Gallery Y: Emmett Kerrigan: Grand Ave.
Gallery X: Lora Fosberg: Fallible Memories and Wayward Fictions
Gallery O: Featuring miscellaneous gallery artists
Show Runs Friday, December 9th - January 28th, 2012
    Please Note: This is our Inaugural Opening Reception in our new
    Location - 327. N. Aberdeen, December 9th, 2011- 6-9pm.

It is with great excitement and anticipation that we open our doors as Linda Warren Projects in our new location, 327 N. Aberdeen, on December 9th, with the solo exhibitions of two long time gallery artists - Emmett Kerrigan and Lora Fosberg. In both shows, Kerrigan's - Grand Ave, (in Gallery Y) and Fosberg's Fallible Memories and Wayward Fictions (in Gallery X), the artists transform what would appear to be the mundane and banal realisms of our lives and landscapes into captivating works full of insight and beauty.

While Kerrigan continues his focus on the iconic constructs of the Midwestern landscape, after having explored the Midwestern farmscape and industrialscape in prior bodies of work, he now focuses on views of the cityscape and his thoughts and feelings regarding his home and the surrounding neighborhood. Maneuvering adeptly between sculpture and painting, Kerrigan rebuilds the world around him, adroitly utilizing a visual language suited for a child's comprehension and enjoyment, an innocent who can view the world simplistically and with a purity of vision, still oblivious to such tragedies as the housing crisis.

Emmett Kerrigan, Home Sweet Home (series I), 2011 oil on canvas, 48 paintings, 12" x 12" each

In the four large-scale paintings and the forty-eight, 12" x 12", nearly eatable, cake-like gems on display, only the exterior facades of the buildings, houses and factories are portrayed, while the notion of human life is implied. Bold and graphic, but full of nuance and detail, each architectural element is set against peaceful blue skies, thus transforming a city of blight into light and positivity. Using his trademark impasto painting style, Kerrigan's paintings are pushed into a 3-dimensional sculptural rendering. From brick to brick, stone to stone, tree-to-tree, line-to-line, there is such an extravagant and intoxicating variation of color and depth, more honed and obsessive in this work than any before, it is evident that Kerrigan is transported into a deep and meditative place with every mark he makes.

In contrast to his forty-eight paintings in Home Sweet Home in which many of the housing styles are purposely repeated, though in some part ironically reinforcing the idea of actual uniqueness, Kerrigan builds a neighborhood, block by block, out of extremely well-crafted pieces of salvaged wood he has found throughout the city. These objects are full of personality and character, simultaneously quaint and elaborate. Made to conjure up the notion of children's building blocks, the pieces are piled and held together by form and balance. Other wall reliefs, like Flag 1 and Flag 2 -are comprised of individually sculpted wood houses represented in their most basic form. Embedded in all the work are the never-ending tales of its inhabitants - the essence of Middle America and the working class. Each piece sings with a pride and appreciation for the people they represent, as Kerrigan pays homage to his beloved city. Yet it is always Kerrigan's painstaking labor that amplifies the manmade individuality of each edifice and his respect, value and gratitude for its inspiration and gifts.

Lora Fosberg SWEET BEGINNINGS, 2011 gouache, plaster and wax on panel, 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches

Fosberg, always concerned with the human condition - its foibles, failures and idiosyncrasies, negotiates between finding herself lured by the squalor and pulse of city life, with her ongoing concern for the environment and mankind's role in its reckless destruction. Devoid of the color apparent in her urban pieces, Fosberg's references to wood are chopped, sliced and dissected pieces of tree trunks. While referencing the scientific, these decidedly somber pieces can be understood as love letters to mother nature - metaphors for feelings of loss and abandonment. Fosberg's work also talks, whether in drawing, sculpture or text, about holding on to "stuff" and letting go of "stuff" and the balance of these two dynamics. Everything and Nothing is a piece that illustrates this idea, begging the question, if you hang on to things, do they become what defines you if you let them go? In To Juan, Love Lora, Fosberg too lets go of some of her own childhood bric-a-brac, piling her colorful mélange of dollhouse furniture as if it were a heap of junk. Preserved in an apothecary jar, she has found a remedy for holding onto these memories while still letting them go.

Inside the endless streets of storefronts, offering up more junk to be amassed and accumulated, is where Fosberg brightens up. Like Kerrigan, she too imagines the life behind closed doors, the individuals living inside who think big thoughts, care about the world around them, who may be artists, or geniuses or solvers of the many woes mankind faces. The action in the city is full of opportunity, a place of inspiration, and a place full of ideas. It is from this arena that Fosberg generates the colorful wall installation that she will create on site. Bursting like sunrays from the American landscape are the hundreds of handwritten and hand-applied text piece- a seemingly endless supply of poignant truths, subtle lies, and everything in between. Expression.

Emmett Kerrigan received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1993. He also attended summer programs at Chautauqua School of Art and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has shown extensively throughout the Midwest, including a solo exhibition at the Elmhurst Art Museum in 2010. His work can be found in numerous prestigious corporate collections, including Wellington Management, Kirkland & Ellis, The Sandor Family Collection, amongst others. He is currently working on a 50-foot installation for Eaton Corporation's new world headquarters in Cleveland.

Lora Fosberg received her BFA from the University of Illinois, Champaign and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago's 12 x 12, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (UICA) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and in prestigious galleries throughout the United States and abroad. Her work can be found in many prestigious corporate and private collections and she too is currently working on a twenty-five foot permanent wall installation for Eaton Corporation's new world headquarters in Cleveland.

For more information or images from the gallery please contact Chris Smith or Linda Warren at 312-432-9500 or chris@lindawarrenprojects.com