Regional painter reinvents renaissance art
Posted on Thursday, April 15 @ 10:12:19 CDT by barry
Janelle Greenwood [staff writer]

Every year in Champaign-Urbana, the budding trees arrive with fragrant white blossoms that mark the first signs of spring. Traditionally, flowers and greenery have symbolized the warming of the seasons, however, one regional artist wants to reveal spring through her own Renaissance vision.

Jenny Chi, an assistant art professor at Eastern Illinois University, currently features 34 paintings and chalk drawings at Verde Gallery, 17 E. Taylor St., Champaign, alongside the floral arrangements from local florist Rick Orr. The show, "Persephone and Flora: A Celebration in Spring," joins several artistic elements with a mythological flare. Verde co-owner Curt Tucker said, "Persephone is the Greek goddess of the underworld and springtime and Flora is the Roman god of spring."

The exhibition's main showpiece, "Persephone," really exemplifies Chi's mythological inspirations with a nude woman resting in a Grecian temple next to her dog. "I always admire what the old masters were able to offer: the handling of lighting, atmosphere, color and most importantly, the narrative contents. And that is a strong driven power for me to depict Greek mythology, since it has such romantic narrations," Chi said of her work.

The creation of her artwork obviously comes from a place where personal enlightenment meets creation. When looking at artists' work for the gallery, Tucker said that he tries to "showcase many different styles."

"(Chi's work) involves aspiration on her part. The process is important. The process involves creativity and inspiration," Tucker said. Chi can credit her diverse educational background to gain a wide perspective on this artistic process.

Born in Taiwan in 1973, Chi attended the Taiwan Junior College of Art and soon after came to the United States to earn her bachelor's at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill. In 1998, Chi went to New York City to study at the New York Academy of Art, where they stress a curriculum that focuses on the human figure. During her summer breaks, Chi traveled to Italy to the Florence Academy of Art, where she gained further appreciation for Renaissance painting.

"My love (in art) for the Italian Renaissance started way before I first visited Italy . I spent most of my summers in Italy , sometimes attending workshops, sometimes just doing independent researches," Chi said about her artistic passion.

Like the old masters of the Renaissance era, Chi also begins her paintings by first sketching figures to work out the images in her mind. Chi said, "I would do many sketches, just like the old masters, to find compositions, to solve potential problems on these drawings." These sketches take the form in the popular red chalk drawings included in the exhibition, which reveal the human figure.

All of the paintings in the exhibition were done in oil and Chi often uses linen as a canvas but occasionally paints on wood or copper panels. Among the mythological pieces and sketches, Chi also embraces still-life paintings in her work.

The still-life paintings use light and texture to depict common objects that Chi says "tickle her heart." The painting, Letter of Heloise and Abelard, shows the details of the letter and the books that surround it. "It might look like an ordinary still-life, but the hidden symbols and messages are abundant," said Chi of the work.

Letter of Heloise and Abelard frequently receives positive feedback from patrons of the gallery. Jeff Evans, who works in Verde's gallery, said, "You can see the words, the marbling of the paper and the reflection on the leather. Nowadays, people don't have the classical Greek background, but they can still respond to the painting qualities themselves."

As for Jenny Chi the artist, she said that she "would love to be known as a figurative artist, but in the art world today, the practice of such art is proven to be difficult."

"(Our society today) favors shock arts. The avant-garde world of post-modernism still prevails in most art schools and galleries."

Fortunately for Champaign-Urbana, Chi's unique artistic style can challenge this conception.

Persephone and Flora: A Celebration of Spring runs through May 1 at Verde Gallery.