Michael Weinstein

Although the photogram—a print resulting from placing an object

on a light-sensitive medium—is not known for sensuality, Karen Savage's ethereal yet precisely delineated, glowing images of diaphanous fancy dresses are a feast for the eyes and tease us to wish we could touch their subtle textures. Savage means her images to evoke the seven sacraments of Catholicism, yet any spiritual associations that they might have prompted are swamped by their exquisitely elegant beauty, which provokes a purely aesthetic response. Savage's project reaches its perfection when she dissolves her subject into an abstraction; her "Wedding Dress" retains its form as it kindles into a study of blazing strands of white light, the harbingers of a consummation to come and a reminder that Catholicism also honors the flesh.

Karen Savage shows at Packer Schopf Gallery, 942 West Lake, (312)226-8984, through July 7. (2007-06-12)

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