“Allan Sekula: Polonia and Other Fables.”

Description
What Allan Sekula wants viewers to see in his oddly composed photographs is often invisible—identifiable only from captions, like the tree-covered CIA black site seen from across the lake just before the wrong film was confiscated, Kiejkuty, Poland, July 2009. Text plays a crucial role in the California artist's project, which is both documentary and conceptual. Most of the photos appear to explore the affinities between Chicago—which has the largest Polish population outside Poland—and Poland itself. But Sekula's essay and the quotations from economists, diplomats and writers scattered throughout the gallery reveal that Polishness is really the lens through which the artist examines universal concerns about money, family and social justice.Through Dec 13.—LW