Of the ten artists in this year’s edition of the gallery’s annual exhibit showcasing current experimental photography, Philip Feitelberg clearly takes top honors in his series of seamless digitally composed color scenarios that fuse the ordinary inhabitants of our world today with the fictive denizens of Claude Monet’s paintings. In Feitelberg’s most effective confection, two lovers embrace on a beach, nestled between two of Monet’s intimates who dwarf them as they do their own more distant thing. The key to Feitelberg’s compelling grafts is his strategy of presenting his contemporary subjects in clear straight-photographic terms, while placing them in a more ghostly, yet well-delineated pictorialist context dominated by Monet’s appropriated images. Feitelberg’s breakthrough—and it genuinely is one—is to turn postmodern play away from deconstruction and into a deeply satisfying synthesis that is intriguing for itself rather than for any comment on the limits of photographic realism. (Michael Weinstein)
Through October 24 at Flatfile Galleries, 217 N. Carpenter. (312)491-1190
Related Stories
Across Layers of Reality: A Review of Jacolby Satterwhite at SAIC Galleries The exhibition bills itself as the first major survey of work by the artist. Across its large footprint, audiences can see how Satterwhite’s aesthetic has evolved while maintaining the commitment to personal history and embodied practice that launched his career.
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.
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.
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.
