Our fall show featuring vintage fer-découpé and classical Clotaire Bazile drapo opened Friday, September 10th, during the Oak Park Arts District's annual Art on Harrison. We just vacated our old gallery and opened this show in a new street-level space located on the corner of the main intersection in the district, Gallery Pink, 149 Harrison Street. I can say without reservation that this is the most beautiful show this gallery has ever mounted. Unlike our old gallery, all the walls, ceiling and floor are white. As a result, the walls highlight the dramatic graphic quality of the old metal with the emphasis on positive and negative space softened by the different shades of gray from the shadows the pieces cast on the white walls. Artist Jonathan Franklin remarked that he would like to paint just the shadows of one Brièrre piece. The metal pieces are mainly from the 70's and 80's. Some may be older but I'm being conservative.

The Bazile drapo are from one collector and were sewn in the early 80's soon after Bazile opened his atelier in Port-au-Prince. The flags are all veves of the lwa (or spirits). Veves are the abstract representations of the lwa that are drawn on the floor around the temple's center pole (poto mitan) before a Vodou ceremony begins. They serve as gates through which the spirits can enter the human world. After the drumming starts and the dancing begins to efface the veves, the gates open and the spirits can arrive. I think the veves are the most profound spiritual expressions I have ever encountered. Bazile's flags capture this concentration of spiritual power. His best flags look like constellations in a night sky unpolluted by urban light with the semi-sequined backgrounds suggesting billions of stars. I find Bazile's flags to be minimalist as far as drapo Vodou go. There is nothing extraneous in them. But like all great minimalist work, the elements are endlessly suggestive. His total focus is on the veve as a powerful manifestation of the spirit. All Bazile's flags are flawlessly executed. 

The show will be up through October 30 at Gallery Pink, 149 Harrison Street, Oak Park, IL. Our hours are Thursdays and Fridays 12-6, Saturdays 12-5, Sundays 1-5 and by appointment.