Michael Workman

If there's any single art form constantly in jeopardy of not having enough practitioners, it's sculpture. Usually unwieldy in scale, difficult and expensive to produce, ship and install for exhibit, sculpture has always taken a backseat to two-dimensional work, simply on account of its ease of handling. Heather Pesanti, until recently a curatorial fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art, had to expect some obstacles in curating "A Sense of Place: Emerging Chicago Sculpture." The show opened this past weekend at River West's Lobby Gallery, and in it she managed to overcome the obstacles inherent to sculpture brilliantly.

It's not enough to say that assembling a show of sculpture is challenging. Adding the qualifier of "emerging" makes it even stickier. Two artists who this column has been watching since the start of their careers--Mike Andrews and Benjamin Chickadel--make strong showings. Chickadel, in particular, continues his climb unabated. Where will it end? Anecdotally, it's worth noting that, in conversation with Pesanti at the opening, we were led to muse openly on how many people in this city's art scene respond to the mention of Chickadel's name by noting that they own his work. His cut-paper wall pieces continue in a tradition of nature scenes delineated to barest elements and recontextualized as sites for dramatic play. His spiraled loops drag and sag, wreaking havoc with our perspective of his objects, each as unique as a snowflake, forcing our focus instead to their intricate loops and whorls. Andrews offers more of the caricature impulse that distinguishes his early sculpture, here combining such weirdly disparate materials as shellac and common garden weeds, which he has combined to create wall-hung cloud-like sprouts of color.

And that's only the beginning of what's worth talking about in this show. Those who have never visited Lobby Gallery before will also have much to consider with regard to the exhibition space itself: it's a place that marks a transition in what can be considered Chicago's "post-alt" movement away from spaces conceived as operating purely in contrast to commercial galleries and museums. Managing to linger on the line between these two models, it offers an exhibition in the transitory space of a commercial/residential building's lobby. But it's not merely meant to offer work hung in a lobby: Director Matthew Robinson hopes to offers the unique experience of public space with a private function--a lobby as gallery. What to make of it? Start with the art. Arguably the centerpiece of the show, Noelle Allen's vitrined "Husk" offers another clever use of materials: steel and acrylic play host to a mass of spun sugar resembling a draped animal hide or insect-spun cocoon. Is it the residue of some living thing, or an artifice of life? It doesn't matter: her work reverberates with all the ingenuity of creation.

Goth problem

It's the 75th anniversary for "American Gothic," arguably the most famous painting in the Art Institute's vast permanent collection. It's no small irony that when first presented, the painting was passed over until purchased by a trustee who argued the painting's merits vociferously enough to get it purchased for a mere $300. Maybe the lesson here is how artists always get the shaft for their work. How many tens of millions has that painting contributed in gate receipts alone for the Art Institute since then? Using his sister and dentist as the original models for the painting, Grant Wood's dour-looking farm couple have gone on to transform American culture and define that ever-elusive thing we call "Midwestern values," usually a term of art for narrow-minded insularity. Does it praise? Satirize? Probably both: while both projecting the positive side, it also managed to subtly (and beautifully) parody itself.

It's an infectious game that Wood's painting has been inviting us all to join in on since it was first shown in 1930. And join in we have, with a vengeance. Our collective cultural response to Wood's painting has been traced in a new book written by Steven Biel, Harvard University's chair of history and literature. Biel visits Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago this Thursday night at 6pm to sign copies of "American Gothic: A Life of America's Most Famous Painting." Is the book worth the wait in line? Anecdotal and loose in its art-historical methodology, it's probably essential reading to commemorate the painting's anniversary but not required reading as scholarship. It's entertaining, for instance, to read about what's in the backyard of the steamboat house in Eldon, Iowa that Wood used as a model for "Gothic," but who really cares? Biel's obviously a fan, as we are all, it seems, given the infinite potential for parody of this image in advertising and commercials over the decades. How, exactly, has it managed to hang in so long? As serious as Wood's painting may be, its wisely humble inability to take itself too seriously also subliminally charges the image with a sort of weapons-grade sense of humor: it's as familiar as Coca-Cola and Campbell's Soup, and a lot, lot funnier than both.

Art Obituary

In the last few weeks, this column has marked the passing of significant cultural spaces in and around the city, and this week's no exception: the Highwood-based Street Level Gallery recently announced that it had finally satisfied its stated mission of bringing art to the North Shore. They'll close their doors for good this fall after "Three Squared," a group show of work by gallery artists scheduled to open August 8.

"A Sense of Place: Emerging Chicago Sculpture" shows at Lobby Gallery, 731 North Sangamon, (312)952-1823, through August 20. "Three Squared" shows at Street Level Gallery, 9 Highwood Avenue, Highwood, (847)432-8340, through September 15.

< (2005-07-21)

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