Michael Workman

Drummer for the Chicago-based band Zelienople, Mike Weis also has a budding photography habit. Where his music interests yield what Sun-Times critic Jim DeRogatis refers to as "dream-pop/shoegazer rock," his visual work results in a moodier, more lethal mixture of atmospheric back-alley snooping and backyard gazing. Shot almost exclusively at night using available fluorescent and sodium vapor lights, his images imitate the lighting of a stage performance at the Empty Bottle, where the band often plays. Appropriately, his photography shows at Bite Café next door. Weis's choice of subject matter spells strange attraction to lit corners in the nighttime city landscape: back porches, glowing, distant house windows. Either stalking or waiting to catch a glimpse of an intimate interior, these images haunt and persist in their deranged interrogation of a post-3am world. An unexpected side-effect of the coloration, they also communicate the jealous gaze of a sorrowful wanderer longing after the comforts of home.

Michael Weis shows at Bite Cafe, 1039 North Western, (773)395-2483, through September 1.

(2004-08-25)

Also by Michael Workman

Tip of the Week
Most of the Chicago nightspots offering art as a lure don't have as well-integrated a vision as Darkroom in Ukrainian Village
(2004-08-17)

Eye Exam
Bad feelings, bilious public sniping and nonstop drama have rocked the art world over the last few weeks with the well-reported announcements surrounding the shifts in the city's spring art fair schedule
(2004-08-17)

El is for lovers
Messinger has long had a special relationship with the Chicago Transit Authority, beginning with a column centered around public transportation that he wrote while working for the Pioneer Press newspaper, Oak Leaves
(2004-08-10)

Eye Exam
Rich Lehl's canvases are an adventure in fantasies of a gothic banal
(2004-08-03)

Tip of the Week
(2004-07-27)

Eye Exam
(2004-07-27)

Tip of the Week
(2004-07-20)

Tip of the Week
(2004-07-13)

There's no place like home
(2004-07-13)

Eye Exam
(2004-06-29)

Soapbox Studs
(2004-06-22)

Eye Exam
(2004-06-22)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment