The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art presents:

Disrupting the Image painting and sculpture by Nick Black, Mark Ottens, David Reninger, and John Sant

opening reception Friday, July 16, 2004, 5-9pm
Exhibition Dates: July 9-August 29, 2004

Photography Exhibit Documents Social Ills in Ukraine

The work in this show is centered on the idiosyncratic use of imagery. Life long Chicago natives and close friends, these four artists have each developed a highly personal vocabulary.

Nick Black melts toys. These mundane and ubiquitous plastic items are metamorphosed into joyous piles of goo, playfully anarchic in their rejection of all pretention. His transformation through destruction draws on the voyeuristic tendencies inherent in us all.

Mark Ottens constructs precisely engineered images of cartoon characters and other pop culture icons. The dizzying array of contrasting surfaces assaults the viewer with a bombardment of images that ride a fine line between control and chaos.

David Reninger’s paintings seduce the viewer into a world of plants that are both sexually charged and spiritually powerful. These images of sensual seed pods and other plant forms show a fleeting narrative, a botanist’s fantasy of a green world communicating with itself.

John Santoro builds his images with buttery strokes, with a love of the viscosity of paint itself. Mounds of oil paint bathe his central image. The free and organic nature of the paint itself guides and binds his images as they swim in unconfined rapture.

This program is partially sponsored by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.

UIMA is located at 2320 W. Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL telephone 773-227-5522. The Institute is open Wednesday through Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information on the event or UIMA please visit www.uima-art.org.