Ötvös is a portrait artist of real and imagined characters. She will showcase paintings from major miles stones in her career. In her early works the themes were of emotions using the female form as her vessel. Her attention grew outward from the inner world, embracing fashion and attitude choices that she saw people make. While painting incidentally encountered people she recognized how a remembered image might be different from actuality. A combination of a technical experiment and the subject matter of representing the fragility of memory brought a series of free standing, see-through paintings. In her practice sketches were the first and very private steps, not to share publicly. When she came across a call for illustrations for a calendar to submit holiday recipe, drawing seemed the right form. Though never submitted, the “lock” broke open and the large-scale multimedia drawings of Irma May series got started. In fact, that sense of vulnerability facilitated autobiographical moments wrapped in the safety of the character.

Today Zsófia’s art is powered by storytelling expressed between these mediums and formats. The manipulation of surfaces fuels the message as much as the imagery does.

Guest Artist Melissa Kolbusz is the founder of WIRED jewelry.  She designs handmade, wearable artwork from reclaimed and surplus materials.  Marrying aesthetics and environment, Kolbusz salvages components such as rubber, alternator wire, tubing, and craft beer cans. One-of-a-kind and limited edition, these pieces are inspired by industrial wastelands, underwater creatures, and the Chicago music scene.  Melissa is a bold proponent of sustainability and solutions through her designs.

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