Artists get creative with outdoor exhibits
Trees wrapped in crochet patches and brightly colored cloth dot the Lisle landscape, strange metal shapes jut into the sky along the lakefront, colorful frogs jump through ponds and twisted lamp posts glow in the night.
Has the world gone mad?
Not exactly. These are but a few of the pieces in outdoor art exhibits opening this spring and summer in the suburbs and Chicago.
The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, the Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, and the Museum of Contemporary Art are jumping on the outdoor art bandwagon, a wagon with origins not — as you might think — a few years ago with Chicago's iconic painted cows, but with the ancient Greeks, according to Michael Darling, a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
But Darling drew a distinction between work by cutting-edge, leading artists that museums and other cultural institutions place in public places and the “pigs and cows and all that stuff” many cities are using as marketing tools.
Overall, public art commissions have become more popular in the past five years because some towns and institutions have money for them and artists view them as a viable alternative to working in a gallery space, Darling said.
“There can be some great things artists bring to those situations,” he said.
Here, then, is a look at what's out there for art lovers.
“Nature Unframed: Art at the Arboretum”
Morton Arboretum, 4100 Route 53, Lisle, (630) 968-0074, mortonarb.org.
The arboretum has commissioned the work of 11 local and internationally known artists to create this exhibit.
Each piece, inspired by the 1,700-acre arboretum landscape, will be set in a specific outdoor location that officials say will highlight the work itself.
Leslie Goddard, exhibit developer, called the exhibit — in the works for three or four years — “site responsive,” meaning that each work is inspired by a spot picked by the artist.
“These are works you couldn't pick up and have them work in other settings,” she said.
Even though the work is scattered around the arboretum, visitors can walk to them in 45 minutes, she said.
“It's something you can experience in a reasonable period of time,” she said.
Some pieces were installed early and have been drawing reactions from visitors, Goddard said, including Carol Hummel's “Lichen It!” a series of colorful crochet wraps made by local residents and placed around the trunk and branches of a 40-foot Lichen tree.
“Children have come up to it and given it a hug,” she said. “We've had it seen as a sculptural piece. We've had weddings take place in front of the tree. Others have said it looked unnatural. It's getting people thinking, talking and responding to nature.”
Artist Phillipa Lawrence's “Bound V57” features a dead tree wrapped in bright yellow cotton fabric that will form bandages encasing the trunk and limbs.
The work is intended to draw attention to the tree as a sculptural form, and will reflect the artist's concern about the erosion of trees' natural habitats.
And artist Letha Wilson features “Wall in Blue Ash Tree,” a 16-foot-tall “canvas” with protruding tree branches creating what looks like a living, 3-D painting.
“My work creates relationships between architecture and nature, and the gallery space and the American wilderness,” Wilson says.
The exhibit opens to the public on Friday, May 20, and runs through Nov. 27.
Several opening-weekend activities are planned, including free guided tours and a Meet the Artists event from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 22.
“Interconnected: The Sculptures of Yvonne Domenge”
Millennium Park, Randolph Drive and Michigan Avenue, Chicago, (312) 742-1168, millenniumpark.org
Acclaimed Mexican artist Yvonne Domenge has produced four large-scale sculptures for Millennium Park's Boeing Galleries that are on display through October 2012.
The four pieces play off Domenge's fascination with organic shapes, form and geometry. One piece will hang in the North Boeing Gallery, while the other three will be placed in the South Boeing Gallery.
“Yvonne's sculpture is a perfect complement to the art and architecture of the park,” said Lucas Cowan, senior curator of exhibitions, Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture. “The vibrancy of her colors and energy of her geometric shapes make her large-scale sculpture accessible for all.”
The largest piece, to be shown in the North Gallery, is a bronze sculpture painted bright red and called “Tree of Life.” It measures 16 feet high and will be displayed with two companion “seeds” measuring 4 feet wide and 9 feet high.
The South Gallery will display three steel spheres: “Tabachin Ribbon,” a 13-foot-tall yellow sculpture; “Wind Waves,” a white sculpture measuring 11 feet high; and “Coral,” a 10-foot blue sphere.
“InBloom”
Oakbrook Center, 100 Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook, (630) 573-0700, oakbrookcenter.com
More than 30 artists and artist groups are contributing to this exhibit, a series of fiberglass sculptures and fine art pieces on view throughout the gardens and fountains of the center through Aug. 21.
Shopping center officials say “InBloom” inspired the center's landscape and is the first show of its kind there.
Money raised from the sale of the art will benefit HCS Family Services, which provides aid to the needy throughout DuPage County.
“The whole exhibit provides something that is completely different in regards to a number of programs that are out there,” said Suzane Beres, senior marketing manager for the center.
She said the three forms — the garden bench, flowering birdbath and whimsical leaping frog — were chosen because they are already represented in the center's landscape.
The forms were produced by a local company and then offered to artists. The finished forms will all be located in natural settings: frogs in fountains, bird baths in flower beds and benches under trees, Beres said.
Artist Alexander Fedirko teamed up with Graycor Construction to transform a birdbath into the Willis Tower for a piece called “Chicago-Hard Hats Required.”
Barrington artist Carla Bank created “Firebelly Ozzie,” which celebrates the 2005 World Series-winning White Sox.
The Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Bulls also contributed frog sculptures signed by members of each team.
Creations include a piece by Kevin Taylor, whose work has appeared at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. His 9-foot-tall dandelion called “Wish” will move in the wind and sparkle in the sunlight. Taylor says the piece symbolizes the hope that HCS Family Services gives to its clients.
“Mark Handforth Exhibit Plaza Project”
Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, (312) 280 2660, mcachicago.org
The Mark Handforth exhibit, a series of four new large-scale sculptures, opens at the MCA Friday, July 8, and runs through Monday, Oct. 10.
The Hong Kong-born, Miami-based artist uses materials drawn from the everyday civic landscape, such as lamp posts, road signs and florescent lights, and reworks them into different shapes.
One piece in the exhibit is called the Lamp Post Snake and features material from a lamp post coiled into the form of a snake and painted in bright colors.
Darlington calls Handforth's work “architecture of the street” and said it provides “a bridge to the public making art less exclusive and more lively.”
Handforth's work has appeared all over the world.
<b>Chairs, bears and bulldogs — oh my!</b>
Antioch will have bears, Batavia will have bulldogs and Elgin will have Adirondack chairs as local communities spice up summer with outdoor art exhibits turned fundraisers.
Ÿ Antioch unleashes “Bears on the Chain,” 35 fiberglass bears spruced up by local artists and scattered around the town's business community starting June 4 and continuing through September.
The second annual event (last year's was “Dogs on the Chain”) is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and will benefit local organizations in need. Go to <a href="http://antiochchamber.org" target="_blank">antiochchamber.org</a>.
Ÿ Batavia rolls out “Bulldogs Unleashed,” a partnership of the Batavia Foundation for Educational Excellence, the Batavia Parks foundation and the Batavia Public Library foundation. Go to <a href="http://bulldogsunleashed.org" target="_blank">bulldogsunleashed.org</a>.
Local artists will paint 30-inch tall and 44-inch long bulldog statues, which will be displayed downtown from June through September. The dogs will be auctioned off later this year and funds will be divided between the three agencies.
Ÿ Elgin's “Adirondacks: Thrones of Summer” features local artists transforming Adirondack chairs into works of art. The finished chairs will then be displayed all over town starting in June before they are auctioned off at Art & Soul on the Fox in August. Benefits will go toward sustainable local programs, officials said. See <a href="http://downtownelgin.com" target="_blank">downtownelgin.com</a>.
Ÿ Algonquin continues its public art program this summer. The program goes year-round and this year features 38 pieces of art — paintings, photographs and sculpture — on loan from local artists and on view at local schools and public places around town. A sculpture called “Wind” by local artist Ed Iversen is on view at the southeast corner of Algonquin and Randall roads. See <a href="http://algonquin.org" target="_blank">algonquin.org</a>.