West Loop Galleries

Friday night’s gallery walk at the West Loop was busy and buzzing with energy. Despite the moving crowds however, I felt conscious of the artists and gallerists looking at us (the viewers) looking at the art. That is to be expected though. What would an opening night be without trying to decipher the audience’s reactions?

The first gallery I visited was the Jettison Gallery, which included many brightly interwoven art objects. These sculptures were not sleek but instead imperfect. The uneven stitches and pieces of fabrics that formed the works demonstrated their uniqueness. There were no assembly-line creations; instead the pieces acknowledged the time-based process which it took to create them. In particular, I was drawn to works made from a stack of arches paper, each sheet torn with an irregularly ripped circle in the middle. I can’t quite identify the work as painting or sculpture, but I enjoyed its elusiveness as it contained paint on drawing paper, which was stacked as a three dimensional sculpture.

Carolyn Ottmers’ steel cast plants at the Carrie Secrist gallery were also very attractive. Besides the pure aesthetic satisfaction of being surrounding by enormous chandeliers of metal plants, what they stood for was equally as engaging. I took the works to represent a sort of commentary on the environment and on the disruption of nature’s decay. Seeing delicate flowers dipped in steel was as beautiful as it was disturbing.

I cannot remember the name of this third gallery, although the works are among the most poignant in my mind. As soon as you enter, you are surrounded by taxidermy collaged is fluorescent dry paint. Aside from these sculptures, there are flashy paintings that also appear to be frozen in time (like the dead animals). Both are odd scenes; one depicts a father and daughter at what appears to be the girl’s birthday, and the other is a rendering of little boys in uniforms on horses in the forest. The paintings are beautifully painted but absurdly decorative and decadent. They would make for the quintessential modern day rococo paintings.