OCT 19 – NOV 24, Crossing Over

XUE SONG, painting
NOBUHIKO UTSUMI, performance painting
DAVID SERVOSS, video installation
LI YOUNG LEE, painting and poetry
SHEN FAN, painting

Are There Any Boundaries Left In Art?

(Chicago, September 14) Walsh Gallery celebrates its grand reopening with " Crossing Over", an exhibition featuring some of the hottest artists from Asia and Chicago. The gallery's striking 4,000 square–foot space is located on the second floor of 118 N. Peoria St., in the heart of Chicago's exciting West Loop Gate gallery district. The 118 Peoria building will now be home to five important local galleries: Walsh, Rhona Hoffman, Peter Miller, Aron Packer and Julia Friedman--with over 10,000 square feet left for additional galleries. All artists will be present at the opening reception on October 19th, from 5:00 - 9:00 pm. The exhibition runs through November 24.

Crossing Over highlights artwork that blurs into other art forms and mediums. Li Lin Lee and Li Young Lee will exhibit poetry and painting works. Nobuhiko Utsumi will demonstrate his unorthordox technique of throwing and spraying raw pigment at models who are then manipulated across his colossal canvases. Young New Yorker David Servoss will exhibit an installation in the project room combining painting and video.

Although Shanghai artists Xue Song and Shen Fan have mounted their works on canvas, they challenge ideas of what can be put on canvas. Mr. Xue's canvases are covered in ash and layers of singed paper, commemorating work lost in two devastating studio fires he experienced in the 1990s. None the less provocative and humorous are Mr. Xue's images. In one series, each painting features a number from 0 to 9. The numbers are formed from odd, collaged images of popular models, calendar pages, yin/yang symbols, tar and chinese money. Each number is surrounded by a vibrant contrasting field formed by clippings from astrological calendars. Mr. Xue's work also includes images of cultural and political icons like Marilyn Monroe, Mao Zedong and Richard Nixon.

Shen Fan's latest works combine the delicate line quality of ink painting with the power of western gestural painting. Mr. Shen uses oil on rice paper, carefully blending eastern and western influences into woven abstractions in solitary colors.