By GINNY VAN ALYEA

The first Friday after the start of the new year is the traditional opening of the winter gallery season in many parts of Chicago – a fresh start in the art world, following the end-of-year frenzy that consumes so much of our time and energy. This year the evening of January 5 begins the first of many opening nights to take place this season. There are dozens of new exhibitions opening, as well as related events and performances. With fewer than usual obligations this time of year, hopefully we can take some time to see and enjoy the art being created and displayed around us. 

Many of the galleries in the River North Art District open on Friday evening, while several on the West Side and beyond open Saturday. More events and exhibitions open the rest of the month. Below are some highlights. Our complete calendar may be viewed here. 

Subscribe to our weekly e-blast to see the lastest highlights each Tuesday. 

 

January 5

 

• In/scription: Survey of Recent SAIC Graduates

Friday, 5-8pm. River North.

Zolla/Lieberman Gallery opens In/scription, a survey of recent graduates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, featuring Blake Aaseby, Herman Aguirre, Heesu Jeon, Maura O'Brien, and Elaine Rubenoff.

 

• Experimental Approaches: Part I

Friday, 5-7:30pm. River North.

Schneider Gallery showcases a two-part group exhibition of experimental photography. Part I features work by Colleen Woolpert, Thomas Kellner, Letitia Huckaby, and Jim VanBibber.  The artists in this exhibition explore a diverse scope of approaches to photography employing non-traditional materials, processes and historical devices.

 

• Elizabeth Ernst: Shady Grove Nursing Home

Friday, 5-8pm. River North.

For more than 12 years, Elizabeth Ernst has created art about the people and entertainers affiliated with the G.E. Circus, a small family owned circus of aging performers. In her third solo show at Catherine Edelman Gallery, Ernst takes us into the Shady Grove Nursing Home, located in Clarence, NY, where several of the G.E. Circus performers have retired. Elderly, and suffering from various circus related ailments, many of the G.E. regulars find themselves waiting out their days telling stories about the good old days, substituting facts when their memories fade. But this is no ordinary nursing home. Shady Grove is situated next to a beautiful lake, and has all of the amenities one can ever desire.

 

• NEW WORK/ FAMILIAR FACES: A Group Show

Friday, 6-8pm. River North.

Carl Hammer Gallery opens a group show of gallery artists, including Hollis Sigler and others. 

 

• Visions of the Land: Artists Respond to Nature Part II

Friday, 5-8pm. River North.

Addington Gallery features work by: Sandra Dawson, Susan Kraut, Jeff McNutt, Paula Blackwell, Rebecca Crowell, Robin Denevan, Michael Dubina, Didier Nolet, and Joan Holleb.

 

• Print Exhibition 2018

Friday, 5-7:30pm. River North.

Printworks opens a new year with a group show featuring works by Janez Bernik, Roger Brown, Lesley Dill, Leon Golub, Richard Haas, Ian Howard, Ellen Lanyon, Richard Lindner, Robert Lostutter, Audrey Niffenegger, and Nancy Spero. 

 

• Lee Grantham, Reverse Acrylic Paintings

Friday, 5:30-7:30pm. River North.

Jean Albano Gallery presents a solo exhibition by artist Lee Grahtham. Recently discovered by John Maloof, (of Vivian Maier fame), Grantham has created acrylic on Plexiglass paintings, which requires the artist to paint in reverse. Grantham's unique visual language is energetic, nostalgic, and obsessive, as he stylizes his vision of Pop Culture from the 50s to the 80s to present day. In combination with his reverse acrylic paintings, the exhibition will feature several of his authentic 50s television cabinets (including real lava lights).

 

• American Reflections: Nicholas Pinto

Friday, 6-9pm. River North.

Rangefinder Gallery's first show of 2018 features Nicholas Pinto, an Italian-American photographer with an eye for the moments found in everyday life. Born and raised on the Southwest Side of Chicago, after serving in the United States Army, he picked up a camera as a way to express himself. A graduate of Columbia College, Pinto currently resides in Chicago with his wife and two sons. He teaches workshops for the Leica Akademie USA and his photographs have been in galleries around the United States.

 

• In the Land of Pasaquan: The Story of Eddie Owens Martin

Friday, 5:30-8:30pm. River West.

Intuit is hosting a reception in honor of In the Land of Pasaquan: The Story of Eddie Owens Martin.  

Eddie Owens Martin (St. EOM) was the creator of Pasaquan, a seven-acre art environment in Georgia. He was born into a sharecropper family, but after running away from home at 14, discovered his passion and abilities for creating art. He was influenced by many artistic traditions, including Mesoamerican, African and eastern art, but the content of his work was constructed from utopian visions.

 

• Performance – Empty: Erin Hayden (In Collaboration With Edra Soto)

Friday, 6-8pm. Streeterville/MCA

Visit the MCA on Friday night for this special performance. Vulnerability, insecurity, not feeling stable in any instance of a moment. What is there left to do? Get your nails painted.This is a performance on love, but not the kind that feels warm or is given freely...

 

January 6

• Free Saturday Morning River North Gallery Tour

Saturday, 11am-12:30pm. River North.

CGN's weekly gallery tours resume this Saturday morning at 11am. If you don't make the Friday night openings, take advantage of this behind-the-scenes look at the galleries and hear from the directors about their program and current exhibitions. This weekend participants include: Andrew Bae Gallery, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Rangefinder, and Weinberg/Newton. Photo credit: Yana Andreish, 2016.

 

• Alice Tippit: Bad Form

Saturday, 5-8pm. West Town.

Paris London Hong Kong presents Bad Form, the second solo exhibition of paintings and sculpture by Chicago artist Alice Tippit. The manufacturing of meaning is at the root of Tippit’s practice. Her emblematic and simply rendered images can be taken as signs or symbols, but they circumvent literal interpretation and allude to something other. Reduced to the essential, her compositions shift between positive and negative space, figure and ground, and surface and depth, avoiding immediate legibility. Tippit’s idiosyncratic use of semiotics brings out potentially metaphoric references while allowing associations to exist within and between individual works.

 

• Hand-Eye Coordination: Sports and Art

Saturday, 5-8pm. West Town.

Western Exhibitions opens an exhibition considering the artist and the athlete. Often portrayed in movies and television as opposites, the reality is that arts and athletics overlap and each has an important perspective on our society. Hand-Eye Coordination: Sports and Art is a survey of Midwest-connected artists from the Hairy Who to today, who incorporate sports, its themes, implications, and content into their artwork.

 

• Shadow Fixation

Saturday, 5-7pm. Evanston.

This exhibition at Perspective Group + Photography Gallery, Ltd. showcases the work of five artists – Doug Fogelson, Jaclyn Wright, Juan Fernandez, Julie Weber, and Elina Ruka  – who further challenge and deconstruct the medium of photography and its materials. A panel discussion with the artists takes place January 25.

 

Additional openings and exhibitions in all neighborhoods may be found here. 

 

Top image, from left to right: Audrey Niffenegger (Printworks), Hollis Sigler (Carl Hammer), Eddie Owens Martin (Intuit)SaveSave

SaveSave