Intern’s April Review

Intern’s April Exhibition Review

Approaching 40

by Erin Ford

Since its inception nearly forty years ago, in 1973, ARC Gallery has remained a unique and diverse artistic space within the Chicago art world. Over the years, addresses have changed, but the gallery and educational foundation have remained true their mission by providing alternative exhibition opportunities for innovative artists. The current exhibition, Approaching 40, which debuted with an opening reception on April 6th, is both a reminder and celebration of almost four decades of this commitment, reflecting the past, present, and future of the gallery. As an open wall show, the collective body of work is the product of a varied pool of over 100 artists, from a breadth of ages, places, and walks of life. The success of the show lies in its ability, through its aesthetic framework, to freely guide viewers throughout the space in a manner of active viewing, thereby establishing a space for artistic inquiry and dialogue between the artwork-space-artist-beholder.

Dimension was the only eligibility restriction for artwork submission where no piece in the show may measure more than a total sum of forty inches in height, width, and depth. This made the show visually cohesive, with no work appearing out of scale or place. This is significant for such a large and diverse as exhibition. While the scale of the art in Approaching 40 provides a sense of visual continuity among work, it is the single greatest commonality throughout the exhibition, and a necessity given the aesthetic variability of other visual principles. Disregarding all other factors, and considering the number of pieces alone, a show of this size is essentially difficult to hang. Further, consider the number of different artists represented, and the visual variety implicit with hanging the work of over 100 different people.

Even among works of a given medium there are a multitude of variations, complicating the problem of developing a visual logic to the exhibition. Of the prints on display, techniques represented include: screenprinting, intaglio, solar plate etchings, cliché verre, monoprinting, giclee, digital printing, and gelatin-silver prints. Even if these works are to be considered of the same medium, unique processes render aesthetic differences. Furthermore, each artist has their own treatment of the media, so while some may work share the same medium, they each have individual styles. With each artist represented comes not only a mélange of means, but of genres, colors, expressions, and themes as well. While this makes for a richly diverse and visually interesting exhibition, it demands a visual organization that addresses both its striking diversity and its need for an ocular, salient logic.

Consequently, the aesthetic framework of Approaching 40 hinges on the hanging and layout of the exhibition. Immediately apparent upon entering the gallery, is the unusual placement of the hung work. The show is not installed in the traditional or standard method, with each work centered on a midline 58” from the floor, and is instead arranged in a clothesline style, with the top edge of the works at the same height. This method creates a clean line that travels throughout the gallery, flowing from one room to the next, and tying the pieces together along the way. The line formed by the top of the artwork, which winds its way through the space, works in conjunction with the even spacing between the works, establishing a sense of visual consistency that facilitates a comfortable experience of the exhibition. While the clothesline hanging is the most conspicuous decision made in installing the show, it is far from the only consideration made regarding the layout.

A cardinal aspect of a clothesline hanging is the inherent and inescapable irregularity of the baseline. While the top of the works remain fixed, anchored to an invisible horizon, the baseline is entirely dependent on the dimensions of the artwork. As the dimensions vary by piece, the bottom edge jumps along the wall, existing in opposition to the unwavering line formed by the top of the work. This creates a sense of dynamic shifting between the works, an elegant sort of staccato effect that reinforces the rhythm of the show, while amplifying the sense of continuum established by the constant linearity of the top edge. This encourages the viewer to traverse the space of the gallery in a more active manner than other hanging methods.

Given the eclectic breadth of submissions for Approaching 40, other formal principles of the artwork exist equally important considerations for hanging. Beyond the spatial arrangement of work on the walls lie deliberations of how the visual properties of the art direct attention throughout the space and shape the aesthetic experience of the exhibition. Not only must the size of the work connect throughout the gallery, but also the colors, mediums (oil painting, photography, ceramics, mixed media, etc.), genres (portraiture, landscape, still life, etc.), and themes, which includes style and ideas (abstraction/naturalism, love/despair, a Sunday morning/a world war, etc.).

In the installation of Approaching 40, these concerns for layout and hanging have been masterfully addressed. The show has been arranged so that each wall features work in a variety of mediums, styles, and colors with no one area featuring considerably more photographs or encaustic panels than another. This is in part due to the clever physical layout of the walls in the gallery, which break the space into three areas, yet allow for and encourage movement throughout the entire space. The primary physical markers of walls and sculpture pedestals are arranged without creating any ‘dead space’, which is further avoided by the placement of the art in a manner that flows from any vantage point. No matter where a viewer stands in the exhibition, they are sure to see common threads woven throughout the space, even if they are not entirely conscious of them. Looking at a piece from anywhere in the gallery, another artwork of similar size, color, theme, material, or style is visible. This is what completes and perfects the aesthetic framework of Approaching 40, as the final set of considerations that guide viewer experience throughout the show. It is the final set of elements that underlie the audience’s aesthetic experience of the exhibition, and perhaps its greatest success.

Ultimately, the composite aesthetic framework of Approaching 40 operates by visually establishing a rhythm and flow that encourages viewers to freely move through the three areas of the gallery however they please. This guided freedom present in the seamless transitions throughout the installation creates a space for active perception, as viewers are more self-guided in their physical and intellectual interaction with the exhibition. Rather than pass passively from wall-to-wall, as an audience is wont to do when large exhibitions are divided into artist areas or genre groupings, Approaching 40 encourages active seeing and moving, as evidenced by the movement and interaction of people at the opening. The show piques viewers’ interest through subtly forcing them to solve a mental puzzle of finding likeness or difference between works, while encouraging movement throughout the space and demanding a more active consideration of the work. In this way, Approaching 40 creates a dialogue between the space, art, and viewers that is too often absent in today’s gallery exhibitions.