Abraham Cone: Wall Ornament

Mu Gallery is pleased to present and welcomes all to the opening of Wall Ornament, Abraham Cone’s first solo show in Chicago. Moving across large-format oil paintings, garlands of corded milkweed silk, acrylic paintings on stretched canvas, infrared photographs, and works on paper, Cone trails through the woods of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, beholding places through orna- ments and ornaments as places along the way.

Works in Wall Ornament are lilting, mischievous, and mirthful as they join painterly traditions of the nocturne, manuscript, and landscape. Holding narrative, myth, and eroticism dear, Cone’s visions become re-membered between stretcher bars—anointments, formed into ornament, as a return for the gift of night. Dozens of slightly varying tones blur as Cone’s brush ambulates around and around painted forms. Luminous yet subtle progressions of color re-enact the optically indistinct quality of low-light conditions. Cone sings his paintings into being even as cadences of color hum and emanate.

Born and raised in rural Michigan, Cone’s subjects span bushcraft to agriculture and are often sourced from personal and familial history. Graph paper preparatory drawings pay homage to his father’s pattern-making, while his painterly precision echoes a cherished (yet bygone) lineal attention to craft. Images speak a language of adornment as subjects are set in pattern.

For additional information, images, events, and to arrange an appointment, please contact Lee Mosser at 224-297-4787 | info@muartgallery.com.

Cone graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020 with a BFA in Painting. He maintains long-standing collaborations with botanists, ecologists, and naturalists, serving as the scientific illustrator for the Michigan Botanical Society’s Huron Valley Chapter these past seven years. Cone’s illustrations have been published by the Oxford University Press, AoB PLANTS, and the Arisaema. His work is held in the Ann Arbor District Library’s Print Collection, with recent exhibitions including a booth at The Other Art Fair, Chicago, and Circuition, Mu Gallery, Chicago.