Among the eighteen accomplished Chicago photographers displaying their “favorite images” here in a variety of straight genres, the most abstract pieces are the standouts, preparing us to take some comfort and even joy in the blustery days that loom ahead. Remember last February’s blizzard. Damon Shell lets us relive it blissfully with his color studies of cars thickly coated with fresh white snow from which a taillight, windshield wiper or the hint of a windshield sometimes peeks through to create an entrancing composition. Then turn to Alan Teller’s dense and involving color abstractions of shards of ice amid bare twigs, dead leaves, and brown grass at the Ryerson Conservation Area near Deerfield, and you will find some redemption for all of the slips and stumbles of outrageous winter. Never does photography perform its office of alerting us to what we overlook around us as when we are too distressed and distracted to step back and see when we are there. (Michael Weinstein)
Through January 30 at the Chicago Photography Collective, 108 North State
Walking Speed: A Curator's Tour of The Mary and Al Shands Collection “Rounding the Circle: The Mary and Al Shands Collection,” curated by Julien Robson, is a major exhibition celebrating the significant collection of contemporary artworks assembled by the late Al Shands and Mary Norton Shands. The exhibit at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, also commemorates the transformative gift of art made to the museum, numbering over a hundred artworks.
