Chicago artist Anne Nordhaus-Bike has long gravitated toward themes that live in the in-between spaces—life and death, fear and reflection, darkness and beauty. This fall, her haunting watercolor painting The Killing Field was featured in The Mystical, The Magical, & The Macabre, a group exhibition at the Bridgeport Art Center that coincided with the decreasing light of autumn and seasonal traditions honoring the dead.
The show opened with a reception on Friday, September 19, in the center’s fourth-floor gallery at 1200 W. 35th St. It will remain on view through Friday, November 7.
“It means so much to have my work included in this exhibition,” said Nordhaus-Bike, who lives in Chicago’s Clearing neighborhood. “The themes of the show—mystery, awe, and fascination with darkness—are exactly the terrain I often explore in my own art.”
Nordhaus-Bike earned her B.A. in art history, with honors, from the University of Chicago, where she studied centuries of artistic traditions that continue to influence her work.
“I’ve always been fascinated by how cultures across time have used art to grapple with mortality,” she said. “That’s something that shows up again and again in my own practice.”
Her painting The Killing Field was created in 1998, a year marked by the death of Cambodian dictator Pol Pot. News coverage at the time showed mass graves and the remains of the millions killed under his Khmer Rouge regime.
“The image that stayed with me most was of piles and piles of skulls,” Nordhaus-Bike recalled. “Each one once belonged to a living person. The painting became my response to genocide and the stillness left behind after so much loss.”
Rendered in watercolor with burnt umber, raw sienna, and black, the painting layers earthy darkness with luminous bone-white skulls. A sliver of red earth suggests the blood shed by so many. For Nordhaus-Bike, the piece is as much about reflection and peace as it is about violence.
“Despite the horror, the painting ultimately rests in stillness,” she said. “In that stillness, there is space for reflection—and the possibility of grace.”
Curator Marci Rubin conceived The Mystical, The Magical, & The Macabre to invite artists to investigate the shadowy depths of existence and the beauty that can be found there.
“The exhibition coincided with Halloween, Día de los Muertos, and other global traditions that commemorate our ancestors,” Nordhaus-Bike explained. “It featured works across many media that conjured mystery and fascination with darkness. While darkness can certainly be frightening, it can also be a place of comfort, introspection, and even peace.”
The show embraced a wide spectrum of themes: witches and warlocks, ghosts and ghouls, skulls and skeletons, séances, tarot, and global rituals marking the passage between life and death. The result was an exhibition that invited audiences to thin the veil between the living and the dead while celebrating the uncanny, eerie, and enchanted.
In addition to her participation in Bridgeport’s exhibition, Nordhaus-Bike is preparing to showcase more skull and skeleton paintings at the West Loop Contemporary Fine Art Expo, October 17-19 at Plumbers Hall, 1340 W. Washington Blvd. “We’ll feature them in a special Halloween and Day of the Dead section of my booth, alongside my abstract landscapes and flower paintings,” she said.
Nordhaus-Bike said these exhibits are opportunities to spark dialogue about how art helps people navigate life’s most difficult truths.
“Skulls and bones can be terrifying, but they can also be funny, symbolic, or deeply comforting,” she said. “Ultimately, I want my work to invite people to reflect, to remember, and maybe to find peace in the stillness.”
