RECOMMENDED “New Dialect” places painters Craig Hansen and Michael George in dialog with the photography of Robert McGuire. I’m not sure that the dialect is new, but it certainly is something to engage. All three artists share the sentiment of the organic, be it a hackneyed and pedantic phrase, yet a relevant curatorial statement. Interesting to note about Hansen and McGuire’s work is that both artists share a very similar process despite the variance in execution; both create layers of imagery that display an artistic history. Hansen’s final layers depict figures, but what fascinates me are the hidden nuances, those painted-over strokes and forms, the beginning in relation to the end. This is evident in McGuire’s work as well, who piles abstraction atop abstraction, not destroying or completely removing the presence of the former. Instead, he hints at what the painting could have been and shows us what it has become. George’s photography compliments the painters with its “scientific method,” of capturing the meltdown of ice, food-coloring and milk. I’m reminded of peering through a microscope in freshman year biology only to find a foreign organism, its destination futile. It is almost impossible to hypothesize the origin of these cellular prints but once the mystery is unveiled, the procedure, the step A through D is something curious to ponder. (Karissa Lang) Through December 22 at Flatfile Gallery, 217 North Carpenter
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