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True North - Identity, Surreal Blue Sky with Distinctive Cloud Markings
By Mark Bowers
Located in Chicago, IL
"True North - Identity" is a worms-eye view of a brilliant blue sky with a maze of distinctive clouds. The surreal quality of the imagery makes the viewer question reality. Are the clouds actual clouds or made by some other means? Are those fluffy clouds behind the bare branches or mountains? The ellipsed edges confirm the scene as an inner vision rather than a window on the world. The painting itself is painted on a handmade wooden panel with beautifully finished edges so no frame is needed.
Mark Bowers
True North - Identity
oil on panel
9h x 12w in
22.86h x 30.48w cm
MJB014
TRUE NORTH PAINTINGS
Unconscious systemic biases may guide our actions or direct us---similar to the human construct of “True North”, which holds to coordinate systems. The Earth’s “Magnetic North” moves over time according to polar shifts; flux and correction is enabled by polarity. In these paintings (Privilege, Orientation, Belief, Identity, Equity), I use compositional elements referencing nautical com- passes to suggest that society must navigate not within systems, but naturally through positive relationships and change. I hope that my art represents our present day - but also imparts a dreamful glimpse of hope and faith within.
Explanation: A magnetic compass does not point toward the true North Pole of the Earth. Rather, it more closely points toward the North Magnetic Pole of the Earth. The North Magnetic Pole is currently located in northern Canada. It wanders in an elliptical path each day, and moves, on the average, more than forty meters northward each day. Evidence indicates that the North Magnetic Pole has wandered over much of the Earth's surface in the 4.5 billion years since the Earth formed.
Mark Bowers- Artist Statement
With the depiction of landscape playing such a central role in the history of North American art, it seemed to offer many of the critical possibilities I was looking for, and it felt more and more like something I have always known. Something I could easily apply, stage, and manipulate as a diary.
My work consists of small-scale highly detailed landscape paintings. They are inspired by the comfort, trepidation, and beauty found in the mundane Chicago Suburbs. I combine nature, decorative house wares...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
Submarine
By Benjamin Duke
Located in Chicago, IL
Ben Duke
b. 1977 Louisville, KY
Education
2006 M.F.A., Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2002 B.F.A., University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
2001 Summer School of...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
Chiaroscuro
By Christopher Ganz
Located in Chicago, IL
-ARTIST STATEMENT-
I depict my person in multiplicity with different selves representing dramatis
personae. My likeness is both implicit and symbolic in the portrayal of my
narrative; the drama involved in creating art and the artist’s role in society. I
use realism to invite the viewer into mysterious inner worlds that are layered
reflections of the outer. Dehumanizing environments are imbued with art
historical references as a critique of power structures. The artist is an
Everyman who is at odds with society and his self.
Visually my work is a celebration of society’s dark undercurrents and its
overlooked absurdities. I use charcoal and printmaking media as their
tenebrous values add a fitting metaphor. The nuances of light and shadow
seduce viewers into a world their better judgment would have them avoid.
This provokes a sense of disquietude that causes viewers to assess our world
through the austerity of a colorless, yet not humorless, light.
-BIO-
Christopher Ganz grew up in Northeast Ohio and from early on had a fertile imagination and an interest in art. Christopher's artistic education truly began at the University of Missouri, where his love of the human form led to many figure drawing classes and his exposure to the wonders of printmaking. Christopher's then went onto graduate school at Indiana University and a summer abroad program in Italy was a dream realized. Christopher then grasped charcoal with a renewed vigor and large, sfumato-laden drawings ensued. Christopher's artistic influences are many; from a seminal exposure to Dore's engravings of the Divine Comedy, to Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Goya, and up to Lucian Freud, Mark Tansey...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Chalk, Charcoal, Oil Pastel, Archival Paper
Study for Blue Face, Blond Female with Reflective Blue Face, Oil on Panel
By Juan Barragán
Located in Chicago, IL
***This artwork is currently on exhibit at the Instituto Cervantes, Chicago until September 2025. If purchased this artwork will be available to ship after September 1, 2025. Contact the gallery with questions.
This small portrait of a blonde female is exquisite in its execution. A blue replica is behind her which adds to the mystery of the painting. Why is this person here? Why is she painted in blue? Why are her eyes red and a red dot on her forehead? The painting is framed in a silver frame measuring 7.5h x 7.5w x 2d inches.
Juan Barragán...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
Comfort Zone, Crouching Nude Female Figure, Gazing Upward, Oil on Canvas
By Juan Barragán
Located in Chicago, IL
Getting out of one's comfort zone and ending the anxiety by rebuilding the lineal composition, the contrasts of color, textures and even the narrative. This happens just by throwing an impulsive stroke of red paint. While the figure is not in real danger, i.e. actually bleeding, but instead the red paint represents stepping out of one's comfort zone. It means to leave the status quo...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Cotton Canvas, Oil
Love Nest
By Andrew LeMay Cox
Located in Chicago, IL
Andrew LeMay Cox
"Love Nest" - Overgrown fields of amber grain freckled with flowers of many. On a perfectly sunny day and the wind is strong but gentle. There is no one else in s...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Archival Ink, Mixed Media
The Firestorm of Peshtigo, Historical Depiction of Actual Events, Oil on Canvas
By Eric Edward Esper
Located in Chicago, IL
The Firestorm of Peshtigo
October 8 1871, the same night of the Great Fire of Chicago, and The Michigan forest fires. A cold front moved in from the west fanning land clearance fires...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Our Children of Angels, 1958 School House Fire, Disaster Painting, Original Oil
By Eric Edward Esper
Located in Chicago, IL
Our Children of Angels
Around 2:30 PM Monday December 1 1958, the schoolchildren of Our Lady Of Angels were almost ready to leave school for the day when they suddenly realized the h...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Lust, From the Seven Deadly Sins Series, Nude Figures, Oil on Watercolor Paper
By David Becker
Located in Chicago, IL
Seven deadly sins are the seven vices that spur other sins and further immoral behavior. First enumerated by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in the 6th century and elaborated in the 13th ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Archival Paper
Gluttony, The Seven Deadly Sins Series, Nude Figures, Oil on Watercolor Paper
By David Becker
Located in Chicago, IL
Seven deadly sins are the seven vices that spur other sins and further immoral behavior. First enumerated by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in the 6th century and elaborated in the 13th ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Archival Paper
Cafe No'Se, Surreal Scene South of El Paso, Ink on Cheese Cloth and Resin
By Andrew LeMay Cox
Located in Chicago, IL
South of El Paso, where time stands still, cantinas and religious relics litter cobblestone streets. The sound of folk music draws you into a dimly lit room. Within the small room is an even smaller room with a hidden door tall enough for a child. Beyond the door, Maximo listens to all your wishes. Illuminated by mezcal and candles, the room opens into another world and you realize this is the wild west.
Andrew LeMay Cox
Cafe No'Se
ink on cheese cloth
25h x 29w in
63.50h x 73.66w cm
ALC007
Andrew LeMay Cox
Ink Painting Statement
Within these works the exploration of visual storytelling and construction propose challenging questions to the traditions of academic painting.
Two components that influence these painting practices are process and narrative.
The function of materiality within these works attempts to question traditional methods of paint on canvas. They are constructed using ink that is baked at high temperatures and is assembled by painting on skins. The skins hang loosely from the stretcher and add sculptural properties to 2-dimensional surfaces.
The other component is to create an aesthetic narrative that allows the viewer to escape their reality and get lost in themes outside civilizations normality’s. These characters occupy a utopian landscape outside the realms of race, religion, or politics. They ignore social or economic concerns. They are ageless and serendipitous. They sing, dance and make love without cause, limitation or destination.
CV
Education
2007-2011 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bachelor of Fine Arts
Exhibitions
2017 Let Your Thoughts Flies Away, Group Show, Chicago, IL
2016 Pop-Lore, Jan Brandt Gallery, Bloomington, IL
2016 Love Spells, Linda Warren Projects, Chicago, IL
2014 Unfiltered, Filtered Warehouse, Chicago, IL
2013 Revolving Artist’s showcase, Gold Star, Chicago, IL
2013 Group Show The Squeeze, Chicago, IL
2012 Group Show, Space Camp Headquarters/Grey Ghost...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Archival Ink, Mixed Media
The Great Cyclone of St. Louis, Historical Depiction of Actual Events, Original
By Eric Edward Esper
Located in Chicago, IL
The Great Cyclone of St. Louis
On Wednesday, May 27, 1896, shortly after 5 p.m., there occurred a major outbreak of tornadoes across the central and eastern U.S., lasting two days. A funnel cloud destroyed a path one mile-wide and ten miles long through America’s 4th largest city. In 20 minutes, “the Cyclone” killed an estimated 255 people, left thousands homeless, and caused over 10 million dollars-worth of damage across St. Louis and East St. Louis. To this day, it remains the deadliest incident in the city’s history.
Eric Edward Esper
After obtaining my BFA in Illustration from Northern Michigan University in 1996 I relocated to Chicago to pursue my artistic endeavors. Here, I began exclusively oil painting and have assembled a body of paintings chronicling scenes of Chicago done primarily in plein air.
Capturing parts of the city’s landscape during its cultural evolution had been my way of conveying history as a painter. My fascination with landscapes and history has led me to create oil paintings of scenes that have affected us in dramatic ways. Recently I have begun painting aerial views of locations that have interesting historical significance, encapsulating true stories that are hard to imagine and harder to forget. My latest paintings capture these places and depict them with historically accurate attention to detail. Using various sources I recreate these scenes with as many photographs of every angle of the incident and research the stories, submersing myself in the event. My newest body of paintings depicts events with a more historically tragic significance, depicting scenes of the darkest hours in America’s Midwest history, where the landscape became the backdrop for tragedy and calamity. These events that irrevocably altered so many lives are important to remember, not only for the people lost and how it affected our culture, but also to remind us that disaster can occur at any time, anywhere.
Eric Edward Esper
EDUCATION
1995 BFA, Illustration, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Michigan
SELECT EXHIBITIONS
2013 Chicago Catastrophes, Conflagrations, and Calamities, Solo show, Linda Warren Projects, Chicago, Illinois 2012 Group show, Metropolitan Capital Bank, Chicago, Illinois
2012 Ten year anniversary show, Sulzen Fine Art Studio, Chicago, Illinois
2010 Group show, Concordia University, River forest, Illinois
2009 Holiday Show, Sulzen Fine Art Studio, Chicago, Illinois
2008 Somewhere, Elsewhere, Group show, Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2008 Scene in Chicago, Group show, Judy Saslow Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2007 Holiday Show, Sulzen Fine Art Studio, Chicago, Illinois
2007 Cityscapes, Solo Exhibition, Oculus Gallery...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil