An abstract vision inspires with its geometric playfulness
By Alan G Artner. Chicago Tribune, February 29, 2008
In just a few years, abstract painting will be 100 years old. For nearly 70 of those years, Thomas H. Kapsalis has been a practitioner in an art environment more interested in other things. But as an exhibition at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago not long ago confirmed, Kapsalis is one of the city's most inspiring painters of any persuasion, and the opportunity of seeing more of him should always be taken. He presently shows 10 canvases, from 1973 to 2005, at the Corbett vs. Dempsey gallery. They are rigorous and geometric but not always pure. Which is to say, they depart from the Constructivism that lies behind them in personal ways that sacrifice none of the satisfaction of their precision but admit a striking playfulness. The "Chart" paintings from 1977, which are equally about color and words, and the 2005 "Kinetic Vision," which is value-enriched abstraction for the new millennium, are standouts - at once stern and quirky. But there's nothing less than persuasive here, demanding much, satisfying more. With collages by James Faulkner.
