COVID-19
In this two-person show at boundary, a garage gallery on the outskirts of Chicago, Zach Cahill and Scott Wolniak exhibit what artists of all eras and inclinations must at some point produce: pictures of flowers. Their perennial subject (actually, a few look to be annuals) overseeds the tidy space, with Cahill suspending large, squarish, brilliantly colored brushy closeups from the rafters and Wolniak sowing row upon row of loosely drawn, densely colored, chunkily pulped small plants up and down the walls. If Cahill’s “Yellow Flower,” in shades of butter and sunshine, mostly resembles a voluminous backside or squash, and some of Wolniak’s foliage sport smiling faces, all the better. Neither artist is pretending to be a botanical illustrator. Indeed, both veracity (forget about it) and quality (inspiringly erratic) seem somewhat beside the point. In the natural world, flora evolved as much to be attractive as to repel, and for plenty more inscrutable purposes. A diverse and capacious garden, such as Cahill and Wolniak have cultivated here, will always be the best kind.
—Lori Waxman 2021-03-03 10:21 AM