L ee Grantham, whose new show “Reverse Acrylic Paintings” is at Jean Albano Gallery through February 24, is a Milwaukee-based painter whose work can’t escape the Chicago Imagists’ long shadow.
Grantham takes his imagery from instructional manuals, industrial
illustrations, and, occasionally, from art history. His Van Gogh tribute, Worth Cutting Your Ear Off For (1991), presents an outline of the artist with bandaged ear, his face blank save for a cartoonish mouth, and pairs him with a similarly featureless bodice- and panty-clad blond. Around these two central figures are various bits and pieces from Van Gogh’s paintings, as well as renderings of knives, scissors, paintbrushes, and paint tubes. I don’t know why Vincent and his scantily clad friend have no eyes or nose, but the rest of the imagery is straightforward enough. I suppose she’s meant to be the mythical prostitute he presented his ear to, but that’s an interpretive leap.
Through 2/24. Tue-Fri 10:30 AM-5:30 PM, Sat 11 AM-5 PM. Jean Albano Gallery, 215 W. Superior, 312-440-0770, jeanalbanogallery.com. F
