2012 is here, and it'll be blowing past us faster than we can imagine.  Time flies no matter where you are, but when you're in the art world, you're usually thinking a season or two ahead, so we wanted to take the chance to think about about winter and the here and now while we could.  Our January-March 2012 issue is out, and soon we'll be planning for April-August, see what we mean about the time flying by? 

Our website is now packed with tons of information about new gallery shows, exhibiting artists, gallery specialities, galleries and spaces that are new on the scene, and more. Click through our pages to find what you're interested in already, or to discover what you might want to learn about in 2012. Also be sure to read the latest interviews with artists, collectors, and dealers.  Above all, have fun and go out and discover all there is to see and do. Chicago can be a rough place in the winter, but not if you know where to go to stimulate your mind and keep your spirit warm!

- CGN

Here is our list of places for you to start your 2012 art discovery:

• The winter gallery season opens on January 6 so if you're free, come check out the new shows and then hang around the districts for dinner with friends to chat about all you've seen. The shows will be up for awhile, at least until the next round of openings in February.  If your new year's resolution is to see more art (we think it should be!) then this is the night to start. Of course, you can visit the galleries any time, but Friday night is the most social scene.  The January 6 list may be found on our openings page, as well as the rest of the openings schedule for January-March 2012.

Gallery hoppers in Pilsen East for 2nd Fridays, taking place in the Chicago Arts District each month.

• Saturday gallery tours start up again on January 7 (and they don't take a break until Memorial Day since they happen every Saturday). The River North tours are always popular, even in the freezing cold, but we encourage you to make the trip to the West Loop in 2012 for a tour if you haven't yet.  River North tours take place weekly, but West Loop visits are only every 6 weeks.  Saturday afternoons are a great time to visit the galleries around Washington + Peoria and along Fulton Market, since the hubub of the Randolph restaurant scene is still in a quiet pre-dinner phase, and the meat packers playing frogger with their palette lifters aren't zipping around while you're trying to cross the street.  These tours are FREE and they give you total access to dealers, and sometimes visiting artists. Many tour-goers have become regulars each week and some have also become collectors!  The winter schedule of dates and participating galleries may be found HERE.

• Attend an open studio or weekend gallery walk.  Free tours are great, but there are less structured ways to just grab your friends and dive into a neighborhood art center or studio building.  Practically every neighborhood in Chicago has banded together by now to organize a regular monthly event. Check out our full list here, and make the trip to Bridgeport, Pilsen East, Oak Park, Crystal Lake, and beyond. Places like the Chicago Arts District, Lacuna Artist Lofts, Bridgeport Art Center, the Zhou B Art Center, and Lakeside Legacy in suburban Crystal Lake have been running these 1st, 2nd and 3rd Friday events for awhile, and they've gained a following!

• Visit a museum - one that you haven't been to before. Chicago is home to a lot of amazing smaller museums.  We adore the Art Institute and the MCA as much as the next art-lover, but we also want more of you to check out the Block Museum, the Smart Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Elmhurst Art Musem, the Renaissance Society, the Driehaus Musuem, as well as out of state destinations worthy of a road trip, such as the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University, and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.  Here is our long list of museums you should see.  Our calendar of events lets you know what's on now.

• Attend an auction or a visit a market.  Everyone loves treasure hunting, and Chicago has some outstanding resources for discovering art and antiques on the secondary market.  Save the dates for some upcoming auctions at Leslie Hindman on Lake Street in the West Loop. Hindman's Marketplace Auctions (January 11-12) are fun for beginners, as basically, anything goes. You can rifle through eccentric collections or pick up unique furniture that just needs a little TLC in order to be perfectly at home in your house or apartment.  Bidding in person or online raises the stakes for some competetive fun.  You can preview the sale online in advance and also visit to see pieces in person during days leading up to the auction.  On the market side, the Randolph Street Market is now taking place all year long!  Don't miss the first Wonderful Winter Market February 4-5.  Besides a lot of great things to admire and bring home, there's free parking and furniture delivery! Details here.

• Take an art class this winter.  Seeing art more often is a great idea, but what about giving it a try yourself?  You don't have to aspire to launch your own career as an artist, but you will most likely discover a range of pleasures that go along with learning a new skill and getting to be artistic in the company of others.  There are several notable centers in the area where you can sign-up to learn any number of specialties.  Give it a try this season! Below are some art centers to get you started, but there may be an organization in your neighborhood that has programs worth exploring as well.  Whatever you do, be inspired and be creative!
 
Lillstreet Art Center Founded in 1975 and today located in a former gear factory in Ravenswood, Lillstreet has a range of classes + opportunities starting next week.  Check out exhibitions and installations for inspiration, as well as visit several artist studios.  Adult classes include metalsmithing + jewelry, painting and drawing, ceramics, textiles, glass, and more.  Kids + family programs are also available. Lillstreet.com

Evanston Art Center + The Art Center Highland Park
On the north shore, the Evanston Art Center offers classes and workshops, for people of all ages and levels of experience, taught by professional artists.  Register online for winter classes that begin January 9. Classes match any interest, from learning to make a cocktail hat, experimenting with lithography, exploring digital design, or navigating the business of art: marketing, ceramics, fashion, painting, and metal sculpture. Evanstonartcenter.org

The Art Center in Highland Park also offers classes and workshops in the visual arts, and they host regular gallery exhibitions, special events and performances for class members and faculty, as well as local artistic talent.  Theartcenterhp.org

As Thanksgiving approaches and relatives arrive in the city, you’re looking for places to show your family, or maybe you finally have the time to escape the hustle and bustle of the holiday. The DuSable Museum of African-American History has several events taking place next week and past the holiday.

November 26^th at 8pm and 27^th at 7pm

DuSable presents Global Rhythms, the first concert series in the United States dedicated to American tap and contemporary percussive arts companies. Celebrate the holiday in the spirit of giving just by attending, as 50% of your ticket will be donated to Chicago based charitable organizations! Performances will take place at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park. Find more info HERE. 

Step Afrika 

Ongoing exhibitions: 

• Spread the Word! The Evolution of Gospel from Chicago to the World

Chicago gets into Gospel music each year downtown during the Taste of Chicago, but Spread the Word! goes beyond to celebrate the rich history of Gospel Music, focusing on gospel’s Chicago origins. Featured will be some of Gospel’s greatest singers, Chicago choirs, and “singing” preachers such as: Mahalia Jackson, Albertina Walker, The Thompson Community Singers, “First Families of Gospel” and Reverend Clay Evans. 

• EVERYWHERE with Roy Lewis is a testament to Roy Lewis’s unique contribution to African American photography and history. Lewis possesses an uncanny ability to not only capture an image, but to tell an engaging visual story. “In this exhibition, each photograph creates a narrative for the various expressions of the African American experience spanning five decades (DuSable).” 

• December 2-4 at the AMC River East theater DuSable will present KINYARWANDA as part of the African American Film Festival.

The story interweaves 6 different tales to provide a grand narrative of human resilience and life during genocide. In KINYARWANDA, a young Tutsi woman and a young Hutu man fall in love amidst chaos, a soldier struggles with being absent from her family to foster a greater good, and a priest grapples with his faith in the face of unspeakable horror. (DuSable) 

The DuSable Museum is located in Hyde Park at 740 East 56^th Place 60637 and is open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm and Sundays 12-5pm

*Closed on Thanksgiving day 

The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) offers an engaging range of exhibitions throughout the year, and like many arts institutions, their programming is possible due in part to the support from donors.  This Friday, the museum is holding their annual benefit auction to drum up that critical support.  Guests will be able to enjoy a festive party while mingling with other photography fans and artists. And the auction is tough to beat, as always.

After the benefit, MoCP is offering their current exhibition, Current Unseen, as well as an upcoming screening and lecture. Read on for all the details. 

The Party 

MoCP’s annual gala and auction this Friday, November 18th begins at 6pm at 301 N Justine St. This year’s theme is prohibition, so get ready for a night full of custom cocktails and rich art. The silent auction offers fine prints by established and emerging artists, and helps support the world of contemporary photography.

Click HERE for a preview 

You may bid on works by artists such as John Baldessari, Penelope Umbrico,  Theun van Rees, and more

Also available during the bidding are several photo ‘experiences,’ including personal portrait sessions with photographer Dawoud Bey and filmmaker/photographer Sandro. You can also bid on a behind the scenes tour of Christie’s, New York for you and a friend!  Absentee bids are welcome (call Jeff Arnett at 312.369.7779 to place a bid. He’s super helpful and really nice.)  Click HERE to purchase tickets 

Olivo Barbieri 

John Sparagana  

At the Museum:

Crime Unseen, MOCP’s current exhibition will run until January 15^th.

Featuring the work of 8 artists who actively engage with myth and reality as they question the roles of memory, the media, and evidence in solving and remembering crime. All of the artists in Crime Unseen grapple with a retelling of disturbing crimes. Using photography and other methods, the artists reactivate historical material and open it up to further contemplation. By drawing on techniques of photojournalism, forensic photography, and documentary landscape (Karen Irvine, Curator and Associate Director). 

Angela Strassheim, Evidence #11 

Upcoming Events

November 30^th from 6-9pm, in conjunction with Crime Unseen, MOCP will screen video work by artists considering the potential for everyday objects, ordinary surroundings and average people to become evidence of something beyond the familiar.

December 1^st at 7pm at the Glessner House Museum, Corinne May Botz will give a lecture about her Nutshell Series of Unexplained Death. Botz photographed a series of miniature crime scene models that were built in the 1940s and 50s by progressive criminologist and heiress Frances Glessner Lee to help detectives learn to better assess visual evidence.  

The Museum of Contemporary Photography is free and is located at 600 S Michigan Ave Hours are: Mon-Sa, 10am – 5pm, Thur 10-8pm+ Sun 12-5pm

Friday, November 18^th at 7pm, the National Museum of Mexican Art will be hosting a world book premiere for Chicanas of 18^th Street, a collection of testimonies from six Pilsen-based female activists. Meet the authors and take this opportunity to gain access to lessons learned from this movement and what it means for today’s Latino community. 

“Women discuss how education, immigration, religion, identity, and acculturation affected the Chicano movement (University of Illinois Press).”

Through in-depth interviews with the activists we get a look at the unique movements for social reform that took root and grew in Chicago’s South Side neighborhood.

“Highlighting the women's motivations, initiatives, and experiences in politics during the 1960s and 1970s, these rich personal accounts reveal the complexity of the Chicana Movement, conflicts within the Movement, and the importance of teatro and cultural expressions to the movement. Also detailed are vital interactions between members of the Chicana Movement with leftist and nationalist community members and the influence of other activists groups such as African Americans and Marxists (University of Illinois Press).”

Mary S. Prado, author of, Mexican American Women Activists: Identity and Resistance in Two Los Angeles Communities comments, “The personal testimonies allow readers to see the dynamics that transform community members into activists. This engaging study appeals to students and scholars of women’s studies, political science, sociology, and Latina studies.”

19^th street mural

Joe Allen, Pilsen resident, and author of People Wasn’t Made to Burn says, “Pilsen is a neighborhood that is aware of its own history, where the past is adored on the walls of the buildings and the viaducts that crisscross the neighborhood, but it doesn’t do it like a museum does to celebrate the past. [Rather, it is to] remember what has to be done today and the future.” 

Part of the Barrett Park mural on Cermak road  

Activism isn’t new to the historically revolutionary neighborhood and this book provides insights that have inspired and paved the way for future community members’ fight. 

Come a little early and check out the current exhibitions at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Dia de Muertos XXV (Day of the Dead), Neptuno, and Claro y Obscuro.

The National Museum of Mexican Art is located at: 

1852 W. 19^th Street, Chicago 60608

Normal hours are: Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm

Visits are always free

Call for more info: 312-369-9294

Now that we are well into October, we’re sure most of you have been able to get out and go to some of the amazing events that are being offered in honor of Chicago Artists Month. And, there are still two weeks left full of artwalks, open studios, opening exhibitions, and more. Plan ahead for a few events, such as the Ruth Horwich Award to a Famous Chicago Artist, being given at the end of the month to sculptor Richard Hunt. Here are our other highlights for this third week of CAM.

October 21-23: Artwalks, Tours, and Open Studios

 Artview in Lakeview Trolley Tour

On Friday October 21^st trolleys will run from 5-9pm to help you explore the Lakeview area galleries easily. The tour starts at The Leigh Gallery and stops at 11 other locations, including galleries and alternative art spaces. Start at The Leigh Gallery on Halstead and then you’ll make your way on the trolley to Slaymaker, Art de Triumph/Artful Framer Studios, and M & D Gallery. The seven remaining alternative art spaces are ID Chicago (a place that combines modern home-wear, eyewear and art), Gallery Swarm (an alternative space with varying styles of art), Loose Leaf Lounge (stop in and enjoy a cup of hot tea while viewing the local art show), Foursided (“Chicago’s most creative framework and art boutique”), Spare Parts (a place that showcases unique local designers), Real Art (artist owned custom framing gallery) and Spex (combines art and vision). The complimentary trolley tour also includes samplings of local food and beverages -  a perfect start to the weekend.

 Bridgeport Art Walk and Open Studios

The Bridgeport neighborhood is one of the city’s fastest growing communities of artists, and this weekend’s artwalk will have many of their groups and galleries teaming together to raise awareness of that. The event kicks off on Friday October 21^st with an opening reception from 6-10 pm hosted by the Artists of East Bank at the Bridgeport Art Center. On October 22^nd from 1-6pm and October 23^rd from 1-5pm there will be an array of activities to enjoy, including two guided tours, media festival events, panel discussions and open art spaces. Iron Studios, Zhou B Art Center, Bridgeport Museum of Modern Art and numerous other art centers are among those joining in the fun-filled weekend of special events. You may also simply grab a map and explore at your own pace. Click here to viewmap and list of events. Going on in conjunction with the artwalk is the Bridgeport Art Center Open Studios. The opening reception will also be on Friday October 21^st from 5-10 pm, and studios will be open for the artwalk from 1-5pm on Saturday and Sunday. The Artists of East Bank are an in-house community, and over 40 of them will be opening their creative spaces to the public. The current show includes installation, wood working (with a live demo from a very nice gentleman in a utili-kilt) jewelry, painting, and more.  The gallery space is relatively new, and the artists are eager to show it off.  This explosion of art and art-filled activities will give you an idea of why the Bridgeport neighborhood has grown so rapidly, and reinforce the Chicago Artists Month theme of Artful Networks.

  Art Connections: Zhou B Art Center

The Zhou B Art Center, located in Bridgeport on 35^th Street just down from where the White Sox play, is owned by the artistic duo the Zhou Brothers and offers a variety of galleries, artist’s studios and special events. Zhou B is participating in the Bridgeport Artwalk, hosting various events throughout the weekend. The eclectic space coordinates monthly 3^rd Friday openings with all of their in-house artists. The art center hosts 3^rd Fridays every month, and this Friday Oct 21^st from 7-10pm come to the 4Art Inc Gallery for 3^rd Fridays Open Studio’s 5 Floors of Artist Studio’s and Galleries. Zhou B is home to dozens of artists, ranging from established to emerging and varying in mediums and style. Also check out the JAWAchic jewelry show, featuring Christine Simpson Forni, one of Chicago Artists Month’s chosen artists.  As you can tell this place is jam packed with fun things to do. Click here for a list of artists and their studio numbers.

Presentations and More

 October 21: Ethics of Conservation

This panel discussion at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art will have you pondering a variety of long-debated issues at Ethics of Conservation. The discussion, on Thursday October 21^st from 6-8pm is open to everyone, and fueled by Henry Darger’s written and visual work In the Realms of the Unreal. It deals with the idea that though he may not have wanted to ever have this work seen by the public, now that he is deceased conservationists have been torn by the decision to show his work or to not show it, as he is not here to cast his opinion. This captivating and debatable issue is one that has puzzled art historians and conservationists for centuries and is still prevalent in today’s art world.

October 25: Ruth Horwich Award to a Famous Chicago Artist: Richard Hunt

 A Conversation with Richard Hunt, held on October 25 from 5:30-7:30pm at The Cliff Dwellers, will honor the Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt.  The award is given each year to spotlight the enduring career of a Chicago artist for Chicago Artists Month. This event at Cliff Dwellers includes the presentation of the award to this year’s recipient, and a conversation between Richard Hunt and dealer Tom McCormick of McCormick Gallery. Enjoy the lively conversation, meet the artist and enjoy refreshments against the backdrop of Lake Michigan from high above Michgan Ave. Mingle with members of the art community and take part in supporting one of Chicago’s greatest while reveling in an art-enlightening experience.