The newly minted Scott Projects’ first exhibition “Winners Circle” is a solo show by painter/sculptor Michael Hunter. Located on Milwaukee Avenue in AllRise Gallery’s former space, the show is reserved in its presentation. Around the room are scattered assemblages of wood, paper, found objects and plaster that are either propped against the wall or stand feebly on their own. One sympathetic work contains a stick draped in burlap partially shielding a brightly colored cluster of deflated balloons. While equally unassuming as the other works, the limp balloons add an empathetic narrative to the fragile construction. Hunter’s paintings are largely spray paint on paper. The largest work in the show is a vibrant gradation on paper arranged in a grid but weighed down by a dark cardboard slab that sits in front on the floor. The lump of coal-like shape mitigates the latent optimism of the paper’s rainbow coloration. Elsewhere, the lone “canvas,” titled “T-shirt,” was its namesake, a tie-dyed t-shirt on stretcher bars. Each work seems spontaneous and performative, yet the results vary in impact. Certainly in the vein of the New Museum’s “Unmonumental” exhibition, this show of precarious and contingent work echoes the condition of contemporary American culture. Anxious about its waning influence and wary of anything claiming a position, this show reflects the sadness and possibility of the moment. A solid debut, and it will be interesting to see where Hunter goes from here. (Dan Gunn)
Michael Hunter shows at Scott Projects, 1542 N. Milwaukee, through October 31, open Thursdays and Fridays, 11am-2pm
Life Forms: A Review of Scott Wolniak’s “Crosscurrents” at Goldfinch Scott Wolniak expounds upon the natural world and the effect it has on him—going so far as to invoke the collocation “life-force” to describe the style of his art—in his latest transcendental exhibition at Goldfinch.
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.
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