Bloomingdale museum exhibits work of regional artists

The Bloomingdale Park District Museum marks the holiday season with an exhibition of new art by regional artists.

The exhibition runs through Dec. 20 at the museum, 108 S. Bloomingdale Road.

Gallery I features the work of members of the Chicago Society of Artists, which began in 1887 and is the oldest continuing association of artists in the United States. Its distinguished members have included Ivan and Malvin Albright and LeRoy Neiman.

The society is now led by Jon Balke, a photographer who has two entries in the show. The self-taught photographer began his career 40 years ago as a junior high school student and enhanced his skills through seminars and workshops led by prominent photographers such as Ansel Adams.

A wet-dark room photographer like Adams, Balke chose the view camera, the large box camera that sits on a tripod and requires the photographer to block out light with a black cloth cover over his head.

“My typical subject matter deals with textures, nature abstracts, movement studies, light studies and form,” Balke says. “I like the play of form, texture and light — how light highlights texture and forms.”

Balke photographs just about everything except people and, paraphrasing Adams, he says “in my prints, there are always two people, the viewer of the print and the photographer.”

Balke’s two entries, “Big Twin — Phelps, Wisconsin” and “White Pine in Ice” surely set a winter mood.

Other Chicago Society of Artists members exhibiting include Lorre Slaw, who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she earned her two degrees, a bachelor’s in art education and a master of fine arts in print making. Slaw finds her inspiration in nature.

“In the last few years I’ve become very interested in plant life and find it very interesting to make my own imagery of plants,” she says.

Slaw uses the computer as a drawing tool and says all of her images are “of her own invention.” Her entry, titled “The End of My Summer Garden,” reveals a fading garden as the cold weather approaches.

“Color and Light” is the exhibit in Gallery II, organized by Bloomingdale artist Marianne Albers McKoveck, who owns a dental laboratory but took up painting 10 years ago.

“I paint big,” says McKoveck. “I make little tiny teeth (as a dental technician), so I want to paint big.”

If McKoveck’s large-sized paintings are a response to her minute and detailed dental work, her jewelry design is an extension of it. The same skills she uses to make gold teeth are the skills she uses to make her jewelry, which also is on display. McKoveck’s entries are titled “Red” and “The Anticipation is Palpable.”

Other local artists include Frank Tumino, who paints smaller, abstract works, such as his “Shirley Beau Geste,” a playful, enigmatic watercolor on paper. All works in both galleries are for sale.

For younger artists, the museum hosts a drop-in ornament class, where children are invited to make a free ornament between 4 and 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Nov. 21, 28, Dec. 5 or 19.

If you go

If you go

What: Holiday Art Show

When: 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays, Nov. 10 to Dec. 20; free reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Nov. 18

Where: Bloomingdale Park District Museum, 108 S. Bloomingdale Road, Bloomingdale

Cost:$1 for Bloomingdale Park District residents, $2 for others, 50 cents for seniors 62 and older and children 12 and younger

Info: (630) 539-3096 or bpdmuseum@bloomingdaleparks.org