Rhubarb...rhubarb, rhubarb...rhubarb...
An Exhibition of Drawings by Anthony Elms

Opening reception Thursday, February 2, 6-9pm
Open Thursdays in February 6-9pm
or by appointment

Rhubarb...rhubarb, rhubarb...rhubarb... presents a handful of drawings by Anthony Elms, a side of his production that rarely sees the light of day. The works revolve around still life, and while tabletops and foodstuffs may not always be prevalent, the drawings have never left the realm of the small gesture, the quiet scene, the domestic, the minute, the day to day. Consider it an interest in material culture, and the ways we belie our philosophies through our domestic routines more tellingly than in our public pronouncements. The works sometimes translate photographs, sometimes are drawn from life, or sometimes try to copy Krazy Kat, and are handmade with pen on paper, because Elms is a scribe after all. Somehow, the titles are important. If the drawings ever attained the level of a visual aphorism, he'd die a happy man. Elms' drawings are needlessly time consuming, but then again, nothing says art like borscht.

Anthony Elms overcame his youth as just another punk in Michigan to become the assistant director of Gallery 400, the editor of WhiteWalls, and a writer whose works have appeared in like every freakin' magazine ever (except Artforum, whatever), plus in some exhibition catalogs for stuff that didn't happen at VONZWECK, but was still ok. He's pimped himself out at times; and participated in some panel discussions, but I think the panel discussion is always a bad idea, always. Anthony agrees.

As an artist, Elms' works have been included in projects exhibited at Artists' Space (New York), Boom (Oak Park), Gahlberg Gallery (Glen Ellyn), Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), Mess Hall (Chicago), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Randolph Street Gallery (Chicago), Suburban (Oak Park), and Temporary Services (Chicago), among others. He is--allegedly--a member of the world's greatest rock band; Butterfly Fucking a Unicorn, which he believes should be printed as one compound word, and he may have attended U of C at some point.