Alan Pocaro reviews the exhibition Alain Biltereyst: Notes at Devening Projects + Editions, Chicago, on view through October 12, 2013.
Pocaro writes: "The twenty-five untitled panels that line the East Garfield Park gallery’s project room evoke the sort of slick signage that proliferates in the urban landscape. Crisp lines, flat, decorative color and primary shapes simultaneously recall the authority of traffic signs and the seductive nature of corporate advertising, betraying Biltereyst’s background in graphic design. Close examination reveals frayed paint edges and scarified surfaces reminiscent of a boxcar tagged one too many times. Taken as a whole, the works in 'Notes'—nearly all of which are the same size and occupy the same wall position—vibrate with the vitality and familiarity of billboards passed rapidly on a suburban interstate."