George Widener Selections from the Collection of Victor F. Keen

Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art

Begins February 26

Intuit is pleased to present this artist-focused exhibition featuring selections of his drawings and notebooks from Intuit’s collection and his large-scale multimedia works from the collection of Victor F. Keen, a prominent collector of Widener’s work. In Focus exhibits a breadth of George Widener’s oeuvre with works dating from 1999 to 2018.

SaraNoa Mark: 36° 15’ 43” N 29° 59’ 14” E

Goldfinch

Begins February 27

SaraNoa Mark’s practice investigates traces left by time, as they exist in landscapes and in collective memory. Using lasting materials like carved clay and discarded stones, the artist explores notions of permanence and erasure, questioning why certain pieces of history remain visible, while others fall away and are lost.

Alexander Hernandez: Stayin' Positive

FLXST Contemporary

Begins February 27

Stayin’ Positive started as a series of textile portraits investigating the identities of Latinx and other people of color living with HIV. The artist ALEXANDER HERNANDEZ used fabrics, patterns, motifs, colors, and imagery showcasing each person's cultural and social background to demonstrate how they navigate their POZ identities as a means of survival throughout their various communities.

Katy Cowan: winds glow unceasing

DOCUMENT

Begins February 27

Cowan dissects pattern and fractal repetition in order to play with viewer’s expectations. Her looping aesthetic is the antithesis of clinical. Her skillful use of figure/ground relationships revel in mutability like a hall of mirrors serves up confusion as entertainment. In Cowan’s work, tumult and composure are polar ends of the same rope. In one piece, the rope stretches horizontally in a straight line before puddling in a tangle of strands at either end. The respective puddles appear more dissimilar than alike. Still they reinforce the mirror analogy, staring at one another like siblings, buzzing with color-coded oscillations between object and idea. To be clear, the rope, strands, and puddles are all cast aluminum. 
 

Geoffrey Todd Smith: Sordid Orchestra

Western Exhibitions

Begins February 27

For Geoffrey Todd Smith, abstraction is an unreliable narrator. Like carnival music playing in a horror movie, his abstract drawings and paintings don’t accurately convey the mood of the moment. Rather than holding up the proverbial mirror to society, Smith’s images are more like funhouse mirrors, further distorting and guiding the viewer away from reality. Every decision in the development of his compositions is fraught with the worry that he’s not saying enough, quickly giving way to the alternative, that he may have revealed too much–therein lies the tension. These Rorschach-like blobs bubble up to induce a sense of familiarity, only to be met with uncertainty.

Interpolations: New, Large-Scale Work by Michael K. Paxton

Evanston Art Center

Begins February 27