The newest collection of works in Western Exhibitions is blurred with artistic and cultural history. Bridging the gap between time, place and context, “Fuzzy Logic” challenges the viewer to question the role of history in conceptualizing art — seeing a piece of artwork as a self-contained object while also referencing the “real” world.
Chicago artists Gregg Perkins and Justin Schaefer created works meant to play off of each other in dialogue. The gallery, consisting of several stark brick and concrete rooms, opened at 1648 W. Kinzie St., last June to establish a permanent space for showing conceptual art. “I think that everything really does have a conceptual edge to it, regardless of what media it is,” says Scott Speh, the gallery’s owner and director.
While Perkins and Schaefer aren’t “part of the normal roster” of the 15 artists Speh represents as part of his small gallery, their work exemplifies Speh’s vision of a multimedia conceptual gallery. For instance, in a small enclave of the gallery, Schaefer offers a pile of painted crushed cinderblocks that lay under one of Perkins’ stark white canvases streaked with dark lines of textured gray. While the paintings seem like an odd pairing at first, after careful examination they communicate in tandem to present a new concept of art that brings together past and present.
“I’ve always been more interested in reconceiving painting through a historical lens,” Perkins says. “In the era we’re at, everything’s being continually recycled and updated and recycled, (and) it’s hard to figure out if what we’re doing is historical.”
“Fuzzy Logic,” was originally going to separate Perkins’ and Schaefer’s works into distinct halves of the gallery. But Perkins says they decided they could benefit from showing together. “Through a number of conversations we realized there was enough in common that we could co-mingle the work,” Perkins says. “And in a lot of ways it’s a reconceptualization of painting.”
Both Schaefer and Perkins reinforced the importance of critical thinking when considering the paintings — suggesting viewers should take a step back from the artwork and consider the piece in a larger context of time and narrative. They expect the same kind of historical reflection of the artist as well.
“You’re gonna paint a painting — paint a surface, create art objects — and ignore the history behind it?” Schaefer asks. “Then you really have to ask yourself, ‘Why the hell am I doing this?'”
Schaefer’s artistic process involves finding objects and coating them in paint — from the cinderblocks to a cardboard cutout of Marilyn Monroe — and applying a new logic to them by adding another physical and conceptual layer. Small technicolor cutouts of ice cream sundaes line part of the white wall of the gallery, and Schaefer’s upside down repainted version of artist Ellsworth Kelly’s “The Early Drawing” poster “is a piece of nostalgia, a piece of art history, that’s been reconfigured,” Perkins says.
Schaefer hopes to convey the idea that he repaints found objects such as the poster “not to manipulate it or distort it, but giving praise to it and keeping it not that far from where it was coming from (originally).” The two artists are influenced by this concept of evolving art and culture and how art movements coincide with cultural revolutions. Perkins cites minimalist sculptor Donald Judd in juxtaposition to pop artist Andy Warhol.
“In the early and mid-`60s you’ve got Warhol working on his stuff and also a lot of minimalists (creating art),” Perkins says. “To bring that all to bear in the present, the show ends up kind of feeling historical — I wanted these paintings to look like they were made in 1963. (I wanted) to take that moment and reinsert it now and say, ‘What’s the relevance of this kind of gesture?'”
While Perkins’ paintings are reminiscent of ’60s minimalism, there is also a modern edge to them. He used a house-painting roller to trace beams of light falling on his canvas in his studio, creating thick stripes that run off the canvas like cropped photographs. In this way he not only captures a moment, he puts it in context by referencing the world outside the canvas edges.
This ambiguity of time and place is what keeps the art intriguing. Schaefer says that while there may be more direct methods of communicating these ideas, the reconstruction of perception is what allows the viewer to apply their own logic to both individual pieces and the collective exhibit.
The exhibit runs though February 26. Hours are Saturday, noon to 6 p.m.
Medill junior Kim Jeffries is a PLAY assistant editor. She can be reached at [email protected].
