John Bannon, Gabi Brandt, Molly Briggs, Robert Davis
Quirks & Quarks: The Idiosyncracies of Four Emerging Artists
Fassbender Stevens Gallery, Chicago
December 6, 2002 - January 4, 2003
Quirks & Quarks... is an exhibition mired in the diversity of young emerging artists whose common denominator is the persistent funkiness of their own visions.
Gabi Brandt's provocative photographs, "America Town Series" display matter-of-fact frontal portraits where surroundings and attire inform meaning as apposed to the deliberately impassive facial expressions of his subjects. Though these subjects feign an expressionless posture, they are not entirely successful as their quirks show through, accelerating the tension that arouses curiosity. Gabi Brandt lives and works in Las Vegas. He received his MFA in photography from Yale University.
John Bannon's mixed media and neon sculpture include fantastic interactive moonscapes, abstract architectural neon light boxes and video installation. Bannon's object installation "Better to Look Into Than At" includes video footage of falling snow viewed through a vintage microscope. The viewer is disoriented by looking down at falling snow that was video taped by looking straight up. Initially resembling microbes, this perspective addresses the inverse relationship of how the search for scientific meaning is undertaken. John Bannon lives and works in Chicago. He received his MFA in studio arts from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.
Molly Briggs wears the mantle of the scientific investigator rendering the invisible visible, and questioning our perceptions of 'truth'. Combining collage, drawing and painting, this incessant experimenter deconstructs the world around us, looking at how things are made (and how they make us). She draws from fields as diverse as fashion, evolutionary theory and household lighting to present us with a tongue-in-cheek mishmash that is also daintily and exuberantly beautiful. Molly Briggs lives and works in Chicago. She received her MFA in printmaking from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Robert Davis casts pristine, wall mounted, organically shaped objects out of plastic. Half familiar and half other-worldly, the forms are seductive in their simplicity. Robert Davis lives and works in Chicago. He received his B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
FASSBENDER STEVENS GALLERY
835 W. Washington, Chicago, IL 60607
www.fassbendergallery.com
