RECOMMENDED
We didn’t know we had it so good. Dynastic heir Richie Daley is all right turning Chitown into Singapore-lite, but the sweet home’s first and only elected black mayor, Harold Washington, was something else—a consummate politico who worked his way up through the machine and learned to combine tactical ruthlessness in the back rooms with a folksy charisma and genuine warmth on the streets that made him the “people’s mayor.”
We can see the complexity of Washington’s personality in this ample exhibit of
forty-five photographs by Antonio Dickey and Marc PoKempner who capture through the lens Washington campaigning, politicking, governing and posing for their portraits. Among the well-crafted photojournalistic images here, the most revealing is PoKempner’s series of Washington presiding at a city council meeting, in which his expression mutates from brooding irritation, through abject exhaustion and impatience, to open-hearted delight. Our present leader might learn to be a bit more expressive. (Michael Weinstein)
Through June 27 at Roosevelt University Gage Gallery, 18 S. Michigan. (312)341-6456.
Related Stories
Drawings, Dante and Degenerate Art: A Review of Otto Neumann at State Street Gallery at Robert Morris University Prints, drawings and studies featuring illustrations of Dante's "Inferno" by a "degenerate" artist of early-twentieth-century Germany.
Surreal Dreamworlds Collaged with Social Justice: A Review of Della Wells at the Loyola University Art Museum Sometimes the artist delivers a sense of triumph and strength associated with the watershed events of the Civil Rights era. Other times the collages feel sad and claustrophobic. Together, these works document something much more historic than just the artist’s own life.
Eruptions of Color: A Review of Pooja Pittie at McCormick Gallery Nothing is recognizably depicted, but something like a festive spectacle has been achieved with layers of colorful marks that range from orderly patterns of dots to large, dramatic brush strokes.
Here Comes the Bogeyman: A Review of Tony Lewis at Shane Campbell Gallery Lewis returns with large-scale drawings and haunting sculptures made from remnants of a previous show.
