When she’s not gardening in the side yard or rearranging furniture inside her Logan Square home, Monica Rezman is hard at work in her coach house studio, painting, drawing and photographing the feminine portraits of hair that have come to identify her as an artist.
The utilitarian brick structure, which is situated behind the main house, was built in the early 1900s as a stable and dairy. “Apparently the floor tiles are very indicative of those used in dairies at that time,” Rezman says.
Rezman works on the second floor of the coach house and uses the first floor as a gallery for display, storage and general recreation room. On the day Home&Garden visited, she and her 5-year-old daughter, Ruby, had just finished a Valentines-making session in the studio. “Ruby and I spend a lot of time back there, drawing and just hanging out.”
Ruby makes an appearance in much of her mom’s art, too, donning different wigs in intriguing poses of playfulness, mystery and abandon. “Being someone who is in my life 24 hours a day, she makes for a convenient model,” Rezman says. “The art ends up not being so much about her personally, but about all little girls — and all women.”
Select pieces of Rezman’s art can be viewed at NavtaSchulz Gallery, 1039 W. Lake St., 312-421-5506. Later this summer (May 22 through June 11), Rezman also will be featured in a show on New York’s Shelter Island. For more information on her work and upcoming shows, visit monicarezman.com.
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See also “Paradox found / In Monica Rezman’s home, opposites attract in stunning ways,” Home & Garden section, Page 1