September 25 to October
30th, 2004
John Neff | images | interview
Travels Between the 1st and 3rd Dimensions

+PLUS:
Sally Ann Rowland
Travels between the
First and Third Dimensions at Western Exhibitions is JOHN
NEFF'S first Chicago solo show since relocating to the Bay Area
in 2003, and his first solo show with Western Exhibitions.
Neff will be showing reliefs,
flat panels on the horizontal or the vertical axis that twist into three-dimensions.
The panels are ceramic tile mosaics and/or metalworks in brass, lead,
and steel. Most incorporate pre-made decorative objects like tiles,
vases, and small representational sculptures. Many of the panels have
a nominal function: table, fan, heater, doorbell, ashtray...decoration.
These panels reflect a subtle shift from the concerns of the works on
paper presented in Neff's last solo show at Chicago's Suitable Gallery
in 2002. Those pieces, small-scale paper collages, dealt with private,
cloistered worlds. The relief panels are more outward-looking, and refer,
sometimes blatantly and sometimes obliquely, to current events and to
Neff's day-to-day life, particularly his interactions with his sister,
a mosaicist.
In Western Exhibitions Plus
gallery, SALLY-ANN ROWLAND in her first Chicago solo show, takes
advantage of the stereotypically feminine art of cross-stitching. Depicting
botanical subjects, the beautifully executed hand-sewn samplers render
flora that have both healing and toxic properties. The samplers are
punctuated by staccato bursts of confrontational text: "I Can't
Understand" stitched beside the roots and berries of the deadly
nightshade, and "Fuck everybody" beneath a representation
of the Death Angel mushroom. The samplers hint at frustration, anger,
and destruction lying under the cover of beauty. Amidst these wall works,
the floor sculpture "A Perfect Day" - toy sailboats resting
upon mirrored seas contained in a child's beach bucket -- presents a
moment of tranquility.