Category: Art Sidebar

Catherine Opie’s shots of Chicago prove there’s life left yet in the documentary tradition.

And everything in between at Wolfgang Tillmans’s first American retrospective

Stages of Memory: The War in Vietnam Museum of Contemporary Photography Most of the events and exhibitions in the city’s ongoing Commit to Memory exploration of the Vietnam war reflect familiar American attitudes rooted in the experiences of that time. But “Stages of Memory: The War in Vietnam” at the Museum of Contemporary Photography offers […]

Digital manipulation makes truth seem more elusive than ever.

Photographers, painters, and videographers consider what they owe one another.

Winnifred Birts didn’t want to leave Rogers Park, but in December her building went condo. She was riding the bus crying when another passenger asked her what was wrong. When Birts told her, the bus rider said, “Girl, go talk to my landlord. They’re pretty good, and they take Section 8.” Birts considers her new […]

Lee Friedlander frames the detritus of a nation as art.

Using mirrors, flashlights, and no doubt a lot of calories, Tokihiro Sato paints the air.

A photo exhibit in her childhood home gives a glimpse of Frances Glessner Lee’s remarkably precise models of crime scenes.

A camera gives a visitor a purpose–and marks him as an interloper.

Formerly a latex-wearing, fire-breathing club kid–he quit after burning half his face–27-year-old clothing designer Geoffrey Mac moved four years ago at the suggestion of a squeamish landlord. “We have a line of latex, so I have a lot of fetish clients, and a lot of freaks were coming in at two in the morning wanting […]

Except for a cat who stays in the basement and shies from men, Rebecca Wolfram lives alone in her century-old house in Little Village, painting in her attic studio and playing the violin. In the front room, which doubles as a private gallery, are five small paintings of women in the branks, or scold’s bridle, […]

About three years ago George Klauba arrived home from his afternoon walk to find two birds coupling missionary style on his doorstep. The bird on its back had its wings spread as wide as they could go, wide enough for Klauba to see what looked like an armpit. “It was all a pale white, and […]

A first retrospective for Art Sinsabaugh establishes his mastery of the Illinois landscape.

David Graham: Declaring Independence at Catherine Edelman, through July 3 Paho Mann at Flatfile, through July 3 The automobile’s profound influence on the American landscape is revealed in David Graham’s 18 color photos at Catherine Edelman, most from his latest book, Declaring Independence. Never condescending, these often humorous images document roadside attractions and other outdoor […]