WESTERN EXHIBITIONS Melissa Oresky + Eric Lebofsky 2009

October 16 to November 14, 2009

GALLERY TALK with MELISSA ORESKY and closing party on Saturday, November 14, 4pm

In Gallery 1
MELISSA ORESKY
A Wildness of Edges
info | images | press: Chicago Art Review

In Gallery 2
ERIC LEBOFSKY
Superfreaks
info | images | press: Chicago Art Review | Chicagoist

WESTERN EXHIBITIONS
119 N Peoria St, Suite 2A
Chicago, IL 60607 USA
(312) 480-8390
scott@westernexhibitions.com
www.westernexhibitions.com

Opening Reception:
Friday, October 16, 5 to 8pm

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 6pm

Western Exhibitions will open two new shows on Friday, October 16 with a public reception from 5 to 8pm. In Gallery 1, MELISSA ORESKY will show new paintings series titled "Rock Gardens". In Gallery 2, ERIC LEBOFSKY will present selections from a year-long series of drawings, "Superfreaks".

In Gallery 1
MELISSA ORESKY

Melissa Oresky will debut “Rock Gardens”, a dynamic group of paintings that make an analogy between painting and gardening, combining a range of visual languages and elements within a series of small, paired canvases. The show’s title intentionally misquotes author Roderick Nash, as he describes the role of the labyrinth in a garden as a “wilderness of edges”. In her work, Oresky places herself into the role of the painter as gardener of shapes, marks, images and thoughts in a relation to a predetermined field. She contends with disorientation and weediness in her divided compositions -- compositions that seem to fold back in on themselves – as well desires for order and control.

It is this order/control vs. disorientation that gives her paintings such compelling and strange spaces, spaces that effect simultaneous experiences of overlapping volumes. Her process employs improvisation within rigid parameters, rules proving to be generative rather than reductive, that allow her paintings to have conversations between oppositions – garden/wilderness; control/chaos; opaque/translucent; natural/artificial; architectural/atmospheric.

Oresky’s paintings and drawings in the past few years have engaged a revolving set of concerns, including landscape, color, science (and science fiction), the body and cognition/perception. This new body of work, 18 paintings in identically scaled pairs, takes on a greater degree of abstraction. Each pair is driven by color (orange, red, blue, black, etc.) with one canvas more explicitly abstract (folded and divided spaces) and the other maintaining some vestiges of pictorial landscape (garden walls and organic forms).

In a recent essay for the exhibition “On Paper” at the Galhberg Gallery, writer Lori Waxman describes Oresky’s work thusly:

Conversely, in the formal spaces that inspire Oresky’s most recent work – rock beds and German show gardens – lines not only order and fragment space, they do so to the point of total disorientation. It’s almost as if the stuff of nature from which these spaces were built – pebbles and small boulders, clipped hedges and rows of annuals – finally resisted the strictures of design into which they were landscaped, rejecting the human order imposed upon them. Oresky renders this tension between the ordered and the chaotic, the human and the organic, abstractly, suggesting that it might be repressed in the gardens themselves. And she manages to implicate the viewer’s body, also in a way so distinct from how it feels to be in a formal garden, where vistas are staged and pathways clear cut.

This is Melissa Oresky’s third solo show at Western Exhibitions. Her solo exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Van Harrison Gallery, New York, NY; and ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA. Concurrent with this show at Western Exhibitions, her work can be seen in a two-person show, "Streaking", at Proof Gallery, Boston, MA, with Carrie Gundersdorf, and a group exhibition "On Paper" at the Gahlberg Gallery at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Il. Group shows include "Thinking in Color", curated by Judy Ledgerwood, Lemberg Gallery, Detroit, MI," Into the Midst", Mixture Contemporary, Houston, TX, and many others. Oresky has attended residencies in Germany (Schloss Pluschow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), New Mexico (Santa Fe Art Institute) and Maine (Skowhegan). In 2005 Oresky received a 2005 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship. Recent projects include "Mineral Fabric", a silkscreened artists book editioned by Kayrock Screenprinting, Brooklyn, NY and available at WesternXeditions. Oresky lives and works in Chicago and Bloomington, IL.

Preview Oresky's work here

In Gallery 2
ERIC LEBOFSKY

Eric Lebofsky presents selections from a new drawing series, "Superfreaks." Starting on his 32nd birthday and continuing until his 33rd in August 2010, Lebofsky will post one Superfreak drawing a day on his blog, http://superfreaks.tumblr.com/. WesternXeditions will publish a book reproducing the drawings in 2010.

What is a Superfreak? Lebofsky defines it a superhero whose powers are derived from character flaws and/or transgressive behaviors, distinguishable from their civilian counterparts only by ornate costumery and/or literal embodiment of their issues. Lebofsky draws these characters in a graphic style with clean lines and the occasional snippet of idiosyncratic descriptive text, like how he describes “The Analysand”:

Disgruntled over his progress under psychoanalysis, this villain-to-be attempted to obtain a PhD in psychology, thinking it would allow him to jump to the end of the line, as it were. His outfit was a spontaneous emanation borne of research for his dissertation. Now, he is taunted by the nearness of his own “super nipple,” forever just out reach…

Lebofsky’s heroes explore common human frailties like passive-aggression, neurosis, and anxiety. Some offer a unique take on more conventional superhero powers like ESP. They are introspective yet identifiable, as we recognize our fears and imperfections in their powers. Most of Lebofsky’s chareacters are invented, though he occasionally assimilates characters from TV, film and literature, like Gary Numan posing as Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, or a Silentist from Ben Marcus’ novel Notable American Women.

This is Eric Lebofsky’s third show with Western Exhibitions – his last show in 2008 featured 6 sculptures, an entirely new medium for him. Lebofsky’ practice is multidisciplinary– in addition to drawing and sculpting, he paints, writes, and is a saxophonist, singer, and composer who performs with the band Avagami. Lebofsky’s solo shows include Miller Block Gallery in Boston and Sears Peyton Gallery in New York and he has been included in group shows at Corbett vs. Dempsey in Chicago, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise and Participant, Inc, in New York. His artist books are in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Avagami recently released their debut album, “Metagami” on Lens Records. Lebofsky received his BA from Columbia University in New York and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He lives and works in Chicago.

See more of Lebofsky's work here