Tullman Collection Artist Riva Lehrer Show at Printworks Reviewed in New City

RECOMMENDED

Riva Lehrer is fascinated by how bodies intersect with the world. The subjects of her charcoal portraits are bodies with disabilities, but through Lehrer’s eye those bodies offer startling narratives on humanity. “If one inhabits a socially challenged body, one is virtually guaranteed a struggle between the truth of appearance and the truth of the self,” says Lehrer. Her new series, “Totems and Familiars,” applies each model’s self-made metaphors as navigational tools that guide or comfort them throughout their lives. The people in these drawings are all exceptional, sharing a serene presence that insists that we look. Actor Mat Fraser, whose body was altered by thalidomide, stares us down, confrontational and welcoming at the same time, illustrating Lehrer’s keen empathy. An earthen thickness imbues the portraits also, invoking willfully immovable trees prevailing over the storm. For example, Neil Marcus, whose dance, theater and poetry have been unhindered by cerebral palsy, sits in his wheelchair in knee-high water with a resolute acceptance on his face. It looks like he’s seen it all, and if he hasn’t, he will. There is Nadina La Spina, activist and teacher, who lost her legs to polio as a child. Her smile is a history of hard, well-lived life. It refuses sympathy. Not all of Lehrer’s subjects have disabilities, however. Her drawing of long-time friend and artist Rachel Youens is a masterpiece on devotion to being present, while her rendering of author Lawrence Weschler displays her affection for his superlative mind. Her models are exalted. Her drawings are friends; artist and art requiring each other uniquely. Lehrer explores the disabilities of the flesh and reveals the workings of the soul with a profound insight that might illuminate our own failings and weaknesses, and if we’re ready, inspire us to overcome. (Damien James)

Through October 25 at Printworks, 311 W. Superior, (312)664-9407