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Seven Three Split teams with two fine fresh contemporary art groups Western Exhibitions (Chicago) and Occasional (St. Paul, MN) to present works by Jonathan Mason Christian Uhl Mark Wagner.

When: APRIL 3 - MAY 1, 2004
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 3: 7 to 11pm
Where: Seven Three Split, 971 W 18th Street, Chicago IL 60608
Hours: Saturdays 1 to 5pm

 

Seven Three Split, in collaboration with Chicago's Western Exhibitions and St. Paul's Occasional , will open the spring exhibition season with a show of new work by Jonathan Mason (represented by Occasional), Mark Wagner and Christian Uhl (both represented by Western Exhibitions).

MARK WAGNER cuts up money. His currency pieces dissect cold, hard cash and reassemble it into witty collages. Some pieces utilize a single bill: others are incredibly intricate portraits, where the sitters are literally "made of money." Wagner points out that currency is an inexpensive material: he claims to burn more money in cigarettes than he could ever cut up directly. The artist will also present a selection of his books, works often been described as "conceptual art in craft clothing." Mark Wagner lives and works in Brooklyn. His works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Museum, and the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

CHRISTIAN UHL's large-scale prints of a chandelier and an "array" (an all-over field of marks which distort the perception of positive and negative space) are presented as simple, black and white, "flattened" models. Both the neoclassical chandelier and the theoretical spatial arrangement of the array have their three-dimensional and perspectival elements collapsed into line, allowing a reading of space similar to that of text. Uhl is interested in how style is used to allow abstract formalizations to be made intelligible. The text reference is made literally explicit, as his medium is laser print on tiled paper. Uhl makes his living as an architect in New York City. He participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in 1999 and his most recent solo show was at the Bower in San Antonio in 2003.

JONATHAN MASON'S collages and lambda prints draw their material from, of all places, the Yellow Pages. Mason carefully edits his source material, revealing its hidden connections and/or incongruities: a group of trees become a forest, stars become a sky of sorts, and fires burn in rather random pockets. The title of Mason's recent show at Occasional, "Overlooked and Looked Over" is a perfect description of an art whose muse is the Yellow Pages. Can you think of visual information more "overlooked" yet "looked at" than the phone book? Mason's work has been shown throughout Minnesota, as well as in Denmark. He is the recent recipient of a Jerome Foundation grant.

 

For more info and images about the artists and galleries, please consult the following:

Seven Three Split is an independent gallery in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood run by Tim Fleming.
http://www.seventhreesplit.org , 312.733.2264
50legal at seventhreesplit.org


Western Exhibitions is a portable gallery directed by Scott Speh, whose headquarters are in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood http://www.westernexhibitions.com, 312.307.4685
scott@westernexhibitions.com

Occasional is a contemporary art space, run by Peg Brown and Aaron Van Dyke out of their home in St. Paul.
http://www.occasionalart.com
651.353.2451, info@occasionalart.com





Jonathon Mason

 


Christian Uhl

 


Mark Wagner

 

 


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971 w18th st Chicago IL 60608

tel/fax 312 733-2264
email 50legal AT seventhreesplit.org