The night air around Soon-Yi Previn, as Mari Eastman has rendered it, is overbearing. Surrounded by short, effusive brushstrokes, Previn’s impervious silhouette is further peppered by inky blue daubs. A chatty young Moses Farrow stands beside her, the red folds of his jacket matching an awning above (Soon-yi and Moses, 2021). The poolside portrait of a girl that opens ‘Night Life’, Eastman’s second solo exhibition at Goldfinch in Chicago, is executed with similar aplomb. Untitled (Sanded Painting) (2021) is atmospherically grey-pink and lavender; the girl, bored but assured, sits with one leg propped up. Any rococo resonances, however, are challenged by her completely sanded face and body; the abrasions give the effect of splitting light.

Painter Mari Eastman has spent the better part of the last two decades cultivating a visual aesthetic that is at once breezy and self-assured. Pastel-hued, effortlessly touched and twinkling with glitter, the works in the artist’s first solo show in Chicago in years are tonally, if not stylistically, kindred spirits to paintings by Rebecca Morris …

Mari Eastman, Newcity Read More »

Soccer Club Club, owned and operated by Drag City Records, brings together curator Mari Eastman’s work along with artists Rebecca Morris, Mary Weatherford, Anna Sew Hoy and Allison Schulnik for “The Noise of Art.” Judiciously hung, this group exhibition uses the more nuanced aspects of the space to the artists’ advantage, like the coat closet …

Paintings Glow in a Repurposed Northwest Side Bar: A Review of “The Noise of Art” at Soccer Club Club, curated by Mari Eastman Read More »