Monkeys surrounded by pits of fire that seem to engulf entire landscapes might not be suitable for all to view. If not accompanied by an impressionable youth, taking in the work of Nicole Gordon could prove enlightening if just short of terrifying.

A painter and sculptor, Gordon currently displays three distinct pieces of her work at the Chicago Cultural Center, on view through Oct. 4^th. Her stand alone totem pole presents a few menacing faces, but it’s in her paintings that viewers will recognize a confluence of stylistic variation moving through time along side what could be figured as cultural critique.

In her use of landscape painting as a backdrop for both Goodbye Cruel World - I'm Off to Join the Circus and Absolutely Curtains, Gordon at once nods to a European past with an eye on current cultural trends.  The structures resembling agape mouths of animals, which once clearly functioned as part of a carnival ride, now partially submerged by either a body of water or sea of fire, recall Mexican wrestling masks, but hollow and more menacing.

Surrounding each of these empty eyed structures are congregations of monkeys. Alone and in a natural state, one might find each cute or inviting, but once doffing a fez and surrounding tent-like enclosures, each monkey appears detached as to whatever horror may occur. In Goodbye Cruel World… fire threatens to destroy the animal’s habitat, but each monkey remains stoic, starring back at the viewer. Gordon doesn’t lend any of these monkeys a frown and as the various congregations, each perched on scant pieces of land, unaffected by the chaos that rages in the background, believing the artist’s work to be allegorical doesn’t seem like a stretch.

Scenes depicted in each work won’t necessarily afford viewers the luxury of easily dissecting meaning, but with the history of landscapes touching upon the lives of everyday folks, fez wearing primates potentially replace humanity in these images.

Absolutely Curtains, though, should be understood as a logical end to Goodbye Cruel World. In the latter, patches of grass and a few outcroppings of foliage adorn the area surrounding a waterfall. Painted a year later, Absolutely Curtains approximates the setting, but the land shows no signs of verdancy. Still each animal remains unmoved or unaware of the drastic changes that occurred.

Human protesters might parade around in front of the Art Institute, lobbying for unattainable goals, but Americans are generally perceived to be errant fools, working only towards an end that serves each individual with a kind of tangible treasure trove of electronics and modern day ephemera – clothes and the like. It’s not our fault, Gordon figures through her monkey subjects. We can’t help it. We just all like stuff.

The human population, responsible for drastic changes in climate and topography, today finds itself at a point where damage becomes irreparable. Unfortunately, we all don’t have such nice hats. Luckily, though, Gordon has a paint brush and a keen eye affixed on the future of the world.