Renee Levi’s paintings at the TBA Exhibition Space consti-tute public art with a twist.
The six abutting mural-sized panels have been spray painted with gestures familiar from graffiti art, but these marks are all in orange on a white ground and are purely abstract, without the meaning of symbols or letters.
In only one spot on each pair of panels do the gestures coalesce, becoming virtual knots of energy. The eye inevitably is drawn to these concentrations, but the intended impact of the work comes less from what happens on the panel than in the surrounding atmosphere.
The density of Levi’s mark-making rather than its pattern creates an aura that transforms the space. The intensity of the aura will, of course, vary with changing light, so the character of the interior–intense to mellow, with all stages between–is in flux throughout the day.
Levi’s art is public because of the size of her panels and the nature of her marks, which will have the strongest impact in an urban setting. where real graffiti is common. That public spaces can be happily transformed by marks that first appear transgressive is presumably part of the work’s ideational content, though the artist does not push it.
In a way, the work takes over part of the function of mural painting in civic buildings. Instead of transport by means of allegory, now the viewer is made to occupy a new environment.
———-
At 230 W. Huron St., through July 15. 312-587-3300.
Jim Koss’ works on paper at the Printworks Gallery all have the feel of art that’s made to be held in the hand rather than displayed on a wall. Most of the pieces are, of course, mounted conventionally–and survive without much diminution. But the few that are not have an advantage, for Koss is fundamentally a maker of books, and the impact of his art seems scaled to the intimacy of reading.
The size of Koss’ works– drawings, prints, papercuts–is small. And their craft is meticulous, demanding close scrutiny. But to that the artist adds words in the form of his own haiku-like poetry.
The relationship between image and text reveals itself more quickly in some pieces than in others. Close perusal is therefore directly related to understanding.
Many of the images additionally show an Eastern influence. This is most apparent in the series of papercuts on the theme of a stone garden. But it is there, too, in the alternation of small drawn images and lines of automatic writing that make up Koss’ “Ghost Play” sequences. The inspiration behind both has to do with meditative states that, again, exert a stronger claim on us when perceived intimately, one-to-one, as in the books made in the form of accordion folds (several of which are on view). However strong the images are on their own, they prove that much stronger cumulatively, as viewers/readers work their way through them.
———-
At 311 W. Superior St., through July 6. 312-664-9407.
Some of Lynn Geesaman’s recent photographs at the Catherine Edelman Gallery look as if they might have been taken a century ago, when Pictorialism sought to establish photography as fine art by imitating the look of prints and paintings. They do not make use of the elaborate processes that once helped create painterly effects, but they do have the soft focus of Pictorialism as well as, occasionally, the color of early 20th Century autochromes.
Color is new to Geesaman’s work, though her old subjects have remained: unpeopled European landscapes and gardens. These she chooses with an eye toward avoiding any sign of industrial impingement. The hand of man is apparent in the plantings, but otherwise the world pictured here is not unlike the one that caught the eye of Eduard Steichen prior to World War I.
Geesaman is skilled in creating this atmosphere, which is as serene as late Impressionist painting. The work instantly appeals to the senses, prompting, if not exactly nostalgia for a bygone, “innocent” time, at least escape from the contemporary hurly burly.
Many viewers apparently welcome such transport, for Pictorialist photography came back into favor a decade and more ago, soothing where modernist strategies irritated. I find it difficult to warm to in any form but the first, when it was inseparable from turn-of-the-century aestheticism. Now, even in the sensitive hands of Geesaman, it’s seldom more than pacific decoration.
———-
At 300 W. Superior St., through July 6. 312-266-2350.
