You could call Patrick Wilkins’s solo exhibition at Extase a sausage party—but his punny ceramic wieners are just a taste of this show’s irreverent joy. “Indiscriminate Sincerity” includes 16 hot dog sculptures divided into two sets of eight that flank both sides of a converted closet in the Humboldt Park apartment gallery. Each is painted brick red (save for two that are unpredictably gold) and features a unique face with an exaggerated expression: one threatening the viewer with kisses from elastic lips, for example; another with eyes bulging like a cartoon wolf and an open mouth revealing two tiny rows of teeth. It’s work that reminds us of what sustains while playing with taboos.
Wilkins came to Chicago from Elkhart, Indiana, in 2015 to pursue his MFA at the School of the Art Institute. His work is saturated with the midwestern warmth of welcoming a neighbor with a pyrex pan of hot dish. Simultaneously, it challenges that sense of repressive austerity the region is known for. His colors are bold—a palette straight from Sesame Street—and he enjoys a liberal use of patterns: checkers, stripes, grids. While some of his paintings feel more overtly naughty—for instance, Comfort, which shows a flat-chested figure haloed by flower petals tweaking its own nipple—even the most neutral pieces, like the paint lids nailed to boards and outfitted with dramatic faces, ooze something cheeky. Why is that?
Through April 3, Extase, gallery hours by appointment, address given upon appointment, info@extasechicago.com, extasechicago.com.
