Humans Merely Being

 

Tall Grass Arts Association in Park Forest is honored to present a new exhibit opening on January 25, 2020. Humans Merely Being includes works by artists Javier Chavira, Michael Chelich, Judy Fan, Jeanine Hill-Soldner, Jean Lewis, Jessica Smit Mattingly, and Lidia Wylangowska.

Each of the award-winning artists has created an impressive body of figurative and portrait works. The exhibit offers many diverse approaches to portraying human images through realistic and expressive approaches, as symbolic, evocative, or strikingly literal representations. 

 

Through their knowledge of anatomy and their technical expertise with a variety of media, 

the seven artists convey identity, action, expression and emotion. Inspired by a number of different artists, movements, and sources  – the great masters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the Symbolist and Pre-Raphaelite artists of the late nineteenth century, narrative and allegorical paintings, classical methods of realistic drawing and painting, the poverty of children from Mali and Kenya, the joy of families spending time together in Chicago, cherished moments with their own daughters and sons – they create personal works that often move us to recognize our similarities, our shared situations, our common humanity.

 

These artists and educators have been recognized with honors, commissions, solo and  group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. Their figurative works appear in numerous galleries and museums, in art journals and magazines, and in television   interviews and documentaries.

 

Seeking to express the authentic beauty of the human figure, they often strive – as artist Jessica Smit Mattingly has described her goals – “to physically portray the emotions experienced within, what lies beneath the surface, the larger stories and deeper meanings

of our everyday experience.”

 

Curated by Claudia Craemer and Deborah Craemer, Humans Merely Being is on view

from January 25 through February 29, 2020, with an Artists Reception, open to all, on

Saturday, January 25, from 1-3pm.

 

 

Tall Grass Arts Association, 367 Artists Walk, Park Forest, IL 60466

www.tallgrassarts.org    708 748 3377