Rory Burke

"Imagination (phantasia) made them," Appollonios answered, "a far wiser artist than mimesis, for mimesis will represent only what the eyes can see, but imagination will represent what they cannot... When you entertain the notion of Zeus you must, I suppose, envisage him along with heaven and seasons and stars, as Pheidias tried to do..."
Life of Apollonios of Tyana -Philostratos
Rory Burke's sculptures call attention to the dismembering and assemblage processes of thought and distend logic into a compendium focus. The observational faculties of our nervous constitution are acknowledged as severe in dimensional construction and to this we can understand our phrenological system with regard to its constituents lateral to the whole. The complexity of our mind simply ordered, methodically made manifest to suggest by observation and contemplation we obtain the reconfiguration of intelligence and wisdom. See 'Finite Space' at Thomas Masters Gallery. http://www.roryburke.net/RoryBurke/Press_release.html

Tere Pastoiza at Bell Studio

Tere Pastoiza's delicate pencilwork is a special experience. They are specimans of a woman's world and reach towards intimate revelations of her insecure balance in being of this world. The one-wheeled support, brings to mind the fact that a bicycle can fall only two ways-- right or left; whereas a unicycle can fall in 360 directions. She awakens, she presents herself. They are tender like new skin. A certain nervousness is being concealed, but that's okay. Ms. Pastoiza's figures are set without an environment, so that you are forced to focus completely on the girl. The drawing/object however, is mounted with pins in a shadowbox harkening a butterfly collection, further extending the delicacy of the images. Treat yourself to Tere Pastoiza's pieces at Bell Studio 3428 N. Southport in Chicago.

Thanks to Ashleigh Martinez for the photos.

Cityzen Art

Many years ago I was trying to learn about Modern Art and how a painting of seemingly haphazard brushstrokes could be worth anything, let alone tens of thousands of dollars. I set out to find my understanding in a stack of books. I followed my nose and decided that Franz Kline naturally appealed to me. His work became my starting point in my scholarly pursuits. I was only 19 and from a small town in East Texas living in Boston and began to forage my way through philosophical and psychological experiments of the Ages. Zen was a concept that was foreign to me at the time and seemed essential to the appreciation of Abstract Expressionism, especially Franz Kline's work. And so I began to read about Buddhism. It clicked when I found a quote that claimed "I cannot explain Zen, but you can find it in sound of the wind through the leaves."

When I came up with the name Cityzen, I wanted to express myself as an "urban" artist and deal with the themes that come about through living in the city. I can certainly say that I've lost touch of that original sentiment, and yet my life has taken me to some of the greatest urban ways of life one can have. NO part of the city has been out of my reach. And last night, I was walking home from the library, down Wilson St. in Chicago and turned my headphones off so that I could listen to the sound of the wind across the bricks and the sidewalk and it all came rushing back to me... Zen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU9p1WRfA9w

Jay Strommen at Perimeter Gallery

When discussing the task of deciphering Finnegan's Wake, Joseph Campbell describes school men, terrified by the difficulties of Joyce's "root language" --and have been raking leaves in Phoenix Park for the past twenty years tryinig to catch parley. Any ceramics artist will immediately identify a "root language" to Jay Strommen's work and the intricacies are such that one may also want to sweep Jay's studio floor for about twenty years to catch a glimpse of the man and his works in progress.

Jay is a very approachable artist who is happy to share his work to the curious and the awestruck, as he is to the fawning and doting. He seems ambivalent to the celebrity status he has acquired; egging it on, yet guarding his magic and his internal prestige. At the opening reception, it was a Who's Who of Chicago art world appearances.

His vessels are sublime. They are like Italian grottoes; miniature. The surface texture is a sensitive crustacious drip and bubbling ignacious earth that has been freeze-dried and then preserved in the magic of the fire. Ranging from light and sandy in color to darker grey-tick, the bowls breed mossy highlights and brindle. Some of the vessels are severely cracked or ripped, as if Jay is looking to evoke an emotional injury. The interiors of the vessels reveal a sphincter-like constriction of clay over colored glass. The emerald and sapphire mixtures pool inside the openings like gems fallen into the drain of a sink. Impulsively one wants to remove the beautiful glass setting, but also the stark contrast of the materials begin to render more emotional recognitions that seem to tell a story. Questions begin to emerge from a sense of contradiction. The solitary bowl begins to cry and howl. Parts of the bowl appear to have been removed and reattached like scabs, or violently pulled from the structure and cast into the bowl to be fused as a sandcastle may become crumbled by water only partially left intact, beautifully ruined as only nature can ruin something. It is in this way that Jay's skill and experience shine through. His hands seem to possess the power of wind and rain. And while his promotional statements dance close to the line of being overly sentimental in this way, the work is phenominally executed and the presentation in the gallery is free of any overt distractions.

Also included in the show are several large slab pieces that are mounted on the wall. They measure about 15 X 20 and roughly textured in the same way as the vessels and smoothed by copious amounts of glaze and fused glass. They seem more geological, like a fossil sample mixed with a cuniform. These tableaux seem to encode another experience. The verdent-azure glass puddles spell out alchemical schemes and grimoire teachings. Observing them as objects, is to look at them with wonder at how they were made. They are massive and weighty clay tablets that have every possiblity to be destroyed in their drying process. They index Jay's "root language" in new way and are exciting to see. To describe them any further would be to ruin the personal relationship one may have with the pieces in their pleasant ambiguity.

I recommend moving slowly from piece to piece, so that your breathing accomedates the breath of the piece at which you are looking.

They possess, therefore enter.

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See Jay Strommen's work at Perimeter Gallery in Chicago or check his website for additional listings http://www.famousearth.com/

Chad Buck at Roy Boyd Gallery

When I told Chad that I wanted to write about his work, he offered to look at the show with me and help me with the syntax of what I was experiencing with each painting. I grinned and replied that I could walk circles around his syntax. We both had a good laugh.



I then fired three questions at him: "What was his intention? What was his relationship with the materials? What type of relationship does he expect the viewer to have with his work?" His eyes lit up and he pointed at the painting behind me (of course).



Chad told me that he was inspired by J.L. Borges at which point I cut him off about his work and we began to geek out on the idea of the Infinite and the Word in Borges' works "Book of Sand" and "Library of Babylon" which led to talk about the autonomy of his work and his use of wood pulp and various stones ground into powder and mixed with his paints, now Antonio Tapies and alchemy and Ecclesiastes.



I was fortunate to meet several collectors and the gallerists while talking with Chad and we all agreed that his work, while sublime in its representation, possessed enough tactile quality to draw the viewer into the contemplation of tonality and space and the calming of the active spirit.

I asked Chad if he likes magic tricks. He said yes. That lets me know that as a person, authentic to his being-- that is looking to define his work semantically, but that he's excited by wonder and mystery and even slight of hand and deceit. He searches for the extraordinary and the pure essence of infinite, in nothing and everything.

I think he prefers everything.
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See Chad Buck: Painting Survey 1998-2010 at Roy Boyd Gallery 739 N. Wells in River North, Chicago.