German Enlightenment

Anton Henning
Interieur No. 384, 2007
Oil on linen
74.21 x 86.5 inches

Zach Feuer Gallery's second exhibition of work by German artist Anton Henning includes paintings from 2000 - 2008 and offers an insightful overview of Henning's painterly preoccupations. The titles (Interior, Portrait or Still life) announce rather traditional themes. Henning's headstrong definition of these paint motifs, however, challenges our way to categorize art by blurring the borders between genres. The show title "German Enlightenment" is a reference to both the artist's cultural background and to the tangible fact that the paintings are illuminated only from the light within the frames. The gallery space is transformed into a room-filling self-illuminating installation; the paintings stand out from the wall and capture the exhibition space.

Excerpt from the Zach Feuer Gallery exhibition, October 15 - November 26, 2008

Ivin Ballen

Ivin Ballen
"Poodle"
2007
Fiberglass, aquaresin, acrylic, absorbant ground, gouache, oil
69 x 65 x 5 "

I love this work on every level. Learn more below:

Excerpt from The Brooklyn Rail Review in February 2008 - "Ivin Balllen 50/50" by Lynn Crawford

I first saw Ballen's work in his graduate studio at Cranbrook in 2006. I, like other visitors, thought I was looking at a two-and-three-dimensional assemblage (a la Robert Rauschenberg) made from packaging materials we frequently use, even rely on, but rarely consider (shipping boxes, duct tape, to-go containers, coffee cups, plastic water bottles), and was astonished to learn that the art works were not made with physical objects, but were actually trompe-l'oeil paintings of them. Ballen constructed maquettes from the previously mentioned items, cast them in aqua resin and fibergalss, painted them to look uncannily just like the original things, and used them to build fantastically shaped pieces.

Ballen is currently exhibiting in a group show ISN'T IT at Tony Wight Gallery, June 13 - August 16, 2008.

Ivin Ballen website

Urbanology

Mary Livoni
"Elston"
Charcoal, chalk on paper
40 x 48"
Collection of Wesley Kimler, Chicago

"I felt that this world, despite it's massiveness, was somehow dangerously fragile.........."

Richard Wright, American Hunger

A poignant lead in to Mary's amazing charcoal and chalk drawings. Please check out her website to view more.

Mary Livoni website

Bonsai

Jared Pankin
"Half "
2008
Wood, fake fur, foam
68 x 25 1/2 x 47"

The exhibition title “Bonsai” aptly describes Pankin’s continued search of man’s investigation of and attempts to conquer nature...Chinese Bonsai is said to be the landscape of imagination and often conjures up the idea of the miniature. “To appreciate and find pleasure in curiously curved potted trees is to love deformity,” Pankin states. For the Japanese, on the other hand, Bonsai represents a fusion of ancient beliefs with Eastern Philosophies of the harmony between man, the soul and nature.

The materials Pankin uses are seemingly random mostly synthetic materials ranging from carpet remnants, to expandable foam and tinted latex grafted with taxidermied parts and selected discarded wood acting as armatures and that have been cut, nailed, and glued to suite the artist’s aesthetics....It is this process that has enabled the artist to create sculptures of enormous power and subtle humor that tears down and reconfigures what is natural or man-made.

Excerpt from the Carl Berg Gallery exhibition, April - May 2008

Wilderness Overload

Casey Roberts

"Steady Work (the charm offensive)"
2008
cyanotype drawing w/collage
69" x 60"

Casey Robert's work illustrates a fantastic landscape. It represents nature's subtle way of dealing with the peculiar aspects in the relationship with mankind. A giant glow-in-the-dark heart, or a pile of precious gems tells us that we are loved, just as blood squirting from an oak tree trunk says, all is not well. Inspired by his conversation with the landscape, Casey imagines long monologues where pine forests make him laugh and mountains test his patience.

These paintings are created with a photochemical process known as cyanotype. The cyanotype is a civil war era process that when exposed to sunlight and developed gives a vibrant blue image.

Excerpt from Casey Robert's website

You are one step closer to learning the truth

Deb Sokolow
You are one step closer to learning the truth (detail)
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City
141 foot-long drawing inked onto the walls
on view until June 14, 2008

Deb Sokolow, a California native and the granddaughter of a Chicago bookie, developed a curiosity for the city and its nefarious nature in her formative years. Also, at a young age, Sokolow was introduced to the vast universe of politics and intrigue while witnessing a suspicious briefcase exchange in a Washington, D.C. McDonald’s fast food restaurant in 1986 and while working as a congressional intern on Capitol Hill in 1991. A decade later, these interests would surface as subject matter for the paranoid, diagrammatic drawings she would begin to make as a graduate student at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. These days, Sokolow continues to live and make art in Chicago, but spends the majority of her time investigating the dark, gritty recesses of urban life, reading about the exploits of drug lords, and speculating on various conspiracy theories concerning individuals and occurrences within the world’s political landscape.

Excerpt from the Vonzweck Gallery exhibition, March 2008

The Fall

Robyn Voshardt / Sven Humphrey
The Fall, 2006, (3 min 43 sec), dvd video/sound, dim. variable

This meditative yet ominous footage came from a rural area in Nova Scotia that stands on the brink of over-development. A branch from a 150 year old apple tree is the focus of this extreme view of natural and metaphorical decay.

Voshardt/Humphrey website

How Some Rich People Died

Shawnee Barton
"How Some Rich People Died"
Bathtub video

Below are excerpts from Shawnee's artist statement and list of her least favorite things.

I am interested in contributing to the depletion of art-world-angst through the creation of humorous, clever, and/or lighthearted work. I like to have fun making art and I want my viewers to have fun experiencing the objects and images I create.

A list of my least favorite things
Tami
Ivory Soap
Black Jelly Beans
Cilantro
Ear aches
Snakes

Shawnee Barton website

Examination of the Over-Sensitive

Elizabeth Huey

"Examination of the Over-Sensitive"
48 x 96"

Elizabeth Huey gets her inspiration from:

Random google searches, church basements, mental illness and master paintings, machinery, colored waters, crazy rants from gutter bums, ancient psychological manuals and old dictionaries, at the dog run, in my bathtub, in my dreams, American and European history, clothing and costumes, muffled giggling, documentaries new music and the my warped ideas about the wilderness.

Got to love that!

Elizabeth Huey website

The Hyena and Other Men

Pieter Hugo

Mallam Galadima Ahmadu with Jamis, Nigeria
C-Print
2005

Pieter Hugo created the series The Hyena Men while traveling in Nigeria with a troupe of animal charmers and their collection of tenuously domesticated hyenas, monkeys and snakes. The portraits feature groupings of men and animals surrounded by the barren urban centers of northern Nigeria. Taken during quiet moments between the spectacles of street performances, the photographs depict a stillness that subverts the tense physicality of the animals and their trainers.

Excerpt from the Yossi Milo Gallery Press Release November 2007