Michael Workman

Most of the Chicago nightspots offering art as a lure don't have as well-integrated a vision as Darkroom in Ukrainian Village. Columbia College student Charles Edward Kushner travels a lot. His photographs of scenic spots from around the globe include Glendalough Monastery in Ireland, shown in an archival inkjet print. Shot facing a copse of knotty trees stacked with a dozen overgrown eroded tombstones off a dirt path, the ancient monastery looms in a moody distance. "Russell Square, London" depicts a mostly empty street, except for a parked car and a Autocares Merono bus, a three-tube smokestack providing a platform for a blue-sky moon. Along the way, Kushner picks up a few portraits: these are displayed along the bar's opposite wall. They're candid shots of people in their natural environments. "Tommy," for instance, captures the black truck driver standing in the open door of his cab in jeans and a red flannel shirt, cigar stub poking from his mouth. All this in a bar, sure, but it gives an added sophistication to the place, offering patrons a way to escape other than through a few too many drinks.

C. Edward Kushner shows at Darkroom, 2210 West Chicago, (773)276-1411. Through September 8.

(2004-08-17)

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