Weidner and Jacobson

Stephanie Weidner

Another great show from Stephanie and Errol 

 who seem to be pushing each other up  to greater heights 

even though their visions are so radically different.

Stephanie is unintentionally re-creating one of the more exciting chapters in Midwestern art -- the above piece bearing some resemblance to one of the Wisconsin Magical Realists:

John Wilde, "Still Life with Melons"

And Stephanie has that ability,

 especially rare among older artists, 

to dramatically improve 

from one painting to the next.

Here are two  examples of her treatment of a similar  subject

Guess which one came first.

It's just some pears on a piece of piece of printed cloth

but there certainly is some magic about it.

Stephanie has a story for this that has something to do with national politics.

It also works, however, just as a strange and wonderful vision.

Meanwhile Errol has been expanding his repertoire as well.

The above piece is almost as large

as its subject matter.

It was displayed on an easel 

making it more like a free standing object

than a window in the gallery wall.

A nice lonely feeling.

Errol's paintings feel as public as Stephanie's feel personal.

She's a Surrealist from seventy years ago;
he's an American-Scene-Regionalist
from the same era.

Which would condemn them as hopelessly outdated,
except that the current fashion for Dada
 dates back to the Cabaret Voltaire of 1916
while all conceptual appropriations
 date back to the Duchamp "Fountain" of 1917.

This is  Chicago -- at least as I know it.