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Irene Hardwicke Olivieri:
Light Seeking Eyes

June 3 - July 9, 2005

Carl Hammer Gallery
740 N. Wells St.
Chicago, IL 60610
tel.: 312-266-8512
hours: summer hours (Memorial Day to Labor Day) Tue-Sat 11a-5p
or by appointment
http://www.hammergallery.com/

Figures within figures within figures: in Light Seeking Eyes eleven paintings by Irene Hardwicke Olivieri offer a surreal mysticism in evoking relations between the figures often appearing twice or thrice over in various guises, and the plants and animals of the natural world whom they companion and compass. These mesmerizing works are as curious as they are complex.

Most feature a central female figure, transparently filled in with other imagery and tiny lines of abundant text, all lavish with detail and color. Olivieri evokes a sensitivity to, and sympathy with, the birds and beasts that fill our world. In How Dare You (oil on wood panel: 34 x 19 in.: 2005) a young girl tugs braids aside as if opening a curtain to the pantheon of her body. The girl's voluptuous form is covered with an obsessive scrawl of natural history narrative ("Lynx canadensis: The lynx is well-equipped for winter with massive well-furred paws...") and images of the animals discussed. Some, as in the bear with young female rider to the left, are seen as if the girl's outline is merely a cutout frame looking into another realm. The braids themselves are another level of framing as she presents the tattoo-like illustrations of her body. A thread of crimson traces out the line of the girl's necklace whose words, "How dare you," seem directed at the viewer -- until one spies the tiny figures at her feet: hunters and rifles, lying in graves, rendered in the childlike primitivism of Early American painting. At the same time, the girl's lithe proportions and canted step recall Indian Vedic images of Parvati, consort of Shiva. There is no single statement here, but a complexity of them overlaid one on the other in the image of this confident young earth-goddess and the many creatures of which she is comprised.

Light Seeking Eyes offers glimpses into a weirdly appealing dreamtime of human and beast, word and figure, sensuality and wildness. Olivieri's down-to-earth presentation of these lavish and fantastical visions gives them a compelling rooting in reality. This is satisfying work. Eleven works by Irene Hardwicke Olivieri: Light Seeking Eyes will be at Carl Hammer Gallery through July 9, 2005.

--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: A related book, Irene Hardwicke Olivieri: Paintings by David Pagel (Giant Paws Press: June 2000) is in print and available through Amazon.com. This and other books mentioned in www.artscope.net reviews may be purchased through the Amazon.com links throughout ArtScope.net, or by clicking on the link above.