Plants, Paper, Scissors

Stephen Eichhorn at Cairo.

At this five-month-old gallery space a few blocks west of Broadway (cattywampus from Top Pot on Summit), foliage hangs in two-dimensional bouquets, with every s piky tropical leaf or frilled fern frond exactingly cut from National Geographic magazines and ’70s-era paper wall hangings. Chicago artist Stephen Eichhorn’s House Plants are crafted with a generous margin of negative space that holds the green world apart, the plant imagery floating. We’ve seen flower paintings before, and do not need to be told again of a flower’s beauty. To take (and ask for) this much time to look at a plant (to paraphrase Georgia O’Keefe) requires a careful attention. These collages reward it.