Michael Weinstein

Sucking America in with a wink of a jaundiced eye and a good-natured guffaw, Greg Stimac is on a perpetual photographic road trip, shooting series of color images on his favorite themes—people discharging guns and mowing lawns, dirty melting snow men, wasting campfires left to burn out and the ubiquitous tourists soaking up nature—an example of each of which is on display in this genial show. Stimac's American icons are the urine-filled plastic bottles chucked on the side of the road by truckers in distress. Stimac found one such relic lying on the parched Arizona desert with its glowing yellow liquid permeated by the earth tones of the unforgiving stony ground. Make no mistake, Stimac is the last thing from a puritanical finger-pointing Ralph Nader or Michael Moore. His shaggy-dog take on our misdemeanors and foibles is a perfect ironical blend of identification and self-criticism, in clear favor of the former.

Greg Stimac shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago, (312)280-2660. Through September 2.

(2007-08-07)

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