Category: Expo Chicago 2014 - Mapanare.us Constantly.Consuming.Culture.

Debra Force Fine Art (New York) Showed Work By Robert Gwathmey At Expo Chicago 2014

10/9/2014

Debra Force Fine Art (New York) showed works by Robert Gwathmey at Expo Chicago 2014.

Gwathmey was a social realist painter. His compositions are simple but pregnant with symbolism.

He spent years as a professor at a number of universities including; Carnegie Institute, Temple and Cooper Union (among others).

Find out more in this excellent piece from the NY Times.

Hyde Park Art Center Showed This Piece, "Table" By Ben Murray At Expo Chicago 2014

10/9/2014

Table by Ben Murray

Hyde Park Art Center showed work by Ben Murray at Expo Chicago 2014.

The center is a 75 year old Chicago art institution supporting the arts and artists; the fund people and projects others might ignore.

Murray's is one of several pieces shown at Expo Chicago but I found this one particularly appealing in its abstract representation of a real, mundane thing, a table. It is a simple thing made complex by the artist using a limited palette, always an impressive feat.

Shoichiro (Tokyo) Showed Work By Kenji Misawa At Expo Chicago 2014

10/9/2014

Line #3 by Kenji Misawa

Shoichiro (Tokyo) showed work by Kenji Misawa at Expo Chicago 2014.

This piece, Line #3, is silicone and oil on canvas has a disordered feel to it but it also has an almost architectural and precise quality within the disorder.

The artist uses background color and foreground silicone lines to great something with depth and space.

Forum Gallery (New York) Showed Work By Xenia Hausner And Steven Assael At Expo Chicago 2014

10/9/2014

Alles Walzer by Xenia Hausner

Forum Gallery (New York) showed work by Xenia Hausner and Steven Assael at Expo Chicago 2014. The gallery has work of modern art, post war and contemporary art.

Hauser, from Vienna, has a background in creating theater sets. And this isn't a local dinner theater productions but the likes of the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera--lavish productions all. In 1992 she began working exclusively as a painter but there is still a certain theatricality in her work. Perhaps it is my imagination, first having read about her and then seen her work but I doubt it. We all have our backgrounds, our origins and these inform what we do subsequently, be it mundane actions or high art.

Assael, also represented by the gallery, is a Pratt graduate who creates grand portraits where the use of light is nothing sort of astounding; there is a nod to the Romantic tradition in his pieces as well.

Bride with Lantern by Steven Assael

Marc Straus (New York) Showed Work By Paul Pretzer At Expo Chicago 2014

10/9/2014

Marc Straus (New York) showed work by Paul Pretzer at Expo Chicago. Marc Straus always have provocative artists--be they established or less well known (although more fall into the former category).

Pretzer's work is unique in that it manages to be both whimsical and macabre at the same time. There are classical elements to his work as well.

He has been exhibited widely in Europe and currently lives in Dresden.

Kentucky Museum Of Art And Craft (Louisville) Showed This Piece By Carlos Cortez Coyle At Expo Chicago 2014

10/9/2014

Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft in Louisville showed this piece by Carlos Cortez Coyle at Expo Chicago 2014.

Coyle was a self taught painter whose work often reflects biblical themes mixed with modern imagery. Coyle briefly attended school at Berea Foundation School but spent most of his life working in a variety of positions unrelated to art.

He began painting in oil when he was 60 years old. This piece was shown courtesy of Berea College (as the school is now know)

Berea College is an interesting institution. They charge no tuition and offer degrees in 32 majors. Students are required to work at the college while enrolled.

KMAC is an institution dedicated to the supporting and promoting art, craft, applied arts and design. The aim is to build interest in Kentucky's rich heritage in art. Crafts are, in fact, art and singling them out as somehow different because practitioners don't have MFAs is odd. But that is how it works and why organizations like KMAC are great; they slap our collective face and say "this is art."

Hackett/Mill (San Francisco) Showed Work By Conrad Marca-Relli At Expo Chicago 2014

10/9/2014

Hackett/Mill (San Francisco) showed work by Conrad Marca-Relli at Expo Chicago 2014.

Marca-Relli was an Abstract Expressionist artist. The artist, born Conrad Marcarelli in Boston, attended Cooper Union and worked for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. How much art was created or preserved as a result of the WPA?

There is an almost surrealist quality to some of his work (in my opinion anyway). I see figures even in his most abstract pieces, I see form.

Haines Gallery (San Francisco) Showed Work By Aimé Mpane At Expo Chicago 2014

10/9/2014

Haines Gallery (San Francisco) showed the three dimensional works of Aimé Mpane at Expo Chicago 2014.

Mpane, born in Kinshasa, uses acrylic and mixed media on wood pieces. Some of these are puzzle-like, others are incorporate low relief carving (recalling Stephan Balkenhol). It is fascinating to find similarities between the work of artists from dissimilar cultures (Balkenhol is German).

But most of these pieces are different from the German--especially the "puzzle piece" works. They seem simple in construction but they give the illusion of motion; they come alive as you look at them from different angles.

The artist's Congo: Shadow of the Shadow (2005), is part of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art's permanent collection. The installation piece was recently shown at LACMA. Check out a video on it HERE.

Rena Bransten Projects (San Francisco) Showed Work By Candida Alvarez At Expo Chicago 2014

10/9/2014

Rena Bransten Projects (San Francisco) showed this piece, mary in the sky with diamonds, by Candida Alvarez at Expo Chicago 2014.

Alvarez, currently a professor at the School of the Art Institute Chicago, has exhibited so extensively I hesitate to even note the highlights. Her work is often shown in Chicago.

You can check out an interview with the artist HERE. You can also check out the artist's website at www.candidaalvarez.com.

Diana Lowenstein Gallery (Miami) Showed Work By Michael Scoggins And Santiago Villanueva At Expo Chicago 2014

10/9/2014

This Is About Priorities by Michael Scoggins

Diana Lowenstein Gallery (Miami) showed work by Michael Scoggins and Santiago Villanueva at Expo Chicago 2014.

Scoggins, with an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design (who produce wonderful artists), creates work questioning the notion of maturity. As we become more "mature" do we also become more sly and cynical? Is this maturity really just a loss of innocence?

Villanueva's sculptures reflect his background in architecture. The work has a fluid feel, like drops of water stopped in mid fall. The artist's website describes the work as being about transitions and how actions can only be "interpreted through the senses."

Sin titulo #58 by Santiago Villanueva