Michael Workman

Seven years in the making, Riva Lehrer has organized a show that depicts the experience of her participation in disability culture. A sufferer of spina bifida, a birth defect involving the spine, Lehrer's work caught the eye of UIC doctors David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder. Together, they produced a documentary about the work that will be shown concurrent with the exhibition. "Circle Stories" includes a series of portraits Lehrer made of academics and artist friends over the years, including "Circle Story #10: Portrait of Eli," an acrylic painting. In it, a man kneels in a forest next to a stream, placing branches in through the top of his shirt that then seem to grow from his shoulders and neck. Nature transforms and distorts our ideal body forms as it does for Eli, who has made his peace with this fact: a thick branch extends from between his thighs and descends down into the dirt, an abandoned cloth sprawled on the ground in front of him.

Riva Lehrer, "Circle Stories," shows at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 East Washington, (312)744-6630, through May 30.

(2004-03-25)

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