From Here to There a Capsule of Wonder

The arts have a way of remaining transcendent even when they indulge in the specific.  The four artists currently on display in the Spertus Institute’s Ground Level Arts Lab are all captivating.  That they share a common heritage may be instrumental in what and how they create, but what they produce is a gift to anyone who finds fulfillment in things that are interesting or beautiful.

Airy, spare and intimate like a glass cocoon, the Institute’s Arts Lab makes an ideal home for the From Here to There exhibit themed to reflect and honor the natural world.  Going beyond simply portraying nature, the artists consciously attempt to go deeper and tap into notions of energy and show how the materials of nature might be incorporated or insinuated in ways that influence our lives.

Much of the pleasure in the show comes from the different ways each artist approached her objective.  And how they used such an array of tools to express their individual vision. Ellen Holtzblatt often straddles worlds by blurring the line between the abstract and the representational.  Her landscapes can have sharp and jagged edges meant to trigger something relatable in our psyches or to make an emotional connection.  There is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart is made up of three panels, a continuation of the same sweeping sky about to erupt in chaos or is healing after a violent storm.  The line between darkness and light looks as if it’s shifting in real time. It’s that process of active change that makes the painting so interesting.  Colors is an essential language in the piece but not in her Reiko series where, using only ink on paper, she also telegraphs motion and a world in flux. 

On an adjoining wall, Linda Robinson Gordon’s paintings are meticulous and highly considered.  Both her paintings and sculptures induce the same sense of soothing meditative calm.  Muted shades of earth tone dominate the paintings. Several are covered with dots or circles that benignly swarm the canvas.  It’s an absorbing effect; like being drawn deeper and deeper into a mystery.  Using chiefly wood and wire in one her three-dimensional pieces displayed in the exhibit, her sculptures are deceptive.  They look so simple and straightforward but just like nature, you marvel at their intricate complexity when you make the investment to stop and look a little more closely.

Michelle Stone works in quiet excitement.  Tempered boldness.  At least in her paintings.  Her sculptures are more unabashed, daring.  Neither had a problem holding your attention; especially her large installation Today was Tomorrow Yesterday with its expansive unfettered hyper-organic flow.  You almost expected it to pulsate and, also like nature, was endlessly fascinating. 

A visitor to the show was so taken with one of Stone’s paintings she seemed relieved to be able to tell someone how thrilling she found it and how much joy it brought her.  There’s a lot in From Here to There that might generate such a response.  Although Lilach Schrag’s video contribution was more visually commanding, and a bit perplexing; it was one of her other representations that kept whispering to and serenading the eye.  A collection of disparate, repurposed and perhaps “found” objects were brought together and assembled to create something discreetly beautiful and disarmingly luxurious.  Schrag entitles the work Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh (Holy, Holy, Holy).  Considering some of the materials she used to compose the piece, it serves as a reminder that the distance between the natural and the divine is always close.

The city can never have too many sources of artistic nourishment.  From Here to There, running through to mid-January next year, is certainly that.

From Here to There

September 23 – January 19, 2019

Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership

Ground Level Arts Lab

610 S. Michigan Ave.

Chicago, IL   60605

www.spertus.edu