SNAP TO GRID is a retrospective of well-known Chicago artist Barbara Crane's nearly forty years of creating art in grids or multiples. Gallery artist Crane, who was involved with the Institute of Design in the years of Moholy Nagy, Harry Callahan, and Aaron Siskind, has long been known for her experimental photography. This exhibit celebrates the work that has kept Crane, now in her 70s, on the cutting edge since her days at ID. (A complete and current 10 page CV for Barbara Crane is available from FLATFILE upon request.) Eleftheria Lialios, who also teaches at the School of the Art Institute, has created a video installation for the larger of the gallery's two project spaces. Lialios, who is a frequent guest artist at FLATFILE, here juxtaposes several disparate large-scale transparencies and then activates them with one of her memorable video pieces.

In the lower gallery, Souvenirs from a Journey Called Life pairs established San Francisco artist Nancy Genn, with emerging Tennessee artist Anna Jaap. In their creation of paintings and works on paper both women use their art to record and transmit moments and experiences that move them, whether it be the essence of the air during sunset or early morning light in Rome (Genn), or the turning point in a relationship or personal awakening (Jaap). Genn, who works primarily on paper, most of it hand-made, will also show a tapestry woven in the style of her delicate paper collage and chine colle paintings. Her work has been shown throughout the world, and is in the permanent collections of 25 museums including the Museum of Modern Art, The San Francisco Museum of Art, and the National Museum of American Art. Jaap, a life-long artist who suddenly became blind some years ago, and remained so for several months until surgery corrected the problem, has a more than reverent regard for the visual. Even the titles of her small-scale paintings and tea-paper drawings speak of her inward journey. 20% of the sales of Jaap's work will be donated to the American Society for the Prevention of Blindness. Both women have recently joined the FLATFILE family.

In the lower project room, Fredrick Holland recognizes the children of the war in Iraq with a powerful installation entitled 'Wednesday's Child' Holland, a well-regarded Chicago mixed-media artist is one of the very few artists currently making boldly political art. His last show at FLATFILEgalleries, ADVISE AND DISSENT, was named among the 'Top Five Photography Shows of 2004' by New City in its Best Of 2004 Issue.