Krista Wortendyke

(Re): Media at Packer Schopf Gallery Gets Reviewed!!

2009-07-23T12:06:00.002-05:00

My show got recommended and reviewed in New City this week.

Here it is:

RECOMMENDED
For several decades, photographers have been exploring the aesthetic values and virtues of scenes of environmental degradation; now some of them are doing the same with the contemporary battlefield, including Krista Wortendyke. In her brightly colored, graphic and digitally altered photo-collages of the killing fields, Wortendyke serves up great clouds of red, orange and yellow fire filled with shards of black metal, around which aircraft buzz and soar, and beneath which soldiers scurry in the midst of their doom machines. Neither glossy propaganda glorifying boys with their toys, heroism or bracing adventure; nor grim denunciations of willed destruction, Wortendyke’s photo-works are spectacles of grandeur to be contemplated with or without whatever moral judgments viewers happen to bring with them. By placing her scenes in backgrounds of elegantly interrelated rectangles of earth and sky tones, Wortendyke lets us know that she intends to sublimate warfare. (Michael Weinstein)

Site Under Construction

2009-07-11T13:06:00.003-05:00

www.kristawortendyke.com is currently under construction.
Check back soon for a spanking new site!!!
See below for the images from (re): media at Packer Schopf Gallery

(re): media series - new work

2009-07-11T12:56:00.002-05:00

Here are the images that are currently part of (re): media at Packer Schopf Gallery

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(re): media-untitled_022

(re): media-untitled_011

Statement:
Although most of us have never experienced war, we are surrounded by its imagery. This project is an exploration of the way that imagery and information from movies, videogames, the newspaper, and the Internet come together to form our perception of what war is. Explosions are war’s most universal and most spectacular signifiers. We are never falling short of this imagery. I have made use of these magnetizing images to show not only how the lines between fiction and non-fiction blur, but also to show how a mediated experience can become indecipherable from a real experience.

(Re): Media at Packer Schopf Gallery

2009-06-18T16:50:00.005-05:00

Hope you can join me for the opening of
(Re): Media - New works by Krista Wortendyke

July 10th - August 15th
Artist Reception: Friday July 10th, 5-8pm

Packer Schopf Gallery
942 West Lake Street
Chicago, IL 60607
T 312.226.8984 E packer@packergallery.com

Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11:00am - 5:30pm
www.packergallery.com

Short-O-Matic

2009-06-12T11:58:00.001-05:00

Here is what my artwork would look like on boardshorts.
Would you buy these?

I kinda love them.

2009-02-09T11:19:00.003-06:00

Involving Violence
School 33 Art Center
February 20 – April 11, 2009

Curated by Lasso's Karin Patzke and Carrie Ruckel

Artists include:

Ramsey Barnes, Gerecho Delaney, Matthew Freel, Brook Halvorson, John Morris, Diane Ramos, Marilee Schumann, Alan Lerner, Regina Mamou, Sari Maxfield, Joe Sikora, Jason Stec, Krista Wortendyke

Opening Reception: Friday, February 20, 2009 | 6 – 9 pm | 7pm gallery talk

Gallery Talk with Involving Violence Curators and Artists

Saturday, Feb. 21 | 2 – 3pm

Please join the curators of Involving Violence along with participating artists from Baltimore and Chicago for an in depth discussion about the exhibition's content and how issues Involving Violence effect individuals, communities, and society as a whole. This event is free and open to the public.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Involving Violence features thirteen artists, mostly from the Chicago and Baltimore areas, whose work addresses issues of violence and hostility that disrupt daily life. As consumers, Americans are constantly bombarded with glamorous and violent images in the media and popular culture. Aggression manifests itself in many different situations and the show avoids creating a hierarchy of violence by juxtaposing images and objects that approach the subject in a variety of ways.

The artists featured in the exhibition explore issues such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, gun violence, police brutality and sexual assault. From combative sports to law enforcement to self-defense, this exhibition explores the proximity of violence to our daily lives and the difficulty in distinguishing if and when acts of force are necessary. Involving Violence hopes to draw attention to these situations and engage the viewer by questioning the actions and motivations of ourselves and others.

This show was first presented by Lasso in September 2007 in Chicago, and has been relocated to Baltimore with additional artists from the Mid-Atlantic to create a dialogue between residents of the two cities. Lasso hopes to continue a vibrant exchange of ideas in Baltimore at School 33 Art Center concerning the many present issues of cruelty that abound in the United States.

ABOUT THE CURATORS

LASSO is an informal collaboration between Chicago based artists and curators Carrie Ruckel and Karin Patzke. Currently, Lasso is a part time venture, proposing group exhibitions to other art spaces, but from 2007-08, Lasso Gallery was originally located at the Butcher Shop, a mixed-use exhibition space in Chicago. Prior to founding Lasso, Ruckel and Patzke collaborated on various projects for venues in Chicago including the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art and Elastic Vision Gallery. Through their curatorial practice, Lasso engages the art community in contemporary social and cultural issues through exhibitions, lectures and events.

School 33 Art Center
1427 Light Street | Baltimore, MD 21230 | 410-396-4641
Gallery Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10 – 4 pm | Thursday 10 – 7 pm | Saturday 12 – 4 pm

A Plea...

2008-11-05T10:36:00.002-06:00

To all the Republicans that are in a state of disappointment today, please think about this.
Our new leader does not seek to take your money and give it to the guy who doesn't have a job and isn't looking for one, although, inevitably that will happen in some cases. He does not wish to make everyone of the same stature. He wishes to help reward the people that are the gears of your country. The people that wake up everyday to make the world you live in the way it was yesterday or maybe better. These are the people that come together to serve you. We are all served by one another. The people we are talking about are the people that serve you your coffee in the morning, work security in your office buildings to keep you safe, the people that work at the counter of your banks diligently taking your money and moving it into some safe place, the people that create your culture, the people that teach your children, beautify your world, write the articles that you read and the people that work in the background of your life so that you have less to worry about.

Tell me why these people that often have two, three, and four jobs deserve less. How can you say that the value of their work is less, that they are not worthy of the opportunities that you are, that when they are sick they don't deserve to have someone take care of them?

As as a nation, as a united country, as a place where we can be proud to be citizens and proud to don the American flag, we have to be aware of each other's worth.

Think really hard about this...
We all contribute to making this country what it is.
Can you say that the head of any big corporation deserves to have more opportunity and have a better life than the person that teaches your children to read?

Review of Who Get's What: A Political Show

2008-10-26T21:53:00.002-05:00

This is a review from New City on September 19th.
The show is down, but thank you to everyone who got out to see it.

Review: Who Gets What: A Political Show/David Weinberg Gallery
Photography, River NorthNo Comments »
RECOMMENDED
Does postmodern photography, drenched in irony and fascination with culture at the expense of flesh, bring anything to the table as political artists begin to play their hands in earnest? The five photo-artists in this political show strive mightily to break through the confines of cultural criticism with varied success. Krista Wortendyke does the best by mixing lush color photographs based on appropriated images from movies, video games and newspapers in suites and assemblages depicting striking battle scenes and magnificent explosions, creating a garish romance of war that shows us how we have been seduced into ignoring the unpleasant realities of carnage. Second place goes to Sonja Thomsen’s iridescent bubbly color studies of crude oil that show the aesthetic side of what the world is fighting over and remind us—again with the postmodern staple of absence—that we should stop and smell the gasoline. Wortendyke’s and Thomsen’s images do not cut to the quick, but they prepare us to make the stab. (Michael Weinstein)
Through October 18 at David Weinberg Gallery, 300 West Superior, (312)529-5090.

Who Gets What: a political show

2008-09-01T15:14:00.004-05:00

After a crazy summer of travel (including spending a week at the Harold Arts Residency in rural Ohio), I am back and proud to announce that work from my (re:) media series will be featured in the upcoming show Who Gets What: a political show at the David Weinberg Gallery. There is some old work, but also three new pieces (one of which took over a year to complete). There will be an artist talk featuring Michael Ratulowski and I along with a curator's tour on Saturday October 11 from 11am to noon in conjunction with Chicago Artist Month.

I hope to see you there.

Who Gets What: a political show
September 5 - October 18, 2008
Opening reception Friday, September 5th from 5-8pm

with artwork by:
The Franks
David Opdyke
Michael Ratulowski
Lisa Solomon
Sonja Thomsen
Krista Wortendyke

David Weinberg Gallery
300 W Superior Street
Suite 203
Chicago, IL 60654
(312)529-5090

Violence Transformed

2008-04-14T16:32:00.005-05:00

I am honored to announce that I will have a piece in Violence Tranformed

Violence Transformed 2008 will take place at the Massachusetts State House April 28 - May 2, 2008 in concert with the Annual Victim Rights Conference of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance where it will draw the attention of government officials and the general public and serve as a "launching pad" for an annual celebration of art, artists and art-making as crucial sources of societal and community transformation.

An Opening of the Exhibit will take place April 28 from 6:00-9:00 PM

Please stop in if you are in the area

In a World Like Ours

2008-03-15T11:27:00.006-05:00

The general population herds into the city's museums on the weekends to see its displays of dead art. By dead art I mean no disrespect, I am simply talking about art that once was pertinent, challenging, and new. I am talking about art that in the time of its creation made people uncomfortable. Our beloved Impressionist painters of the 19th century were once radicals that challenged the canon classical art. If you can believe it, people once said of Impressionist paintings, "This is not art!" Today we covet these works as examples of the great masters.

Eighteen years ago, Robert Mapplethorpe's The Perfect Moment was shut down after Dennis Barrie and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati were indicted for pandering obscenity. People stood outside the museum crying claims of indecency, beggin the question once again, "What is art?" Today, we drool over his beautiful monographs that sit front and center at mega-bookstores.

This cycle does not end here...

This past week a show at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute in Troy, New York by artist Wafaa Bilal called The Night of Bush Capturing: A Virtual Jihadi was shut down on the grounds of a building code violation (mind you that prior to the opening of the show, the building was inspected and okayed. It was only after the opening that they cited a violation.) The show piece was a modded version of the video game Quest for Saddam. In the game, players target the ex-Iraqi leader. This game prompted an al-Qaida spin-off called The Night of Bush Capturing. Bilal then hacked that game and inserted himself as the suicide bomber who is on the mission to assasinate President Bush.

Bilal says, "This artwork is meant to bring attention to the vulnerability of Iraqi civilians, to the travesties of the current war, and to expose racist generalizations and profiling. Similar games such as “Quest for Saddam” or “America’s Army” promote stereotypical, singular perspectives. My artwork inverts these assumptions, and ultimately demonstrates the vulnerability to
recruitment by violent groups like Al Qaeda because of the U.S. occupation of Iraq."

Whatever his immediate intentions in creating this particular piece may have been, Bilal has a history of challenging our assumptions and of offsetting our comfort level. In his essay, "A World Like Santa Barbara," Hickey asserts that we do not acknowledge art today "as the conventional, civilized forum that it is," and by failing to recognize this, we " assume that ordinary citizens are not cognizant of its conventional nature either, and thus cannot be trusted to distinguish artifice from actuality, words from deeds, signs from referents, narratives from actions."

By censoring Bilal's video game, we are likening a game to reality in such a way that the virtual is a threat to the real. Not only are we giving the game too much credit, but we are not giving ourselves enough of it.

With some historical distance, every event shows its true impact. Maybe this event will show us that while art imitates life and life imitates art, art is not life, even in the virtual age, it is still artiface.

"Experiencing the War in Iraq"

2008-02-19T13:25:00.005-06:00

A group of local artists has come together to organize a multi-media art exhibition opening in Rhode Island called “Experiencing the War in Iraq.” The aim of the exhibition is to give a human face to the complex conflict in Iraq, to bring together diverse expressions of individual experience and to reconnect those who have unconsciously cocooned themselves from the grim reality of the war. Through the language of art, the exhibition seeks to transcend the limitations of mainstream media coverage and engage the public in a broad-based dialogue that promotes awareness, understanding, and healing. The exhibition will include work from both soldiers and civilians that utilizes video, audio, photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, installation and the written word. 600 entries were received from around the planet, including the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and South America, as well as close to home. Of the artists selected to appear, here are just a few names to mention:
Wafaa Bilal, the Iraqi installation artist who was detained under Saddam Hussein’s rule and who teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago, Dahr Jamail, the author of Beyond the Green Zone, Benton-C Bainbridge, the video artist known for real-time performances at Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, and Kenny Carnes, the veteran who performs a solo oral history in dramatic verse.
The exhibition asks what does it mean to experience this war firsthand, in combat, or as an Iraqi civilian? What does it mean to experience it from a distance, or on television? How can we in America connect to the reality of war? Are there shared visions of peace despite cultural and religious differences? The work was selected purely on artistic merit, to include as many perspectives as possible, beyond politics.

The show will open on March 6th, 2008 simultaneously in the Arts Exchange (Pawtucket Armory) and Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket. There will be related screenings and performances at the Slater Mill Theatre, and Mixed Magic Theatre, as well as AS220 and the Cable Car Cinema in Providence, RI. A vigil with candlelight procession, music, theatre, and spoken word performances is scheduled for March 19th to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the War. The hope is to reach thousands of people locally, perhaps tens of thousands by media exposure and the project website, which will become an active archive. After the exhibition closes in Rhode Island, it is set to open in Fall River from April 5th to May 3rd.
Please join us for the opening reception March 7th.

I am happy to announce that my piece (Re:) Media Untitled_006 (below) has been accepted into this show. I hope that if anyone is in the area they can stop in and check out this incredibly interesting and timely exhibition.

Click here for more information

Recontextualization of an Icon

2008-02-05T09:21:00.000-06:00

In Xiang Jing's piece "Bang!" (shown above), she appropriates the gestures of the subjects of the iconic photograph by Eddie Adams, the "Vietcong Execution." It almost seems that to tell the reader of this reference is unnecessary, but just in case there are any art blog readers out there that are unfamiliar with the Eddie Adams image, here is your direction as to how to view this piece.

On the morning of February 2nd, 1968, during the Tet Offensive, Eddie Adams, working for the Associated Press, captured his famous photograph of the "Vietcong Execution." The image depicts Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam's national police chief, executing a prisioner who was said to be a Vietcong captain. General Loan stands with his back to the camera, his hand extended so that his gun is in point blank range of the Vietcaong captain's head. The Vietcong captain is wincing in pain as the bullet passes through his head. The image is not only shocking because of its content, but also because of the apparent staging of the event specifically for the camera. This image was one of few images that were blamed for turning the tide of public opinion and consequently for the loss of the Vietnam War.

The reality of the image is that General Loan executed a man who had just hours earlier, murdered one of his deputies families. After the execution, Loan clarified his intent to reporters. That part of the story never integrated itself into what that image came to stand for. This photograph shocked people and the reality of the situation was ignored, leaving the photograph to pick up any ideas of war that adhered to it. It became about ideas and not about an event. The evils it ended up standing for had nothing to do with the actual event in the street that day during the Tet Offensive.

Interestingly, iconic images throughout history have been recontextualized not only though the passage of time, but also across time. As a culture we formulate meanings for images that suit the way that we want them to read or need them to read. Susan Sontag, in her book "On Photography" (NY: Picador, 1977, p17) states that, "A photograph that brings news of some unsuspected zone of misery cannot make a dent in public opinion unless there is an appropriate context of feeling and attitude."

What meaning then does Xiang Jing's "Bang!" wish to glean from calling to mind the "Vietcong Execution?" The figures are women rather than men, they are dressed in everyday clothes rather than military garb, but they strike that pose, that pose that is so immensely referencial of a violent past, as the figure points her hand like a gun at the other's head and cynically smiles.

Come Home George

2008-01-22T09:36:00.000-06:00

A Letter of Plea

George and I used to be bestest of friends.
True he did get into a lot of trouble and I’d always have to bail him out.
All the times he would call me up late at night drunk needing a ride,
there was that time I had to take out my savings to pay his dealer.
Then when he ran away from the service, he of course came to my house!
I almost caught some trouble for that one, but thank god for his family name.
But I didn’t mind doing these things for him, because we were friends.
Ever since he left for the Whitehouse in 2000 life hasn’t been the same.
I still remember his last words “don’t cry, it’s only for four months.”
I didn’t even have the heart to tell him it was four... years.
I just wiped my tears and said to him "if I'm lucky, it will only be four months."
And I really meant that, he smiled and gave me a hug good bye.
But it wasn't four months, it should've been, but it wasn't.
And those four years were by far the most painful four years of my life,
but I was so sure he’d be back by now.
But now he’s staying for more. I don’t think I could handle the hurt anymore.
He hasn’t even called me once, I watch the news you know,
he’s always on vacation, I know he’s got the time.
I wish he would just take a permanent vacation,
leave office and come home to me.

I hope when he sees these he will remember what he is missing...

To anyone else that comes across this journal,
please help and get him out of office now.

Drawings by Michelle Jane Lee, recent graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Images to Icons, Icons to Fashion

2007-12-19T16:04:00.001-06:00

Throughout the history of photography there are certain photographs that have gained a position of importance that surmount other photographs. It is claimed that this happens because of the power of the reaction it elicits from its audience. Once these images claim their authority, they are used over and over as a surrogate for that experience. As a culture, we tend to go back to photographs when we want to know about our history and our past. These iconic images become explanations for the “that has been,” where we gain our knowledge of who we are and where we came from. Through the inherent reproducibility and repetition of these images they become instantly recognizable and familiar. They become deeply imbedded in the fabric of our culture.
Interestingly enough, graphic t-shirt makers seem to be the harbingers of a phenomenon where by using these iconic images on t-shirts, the fabric of our culture becomes literally the fabric that we wear. These iconic images seem almost ready for this kind of use due to their graphic nature. Iconic imagery throughout history is marked by simple lines and shapes without much extranious information. Thus, these images make perfect fodder for producing graphic t-shirts.
But what does it mean?
David Hickey, in his September 2000 Harper's Magazine article, A World Like Santa Barbara, asserts that, “Objects and events that were once instruments of meaning and value have become sites for adjudicating meaning and value: icons have become art; rituals have become dances; history has bred fiction; and clothing, fashion.”
...or in this case, icons have become fashion...

Dawoud Bey is everywhere!!!!

2007-12-18T09:19:00.000-06:00

Everything art related that I have picked up in the last month has featured Dawoud. His images are in Aperture Magazine this month, Aperture just published his book, Class Pictures, there is an article about his work on the Chicago Artists Resource website and also one in the Chicago Artists Coalition newsletter.

I was in college in 2000 when I went to the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York to see a show called Representing: A show of Identities. I took home a postcard from that show and put it on my refrigerator. It remained there for a few years. The postcard had three poloroid images of a boy (highschool aged) from slightly different angles and in slightly different positions. The images seemed to communicate that boys anxiety in a way that I had never seen in a static visual representation. The artist was Dawoud Bey. (similar to this image)

In 2004 I was on a tour of the facilities of Columbia College Chicago, where I was to begin my graduate studies in the fall. While in the basement/eatery, my guide introduced me to Dawoud. Being naive as I was, I really didn't do my homework on the faculty at the college and, consequently, had no idea who I just met. I did get the impression that he was important. The second time I met Dawoud, I went to his office with a fellow graduate student, one of his advisees, to pick up some papers he had for her. I left his office with a stack of articles to read on portraiture. I didn't make portraits, nor did I know who he was...still.

When I got my book for my first theory class at Columbia, The Photography Reader ed. Liz Wells, everyone was talking about the fact that the image on the cover was one of the Columbia faculty's work. The image had a familiar look to me. It reminded me of the image on my refrigerator. When I got home I checked the back of the postcard to see who the artist was and found the name Dawoud Bey.

I began to work with Dawoud in my third year of graduate school. My assumption was that he makes portraits and I appropriate explosions. He would hate my work. As it turned out, Dawoud is an amazingly valuable resource for me and I am very lucky to be able to work with him.

END TIMES

2007-12-17T09:13:00.000-06:00

LASSO Gallery at the Butcher Shop announces its third show, END-TIMES.

Ok, so I am late with this post and if you are just hearing about this, you have already missed the opening, but it's still worth going to see. The gallery is open saturdays. Stop by and say hello to Carrie and Karin.

What is it?
Plant life growing from a pile of guts? A urine filtration system? A
mysterious box, with unknown contents to be unleashed in the gallery?
These are just a few examples of artworks to be exhibited at
END-TIMES, a group show curated by Zachary Hall, presenting work that
explores the concept of the apocalypse. END-TIMES seeks to examine,
criticize, lament, and/or celebrate our fascination with the end of
civilization and the world as we know it.

ARTISTS: Brandon Alvendia, Jacob Christopher, Joel Dean, Uziel Duarte, Thulani
Earnshaw, Erin Foley, George Gittins, Lisa Hensley, Peter Hoffman, Steve Leach,
Michelle Jane Lee, Scott Lockard, Caleb Lyons, Dylan Mira, Michael
Miles, Katharine Lion, Jameson McShane, Mores McWreath, Aay
Preston-Myint, Michael Thibault, and Ryan Thurber.

END-TIMES runs from December 15th – January 26th.
Closing Reception & Film Screening: January 26th.

Gallery hours: Saturday's 12pm – 5pm or by appointment.
NOTE: THE GALLERY WILL BE CLOSED SATURDAY, DECEMBER, 22ND

Lasso Gallery at the Butcher Shop
1319 W. Lake St., 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60607

Guest Curator Contact Info:
Zachary Hall
zacharydavidhall@gmail.com

Lasso Gallery at the Butcher Shop is an exhibition space directed by
Carrie Ruckel and Karin Patzke. The gallery's intent is to engage the
larger art community in contemporary social and cultural issues through art,
lectures and events.

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T07:35:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween a la Ralph Eugene Meatyard!

Thomas Allen

2007-10-29T17:01:00.000-05:00

Allen selects the pulpiest of pulp paperbacks and then lovingly slices out a figure from the cover, gently folds it into position, and constructs a witty scene around it. Inspired by a love of pop-up books, Allen revels in taking on different roles in creating his scenarios: “In addition to being a photographer, I play talent scout, casting director, stage manager, lighting supervisor, and film editor.” He photographs these engaging tableaux in shallow focus, rendering his prints with the dreamy effect seen in the View-Master stereoscopic toy that also inspired him. These wonderfully playful and imaginative images by Thomas Allen can be seen in his new book, published by Aperture, namedUncovered.

Edouard Buzon

2007-10-16T09:09:00.000-05:00

Edouard Buzon, a young, self-taught painter with abstract tendencies, finds his inspiration in the observation of the urban (old walls, palisades, oxidized steal...) and the natural (stones, ochres and sands...).
He has developed a technique that utilizes flat tints on wood composed by successive varnish layers in to which he blends oxides, earth, graphite and pigments. Each layer is polished and engraved.

Some reasons why graffiti is awesome...

2007-10-12T13:54:00.000-05:00

Thank you Wooster Collective for showing us what kind of amazing graffiti is out there. To see more go to http://www.woostercollective.com/

Nicholas Kashian

2007-09-24T08:16:00.001-05:00

I came across these New American Gothic paintings by Nicholas Kashian yesterday. Among other issues, his work seems to ask questions about what happens when something is erased from an image. This is especially interesting in the context of the familial situations he depicts. His work can be seen at the Green Lantern Gallery in Chicago from 10.19.07 thru 11.17.07. He will also be featured in New American Paintings this fall. Check out his website... www.nicholaskashian.com

My First Review

2007-09-19T16:30:00.000-05:00

Check out this review by Jason Foumberg of New City.

"Several of the artists in "Involving Violence" remake and reconsider iconic media images of aggression and murder, from brutal lynching scenes to Eddie Adams’ blunt photograph of a Vietnamese prisoner shot in the head point blank. The lynching scenes from newspaper sources are rehashed courtesy of Krista Wortendyke. Her way of re-presenting violent imagery is to block out the tortured and bloodied victim with a pastel rectangle or stripe. This introduces a decorative element to the image, which is off-putting because it interrupts our expectations of the image ingrained in our memory. Wortendyke then traces a slight and careful outline of the victim’s twisted body. These lines serve to just barely remind us of the body hidden underneath, entombed in the image forever, and shielded from the violence that is re-enacted each time the picture is viewed or remembered. Wortendyke seems to be in conversation with Warhol’s legendary appropriations of violence; both make use of strong design elements in contrast to bleak scenes of murder, and where Warhol sought dissociation through repetition, Wortendyke’s distancing effects stoke our fascination with mourning."

The whole article can be seen at http://www.newcitychicago.com/chicago/6942.html

Saturday Night

2007-09-17T08:31:00.000-05:00

Here are a few images from the opening of Involving Violence at Lasso Gallery at the Butcher Shop on Saturday night. It was a great time. Carrie and Karin put together a great show for their first endeavor in their new space. I suggest going to see it before it comes down next month.

Involving Violence Opens Tonight

2007-09-15T08:10:00.000-05:00

Come out tonight and join me at the opening of Involving Violence at the Lasso Gallery
at the Butcher Shop.
6pm – 10pm.

Lasso Gallery at the Butcher Shop
1319 W. Lake St., 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60607

Artists included in this show are Joan Dobkin, Dara Greenwald,
Benjamin June, Dustin Klare, Masaco Kuroda, Alan Lerner, Regina Mamou,
Sari Maxfield, Jessica Peterson, Chelcie Porter, Jason Stec, Cordell
Thurman, Josh Winegar and Krista Wortendyke.

Images of aggression and violence constantly bombard our society from
the New York Times to evening television programming. Violence
permeates around us, yet most find ways to navigate daily activities
by distancing confrontation and hostility.

For many artists, these images reoccur in the mind's eye. The artists
presented in Involving Violence have disentangled violent imagery from
"real life" and addressed their responses in the "controlled"
environment of the studio.

The artists included in this exhibition attempt to negotiate
contemporary, historical, and personal events, hoping to resolve and
come to terms with the violent actions of society.

Hope to see you all there!