EXPO Chicago, like many of its art fair counterparts, contains the requisite grabby, show-stoppers we’ve come to expect. However, after the initial lure of the spectacle fades, the eye begins to locate the stronger, more contemplative works emerging from the depths of the exhibitor booths. The works of these six artists are prime examples of pieces that reward a slower viewing, that expand, deepen and reveal more, the longer you look. – Robin Dluzen, Chicago Contributor
Rodrigo Valenzuela at Klowden Mann, Culver City
Chile-born, LA-based artist Rodrigo Valenzuela is completing a residency at The Drawing Center in New York, and his installation at EXPO, Sense of Place and New Land, combines photography and mark-making to create complex sensations of space. Here, multiple printed canvases are suspended edge-to-edge on a wooden armature, creating a panorama of a desert landscape. With chalk and acrylic, Valenzuela renders a series of rectangular forms with multiple forced perspectives across the canvases. This booth-wide installation engulfs the viewer, pulling her into this illusionistic space that equal parts familiar, precarious and other-wordly.