Right place, right style

Viewing art as a travel agency

Date: August 13, 1999

Author: Margaret Hawkins

Section: WEEKEND PLUS

`Paris_Building Splendor' Through Sept. 18

ArchiTech, 730 N. Franklin

(312) 475-1290

Brad Tempkin Through Aug. 28

Stephen Daiter Gallery, 311 W. Superior

(312) 787-3350

Winifred Godfrey: `Mayan Procession' Through Aug. 20

Koehnline Gallery, Oakton Community College, 1600 E. Golf, Des Plaines

(847) 635-2633

Vera Scekic, Katie Dowling, Norman Steck, Jeff Dick Through Aug. 38

Klein Art Works, 400 N. Morgan

(312) 243-0400

Sometimes a sense of place can be as important an element in a work of art as style or subject. Place can be as dramatic as the colors and costumes of a foreign land or as subtle as a shift in the quality of light at a different latitude. From extreme to slight, this sense of place imbues a number of shows around town this summer, transporting the viewer to exotic locales both near and far . . .

Finally, Vera Scekic's little abstractions at Klein Art Works can't be said to be about any earthly place, at least one that we can see, but they do suggest a universe made up of glowing particles. Scekic's tiny paintings may be about mathematics and astronomy and physics all at the same time. I like these paintings and I also wonder if Scekic is pulling my leg, if perhaps they're less profound than they look. Are they based on real geometric equations? No matter.

Finally, other good abstractions on view at Klein by Katie Dowling and Norman Steck are worth seeing, although they have nothing whatsoever to do with place.

Excerpted from Chicago Sun-Times Online