Anthony Bragg
Irmak Canevi
Andy Giannakakis
Suzy Gonzalez
Michael R. Leon
Jon Merritt
Whitney Oldenburg
Sarah R. Pater
Fernando Pezzino
Katie Darby Slater

curated by Stephanie Cristello

Western Exhibitions is pleased to present Sub-Scheme, a collection of recent works by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) MFA 2015 Painting Class, featuring Anthony Bragg, Irmak Canevi, Andy Giannakakis, Suzy Gonzalez, Michael R. Leon, Jon Merritt, Whitney Oldenburg, Sarah R. Pater, Fernando Pezzino, and Katie Darby Slater selected and organized by critic and curator Stephanie Cristello. Sub-Scheme opens on Friday, July 24 with a free public reception from 5 to 8pm and runs through August 30, 2015. Summer gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 5pm. From July 24 to August 29, the gallery will be open by appointment only. Please call ahead: (312) 480-8390

What remains after the act of painting? If we were to use an antiquated mode of thinking, the question would be: what kinds of images are being painted today? In Sub-Scheme, painting is a product of an underlying system-a series of independent schemes that at once use the medium for its historical references, while activating its new approaches as contemporary commentary. As a medium, painting is nuclear fallout. Its imprint is marked all over alternate modes of making; its past influence permeates future growth, absorbed by newer technologies, at the same time it adapts to present systems. Departing from the image of the soft white trace of a chalk outline used in forensics, this exhibition starts with a metaphor that addresses the limits of what is left in space after an act.

If painting is not in the room, its influence is.

Beginning with the constant of the sub-straight – under, below, beneath the painting – sub- is also commonly used as a prefix to describe a quality that is less than perfect, i.e. the handmade gesture. As a trope depicting the awkward positioning of a body traced with meticulous precision, the concept of a chalk outline here becomes a foil for painting as a standard practice that has faced its many deaths (transformations). What marks are manufactured by a medium still so tied to the concept of its creation in a studio? Sub-Scheme is representative of the source of everyday life-while the basic technology of paint has not changed, its context and consumption within a digital world has. The Internet is everywhere, but it is also real; made up of a series of underwater cables that connect seemingly invisible waves of information. The physical traces of otherwise formless communications still exist. From counterfeit brand-images and the persistent high-low dilemma of pop, to crude nouveaux primitivism and post-internet painting, this exhibition presents new ways of thinking ‘underground.’

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Andy Giannakakis, Anthony Bragg, Fernando Pezzino, Irmak Canevi, Jon Merritt, Katie Darby Slater, Michael R. Leon, RISD MFA Painting, Sarah R. Pater, Stephanie Cristello, Suzy Gonzalez, West Loop, Western Exhibitions, Whitney Oldenburg