COVID-19
If not for the pandemic, three of my favorite Chicago artists, all of whom are women, all of whom are over forty, and all of whom create riotously colored abstractions that sometimes find their way into deceptively charming stop-motion animations would be filling the ground floor of the Chicago Cultural Center right now. An Instrument in the Shape of a Woman, named for a line in a poem by Adrienne Rich celebrating the 18th-century astronomer Caroline Herschel, has been indefinitely postponed, but let’s nevertheless imagine what will hopefully be rescheduled, when public life resumes. The three-person exhibition will be a chance to see Leslie Baum’s reimagining of the world in bold and blobby shapes and colors, alongside Diane Christiansen’s dark, whimsical comedies, and Selina Trepp’s Kandinsky-meets-Rube Goldberg vibe. It’ll be a party in two, three and four dimensions with something for everyone, whatever their favorite hue or pattern. I can't wait to go.
—Lori Waxman 2020-11-23 1:09 PM