Review: Water Show/Giola Gallery

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A universal instigator of emotion, water can be still, flowing or tempestuous, evoking responses from contemplation of beauty to awe at sublimity. The four-color photographers in this elegant exhibit are decidedly meditative, capturing liquidity in its most welcoming forms. The show’s drive toward quietly intense absorption in the image reaches its limit in David Moenkhaus’s deep ink-blue studies of scattered buoys gleaming in the darkness of Lake Michigan at the dusky edge of night; the ragged patterns of the buoys, set off by muted peach-colored lines in the sky or a flashing red lighthouse beacon, are seductively involving, yet unassuming enough to radiate ease. Asami Matsuo’s multi-hued seascapes and Robert McGuire’s sensitive and variegated takes on Lake Michigan are welcome steps on the way to Moenkhaus’ destination; Amy Glengary Yang’s glowing sea-green photograms in light boxes show us fanciful tentacled creatures that might dwell within the depths. (Michael Weinstein)

“Water Show” shows at Giola Gallery, 118 North Peoria, (312)602-3355, through September 2.

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