Arts Club of Chicago - Members Exhibit

Dorian Allworthy,  "When I Have Fears"

The Arts Club of Chicago
is a short walk from my art club,
the Palette and Chisel,
so why is this the first time
I've ever visited their members' biennial exhibit?

Maybe it's because they don't focus
on naturalism and figurative art
as we do.

Except for a few exceptions
like the artist shown above,
(and Dorian was briefly a member
 of the Palette and Chisel exactly ten years ago.
I wrote about her here )

On the other hand,
their standards for membership are much higher,
or to put it more precisely,
we don't have any standards at all.

Several of their members, like Julia Fish,
 are among the most celebrated artists in our area.
All of them are quite accomplished,
though  only a handful interest me,
since I have no interest in photography
or conceptual art.

Regarding the above painting, it is rather intriguing, isn’t it?

The solitary, powerful figure, of indeterminate race,
 is striding forward into a menacing though glorious forested landscape.
The vision is heroic, believable, public, adult, and positive
-  the very opposite of 50 years of Chicago Imagism,
and utterly foreign to the mainstream contemporary art world
of the MCA or the Whitney Biennials - except for Kerry Marshall.

Her subject is human destiny -
which does tend to make everything else in the show feel insignificant.

Stanley Dean Edwards ( b. 1941)

Looking him up on the internet,
his career began back in the 1960's
with a figurative surrealism
similar to Art Green  of the Hairy Who.

I like his recent abstraction much better.

The theme seems to be the dynamics of natural forces.

Stephen Duren, b. 1948, untitled #3919


A wonderful post-Impressionist landscape painter from Michigan.

Tom Bachtell, b. 1957,  Nelson Algren

A long-time illustrator for the New Yorker,
I really like the electric, early-modernist
feel of this piece

Danny Bredar , Half-life

A 2014 MFA from the School of the Art Institute.
His website shows him going in many directions.
I hope he keeps going in this one.

Pooja Pittie, "In my memory, she was a mountain"

I love Poojah Pittie !


.. though this piece may not have caught my eye
unless I had seen the more colorful, celebratory work she showed
at McCormick Gallery last year.

Which reminds me
that the same might have been true
with many other artists in this exhibit.

It's hard to like an artist from seeing just one piece.

Aron Gent, b. 1985,  Donald Trump

Equal  parts monster and pathetic child

-- the kind that tears the wings off butterflies.

Peter Frederiksen,  I’ll Be There

An art school drop out with some amazing abilities in fiber art.
I'm allergic to cartoons - but he transforms them into a much better world.
Why haven't I seen him at Western Exhibitions ?
That's where  his work belongs.

Tony Fitzpatrick, Medici Bird

Same old  same old from Tony,
the rebellious adolescent.

But still it feels fresh, beautiful, and thrilling.

Michael Olszewski, b.  1950,  In Berkeley

A fabric artist, and teacher,  in the old school, modernist,
Bauhaus tradition.

A very nice geo-form design.

Dan Jensen, History of Art Part II


If this were a self portrait,
Jensen could be an art star.

Melissa Leandro, b. 1989,  Window View

Go to her website,
she's a very exciting designer,
and a New City Break-out artist from 2018.