In it’s final week at  Thomas Robertello Gallery is an exhibition of new photographs and video by Chicago-based artist Adam Ekberg.  Continuing with the use of lens-based phenomena, humble celebratory gestures, and primitive constructs, Ekberg further develops two distinct bodies of work; images created in the woods or nature, and images using his apartment as stage set.

While similar to the performative aspects of Ekberg’s interiors, the outdoor imagery, boundless in many ways, allows the artist to abandon certain restrictive elements and celebrate a personal communion with nature. The positioning of a flashlight on the ground creating an illogically placed beacon of light on the horizon, a duet of balloons in Precise Equilibrium; one helium and one filed with the artist’s breath, and a thrown handful of glitter all point toward self-portraiture minus the actual subject. In his video of a fuse slowly burning on the pavement, the gnarled line gradually disintegrates staining the pavement with a residue of gunpowder, evoking a whole life with beginning, end, unexpected twists, a past, present, and future.

Adam Ekberg resides in Chicago and graduated the School of the Art Institute’s MFA Photography program in 2006. Concurrently with this exhibition, he is participating in Elements of Photography at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, organized by Michael Green and (Re)Collect at the Hyde Park Art Center, curated by Francesca Wilmott.

A new Chicago alternative space named Slow, which opened its doors to the public this fall, is presenting the exhibition for the time being featuring new work by Chicago-based artists Benjamin Bellas and C.C. Ann Chen. Artist Benjamin Bellas creates work that connects philosophy, music, language, literature and visual art through the combined media of performance, video and sculpture. Often the work is object-based and becomes activated and complete only through the accompanying text. For this exhibition, one of Bellas’ projects consists of an 11 square foot section of the Pritzker Pavilion Great Lawn from Millenium Park vacuum sealed in a space bag and left to expand. The associated text poetically discusses the relationship between civilization and the land through the eyes of Bellas’ personal interactions. Artist C.C. Ann Chen works through painting, drawing and photography to examine the broad concept of space, both in urban and natural environments.  The artist will focus on universal events in the natural landscape, creating drawings and paintings from memory in an attempt to recreate these observations.

Both artists attended and currently teach at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Before attending SAIC, C. C. Ann Chen received her BA in Architectural History from the University of Maryland and Bellas received his BA from the University of Pittsburgh. The works in for the time being can be viewed at Slow each Saturday from 12-5pm.