Chicago Tribune
Suburban Fine Art Center
Highland Park, IL
2003

Tangential Pleasures
Art Pleasures easy to see but often difficult to define
By Jodie Jacobs

Tangential Pleasures, an exhibit of eight Chicago artists at Highland Park’s Suburban Fine Arts Center through Dec. 23, demands more from its viewers than a mere browse or snap reaction. People who enter the gallery from the left will see a bulletin board where they can post lists of what gives them pleasure, and read each other’s lists. Anyone who enters the gallery from the right will see most of the exhibit before reaching the bulletin board. Either way works from  an artistic perspective but visitors who view the  show first, then write or scan the lists, might want to retrace their steps. “Writing down what you would choose, makes you think along the lines of what the artists think and why they chose what they did for the show,” says SFAC executive director Ann Rosen.

The exhibit arguably reveals what really excites established artists Claire Wolf Krantz, Joyce Neimanas, Frank Piatek and Irene Siegel and emerging artists Mark Alcazar Diaz, Robin Hann, Brian Kapernekas and Kathy Richland.

Guest curated by Chicago artist and University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art and Design professor Susan Sensemann, the “tangential” angle was a deliberate attempt to showcase these artists’ lesser known works and styles, pieces that bring the artists themselves pleasure. “Most artists do two or three bodies of work but one isn’t aware of that because artists are often known for one conceptual trend,” Sensemann says.

What that means is expect the unexpected. People who think Piatek’s art is only luminous Formalist paintings will see another side of him. For this exhibition the artist chose his Xerox transfers of text on acrylic, a style with a similar philosophy to his painting. Comparing the text transfer to his painting tecnique of layering, he says, “It is a layering of information. It goes into the deep structures of thought that are embedded in the background of our culture.”

Piatek’s transfer works, which reflect his fascination with early religions, ancient fertility rites and the zodiac, have a natural dialogue with works by Krantz, just across the room Using photo transfers and acrylics on aluminum, she shrouds gods, temples and stone formations in dark layers of mist. “It’s edgier than her usual work,” Sensemann says.

Mounted next to Krantz are two works by Siegel. Instead of her more familiar digitalized view of her garden's colors and life, Siegel interprets the garden through paint splashes.

Diaz chose familiar and alternative directions. His sculpture installation, seven plaster forms laid out in a circle, exemplifies his use of impressions of body parts. But the two delicate sketches on the wall behind the sculpture are a departure from his usual work, and part of a series never before shown. “I want viewers to think about de-centering any types of normality and their relation to what is on the ‘periphery’ and what is fading and what is appearing,” Dias says. The same could be said of Richland’s photo wall of “women” surrounded by what they like. About half the subjects are cross-dressers.

Other works are about what pleases the artist, such as Hann’s elegant, digital print “theatre” series; what interests the artist, such as Brian Kapernekas’ “I love Alice,” a cult figure’s degeneration; and the pleasures of others such as Neimanas’ photo, “Tattoo.”

Yes some of the artistic statements are esoteric and complex. “Tangential pleasures,” Rosen says, “is a simple concept but it is difficult to convey.”

Claire Wolf Krantz is an artist, freelance critic, and guest curator.
As an artist she works in a combination of painting and photography as well as digitally created images.