Boys of Summer
Runs through August 2 at Monique Meloche Gallery
A strong offering to fill the art calendar's seasonal lull, this group show cleverly skews traditional ideas of masculinity, race, sexuality, and entertainment by threading the needle of cultural assumptions. Experiential artist Nick Cave photographs himself in a mask resembling a beautifully adorned bank robber's disguise. Joel Ross' video of an older gentleman's dance number set to an overwrought score veers between silly and transcendent. Ebony Patterson's portrait of a beautiful criminal (pictured) and James Gobel's delicate textile rendering of a massive man subtly mine and challenge our surface reactions. But the pieces most likely to be noticed and overexposed are, fittingly enough, Zane Lewis' and Russell Nachman's iconic treatments of Barack Obama and The Beach Boys, respectively.
Freedom of Speech
Runs through August 22 at FLATFILEgalleries
FLATFILE pairs Benjamin June's "Iraq Suicide Attack Pillow Project," a smart and wrenching memorial to the victims of increasingly frequent insurgent bombings, with Wafaa Bilal's "Virtual Jihadi, the night of Bush Capturing," a POV computer war game reimagining the mass-marketed "Quest for Sadaam" with American targets. Each work subverts typically comfortable associations to emphasize our vulnerability in a time of war.
Portraying Food (and the Absence of It)
Runs through July 19 at Walsh Gallery
This ragtag but ultimately compelling collection of pop-art photographs and installations mines the meanings of our insatiable appetite and excessive ingestion. Walsh's five featured artists challenge attitudes surrounding what we bring to the table, from Lue Jianhua's idealized foodstuffs to Zhu Yu's gritty pictures of leftovers.
Venetian Dreams
Runs through July 28 at Illinois Institute of Art's Gallery 180
Focusing on Venice's ethereal scenes—its foggy mornings, boats cast adrift and tourist-free cobblestone streets—Hadley brings a street-level sensibility to the City of Light. This work captures, in the artist's words, "something that reminds us of the moment between wake and sleep."
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