Art Shay

The Chicago Reader points to a new Art Shay photographic exhibition, Art Shay True Colors, which opens this Friday at Thomas Masters Gallery (245 W. North Avenue in Chicago) and runs through February 15. A bit out the way from my office in the Loop, but a show I'd definitely like to see from the venerable artist.

Incorporating his known poetic punch and blunt bravery, Shay True Colors exhibits the peaks of our history with life’s softer moments and fresh perspectives of fleeting irony. From a man joyous and green working on the el to mourners over Martin Luther King’s open casket, we see Shay's roaming, unceasing perspective upon more than five decades.

Which reminds me that I really need to move Shay's Chicago's Nelson Algren to the top of my wish list. And not just because I'm absorbed in reading Algren at the moment.