Four West Loop galleries that all shared the same building on Washington Avenue—Document, PLHK, Volume, and Western Exhibitions—recently moved into a new venue in West Town, a large second-floor space on Chicago Avenue just west of Ashland. But the migration wasn’t acrimonious. “Our lease was up at the old space, and our landlords bought a building over on Chicago Avenue,” Western Exhibitions gallery owner Scott Speh says. “They said, ‘Why don’t we move you guys over here?’ ”
As sophisticated as that description may sound, “Underlying System Is Not Known” isn’t too cerebral or unapproachable—it’s playful and irreverent. On the floor, a few feet from the entrance, is Risa Hricovsky’s Shift, a blobby quasi-chair made of neon pipe cleaners. Behind it is Joell Baxter’s Waver, three strips, each one nine feet by four and a half feet, of multicolored, rectangular, screen-printed paper positioned at 90-degree angles against the wall and floor. Some of the works are deceptive, such as a series of colorful patterns by Emily Barletta. At first they seem like they were printed onto pieces of paper, but on closer inspection they turn out to be intricately woven pieces of thread.
Through 2/18: Tue-Sat 11 AM-6 PM Western Exhibitions 1709 W. Chicago 312-480-8390westernexhibitions.com Free
