RECOMMENDED A piece of text from a hand painted store sign set the tone for Katharine Lion’s show at Old Gold. It read, “If you can’t stop, smile as you go by.” It is this form of wanderlust that Katharine Lion’s installation of digital prints and sculpture gives off. The digitally collaged images are ones of back alleys and beaches, trashcans and sunsets. Installed in a row and wrapping around the gallery, the images show an appreciation for small places and special moments. However, the frequent and clumsy use of exposed photo edges and contrasting subject matter (i.e. a sunset over graffitied concrete) makes some works read like clichés or simplistic statements. The best pieces take advantage of the collage format and make something out of the skips in the photograph as in “3 Sunsets” or “Moonscapes” or when the shift in image is submerged causing the curiosity of the situation to create the impetus to explore the photo, such as in “Winter Sun Settings” where a lakeside sunset is merged with light coming through the clouds. The effect is an exuberant and difficult beauty which most of Ms. Lion’s pictures exude when they are given the chance. (Dan Gunn) Through December 2 at Old Gold, 2022 N. Humboldt, (773)653-9956.
For Us: A Review of "Something from Something" at Engage Projects Kushala Vora and Adia Sykes’ collaboration "Something from Something" tells us as viewers that knowledge, art, creation, inspiration, love—really anything you can think of—has a place of origin.
Women Behind the Lens: A Review of "From Her to Eternity" Courtney Love curates on the street. Just west of Wabash on the corner of Eighth Street, there is a wall of stellar rock star images that includes a special collection made by women photographers over the years.
Looking Down: A Review of Bob Tanner at Perspective After the loss of his wife, Bob Tanner made two photography series, “At Ocean’s Edge” and “At Winter’s Edge,” that are shown in this meditative show filled with graceful visual poetry.
Microcosm: A Review of “Dialogues” at Patron Through each artist-relationship, "Dialogues" offers the viewer a rare opportunity to witness the direct connections that flow through the electric nervous system that both infiltrates and generates Chicago's art world.
Excavated Images: A Review of “Life Against Itself” at Patron For the better part of a decade, the L.A.-based artist has used a variety of bladed tools to make her signature alla prima monochromatic gestural abstractions. In the last year, however, the hand has cut off the knife.
