Bloomingdale art exhibits explore renewal, regeneration
Two Chicago-based artist groups explore themes of renewal and regeneration in Bloomingdale Park District Museum’s two-for-one summer exhibition opening Saturday, July 20, and running through Aug. 24.
In Gallery I, five artists come together to show their way of creating a unique vision, said Jan Calek, one of the exhibiting artists. The name of the show, “Overlay,” refers to the artists’ overlaying techniques of images, textures and colors.
These five women, all highly trained art professionals, first met while exhibiting at the ARC Gallery, a woman’s co-op gallery in Chicago, and have been working together ever since.
“We meet together once a month and critique our artwork, discuss books and go on outings,” Calek said. “The basis for the group is that we really respected each other’s art and like to show together.”
Beverly Kedzior’s art is inspired by medical illustrations and creates abstract images from comic strips and animated films. Susan Mart looks for patterns in nature and finds “beauty in minutia.” Frances Andrzejewska Cox “transfers to plants metaphors for human feelings and appearances,” and Marilyn Schulenberg’s paintings are “flights of fancy … with birds emerging as dancing onstage.”
Calek abstracts from nature and landscape, with three-dimensional elements in some of her pieces that show “man’s trace in the landscape.”
Expanding on the 3-D theme are the 3-D 12 Sculptors in Gallery II with the show “Sculpture, Where It’s At!” The 3-D 12 Sculptors group started in 2008.
“We found commonalities. We talked about our art and we had some of the same objectives. Commonality was our experimentation with materials,” said Mimi Peterson, one of the group’s exhibiting members and curator of the show.
Asked why sculptural exhibitions are not as common in today’s art world, Peterson candidly explained that “sculptors are the ‘others,’ a minority. We are focused on gallery work, smaller in size. Our coming together was a retaliation to exhibitions that were devoted to two-dimensional work. We wanted to form our own community.”
Peterson earned her bachelor of fine art degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign, her master’s at the Art Institute of Chicago, and continued her studies at the University of Mexico City and the University of Madrid. She also works as an art teacher.
Many of the materials Peterson uses for her works are found objects, disposable as well as sustainable materials, what she refers to as “relics of post-industry.”
She added that much of the wood is from the beach, and steel found along railroad tracks is “like having a candy store at my disposal.”
Another member of the group, Peter N. Gray, draws inspiration from neuroscience and genetics. Gray pursued a career in biomedicine but had been interested in art from a young age. After building his own business, Gray resumed his art and by 2004 was sculpting full-time.
Gray’s fascination with the brain shows through his series that addresses “information use, information storage and information transfer, using neuroscience and genetics as starting points.”
One of his brain works, “Regeneration,” is made from found wood with a beautiful knothole. Inside the rotted wood, Gray fashioned a brain, made out of amber colored resin, which lights up. Gray refers to it as “regeneration of the mind.”
Robert J. Krawczyk also has a scientific, technical approach to his work, creating 3-D images on the computer.
Others in the show are Ryuell Ho, who sculpts with paper. He cuts, folds and paints paper into wall reliefs and sculptures and has “emancipated himself from all standards,” said Peterson.
Beth Kamhi and Michelle Stone address the human condition in their work. Kamhi creates gender-specific “girlie” sculptures and Stone examines issues of identity. Shelly Gilchrist and Corinne D. Peterson are both influenced and inspired by nature, working in encaustic paint and clay, respectively.
Alan Emerson Hicks and Eric H. Steele chose recycled materials for their pieces. Hicks works with found objects in an entertaining spirit, while Steele’s art is more reflective of “iconic totems past and present.”
Mimi Peterson will have her own solo show at the Krasl Art Center at St. Joseph, Mich., opening later this month, and the 3-D 12 Sculptors Group will exhibit later this year at the Chicago Cultural Center.
However, local residents have the chance to view the work of all of these featured artists at the Bloomingdale Park District Museum. A free reception for both shows is scheduled from 2 and 4 p.m. Sunday, July 28, at the museum. Most pieces will be for sale.
If you go
What: Art exhibits Overlay and Sculpture, Where Its At!
When: Saturday, July 20, to Saturday, Aug. 24; reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 28
Hours: 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays
Where: Bloomingdale Park District Museum, 108 S. Bloomingdale Road, Bloomingdale
Cost: Reception free; regular admission is $1 for residents, $2 for others, 50 cents for seniors 62 and older and children 12 and younger
Info: (630) 539-3096 or bpdmuseum@bloomingdaleparks.org