Closing Reception — Stephen Eichhorn: Closed Garden
@ Johalla Projects
1821 W Hubbard St, Ste 209, Chicago, IL 60623
Opening Friday, October 14th, from 6PM - 9PM
On view through Sunday, October 16th
In Closed Garden, Stephen Eichhorn returns to the foundation of his practice and the craft of collage. Since his last formal solo exhibition, Eichhorn has deviated from what he knows best, moving away from his trademark lush floral and vegetative plantscapes to a new subject matter: minerals, fossils, gems, and rocks. His new collage works depict complexly composed fields of these stones, sourced and hand-cut to precision.
Eichhorn’s rock arrangements — here often resembling aerial photographs of naturally-occurring formations or river beds — mine the processes of repetitious collage, creating a visual seriality that is not production-oriented but rather meditative and manic in gesture. In their elegant maximalism, the works seem to seek a patterned perfection. He reinforces these themes of structure and formal play with the title of the exhibition, which aptly references a traditional Japanese rock garden.
In addition to two-dimensional works, Eichhorn has created a series of fiberglass sculptures that are based on the remnants from cutting out the paper gems and stones. While the objects are mechanically produced, they reveal the nuances of the artist’s hand through the reductive voids. This sort of duality points again to process, but further muddles the lines between technique, careful craft, and abstraction.
Stephen Eichhorn (American, born 1984) lives and works in Chicago. He has had solo exhibitions at the Elmhurst Art Museum, Chicago (2012); CES Gallery, Los Angeles (2014); Johalla Projects, Chicago (2014, 2016) and Ebersmoore, Chicago (2012, 2011). His work has also been included in group exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2011); Josée Bienvenu Gallery, New York (2008); and Heaven Gallery, Chicago (2009, 2008). Eichhorn received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. He is the subject of a forthcoming monograph by Zioxla Publishing House.
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Tags: Chicago, Closed Garden, Johalla Projects, Stephen Eichhorn, West Town
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