Craig Hansen graduated from Colorado State University in 2002 with a BFA after his first career as a professional snowboarder. Working as a graphic designer in Chicago with such high profile clients as BlackBerry, Samsung, and the Shedd Aquarium, Hansen also actively pursues his passion for creativity in the form of abstract painting. Concentrating on specific aspects of individual faces or hands, Hansen pushes the remaining subjective ground towards a minimum of detail while engaging a narrative thread throughout his work. Often relying on his design skills, highly composed graphic elements are juxtaposed with wide swaths of expressive blocks and washes of color. Inspired by the graffiti artists utilizing the public space around his Wicker Park studio, Hansen also relies on a melting pot of references to explore his visual storyline through his use of acrylic paints. Like the passengers traveling on the train just feet from his window, the elements of Hansen’s’ work are sometimes seen through a fog, sometimes through a veil and sometimes staring us directly in the face. Additional works of Hansen’s can be seen at his website: www.artonomous.com.

Michael George will show a group of oil paintings from his new “Series Q” in this, his second major exhibition at FLATFILEgalleries. Having studied at Pomona College in California and at the Art Students League in New York, George pulls experiences from both coasts and focuses on creating work that “evolves through a dialectic between the philosophical and the sensual.” In this new series, George paints abstract forms and gestural explosions over his geometrically based backgrounds. Concentrating on pastels and lighter candy-colored hues, George moves away from the dark, strong and sometimes muddy depths of his previously shown “Series K” and “Series S” works highlighted in FLATFILEgalleries’ 2004 Pigment exhibition. Here his works embrace a lightness of being that often leaves himself and the viewer with a wry smile stuck to their face. More of George’s past and current works can be viewed at www.michaelgeorgepaintings.com.

Robert McGuire will exhibit his new photographic series for the first time. This series, which acts as a cross between scientific exploration and art-play, investigates how natural media such as water, food coloring and milk mixed together freeze and melt. Allowing his alchemic mixtures to naturally flow in clear containers, McGuire freezes his combinations and proceeds to photograph the materials as they melt. Backlighting with hot lights starts the process, appearing to glow from within, these works are as much about their formally beautiful structures as they are about the fleeting moment that the click of the camera captures. McGuire works in a rainbow spectrum and through his macro style evokes great solar expanses, mountain-scapes plunging towards caverns and the microscopic activity of cellular creation. McGuire’s works can be also be seen at www.robertmcguirephotography.com.