REVIEW | MoCP at 40
MoCP at 40 Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago “Mallarme said that everything in the world exists in order to end in a book. Today everything exists to end in a photograph.” – Susan Sontag The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago began acquiring works in 1979, and over the past forty years has amassed a sizeable and impressive collection totaling fourteen thousand objects from fourteen hundred artists. This year, the museum
MUSING | The Philosophy of Illness
“Until we are sick, we understand not.” – Keats “Illness forces us to pay attention to our bodies, in and by themselves. We get a sense of the thickness of our flesh, and sometimes, even the body as experiencing its own organs.[1] In remembering, we come back to the things that matter.”[2] This could not be more significantly true in regards to trauma and illness, but how does illness affect not only the body in which it invades, but the act of remembering and, subsequently,
REVIEW | Ursula von Rydingsvard: Bronze Bowl with Lace
Ursula von Rydingsvard: Bronze Bowl with Lace Art Institute of Chicago Hidden away on an outdoor terrace on the top floor of the museum, a beast: a commanding vertical bowl of nearly twenty feet in height and ten feet across patiently waits to deliver an intimidating experience. It did, of course; leaving an impact on me emotionally and physically that can only be equated to its massive size. Bronze Bowl with Lace by Ursula von Rydingsvard is a remarkable work: in scale, in t
SPOTLIGHT | The Gardiner Museum
The Gardiner Museum Toronto, Ontario | CANADA During my recent, and first, visit to Toronto, I made time to visit the Gardiner Museum – Canada’s national ceramics museum, and considered one of the world’s great specialty museums. The collection, donated in 1984 by Museum founders George and Helen Gardiner, forms the basis of the Museum’s reputation – which is impressive in both its reach and scope. Enhanced by other major gifts, the collection now consists of more than 3,000
REVIEW | Few Were Happy With Their Condition
Few Were Happy With Their Condition Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois at Chicago “I protest against myself because I keep hiding in the bin while everything gets taken away from me.” – Ciprian Mureșan, I’m Protesting Against Myself It is a lot to take in, overwhelming even, a lot to consider: images and films of personal and public struggles that simultaneously look forward and back, outward and inward. In every way, it is a world completely foreign and unknown to me,
REVIEW | Raeleen Kao & Joanne Aono: Cut and Sown
Raeleen Kao & Joanne Aono: Cut and Sown Firecat Projects If there is one exhibition to see this spring, its this one. The exquisite drawings by Chicago artists Raeleen Kao and Joanne Aono are like flashes from a dream: vivid, brief, and visceral – snippets of lives lived and remembered (even agonized over) that, at times, are wanting, desperate, and non-conciliatory. They are meticulously beautiful, minimal and delicate, and unapologetically feminine. I physically feel the w
REVIEW | Many Things Brought From One Climate to Another
Many Things Brought From One Climate to Another Art Gallery of Ontario The acquisitions of contemporary art by museums is not a rare occurrence, but viewing recent purchases as a group and being afforded the opportunity to consider them as a small collection often is. Many Things Brought From One Climate to Another at the Art Gallery of Ontario is precisely that unique chance to consider artworks from distances as vast and varied as the artists who make them. The works of ar
