Estudiotres, 5205 N. Clark, is presenting the work of artists who explore and give significance to drawing in their practice. Three gay artists are included: George Bowes, John Parot and Robert Lucy. The exhibit runs through Aug. 24.

The Leigh Gallery, 3306 N. Halsted, presents an exhibition of recent paintings of male and female nudes by Los Angeles gay artist Thom Bierdz beginning July 22. Bierdz is slated to attend the exhibition opening from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. that day and sign copies of his recent autobiography, “Forgiving Troy.”

The Andersonville Chamber of Commerce presents its annual Arts Weekend Oct. 5-7, running north and south of 5300 N. Clark St. Painters, sculptors and other visual artists may submit work for inclusion by calling (773) 728-2995 or visiting www.andersonville.org. Deadline is Aug. 1.

—P.V.

By Paul Varnell

Contributing writer

Over the past 15 years Chicago artist Michael Worley has quietly produced more than 50 paintings and drawings but never made any effort to exhibit them publicly, keeping them, as the Russians say of private literature, “for the drawer.”

Worley’s first venture into public display was “Perseus and Medusa,” an attractive contribution to “The First 40,” an exhibition sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Artists Network. After that initial public offering, Worley now plans to exhibit for sale a substantial number of his paintings for the first time at Northalsted Market Days Aug. 11-12.

Many of Worley’s paintings draw on themes from classical mythology that call for the inclusion of athletic males such as “Autumn or Bacchus,” or “Theseus and the Minotaur,” or a matched pair titled “Erastes” and “Eromenos,” the Athenian educational partnership of an older and younger man. Others draw on literary themes such as a scene from Dante’s “Inferno,” or Oscar Wilde’s decadent fable “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” or a scene from Racine’s “Phedre.”

The male bodies, frequently nude, are rendered in bright pinkish-orange flesh tones which not only draw attention to the bodies but give the paintings a marked vibrancy. Although there is available a premixed color for painters approximating flesh tone, Worley says he prefers to mix his own to get a better effect.

“Orange is my favorite color,” he adds almost needlessly.

Born in Wichita, Kansas, Worley, 57, received a doctorate in art history from the University of Chicago, where his dissertation was on the little known 18th century French sculptor Pierre Julien. Currently he works as an art historian doing research in a downtown Chicago gallery. The French neo-classical influence on his work is readily apparent. Although he describes himself as largely self-taught as an artist, he draws on the tradition of French artists such as Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David in the 18th century and the 19th century artist Ingres, whose careful attention to line Worley tries to embody in his own work. Among the moderns, Worley pays tribute to the 20th century gay American Paul Cadmus.

Although viewers will initially be drawn to the striking imagery in his paintings, Worley describes himself as primarily a formalist—by which he means that he pays particular attention to the distribution of light and dark in the paintings and to the vertical and horizon lines implied by the arrangement of the individual figures and objects. But Ingres was more than anything a master of the gently curving line, particularly of the human body, and this influence is visible too in Worley’s work—female in Ingres’ case, male in Worley’s.

A few of the paintings can be singled out for special attention. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” depicts a still-handsome Dorian in an attic with the steadily decaying picture which reflects his growing moral corruption. Dorian holds a mirror to look at himself, as if to assure himself that he looks nothing like the painting.

“Winckelmanns Traum” shows the great 18th century gay art historian Johann Winckelmann dozing while around him are nearly a dozen pieces of the classical statuary he spent his life studying, some of which seem to have come to life as he might wish or dream that they would.

The “Scene from Racine’s Phedre” shows the handsome but young and innocent Hippolytus rejecting in horror the sexual advances of his father Theseus’s second wife, the young Phaedra. Later in the story, of course, the angry and humiliated Phaedra hanged herself but left a note claiming that Theseus had raped her, causing Theseus to banish his son, ultimately causing his death.

And finally, a few of Worley’s paintings are polemical. “The Crimes of the Christian Church” depicts book burning, a modern televangelist, an inquisitor torturing a dissident from Vatican doctrine and a symbolically armless Madonna unable (unwilling?) to help suffering children.

Paintings by Michael Worley are on exhibit at Northalsted Market Days, Aug. 11-12, on Halsted between Belmont and Addison. As of Chicago Free Press deadline, booth positions had not been assigned.