Eye Exam
Border Lapses

by Michael Workman
August 8, 2006

In Brief
Two shows worth visiting this week inhabit public space downtown: first is "PRODUCT Placement" by husband and wife team Tom Burtonwood and Holly Holmes (full disclosure: Tom works with me on the art fairs I produce outside my work with Newcity, and both are friends of mine). They're best known for their paintings and sculptural objects, all of war machines: tanks, helicopters, battleships, stacks of munitions. In recent months, these two have moved in their practice toward more totalizing environments, for instance, covering the interior of the Page Brothers Building space, where they're this month's Open Studio artists, with sale-sheet inserts from local papers. A scale-size Abrams A-1 battle tank has been constructed for the center of the room, which will be camouflaged with the inserts.

Also on this week's list of recommendations is "Bilateral Symmetry," an installation by Vera Scekic at the Hyde Park Art Center's satellite exhibition space, In the Loop Gallery at the Cook County Administration Building. It's a rainbow of colors in circular shapes made from pouring acrylic on drafting film, which are then arranged in grid-like patterns throughout the installation. It's a fine match for a government building, a play on the erratic nature and often inscrutable methods for organizing information.

"CrossMediale 1" shows at Gosia Koscielak Studio & Gallery, 1646 North Bosworth, (773)252-9921, through August 28. Tom Burtonwood and Holly Holmes show at the Page Brothers Building, 177 North State Street, (312)744-6630, through August 25. Vera Scekic shows at In the Loop Gallery, 69 West Washington, (773)324-5520, through November 4.

Excerpted from NewCity Chicago Online