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Art Espresso is ArtScope.net's shortlist of recommended exhibitions.

Feminine Touch:
Lorraine Sack
Carrie Notari
Renee McGinnis

May 23 - July 15, 2005

Gallery 180
The Illinois Institute of Art, Chicago
180 N. Wabash
Chicago, IL 60601
tel.: 312-280-3500
hours: Mon-Fri 9a-6p, Sat 9a-5p
http://stu.aii.edu/~art332/

Feminine Touch presents the work of three women artists, each highlighting a differing presentation of the human body.

Lorraine Sack is represented by three works in oil. Sack brings out not only a soft sculptural modeling and warm skin tone of her nudes, but as well an evocation of medium. Here, what appears to be pastel, based on the soft yet definite layering of color, on closer inspection reveals itself to be dry-brush work in oil. In contrast with Sack's soft-edged voluptuousness, artist Renee McGinnis presents a quite different handling of the oil medium in three closely-observed and hyper-real images of hands, male and female. In Open Prayer (oil and 23k gold leaf: 30 x 22 in.: 2002) the two loosely open hands rest on a gold leaf background, recalling the glow of formal icons or religious painting, adding to the element of sanctity. Yet these female hands are wholly modern, scrutinized down to the last detail of crease or vein -- long-fingered and capable, and formidably long-nailed. Carrie Notari is represented by four works from her Body Graffiti series, in which images of female nudes are digitally overlaid on graffiti-laden backgrounds of urban walls. The graffiti generally confined to inanimate objects here appears on female skin, a disconcerting statement on urban markings and possessiveness.

This is a petite exhibition, ten works total, but worth seeing if one is in the area. Gallery 180 at The Illinois Institute of Art, located on the corner of Wabash and Lake, is entered through the Illinois Institute's administrative offices -- ask at the reception desk.

--Katherine Rook Lieber

Katherine Rook Lieber has edited ArtScope.net's Visual Arts reviews since 1998. Ms. Lieber is Editor and Associate Producer for ArtScope.net.

Editorial Note: Renee McGinnis was also featured in the book Living Artists by Ivy Sundell (Crow Woods Publishing: January 2005) (reviewed by ArtScope.net in May 2005: http://www.artscope.net/VAREVIEWS/livingartists0505.shtml ) as well as in the exhibition The Living Artists Invitational, on exhibition at the Fine Arts Building Gallery, June 2-30, 2005 (covered by ArtScope.net's Art Espresso feature in June 2005: http://www.artscope.net/VAREVIEWS/artex_livartfab0605.shtml).