Five prominent artists from the Chicagoland area will exhibit paintings of Chicago imagery at an art exhibition opening October 25 in the Elmhurst Artists’ Guild gallery at the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 Cottage Hill Ave., Elmhurst, IL. The “Chicago Images” show will run through December 9. An opening reception will be held November 11 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., which like the show, is open to the public.
Bruce Cascia, who paints in a photo-realistic style, is including paintings of his “Chicago Hot Dog” series that represent vanishing icons of Chicago’s heritage. “I felt a real need to preserve these Chicago institutions on canvas,” he stated, “Several, like Demon Dogs, Hot Diggity Dogs and Harry’s Hot Dogs were torn down recently, and Doggie Diner has closed.” His work is included in a number of corporate art collections, and he is represented by galleries in Chicago, Boulder and Saugatuck.
Kathleen Eaton’s paintings reflect a fascination with architectural spaces and the unexpected solitude that occurs in them. “From this interest, my work has evolved to explore the emotional landscape between imagination and reality in man-made environments,” she stated. The pieces included in this exhibition relate to her interest in public transportation. Eaton’s paintings have been acquired by public, corporate and private collections and include murals at Midway Airport.
Janice Elkins, an abstract expressionist painter, has been in numerous solo and group shows and has shown nationally, as well as internationally. She sees Chicago as both seductive and sinister. “Ideas for my art emerge from the city and nature,” she said, “I am taken by the contrasts of city: the beauty of the parks and monuments and the sadness of deteriorating neighborhoods, the glitter of Michigan Avenue, the grittiness of industrial neighborhoods.”
Nancie King Mertz has spent her lifetime painting in oil, pastel and watercolor while traveling to nearly 20 countries and around the US for inspiration. Chicago, however, remains her favorite city to paint and resulted in the City series, her largest series of paintings. She has won numerous awards and is the 2011 Artist-in-Residence for the Indiana Dunes National Park. For three years, she was named Artist-of-the-Year by the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau.
Mary Phelan takes her inspiration from Zen Buddhism as she paints the familiar and close-at-hand as a way to contemplate and connect. “The nature of my own Chicago neighborhood in all its form includes bricks and concrete, as well as trees,” she explained. Trees have been an especially important subject of her paintings, and more than 200 illustrations of city trees were included in her book project, The Urban Tree Book. She is represented in collections at UIC and the Library of Congress, among others.