Nov 30 – Jan 12, 2001

*sound design by Jesse Goffin

Monique Meloche is pleased to announce her first solo show with Alison Ruttan. Ruttan’s sexually charged photo-based work and sculptures may be familiar to Chicago audiences from previous exhibitions with Beret International Gallery in the mid-1990s. Since that time Ruttan has refined and delved deeper into her exploration of pornography as source material and will exhibit her most recent videos in a series animated from original pornographic film footage. Beyond the inherent sexiness of the subject matter, Ruttan manages to balance a serious historical study of modern painting with Disneyesque comic genius. The title CHROMOPHILIA, adapted from David Batchelor’s book Chromophobia about the problem of color in the Western cultural imaginary of the last two centuries, offers and interesting entrée into Ruttan’s highly charged oeuvre. While the last video bob,bob made reference to Miro, Ruttan’s frieze-like double projection revels in its relation to Matisse’s Dancers both coloristically and gymnastically all set to a soundtrack sampling Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” Also on view is a single-channel video manipulating obese porn titled NANCY in reference to the vintage comic. Sexy, comic, and serious-this work shows an artist deliberately toying with conventions and creating significant work dealing with the history of modern painting and the public and private self. Ruttan currently teaches at the University of Chicago. Her video bob,bob was included in an ongoing exhibition at Virgin Airlines San Francisco International Terminal this year. Other recent group shows include “Aural Sex” at Catherine Clark Gallery and “Peep Show” at the Living Room in SF, “Because Sex Sells” at Nikolai Fine Art in NY, and “Out of Line” at Chicago Cultural Center

Friday Oct 9, 2001

Laura Mosquera’s paintings and drawings feature people drawn from contemporary culture adrift in fields of color and patterns that combine to form an unreal background of spatial dislocation. Depicting a web of relationships with no set narrative, Mosquera’s work describes the anxiety of detachment while representing the beauty of shared experience. Suggestive titles like “There’s Something About to Happen Again” and “Interesting Things Will Begin to Develop” along with extreme attention to detail simultaneously belie and reveal the complexities of the art world in which she participates and the human condition in general. Mosquera studied architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and received her BFA in 1996 and MFA in 1999 in painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Mosquera currently has solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago – the first in their new series “12 x 12: New Artists/New Work” through October 28th, and at the Savannah College of Art Design through Nov 12th. New work can also be seen at DeChiara Gallery in NY in a group show “Slice of Life” through Nov. 10th. Watch for a new public work with 8 billboards opening later this fall in the Red Line subway station at Chicago Ave. and State Street curated by MCA curator Staci Boris for the CDOT “Adopt A Station” project.

Friday Sept 7, 2001

Carla Arocha will create a site-specific installation with paintings & photo-based work at moniquemeloche gallery.

Arocha’s exhibition Underground will deal with terrorism, specifically inspired by her reading of Haruki Murakami’s book of the same title about the Sarin poisoning of the Tokyo subway in the mid-1990s. The artist is particularly interested in the effect of Sarin poison on the eyes—an acute contraction of the pupil bars the entrance of light. In previous work, Arocha has explored ocular effects, both optical and biological, relating to patterns. Born in Venezuela, Carla Arocha lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium, and Chicago. She has exhibited her work at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and has had solo shows in New York, Brussels, Bloomington Hills, and Milwaukee. Current group shows include: an exhibition of Latin American artists curated by Victor Zamudio-Taylor travelling (2001-03) through Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico, and Spain; Colectiva/OPerativa curated by Tobias Ostrander including Carla Arocha, Ross Bleckner, Polly Apfelbaum, and more at the newly reopened Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City; and The Big Show Part 2 Healing curated by Wim Peeters Part 3 Ideal Home co-curated by Julieta González and Jesús Fuenmayor at NICC, Antwerp. Arocha’s installation HIDE/ROVER is also on view at the MCA, Chicago thru April 2002.

Thursday, Aug 23, 2001

moniquemeloche invites you to a special 1-night event: “SHOW US SOME SKIN”, featuring new sculptural garments by CAT CHOW from her “Second Skin” series. Using flesh-toned hospital bands, band-aids, and nipples Cat Chow continues to explore the intersection of art and fashion in her new series. Her project is partially supported by a grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency and is on view thru 8/31.

Also on view is related work by gallery artists Carla Arocha, Hans Askheim/Irina Melsom, John White Cerasulo, Robert Davis/Michael Langlois, Laura Mosquera and Allison Ruttan, with special guest Jason Pickleman!

Don’t miss our neighbor Hollis Funk’s event that same night starting at 8pm. An evening of fashion and furniture design by recent grads of SAIC – Fashion show 9pm $10.

Jun 22 – Jul 28, 2001

Using its walls for the first time, Monique Meloche gallery will enter summer with a group exhibition called mixer: a combination of gallery artists and other young artists working both in and outside of Chicago. Painting is prevalent in mixer, with artists Hans Askheim/Irina Nissen Melsom, Joe Baldwin, Rob Davis/Mike Langlois, Dzine, Gabert Farrar, Laura Mosquera, Christopher Patch, and Pamela Wilson. Both abstract and representational painting is featured, with some artists exploring issues of collaborative painting. MMG has also thrown into the mix, large digital video stills by Alison Ruttan, who references Post-Modernist painting by manipulating pornographic films-here an exporation of obese porn, and an object installation by José Versoza concerned with relationships between family, identity, culture, fantasy and failure.

May 4 – Jun 9, 2001

In the new installation “I Borrowed My Mother’s Bedroom”, Ross has traveled to ask a favor and returned withevidence of that favor granted. He places himself in yet another personally precarious situation to present a meticulously rendered portrait. More info from Ten by Ten Magazine here!