calendario eventi  :: 

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31/5/2012

Four exhibitions

Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago

Gary Dobry
Life After Ed Paschke and Henry Miller
paintings

Gary Dobry will exhibit new paintings made of, and with, actress/writer/film-maker, Brenda Venus in a show titled "Life After Ed Paschke and Henry Miller". Dobry was a life-long friend and apprentice to world famous artist, Ed Paschke. Writer Henry Miller mentored Brenda Venus when Miller was in his eighties and Venus was still a very young woman. Miller's over 3,000 love letters to Venus were published by William Morris in a compilation titled, "Dear, Dear, Brenda". In the body of work to be exhibited at Packer Schopf, Dobry and Venus celebrate finding their own artistic voices after Paschke and Miller, and they join those voices to sing their praise. Earlier works by Gary Dobry in collaboration with Brenda Venus have been exhibited at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, California in 2010 and at the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago and the Jack Olson Gallery at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois in 2011.

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Catherine Jacobi
Collective Bargaining
sculpture

Catherine Jacobi¹s work emerges from among the most common references of nature and anatomy. Form for Jacobi is the accumulation of time and material. Common objects emerge from the simplest and most overlooked materials. Years of collected newspapers, empty egg cartons, cast-off rubber inner tubes, all bound to be trash or at the very least overlooked, are intrinsic in the development of a new form that simultaneously leverages and reinvents the previous histories of use. The material itself is a platform from which she starts a piece ­ considering a narrative that has already existed and one that it is transformed into. Emotional connections are made from what is already known. Layered quantities of exhausted bicycle inner tubes are transformed into a dead baby elephant; the New York Times grows into a tree stump and empty egg cartons birth dozens of women¹s pelvises. Her work points to a common commentary that the novelty of form, which leads you to believe that it will endure, only changes.

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Mark Crisanti
National Geographic
paintings on found paper

Mark Crisanti is an artist unique to the contemporary art world, because he strives to provide subtle elements in a straightforward manner that collectively create an evocative work of art. The artist has a way of connecting with the viewer by evoking a charm of a different era. He incorporates recognizable imagery serving as a memoir to an older generation. By pairing family-owned relics with figurative paintings, he makes works that are both nostalgic, and highly personal. One of Crisanti¹s most recent paintings creates dynamic visuals with a stark contrast of color and form between foreground and background. In this untitled work, a bird in a business suit is painted atop vintage National Geographic covers. Another work is a portable artist¹s case for tubes and brushes, with a paint palette. He adhered dictionary pages over the palette and in areas where brushes and tubes of paint reside. He then painted a series of avian portraits over the inside of the case and did a small scene over the palette. Both pieces display the artist¹s ability to make work that is both refined and intimate. The bird motif is a reference to his own past, as bird watching was a favorite pastime of his Mother¹s. When she passed away, one of the first items Cristanti found and then used in a work was a guide to North American birds that his mother would often read. His very first painting of a bird was a religious portrait of his Mother with a Robin¹s head.

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Tim Vermeulen
Labours of the Months
paintings

The Labours of the Months was one of the most popular themes of the Medieval and Early Renaissance periods. There are countless painted and sculpted versions of this subject. The pieces usually depict agricultural activities that commonly occurred in the given months of the year and are often linked to the signs of the Zodiac. Vermeulen¹s series of paintings takes the traditional labours as a springboard for investigating a contemporary world of contradictions, polarities, and paradox. He uses symbolic and allegorical images, to create visual allegory that is deeply personal and about our universal condition. Through autobiographical narratives, displayed in self-portraiture, the work is part of a struggle for self-discovery. For Vermeulen, painting is a similar process to the Turkish expression ³to dig a well with a needle.² He patiently picks away at layers that mask the true self. He discovers the world that makes the self what it is. This approach is much like 15th century Northern European painting, which heavily influences the technique and subject matter of his work. He is particularly drawn to the saturated symbolism, quirky perspective and layered surfaces. There is a peculiar way in which the meaning of this work is married to the technique. One accesses the meaning of these paintings through the process of their creation as well as through the subject matter. The obsessive character of the technique of many Flemish artists seeks the same home of conviction and insight that Vermeulen looks for in his work. This is a particularly Northern form of expressionism that strains for release not in big brushes and wild gestures but in a slow, painstaking process.

Image: Catherine Jacobi, Everest, ladies handkerchiefs, thread, glue, 2012, 40" x 48" x 48"

Artists' Reception: Friday, June 1st, 2012, 5 ­ 8 PM

Packer Schopf Gallery
942 W. Lake - Chicago, IL 60607
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11:00 AM to 5:30 PM

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