Hello... Short press follows here.  Long press and low res images attached.
Hi-res please request.  Best, Aron

Aron Packer
Packer Schopf Gallery
942 W. Lake
Chicago, IL 60607
312.226.8984
http://www.packergallery.com

:
Event Date: 4 Solo Exhibitions: Bleem, Wright Rivers, Greene, Crisman
 
Artists¹ Reception: Friday, November 2, 2012, 6  ­ 9 PM

Exhibition Dates: November 2 ­ December 29, 2012
Gallery Hours: Tues ­ Sat 11:00 AM - 5:30

Jerry Bleem  /  In Lieu of Other Forms of Aggression / reused materials

Lucy Ruth Wright Rivers  / Bead Party / bead tapestries
 
Ellen Greene / Invisible Mother's Milk /  Tattoo inspired paintings on
vintage women's gloves

Jeff Crisman / Tattoo Jungle / B&W vintage prints / contemporary color
portraits 

Jerry Bleem  
At first glance, the crocheted and woven creations in Jerry Bleem¹s ³In Lieu
of Other Forms of Aggression² inspire a whimsical reaction.  Bright flowers,
colorful placemats, and intricate wall pieces appear humorously impressive.
However, upon closer examination, the vibrant forms take on a garish,
aggressive quality, as the materials of their creation‹post-consumer plastic
bags‹reveal a darker underlying significance.  The plastic bag, that
polyethylene urban tumbleweed, has become so ubiquitous in daily life that
we hardly see it anymore, and it is this precise exposure-based blindness
that Bleem seeks to confront.

Lucy Ruth Wright Rivers

Like the natural forms that inspire them, Lucy Ruth Wright Rivers¹ bead
tapestries draw beauty from imperfection.  Using hundreds of multicolored
beads, these intricate pieces call upon images of plants and flowers that
the artist observes on her farm, and emphasize naturally-occurring color
combinations that are at times beautiful, at times jarring, but always
melodious. This relationship between conflict and coherence serves as a key
theme in Wright Rivers¹ work, which also examines the ways in which movement
and time affect the balance of one¹s environment.

Ellen Greene  (from the catalog essay)

Ellen Greene¹s oeuvre is a cacophony of symbols. It is birthed from the
artist¹s visions, old school tattoo flash turned feminine power symbols,
countless pairs of womens¹ hand gloves and ³Invisible Mother² Victorian
photographs. Greene¹s work defies categories and time periods; she doesn¹t
fit into outsider art, fine art or high fashion, yet could slip by in each
one. Greene is a rebel girl at heart and a steadfast mother of two young
girls. In this new body of work, her two identities collide and converge
into one ‹ she is a heavily tattooed, redheaded female artist conjuring up
mythic powers through classic tattoo imagery, yet lives in a modern-day
consumer culture in which youth and beauty trump integrity and devotion to
the family. Greene seeks to carve out a new vocabulary for the woman who is
both and neither, who is of this world while simultaneously envisioning and
seeking another one. ‹Alicia Eler
 
Jeff Crisman 
>From 1978 to 1998, Jeff Crisman traveled throughout the United States and
Canada photographically documenting tattoo subculture as it underwent a sea
change, transformed as an infusion of new, art school-trained tattooists
from diverse backgrounds, globally distributed publications and later the
internet, propelled the business from its previous marginalized state to the
mainstream. As it evolved, the emphasis for the project shifted to
photographing and recording oral histories of tattoo artists and collectors
whose commitment to the art began in the decades of its disrepute prior to
the 1970's. The goal was to document as much of the history of the medium
and as many of its principals as time allowed. The last work for the project
was done in the Spring of 1998 at the first tattoo convention ever held in
New York City, finally legalizing tattooing and ending a ban put into effect
during a hepatitis scare in the 1930s. This modest selection of work
represents a small part.
 

-- 
Aron Packer
Packer Schopf Gallery
942 W. Lake
Chicago, IL 60607
312.226.8984
http://www.packergallery.com