What Lies Beneath  
Josh Reames
Deb Sokolow  

Good Children Gallery is please to announce What Lies Beneath featuring the work of  Chicago-based artists Josh Reames and Deb Sokolow. Josh Reames has been focusing on the chair/figure combination in his recent body of work.
He is interested in relationship between people and the mundane object. By using the chair and figure as a jumping-off
point he has been able create an array of color combinations through layering and juxtaposing thinly palette-knifed
sections of paint. The work also touches on the line between abstraction and figuration; by titling the paintings "chair" or
"figure", the viewer is given context in how to look at an otherwise non-descript combination of color and marks. It's
similar to the image of Jesus on a piece of toast, the virgin Mary on a concrete underpass, or Einstein's face in a Fred
Ressler photograph - the human mind tends to see human figures or faces in things that don't actually depict them,
especially when given context.   

Deb Sokolow's most recent drawings come from an ongoing investigation into a conspiracy theory that claims a
large underground headquarters was built by and for The New World Order beneath the grounds of Denver
International Airport. 


Back Room - Under the Influence  
Stephen Collier  
In the back room Stephen Collier will be exhibiting, Under the Influence, This installation of video, painting, collage,
and neon explores the psychology behind control, authority, and motivation. The video entitled, Under the Influence
(Man’s Son), depicts a form taken from Charles Manson’s infamous 1969 mugshot. Gemstones recorded from the
Home Shopping Network and rendered galaxy scenes are layered over the original image transforming it into the
look of a kaleidoscope. The effect becomes psychedelic and mesmerizing. The video is based from Rene Magritte’s
A Son of Man. Other pieces featuring painted black-light posters and collage also call to question the power of the free
love mentality and the influence of psychedelics on the human mind. 

Concurrent with Under the Influence, Closer to Nothingness, a solo exhibition by Stephen Collier of collage,
photographs, painting, and sculpture will be on view at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery August 4- 27.  

"Have you ever seen the coyote in the desert? Watching, tuned in, completely aware. Christ on the cross, the coyote in
the desert — it’s the same thing, man. The coyote is beautiful. He moves through the desert delicately, aware of
everything, looking around. He hears every sound, smells every smell, sees everything that moves. He’s in a state of
total paranoia, and total paranoia is total awareness." – Charles Manson