FEB 20 – APRIL 24


INDIRA JOHNSON, ceramic and mixed media
JOANNE MORGAN, mixed media

Chicago, Illinois : A Show of Extraodinary Junk

The used and the useful: A show of extraordinary junk, trees, collage books, prints, and watercolors, featuring artists Joanne Morgan and Indira Freitas Johnson. There will be an opening reception on Friday February 20th, from 5 to 9pm. The exhibition will continue until April 24th. Indira Freitas Johnson will be present at the opening reception.

UK artist Joanne Morgan’s sketchbooks from the past 18 years will be exhibited along with new watercolors. Her books and calendars sometimes take her up to a year to finish. It is not uncommon for her to revisit a page even after several months have passed. Ms. Morgan collages what most people would throw away... odd bits of paper, cloth, canceled checks, and even bottle caps. The pages in her books resemble a tapestry of images and influences of living. Everything is given equal value, whether it is a figure, a piece of mirror, or her text entries. As Ms. Morgan says, “There is a beauty in something that’s being used, that has been both used and useful. If we are all gone tomorrow and somebody came to have a look at what the world was about, things that would be left over might be can openers, styrofoam containers, no art necessarily…”

Ms. Morgan has a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has lectured on her book-making process around the world. Her work has been collected by the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) as well as numerous private collectors.

Indira Freitas Johnson uses discarded objects from nature and industrialized society. She examines the passage of time as we proceed on life’s path of birth, growth, dissolution, and rebirth. Ms.Johnson is fascinated by the sense of survival and stoicism in these found objects. She considers discarded tree trunks as well as rusty and mangled “junk” to be worthy objects themselves. She painstakingly reinvents these objects and re-introduces them into society so that their energy is recycled and the idea of the sacredness of everyday life is affirmed.

Ms. Johnson has recently exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), as well as at the Chicago Cultural Center, New Museum of Art (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art (New Orleans), and Prince of Whales Museum (Bombay).

Von Kommanivanh’s paintings will continue to be on display through March 20th.