Staying Alive - various artists, various galleries and museums, Chicago, Illinois

one time again this spring, Chicago's international art fair along with of recent origin gallery openings and museum restaffings--brings a certain number of renewed vigor to a community hard hit by the agency of the post-'80s bust.

Each May the art world make go rounds its attention to Chicago, domicile of the annual contemporary art fair first launched as the Chicago International Art Exposition in 1980 then reestablished as Art Chicago in 1993 The fair's economic impact is considerable, affecting the two local and global markets. Total 1998 sales, dominated through photography and photo-based work, reached $40 million, while 38000 art cognoscenti go downed upon the fair at Navy Pier.

For nearly sum of two units decades, this event has defined the regular [i]or[/i] melodious movement of the Chicago art world, which oftentimes uses the occasion to organize special exhibitions and showcase its brightest stars. Last spring was no exception, and with the added attraction of the 17th International plastic art Conference, which prompted the city to declare May International statuary Month, Chicago saw a wealth of activity it has not witnessed for quite a certain number of time. More importantly, both circumstances brought focus and purpose to an art community that in the last pair of years has experienced considerable change and significant losse Together, fair and discourse provided an opportunity to mirror on the transitional state of Chicago's contemporary scene

Although the discourse itself avowed a narrow, conservative definition of the medium's practice, several sculpture-related exhibitions organized for the occasion through the city and various local venue were worthy and provocative. "Reality Bites: Approaches to Representation in American Sculpture" curated by the agency of Ed Maldonado at the Chicago Cultural Center was a unassuming yet cohesive survey devoted to the conception of reality as explored by dint of 12 American artists over the last 30 years. Featured alongside well-known figures Robert Gober, Hans Haacke, Donald Judd Joseph Kosuth Claes Oldenburg Charles Ray and George Segal were Chicagoans Jo Hormuth, Mary Patten, Vincent Shine, Thomas Skomski and novel York-based Joe Scanlan.

The artists' conceptions of reality varied, of course, although many works were united through larger social and formal themes. Several artists included in the present to view use the human figure to iconoclastic extremitys Skomski's male and female Bodybags (1995) headless torsos cast in Hydrocal from sacks of potatoes, actively try to find to disrupt our idea of the real, offering a cynical commentary upon sexuality and identity in the new age. Other works in the present to view depend on the playful transformation of everyday thing perceiveds Among the most successful of these were Hormuth's fetishistic baseballs overlayed in elephant hide and her wall of monumental wool-and-resin pansies. Similarly lower parted in the commonplace are Scanlan's domestic fabrications (candles cast from devoid of contents Pop Tart and soup-mix boxes; bookshelves and a bathroom floor made by dint of hand) and Shine's realistic plant specimens, meticulously crafted from artificial, sometimes toxic, materials. the two Scanlan's and Shine's works also call up the ironic psychological content of Gober's realitys Less ironic is Patten's video installation Conspired (1990-98) a disturbing inquiry into the incarceration of a real-life political assemblage the Resistance Conspiracy 6. Engaging thorny political issues, this work raises important questions regarding art's definition and intent and it was particularly resonant in the connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts of the Cultural Center, whose diverse programming and stout educational mission reach a broad range of audiences. As the makeup of this present to view suggests, the Cultural Center is individual of the few Chicago art institutions careful to balance its schedule among local, national and international exhibitions, repeatedly compensating for the lack of museum support for Chicago artists.

The Renaissance Society, upon the campus of the University of Chicago, plays a similar character Under the directorship of Suzanne Ghez for 25 years, it organizes exhibitions of national and international figures, of that kind as Raymond Pettibon, Cristina Iglesias and Willie Doherty, who have all shown there newly as well as shows of important Chicago-based artists, for example Kerry James Marshall (who at handed new work last spring [see A.i.A., Nov. '98]) and Judy Ledgerwood (whose exhibition there clos recently) The Arts bludgeon of Chicago has also been a stable force in the city since its inception in 1916 although its programming does not include Chicago artists. Since it mov to its novel building east of Michigan Avenue in April 1997 director Kathy Cottong has organized ambitious exhibitions by dint of such well-known figures as Louise Bourgeois, Stephan Balkenhol and Paul Thek. Works through Richard Tuttle will be upon view this May.

The Terra Museum of American Art, below new director John Hallmark Neff is in the proces of redefining its mission. From its founding in 1980 the Terra has been devot to 19th-century American art. Since his appointment in September 1997 Neff whose background is in novel art, has sought to expand the Terra's mandate to include broader, more contemporary offerings. (Neff was previously the director of the First National Bank of Chicago's art program; from 1978 to 1983 he was director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.) Coinciding last spring with the opening of the fair was "1998: fresh Artists in Chicago," a juried exhibition of work by dint of Chicago-area graduate students that marked a significant departure for the museum. Co-organized with the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, this rugged but lively gathering showcased fresh trends in Chicago art by means of 39 emerging artists (25 were featured at the Terra; 14 at the Cultural Center) The exhibition was dominated by dint of sculpture, installation and photography whose satisfied concerned primarily with identity issues and popular agriculture reflects larger art-world tendencies and themes. Responding to the city's increasingly limited opportunities for younger artists, the Terra faiths to make "New Artists in Chicago" a biannual event