FLATFILEgalleries is pleased to present FIVE SOLO SHOWS, opening on Friday November 3 with a reception from 5-9 pm. The shows will run through Friday December 23, and incorporate the gallery’s annual AFFORDABLE HOLIDAY ART SALE in the library throughout the month of December. Additionally, the gallery will host THE ART OF THE ACCESSORY on Saturday and Sunday, December 2 and 3. From 12-4 each of those days, there will be a trunk show of artistic clothing and accessories by area artists and designers.

FIVE SOLO SHOWS offers the work of five FLATFILE artists, each in their own gallery within the space (with the exception Martin Brief and his wife, guest artist Anna Cox, whose work will share Project Room 2).

In GALLERY A, the large main space, Chicago artist MARY JANE DUFFY shows her newest paintings in SHIMMER/SHINE. Duffy translates the glimmer of the reflective surfaces that fascinate her into paint on canvas, resulting in representation that leads the viewer to perceive the paintings as actually glittering in the light. Duffy says of her work “Referencing a recognizable object speaks to the tradition of painting as illusion. But instead of making a painting of beautiful, valuable objects, like baroque still life paintings, these paintings are based on cheap, shiny junk.”

In PROJECT ROOM 1, SMALL WORLD, features PABLO D’ANTONI’s small tableaux capture intimate moments in human experience, and isolate them in semi-blank expanses of color-field painting. D’Antoni, who lives and paints in Valencia, Spain, consistently surprises the viewer with his delicate, almost photo-real representations of normal people going about their everyday business.

Chicago textile artist LYNN BASA, has begun to paint, as witnessed by this first exhibit of her paintings in THE LIBRARY, which FLATFILE has reserved for new and previously un-shown artists. Basa, who is well known for her floor art and tapestries, has interpreted many of her whimsical, graphic, and somewhat retro motifs to canvas, for her debut show BRUSHWORK.

In GALLERY B, on the lower level, RHONDA WHEATLEY shows new mixed media paintings in THOUGHT FORMS/GRAPHIC CONTENT. The Chicago artist, who is known for her small, text-based pieces, has moved into larger sizes and more intricate textures. To quote Wheatley, “in this series of paintings I am attempting to capture a moment during which a veil washes over everyday reality as the mind begins to eavesdrop, so to speak, on another realm. Consciousness shifts and catches a glimpse of some ultimate truth, the ultimate truth, or the divine”.

In PROJECT ROOM 2, MARTIN BRIEF and ANNA COX share their morning coffee and newspaper with the viewer in COFFEE/PRESS. Brief, who has long worked with mixed media, and frequently with text, in this work, has colored in vowels on velum laid over sheets of newspaper, creating large pieces of random yet almost poetic lyricism. Cox has been recording the dried residue at the bottom of her coffee cup for over a year. These mysterious remains are reminiscent of early telescopic photographs of the planets, or geographic core samplings.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER DATES AND EVENTS @FLATFILEgalleries
Friday, November 3 ­ opening FIVE SOLO SHOWS ­ Reception from 5-9 pm
Friday, November 10, Fiber Artists Lynn Basa, Nancy Genn, John Himmelfarb and Joan Truckenbrod will be in the gallery to discuss their work from 4-6 pm (during SOFA)
Saturday and Sunday, December 2 and 3 THE ART OF THE ACCESSORY ­ trunk show, noon-4 each day
Friday December 1 ­ Saturday December 23 ­ the annual AFFORDABLE HOLIDAY ART SALE -11-6 daily
Saturday December 23 ­ Friday, January 5 ­ Gallery Closed for holidays and installation.