NEWS INDEX Archives 2005 May

Photographs, painting and sculpture on view in new I space exhibitions

Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor
217-333-5491

Mary Antonakos, I space coordinator
312-587-9976

5/4/05

Click photo to enlarge "Keith Anderson: New Work" is one of two new exhibitions on vew at I space.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Two new exhibitions are on view through June 4 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

• “Eve Sonneman: Photographs and Paintings” provides a retrospective look at Sonneman’s body of work, which includes black-and-white photographs from the 1970s, watercolor and oil paintings, as well as her signature “Sonnegrams,” 20 x 24 inch Polaroid prints. Although she expresses herself in a variety of artistic media, Sonneman first earned an international reputation as a photographer. At the U. of I., where she received a bachelor of fine arts degree, she studied with noted photographer Art Sinsabaugh.

Sonneman’s work has been exhibited in more than 80 solo exhibitions, as well as in the 1997 Documenta exhibition and in the biennales of Venice, Paris, Strasbourg and Australia. Her most recent works are large-scale, abstract circle paintings; the soft-color canvases feature structures based on the double helix, along with patterns drawn from nature.

Click photo to enlarge "Eve Sonneman: Photographs and Paintings" is on view through June 4 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

• “Keith Anderson: New Work” includes sculpture and installation work. Anderson, who began living and working in Paris in the late 1980s, is known for what curator Michael Rooks of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, described as his “idiomatic improvisations with everyday objects.” His constructions, which feature such materials as cotton balls, raisins and matchsticks, typically reference everyday life and cultural experiences of black Americans. The titles of Anderson’s pieces are inspired by works of such authors as William Faulkner, James Baldwin and Langston Hughes.

I space is at 230 W. Superior St., Chicago. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.