Curator: Corey Postiglione, Columbia College Chicago

Artists have historically been inspired by cultures and places not their own whether they be exotic or just different.   Classic examples of this enduring genre would include such figures as Gauguin's infatuation with Tahiti, Turner's and Whistler’s love affair with Venice.  Matisse drew on the architecture and lush decorative patterns of North Africa for his Moroccan Series of the early teens.  Several of the more contemporary American Earth Artists such as Michael Heizer and Robert Smithson found there inspiration for their monumental site-specific works in remote areas of the southwestern United States.  This exhibition brings together some two-dozen contemporary artists who continue in this tradition of response to place.  Works in the exhibition are represented in a variety of media from more traditional sketchbook drawings and collage, to more conceptual forms including altered photographs and video installation. In concert with the different mediums used, there are equally diverse approaches to image making in that some are more spontaneous, on the spot recordings while others are more elaborately constructed and finished.