Spring 2008 Exhibitions

Michael Bell-Smith
Action Hack (Crystal) , 2007
9-sec. loop
Single channel video loop
Dimensions variable
Edition of 5 + 2AP
Courtesy of the artist and Foxy Production, New York
© Michael Bell-Smith

Blown Away
January 25 through March 30, 2008

Curators: Ginger Gregg Duggan and
Judith Hoos Fox

Serving as the visual focus of Hollywood blockbuster films and television news stories pertaining to the current war in Iraq, explosions have become a part of popular culture. A healthy fascination that begins with a childhood fireworks display becomes an uncomfortable attraction to the more disturbing displays of car crashes and bomb detonations. As physical forms, explosions are simultaneously unnerving and beautiful. As subjects, they offer an extreme image through which artists can convey powerful anti-war sentiments, provide straightforward observations of an action frozen in time, or subtly render the violent in a contemplative way. This exhibition featured work in a variety of media by artists expressing an interest in explosions—from the intensity of an impending event to the sensation of the release and the reverberations of the ensuing shockwaves. 

Artists in the exhibition included Michael Bell-Smith, Boym Partners Inc., Adam Cvijanovic, E. V. Day, Heide Fasnacht, Barnaby Furnas, Carlos Garaicoa, John Gerrard, Penelope Gottlieb, Fabrice Gygi, Jone Kvie, Pia Lindman, Stefana McClure, Cornelia Parker, Sarah Pickering, Michael Rakowitz, Gerhard Richter, Thomas Ruff, Charles Sandison, Eduardo Santiere, and David Svensson.

View programming for this exhibition

Mark Skwarek
Children of Arcadia, 2007
Interactive virtual world Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist
© Mark Skwarek

Children of Arcadia
January 25 through March 30, 2008

Curator: Damon Baker

To coincide with Blown Away, the Intermedia Gallery featured a new work by Mark Skwarek (with programmers Joseph Hocking and Arthur Peters) entitled Children of Arcadia. This panoramic view into a living-electronic world was realized using technologies from online video games and KAM's CANVAS (Collaborative Advanced Navigation Virtual Art Studio). While the tools used to create this artwork are cutting-edge technology, the visual inspiration is allegorical paintings that were popular during the Baroque period, such as Laurent de La Hyre's Death of the Children of Bethel (1653). The project overlayed downtown Manhattan's financial district with a lush virtual Arcadia. The virtual overlay carved away at the physical space of the financial district leaving behind the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Hall Memorial building, and the Federal Reserve.

Jay Ryan
Murky Waters, 2007
7 screens on found posterboard
20 x 23 1/2 inches
© Jay Ryan

Jay Ryan: Animals and Objects In and Out of Water
January 25 through May 11, 2008

Curators: Jennifer Misuzu Gunji-Ballsrud and Mary Antonakos

Ryan’s work is truly phenomenal and has achieved a cult following in the independent music scene and, more recently, the design scene.  He was sought after by author Michael Chabon for his book, The Final Solution, to design the cover and insets. Converse Shoes asked Ryan to design a billboard that exists at Ohio and Wabash Streets in Chicago that needed to be distinctively “Jay Ryan”—insomuch that he wasn’t required to render shoes in the design. Ninth Letter (U of I art and literary journal) featured Ryan’s illustrations in its third issue, accompanying a short story by Tom Franklin.

Ryan’s posters, bedecked with quirky characters falling, bicycling, battling, or staring blankly are a staple of many fine art poster galleries. He has created posters for his own band, Dianogah, as well as for dozens of underground U.S. indie bands, such as Fugazi, Shellac, Built to Spill, The Flaming Lips, Stereolab, and Sonic Youth. Ryan’s distinctive illustrations and handwriting grace his work and give his posters that edge, the kind that makes you want to tear down and steal, just so you can have a piece of his work.

This exhibition featured a wide range of Ryan's posters from the past several years. More about Jay Ryan can be found at his website, http://thebirdmachine.com.

View programming for this exhibition

Benjamin Smith
MusiVerse, 2008
© Benjamin Smith

Paul Sierra
Afternoon Landscape
© Paul Sierra

Landscapes of Experience and Imagination: Explorations by Midwest Latina/o Artists
April 4 through July 27, 2008

Curator: Judith Hoos Fox
Research Assistance: Oscar E. Vázquez and David Orta

This exhibition examined the responses of Latina/Latino artists to the natural and built environment. These six, largely Chicago-based artists explored the theme of landscapes through mixed and new narrative media installations, as well as through more traditional means of drawing, painting, and sculpture. Their works addressed the memories or imaginings of a tropical forest, the suburbs, and the density of urban-scapes, as well as the artists' own self-identities or understandings of the Latin presence in the United States.

View programming for this exhibition

Installation view, 2008

Installation view, 2008

Installation view, 2008

Vincenzo Brenna (1741-1820)
Section Reconstruction of the Northwest Wall of the Throne Room in Domitian's Palace, 1777
Pen, ink and watercolor on paper
62.5 x 90.7 cm
Art Acquisition Fund

Contrasting Architectural Visions: Piranesi and Brenna in 18th-Century Rome
May 19 through July 27, 2008

Curator: Robert G. LaFrance

Eighteenth-century Rome abounded with artists and amateurs who derived inspiration from the city’s monumental ruins. This exhibition highlighted the contrasting visions of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) and Vincenzo Brenna (1741-1820), architects of overlapping generations who championed ancient Roman architecture and created works of art for foreigners on the Grand Tour.

Adolph Gottlieb
Romanesque Facade, 1949
Oil on canvas
48 x 35 3/4 inches
Festival of Arts Purchase Fund