Continuing through August 1, 2015
In “Body Mass Index” a group of four emerging Chicago-based artists address the subject of the human body. Sparse and restrained, the exhibition, curated by George William Price, pointedly keeps the actual representation of the figure to a minimum, instead emphasizing the formal and the material. Ranging from the repulsive to the exquisite, the works in this exhibition each provide a unique visceral experience for the viewer.
Throughout “Body Mass Index” the body is present mostly in the form of traces, as in Abel Guzman’s bronze-stained gym towel, “No Tan Lines Please”; and Mike Rubin’s rubber “Color Puddle (gradient tile),” suggestive of a leakage of rainbow-colored fluids from some magical personage. Other pieces are less of an index and more about an awareness of one’s own body. B. Quinn’s “Butter Square” presents 35 lbs. of margarine affixed to the wall, which induces a strong reaction of disgust upon realizing exactly what substance has been used. There is a pervading stillness to this exhibition of residue and viscera, punctuated by a single instance of active bodies. Guzman’s enormous painting “Daddy Formula (Brad)” features a line drawing of multiple tumbling, intertwined nudes that one could imagine being responsible for some of the tactile matter of the surrounding pieces.
