RECOMMENDED Stark images and hyperbole accentuate the selective and emotional aspect of memory as Lisa Rybovich Cralle’s collages reflect on her native Florida. Her collage, “Land,” juxtaposes Hellenic male statues, a vacant crucifix, a mesh of snakes and swimmers on a beach to contrast objects both surreal and concrete. In other pieces, the dualities of known and unknown, fantastic and mundane, and grace and nefariousness are explored. Airplanes fly toward a mushroom cloud. A morose zombie-like figure stands opposite a pink-clad ballerina. A stately statue of a man has his head displaced with a strange-looking object that appears to have eyes. Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych, “Garden of Earthly Delights,” comes to mind with a chaotic aggression between humans and animals, the head of a bird attached to the body of a man. Cralle’s “Sequin Swamp” features a brilliant mass of golden sequins superimposed on a detailed black and white roller coaster. The contrast of detail and gaudiness may make the viewer consider which impression would be dominant upon reflection: the specific dimensions of an impressive ride, feelings of euphoria, or a mixture? (Ben Broeren) Through December 22 at Roots & Culture
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.
Other Forces: A Review of Maw at Apparatus Projects Ailes and Lopez’s installations, images and sculptures function as a cosmos of life—worlds where the viewer is placed in a disordered exercise of cognitive sense-making between rather than sense-making of.
