RECOMMENDED Billie Stone’s work is part of the newly revitalized, majority female, genre of arts of crafts. Her art consists of small hanging crest-like banners, containing hip-hop iconography such as Easy E, fly Air Force Ones, uzis, and of course marijuana. Produced with shiny fabric, tassels, fringe, and paint, the work honors and parodies the usually more masculine presentation of hip-hop culture. All of Stone’s pieces look like something your hip-hop grandma picked up at Jo-Ann Fabrics, so you better get them before she does. Another highlight of the show is Kristal Pacheco’s work, which continues with the ongoing issue of the female’s constant balancing of body-as-reality and body-as-translated-reality. It is apparent that the female she uses in her work is someone’s mother, whose face has been painted over with that of a Mexican Beauty Queen. The “beautiful” face Pacheco has chosen to conceal the mother’s face does not add beauty, just distraction. The sense of tenderness and care are overwhelming in the mother’s bodily form and her placement in the comforting environment of a kitchen. Pacheco’s pieces are part of an ongoing project to insert women Pacheco knows into traditional Mexican calendars featuring women. Curated primarily by Peter Kepha, the exhibition features paintings, photography and craft work. The show also includes work by Chicago female artists Billie Stone, Emily Cunningham, Kristal Pacheco, Maria Gaspar, Nova Czarnecki, and Tricia Moreau Sweeney. (Sara McCool)
Through October 11 at 32nd & Urban, 3201 S. Halsted, (312)842-1754.
In Orbit: A Chicago Aesthetic Emerges in NYC Group Show As the kitchen appliance referenced in the exhibition title signals, these artists seem to share an interest in—and perhaps anxiety about—domestic spaces and the rituals that occur there.
