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Art Talk Chicago

Kim Curtis at Kasia Kay (and new address)

Review by Anna Rathman

September 11, 2009

With a history that ranges from the Hudson River School to Claude Monet, contributing to landscape painting can seem a bit like reinventing the wheel. Kim Curtis' Perception, her fourth show at Kasia Kay, combines elements from her forerunners with more contemporary artpractices to make the genre feel fresh again. The body of work on display is oil paint on panels, and consists primarily of vistas in exaggerated horizontal formats, all 3.5 inches tall and trimmed in red. Works vary in size from the largest Long View II at 113 inches long and consisting of seven panels, to a 20 inch single panel A Somewhat Shorter View.

Her work uses a palette reminiscent of Turner, with dull or dark colors punctuated by moments of vibrant color that seem to radiate off the surface. The application of paint is intuitive and blithe. The loose brushwork recalls the Impressionist movement and its desire to capture moments as time unfolds. While Curtis refines the surface of her paintings, a record of previous incarnations is visible beneath, adding to a sense of uncertainty and unfulfilled recollection. Curtis is able to recombine elements of traditional landscape in a way that is specific to her work, and makes the genre feel like after all these years landscape still has something more to give.

 Curtis' work straddles the line between representation and abstraction. While the titles of her paintings and their format point to landscape, their ambiguous forms and handling of paint leave the images open to interpretation. The result is a seemingly vague memory or scene glimpsed in passing, in which the general information is there but the details are unclear. Curtis provides enough visual cues and information for the viewer to reconstruct the scene, but withholds enough so that each person will come to their own conclusion. The work addresses a hurried culture, where details and moments pass by the wayside. By constructing someone else's experience, the viewer becomes aware of the elusiveness of his or her own memories.

New Address: 215 N. Aberdeen Street, Chicago, IL 60607

Kim Curtis' 2007 painting "Winter Inclusions"  will be available for auction purchase to benefit the renowned Renaissance Society museum in Chicago.

As part of the October 3rd gala event glo(Ball) Curtis and many other artists and galleries will be donating work to help support this historic museum's mission.

 For more information visit the Renaissance Society's website at: http://www.renaissancesociety.org/site/

Illinois journey offers abstract rural scenes, wood-slat light boxes

By Alan Artner | Tribune critic
April 25, 2008

As late as a decade ago, when the big contemporary art exposition was at Navy Pier, all showplaces in town saw an increase in visitors, as those who went to the fair also explored galleries. In the last two years, however, Art Chicago and its satellites have seemed to leave time for only better-known venues, so this week, with people from out of town in for Artropolis, we focus on four Illinois artists who may be seen only at newer spaces in each of the city's chief art "districts"— West Loop Gate, Pilsen and River North. They are reminders that there's still no substitute for the gallery experience.

Kim Curtis is a painter who works in Champaign-Urbana, suggesting rather than transcribing elements of the rural landscape. Her strength lies in creating forms that one might pass in an automobile on the way to somewhere else. The forms are abstract, but when caught in peripheral vision in dusky light, they trigger responses to what we know of, say, ponds or shipyards in cold seasons, thus becoming believable places without being literal or illustrative.

As with the great Midwestern photographer Art Sinsabaugh, Curtis has an affinity for horizontals many times wider than they are high. The ones on view at Kasia Kay Art Projects are the most extreme of any in her three exhibitions at the gallery and also are the most persuasive in handling. I prefer the uninterrupted 6-foot spans of "Longest Race," "Long Fall" and "Long Fall II," but the artist has cast several other pieces as triptychs that specifically deal with visual disruption, and these, too, are successful. The variety of the pronounced horizontals, which suggest panoramic landscapes viewed from a long way off, is somewhat lost whenever the artist moves in closer or seeks the stability of a square format. She is more a poet in CinemaScope.

At 1044 W. Fulton Market. 312-492-8828.

For complete review, click here 

To see past reviews click on "Press" at the top of this tablet. 

Friday, 4 April 2008

6-9 pm

kasia kay art projects gallery

1104 Fulton Market

Chicago, IL

tel: 312-492-8828

info@kasiakayartprojects.com 

www.kasiakayartprojects.com

Exhibition dates: 4 April-10 May 2008 

Catalog available!

Rarely do we have a pure visual experience.  We are continually being disrupted in our viewing of even the most mundane things.  Glare off reflective surfaces, people or things passing between us and the view-not to mention fleeting thoughts and noise- all act as interruptions to observation.

My process of painting capitalizes on this same kind of interference.  Whether with single paintings or multi-paneled work  I am constantly  altering their format; switching panel positions, turning some upside-down or sideways  in an effort to force a new relationship within the developing image. Because we viewers are so adept  at quickly   reconstructing these  relationships into  something recognizable, my use of disruption paired with the courtship of abstract shape and color pattern over realistic  reference  helps me avoid literalism in my “landscapes”. 

David Mamet, the great American playwright, is often cited for his ability to make completely fictional vocabulary ring like authentic cultural dialect.  The work of this show with its concentration on separated, moveable (and consequently continually altered) multi-paneled pieces attempts in a similar way to produce its own type of realism; one which approaches each viewer uniquely yet authentically.
 

Kim Curtis' most recent show "Drive" was listed on the Chicago Tribune's May 18th and May 25th list of Critic's Choice picks.

Listed alongside current shows at both the Chicago Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Ms. Curtis' paintings as well as her gallery, kasia kay art projects are quickly earning their place on Chicago's cultural map.

For the full list of Critic's Choices click here.

For the review of "Drive"in the May 15 Chicago Tribune, click here. 

kasia kay art projects gallery was listed this Memorial Day weekend in the Chicago Tribune's lineup of cultural things-to-do.

In an article aimed at highlighting gems off the beaten path,  kasia kay art projects was cited as follows:

"Two dozen galleries pepper the streets between Ashland and Des Plaines Avenues, Division and Washington Streets. Many are wonderful, but favorites include Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Donald Young Gallery , FLATFILEgalleries and Kasia Kay Art Projects."

 To read the full article, click here.

In conjunction with BRIDGE Chicago, Kasia Kay Art Projects Gallery will be presenting DRIVE: New Work by Kim Curtis

Opening Reception: Friday, April 13 2007 6-9pm

1044 W. Fulton Market St Chicago, IL 60607
phone: 312-492-8828
email: info@kasiakayartprojects.com

Whether it be Farmland under January ice, oceans of corn and soy in August, the turned, black Earth of December or seas of Prairie Grass in July, the vast Illinois countryside can seem monotonous.

Climb into a car however, and you have the kinetic feedback of constant, repetitive pattern; geometry, color and light quickly shifting along these vast areas of open space.  Machinery and Granaries, ice beds and their sky’s reflection all compete for the brain’s attention as it quickly processes the simultaneous input of abstractions.  We understand too quickly and lose the chance to revel in nameless shapes, foreign color and reiterating pattern.

 

The investment firm Morgan Stanley recently purchased Ms. Curtis' large diptych "Prairie Spring" for their offices in downtown Chicago.

The piece whose two paintings together measure 8x6 feet will be placed in the lobby of their building on Madison Street near Millennium Park. 

In an auction conducted by Sotheby's this October, Ms. Curtis' painting "Yellow Twilight III" fetched twice its asking price to benefit the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The painting was selected by the Museum's auction committee from Kasia Kay Art Projects Gallery in Chicago and was the joint donation of Kasia Kay and the Artist. 

Translated from French, the expression"between the dog and the wolf"  poetically describes the moment of day we consider "twilight" ; it is not yet dark, there is still light but it is difficult to see the differences in space. This show will be somewhere between figuration and abstraction, color and black and white, surface and paint, paper and canvas, wall, ceiling and floor. It will include a selection of  American and European Artists.

For more information visit the gallery's website at www.bleuacier.com

Erika Greenberg-Schneider of Bleu Acier Gallery has invited Ms. Curtis to produce a series of etchings at her studio in Tampa, FL.  Atelier Bleu Acier specializes in Intaglio, Photogravure, Lithography, Photolithography, Relief and Monotype. As a collaborative Master Printer, Ms. Greenberg-Schneider has worked with artists such as Matta, Dubuffet, Pierre Alechinsky, Dominique Labauvie, Max Neumann, Bernar Venet, Beverly Pepper, Georg Baselitz, Chuck Close, Paula Scher, Sylvie Eyberg, Jovi Schnell and Robyn Voshardt/Sven Humphrey.

Ms. Curtis' painting "Yellow Twilight III" was selected through Kasia Kay Art Projects Gallery, for MCA's Benefit Art Auction. Sponsored by Sotheby's, the juried event features a live and silent auction of exceptional works by today's most recognized artists.

Visit www.mcachicago.org for more information

Ms. Curtis' painting "Prairie Spring II" was selected to adorn the cover of the new poetry journal MoonLit.

MoonLit is a new arts journal whose inaugural issue is a knockout combination of writing and artwork by crossover talents from the new music scene along with poetry's rising stars. Contributors include David Berman, Bill Berkson, Neil Hagerty, Philip Jenks and Eleni Sikelianos.

For more information, click on BOOK NOOK at:

http://www.dragcity.com/catalog.html