ISSUE 20 // 3.4.2025

Installation view of “Synthesize,” open now through May 23, 2025 at Madron Gallery.

WHAT’S NEW?

Four Score

What happens when you bring four Chicago-based artist-musicians together to cook something up? You get “Synthesize,” of course. Open now through May 23, 2025 at Madron Gallery, the show takes the intersection of visual and sonic art and refracts it through the minds of four artists (Zach Balousek, Margie Criner, John T. Upchurch, and Lucie Van der Elst—bios below!) with fantastically different approaches, from the tiniest surrealist visions to large-scale relics and monoliths. Save the date for an artists’ reception on March 23rd from 5:30-8:30PM (live music, drinks, ample free parking—you know the drill), and read all about the exhibition here.

Zach Balousek is a Chicago-based artist and musician with a focus on creating interactive and musical sculptures. Balousek earned his BFA in ceramics and a minor in art history from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. He was a resident artist of Terra Incognito in Oak Park, IL, where he also served as resident coordinator and later taught adult classes. He has exhibited throughout the Midwest and has been the recipient of several juried awards. 

Margie Criner is a Chicago-based artist, musician, and owner of Itty Bitty Mini Mart. Criner earned a BS in textile design from Michigan State University, East Lansing, and studied woodworking and furniture design with the Bauhaus Apprenticeship Institute in Forest Park, IL, and the Chicago School of Woodworking. Criner’s sculptures with miniature interiors have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country. 

John T. Upchurch is a Chicago-based sculptor and musician. Upchurch received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. From 1988–1995, Upchurch was a member of the acclaimed band “The Cocktails,” touring nationally and internationally. In 1994, Upchurch founded Fireproof Press, a letterpress and design studio focused primarily on creative packaging for the music industry. Upchurch joined Columbia College Chicago’s Art and Design Department as an adjunct instructor in 1999, eventually becoming the Director of Instructional Technology, before leaving in 2018. Upchurch’s work can be found in numerous collections, including the Newberry Library in Chicago, private collections in Illinois, New York, Missouri, Michigan, Colorado, Connecticut, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Washington, and Tennessee as well as Tokyo, Japan, and Plymouth, UK. 

Lucie Van der Elst is a multidisciplinary artist, miniaturist, illustrator, and musician. Born and raised in France, Van der Elst studied applied arts and product design in École Estienne and École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where she graduated in 2010. A post-graduation solo backpacking trip through the United States ended up changing her life in unexpected ways. Van der Elst moved to Chicago in 2016 and has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States. 

WHAT’S NEXT?

Impression: Sunset

You’ve got just a little over two months to catch “In a Different Light,” Madron’s ode to the birth and evolution of Impressionism in the United States. While the early influences of French predecessors, peers, and teachers is apparent, what’s truly special about this exhibition is the opportunity to engage with some of the later works of artists like Robert Vonnoh and John Henry Twachtman, created back on their home soil in response to a uniquely American landscape, where they are truly and obviously coming into their own. Don’t miss the chance to see all these works together—we’d love to hear about what connections you make between artists and across oceans.

WHAT’S THIS?

Aaron Bohrod (1907-1992), “The Box,” ca. 1950, oil on canvas, 9 × 9 inches

Out of the Box

When Aaron Bohrod returned to the U.S. after years as a war correspondent for Life and the Army Corps of Engineers during WWII, he began a series of trompe l’oeil (literally “trick the eye”) paintings that would become the predominant style of the remainder of his artistic career, in stark contrast to his earlier social realist works. The Box is an early example of Bohrod’s artistic turn. It includes some of the classic elements of trompe l’oeil (objects pinned to other objects, a musical instrument, crinkled paper that makes you want to reach out and smooth it, a dying plant) as well as his uniquely magical touch found in the impossible suspension of the floating boxes. The items assembled revolve around an unexpected theme: the exports and economy of Cuba. Portions of paper bills from the newly established national Banco Central de Cuba adorn the titular box, as does an ad for Belinda cigars, a Cuban tobacco brand that would later disappear with the revolution. Cuba’s coffee finds representation in withered leaves and berries, a strange juxtaposition to the plant’s stimulating effects. Painted circa 1950, The Box in some ways feels like a foreshadowing of Fulgencio Batista’s 1952 coup d’etat (the figurine emerging from the box at the righthand side dons a colonial frock and styled wig, perhaps a nod to the U.S.’s historic meddling in Cuba’s political and military affairs), an overthrow of a fragile democracy that Cuban writer Carlos Alberto Montaner later characterized as opening “a Pandora’s box.”