Good Medal Show 2026

Val Yachik, After the Storm

Not a painting but an eternal moment of experience 

with ontological implication.

Ker-plunk 

(Tree falling in forest)

My pick for the Gold Medal.

Misha Livshultz

Another very strong presence that seems to last forever.

Misha is one of those Jews who could have stayed in Egypt to make sculpture.

Erol  Jacobson

Don’t know why it rains wherever Erol goes.

But it was raining on Caillbotte as well.

Kuhn Hong

So many supposedly irrelevant details strenuously compete for attention.

But that’s how a sunny day on a big city street can feel.

 

Stuart Fullerton

Heroine of a melodramatic mystery

Stephanie Weidner

Another case of the gallery being more interesting than what’s on the wall.

The rear door is beckoning.

Andrew Conklin

The weirder Andy gets, the more I like him

Muriel Christensen

Uncomfortably squeezed between the more and less expressionistic.

Don Di Sante

A sculptural head 

Might

that have done better as an enamel 

to perk up the surface

Roger Akers

Instantly recognizable 

club personality 

though usually seen fully clothed

Tom Zamiar

Instantly recognizable as Tom’s world

G

Gregory Mejia,  Original Sin

If it were cover art, I’d buy the record album

(When I was 18)

Faculty Show 2026

 

Debra Balchen

Yikes!

The subtle smile of Quattrocento Italy.

Wasn’t expecting to find it at the PNC.

  

Michael Van ZEYL

Love the ambitious vision.

, but kinda painful to look at.

The pieces need to be further apart and might work better in mosaic than paint.

Helen Oh

Palette and Chisel as a royal academy

Larry Paulsen

More like how people really are.

Portraiture of the 19th instead of 18th century.

Helen Oh

Flowers with inappropriate emotions.

Stuart Fullerton

Could have been in that AIC show three years about Van Gogh and friends painting in the suburbs of Paris. 

Grim realty of suburban sprawl.

Don Yang

Tony Bedolla

-Plein Air Painters of Chicago : Holiday Exhibit 2025

 

Iris Gan

Top notch illustration 

Almost good painting.

Iris Gan

Kelly Dawson. Wraiths of Prairie Ave

Feels so European 

Kirstin Alischoewski

As much about paint as about place

Kirstin Alischoewski

Anna Cherkashina 

Wish I’d included her in my Chicago cityscape show

Shannon Burch,  Hands off Chicago

Right On !!!

Jessica Mays,  Oak park Library

Not exactly an architectural rendering, but I like it

Jessica Mays,  Alley between sushi and ramen 

Exhibition: The Journey Home

i

Kei Constantinov

Like the Marco Polo marionette on the left.

As fascinating as its subject.

All of her antiquated paintings appear to be catalogs of symbols with no connection to color, design, or form. But her MFA guarantees that she is not naive about such things.

These pieces are postmodern, so we should show some respect for the institutions that rule contemporary art.

Kei Constantinov

Kei Constantinov

Isaac Galvan

Among his many small portraits, this one clicked for me.

Simon Cygielski

Dolls that reflect Polish ethnicity as well as architectural training.

Simon Cygielski

Apparently the artist has become comfortable with discomfort; 

habituated to feeling homeless.

A nice inner contradiction.

Sculpture and Drawing Show 2025

 

George Clark

My favorite piece in the show.

Not an academic exercise or demonstration of ability.

A design that aims at strength 

A narrative that makes the viewer a voyeur 

of a confidant woman  who is presenting her sex to no one but herself.

I would title it “Diana “

and Actaeon had better climb the nearest tree.

Gregorio Meija

In the Palette and Chisel tradition of skilled illustrators  

setting their ability free to go where it may

Gregorio Mejia

Competent - but I feel no compulsion to like it 

Misha Livshultz

There’s a person in there

though I would not care to meet him

Leslie Outten

A Fairy?

A surprising and pleasant bouquet.

Don DiSante

Parts in need of ordering 

Not yet aiming for the big

Lawrence Paulson

A credible presentation piece

Helen Oh, Coco

An elegant piece from the 18th Century

but definitely not the Coco I know.

Cathy Buck

This is DeLawn as I know him

Definitely not 18th or even 19th century

Subtly sliding to the left as if in motion

Helen Oh, Paris Sketchbook

Makes me want to travel there myself.

Copies of art interspersed with first person views.

Helen evidently loves French culture.

Andrew Conklin

Yikes!  He’s going after Michelangelo’s greatest drawing.

A noble failure - Yet notable for using his own model.

Evident skill— yes

Power —- not enough.

But it’s good to aim high.

That’s what teachers are for.

BTW - a show of historical copies of Michelangelo drawings ocame through Chicago about thirty years ago. Quite admirable - they also fell short.  Copying lines is one thing - copying what’s beneath them is another.

Isaac Galvin

A strange bending of space,

I like erect nipples, too.

Summer Suite 2025

 

Paula Herrera

The Frida Kahlo of cat sculpture?

Sure is strange and intense. 

I’m guessing that 50 years from now

these kittens will be far more collectible than whatever the rest of us are making.

Might this be called a an accessible, upbeat, folkloric aesthetic -

similar to her career as a musician.

The famous Chicago Imagists also have a taste for tchotchkes,

but unlike them, Paula makes her own.

Mark Huddle

A tribute to Reginald Marsh?

Kinda —-

but less a window onto a sordid under world

and more like a grid based abstract design

interacting with text.

Quite post-modern

and appropriate for a graduate of DOVA at the U. Of Chicago .

Again .. more like a playful interaction of grids in space than a view of an actual place.

It’s rude to look into people’s windows,

and certainly not much to see here.

A possible tribute to Roger Brown.

A rather phallic cityscape.

The magic trick of cityscape,

or, actually all mimetic art,

is to simultaneously achieve power in the graphic design 

and credibility in the imitation.

This piece comes closest to pulling that off.

The careful rendering of brickwork brings to mind this piece from Vermeer:

A more welcoming view into a more modest urban space.

(and world class  magic from the 17th century)

Joan Stachnik

Mary Klug

Bodo Stolezenberger