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Moonlight Sleeping on a Midnight Lake

Mana Satellite / ADDS DONNA presents... Sonja Thomsen, Molly Brandt, Karolina Gnatowski, Jacob Goudreault, Matt Morris, Soo Shin, and Erin Washington.

September 11 - November 8, 2015 Opening reception Friday, September 11 from 6 - 9 pm, 2233 S. Throop

So often as artists we’re asked to explain our work in such unequivocal terms as to eliminate any chance for interpretation. Opportunities in all shapes and sizes, from grants to exhibitions seem to be doled out based on how neatly we pack ourselves into the appropriate boxes. Moonlight Sleeping on a Midnight Lake is a collection of works by artists whose abstruse tendencies push against such constrictions. Though varying widely in media and content, each use obscurity or even modesty as a strategy of resistance to the usual demands for our attention. They do not offer a standardized black and white answer to their work, but instead are comfortable with elements of ambiguity, uncertainty and doubt - challenging not only the marketable individualism of the commercial art world, but also the benevolent didacticism of the institution.

#Sonja Thomsen #ADDS DONNA #chicago il #Mana Contemporary #Moonlight Sleeping on a Midnight Lake #Group show #Art Opening

I\W: Is there a central focus to your drawings, material-based works, and sound pieces?

Michael Milano: Each one is surely coming from their own set of concerns. I sometimes don’t think I am very observant in the world, but I try to be in the studio, if that makes sense. I am trying to develop skills to be more acutely aware, and I think art is a great place to do that. I am good friends with Jessica Labatte and her work consistently makes me look at the world in new and fresh ways. She was producing all of these constructed still lives out of the detritus she found on the street, making me more aware of those materials and more observant in general. This is part of the reason I have been working with cloth lately. It is one of the oldest technologies and still one of the most ubiquitous. I am looking for small quotidian moments like the pattern of a jacket, the seam, fold, or drape of a shirt to inform what I do in the studio. Maybe there is a way to be very attentive to simple things in the studio in the hope that it translates to how I engage the rest of the world.

(Transitioning between several mediums, Michael applies the same method of parameters and permutations to both his sound-based and visual pieces. Applying an attentive eye to the studio allows Michael to transfer the same practice to real life, in turn bringing small, everyday inspirations from the street back to his drawings and textile works.)