REVIEW | SOFA no. 5: Paper, Photography, Painting & Sculpture
SOFA no. 5: Paper, Photography, Painting & Sculpture Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design November 5 – 8, 2015 | Chicago, IL My final review of the fair includes works in/on paper, painting, photography, and sculpture (that defies any categorization by media). There is a commonality among these works that are dominated by unconventional materials and radical if not decisive conceptual ideas, most bring me down to a fundamental level – an edge where the best in flawles
REVIEW | SOFA no. 4: Jewelry & Silversmithing
SOFA no. 4: Jewelry & Silversmithing Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design November 5 – 8, 2015 | Chicago, IL Contemporary jewelry is one of my most favorite art disciplines. It combines everything I love about ornament and adornment with everything I adore about sculpture and object; and with a field deeper and wider beyond what I can fathom, there is always a new artist or material or silhouette to discover. Continuously evocative, constantly ground-breaking, and pe
REVIEW | SOFA no. 3: Glass
SOFA no. 3: Glass Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design November 5 – 8, 2015 | Chicago, IL I began my day at SOFA CHICAGO with a lecture titled: Wunderkammer: Object | Idea | Act, a spirited conversation between Doug Heller, Director and Founder of Heller Gallery, Artist Laura Kramer, Dr. Jutta-Annette Page, Curator of Glass & Decorative Arts at the Toledo Museum of Art, Artist Andy Paiko, and moderated by independent curator and historian Susie Silbert. The panel was
REVIEW | SOFA no. 2: Ceramics
SOFA no. 2: Ceramics Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design November 5 – 8, 2015 | Chicago, IL There is an innate calling to clay, a material that despite or in lieu of its form, cannot be ignored. It beckons to be seen, to be touched, to be used – romantic, but sincere. The showings of ceramics at this year’s fair were outstanding, so many of the works were innovative, and sexy; or more simply put: sublime. These are but a few that I can’t stop thinking about. Large
REVIEW | SOFA no. 1: Fibers & Textiles
SOFA no. 1: Fibers & Textiles Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design November 5 – 8, 2015 | Chicago, IL In A Theory of Craft, author Howard Rissati wrote: “Recognition only comes from knowing.” Although he was discussing Hans-Georg Gadamer’s concept of mimesis, his sentiment is something that has remained with me and somehow continues to resonate when I view compelling works from the fibers and textiles discipline. Intrinsic feelings of intimacy, understanding, and kno
MUSING | A Pause to Consider Body Memory
“Perhaps the body has its own memory system, like the invisible meridian lines those Chinese acupuncturists always talk about. Perhaps the body is unforgiving, perhaps every cell, every muscle and fragment of bone remembers each and every assault and attack. Maybe the pain of memory is encoded into our bone marrow and each remembered grievance swims in our bloodstream like a hard, black pebble.” -Thrity Umrigar, The Space Between Us In my recent musing on the acknowledgment
REVIEW | Beyond the Morning Calm
Beyond the Morning Calm Lillstreet Art Gallery The sense and significance of place, both subjectively and objectively, is a complex structure of the human experience that encompasses the self and the other, space and time, experience and identity. Its significance is not always found in the actual experience of place (though more often than not it is), but rather in the grounding of experience in place. Interesting, this kind of binding attachment isn’t only a feature of ou
REVIEW | I am here: Work by Amanda Gentry
I am here: Work by Amanda Gentry Lillstreet Gallery Annex, Lillstreet Art Center Tucked neatly into a second floor stairwell landing is I am here, a petite but thoughtful presentation of works by Chicago artist Amanda Gentry. Exploring the concept of presence – both active and passive – as a being in the current, chaotic, explosive digital age, Gentry manifests her own rebellion to the stimuli that begs her (and quite frankly, all of us) to be in a constant state of searchin
