Michael Workman

After a celebrated showing at Brooklyn's Pierogi 2000 Gallery, Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick brings his new book, "The Wonder: Portraits of a Remembered City" back to the city that's the source of his inspiration. This Thursday, the W Hotel will host a party for the book and its author. Recently released by Last Gasp of San Francisco, this new volume gathers together many of Fitzpatrick's signature subjects in drawing-collages that incorporate everything from magazine snippings to postcards to ticket stubs from baseball games. As New York Times critic Roberta Smith wrote of Fitzpatrick's work, "they remind us that when the world created is complete enough, originality is beside the point." While not exactly a compliment, it's not necessarily a kindness either: these collages are as fully envisioned as they can get. His densely packed images follow the artist's edict to "fill the page," with Fitzpatrick inserting razor-trimmed sections of handwritten text where there's a square centimeter of void, an otherworldly obsessive-compulsiveness that has always been a cornerstone of the artist's many graces.

Tony Fitzpatrick appears at W Chicago-City Center, 172 West Adams, (312)332-1200. February 17, 6:30-8:30pm.

(2005-02-15)

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