Chicago, Illinois Woman Made Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of "Nature House" with works by 40 artists and poets and solo exhibitions by Mary Ellen Croteau and Rosemary Luckett.

In addition Woman Made's Artisan Gallery shows works in 'Contents Include: Metal Clay,' an exhibition that continues the exploration of the materials and techniques being used by women artisans.

Please join us at the artist reception on May 25, 2007, 6-9pm at 685 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. Works will be on display until June 21.

Regular Gallery hours are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 12 to 7pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 4pm.

Juror Rosemary Luckett selected works that show a wide range of thought and imagery and all hit the nail on the head by revealing subtly, or not so subtly, how each of us is complicit in detrimental changes to the environment. Mirka Hokkanen's cow on a black field refers to feedlot pollution and wasted resources that are abetted by a national appetite for fast food burgers. Houses fill the entire space in Jessica Maloney's "Impact" painting, and are echoed in Alis Olsen's sculpture, "Development," a tree stump topped with houses. Open and occupied spaces are connected by highways in Jen Curry's "Untitled (Man v. Nature)" eight-part painting, in Fred Bower's "7 Years: Tire America to CVS Pharmacy" photograph, and in Jacob Lunow's "Bridge" photograph. Jennifer Weigel and Elizabeth Wyrsch connect the dots between changing trees into paper, a messy polluting business, and our profligate use of paper products. Wielding a powerful brush Victoria Szilagyi captures the mechanical process of harnessing electricity from water in her "Force" painting.

Contrary to the many works in this show representing contaminated landscapes, a few describe the carefully tended or gardened terrain that we think about so fondly, and which has been our legacy for so long. We get a glimpse of that in Henrietta DuBois' collaged photograph, "Mesa Verde," in Kathleen Kirk's "Sweet Autumn Clematis" poem and in Maureen Flannery Tolman's poem, "Regeneration." In another vein, Christina Canzoneri contemplates the worth of a wee creature in her poem, "Snail in My Coffee."

Participating artists include: Fred Bower, Christina Canzoneri, Bushra Chaudry, Karin Vance Chickadel, Jen Curry, Betsy Dollar, Henrietta DuBois, Laura C. Hewitt, Pamela Hobbs, Mirka Hokkanen, Christine Ilewski, Zev Jonas, Jessica Key, Ray Klimek, Mary Longley, Jacob Lunow, Jessica Maloney, Michael McAvoy, Marianne McCarthy, Kendall Mingey, Catherine Cella Neapolitan, M. Francesca Notowidigdo, Mascha Oehlmann, Alis Olsen, Catherine Prose, Nancy Reid, Julia Samuels, Victoria Szilagyi, Heather Van Wolf, Jennifer Weigel, Katherine Wright, Elizabeth Wyrsch.

Participating poets include Christina Canzoneri, Sheila A. Donovan, Susanna Lang, CC Lawhon, Katherine M. Quimby, Rita Salluzzi, Kathleen Kirk, and Maureen Tolman Flannery.

Image: "Reduce 10%" by Mirka Hokkanen - intaglio, screen print, chine colle, 7 x 5 inches

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What does it sound like to walk on a floor covered in plastic bags? How would aesthetically pleasing works by artists such as Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, and O'Keeffe be perceived if a single plastic bag became part of their composition? Find the answers to these questions and more at Bag World, a solo exhibition and installation by Mary Ellen Croteau at Woman Made Gallery.

Croteau's works simultaneously remind reviewers of the beauty of re-invented plastic bags and the ugliness of thoughtless garbage disposal.

Commenting on her new body of work, Chicago artist Mary Ellen Croteau states: "I was trying to think what to do with all those bags that you get every time you go to the store. Even if you bring your own bags, they still try to put the stuff in plastic bags before they put it in the ones you brought. And no matter what they tell you, these bags are not recycled. We are swimming in a sea of plastic. We are drowning in plastic. So take one big step for humankind: carry your own bags to the store."

Please join us at the opening reception on May 25 from 6 until 9pm. Works are up through June 21.

Image: 'Van Gogh's Bag' by Mary Ellen Croteau oil on canvas, 29 x 36 inches

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Reacting to human interaction with the natural world around her, Virginia artist Rosemary Luckett's imagery in "Out of Balance" at Woman Made Gallery links up images of living species to seemingly innocuous human made items: tree-shaped deodorizers and tree stumps; SUV and polar bear; real birds and fake birds; whales and submarines.

Each surreal pairing implies a connection that is often hidden or denied. In some works the names of extinct or endangered species are written over and over, a litany of sorrow, a prayer that killing these creatures will cease. Her landscape paintings and collages embrace a language of easily understood objects such as trees, ledger pages, fish, air fresheners, axes and birds.

Included in this timely exhibit is a wall book of twelve 11 x 11 inch collages and a hand bound artist's edition of 'The Trees Speak', poems and drawings of 36 trees in both the earthly and the spiritual realms. All the works presented in Luckett's "Out of Balance" invite the viewer into a contemplation of the wonder of the natural world and humanity's multifaceted connections to it.

Please join us at the opening reception on May 25 from 6 until 9pm. Works are up through June 21.

Image: 'Holding Pattern II' by Rosemary Luckett collage on paper, 11 x 11 inches

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Metal Clay artists include Mary Ellin D'Agostino, Carol Hammerman, Julia I. King, Mary Mintich, Gail Mutoza, Elizabeth Parrock, Melisse Reichman, Olga Sanchez, Jackie Truty and Michela Verani.

Artists exhibiting in other media include: Angela Askin, Beth Bartley, Molly Bitters, Jill Buckingham, Sarah Chapman, Lori C. Coan, Linda Deardorff, Judy B. Freeman, Sandra Golbert, Judy Gray, Caroline Haurie, Laura C. Hewitt, Dorothy Hughes, Stephanie Marder, Natalie Prevost-Mero, Emily McCormick, Emily Murphy, Kimberly Nikolaev, Carmen M. Perez, Elizabeth Rhoads Read, Karen Roberts, Kristi Sloniger, Liz Vercruysse, Emily Watson and Lisa Williams.

'Contents Include: Metal Clay' will be on display through June 21, 2007.

Image: 'Geranium Leaf Spirit' by Michela Verani Art Clay Silver Metal Clay, 2 x 1 5/8 x 1/2 inches

Artisan Gallery

Please join us for a poetry reading on Sunday, June 3, 2007 from 2 to 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Poets who were selected by Rosemary Luckett as part of the Nature House exhibit will read their works in conjunction with the visual art exhibit of the same theme. Participating readers include Sheila A. Donovan, Maureen Tolman Flannery, Kathleen Kirk, Susanna Lang and CC Lawhon. Lauren Levato will read poems by Christina Canzoneri, Katherine M. Quimby and Rita Salluzzi.

The event is FREE, street parking is available, and the blue line Grand stop is a few blocks away. We will have complimentary refreshments and books for sale.

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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 Chicago Community Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation; the Efroymson Fund, a CICF Fund; and the generosity of its members and contributors.