing with all the necessary evils of moving.  With each cover and artwork that went up on our walls, we felt more at home, and we’re happy with our new space.  Recently, our last empty wall was adorned with perhaps our final decorative touch (for now anyway…) when artist Elizabeth Burke-Dain completed her latest installation.
 
When we left our old office space, we unfortunately also had to leave the large blue-threaded installation that Elizabeth installed for us back in 2011.  These unique installations are comprised of a series of plotted shapes, set nails and colored thread that ultimately end up forming meticulous geometric wall weavings.  I enjoyed seeing this piece come to life over the span of three days – from the initial circular markings, to the nail settings (our neighbors did not enjoy that as much), to the final weaving that brought the whole thing together.

"I see these wall weaving installations as existing in the 'design-as-art' realm," says Burke-Dain about her work. "I have a number of different wall treatments using thread and I'm anxious to get started on another project".
 
The new installation stretches nearly fifteen feet across and nearly three feet high.  The bright yellow thread sharply contrasts the grey paint behind it and appears to almost bounce off the wall.  This work, like the older blue piece, is formed from a series of intersecting thread lines that stem from the circular shapes and nail anchors that the thread is wrapped around.  The weaving causes a dense overlapping of thread in some areas, creating the ‘X’ shapes and more saturated fields of color.
 
Elizabeth enjoys curating art exhibitions, creating PR strategies for art organizations and making things. She has a background in the humanities, arts, and art administration, and has been creating installations like these for several years.  CGN’s is the most recent addition to her repertoire, but she’s also installed her work in businesses including an advertising agency office, as well as in several other homes and residences.
 
Elizabeth would love to make many of these installations so solicitations and commissions for custom installations are welcome. These wall weavings are a great addition to business offices, design showrooms, restaurants, salons, boutiques, personal homes, etc.
 
Email Elizabeth with inquiries about a custom installation for your space, and to learn more about her work and see other samples, visit her Facebook page.

Thomas Robertello Gallery recently opened a show this past Friday featuring two artist: ceramicist Sarah Hicks’s show Pop Garden shows concurrently with Hilder Asgeirsdóttir Jóhnsson’s Strata. As both artists are exhibiting together in the gallery’s space, their rather unique works of art find ways to complement each other.

Chicago-based Hicks offers a variety of ceramic sculptures of imagined morphologies rendering her minimalist pop-surreal sensibilities. Hicks’s eccentric pieces are created from reassembled molds of mass produced and found objects. As Hicks wishes to investigate ornamental and highly stylized forms, she uncovers abstract as well as obvious correlations between their origins and knick-knack toys. She creates these hybrid works by a method known as slip trailing, in which she pours ceramic slip into a plaster slab where shapes are then drawn. This gives Hicks the chance to craft a two-dimensional form in a fluid method. She then treats the surfaces with intense colors, patterns, textures and glazing techniques to give the pieces a whimsical yet chic feel. These works demonstrate Hicks’s interest in the connection of the familiar and foreign pushing back on one another.

The Cleveland-based Icelandic artist Hilder Asgeirsdóttir Jóhnsson creates abstract and textile art that removes the detailed, vivid points in her photographs from her journeys to Iceland to simple and abstract hand–woven works. Jóhnsson documents her travel through Iceland, and uses the photographs of this stark landscape as the beginning point of her studio practice. She sorts through photos of trips to her native country, editing and then selecting images that really captivate her. She then distils the images to their most fundamental forms creating almost topographical studies. She then paints the drawings onto two separated silk threads that she weaves together to form a single woven piece. The abstract forms she creates are hard to recognize as the original Icelandic landscapes, but there is still a glimpse into this natural place and memory with which Jóhnsson first started.

This show seems to reveal a connection between Hicks and Jóhnsson though they are two very different artists. Both call for their original subjects to be minimized to the point of unrecognized form. In this form is where the viewer may then begin to understand the artists’ goal in their work.

Visit the exhibition to discover the connection between the two unique artists. The show runs through April 6.

Thomas Robertello Gallery

27 N. Morgan St.

Chicago, IL 60607

812-345-1886

www.thomasrobertello.com

Hicks

Johnsson

The Zhou B Art Center opens its doors for viewers to experience their latest show of poetry and art this Friday, February 15, coinciding with this month’s 3^rd Friday openings. Sergio Gomez collaborated with Poets and Artists Magazine’s Didi Menendez to curate the exhibition, From Motion to Stillness, bringing together over 40 artists and poets. The show explores representations of stillness, quietness, reflection, meditation, inner-peace, solitude and calmness. From Motion to Stillness calls the viewer and reader to step away from the fast-paced and constantly changing world to pause and experience the stillness brought about by these artworks and poems.

Enjoy a night of peace and reflection this Friday at the opening reception from 7-10pm. Visitors can also visit the open studios of all the in-residence artists, interact with many of the artists and mingle with other collectors and aficionados. After viewing some art and the open studios (including 4Art Inc. Gallery and Yale Factor Gallery), visitors can relax in the Zhou B Café and Art Lounge and enjoy other entertainment throughout the building.

Zhou B Art Center

1029 W. 35th Street

Chicago, IL 60609

773.523.0200

www.zhoubartcenter.com