Oil Dixie

Last May I posted about plans to resurrect the Dixie Square Mall - most famous for a scene early in The Blues Brothers - in Harvey, south of Chicago, making way for chain big box retailers. As of last month the city was getting ready to hand over the land the developer, with a target date of store openings of May 2007. Now in its 40th year of life and with its days numbered, the Mall is the subject of some oil paintings at Kavi Gupta Gallery at 835 West Washington in Chicago.



Angelina Gualdoni painted a few views of the mall, spending "several days of pouring and staining...taping to establish crisp architectural lines...[using] thicker, more viscous oil paint to build up figures, whether it's weeds, dirt, or trash," according to this post at BLDG|BLOG where I discovered the works.

The exhibition runs until March 11.