”No coyotes!” is T.J. Harris` way of describing what goes on at her stunning new shop called Southwest Expressions at 348 W. Hubbard St., a unique art gallery specializing in contemporary Native American and Southwestern art last September. She does offer the ”animalitos” folk art, but the figures are of rabbits, goats, cats, or bears, rather than vocalizing desert canines. Throughout the shop, Harris shies from the ubiquitous. ”One of the things I do want is exclusivity; these artists are not represented elsewhere in Chicago,” she emphasizes, whether it be sculpture, pottery, paintings, basketry, books, weavings or furniture.
For example, in the latter genre, Harris carries the work of David Cunningham, a young Santa Fe artist who makes trastero, a New Mexican traditional cabinet standing on legs. An outstanding Cunningham trastero entitled ”Fly by Night” shows a desert night scene of a little airplane with a metal propeller flying through the sky, the dark part of which is spangled with glitter.
Store hours at Southwest Expressions: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Phone:
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312-245-5445.