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Art Espresso is ArtScope.net's shortlist of recommended exhibitions.

Aleksander Balos
with
Sangram Mujamdar

March 18 - mid-April, 2005

Ann Nathan Gallery
212 W. Superior St.
Chicago, IL 60610
tel.: 312-664-6622
hours: Tues-Fri 10a-5:30p, Sat 11a-5p
http://www.annnathangallery.com/

As in Greek drama, or the more modern disciplines of mime, the body and its gestures serve as an instrument for expression. Alexander Balos continues to explore these figurative tensions in seven new works at Ann Nathan Gallery: both the forces of gravity, and the torsion of interpersonal actions.

As in previous works these large-scale paintings are an exquisite examination of flesh and muscle reacting to force, tensed or torsioned, writhing with an inner need to spring, or drooping with forlorn lassitude. Most often in these current paintings is a sense of gravity defied. Releasing his figures from earth's binding force, Balos finds new levels of gesture and compositional exploration, as in the free-fall contortions of Discovery of a Circle (oil on linen: 36 x 54 in), where the foreground figures grapple weightlessly, horizontal and hip-over-head. Overlaid on his observations of physicality the artist employs the figure itself as vocabulary: the pose of an arm, a hand, a head as well as the subjects' intensely concerted, joint efforts suggesting an implied anecdote. That the nature of the tale being told is, ultimately, left to the viewer makes this a body of work that rewards repeated viewing.

Contrasting Balos's taut classical nudes are a selection of contemporary images by Sangram Mujamdar, city inhabitants, some solitary, some marking time in that urban phenomenon, the queue. In Rainy Evening (oil on linen: 48 x 60 in.) the artist's attention to the many textures, reflective and matte, of the clothing and rain gear heighten the impression of individual isolation, despite the crowd; while Mujamdar's solitary figures turn away, seeming to turn a shoulder to the spectator as they contemplate some inner disappointment.

The figure, its gestures, its tensions: seven new paintings in oil by Alexandar Balos will be on display at Ann Nathan Gallery through mid-April, 2005. As always, Balos's paintings are well worth a special trip. Works by Sangram Mujamdar also accompany.

--Katherine Rook Lieber

Katherine Rook Lieber has edited ArtScope.net's Visual Arts reviews since 1998. Ms. Lieber is Editor and Associate Producer for ArtScope.net.

Editorial Note: Two exhibitions by Aleksander Balos have been previously reviewed by ArtScope.net. Aleksander Balos: Parables at Ann Nathan Gallery was reviewed in March 2001 (http://www.artscope.net/VAREVIEWS/BalosAleks230301.shtml). Aleksander Balos: Martyrs and Sinners, and Meltem Aktas: Paintings: The Mystical Realism of Eastern and Western Spirituality, also at Ann Nathan Gallery, was reviewed in October 1999 (http://www.artscope.net/VAREVIEWS/balos1099.shtml).