Khumbulani Mpofu, Trees

Dumela Contemporary African Art’s 2013 summer show opens this Friday, June 7.  The exhibition will be on view at August House Studio featuring original paintings, textiles, and a wide variety of vibrant, evocative work in all media by emerging and established artists from Zimbabwe, Kenya, and South Africa. 

Dumela has just one public show each year where visitors can see which pieces Dumela co-owners Leila Green and Nancy McDaniel have hand-picked from their recent travels.  The duo has established relationships with African artists from whom the work is purchased, and each piece is then custom framed locally in Chicago.

June 7-30

Opening reception on Friday, June 7, 5:30-9pm

August House Studio | 2113 W. Roscoe, Chicago, IL 60618

Check out the exhibition during studio hours: Fridays 5-9pm; Saturdays 1-6pm; Sunday 12-6pm; or contact Nancy McDaniel (773-477-2404 or email) to schedule a private viewing appointment.

Dumela’s Adventures from the past year...

In August 2012, Nancy made a trip to Zimbabwe and Zambia with two objectives: to buy art in Harare and to go on a week-long safari. It was a most successful trip on both accounts.  She met with a number of Dumela’s favorite artists including Charles Nkomo, David Chinyama, Khumbu Mpofu and Tendai Gurupira (an impressive watercolorist whom Dumela hadn’t seen in a number of years).  She also met with two women from the Weya Women’s Co-operative, from whom she purchased a number of “sadza” paintings (on fabric) as well as appliqués.  With this type of work, the artist translates a story and hides it somewhere on each piece.

Leila went to South Africa on safari in March and also met with a number of artists, both South African and Zimbabwean, in Johannesburg. The opportunity to meet new young artists being mentored by current, more established Dumela artists is always a treat. On this trip, Leila met Zenzo Siamenda and Petros Mwenga and bought work from each, which will be in the June show. 

October brought Dumela a fun opportunity back in Illinois, exhibiting work in the ART + VISION series at Spex Eyewear in Oak Park.

Zachariah Mukwira, Hard Workers; Barry Lungu, Sorting Tomatoes

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

I recently got the chance to check out the galleries in the John Hancock Center for the first time. The galleries in this building are all noteworthy as well as unique.What really struck a cord with me was the latest addition to the John Hancock Center’s gallery repertoire. Mongerson Galleries has been a Chicago gallery staple since the early 1970s, but has just recently joined the good company of the Hancock Center’s 25^th floor. The gallery specializes in paintings and sculptures of our country’s Westward Expansion along with other related fields such as Sporting, American Impression, Early Moderns and Contemporary.

It was here that a work caught my eye and remained in my thoughts for days after I visited Mongerson Galleries.  The piece was an oil painting by Charles McGee entitled Ring Around the Rosy. McGee, 87, grew up in Detroit and focuses much of his work on the culture and activity found in the streets of his city. In this painting McGee conveys rough and dirty living conditions while still portraying this innate innocence and vulnerability of young girls playing ring around the rosy. It is by no means a whimsical painting yet there is a sense of playful mischief and young imagination while poverty and pain still surround. As I sat and stared at this work, I was quickly captivated by the harsh lines of the painting combined with the soft forms of the young girls. The work draws the viewer into the happiness shared by the girls while still causing a sense of oppression brought on by what surrounds them. 

Gallery owner Tyler Mongerson shows excitement for each work in the gallery and loves to explain the importance, the history and the beauty of each artist and each piece. Stop by to see the new space and talk with Mr. Mongerson to learn more about the gallery’s history and its plans for the future. While visiting make sure you also check out I was able Marc Swanson's work in the Richard Gray Gallery, Francine Turk's pieces in KM Fine Arts and Herbert Ferber's paintings and sculptures in the Valerie Carberry Gallery.

Mongerson Galleries

875 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 2520

Chicago, IL 60611

312-943-2354 

Charles McGee

Ring Around the Rosy

Oil on Board

27 x 68 inches

“I feel that in art there are no limits for the creator among any kind of expression. For me, what I am asking in my world is to bring the deepest elements of my existence up to the surface and transfer all the hidden personal codes to bring my personal signature to the universal and global world. As the Ancient Greek philosopher, Heraklitos said, everything is fluid, and as a subscriber to this philosophy, I believe in global logos. It is very important for me to jump from painting to sculpture and from sculpture to music and to any other kind of art in order to find the traces, which will drive me to the global truth. I think that this is a very fundamental reason for someone to live, to exist.”               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 -Kostis Georgiou

In the latest exhibition at Hilton|Asmus Contemporary, Greek sculptor and painter Kostis Georgiou presents Pixels.  The show opened Friday, February 15, welcoming over 200 visitors excited to see some of Georgiou’s work. A pixel is the smallest element of an image that can be illuminated or darkened, and Georgiou’s works fill the gallery with brightly colored paintings and sculptures of simple detail and beautiful forms that boast a vitality that is very welcome in the dreary days of this Chicago February.

 Georgiou, known for his sculptural work in which he creates small figures – on view now at Hilton|Asmus Contemporary – as well as large works that can be up to 9 meters tall- as seen in France’s Peyrassol Vineyards. These simple form sculptures have a fluidity that can only come from the aforementioned global logos- this plan that governs all, passing from one form to another, just as his sculptures pass from one shape to another. With a focus on the simplistic shape Georgiou attempts to represent deep elements of his human existence, while creating works that boast beauty in both movement and form.

 Though known for his sculptures, it was Georgiou’s paintings that first caught my eye. They are brightly colored, with a very surreal and dreamlike sense to them. With thick, quick brushstrokes, moving around the canvas like a dance or song, each painting causes the viewing to travel around the work quickly, still understanding what is represented. Each one tells its own story and calls the viewer to stop and contemplate what the subject is thinking, doing or believing.

 It takes a talented artist to find success in representing his own existence in both painting and sculpture, and Georgiou does so with flair. From his 9 meter tall sculptures, which could easily be found in a large open space such as Millennium Park, to his colorful paintings of subjects swimming under the night moon, Georgiou’s work was able to take me into the artist’s world and I hope you will be able to stop by Hilton|Asmus Contemporary so his work may sweep you up as well.

Hilton|Asmus 

716 N. Wells St.

Chicago, IL 60654

312-475-1788

www.hilton-asmus.com

Below are some photos of Georgiou's work as the gallery.

Last week I had the chance to visit Paul Rinaldi's latest exhibit at Perimeter Gallery. Though tricky to find, because the exhibit is in the basement of the gallery, I am so glad the gallery directed me down the stairs to this intriguing show. Rinaldi's works at Perimeter are paintings that call for contemplation and nostalgia the moment you enter the room. The works are painted on various sized blocks of wood. The paint used is not oil or watercolor, but Rinaldi's own mixture of raw pigments, beeswax and small portions of other materials to make a thick but flexible waxy substance. Rinaldi controls the pigment in order to make the wax more opaque or more translucent, and in this he creates ethereal works, which take a hold of time and create a sacred space on the walls where they are hung. By painting certain sides of the blocks with bright colors, the blocks cast a glow on the white walls causing the blocks to hover in front of a world of thoughts and memories.

This exhibit is showing until February 23, so there is time to stop by this gallery and experience Rinaldi's work for yourself. You can see if you experience the same sense of contemplation and nostalgia as I did when I went to visit. Below, are some pictures of Rinaldi's work.

Perimeter Gallery

210 W. Superior St.

Chicago, IL 60654

(312) 266-7984

www.paulrinaldi.net

www.perimetergallery.com