Art Galleries: The Chicago Collection

ADDINGTON GALLERY
704 N. Wells St., 312.664.3406
Tuesday - Saturday 11 to 6 and by appointment
addingtongallery.com
Specializing in painting and sculpture with a strong emphasis on craftsmanship and distinctive, expressive points of view, Dan Addington (an accomplished painter in his own right) embraces artists using traditional processes or materials (particularly encaustic) with fresh, contemporary conceptual considerations. Many of Addington's artists are concerned with the interplay between representation and abstraction, inviting multiple interpretations and views.
Look for dramatic encaustic paintings that explore memory and family history by Carl A. Linstrum (through March 10) and a group show of contemporary landscape painting (March 12 through April 14). Later this spring, Addington welcomes Howard Hersh (opening April 16), who, during a long and prolific career, has been at the forefront of a renaissance in encaustic painting. His abstractions contain subtle references to the natural world and the built environment and often consist of several panels bolted together in off-kilter configurations. Working within this challenging, labor-intensive, wax-based medium, Hersh creates extremely thick, ultra-smooth and very seductive surfaces that seem to glow from within.

ANN NATHAN GALLERY
212 W. Superior St. 312.664.6622
Tuesday - Friday 10 to 5:30
Saturday 11 to 5 and by appointment
annnathangallery.com
In a business where trends are set and discarded with lightning speed, Ann Nathan has been a steady presence on the Chicago gallery scene for more than 20 years. She can usually be found behind the desk in her eponymous River North gallery, a small but forceful figure always ready with ideas, opinions and passionate insights into the work of the artists she represents. The gallery focuses on figurative art and realism, with an emphasis on mature artists with an advanced command of their media, be it painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics or unique furnishings. Jim Rose's Shaker-style furniture is a fine example of the latter: Rose creates functional furniture in classic Shaker forms such as graceful side tables and beautifully crafted cabinets, but with a twist—they are all made of steel, rather than the traditional wood. In March and April, look for narrative paintings by George Klauba, who combines a tattoo-inspired aesthetic with a penchant for telling heroic tales.

ArtDeTriumph & Artful Framer Studios
2936-38 N. Clark St.
773.832.4038
Monday - Friday 11 to 7
Saturday 10 to 6, Sunday noon to 5
nanciekingmertz.com
These sprawling adjoining storefronts in the chic Lakeview neighborhood overflow with vibrant, expressive landscape, portrait and still-life paintings by its owner, artist Nancie King Mertz. Named both “Artist of the Year” by the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau and “Business Person of the Year” by her neighborhood chamber of commerce, King Mertz is a creative force, a brilliant entrepreneur and a philanthropist dedicated to schools, health concerns and hospitals in the area.
In addition to showcasing King Mertz's stunning art—much of which has been painted en plein air, or on site, during her travels around the world—the space houses the expert framing service that King Mertz began more than 30 years ago. ArtDeTriumph launched an initiative last winter in which individual artists, including painters, photographers, beaders, printmakers and ceramicists, exhibit and sell their work—so there's always something new to love in a variety of media. The gallery offers a variety of affordable art gifts starting at just $4, and King Mertz also offers classes and plein air demonstrations throughout the season.

EFFE LEVEN GALLERY
750 N. Franklin St.
312.643.0492
Wednesday - Sunday 10 to 5
effelevengallery.net
Effe Leven has been a welcome addition to the River North district since opening an intimate storefront space last December. Owner Anthony Moyers and director Jamieson Flynn foster a comfortable and zero-attitude atmosphere, and the gallery is open five days a week to accommodate its strong client base of visiting collectors—a rarity in any neighborhood. Effe Leven is committed to supporting working artists, and its eclectic program, which features monthly exhibitions of rotating works from its stable of artists, includes internationally collected names, established locals and emerging talent from around the globe. This summer, the gallery features more than a dozen artists on its walls including early-Modernist-inspired portraiture by Phil Saxon; “digital mixed-media” prints by Randy Susick that mix Photoshop-generated, collage-inspired imagery with painted surfaces; stylish and colorful abstracted enamel-on-canvas cityscapes by architect/painter Voy Madeyski; and masterful realist still lifes by Mei-Ku Huang. Also on view are nature-inspired abstractions by Adriana Oancia, figurative painting by Michael Angelo Gagliardi, vivacious, expressive landscape painting by Dina Soker and intricate, illustration-inspired works by the gallery's director, Flynn, that explore epic concepts and historical figures with dark intensity.

JENNIFER NORBACK FINE ART
217 W. Huron St.
773.671.5945
Tuesday - Saturday 11 to 6
jennifernorbackfineart.com
Though her eponymous River North gallery space is still fairly new on the scene, Jennifer Robertson Norback has been active in the local art community for over a decade. With a background in art history and a résumé that includes numerous galleries both in Chicago and in Paris, Norback has an international perspective and strong relationships with artists both at home and abroad. Her gallery specializes in contemporary art in a variety of media, with a particular focus on midcareer artists and those working in the Windy City and the City of Light, though they may not be natives of either Chicago or Paris. This cross-cultural current is evident in the range of works she exhibits, which includes French photographer Jean-Christophe Ballot and American Fluxus pioneer ellsworth snyder. She also represents the late artist William Utermohlen, whose prolific career throughout the last half of the 20th century culminated in a struggle with Alzheimer's disease, during which he made increasingly abstract and expressive work. Norback recently opened a group show that addresses the nude figure, including work by Utermohlen, Nyambe and Gros. A group exhibition of sculpture and photography opens April 23, featuring Ballot, Peter Ambrois, Ettore Greco and South Africa native Vivian van Blerk (now based in Paris), who creates elaborate sets and characters for surreal photographs without digital manipulation.

GALLERY KH
311 W. Superior St.
312.642.0202
Tuesday - Friday 10 to 5:30, Saturday 11 to 5
gallerykh.com
This sunny, 3,000-square-foot, loft-like space invites visitors to stay a while and explore the works on view. While co-directors Lissa Kivisto and Kristen Hagan inherited much of their roster of artists from their former employer, longtime gallerist Mary Bell, they have developed their own sophisticated program with an enthusiastic commitment to outstanding art and a friendly, welcoming environment for serious collectors and “just-looking” art lovers alike. Through July 10, Gallery KH mounts a group still-life show featuring the work of Mignonette Yin Cheng, Honore Lee and Carol Stewart. Though still-life painting has a long history in art, these women represent a decidedly modern and sometimes irreverent approach to the subject. Cheng, who was born in Amoy, China, and died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this year, taught painting at the University of Michigan for many years and led students on annual plein-air painting trips to Italy. She later lived in Hong Kong, traveling extensively throughout Asia. Her oil and mixed-media paintings are stylized and vibrant, juxtaposing a flat pictorial plane with delicate yet dramatic brushwork; the works here reflect the confident, multifaceted approach of a seasoned citizen of the world. Honore Lee's works are an in-depth exploration of object studies. Common items like simple bowls, vases and other vessels take on an otherworldly, spiritual quality as she renders them with repetitive layering processes upon rich, heavily prepared surfaces. St. Louis-based painter Carol Stewart's works reference tradition in their subject matter: arrangements of fruit and flowers. But they are far from commonplace in their riotous color and expressive, swirling brush strokes. Opening July 17 is a two-person show of works by Michael Fitts and Cristina Guerrero (through August 29). Fitts specializes in realist pop, painting mundane objects (like deflated balloons, spoons and crayons) life-sized upon scrap metal surfaces. In Fitts' hands, rendered in elegant, minimal compositions with meticulous detail, his subjects become powerfully iconic. Guerrero's occasionally racy work echoes Fitts' restrained, witty realism with eye-catching diptychs that
juxtapose parts of the female body with artificial abstractions: a woman's derriere and an ice-cream cone or a polka-dot-clad décolletage with a red-and-white Coca-Cola can.

KEN SAUNDERS GALLERY
230 W. Superior St.
312.573.1400
Tuesday - Friday 10 to 5, Saturday 11 to 5
kensaundersgallery.com
After more than a decade as a partner in Marx-Saunders Gallery, Ken Saunders took over its day-to-day operations and renamed the space last summer, following Bonnie Marx's retirement. In this new chapter, he maintains the same dedication to excellence that made the gallery Chicago's premier destination for contemporary works in glass. Saunders' stable of artists is a “who's who” of internationally renowned glass masters, and his thoughtful exhibitions always present fresh, innovative takes on the medium.
Through March 31, the gallery presents “Her Story,” a group exhibition by seven female artists from America and Europe who explore feminine identity through the medium of glass, including kiln-formed works by Catharine Newell; delicate, Victorian-inspired pieces by Amy Rueffert; and monumental sculpture by Vladimira Klumpar. Later this spring, the group show “The Courage of their Convictions” (opening April 9) considers the potential of glass as a medium of considerable power and complexity.

PERIMETER GALLERY
210 W. Superior St.
312.266.9473
Tuesday - Saturday 10:30 to 5:30
perimetergallery.com
After nearly 30 years in the business, Perimeter Gallery, led by director Frank Paluch, is the linchpin of the River North district, consistently mounting superb exhibitions in a wide variety of media in its award-winning Superior Street space. In the main gallery, find frequently changing solo shows by Perimeter's outstanding roster of artists; on display in the back are masterworks of ceramics from artists like Toshiko Takaezu and Peter Voulkos juxtaposed with works by cutting-edge emerging artists like Vanessa Smith.
Through March 13, Don Pollack's formally stunning and conceptually rigorous series of oil paintings, “Mysterious Islands,” showcases images of Ireland as they relate to music. From March 19 to April 17, discover sculpture by Israeli-born, New York-based artist Nathan Slate Joseph, whose abstract compositions are made of galvanized steel that has been treated with various hand-applied pigments and acid, then soldered together in distinctive overlapping patterns. Later in spring, Elana Gutmann (April 23 to May 28) shows ethereal, semiabstract oils layered with delicate washes of paint that evoke landscapes both real and imagined.

ROY BOYD GALLERY
739 N. Wells St.
312.642.1606
Tuesday - Saturday 10 to 5:30
royboydgallery.com
Today, River North is a bustling residential neighborhood and cultural district, but owners/directors Roy and Anne Boyd were among the urban pioneers who first laid claim to the area more than 30 years ago when it was still largely industrial. They have been a fixture of the arts community ever since. The gallery specializes in abstraction, whether in painting, works on paper or sculpture, with a particular focus on Chicago artists. The Boyds are enthusiastic advocates for their artists and have
especially strong relationships with them as well as with the loyal collectors who love the work as much as they do.
Through April 13, Roy Boyd Gallery presents the work of Daniel Bodner, who has shown with the Boyds since the ’90s. With self-made photographs as source material, Bodner's works in recent years have been impressionistic yet wholly contemporary cityscapes that explore the play of light on urban space and its denizens. Later that month (through the end of May), during art-fair season, the gallery mounts a group exhibition featuring at least one work from each of its stable of artists—such as vibrant geometric abstract oil paintings by local art icon William Conger, who has been living, working and teaching in Chicago for nearly 50 years.

SCHNEIDER GALLERY
230 W. Superior St.
312.988.4033
Tuesday - Friday 10:30 to 5
Saturday 11 to 5
schneidergallerychicago.com
The intimate and welcoming Schneider Gallery, specializing in contemporary photography, is an ideal place to discover cutting-edge image makers (with highly sought-after work) from around the globe, like Moroccan artist Lalla A. Essaydi, Thomas Kellner from Germany and China's Liu Bolin as well as a strong group of Latin American artists. Owner/Director Martha Schneider and Assistant Director Jennifer DeCarlo have infectious enthusiasm for the works and are happy to help visitors navigate through their artists' variety of groundbreaking—or in some cases, antiquated—photographic processes and one-of-a-kind touches, like hand-painting over prints.
This spring, Schneider presents an exhibition by Guillermo Srodek-Hart and Kevin Malella. The two emerging artists both address concepts of “place” in their work. Buenos Aires native Srodek-Hart's vibrant, richly detailed images, made in rural Argentina, depict the accumulation of objects in shops, restaurants and roadside or in-home shrines, exploring how the ways people collect and display things reflect their lifestyle and culture. Malella's elegant, affecting series, A Constructed Landscape, uses digital techniques to depict industrial decay from multiple vantage points, highlighting the uncomfortable proximity of nuclear power plants to sprawling country homes or crumbling factories to fields and forests.

VALE CRAFT GALLERY
230 W. Superior St.
312.337.3525
Tuesday - Friday 10:30 to 5:30
Saturday 11 to 5
valecraftgallery.com
At Vale Craft Gallery, the media (and
the aesthetic) may be dizzyingly eclectic,
but one philosophy prevails: Handmade is best. Owner/Director Peter Vale's thoughtfully curated, rotating group shows highlight contemporary approaches to traditional techniques such as glassblowing, quilting and woodcarving. Every visit to the gallery is an adventure, with ever-changing displays and new artists to discover—like Harold Siefert, whose witty series of small, cast-bronze sculptures, Home Bodies, reimagine pitched-roof birdhouses as human figures in motion. Another new find is the multicolored, geometrically patterned art quilts of Kent Williams. Rooted in age-old processes but executed using algorithms and inspired by modern abstract art, Williams' work is a revelation.
Also featured this spring are cute, clever jewelry pieces with the stylish-yet-simple look of vintage toys by husband-and-wife team Lisa and Scott Cylinder (known as Chickenscratch) and ornate, exquisite paper mandalas (circular forms with spiritual and symbolic significance) by Judy Petacque. Don't miss Larry Zgoda's freestanding “architonomous” (architectural and autonomous) stained-glass sculptures, which integrate time-honored techniques with the artist's unique innovations for vibrant color and
captivating texture.

COLLETTI GALLERY
67 E. Oak St. 312.664.6767
Monday - Saturday 10 to 6
Sunday noon to 5
and by appointment
collettigallery.com
Colletti Gallery is a world unto itself: an elegant foray into the glamour (with a touch of decadence) of 19th-century Paris. The artists who captured—and helped create—the scene that centered around the Moulin Rouge were at their finest creating posters for the stars of the day. Here you'll find one of the world's most important collections of these original works. Antique posters and original lithographs are available by Toulouse-Lautrec, Mucha, Bonnard, Chéret and Cappiello, as well as lavish period furniture and accessories, including an impressive collection of ceramics by Amphora, Massier and Zsolnay. Alongside this exceptional French collection, Colletti also features an exquisite selection of rare Italian posters featuring Cinzano, Campari and Italian opera.

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