Michael Workman

Fans of the "Caveman Robot" comic written and drawn by Britton Walters, Shoshanna Weinberger, Joe Infurnari and Jason Robert Bell, will want to check out the project by the Brooklyn-based Bell at Suitable Gallery in Wicker Park. Bell became friends with Suitable owner Scott Wolniak during his studies at the Art Institute and they kept in touch afterward. "He kept sending us these sculptures after he moved away," recalls Wolniak, "he'd just slap postage directly on the sculpture, these things he'd made out of office supplies at his job and mailed them to us." No longer a tech consultant, Bell now teaches at a school in Pennsylvania and "helps people move things in his truck" when he's not making art.

For his show "Kala versus the World of Men" at Suitable, Bell made charcoal drawings eight feet high that cover all of the available wall space in the garage where Wolniak exhibits art. "The only wall that's not used is the garage door," says Wolniak. The finished works are fifty-four feet in length and illustrate the epic fantasy adventures of a female Sasquatch named Kala, her daughter Eve and their battles with "a group of gun-toting Hummer-driving Sportsmen." Kala's a sight to behold, a dark figure with huge fangs, a shock of long, dark hair and distended nipples who's somehow simultaneously affable and monstrous. But it's her battle with the forces of an aggressive, normative culture of "sportsmen" that results in the strangely satisfying destruction of the men's Hummer. Who will ultimately survive this confrontation between the violence-prone realists and the lovable but grotesque fantasy creatures? Visitors will have to find out for themselves in the pages of Bell's wall-sized story.

Small works
Among the artists in the "Think Small" exhibit at the Illinois State Museum, none can beat the miniature medium of Chicago artist Anne Wilson. Using such material as human hair to braid, sew and twine her work together, Wilson's finished works often evoke alien landscapes with all the magnetism of a flea circus. Her "No. 23 from `Colonies'" uses found and remade laces, insect pins and wood to evoke a miniature, almost Martian world of circles, towers and organic structures that defy categorization. Bill Conger's "These Tears are Just Your Answered Prayers" of plastic, plywood and oil hardly exceeds the size of a large postage stamp though, in its minimalism, manages all the power of a religious artifact. Chicago artist Chris Uphues' work, also not much larger than a postage stamp, evokes the paint samples available at any common hardware store. On them, in a series titled "Creamed Butter/Innocence Gold/Miner's Sun" using colored pencil, he has etched tiny, iconic images drawn from the-dog-pulling-the-girl's-panties school of popular advertising alongside drips of melted butter and a precisely detailed diamond. How do these images fit together? It's their size that binds them: though small, they dazzle brightly as any gem.

Mirror images
Portraiture has always been a peculiar art form, and self-portraiture an oft-exploited strategy for getting artists to do what they do best: make art of and about themselves. It allows artists subjective free reign to interpret their own self-image not as they were made, but as they imagine themselves to be. At River North's Carl Hammer Gallery, the entire stable of artists has been given the opportunity to take such a close look at themselves in "The Reflected/Refracted Self," open now through the end of December. It's a rare opportunity to see all of the gallery's artists as they see themselves, in a wide range of styles and mediums: the late Lee Godie, for instance, was famous for her brand of self-portraiture, often using paint on snapshot images.

Many have never shown self-portraits, however, and the experiment promises a new glimpse into the mind of some of the city's most challenging visual thinkers. Take Chris Uphues, for example, who's also in this show. His sprawling, intensely detailed images often arrange the ephemera of decades of pop culture into huge, planetoid groupings that take weeks to completely digest. No doubt his self-portrait will give no less complex a glimpse into his creative process. And then there's the notoriously hard-living realist painter and sculptor Marcos Raya: who wouldn't want to further their understanding of his intransigent self-destructiveness? Such reflections are only half the story, however. Other artists choose to represent themselves less concretely: Adam Connelly's self-portrait offers a grid pattern of colors that coalesce in shades of a flesh-tone palette that fade off into dark browns on one side and greens on the other. With over twenty artists contributing works to the show, the sheer range on display is sure to suit any taste.

Jason Robert Bell shows at Suitable Gallery, 2541 West Thomas, (773)758-0088. Through December 18. "The Reflected/Refracted Self" shows at Carl Hammer Gallery, 740 North Wells Street, (312)226-8512. Through December 31. "Think Small" shows at the Illinois State Museum Chicago Gallery, 100 West Randolph, (312)814-5317. Through January 14.

(2004-11-22)

Also by Michael Workman

Tip of the Week
It's a black fuzzy thing with adjustable limbs and a single eye planted square in the middle of its boxy little head
(2004-11-17)

Reconstruction
"My whole motto is that another world is possible, it's just how do you make it real?" asks conceptual artist and musician Paul Miller, otherwise known as DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid
(2004-11-17)

Eye Exam
If walking and breathing can be thought of as an art...
(2004-11-17)

Tip of the Week
In a one-night-only exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center, curator Julie Laffin has assembled artists for a bonanza of site-specific installation and performances
(2004-11-09)

Eye Exam
(2004-11-03)

Tip of the Week
(2004-10-27)

Gaylen Gerber
(2004-10-27)

Eye Exam
(2004-10-27)

Eye Exam
(2004-10-20)

Von Kommanivanh
(2004-10-20)

Tip of the Week
(2004-10-13)

Huong Ngo
(2004-10-13)

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