Grand, indeed!
I spent the day in Grand Center- Highlight reel: The Sheldon Art Galleries had a whole buildings worth of goodies- I was really pleased with the winners of the Critical Mass Creative Stimulus money—Sarrita Hunn, Elysia Mann and B.J. Vogt were deserving candidates. I really fell for Elysia Mann’s work. The deft incorporation of text made me swoon and think of brilliant writer friends. The recto verso series was a minimalist version of the uncanny Robert Heinecken photograms that I saw at Chicago’s MCA. As a previous grad assistant in Rare Books and Special Collections at NIU, I really loved the texture of Mann’s pages and the richness of the surface. My son loved the Sarrita Hunn projection- my only beef is that the duration of the video was not posted. (Nice jurying there- Good Citizen!) We were lucky enough to happen upon Odell Mitchell, Jr. speaking with his retrospective. I would have stayed much longer had a hungry two-year old not been in tow. Odell, thanks being so generous with your time and talent.
The Pulitzer’s In The Still Epiphany was much more than I was expecting from some reviews of friends. I was delighted by the play of objects and space from the curator Gedi Sibony - and as always, blown away by range and depth of the Pulitzer’s collection.
