Two exhibitions
dal 19/2/2004 al 20/3/2004
Segnalato da
19/2/2004
Two exhibitions
Aron Packer Gallery, Chicago
Matthew Cox - Painted, Stamped, and Stitched! The relationship between Matthew Cox's psychologically charged realist paintings and large-scale rubber stamp drawings rests on a tangent connecting these two enduring mediums. His renaissance influenced paintings are technically impressive as well as engaging. Mark Crisanti - The Reluctant Host. Mark Crisanti doesn't look at things like other people. On dictionary pages, cigar box lids and over vintage stamps he visualizes and then paints characters referenced from his slightly twisted mind.
Matthew Cox - Painted, Stamped, and Stitched!
The relationship between Matthew Cox's psychologically charged realist paintings and large-scale rubber stamp drawings rests on a tangent connecting these two enduring mediums. His renaissance influenced paintings are technically impressive as well as engaging. Characters seemingly inspired from eastern European ancestry coupled with modern American details create narrative with subtle comedy.
Somewhere between printmaking and watercolor, Cox's ink drawings (created by laboriously stamping every line and shadow with office-supply style rubber stamps), have recently become more elaborate, involving several objects in the same piece, each with different stamps. They are rendered with deft nuance so one is often not aware of the novel approach in 'drawing' method. Earlier works on view are portraits printed with a single stamp, one using the text from a personals ad (SWM, likes art, seeks...). Some great irony is gleaned relating text in the stamp, to subjects and choices of ink color.
To triangulate the exhibition, a small series of embroidered x-rays will be shown for the first time. These are hung with various medical clamps and surgical devices. Cox's multifarious bodies of work strengthen one another by balancing technical and conceptual concerns with humor and formal beauty. This is Cox's first solo exhibition in Chicago.
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Mark Crisanti - The Reluctant Host
Mark Crisanti doesn't look at things like other people. On dictionary pages, cigar box lids and over vintage stamps he visualizes and then paints characters referenced from his slightly twisted mind. Through the use of simple collage effects he focuses a body of work, that transforms the original material's utilitarian status.
The exhibition's feature is a series of 'birdmen' - handsome, quirky male figures in suits with various bird heads painted on dictionary pages. These figures jump out of the collage plane and confront visually. For Crisanti, the dictionary page can be ignored or examined closely. By using these pages as a background Crisanti supports the foreground image and plays with ideas of randomness and coincidence.
Another set, is a series of cigar box lids, in which the Robert Burns image on the logo is distorted as if his head were on fire, turned into a devil, or the tip of a burning cigar. The vintage graphics on the lids make for great visual puns. This is Crisanti's first solo showing.
Who/What: Gallery 1 Matthew Cox -- Painted, Stamped, and Stitched!
Paintings, Rubber Stamp Drawings, and Embroidered X-Rays
Gallery 2 Mark Crisanti -- The Reluctant Host
Collage Based Paintings
When: February 20 - March 20, 2004
Artists' Reception Friday, February 20th, 6-9 PM
New Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Where:
Aron Packer Gallery 118 N Peoria Chicago Il 60607 312 226 8984