December/January, 1999/2000
review (excerpt)
It Looks Easy: A Cross Section of Recent Painting in Chicago
Gallery 400, Chicago, IL
By: John Gustafson
Two pieces in the show especially stand out for me: Mark Otten’s unlikely Pickle Tickled, and Shona Macdonald’s 180 Envelope Innards. The Otten painting is repellent at first-its colors harsh and its meaning obscure- but its goofy charm is insinuative. Who can resist a meandering structure of sticker-like cartoon images painted all over acid-green ground, while textured disks protrude through the surface? Not me. The title of Macdonald’s work is literal. This “painting” consists of thin strips cut from the insides of envelopes and layered horizontally on the canvas. The diversity of designs of the envelopes is remarkable, and the whole appears as a richly embroidered cloth, quilt, or some kind of needlework.
©1999/2000 John Gustafson