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Art Tue Feb 09 2010
Hollis Sigler's Expect the Unexpected at Chicago Cultural Center
Hollis Sigler's Expect the Unexpected opened on January 30 at the Cultural Center, alongside relative newcomer, Angel Otero's Touch with Your Eyes. The side by side Chicago artists allow viewers both pride in the past and anticipation for the future of Chicago's art scene.
Sigler, who actually began her artistic career in strict realism, grew into her own with the striking colors, scratchy strokes, and child-like rendering of reality, evident in this sixty work series from 1981-2001. Her style was evidently impacted by Chicago's Imagist movement- a "faux naïve" craze that gripped the city in the 1960's, starting with Jim Nutt and his clan of Imagists. Sigler's crude depictions of femininity, life, and death, allow the viewer to experience her frustration and anguish- primarily relating to her fight against breast cancer. Sigler passed away in 2001 after battling her disease since diagnosis in 1985. Her work stands as a testament to her strength in the shadow of suffering, and her rapturous ability to incite discussion around the issues she addressed.
Hollis Sigler's Expect the Unexpected can be viewed through April 4 in the Sidney R. Yates Gallery of the Cultural Center.
