Michael Reedy – EXPULSION Opening Friday, December 14, 2012 in Chicago

For those of you that attended our OBJECTIFY THIS exhibition, you may remember the incredibly stunning work of artist and professor Michael Reedy. His masterful figure drawings exposing their underlying layers of anatomy surrounded with whimsical flare made him a favorite among gallery viewers.

This is your chance to see more work from his stunning series of anatomically themed oil paintings.

EXPULSION revisits the Biblical theme of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, popular amongst humanist painters in the early Renaissance in part due to the opportunity it provided to display their virtuosity in representing nude male and female forms. An expert draftsman trained in traditional figure drawing, Michael Reedy combines his realistic depictions of Adam and Eve with elements from genres that fall outside the canon of art history—medical illustration and cartooning.

He therefore portrays the first man and woman not only nude, but partially stripped of flesh to reveal their underlying bones, blood vessels, and viscera, as in an anatomical atlas. Displaced from the familiar flora and fauna of Eden, they mourn their loss amidst surreal surroundings of psychedelic spirals, disembodied eyeballs, and grotesque monsters. This discomforting juxtaposition of clinical, naturalistic, and caricatural views of the body underscores the simultaneous absurdity and tragedy of human existence.

OPENING: Friday, December 14, 2012 from 5 pm to 8 pm

EXHIBITION DATES: December 14, 2012 – February 24, 2013

LOCATION: International Museum of Surgical Science 1524 N. Lake Shore Drive  Chicago, IL

RSVP to the opening via Facebook. We will be there!