Roni Packer – Interpreting Obsessive Moments in Yellow

Chicago is most fortunate to have the ability to draw from creative spirits from close and far. Today, the city continues to be an international arts destination (regardless of your stance, the city is preparing for Expo 2019, the annual international art fair later the month). The ongoing influence ...
September 6, 2019
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Ed Paschke – An Analysis of Two Paintings

Ed Paschke was a highly influential mid 20th c. Chicago painter. Here, I plan to discuss two works, Minnie (1974) and Ramrod (1969). Minnie depicts woman, while the painting Ramrod depicts a Lucha wrester. While these two painting have some similarities, they have differences as well. Ed Paschke was ...
April 19, 2019
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Erin Smego – Navigating Sculptural Fashion

It can be said that sculpture and fashion can be easily linked. Distill the two disciplines down to their essential form and one finds the occupying of space and commenting upon present day aesthetics to be two apparent intersections. A young Chicago artist, Erin Smego, is investigating this frequently ...
January 25, 2019
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Julie Weber – Subtleties in Light, Form, and Being

There is a sensual luminosity in the elegant approach to visual meditation in the practice of artist/photographer Julie Weber. In her photobook REMNANTS, published by Chicago's Skylark Editions, light experiments, and installation works one finds a clean and clear translation expanding investigation that references formal elements and ideas that ...
December 13, 2018
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Monica Rezman – A Persistent Winding Path

Initially trained in a traditional atelier format, artist Monica Rezman takes a nod from formal aesthetic investigations that found roots in the early 20th century while simultaneously staying current with ongoing current advancements in artistic production. Her artwork melds and transforms hair, cardboard, traditional media, and formal analysis to ...
December 4, 2018
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Cody Tumblin – Nourishing Lambent Visual Provisions

When one considers the aesthetic practice of Cody Tumblin, they might envision an individual who is part alchemist and part cuisinier with one foot in the kitchen while the other firmly planted in the studio. In recent time, Tumblin has produced a handful of curious visual and culinary presentations ...
November 26, 2018
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Allison L. Wade – Transformations of Language Into Form

With a background in literature, Allison L. Wade has been carving out a visual vocabulary that references past and present experience while simultaneously establishing a consistent aesthetic vocabulary that explores contemporary tenets of abstraction. This can be seen in her recent exhibitions here in Chicago at Devening Projects, in ...
November 8, 2018
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Art Kleinman – The Cyclic Nature of a Long Career

For more than four decades Art Kleinman has traversed an array of aesthetic terrain that mirrored the times in which the works were produced. From early abstraction to self-portraiture to political commentary, Kleinman has not hesitated from investigating new ideas and methods in his practice. This week the COMP ...
October 25, 2018
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Kevin Blake – Disjointed Intervals of Paint Slamming

Having grown up in Chicago's South Side neighborhood of Beverly, Kevin Blake's trajectory in becoming a serious painter (not the kind that pay Union dues) is remarkably unusual. This week the COMP Magazine caught up with Blake at his Ashland Avenue studio to discuss the role art played while ...
April 5, 2018
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2015-2016 Joliet Area High School Art Competition

2015-2016 Joliet Area High School Art Competition The USF Art Gallery is currently exhibiting the University of St. Francis Art & Design Department Illinois High School Art Competition and Exhibition. The exhibit spans through the University’s Gallery and the third floor of the Art Department. The exhibit includes over 160 ...
January 18, 2016
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