Opening Reception: April 7, 2006 from 6-9pm Woman Made Gallery's April/May group show is showcasing small-scale artwork by women and men from across the United States and Canada. Simultaneously on exhibit are paintings and drawings by Bobbi Meier in her solo show "Monsters in My Garden." The Artisan Gallery is showing "Contents Include: Glass" with artisans using glass as the central or most significant element in a functional or decorative work. The exhibitions open with an artist reception on Friday, April 7 from 6 to 9pm and will be on display through May 11, 2006. The gallery is free and open to the public.

Gallery hours are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon to 7pm and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4pm.

"Humor is prevalent in many works, most notably in Mia Capodilupo's "Tongue Coverings," Paul Morrissey's embroidered "Little Gods," and Danelle Manthey's photographic portraits of women. Other works touch upon spiritual themes and reference ancient traditions of sacred texts and miniature mark-making in intimate formats. Examples include Rachel Melis' "Whether, When, Where," Sallie Wolf's "Miniature Panorama," and Rosalind Faiman Weinberg's "Copse." Many of these pieces take nature as a point of departure.

Issues of viewpoint, perception and space are important to many artists. Many representational works, such as Lee Fernside's striking photographs, afford unusually close views of discomforting subjects. Meanwhile, biomorphic abstractions and process-oriented pieces reference subjects as they might appear through a microscope or from a satellite: Janet Schultz's "Hayfields" and Michelle Mansour's "Phases" are excellent examples. Finally, several three-dimensional works--such as Hong-Lee Wee's ceramic sculptures--create spaces that referenced the interior (personal) and exterior (public) simultaneously.

While many excellent submissions had to be excluded in order to create a balanced exhibition, the pieces that were accepted demonstrate an overview of different processes, forms and ideas on a small scale."

The exhibition opens on April 7th with an artist reception from 6 to 9 pm at Woman Made Gallery, 685 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago's River West neighborhood.

Exhibiting artists include Caroline Albert, Jessica Anderson-Winston, Brian Barr, Joseph Bennett, Judith Braun, Diana Buckley, Mia Capodilupo, Gina M. D'Amico, Adrienne Defendi, Magda Dudziak, Danell Dvorak, Lee Fearnside, Kathleen Fenton, Ilena Finocchi, Margaret Fletcher, Linda Rudin Frizzell, Jessica Connelly Harvey, Sylvia Harwick, Juliette Herwitt, Matt Hopson-Walker, EunKyung Jeong, Naomi Kasumi, Lauren Levato, Michelle Mansour, Danelle Manthey, Isabelle Masse, Rachel Melis, Paul Morrissey, Raquel Zenaida Muslin, Julie Niskanen, Letitia Noel, Kay Papenfuss, Stefanie Ramsey, Mahine Rattonsey, Linda Campbell Reilly, Janet Schultz, Marilee Schumann, Katie Sehr, Julia Stratton, Shannon Sullivan, Hong-Ling Wee, Rosalind Faiman Weinberg, Art Werger and Sallie Wolf.

Image: 'Untitled - Tongue Coverings Series' c-print of lace object, 8 x 10", by Mia Capodilupo

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In her artist statement Bobbi Meier writes:

"The search for order and elegance within the chaos, and frenetic reality of daily living is played out in my abstracted paintings and drawings. Patterned bed sheets, fragments of monster-like toys, and menacing organic forms have evolved into intricate “gardens” of organic and geometric shapes, patterns, and lines. These metaphorical compositions entangle the viewer in a web of objective and non-objective imagery overlaid with passages of peace, humor, and at times whimsy.

The struggle to find balance and harmony is played out with elegant line work, rendered forms, and variations in paint application. Images are deliberately brought to light and obscured as I weave my way through a dialog with the painting. My intent is to present a multi-layered world for the viewer to navigate and discover their own connections."

Image: 'Strange Garden IV' - acrylic on paper, 11 x 7.5" by Bobbi Meier

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From April 7th through June 30th the Artisan Gallery is showing "Contents Include: Glass" with artisans using glass as the central or most significant element in a functional or decorative work.

Featured artist is Nancy Otto who lives in San Francisco, California. Nancy Otto has shown at WMG previously and she was also one of the artists in WMG's Her Mark 2006 calendar.

Nancy Otto writes: "My work is about duality and taking risks. I am drawn toward combining clean lines with organic twists and curves. I like to explore layers -- of color on both the inside and outside of a piece, and of shapes that overlap surfaces. I enjoy pushing the limits of functional form and have been focusing more and more on sculptural forms."

The work depicted here is from the "Subterranean" series in which Nancy Otto used an Italian technique called a "triple incalmo" whereby three separate vessels are connected and made into one.

Image: 'Subterranean', 10 x 11 x 4" by Nancy Otto

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Woman Made Gallery is a tax-exempt, not for profit organization founded in 1992. Its goal is to support women in the arts by providing opportunities, awareness, and advocacy. It specifically accomplishes this through monthly thematic exhibitions which raise public awareness and recognition of women's cultural contributions.

Woman Made Gallery is supported in part by grants from the Illinois Arts Council a state agency; a CityArts Program II grant from the City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs; the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; the Polk Bros Foundation; the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation and the generosity of its members and contributors.