Burt Michaels

Like Athena springing full-grown and battle-ready from Zeus' head, Alfedena Gallery burst on the Chicago art scene in January with a roster of nineteen well-established Midwestern artists, immediately fielded three widely and favorably reviewed exhibitions and exploited its state-of-the-art commercial kitchen to host several corporate team-building retreats where guests work with area chefs to create meals that befit the sleek, art-adorned, tri-level space. Largely responsible for the gallery's strong running start is director John Brunetti and his twenty years of experience in the local art community.

When Brunetti's cousin, healthcare entrepreneur Robert Brunetti, first announced his intention to open an art gallery with a gourmet professional kitchen, John tried without success to dissuade him. "The best way I could think of to protect him was

to accept the job as gallery director and make sure we opened with critically respected artists--mainly people whose work I'd curated into shows or written reviews or catalog essays about, and who live close enough so we can work together face-to-face and do studio visits," Brunetti explains. They named the gallery for their family's ancestral home in Abruzzi.

After completing a BA in studio arts at UIC and an MFA in painting and drawing at the University of Chicago in 1987, Brunetti worked at New Art Examiner writing reviews until the publication's demise. He taught art, design and art history at Columbia and Northeastern, was curator at the Evanston Art Center and authored "Baldwin Kingrey: Midcentury Modern in Chicago, 1947-1957," which was published in 2004.

Alfedena's current show, running through June 2, is "Revolution" by British-born, Wilmette-based landscape artist Ben Whitehouse, who also earned an MFA at

U of C, where he and Brunetti met. "This show, with its twenty-four-hour videos and series of paintings that investigate time, represents a substantial risk for Ben compared with the landscapes that have made him so popular. It's exciting to be be able to help artists take risks and expand their capabilities," Brunetti says. "Similarly, it's exciting to see chefs expand their capabilities with our PolyScience thermal-immerson bath and other advanced cuisine technology."

Alfedena Gallery, 434 West Ontario, (312)944-4340, shows Ben Whitehouse through June 2.

(2007-05-15)

Also by Burt Michaels

Portrait of the Gallerist
In 1963, with his family's businesses tottering and three kids to support, Gray opened a gallery "because I needed a job." He'd taken a high-school art class, studied architecture for two years, dabbled at painting and, through his in-laws, knew some local collectors
(2007-04-24)

Art Break
You might not expect to find Rhona Hoffman, whose venerated-but-hip gallery is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, cheering at a Mite-level hockey game (her grandson's), enjoying Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" or reading cosmology, but this stanchion of contemporary art is replete with contradictions--most notably her predilection for art that is abstract, that strives for art-historic breakthroughs and museum status, yet sends a progressive socio-political message
(2007-03-20)

Eye Exam
As a fine-art photographer, Brian Ulrich traffics in youth-oriented pop culture, but this time, in the series "Copia" (which means "abundance"), he takes us on a romp where we've all been: through the malls and big-box stores of middle America
(2006-12-05)

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