Art & Art History
More than Real
Gallery 400
400 South Peoria Street, Chicago, IL 60607
Ida Applebroog, Richard Bosman, Katherine Bowling, Mary Carlson, Nancy Davenport, Dan Devening, Lisa Erf, Kenneth Goldsmith, David Humphrey, Sarah Morris, Daniel Oliver, David Russick, Hugh Steers, Thomas Trosch, Kara Walker, and Hannah Wilke
More than Real is about the different ways in which artists work with a narrative language. Each of the artists represented in this exhibition resorts to the narration of storytelling in order to structure their work. Some of the artists fuse their language between representation and abstraction, while others use a stylized or particular brand of realism; still others use a symbiosis of word and image. Many use symbols, signifiers, and codes as metaphor, while some look for ways to make their work more direct in nondidactic terms. Some of the narratives act as a documentary, while others act upon fantasy. Their goal is to share selected information filtered through art.
Despite the stylistic pluralism that exists in the art world, and the variety of personal vernacular and different levels of emotional and psychological temperatures in which a narrative piece can exist, these works are paradigmatic of their time, covering such issues as culture, gender, body, sexuality, and identity. The artists share in common their resistance against a clear, overt interpretation of their work, the position of unease the viewer is left with and the work acting between the gap of art and life.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Barbara Stafford, an art historian at the University of Chicago, will speak about her book, Body Criticism.
CURATORS BIOGRAPHIES
Phyllis Bramson is an established Chicago painter and art educator. Her playful paintings depict sexual relationships and scenes from eastern mythology with an unusual, emotional sense of color. Since 1985, Bramson has been a professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Illinois Chicago. She has had multiple solo exhibitions at various institutions, including G. W. Einstein Gallery, New York (1991); Dart Gallery, Chicago (1992); and Brody’s Gallery, Washington, D.C. (1993); among many other venues. Bramson has also been featured in group exhibitions such as Already Buddha, Greenville County Museum, South Carolina (1993); The Home Show, Center for Creative Studies, Center Galleries, Detroit. Michigan (1992); and Cross Currents, Smart Museum, University of Chicago (1991). This is Bramson’s first curatorial project. She received a BFA with high honors in drawing and painting from the University of Illinois (1963), an MA in painting from the University of Wisconsin (1964), and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1974).
Karen Indeck has been the curator and director of Gallery 400 and the Visiting Artists-in-Residence Program at the University of Illinois Chicago since 1986. She has curated numerous shows, including FAXART (1990) and Influx (1993). Indeck received a BFA from the University of Illinois Chicago.