CHICAGO.- Intimate and ideal, the spaces depicted in artist Melanie Schiff’s photographs provide a voyeuristic glimpse into the most private of interiors. The May UBS 12 x 12 New Artists/New Work exhibit features four large-scale photographs, three of which have never been seen before by the public, on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, opening at First Fridays on May 4 and running through May 27.

This collection of images captures interior sites where creativity flourishes—an artist’s studio and a room at a famed recording studio—but Schiff’s signature use of light lends the subjects a calm, quiet, and ethereal quality. The exhibition’s centerpiece, Cannon Falls (Cobain Room), is a large diptych that depicts the interior of the Kurt Cobain room at Pachyderm Studios in Minnesota. In addition to the ghostly quality of the light, a nude female figure that appears in one half of the diptych has disappeared in the other, leaving only an imprint behind. The remaining two photographs, Studio, a well lit but private studio, and Water Birth, a quiet and tranquil bathroom, show the artist’s concept of idyllic spaces.

Schiff received her BFA from New York University in 1999 and her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2002. Schiff leads a gallery tour of her exhibition on Tuesday, May 15, at 6:30 p.m.

May’s “greed” theme for First Fridays is the fifth of the seven deadly sins themes for First Fridays. The MCA invites guests to pamper themselves with glam makeovers by Polish; browse the MCA Store; listen to the sounds of DJ Kate Simko; enjoy the iMac Digital Dating bar; and dine on Wolfgang Puck hors d’oeuvres. Specialty drinks featured for the evening are the Moolah Martini and the Cash Cosmo.

Tickets for First Fridays include museum admission and complimentary Puck’s hors d’oeuvres, and are available the evening of the event for $15 ($7 for MCA members). Advance tickets are $10 ($7 MCA members) available through the MCA Box Office at 312.397.4010 or www.ticketweb.com. Doors are open from 6-10 pm. A cash bar is open until 9:30 pm. Guests must be 21 or older to enter.