CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The complex interplay between nature and culture in Illinois and “unbuilt” Frank Lloyd Wright homes will be featured in two separate exhibitions Sept. 9 through Oct. 22 at I Space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• “Urban, Rural, Wild” presents new work by several artists who use installation, film and participatory media to explore the historical and contemporary relationships between metropolitan Chicago and downstate Illinois. Curated by Sarah Kanouse and Nicholas Brown, the show – part exhibition, part investigative platform – includes gallery installations, talks, off-site events, a resource center and a film series. Kanouse said the exhibition and related events are intended to encourage visitors “to rethink and reimagine the city/country dialectic in our region.”
Participating artists include Brian Dortman, Nance Klehm, A. Laurie Palmer, Michael Piazza, and Frances Whitehead; members of the collective Free Walking, and Stockyard Institute, an organization of artists and teens; and experimental filmmaker Thomas Comerford. Also connected to the exhibition is “In the Weather,” a booklet and Web site featuring dozens of Chicago walking tours, and the “bikecartinfoshop,” a mobile library stocked with books, zines and brochures.
“I talk,” a conversation with “Urban, Rural, Wild” artists and curators, is scheduled at 3 p.m. on Oct. 1 at the gallery.
More information about the show and related events is on the Web.
• “Prelude to the Prairie Style: Eight Models of Unbuilt Houses by Frank Lloyd Wright 1892-1901” includes models built by students of Paul Kruty, a professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
An opening reception is scheduled from 5-7 p.m. on Sept. 9 at the gallery, 230 W. Superior St., Chicago. I space gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
