In his 2006 Kelly Creek Breakdown, Jim Lutes covers what might otherwise have been a simple, pastoral painting with a mess of color wrought in chunky, swirling brushstrokes. The title creek disappears almost completely; a fringe of mountaintops is the only clear landmark. Lutes returns to Kelly Creek for “Dumb Country,” his new show at the Valerie Carberry Gallery. But this time the abstract overlay is gone. It’s been displaced into a “boulder” of trash that sits, encased in transparent urethane, at the center of the exhibition space. On the walls around it: four towering landscapes—six-and-a-half to nearly eight feet tall—depicting views to the north, south, east, and west of the creek.
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Through 1/28: Mon-Fri 10 AM-5 PM, Sat 11 AM-5 PM, Valerie Carberry Gallery, 875 N. Michigan, ste. 2510, 312-397-9990, valeriecarberry.com.
