Hyperallergic reviews Larissa Borteh's solo exhibition "In the Wind" at Devening Projects in Chicago, featuring a dozen oil paintings that blur the line between still life and ethereal abstraction. The works, including "Glass House" (2025) and "Tending and Receiving" (2026), use thinned, viscous oil paint to create tactile surfaces that evoke plants in decay, ghosts, deities, or dreamlike visions. The review highlights Borteh's distinctive merging of image and elongated mark, reminiscent of fingerpainting, and her exploration of the spectrum between legibility and opacity.
The review matters because it positions Borteh as a compelling contemporary painter whose material individuality stands out in an era when many artists treat paint merely as a means to an end. The exhibition, organized by the artist-run gallery Devening Projects, continues a tradition of introducing noteworthy artists to Chicago audiences. Borteh's work offers a meditation on perception, transformation, and the beauty of decay, resonating with broader themes of dislocation and the haunting nature of daily life.