A tube of stretched nylon and vinyl is hung from the gallery wall. Part of a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts label is pasted atop a blurry background of dots in a collage in the next room. An abstract pencil drawing titled “Pop Punch Ale” is mounted on another wall nearby.
These works of art are part of a new exhibit that runs through March 21 at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Michigan Avenue Gallery, 78 E. Washington St. Called “Perfect: A Group Exhibition,” the show features the artwork of Mark Murphy, an art theory and practice professor at Northwestern, and two NU alumni, Timothy Ripley and Matt Irie
Eleven total artists from Chicago, Los Angeles and New York presented their contemporary abstract artwork Friday night at the show’s opening.
“Everyone’s work was insanely intense and, turning around the room, everything seemed to make perfect sense,” Murphy said. “Most of the artists spent a lot of time on these pieces even though they don’t look complicated.”
Marci Rae McDade, the exhibition’s organizer and curator, chose to combine the artists’ varied perspectives and talents to attempt to create a show both intimate and profound.
The works are spread throughout two rooms in the Cultural Center’s gallery. The show is centered around the artists’ transformations of ordinary images and objects into something unrecognizable and fantastic.
The works are of varying sizes, ranging from large installations to the tiniest intricate designs. Irie’s minute “Drawing #10” is a board divided into grids and covered in meticulous cursive describing the ideas of Foucault, Descartes and other philosophers.
Murphy, the artist of the Krispy Kreme collage, said the spots on the doughnut box inspired him to create a puzzle inducing feelings of both order and chaos.
“I look for consumer goods that display visual clues that are related to a product’s desirability,” Murphy said in his artist’s statement. “The manipulation of visual desire as a constructed utopia where a product is enlarged to show texture or in suspended animation in order to raise the consumer’s hope for perfection is the starting point for these pieces.”
A crowd of close to 50 students mingled at the gallery opening, sipping free wine, eating fruit and discussing the works on display.
“The show is about banality, the everyday and finding something exquisite inside something familiar,” said Maura Brewer, a 19-year-old fiber and material studies major at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, who was there to see the work of her professor Michael X. Ryan.
Carissa Owen, 19, a sculpture major at The Art Institute, said she thought each piece fit into the exhibit’s theme. She also said incorporating individual works into a group show is a challenge.
In a written statement, McDade said the idea for “Perfect” began in 2001 with artist Chris Uphues’ “Deathstar,” which includes cartoon characters, flowers and stars. The piece inspired her to exhibit the work of artists who shared Uphues’ vision of distorting ordinary images.
Gregory Knight, director of visual arts at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, presented the show. He said the show was one of few times he has promoted the work of artists not part of the Chicago Cultural Center’s staff.
“It is a well-conceived show and good selection,” Knight said. “It brings to our attention and to the public’s an interesting group of young artists, which is our mission.”
‘Perfect: A Group Exhibition’
Through March 21
Chicago Cultural Center’s Michigan Avenue Gallery
Where: 78 E. Washington St.
Tickets: Free
