[15][16] Jan Cicero Gallery represented notable artists including: abstractionists Carol Diehl,[17] Laurie Fendrich,[18] Virginio Ferrari,[19] Budd Hopkins, Vera Klement,[20] Susan Michod,[21] and Corey Postiglione;[22] Native Americans Edgar Heap of Birds,[23] Truman Lowe,[24] Jaune Quick-to-See Smith,[25] and Emmi Whitehorse;[26] early Chicago Imagists George Cohen[27] Theodore Halkin[28] and Evelyn Statsinger;[29] representational painters Arthur Lerner[30] and James Cook;[31] and artist/critics Keith Morrison[32] and Peter Plagens.
[49][1] She began more than a decade into adulthood, after marrying future lawyer and author Frank Cicero Jr.[50][51] in 1959, teaching Physical Education and Dance for six years, and having two children, Erica and Caroline (in 1965 and 1970), all of which sidelined an interest in art piqued when a high school teacher introduced her to Jackson Pollock and Abstract Expressionism.
[1][49] Through Postiglione's course, Cicero became aware of the large number of local abstract artists working in relative obscurity in the shadow of Imagism, which dominated the city's art scene at the time.
She hung the work of a second abstract group—the self-dubbed "Artists Anonymous,"[59] which included Carol Diehl, Mary Jo Marks, Tony Giliberto, Frank Pannier and Postiglione—on the empty walls of her large, newly purchased Evanston home and held an opening.
[42] In March 1977, Jan Cicero Gallery relocated to a rented space at 433 N. Clark Street, in a downtown Chicago red-light district being pioneered by a restaurateur, Gordon Sinclair.
[63][48] The gallery and other River North Association businesses took an active role in the dispute, which involved well-known Chicagoans Walter Payton, restaurateur Rich Melman, and Alderman Burton Natarus on the other side.
"[49] According to critic Carole Stodder, this often meant work with a concern for surface and formal properties over content or imagery, in which the artist's distinctive mark or process was visible.
[2][3][73][15] The gallery would continue to feature a wide range of abstract work from artists at various stages in their careers, including early or first solo exhibitions of Leslie Baum,[37] Laurie Fendrich,[74] Barbara Grad, Bonnie Hartenstein,[12] Sam Prekop,[34][75] and Dannielle Tegeder,[13] as well as shows of Frances Barth,[76] Barbara Blades,[77] geometric painter James Juszczyk[78][79] Karen Kunc,[80] Richard Loving,[81] Peter Plagens,[33] constructivist Martin Prekop,[76] Julie Richman, Jane Sangerman, color-field painter Richard Smith, Annette Turow, and Emmi Whitehorse.
Chicagoan and former "Monster Roster" painter Arthur Lerner and Debra Yoo would show both landscapes and still lifes,[30][63] while Keith Morrison and Bernard Williams created work incorporating African–American iconography.
[85] Exhibits that the gallery put up in a representational vein included the landscape surveys "Out West" (1989) and "Urban Sites" (1991), and the still life show, "Immovable Object" (1998).
[7] Well-known Native American artists that the gallery showed include Norman Akers, Rick Bartow,[65] Sara Bates, Joe Feddersen, Ted Garner,[66] Edgar Heap of Birds,[23] Truman Lowe,[24] Mario Martinez, Lillian Pitt, Duane Slick, Bently Spang, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith,[87] Kay WalkingStick and Emmi Whitehorse.
"[43] Critical response was positive; the New Art Examiner's Michael Freeman called "Native Streams" "one of the most successful group shows" he'd seen in a long time, unified by grace and subtlety, and lacking in stereotypes.
[26] Chicago critics Barbara Buchholz and Fred Camper noted the show's wide range of imagery and artistic expression, from recognizably Native American to the most contemporary.
"[49] In 1985, the gallery presented new work from veteran Chicago surrealist Evelyn Statsinger, who first came to prominence as a member of the 1950s School of the Art Institute-based "Monster Roster," which also included Leon Golub and June Leaf.
[94] Beginning in 1982, the gallery mounted four solo exhibitions of Halkin, who had reemerged after a period of inactivity with a new impressionistic style quite different from his earlier mythic, expressionistic work.