RECOMMENDED Ranging from the intimate to the magnificent, Bart Harris’s large color photos of some of downtown Chicago’s thronged iconic places—Millennium Park, Daley Plaza and Michigan Avenue—are most arresting at the midpoint, where he captures people in the throes of disporting themselves within pretentious postmodern leisurescapes. Nothing beats Millennium Park for pretentious architectural playfulness, and Harris’s banner shot shows frolicking children at Crown Fountain being doused by the stream of water that cascades from the lips of one of the series of faces that come and go on the brick facade; the contrast between the vibrant and unstudied kids and the impassively hip enormous visage on the fountain drives home the point that life trumps art—especially art that blends corporate grandiosity and the fashion mystique—and that straight photography can prove it. (Michael Weinstein)
Bart Harris shows at the Fine Arts Building Gallery, 410 South Michigan Avenue, (312)913-0537, through September 2.
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