Sep 12th 2015

Morgan Sims: Metropolis & Raeleen Kao: Sleeping with Ashes

@ Bert Green Fine Art

8 S Michigan Ave Suite 620 Chicago IL

Opening Saturday, September 12th, from 5PM - 8PM

On view through Saturday, October 31st

Bert Green Fine Art is pleased to present our second solo shows of two up and coming Chicago artists, Morgan Sims and Raeleen Kao. Sims’ exhibition is featured in the October Chicago Artists Month celebration.

Morgan Sims‘ current series of paintings start with ideas explored by 1970s hard-edge Op Art. His alternative to the pristine surfaces and clean solids of this tradition are modified and enhanced by the use of distressed and organically worked surfaces. Like his predecessors, he starts with a simple, geometric-shaped, linen canvas, and generates a dimensional illusion with line and color. Sims then avoids the temptation to seek perfection, instead introducing layers of striated color and texture that highlight a tension between the underlying geometry and the propensity towards decay of all physical objects.

Raeleen Kao’s work is grounded in her early memories of a critical heart surgery at age three and a resulting obsession with death, a very unusual subject for a child. She uses bodily imagery: hair, skin and scars to depict the interrelationship of mortality, bodily frailty, consciousness, and identity as signifiers for the interplay between life and death. Kao sees vanity as a futile foil against deterioration, the frailty of the body and its grounded physical realities as a truth more potent than any other. Her drawings expose extreme personal vulnerabilities yet project a quiet and profound sophistication.

There will be an Opening Reception on Saturday September 12, 2015 from 5-8 pm. An Artist’s Talk with both artists will take place Saturday October 24 at 4 pm. Gallery hours are Wednesday–Friday 11–6 and Saturday 12-5, or by appointment at other times.

Official Website

More events on this date