Lora Fosberg: Yes to Everything!
Friday, June 2nd thru June 30th, 2006

Linda Warren Gallery is pleased to present Lora Fosberg’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, “Yes to Everything!,” in which she continues her exploration of the contemporary human condition and further develops her language as a visual artist/social commentator/shrink. (Not literally… though Fosberg sometimes does draw on actual doctor’s prescription notepads to seemingly offer up remedies, though definitely no cure, to the sickness and dysfunction of our lives). Using the recognizable language of the comic world as the basis of her well-crafted work, Fosberg cleverly and unpretentiously matches form with content and gives a fresh look at familiar ground the “stuff” of our every day lives; the trials and tribulations; the foibles and frailties of our being; the interrelationships of diverging and contradictory emotions; the universal. She reassembles her drawings and text into collages mounted on panels, or a series mounted together as an installation (that could be hung innumerable ways) that allows her work to be read like a visual journal, one in which all the pages become visible at once but are undetermined by the traditional narrarative set by the linear passage of time. Small vignettes are enough to elicit a stream of consciousness of unpredictable associations. And hence, the designation of shrink – she won’t give you the answers – she raises the issues and obliges us to figure it out for ourselves.

In the piece entitled “The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell” (though hopefully there may still be a sequel in store) Fosberg takes off from where she left off after her recent exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago’s 12 x 12 space in January 2006 where a large piece (4″ x 12″) entitled “The First True Story I’ve Ever Told” was on display. As before, the piece is comprised of phrases Fosberg has jotted down over the years in her journals, whether of simple (though profound and often very witty) observations she has made of life, conversations she has had or overheard, lyrics of songs that ring true to her, are all rewritten, collaged and rearranged randomly to create an extremely engaging composition (that nonetheless connects to the familiar and universal of the viewer).

The notion of exposure and exposing oneself runs rampart throughout Fosberg’s work. Beyond the occasional nudity, both spiritually and psychologically, layers of ideas and emotions are laid bare. To further this point, Fosberg continues to utilize a newer technique in which she pours paint over raw silk on stretchers. The silk’s translucence suggest skin to the visible skeleton of the stretcher bars and a peeling back of the onion making the “self” more revealed. The information in much of these works is pared down to a minimal, as in “The Silent Mushrooms Call Us Into the Forest” were the open space, removed from human drama, suggest the best cure of all: refuge from the deluge of all the “stuff” of our lives.

Also featured “In The Office” is Zach Taylor’s new body of work made in the month of May 2006. These pieces were made in response to recent discoveries, the change of seasons, and one dark, compelling secret.

Lora Fosberg, who resides in Chicago, received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute in 1992. She has exhibited in galleries throughout the country and her work is in many private and corporate collections. Zach Taylor has shown many times in the gallery and throughout the county. He currently resides in Chicago and also attended the School of the Art Institute for his BFA.