GMHNY GMIIOElYataliO Featherston's intens€lY

Nr*fi".i"#at"$.'t$t:tention she pa# to light and tex-tur" aoil'iLe tril'gifte iroperties ofluxurv foods recall 1.?th-centurYDutcf, still life painting' But whilethose oaintings wore meant toboth cirlebratJ ahd critique ttrewealth of thq bourgeoieie,'the pur-pose of these'is-Iess clear. Wewonder if 6he's going for a bit ofamused coumentary. on 21st-.century wretched erceas,, particu-larlv since the paintinss are est iDornite eold frames worthy of.reli-sibus i6ns. rBut-tbe perfection ofdrippiue choiblate is eom€how aueiritv - bevond criticism. How.o"ta *vo"l begrudge the world anerfect chocoLate cake?

'- These paintinsp maY just beabout the beauties of temPoraleensual lllegsurqg ,..nr- qqd if so,what bettpr subiect than food andwhat better way, to,memodqfige itthan oil paint? One f,int thirt thesepainti:lgi are as much about theContemplative joyr of Paiating asthey are about the eestasies ofdessert is that the paPer wraPPerson the petit foure sre painted withthe sam; deliriously lovi4i atten-tion as the whipped crearn on thekey lime pie. Another hint isFeatherston's other body of work,one exanple of which hangs itocon'gruously in this show. Thie tromPeI''oeil painting of a child's drawingof a cake taped to a board is dou-bly witty. It is aDother view of acake, but also an erquieitelY ren-dered illusioa.

Even the pager rvraPpers arepainted with lovlng cara ln

'Sweet Petit Treats," among theNatalie Featherston Palntlngs onexhibit at Poftals Ltd.

seneration's idea of pastoral peaceieiped over by a white man with agun and a sauce Pot.

Their weird sweetoess seeuu a

little crazy, thougb fls nnimals'particularly the bears, are trulYippealing. What we can't tell is ifthiy are coqplicit in the hierarchyor unwitting victime of a romanticview of bature as maufs PlaY-gound. We suEpct the latter.- A typicai inage is -The Vegetar-ian," a stiffly posed Portrait of a

man dressed as a French chefholding a platter in wbich sits alive hare. A turtle climbs uP hissleeve and a mail sits on bis shoul-der. These denizens of Flench cui-sine are showo here imProbablYasoets. Another shows a Lind of liv-i"i tot"m pole of fqrcst' nnimaie.McCauley seems to eoalnent onthe callousness of the human racethat presumes to rule over thegecreatures, '.readering ,a parody ofthe food chaio that showg howpompous and enviroumentallY de-itrudUve the old-fashioned notionof human domain ia.

Robert McCaule$ PerimeterGallery, 21O lY. Superlor, (312)266-9 473. Through Det. 24.

Featherston's paintings are art-ful beyond just illueiou and lrick-

"w;-U["v "i" truly masterftrl etilllifes, that most humble gelue,made with bst& crqft and rrit"

Natatle Feafherctoni Portalsl-td.,'i1z' il. wells, 1312' 642'1O66. Through,December.

Robert McCauley's stiltedpaintings of nnirnalg. posing withLuuterg aud other snimafu 166[like old illustrationa, eome other

view sf culhrre as a1',or1iirnic sys-tem/in a state of conebit flux'

MM Roblnsoni The LobbYGaltery, 731 N; Sangamon,,(312)432- 4327. thlough JaIr 8.

layereda focal

thepoint,