Starting on Flickr as a rank amateur and garnering a million hits in a year, Miss Aniela has glided into the gallery world with her color photographic self-portraits that are redolent with seduction. Projecting herself as her own kind of playmate, Miss Aniela puts on sportive and wry performances laden with hooks that would prick even the most repressed puritanical gentleman. There she kneels in waiting in a black bikini, on a mousy carpet in a blasted rubble-filled bathroom, surrounded by moldy picture magazines, with her expression fixed in the dare: “Take me if you can.” At the top of the image she has placed the text: “The Sea Serpent gracefully holding his tail Led off the first dance with the lovely Miss Whale And Mr. Sea Lion a gallant young spark Requested the pleasure of dainty Miss Shark.” Playboy magazine, not. Arousing for certain male eyes, you bet. Miss Aniela will be taken, but only on her terms; call it post-feminism gone over the top. (Michael Weinstein)
Through September 4 at David Weinberg Gallery, 300 West Superior.
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.
