Review: Joe Johnson/Alibi Fine Art

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One of those rare photographers who balance the formal values of their medium—light, color, composition, texture and perspective—Joe Johnson is consumed by the beauty that surrounds and surprises us with delight if we are willing to look. Johnson’s sense of beauty is so generous that he does not have a favorite subject, environment or sensibility—he simply wants the viewer to be captivated as he has been. This is beauty for beauty’s sake, not as a support for meaning, mood, virtuosity or even meditation. When Johnson takes us down a gritty empty street in New Haven, Connecticut at dusk after a rain, pools of orange glint, telephone poles and leafless trees bend, and low industrial buildings recede. We ask for nothing but to stay and see. Johnson has endowed the straight representational photograph with the power of the tightest and most involved abstraction. (Michael Weinstein)

Through June 26 at Alibi Fine Art, 1966 West Montrose

Who Cares About Ray Johnson? The Art Institute of Chicago Models Thoughtful Stewardship of an Artist’s Practice While past exhibitions, such as the groundbreaking 1999 traveling exhibition “Correspondences,” attended to the breadth of Johnson’s production, this presentation of so-called Johnsonalia differentiates itself for the ways in which it foregrounds and models the immense care that Wilson took to preserve Johnson’s life and work.
Through a Glass, Brightly: A Review of Doug Fogelson’s “The Witness” at Bert Green Fine Art Fogelson has made a photographic career of looking at things differently. His work, which is mostly camera-less, explores the possibilities offered by alternative ways of creating images.
Fact v. Fiction: A Review of “Alice” and “Lincoln” at Perspective Fine Art Photography Gallery Julie Cowan’s “Lincoln” draws on historical documents and facts, Julie Meridian relies on the fantasy elements of “Alice in Wonderland,” yet both artists push the boundaries of their individual telling.
A Long Look: A Review of “Where She Comes From” at the NEIU Fine Arts Gallery Curator Pia Singh thoughtfully brings together five artists working between the United States and India, each of whom explores that in-betweenness, that marginality imposed by patriarchal and colonial societal frameworks.
Chicago Art Oximeter: A Review of LatinXAmerican at the DePaul Art Museum Not surprisingly, the most captivating moments in the exhibition are those that unite thematic framing with formal kinship.
The Whole Package: Looking at the Art Matchmaking of “Not Just Another Pretty Face” at the Hyde Park Art Center Expect an especially exciting moment when the bell rings on the evening of September 14. White cloth that covers up all the artworks shall be pulled from the gallery walls inside the Hyde Park Art Center, unveiling some eighty commissioned works culminating from the latest two iterations—2021 and 2023—of the famed Chicago art matchmaker program.

Review: Joe Johnson/Alibi Fine Art

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