Mary Burke and Roland Kulla: Art of Painting opens Saturday, September 12, 2015, 5 – 7 PM at ZIA Gallery. The exhibition continues through October 10th.
 “Straddling the line between spontaneity and control,” Mary Burke employs a vibrant and studied use of mark-making, color, and application of paint into which she introduces figurative elements referencing the natural world. Her new large paintings dazzle with joyous expression. By contrast, Roland Kulla works in a photorealistic style, fascinated by the complex engineering of early 20th century bridges and especially railroad bridges where the steel and rust add gritty, visual interest for the painter. This new body of work focuses on the bridges of the south branch of the Chicago River. Roland Kulla continues to elicit terrific response through his efforts to show “the beauty that can be found in ordinary objects” – and his object of choice continues to be the bridge. The newly revised book Roland Kulla: Railroad Bridge Paintings will be unveiled at the opening.