Jun Kaneko is widely known for his glazed stoneware sculptures, slabs and plates, but the exhibition titled “New Paintings & Works on Paper, 1979-1997” at Klein Art Works will win him recognition for his work in other media. The acrylic paintings, monotypes and oil stick drawings (similar to pastel) are just as exuberant in their choice of sensuous colors and as carefully composed in their arrangement of complex forms as are his ceramics.
Although Kaneko, who was born in Japan and lives in Omaha, did not want this show to feature his sculptures, a few of his large dangos (Japanese for dumpling or rice cake) are present, and they help to give the viewer a better understanding of the context in which the other works were created.
“He wants his two-dimensional artworks to be able to stand on their own,” says gallery owner Paul Klein. “Kaneko’s attitude has always been, `Let’s challenge ourselves and push the limits of the media,’ ” says Klein, who has followed Kaneko’s work for the last 15 years. “He’s willing to take risks, make mistakes, learn from them, do more work and make more mistakes so that he keeps growing artistically.”
The large paintings consist of blocks of different patterns, and within each are skinny horizontal rows of colors that produce an almost optical effect. Rows are further accented in a more casual way by large circles and deep, rich overlays of other patterns, which give the artworks an energy that many purely hard-edged contemporary paintings lack.
Kaneko’s “Hawaiian Drawings,” made using oil stick and ink on paper while he spent time in the islands, are much subtler; the compositions are sparer, the hues softer. His “Cranbrook Drawings,” also using oil stick atop paper, are very bold with a single spiral that unwinds. The large monoprints most resemble his sculptures. Both are organized vertically and have complex forms that seem to run down their surfaces. For those interested in seeing still other variations of his art, about a half dozen of his large glazed ceramic “heads” will be on view next, starting Feb. 21 at Klein Art Works, 400 N. Morgan St. The current show closes Feb. 14.
Michael Noland’s oil landscape paintings in the show “Postcards from a Native Son” at Carl Hammer Gallery are a travelogue of his travels through the West, depicting the region’s canyons, plant life, buffalo, cacti, even Mt. Rushmore. But they can be viewed on other levels: the cycles of life from creation through development, death and rebirth; man’s continuing destruction of his surroundings; and the overriding power of nature.
“I grew up in the Southwest and natural phenomena were a big influence on me — the floods, tornadoes, thunderstorms. Nature is God in a way,” says Noland, who lives and works in Woodstock, Ill.
After moving to Chicago from Columbus, Ohio, where he attended graduate school, he was helped and influenced by the late Roger Brown and other Imagists.
“I felt a kinship and spirituality with them artistically and because we also admired many of the same older American artists like Benton, O’Keeffe and Dove. I was already painting in a somewhat similar way, but when I came here and saw what was happening, I moved more in their direction,” Noland says.
Noland’s artistic ideas come to life through a unique style that consists of repetitive, organic, squigglylike forms he fills in with bright, unrealistic colors. The repetition creates an energetic rhythm. In his interpretation of Mt. Rushmore titled “Sundown on the American Dream,” Noland injects his wit. He has turned the presidents’ heads into skeletal faces that some may read as suggesting the transience of power. The show continues through Feb. 7 at 200 W. Superior St.
The almost obsessive edge of repetition that Noland uses to construct his paintings emerges again in the works of three European outsider artists in the current show at the Judy A. Saslow Gallery. Titled “Obsessions,” the paintings and drawings on view from Giordano Gelli, Madge Gill and Edmond Engel each reflect a different obsessive choice of subject matter. Gelli, who experienced the bombing of the textile plant where he worked, also had a girlfriend who died in an accident, and his paintings depict her. Engel, who was discovered by Jean Dubuffet, is obsessed with the eventual end of the world through overpopulation. Yet, he ironically organizes his chaotic shapes and people or parts of people into very calm, beautifully colored paintings. The show continues through March 7 at 300 W. Superior St.
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