It’s hot out. It’s summer. You spend a lot of time on the back porch, looking at the alley… it’s how you get to know Trucks. You know what I mean, right? The Trucks that cart away anything metal from behind your building… a washing machine, old bike, window frame, car parts. The tires never look quite full, the doors are attached by coat hangers, and… there’s something about them that’s so optimistic, so full of potential.

Go see John Himmelfarb’s show at the Chicago Cultural Center, through September 25. It’s a parade of Trucks painted, Trucks assembled, Trucks smelly, Trucks at the school dance. Himmelfarb’s paintings are material-intensive, active, tactile. You can tell that he really loves to paint and that he gets his whole body into it, which is why the Truck sculptures in the show are their natural partners. Some are squat, clay and earthy, others are anthropomorphic oxidized metal. All of the work seems highly narrative, as if the trucks are each characters with individual stories, burdens, experiences.

It’s a shame that the show didn’t accommodate the big trucks. In the past couple of years Himmelfarb has spent his summers in the country, welding together old Truck bodies and bulgy metal parts into mobile Truck sculptures. The latest, a 1947 REO Speedwagon, is piled high with rusty oil cans, farm equipment, and mystery objects. The Truck, named “Galatea,” is an actual mobile feast of nostalgia. Himmelfarb can be seen driving it down country roads in Wisconsin’s Spring Green area. Watch the video…