Chicago artist Ann Toebbe builds her compositions from lived feeling as much as from floor plans. 3I find that when I work from my emotions and experiences, I make a more powerful image, Ann Toebbe writes. A recent review of her exhibition at Hyde Park Art Center by the writer Elisa Shoenberger sharpens the core idea at play: 3pace is the physical location, while place is the meaning we bring to it. Its the difference between thinking about the physical location of your house (space) and the feelings, history and emotions tied up in your home (place), Schoenberger writes.
Rendering interiors and cross-cut buildings in meticulous detail, Toebbe concentrates on a particular sensation or mood, then constructs architectural compositions that extend from that theme. Preliminary sketches and more elaborate drawings scaffold what becomes a final work on panel, often combining gouache, oil paint, paper collage, and colored pencil. While reference photos inform the scenes, each piece emerges with a manipulated layout and her signature skewed perspectives. I might extend a wall or include indoor and outdoor elements to make a layout snap together. I am always messing with how baseboards can divide and connect walls and floors. I might stack a composition or unfold it like a flattened box, she says. I love creating transitions with flow, and I try to avoid abrupt cropping.
Perspective as a Device
Toebbes stylized interiors typically mix reverse and parallel perspectivethe former enlarging objects as they move farther away and the latter keeping objects the same sizeplunging viewers into an uncanny world where pattern and texture reign. I like to change up working methods to give myself a new formal puzzle to solve, she adds. I usually have an idea of the materials I want to work with at the start, but everything is up for grabs as I work.
In Chicago, a group exhibition at Andrew Rafacz features some of Toebbes works on view through October 31. Recent and earlier titles trace the breadth of her approach, from intimate rooms to expansive, cutaway architectures:
- Jeanne Dielman (2024), gouache and oil on panel, 20 x 22 inches
- The Farm (Spring) (2023), oil and gouache on panel, 35 x 35 inches
- Overgrowth (2026), oil and gouache on panel, 35 x 35 inches
- Northside Southside (2023), colored pencil and pencil on paper, 35 x 35 inches
- Toys et Cetera (2026), 20 x 22 inches
- Family Room (Sister) (2017), gouache on panel, 22 x 18 inches
- Hardwood Floors (2020), gouache and paper collage on panel, 35 x 35 inches
- Crooked Lampshade
For more from the artist, Toebbe shares additional work on Instagram.
