EC Gallery

Spotlight on the Shared Space of EC Gallery and Kasia Kay Art Projects

2010-10-25T11:26:00.000-07:00

Spotlight on the Shared Space of EC Gallery and Kasia Kay Art Projects

By Chicago Art Magazine on Oct 19, 2010 in Articles, Featured

Gallery Spotlights are posts about randomly selected* art venues in Chicago

Brian Smith

Nestled in a lesser known corner of the West Loop and Fulton Market across the street from a metal fabricating shop, EC Gallery is a small, but well put together space allowing for just the right blend of playful and inventive art to be displayed on its walls. Since fall of 2008, when artist and curator Ewa Czeremuszkin first opened the doors of the gallery it has specialized in representing a unique group of nationally and internationally known mid-career and emerging artists working in painting, drawing, photography and mixed media.

EC Gallery

Although EC Gallery has so far been in business for only a short period of time, it seems as though it fits well into the West Loop gallery scene. As I entered through the double glass doors for the first time I was curious at its size. It is rather small and intimate, but manages its size well, even with a packed crowd of gallery-goers who have come to look at the art or just hang out, talk, and drink wine – typical of the Chicago gallery scene. But one is quickly struck with a sense of coziness and ease despite the spaces diminutive size and crowd of art supporters for its openings.

Catching a show here mostly consists of experiencing paintings rendered on small to medium sized canvases and similar sized works on paper. They are a few photographers and a sculpture hailing from Japan on their roster, but mostly what you will see here are paintings, or work having to do with paint. When you first walk in through the doors, you will generally step into a world filled with canvases full of brushy, dirty, colorful abstract and figurative work. The images are often playful and the forms, lines, colors and boundaries tend to disappear so frequently that one does not know where one line begins and another ends. Where one color becomes another totally different color seems to happen of its own accord.

Kasia Kay Art Projects

Most common from my experience of the small but expansive space was a taste for the figurative. Human forms are represented by a multitude of washes of color, lines, brushwork, and not quite abstract, but not quite representational forms and figures. An example of this can be seen in the paintings of Agata Czeremuszkin, an emerging artist and recent graduate from the Academy of the Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland, with a Masters degree in painting. Her nearly sexless figures rendered in both oil and acrylic on canvas and paper, stray from being full-fledged human outlines to a falling apart mess of loose limbs, missing body parts and featureless faces surrounded by text and large fields of sobering color.

There are also included amongst the collection of figurative and abstract painters some representations of geometric art. The sculpture works of Ken’ichiro Taniguchi made from little yellow jagged plastic hinges, look like miniature explosions. Richard Blackwell’s drawings created through the use of new digital technologies and industrial manufacturing materials are geometric landscapes of angles and white lines on shaped medium density fiberboard. Paul Kowalow seems obsessed with the apparitions of wobbly reflected images that appear in the grid arrangements of tall window filled skyscrapers in cities.

Sharing the space with EC Gallery is Kasia Kay Art Projects, run by Kasia Kay. Kasia and Ewa split use of the space bi-monthly. Each represents artists that work with similar mediums and have a taste for a hand worked aesthetic. Having known each other for several years, it seems only natural that these two gallerists could share a space. Kasia shows an intriguing mix of contemporary art by mostly emerging artists. The works that can be seen here range from video, drawing, and painting to installation and sculpture. Kasia’s tastes seem dependent on the artist’s vision without a preference for one type of medium or the other.

EC Gallery Kasia Kay Art Projects

Coming here you might find yourself viewing a show of tiny intimate sculptures by Duncan Anderson that are both ridicules and serious at the same time. They tend to capitalize on our fascination with movies and the surreal. Their titles are long and quirky and read like narration. On the other hand, you might find yourself surrounded by whimsical and fascinating gouaches and animations by Chicago-based artist Diane Christiansen. Her characters remind me of imaginary creatures and cataclysmic events I might have thought up as a child.

Most exhibitions here will either be solo or two person shows as the space really doesn’t allow for larger group shows. So be prepared to spend some time looking at mostly one body of work. Overall you can find Kasia Kay Art Projects to be a daring and interesting gallery where there is something new and refreshing from one show to the next.

EC Gallery and Kasia Kay Art Projects are located at 215 N. Aberdeen, Chicago, and are open Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00am – 3:00pm.

We’re Not Talking Trash . . . We’re Talking ‘Poignant Trash’

2010-10-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

We’re Not Talking Trash . . . We’re Talking ‘Poignant Trash’

By Gregory Kiewiet

The work in SAIC alum Connie Noyes’s (MFA 1980) latest show Poignant Trash at E/C Gallery continues her exploration in the recycling of disparate elements (garbage like Styrofoam, roofing paper, and other shiny, plastic surfaces) which undergo an alchemical-like process under the artist’s hands. Combined with enamel, resin, and asphalt, discarded materials are transformed into aesthetically-pleasing pieces that are compelling both for what they are and how they came to be.

After graduate school, Noyes became interested in taking pictures of trash – window-shades, wood, ripped paper, cardboard, thumbtacks, spray-paint, or whatever she could find. The artist would then make collages, set up still-lives, and photograph them, ‘deconstructing’ them materially or through the photos.

Post graduate life, however, for Noyes was not always productive. For six years after graduating, Noyes did not make work - partly out of fear and partly because she wasn’t having fun. “I felt like if I had the idea, then I didn’t have to do the work,” she said in an interview with F News.

The return to process and the fun came when watching her two-year old daughter stick the tips of magic markers (non-toxic) in her mouth and watching color ooze onto the paper. “Oh my God, she’s having fun,” Noyes realized.

“I’m always asking myself: What happens if I do this? What do I have to lose? No one has to see it,” says Noyes.

The first stage in Noyes’s recycling process in painting began when she was working in San Francisco. The constant cleaning of paint brushes left her with jars of sludge that she was unsure how to dispose of, so Noyes started experimenting with the material, along with tiny cut outs from discarded photographer’s mattes, on the oil-paintings she was working on. Absorbed in what she was doing, Noyes soon found herself with what she jokingly calls “a sludge farm’.

“People started giving me their sludge . . . I was a sludge magnet,” Noyes said, laughing.

Interested in the different qualities the sludge created, the different things it could do, and the element of surprise that it provided, Noyes began regularly using the sludge as a texture under her paint. The painting on the surface became “this skin” that was covering “the less desirable materials,” says Noyes.

This kicked-started her in a whole other direction.

The artist’s first show of recycled material was in 2007 at Estel Gallery in Nashville, Kentucky . The displayed works had been created when Noyes wanted to “repurpose” trash from the move to a new studio.

“I first fell in love with the roofing materials” says Noyes, referring to the piece Conform. “That was the material that first grabbed me.”

The 17 pieces on display vary in looks, textures, and size, from the white shimmering exquisite 8 x 6 inches Envelop me no. 1 to the densely-layered black provocative 60 x 48 inches Conform. Particularly striking are the pieces – like the two mentioned- where the skin of the glossy resin and enamel – often wrinkled – teases and tempts the eyes and hands – while latching on to the mind.

Poignant Trash is on view at E/C Gallery until October 23.
215 N. Aberdeen Chicago IL 60607

Art openings galore in Chicago this fall

2010-10-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

From faceless busts to 3-D installations, there's something for everyone

By Lauren VieraTribune reporter

September 10, 2010

Autumn — and the autumn art season — is upon us once again.

This is the one time of year when the majority of local visual arts venues align their openings to a single night (Friday!) in order to capitalize on the crowds, the weather and that deeply rooted back- to-school fervor that fuels our desire to get cultured.

Navigating it all can be a bit overwhelming, unless you've got a gallery-hopping game plan. Pick a specific neighborhood, or follow your curiosity. Those fond of classic figurative painting should prioritize visits to Ann Nathan Gallery or the Highland Park Art Center, while hipsters in search of offbeat art will flock to Johalla Projects and Threewalls. Up-and-comer Dan Gunn is the star Friday at Lloyd Dobler Gallery while Shane Campbell Gallery breaks in a new address with subtlety beautiful paintings from Anthony Pearson.

Behold: Your guide to the most noteworthy openings, along with a save-the-date guide to the rest of the fall — the best art season of all is on...

Up-and-comers

These are the names likely to linger on the tips of the tongues,especially for those who closely follow the rotating cast of emerging artists. Dan Gunn is a recently graduated product of the School of the Art Institute who has been playing with plywood, cutting it up into visual motifs. A collection of recent works called "Multistable Picture Fable" opens Saturday at Lloyd Dobler (1545 W. Division St., 2nd floor, 312-961-8706; lloyddoblergallery.com). Stephanie Syjuco has arrived nationally, exhibiting at major institutions such as New York's Whitney Museum of American Art. Her show at Gallery 400, "Particulate Matter (Things, Thingys, Thingies)," continues her explorations of counterfeit and mismatched mass production (400 S. Peoria St., 312-996-6114; uic.edu/aa/college/gallery400). Golden Age Gallery presents "Faux Weirdo," new work by Lauren Anderson, which continues to propel this young artist's portfolio into uncharted territory. In the past she's created a pinata shaped like a PBR can; for this exhibition, she's made a series of smoke-bomb inspired drawings and sculptures (119 N. Peoria St., 312-288-8535; shopgoldenage.com).

Classic and figurative artists

German photo-artist Gert Wiedmaier softens his images of Parisian life to an impressionist-grade fade for his solo show at Thomas Masters Gallery (245 W. North Ave., 312-440-2322; thomasmastersgallery.com), while Tim Lowly, a longtime contributor to the local painting and drawing scene, continues to produce startling, photorealist images of experiences spent nurturing his disabled daughter. His latest show of paintings and woodcuts, "Without Moving (25)," opens Saturday at Lincoln Square's Fill in the Blank Gallery (5038 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-878-1750; fillintheblankgallery.com).

The elongated title "Tethered to My World — Contemporary Figure Painting: Location, Chicago" is the self-explanatory subject of the fall show (reception Saturday) at the Art Center in Highland Park (1957 Sheridan Road, Highland Park, 847-432-1888; theartcenterhp.org), which includes work from brilliantly detailed painter/drawer Kevin Wolff, as well as familiar locals Karl Wirsum, Andreas Fischer and Elizabeth Shrev. For something completely different, don't miss "Introducing Stephen Cefalo" at Ann Nathan Gallery (212 W. Superior St., 312-664-6622; annnathangallery.com), in which eerie, Dutch-style oil paintings make bold statements.

Weird and the beautiful

A cartoonlike Neighborhood Watch icon and a weeping Abraham Lincoln are two of the half-dozen sculptures Ben Stone created for his second solo show at Western Exhibitions (119 N. Peoria St., 312-480-8390; westernexhibitions.com).

"Poignant Trash" is the subject of renowned painter Connie Noyes' show at EC Gallery (215 N. Aberdeen St., 312-850-0924; ec- gallery.com), whose works feature cast-off utilitarian items so gussied up, they're almost unrecognizable. Montgomery Perry Smith fashions soft, circular compositions from faux flowers and felt, producing polished, craft-chic sculptures. A collection of his latest, dubbed "Pit Worship," opens Saturday at Johalla Projects (1561 N. Milwaukee Ave., 708-280-3940; johallaprojects.wordpress.com). Dubhe Carreno Gallery is often home to exhibits that are equally creepy and beautiful, and ceramicist Elise Siegel is no exception. Her faceless busts and topless bottoms are the focus of "make/ believe" (118 N. Peoria St., 312-666-3150; dubhecarrenogallery.com).

Modern intelligentsia

There's an abundance in this category of smart, new art, beginning with Los Angeles-based Anthony Pearson's laborious photographic processes built from the subject on up. He's the premiere artist at Shane Campbell Gallery's new location in River West (673 N. Milwaukee Ave., 312-226-2223; shanecampbellgallery.com). Tony Wight Gallery kicks off its fall season with a joint show of work by Arturo Herrera and David Schutter. We're keen on the former, whose mixed media collages are as tasteful as the polished paintings we're accustomed to seeing on these walls (845 W. Washington Blvd., 312-492-7261; tonywightgallery.com). Another pair of men, Jeff Gibson and Geoff Kleem, share the exhibition spaces starting Sept. 19 at The Suburban (125 N. Harvey Ave., Oak Park, 708-763-8554; thesuburban.org). Gibson will be projecting a new video work, and I'm especially excited to see Kleem's 3-D installation, to be viewed from just beyond the gallery's perimeter. Friday night, Portland, Ore.-based painter and sculptor Chris Johanson goes "Backwards

Toward Forwards" at Kavi Gupta Gallery (835 W. Washington Blvd., 312-432-0708; kavigupta.com), which, if it's anything like past shows, will spill over the entire gallery in a wash of childlike color. Downstairs at Carrie Secrist Gallery (835 W. Washington Blvd., 312-491-0917; secristgallery.com), Megan Green and Carolyn Ottmers contribute flora- and fauna-inspired collages and sculptures, respectively, both of which offer modern interpretations of natural beauty.

Familiar faces

You've seen these folks several times before, and they're worth looking at again. Photographer Jason Lazarus is everywhere these days, from the Modern Wing to modest suburban galleries like the Riverside Art Center's Freeark Gallery (32 E. Quincy Road, Riverside, 708-442-6400; riversideartcenter.com), which Sunday celebrates the opening of "Too Hard to Keep," Lazarus's ongoing study of anonymously submitted photographs too painful to hold onto. Laura Letinsky shoots still-lifes, mostly of morning-after table settings, and somehow they never get boring. Her latest collection, "To Peach," opens Sept. 17 at Donald Young Gallery (224 S. Michigan Ave., suite 266, 312-322-3600; donaldyoung.com). Carl Hammer Gallery invites us to revisit the work of well-known self- taught artists Joseph Yoakum, Bill Taylor and Frank Jones in "Out of Struggle Came Power," under the guise of their collective African-American experience (740 N. Wells St., 312-266-8512; hammergallery.com). If the names Carla Arocha and Stephane Schraenen sound familiar, chances are you ride the Red Line: The pair's "24/7" public sculpture hangs above an escalator at the Howard station. While details are vague, Arocha-Schraenen's "As If" at Moniquemeloche should be worth seeing when it opens Thursday (2154 W. Division St., 773-252-0299; moniquemeloche.com).

Poignant Trash new works by Connie Noyes

2010-10-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

Poignant Trash

new works by Connie Noyes

September 10 – October 23, 2010

Opening Reception: Friday, September 10, 6-8 pm

(Chicago) The EC Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Connie Noyes "Poignant Trash". An opening night reception will be held at the EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen, Friday, September 10, 2010, 6-8 pm.

"Poignant Trash" is part of Connie Noyes' new series "Human Steps", which references the many disparate elements encountered in daily urban life - a metaphor for the way in which dark affects light and vice versa, how the sweet can become sickly if overdone and how close proximity to millions of people, diverse cultures and visual images can both inspire and overwhelm. It is a metaphor for tight quarters, pleasant or not so pleasant meetings and vibrant energy of the city in contrast to shadowy and emotionally difficult places.

For "Poignant Trash", Noyes uses what most people consider garbage as a jumping off place in the work. The materials at one point might have been utilitarian, but were never considered beautiful. The recycled styrofoam, roofing paper, shiny, plastic surfaces often synonymous to commercial objects, would never pass inspection as such. Dirt falls onto the canvases, scratches, cracks, marks occur and there are no straight lines, only the illusion of such. Through the act of turning detritus into “works of art”, or elevating the prestige of garbage, Noyes aims to question the status quo of beauty, worthiness and usability.

poignant trash
searches for value,
in the mundane.
a metaphor for
the discarded.
the dismissed.

poignant trash-
utilitarian materials
never before beautiful.
layers information,
of opposition,
in the same space.

poignant trash
playful
grotesque,
upon close inspection.
the dirty and damaged
are delicately beautiful.

poignant trash,
though often ignored,
is on view daily.
look more, see more
it vies for emotional appeal.
glance away.

poignant trash
is waste
elevated in prestige
by context.
strong.
fragile.
unapologetic.

Connie Noyes (b. 1955, Washington, DC) lives and works in Chicago.
Noyes is an award-winning painter whose work has been exhibited in Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco and abroad in London, Florence, Paris and Malaysia. In the 4th Annual Florence Biennale in 2003, she took a 5th place prize in painting from a field of 500 painters. She has been selected for prestigious residencies, including the Emaar International Art Symposium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2005); the Thupelo International Workshop in Cape Town, South Africa (2005); and the 6th Annual International Symposium of Art in Bulgaria (2006). Noyes' work is in a number of public and private collections including that of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she earned her MFA in 1980.

For more information on Connie Noyes "Poignant Trash" please contact Ewa Czeremuszkin at info@ec-gallery.com or call 312.850.0924.

Junko Yamamoto at EC Gallery

2010-06-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Junko Yamamoto at EC Gallery

By Chicago Art Magazine on May 25, 2010 in Featured, Reviews

By Robin Dluzen

EC Gallery is hosting the first Chicago exhibition for Tokyo-born, Seattle-based artist, Junko Yamamoto. The gallery, which trades off the small, but bright Fulton Market exhibition space with Kasia Kay Art Projects, is displaying a selection of oil paintings and small scale prints on paper in the exhibition “In between, you and I, there is space all around us.” The collection of paintings, entitled “Shunyata Series,” (Shunyata is the “Sanskrit word for ‘emptiness’”), explores the voids and the fullness of pictorial spaces.

Yamamoto’s paintings are square in format, and modestly sized. Square paintings afford artists a little bit of freedom from the rectangles of traditional painting; without referencing the portraiture of the vertical rectangle or the landscape of the horizontal, the square for Yamamoto allows for her all-over patterns exist as a moment in, or a fragment of, a continuous pattern. Her squares in the Shunyata Series appear unbound by their edges and dimensions, and they prompt their viewers to visualize the rest of an endless composition. And the notion that viewers must imagine a picture beyond what’s on the canvas locates these paintings somewhere outside of illusionistc space, to where we could begin to think about them possibly inhabiting the real world.

Composed of layers of different colors, forms and kinds of mark-making, the paintings bring to mind the layers of an urban environment. Though the artist professes that she “loves muted colors,” each painting begins with an all-over layer of cadmium red, applied with a printer’s roller. Instead of dealing with the intimidating, empty, neutral canvas that most painters dread, Yamamoto’s solution is to begin with one of the most dynamic, saturated colors available, and then set the painting into motion by progressively softening that first layer. It seems important for Yamamoto’s making process to create a foil against which to respond. Like the cadmium red that induces the addition of the pastels, the artist describes the employment of oil paint as a sort of antagonist; the oil paint forces the artist to slow the painting process down, in order to create a “past” or history for the finished product. Leaving layers of paint visible underneath the stenciled forms, painted groupings of circles and the graphically outlined ovals and flowers are what bring to mind the passage of time that is documented by the layers of graffiti and wheat-pasted posters of city life.

But what’s surprising in the works’ relationship to the graffiti-like references –that are often connoted as loaded and gritty—is the enduring lightness and sweetness of the finished paintings. All the palettes are light pastels, in greens, yellows, pinks and purples and make a blissful environment in which the flowers and the delicate, abstracted little characters can inhabit. As much as the paintings are about building a unique history for the painting and encouraging pictorial space within the confines of the super-flat, two-dimensional medium, they end up expressing just as much about the importance of beauty and decoration in the everyday.

“In between, You and I, there is space all around us” is on display May 14 – June 19, 2010 at EC Gallery, 215 North Aberdeen, Chicago.

Junko YamamotoIn between, You and I, there is space all around us

2010-06-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

Junko Yamamoto

In between, You and I, there is space all around us

May 14 - June 19, 2010

Opening reception with artist: Friday, May 14, 6-8 pm

Junko Yamamoto, I choose this way, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

(Chicago) The EC Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Junko Yamamoto "In between, You and I, there is space all around us". An opening night reception will be held at the EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen, Friday, May 14, 2010, 6-8 pm.

Junko Yamamoto’s abstract paintings are based on the idea of Shunyata - a Sanskrit word for “emptiness.” The Shunyata Series represents ongoing memories of texture, color and space. These are meditative, dreamlike explorations of consciousness, colored by the contradiction of fullness and emptiness.

Yamamoto continues to explore her on going theme about space between all of the atoms, spaces between people, objects, air between this room and that room; the glue and energy of the entire universe which is holding us together. She likes to push and pull two dimensional spaces with paint, ink and visual motion to make them with three dimensional depth and extension.

Yamamoto’s abstract art straddles Japanese pop culture while remaining distinctly separated from the crowd. Her Shunyata series, which may become her life’s work, is a beautiful collection that revels in opulent decorative detail.

Junko Yamamoto was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, now lives and works in Seattle. She received her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle in 1999.
Yamamoto’s work has been exhibited world-wide. Her works has been shown at numerous places such as: Gallery IMA, Wright Now at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House, King County Art Gallery aka 4 Culture, Bel- levue Art Museum, SAM Gallery, Kirkland Arts Center, Poncho Foundation, Henry Art Gallery, Gas Gallery (Torino, Italy), Fresh Paint Art Gallery (Culver City, CA), Andrea Schwalts Gallery (San Francisco), Lotus Roots Gallery (Osaka, Japan), J Trip Gallery (Tokyo, Japan), Portland, Oregon and Boise, Idaho. Her works are included in the collections of Swedish Cancer Institute, Harborview Medical Center, Aspen Hotel Group and Mulvanny G2 Architecture.

Yamamoto has been featured in publications such as The Art in America Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast Traveler, Studio Visit Magazine and Art Ltd. Magazine.

Review: Justyna Adamczyk/EC Gallery

2010-02-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

Justyna’a Adamczyk’s “New Paintings” is a taut, elegant show of eight roughly similar paintings from 2009. They are all the same size, 23.5 by 27.5 inches, and the same material, washed-out acrylic on linen. They all embrace white space and, at their best, simplicity. They also seem to represent a journey, taken clockwise around the gallery, of an artist discovering and developing her strength. “Sztukas” is the title of the first work, which is an apparently untranslatable Polish word meaning… “something untranslatable.” An opaque white cloud—noteworthy for the absence of opaque forms—rains down a tangle of vines that might festoon a ceramic tile or a teapot, engendering an initial fear that the work is too decorative, too crafty; a fear that is then gradually dismissed. By painting the final painting, “Seriously…,” any sign of the stiff knick-knackery is gone, replaced by two dark washes of varying opacity. A large blob reads as a torso. A second, thicker blob is an ominous, even brutal shape, like a bird pecking out the eyes of a dead man or thoughts forcibly escaping the brain and turning into a comic thought-bubble, mocking and cruel. In between these two extremes is the transition, with each work selectively adding and subtracting elements, searching for the best fit. Cutesy lipstick puckers and seashells are first allowed to exist alone, before being met with threats of violence. The tchotchkes then disappear altogether, but for the remnant bloody splash, and finally a vague remembrance. Adamczyk’s process hones the work to its finest point of expression, leaving me with hopes of the next works to come. (Erik Wennermark)

Through February 13 at EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen

Views of America, views from Poland

2010-02-09T18:46:00.001-08:00

Justyna Adamczyk at EC Gallery

By Lauren Viera, Tribune reporter

February 5, 2010

There's nothing quite as refreshing as stumbling upon the work of a bright, young artist who's never before been exhibited in the U.S., especially with perfectly cheery images that offer an instant antidote to a subfreezing, snow-blistered afternoon.

This small collection of new works of Polish painter Justyna Adamczyk is all light and breathy and free, achieved in both her straightforward use of simple materials (acrylic paints; ecru, thinly bound linen canvases) and the lightness of her hand. There is color — sometimes quite a bit, sometimes rather faint — but mostly, there is whitespace, and with it, room for the images to breathe.

Most of Adamczyk's paintings are fantastically abstract, but a handful look like ghostly portraits. "Pale" (2009) is all lipstick: the double-blot of candy-colored lips that practically float in the middle of the canvas look almost as if Adamczyk herself might have leaned forward and planted them there. "Sztukas" (2009) is the most illustrative of the eight on display here. Poufy clouds are painted on an aqua-blue sky just big enough to hold them; below is a lovely, jellyfish-like mess of neatly painted vines and curlicues.

There are visible pencil strokes on several of these canvases, which at first I wrote off to sloppiness, but they come into play in works like "Seriously …" (2009), the starkest of the lot. There's a bare silhouette of gray with a thought-bubble burst of black above, seeping into this ghost-figure's brain. Below, hundreds of tiny, penciled-in exes begin to form the torso. It's intriguing, to be sure, and beautiful.

Justyna Adamczyk at EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen St., 312-850-0924; ec-gallery.com; through Feb. 13

lviera@tribune.com

2010-01-29T12:51:00.000-08:00

Justyna Adamczyk : New Works at EC Gallery

By Chicago Art Magazine on Jan 25, 2010 in Featured, Reviews

by jeffery mcnary

“I don’t want to communicate directly with the thoughts of people seeing my art. I’d like to provide a road show which allows for personal reflection”, notes Justyna Adamczyk. Her current exhibition, New Paintings at the EC Gallery is a challenging row toward that ambition.

“In my work, for many years, I have tried many media, but over time I realized that I speak sincerely in the media which is painting. Painting gives me the opportunity to comment on my subjective reality. The work connected with the fatigue of everyday life, trivial but inevitable problems.” Theoretically, at least, she holds that in a highly structured world, there is need to experience spiritual growth. “Painting is my valve, which allows escape and turns them into tame pictures.”

“Cannibal”, acrylic on linen, as in her other pieces,appears spontaneous, with the artist being there, not just copying it. Here her pinks and orange are staggering, as if a silhouette’s hair has been set ablaze. The untreated, grayish brown linen hands the paint over to the viewer. It’s a new romanticism.

Determinately, her shades and stain on the fabric, the pastel rose, browns, yellows of varying tones, read aloud from the cloth, as if having been about for ages. It could be dry blood. It could be cancerous blobs. “I have always been attracted to the works of artists who pass themselves and their subjective view of punk”, she says.

One questions, has the artist returned to adolescence in, “Range of Flavors”, acrylic on linen. Not stating its inspiration directly, rather it plays with color, with shapes, and sometimes brushes about aesthetic presence with thorny figures, rained upon by Jungian dreams and complexes in the form of a lab experiment run wild upon the work. There is a special, different kind of authenticity in this experience.

In these images the viewer finds autonomy and color associations, visions and insinuations. Some appear soiled, and wander off, but hardly into the mundane. There cycles are short, but in there shortness form narratives.

Adamczyk touts Frida, Mark Ryden, Matthew Barney, and Kim Sooja as influences on her work. “These are characters from whom I have learned a lot. They are completely different, in views of reality”, she says. “In addition to this they differ personally and intimately. An important issue for me is the impact on the viewer. I’m looking for language that allows the viewer to feel my idea.”

It is difficult to find excess in the paintings. They’re almost involuntary. Adamczyk’s provocation is at the heart of artistic exhibitionism. “Any idea seems to be perfect when I got it in my mind or on a sketch”, she says, “but the battle begins at the time of transfer…the move to the real picture. I try to be as close as possible to what arises from the first thought or impression.” That, she maintains, is the impulse to the creation of the image.

With her, works are created and driven by a very personal inspiration. They are offerings…to us…and to what remains in each of us individually. This should be appreciated.

The artist’s works has been exhibited in a host of venues including Biennale of Painting “Bielska Jesien 2009, Poland; 9 Contest Gepperta, BWA Awangarda Wrocław, Poland; Joung polisch Painters I-XII, Bestregarts Gallery – Frankfurt am Main, Germany; 30 Premio Internacional de Pintura de Caja de Extremadura; More or Less, Musemu da Ciencia e da Industria – Porto, Portugal and Aula de Cultura de Plasencia. She received her MFA from the The Academy of Fine Arts in Poland, Wroclaw in 2007. This is her first U.S. exhibition.

Justyna Adamczyk : New Works will be on display at EC Gallery from January 15th to February 13th. EC Gallery is located at 215 North Aberdeen Street Chicago, IL 60607.

New Paintings : Justyna Adamczyk

2010-01-20T15:01:00.000-08:00

January 22 - February 13, 2010

Opening reception:

Friday, January 22, 6-9pm

Chicago) The EC Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of New Paintings by Polish contemporary artist Justyna Adamczyk in her first U.S. showing. An opening night reception will be held at the EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen, Friday, January 22, 2010 from 6-9 PM.

Justyna Adamczyk: New Paintings will feature works from 2009, including eight oil paintings. In Adamczyk’s work, past lives in present as a memory re-imagined. Her complicated reveries unfold in her artwork, as they re-conceive the past, and expose the emotions as she remembers from her childhood and adolescence. The artist presents her memories in her individualistic style, producing a visual language. Adamczyk prompts the viewer to create their own version of the narrative.

The New Paintings on view retain little of the artist’s familiar imagery, but continue to evoke hope and confidence, signifying that the memories or the past are still fresh somewhere. Color, tone and organic spots of paint are the essence of her painting, holding psychological and symbolical meanings.

Distinct, organic spots of paint which create discreet physiological allusions, splash and splatter in various proportions on the unprimed, fine cotton canvas changing the work into a piece of art which becomes a place of nearly per formative action.

Justyna Adamczyk’s language can be gentle and full of allusions as well as literal. Her painting proves that art is not about building forms, but rather showing the forces which govern them.

In her composition, Adamczyk often chooses one dominant element which takes on most of the impact, drawing attention to itself. It is constructed and positioned among other elements, conveying a strong desire to explain all doubts.

There are many ‘dominating’ elements, but they do not compete with each other thanks to clear rules of hierarchy. Her works communicate a difficult range of topics such as feminism, sexuality, the existence of a relationship with herself and with the world.

Justyna Adamczyk (b. 1981 in Poland) lives and works in Wroclaw, Poland. Her work has been exhibited in European venues including Biennale of Painting "Bielska Jesien 2009, Poland; 9 Contest Gepperta, BWA Awangarda Wrocław, Poland; Joung polisch Painters I-XII, Bestregarts Gallery - Frankfurt am Main, Germany; 30 Premio Internacional de Pintura de Caja de Extremadura; More or Less, Musemu da Ciencia e da Industria - Porto, Portugal and Aula de Cultura de Plasencia. She received her MFA from the The Academy of Fine Arts in Poland, Wroclaw in 2007. Adamczyk was a board member of ArtTransparent Foundation (2006-2008).

For more information on Justyna Adamczyk: New Paintings please contact Ewa Czeremuszkin at info@ec-gallery.com or call 312.850.0924

2009-12-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

Art Review: West Loop Trilogy — Part 1 (EC Gallery) by Jeffery McNary

West Loop Trilogy – Part 1
Contemporary Figuratively Themed Works
EC Gallery
Chicago
December 11, 2009 – January 9, 2010

It’s as if couriers have arrived, delivering storms of color and skillfully engineered works to the EC Gallery. With the current exhibition, “Contemporary Figurative Themed Works”, curator Ewa Czeremuszkin, has re-collected and filled full her right-size gallery with the art of both Tadeusz Bilecki and Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut. There’s a bright lawlessness in these handful of paintings, stimulating the senses, and suddenly enabling the visitor to exhale, and to glide from the everyday.

“The paintings, currently exhibited, belong to the ‘Pisz litery’ (‘Write letters’) series. The leading subjects are letters, which I sometimes see in advertisement photography or on billboards”, says Czeremuszkin-Chrut. “My work is very intuitive. I quickly draw specific lines which are my first concept, and which later on I change hundreds of times.”

“Fall Back”, acrylic and oil on canvas’, brings the viewer broad brush strokes blending color, grays and blues forced into purple. There are deep scratches topside through the layered paint. There’s washed pink near its heart with dark, questioning droplets directing toward the deep, the regal purple, the wondering, before shouting loudly, ‘where are you going?’, spreading its fever.

“The, ‘Fall’, series touches upon the topic of two people coexisting and the resulting psychological supremacy of one of them over the other”, the artist shares. “From these, risky combinations and contrasts of colours arise, which only seemingly do not go together.” These works do not wait around for the viewer to catch up. They’re off and fluid and one need leap in front of them.

Her, “Fell Down”, mixed media, brings more purple, and scraping on a broad swath of brown. There are written letters between two figures in this work. “I am often inspired by press, photography and lettering. However, I am not interested in the messages they carry. I dissect them, strip them of their meaning while giving them a new one,” explains. “The elements of lettering included in my works have no communicative value whatsoever, but only a visual one. In a way, they are a manifestation of the modern world. Images just fall into my head and evolve into new ideas.”

The ineluctable works of Tadeusz Belecki are both bold, powerful and have visited upon the gallery in the past. There’s an intriguing texture and immense dimension to his works. They embrace back and kick high. “There are influences, on every moment. They sometimes change the whole artistic searching process. Sometimes even in a drastic way. The influences come from art history or every day life,” he says. His stirring pieces are washed and dreamlike.

“The choice of colours is the result of an evolution, a research process which is always changing, sometimes in an unexpected way. More and more often, there are violent combinations of colours, sometimes accidental,” he continued. “Before, there were more thoughtful, calm, esthetic combinations of colours. Before, I was in search of harmony and balance. Nowadays, the colours I am using are more nervous, stressful, more chaotic.”

Czeremuszkin-Chrut meets that with a game changing, “The limitation of colours? I want my paintings to become sterile, monochrome and very economical. I am also planning to go back to mural painting of large format – contact with a wall arouses very different emotions in a spectator as well as in the artist…texture and scale of a wall are a huge challenge.”

Bilecki’s phenomenal, “The Apparition of the Geisha –suite”, acrylic on paper strayed early on from ready made shades in grid and forethought. The works are pastel like. They are comfortable in the conviction and flavor.

He does not fight for change or evolution in these works. “It is not useful”, he shares. “The need to create, artistic searching is much stronger of me. I am doing it during my whole life, and it is a long time since I stop from thinking about the use of creating, if the creation act is helping me or the other way round.”

Czeremuszkin-Chrut convictions sway differently. “Fighting is involved in each of my paintings because most of them are created through multiple changes of decisions regarding the way of painting (which leads to over painting as a consequence). When matter resists, rivalry and competition are born. The painting resists and demands; it does not allow me to ‘break’ it and shape it.”

Giving thought to future works she sees,”… evolution, and I carry out this process on purpose. I am interested in endless synthesis of human form, in making its personality traits disappear completely, “she says. “I aspire to create a new and individual human form – my own human form. Apart from anonymity, also biology characterized by hidden sexuality, is important to me. I would like to make my work deeper in a psychological sense: a human being as an anonymous entity and at the same time as embodiment of the crowd.”

“I like it very much to observe the evolution of my work, but only when observing the work already done (as if this was already historic)”, says Bilecki. “I never think about it when creating or when preparing my future art works. I have no idea! I leave it, the theoretic art, to redactors and great philosophers, as for instance you,” he shares in jest, “You always have a global look. I don’t.”

www.ec-gallery.com

CONTEMPORARY FIGURATIVE THEMED WORKS: Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut, Tadeusz Bilecki

2009-12-10T07:31:00.000-08:00

(Chicago) The EC Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition featuring selections of the gallery's contemporary figurative-themed works. An opening night reception will be held at the gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen, Friday, December 11, 2009 from 5-9 PM. “These highly imaginative works present powerful expression and dynamic composition”, said Ewa Czeremuszkin, curator and gallery owner.

Included are three large oil paintings of Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut, featuring semi-abstract figure poses, and “The Apparation of a Geisha Suite”, of Swiss based artist, Tadeusz Bilecki, a large scale acrylic. This exhibition highlights Czeremuszkin-Chrut's and Bilecki’s styles. They reflect the nature of the artists, with use of bold color and powerful expression and they invite the viewer to explore the variety of the pieces and their formats.

Agata’s works do not present philosophical or theoretical background. She purposefully eliminates attachments to her paintings, achieving a pure sense of each work. Her strokes, and each extended line or figure, are elements in the temporal evolution of the work. Each has its own specification, each its own character. Her style has been described as a mixture of the new figurative representation and geometric movements of the 20th century, when color was the most important. Agata’s main theme has remained the same - the human body, the works evolving clearer and cleaner as she developed with her work and inspiration.

The prolific Tadeusz Bilecki’s manipulation of elements—the paint itself, its application, and its support—in addition to his attention to the color of a painting’s are boldly reflected in his works. His pieces are characterized by continuous, multiple repainting. His works establish a pattern as if the action itself is indisputably the motive for search after a form which can be modified without any limits in a variety of media and formats. Bilecki uses a mixture of techniques and materials (metal/paper or ceramics/fabrics).

Czeremuszkin-Chrut resides in Poland, and received her MFA from the The Academy of Fine Arts in Poland, Wroclaw in 2008. She is the recipient of the 2007 scholarship UE Socrates-Erasmus -Edinburgh College of Art. She has had solo exhibitions at Sienna Center Gallery, Warsaw, Poland; Dluga Gallery, Poland and EC Gallery, Chicago.

Bilecki’s work has been exhibited at Honen-In Gallery, Kyoto; Calibri Gallery Osaka; and AF Gallery Colombo, and other places. He received his MFA from The Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland in 1976.

For further information and/or images, please contact the gallery at info@ec-gallery.com or 312.850.0924.

Urban Abstractions: Photo Show

2009-10-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

Ewa Czeremuszkin

Paul Kowalow

October 16 - November 28, 2009

Opening reception:

Friday, October 16, 6-9pm

In conjunction with the Chicago Artists Month, EC Gallery is pleased to present “Urban Abstractions-PhotoShow”, an exhibition by Chicago photographer's Ewa Czeremuszkin and Paul Kowalow. Architecture and urbanism, and the opportunities the cityscape provides for photographers to explore visual experimentation and abstraction, will be the subject of an exhibition on view at the EC Gallery from October 16 through November 28, 2009.

This exhibition shows visual exploration of the urban environment of Chicago and New York. Both artists are inspired by fast living pace, rapid urbanisation and the aesthetics of the abstract painterly plains of the cityscape that from their artworks, viewers can easily find the stunning visual totems of the urban jungle. A series of images show their unique ability to find beauty which other eyes may regard as trash.

Czeremuszkin is both a painter and a photographer, and these identities influence one another in her works. Visual icons such as the street grids, skyscrapers, reflections in nighttime store windows, and the city’s almost hallucinogenic network of lighted signs propelled her to capture the metropolis as pure visual form.

Kowalow's passion in photography has always been a desire to create work of art by capturing an ordinary still subject and bringing it to life. His latest works demostrates how Chicago's downtown concrete jungle with an overwhelming symmetry and relentless repetition encased in glassy surface can be transposed to a captive art form.
An alumni of the New York Institute of Photography, Paul has been experimenting with photography since late childhood. Although he learned photography using black & white film and color transparency, he now shoots almost exclusively in digital medium. Digital imaging has undoubtfully revolutionized the art of photography by giving him more creative control and freedom in perfecting his technique.

Ewa Czeremuszkin was born in Poland in 1974. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poland in 2000 with a degree in Fashion Design. Since then she has exhibited widely and her works can be found in many private collections in United States, Germany, Poland and Sweden.

Paul Kowalow is an MBA graduate from California Coast University in Santa Ana and holds a Computing Science degree from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC. A native of Poland, Paul lived in Germany, United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. He now lives and works in Chicago, USA.

Portrait of the Gallery: EC Gallery

2009-07-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

Jul27

Portrait of the Gallery: EC Gallery

Galleries & Museums, West LoopAdd comments

Agata Czeremuszkin

Nestled in the trendy West Loop-Fulton Market District is one of the city’s newest delights, Ewa Czeremuszkin’s EC Gallery. Here, where the cool mesh with the seasonal; here, where Oprah works and hosts her tent show, Ms. Czeremuszkin grows her dream. In less than a year she has presented one group and four solo exhibitions of new and mid-career abstract painters. Most happen to be either Polish, like her, or trained at academies in Poland.

Czeremuszkin, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland, holds a masters degree in painting. The simple elegance of the petite EC Gallery, approximately eighteen-feet square, adjoins her studio, and is “a dream of mine being fulfilled,” she says. “This is my life. As an artist I wanted to promote other artists, given the difficulty of placing in galleries. I have selected those who, in my view, merit an exhibition.” She continues, “I have connections and knowledge of European artists who’ve shown in Europe, but not here. So it’s an opportunity both for them to show in the U.S. and for a U.S. audience to see their work.”

One painter to whom the EC has given voice is the prolific Swiss artist Tadeusz Bilecki. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland, his bold colors and large format paintings illuminated the intimate space with just six works. “The Apparition of a Geisha Suite,” with its visibly over-painted, layered compositions of acrylics on translucent polyester and paper, filled and enlivened the walls of the ‘gallery box’ with its vaulted ceiling. “I saw his work as something that was fresh, different. I’d never seen something like that. It is close to my vision for the place,” Czeremuszkin commented.

Beata Garanty

Currently works by Jola Jastrzab, another Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow alumni, decorate the exposed brick walls of the gallery. Her minimalist-abstracts hold few lines and singular color. They strive to electrify a style of hieroglyphs and allegorical concepts minus the parables that may well define such pieces. Her brush strokes tend to bash the canvas and paper, with such works fitting well, in both style and substance in this hip, up-close engagement.

In its brief tenure on the scene, EC has presented the work of Alina Ignatowsky, photographer Paul Kowalow, and a group show including the work of Beata Garanty, Agata Czeremuszkin (Ewa’s sister), and Czeremuszkin herself, whose ethereal work has clear influences of Rothko and Cy Twombly.

All art Polish, however, is not her mantra. The artist/dealer backs away from the works of radical artist Artur Zmijewski and his current movement in Poland. “When I look at something, as an aesthetic person, I enjoy looking at the latest stuff, but I don’t like sad art, tragedy. Art,” she says, is for people to enjoy. Life is sometimes so sad, people should have something to enjoy.”

Big plans for future exhibits are in the works. “I’m always looking for something new, something international, something not shown in other places,” she added. “And this location is just great for art. It’s close to home,” she laughs. (Jeffery McNary)

EC Gallery is located at 215 N. Aberdeen

2009-06-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

Jola Jastrzab _ Crazy Julka _ June 26 - August 15, 2009

Opening Reception: Friday, June 26, 2009, 6-9 pm

EC Gallery is pleased to present "Crazy Julka", Jola Jastrzab's first solo exhibition in the United States. Jastrzab's series of drawings expands on her use of the human figure as a subject and tries to achieve nonrepresentional constructions by using the language of expression.

The drawings by Jola Jastrzab presented at the exhibition, unusually economical and lacking the traces of used tools seem to prove that she has accepted drawing as the most compact way of describing the World. Hence the human figure presented in her works in a dramatic, expressive way, usually restricted to a few lines and stains and abstaining from the temptation to define the detail and use portrait elements in the composition which allow to distinguish other characters in her drawings. It is not the author's aim to talk about the human condition by through examples. Rather her creative endeavor concentrates on the efforts to find equivalents of pure energy. She tries to bring to life a type of hieroglyphs of abstract concepts instead of looking for their allegories or creating parables about them.
The other characteristic of Jastrzab's drawings is the color which frequently camouflages the differences between her paintings and her drawings.

Jastrzab is distinguished not exactly by her urge to organize the language of art with all its relevant grammar, but rather by her inclination to contain even the most dramatic message in the most economical form. She consistently purifies and eliminates.
Only those elements of which presence creates the work of art remain in her drawing.

Jola Jastrzab(b. 1971, Poland) lives and works in Poland. She received her PhD (2004) and MFA (1998) from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (Katowice branch), Poland. Recent exhibitions include The Newest Art Trienale- Konduktorownia Gallery, Polan; PROFIL - Gallery of Contemporary Art - Poznan, Poland; Mandala Club - Warsaw, Poland ;Art Nova 2 Gallery - Katowice, Poland.

For more information please contact the gallery.

Tadeusz Bilecki

2009-05-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

PREMIER AMERICAN EXHIBITION AT EC GALLERY

Swiss Artist Tadeusz Bilecki to Exhibit New Works in First U.S. Showing

CHICAGO – EC Gallery is pleased to present contemporary artist Tadeusz Bilecki at the EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen, Chicago, IL, opening May 15 through June 20, 2009.

Central to the exhibit is his, “The Apparition of a Geisha_suite”, a bold , 150 x 200 cm acrylic on paper. “This new exhibition defines Bilecki’s style because it not only reflects the nature of the artist, with his use of color and powerful expression”, says Ewa Czeremuszkin, EC Gallery Director, “it invites the viewer to explore the variety of the pieces and their formats, including applying color to translucent polyester and paper.”

Within Tadeusz Bilecki’s work is the dramatic layering process which allows line and form to emerge.

Hailing from Switzerland, Tadeusz Bilecki received his MFA in 1976 from the Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, Poland. He has recently exhibited in Honen-In Gallery, Kyoto, Japan, and Calibri Gallery, Osaka, Japan. This is his initial showing in the United States.

For Further information on Tadeusz Bilecki or any of our artists, please visit www. ec-gallery.com

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