. If you have ever been out on a night when the sky is illuminated garishly by the play of artificial light on the roiling clouds of a gathering storm, you will immediately feel the power of Amanda Friedman’s vividly etched straight color images of cities and landscapes bathed in the most alluringly dangerous lowering gray skies tinged with red, green and purple. Although Friedman’s apparent subjects—gleaming skylines, roadsides and trees—are seductive for their precisely detailed beauty, the skies themselves deliver the real impact; we know that without them we would not be attracted so magnetically by what the medieval philosophers called the tremendous and fascinating mystery of being. Only a minority of photographers addresses the sublime, which defies being framed; Friedman succeeds in conveying an overwhelming sense of power by putting familiar things in an ominous cosmos. (Michael Weinstein)
Through April 12 at David Weinberg Gallery, 300 W. Superior, (312)529-5090.
Opposites Attract: A Review of Nancy and David Bechtol at ARC Gallery No two artists could be farther apart in concept and style. While David’s long, long panoramic images are breathtaking in their portrayal of North American landscapes, Nancy’s wild, erratic and excitingly dynamic work is at the other end of the photographic spectrum.
