Pieter Ombregt, photography. Performance photographer Pieter Ombregt clad himself in an orange prison jumpsuit and then set out into the stark world of urban concrete and desert sand, placing himself alone and at a distance in forbidding environments to pose for his color scenario shots. A conceptual artist, Ombregt says that he wants us to see “the person in the orange suit”—these images are not self-portraits, but cultural icons—as “an orange flare, in a disconnected world crying out for help.” Ombregt’s cri-de-coeur is a silent scream, buried under the absolute impassivity that he shows standing straightly erect on an empty loading dock, in a doorway on a vacant street, or in a parched brown wasteland, always appearing as though he had been stuck there and did not belong to the scene. Is an apathetic front putting a lid on the scream, or is Ombregt beyond crying? (Michael Weinstein) Through February 3 at City Gallery.
Civics Lesson: A Review of Sculpture Milwaukee Sculpture Milwaukee has returned for a fourth year, transforming downtown Milwaukee’s landscape with A-list artists exhibiting outdoor sculpture.
The Past Is Present: A Review of Birchbark, Wiigwaas All these materials work together to make the stories and experiences of indigenous Americans central to the story of Chicago, both historically and today.
