NORMAL – An exhibition of paintings and drawings by Jim Lutes, a professor of painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is on view through April 6 at University Galleries at Illinois State University.

Lutes will give a lecture at noon Tuesday at ISU. It is free and open to the public.

The exhibition, which opened Feb. 19, features works made by Lutes between 1995 and 2008, His paintings during that time fuse representational elements and abstract marks: images of landscapes, interiors and figures among abstracted networks of painterly swirls or cartoon-like blobs, which at times nearly obscure the painting underneath. He uses acrylics, egg tempera, oils and encaustic.

Critic David Pagel has described Lutes' work as "netherworld between intention and accident, spontaneity and formula."

Lutes, who was an associate professor in the ISU School of Art from 1995 to 1999, has exhibited in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Brussels and Kassel, Germany. His work has been included in the Whitney Biennial, the Corcoran Biennial and Documenta IX, and in solo and group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Valerie Carberry Gallery in Chicago.

A monograph with an essay by Terry Myers accompanies the ISU exhibition.

University Galleries is open from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday through Monday, 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday and 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday,

Call 309-438-5487 for information.