The Chicago Artists Coalition has a large and diverse membership, and of the three hundred artists in the art open, fifty are selected for the student section. The artworks of the showing are for sale, and proceeds go directly to the artist. There are always surprises, and a chance to survey artists one has followed for some time. The dynamic interweave of abstracted mass and volume in this bronze recalls the legacy of Naum Gabo, and is in further contrast with its fixed and uniform double-tiered pedestal. Although much of Armato's sculpture is done in alabaster, marbles and exotic stone, here, the choice of bronze directly focuses attention on the form and its patterns of implied motion.
Energy is a refined and evocative creation.
Three hundred artists of course insure a wide spectrum of offerings. Her mixed media work is striking in its use of line and contour to impart direct and dynamic effects of human form in motion, in symbiosis with natural setting, and as an impression of time condensed into an immediate moment. Cajandig employs vibrant color and pattern to first disorient the viewing eye and to induce a re-orientation of image, which quickly resolves into a welcomed appreciation of forms engaged in their own contained gesture and balance. Kim Laurel's art also displays an acute awareness of image element, contour and active line in generating dynamic composition. Laurel, who is also a member of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, creates an art which is lively in color, engaging in content, and which evokes the formal beauty of illuminated manuscript.