In foreground: Daniel Champion, Lying Down, 2025, XPS foam, casting resin, 8.5 x 13 x 24”. On wall: Jeffrey Charles, Ghouls, Oil on canvas, 36 x 48”

By SUSAN GESCHEIDLE

SAWHORSE – Morality Play

Step right up! There’s a new gallery in town and a new fantastical show to come see. Come one, come all! 

Welcome to yet another new gallery and curatorial space in Chicago. SAWHORSE, located on West Fullerton Avenue in the lively Hermosa neighborhood, is a cozy and inviting store-front space with large windows drenching it in sunlight. Founded and directed by Molly Sheffield and Jack Spector-Bishop, both native Chicagoans who met years ago at Oberlin College, SAWHORSE opened in January 2025 “motivated by craft, community, curiosity, & collaboration.” The name SAWHORSE, as Sheffield notes, “was from thinking about an object that is a platform for initiating creation. It is also one of the first things people learn to make when they are starting a woodworking craft, and craft is something we want to highlight in our space.” 

Morality Play, the gallery’s second exhibition, is a two-person exhibition of works by Daniel Champion and Jeffrey Charles, currently on view through April 20, 2025. The partnering of sculptures by Champion and paintings by Charles works well, in an oddly beautiful and primitive sort of way. So, what do you get when you pair art school-educated interdisciplinary artist Daniel Champion with experimental rock musician, and self-taught artist, Jeffrey Charles?

Left: Daniel Champion, Elephant, 2025, XPS foam, casting resin, 24 x 38 x 8 inches; Right: Daniel Champion, Untitled, 2025, XPS foam, casting resin, 51.5 x 6 x 10 inches

FIRST ACT

Champion, a 27-year-old SAIC grad, known mostly as a painter and set director, is exhibiting crudely formed figurative sculptures for the first time. The works are set atop pedestals hand-carved the artist, a meticulous contrast to the rough-hewn sculptures themselves. Much like the pastel palette of his paintings, Champion chose a soft-hued coloration for these objects. They are a pleasing, pinkish purple–think mauve–formed of XPS foam board and casting resin, making them lightweight, with a sheen. Champion seems to have drawn from his film and set directing skills, as his sculptures give off drama vibes and could easily double as theater props. They’re chunky, chiseled, charming, sultry, and enigmatic. 

In the gallery’s front window are four miniature sculptures, measuring 10” high, in distinguishable poses, such as two people embracing, The Passionate Friends, and a person in a baseball cap sitting cross-legged, The Beach #2. They are tender and though small in scale, they hit hard.

But it is the six more substantial sculptures in the main gallery space that really pack a punch. They are curious figures, nude humans and animals, with an absence of facial expressions in ordinary, offbeat, or intertwined sexy poses. I was captivated by the 51.5” tall stoic standing woman, Untitled. Her blank eyes reveal nothing, yet you feel something. Lying Down, a figure of a woman reclining on her side in a fetal position, is simple but striking. The four layers of foam add visual interest, and the focus on the soles of her rough feet was strangely appealing. Communion, a woman in a fully reclining position on top of a donkey is sensuous and beautiful. Each of Champion’s sculptures are captivating and every one is as good as the other.

SECOND ACT

Charles, a 64-year-old experimental musician and self-taught artist, learned and honed his drawing and painting craft over the past 23 years. Charles has worked under-the-radar, seemingly using art as a form of therapy, helping to exorcise his childhood traumas. While we are not privy to all his past traumas, Charles offers glimpses through the surreal and formidable scenes he creates. If you’re afraid of creepy clowns and lecherous gazes, then buckle up and prepare to be jolted. These very personal drawings and oil on canvas paintings are based on memories of his childhood reality. They tell a story of abuse, pain and neglect, colorfully featuring ghoulish adults with leering smiles, as if warning us they can’t be trusted. Many paintings feature recurring images of a man in a baseball uniform, bodies singed with cigarettes, the text “burn me,” musical instruments, and penises. Charles describes his semi autobiographical art as “ID vomit.” This is his first commercial gallery foray, and the largest exhibition of his work to date. The show includes four small drawings and seven paintings dating from 2002–2023. 

The four 8.5 x 11” ink on paper drawings are hung together on a small wall as you enter the space. One is a study for a large painting included in the show, Study for Fathers. It’s easy to pass by these quiet pieces, since the larger, boldly-colored paintings are immediately eye-catching. But if you pause for a moment, you get sucked into their miniature freakish worlds. Peanut-headed Salamander includes nude and semi-clad cartoonish characters, screaming people and others with their mouths sewn shut, bondage elements, torture instruments, and more. Charles renders disturbing scenes that are grotesque yet fascinating gems. 

Jeffrey Charles, Ascension, Oil on canvas, 60" x 48"

The seven paintings in the show are well-crafted and chock full of terrifying and terrified misfits, humanlike cigarettes, creepy clowns, and dreamlike narratives. The paintings range in scale from 18 x 24” to the largest at 60 x 48.” Ascension, the focal point and the largest piece, hits you in the face as you walk into the gallery. Most of the people in this painting look lecherous with their crooked smiles or appear to be in pain or have mouths agape, as if in shock. A few are calmly smoking. Two men are masturbating, ejaculating in red. Everyone is eerily staring out at the viewer or ogling each other. I felt like viewing Charles’s paintings is akin to watching a circus freak show. Each one is unique, but with recurring elements, so pick your poison when trying to choose a favorite. Personally I am drawn to Auntie, which is simpler than the others. It still has a creepy clown, and a weird green face with an open mouth. The focus is an oversized female head in front of a bright blue curtain. You see her breasts, her disproportionately tiny arms with matches for fingers, and cigarette stubs for legs. Her smeared red lipstick, and crooked bangs and eyebrows have just the right amount of otherworldliness. In all of these paintings, Charles sprinkles cheekiness. It brings to mind the lyrics of a Jimmy Buffet song, “If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.” 

Pairing Champion and Charles in Morality Play, you get a multigenerational, kick-ass exhibition of expressionistic oddities, with a side of humor and theatrics. 

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Morality Play, on view thru April 20

SAWHORSE • 4222 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL 60639

sawhorsespace.net

Instagram @saw___horse

The exterior of SAWHORSE

This article appears in the Spring/Summer 2025 issue of CGN. Click here to subscribe and receive the print edition in early April. Subscriptions help support independent print media and Chicago's art community.

Publisher's Note: I met Susan Gescheidle when I first moved to Chicago and started working at Chicago Gallery News in 2002. At the time the CGN office was located around the corner from the River North gallery, called gescheidle, Susan had just opened after working at Lyons Wier Gallery for a time. Susan eventually relocated her gallery to Peoria Street in the burgeoning West Loop, then relocated to Lake Street before closing in the fall of 2008.

In fall 2024 I ran into Susan again after many years. We chatted about CGN, as well as how Susan had recently found her way back to being immersed in Chicago's gallery scene, in particular visiting the city's smaller, newer spaces. After following her art outings on Instagram for a couple months, I asked Susan if she'd ever consider sharing her personal and informal dispatches with CGN readers in order to help spotlight and support these spaces, and she graciously accepted. 

– Ginny Van Alyea