'Watching “My 600-lb. Life” at the Gym' by Jessica Campbell
Photo: Ratko Radojcic

Jessica Campbell has been thinking a lot about how integral smartphones are to our lives. For her new solo show at Western Exhibitions, which opens April 14, the Humboldt Park–based artist (and author of the graphic novel Hot or Not: 20th-Century Male Artists) turns humorous high-tech moments into cartoonish, and occasionally nightmarish, “carpet paintings,” some of which are autobiographical. In Watching “My 600-lb. Life” at the Gym (pictured), Campbell depicts herself climbing a StairMaster while peeping the reality show on her iPhone. “It’s a sort of voyeuristic TV show,” she points out, “but also watching this on my phone at the gym just felt so creepy.”