For over four decades Chicago-based artist Jim Lutes has produced a varied yet unmistakable body of work that explores the specific tensions between figuration and painterly abstraction. Often discussed in the context of Chicago Imagism, Lutes’ distinct style draws from an expansive set of art historical sources that blends elements of West Coast Funk, Abstract Expressionism, and postmodern appropriation. He overlays ribbons of gestural brushstrokes to both reveal and obscure darkly comic tableaux that shimmer in and out of legibility. The suite of works presented in his exhibition Solo, No Solo at GRAY showcases the painter’s most recent works as he pushes his medium—specifically, his distinctive blend of egg oil tempera—to its material limits. View the virtual tour and intimate conversation above providing the viewer a deeper understanding of Lutes’ recent works.