Damen Blue Line Founder Anna Cerniglia’s Johalla Projects has for some years now been the quiet champion of art made for the public, not the art market’s collectors. It’s a treasure unique to the city, and Johalla’s public art program took off as Cerniglia’s relationship with public officials such as First Ward Alderman Proco Joe Moreno grew. The current exhibition at the Damen Blue Line stop of Stephen Eichhorn’s “Climb/Reality” of imagined plant life is as much a continuation of this standing commitment to public projects and a cementing of its focus. In the mechanical context of the CTA station, Eichhorn’s imagery hearkens to the soothing imagined inner life of commuters caught in the grind of the city’s economic machinery. 1588 North Damen, johallaprojects.com
