(northern) Western Exhibitions, Skokie
Elijah Burgher, Ryan Travis Christian, Aron Gent, Julia Schmitt Healy, Deb Sokolow, Ben Stone, Ruby T
The artists in the group show The Politicians (some of them) mock, deride, and examine the foibles of our supposed public servants, at least some of them, just in time for another bruising election season. Targets include political leaders of today and yesteryear, from a current presidential candidate to a radical Roman emperor, with Queen Elizabeth in between. To be fair, not all of the pieces are righteously strident; some artists’ motives are murky while others examine the circus that is the political process with humor and curiosity. The show will include work in a variety of media — artist books, drawing, painting, pubic hair, sculpture, video — by Elijah Burgher, Ryan Travis Christian, Aron Gent, Julia Schmitt Healy, Deb Sokolow, Ben Stone and Ruby T. The Politicians (some of them) opens with a free public reception on Saturday, May 4 from 5 to 8pm, held concurrently with an opening for a solo show by Errol Ortiz at WHO Modern, our partner space in Skokie. Gallery hours are Thursday to Saturday, 12-6pm and Sundays 12-4pm. (northern) Western Exhibitions and WHO Modern are located at 7933 N. Lincoln Avenue in beautiful downtown Skokie.
In Elijah Burgher‘s “Dance of Elagabal” and its attendant sketch, “The Black Stone,” an orgy of revelers gyrates around the phallic meteorite that was the focal point of the cult of which Elagabalus, a 3rd-century Roman emperor, served as high priest. During their brief reign, the gender-bending teenage emperor shocked the senate, soldiers, and general public by replacing Jupiter at the summit of the pantheon with the Syrian solar deity, Elagabal. Elagabalus then coerced senators to participate in rituals from the eastern provinces that they deemed exotic and uncouth, and committed the sacrilege of marrying a vestal virgin so as to bear god-like children.
Ryan Travis Christian, known for his sfumato-heavy graphite drawings that place anthropomorphic figures seemingly plucked from early 20th-century animation into sordid, soft-focus milieus, presents a photograph for the first time in an exhibition. “Crime Guys 1” is an archival inkjet print of a scanned snapshot capturing disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich alongside a local artist and admirer.
For his artist book, “ATRUMPDUMPONADUMPTRUCK,” Aron Gent smashes inkjet prints on vellum of photographs of the 45th president onto every other page of a Crescent sketchbook, leaving the former television game show host a smeary mess. He’ll also present framed monoprints depicting cropped close-ups of several political figures including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Barack Obama.
Julia Schmitt Healy ‘s “Meditation on Royalty” is a painting from 1974 depicting Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip as corgi-monsters. Living in Nova Scotia, Canada at the time, Healy became acutely aware of anti-royalist sentiments amongst some of her Canadian brethren.
Deb Sokolow, whose work often examines machinations of powerful men, will be showing selections from four bodies of work: Debate Stage Water Bottles juxtaposes architectural schematics of various campaign environments including debate stages, hotel rooms, diners, anonymous carpeted rooms and hallways alongside hand-written text which describe the humorous gaffes, shadowy strategies, and clandestine details of various unnamed U.S. presidential candidates and campaigns; The Presidents (some of them) is a series of drawings speculating on bizarre anecdotes about former United States presidents and associates; The “Campaign Signs” are from her 2014 show at the Wadsworth Atheneum Some Concerns About the Candidate where she imagined an alternate future where infamous cult leader Jim Jones as a congressional candidate; Stacked bankers boxes that make up the piece “Joke Research Archive: President Barack H. Obama’s Prepared Remarks White House Correspondents’ Dinners” are labeled with suggestions for jokes at the annual dinner event, during which presidents and politicians are known for taking jabs at themselves.
Ben Stone’s custom Uncle Sam-shaped bong reappears for this show, previously seen in the legendary Drunk vs. Stoned show at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, and remarked upon in a review in Artnet in 2000: “That is, all of the works (in the show) are advancements into the world, attempts at making it a better, more understandable place, but, like Ben Stone’s Uncle Sam Bong, are just too fucking weird to work.”
“Draw Him to Death” by Ruby T,consists of 110 caricatures of South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham. In 2019, Graham introduced a bill to extend the detention limit on migrant children from 20 days to 100 days. Enraged, obsessively so, Ruby T conducted a ritual experiment, drawing Graham 110 times while listening to recordings of him speaking, hoping to accelerate his destruction.
This exhibition is presented at Chicago contemporary art gallery Western Exhibitions’ second location, (northern) Western Exhibitions, in Skokie, Illinois. (northern) Western Exhibitions shares a renovated single-floor bow truss building on Skokie’s charming downtown corridor with WHO Modern, a mid-century modern-focused vintage store. (northern) Western Exhibitions and WHO Modern are located at 7933 N Lincoln Ave, Skokie, IL 60077. Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday 12-6pm, and Sunday, 12-4pm. For interviews, images, or more information, please contact Scott Speh (312) 480-8390 // scott@westernexhibitions.com
Read a review of the show in NewCity by Miles Macclure here