New Gallery Shows Open Art Fair Weekend
By GINNY VAN ALYEA
The September weekend openings continue as the month moves on and we are deeper into the fall. This weekend there are several notable shows opening, and there are also many more receptions taking place citywide as part of EXPO CHICAGO's Art After Hours.
Below for you are the highlights from this coming weekend around the city. Also, in addition to EXPO on Navy Pier, don't forget to check out the new Chicago Invitational, as well as the American Craft Exposition and Filter Photo Festival.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial has also just opened this week at the Chicago Cultural Center, and it's on view through the end of the year.
View our full calendar of events to see all that is happening, and we will see you at EXPO CHICAGO.
See you in the galleries!
In The Absence of Light: Gesture, Humor and Resistance in The Black Aesthetic
Opening Thursday, September 19.
6760 S. Stony Island Avenue, Chicago
Organized by Theaster Gates, in collaboration with Beth Rudin DeWoody and Laura Dvorkin, this exhibition seeks to bring together artistic practices that not only reveal some sense of interiority, but by their very nature, reflect distance through laughter, painting gesture and isolation.
Faculty Projects
Opening Friday, September 20.
33 S. State Street, 7th floor, Chicago
Faculty Projects is an annual exhibition that presents work by SAIC Faculty who have recently completed sabbatical and other leave projects, or who are retiring. By sharing their current work with the School community, faculty can communicate how their research and practices relate to the local, national, and international art and design communities. Featuring work by Christopher Baker, Susanna Coffey, Shawn Decker, Richard Deutsch, Andy Hall, Michiko Itatani, Ginger Krebs, Shaurya Kumar, Kirsten Leenaars, Joan Livingstone, Adelheid Mers, Mary Patten, Kerry Richardson, and Shawn Michelle Smith.
III: Annual Members Exhibition
Opening Thursday, September 19.
1821 W Hubbard, Ste. 207, Chicago
Filter Photo is pleased to present III, our third annual Members exhibition, juried by Aline Smithson. 5 artists were chosen among the submissions for the exhibition at Fogelson Studio. All the submissions can be seen in the online exhibition. Join us for a public reception concurrent with our other exhibitions, Seeing the familiar for the first time, and The Universal on September 20th, 6 – 9 pm during the 2019 Filter Photo Festival and Expo Chicago’s Art After Hours.
From 6:30pm – 8:30pm there will be The Slide Ride Food Truck in the parking lot of the Hubbard St Lofts.
Ayana V. Jackson: Take Me To The Water
Opening Friday, September 20.
437 N. Paulina St., Chicago
Take Me to the Water presents a holistic survey of Jackson’s work to date, a culmination of varied discursive elements present in Jackson’s more than a decade long career. These portraits and movement studies offer a sense of the breadth of her practice, while at the same time taking her into new territories with regard to the range of her performances.
Jackson has used the archival impulse to assess the impact of the colonial gaze on the history of photography and its relationship to ideas about the body. She uses her lens to deconstruct 19th and early 20th century portraiture as a means for questioning photography’s role in constructing identities. Her thesis is further complicated by the presence of the artist’s figure. She uses her own body to perform the characters with whom she concerns herself.
Jeffery Gibson: Can You Feel It
Opening Friday, September 20.
219 N. Elizabeth St., Chicago
Jeffrey Gibson combines Native American traditions with the visual languages of Modernism to explore the contemporary confluence of personal identity, culture, history, and international social narratives. Gibson is a member of the Chocktaw and Cherokee nations. Gibson’s multicultural perspective informed his study of art history, and helped him to develop a personal style that has manifested across several dynamic and diverse bodies of work, in which traditional native materials like animal hides, beads, and tipi poles intermingle with modern mediums like spray paint, acrylics, ceramic and tape. One of his most recognized series involves punching bags that Gibson deftly transforms into aesthetic totems.
Outside the Practice II
Opening Friday, September 20.
1200 W. 35th St., ChicagoIn OUTside THE PRACTICE: MONUMENTS AND PLACES OF MEMORY, Chicago-based architects and designers present distinctive and original visions on the topic, relieved of the constraints of conventional architectural practice.
Curated by Stephen Wierzbowski, FAIA, Edward Keegan, AIA, and Lelde Kalmite, works include drawings, paintings, sculptures, photography, watercolors, installations, mixed media, and sketchbooks. Presented by the Bridgeport Art Center, the exhibit is a partner program of the Chicago Architecture Biennial and sponsored by AIA Chicago.
Studio Oleomingus: Notes in the Margins of History
Opening Friday, September 20.
2418 W Bloomingdale Ave., #101, Chicago
Based out of Chala, India, Studio Oleomingus is a two-person game studio known for their visually stunning and narrative-driven games and about the history of India, post-colonialism, and a generative approach toward blending fact and fiction. This exhibition brings together the various parts of Somewhere, a ongoing video game epic in several episodes. Somewhere is a videogame adaptation of an anthology by the Gujarati playwright Mir UmarHassan, about the search for a mythical city called Kayamgadh. Set in nineteenth-century British colonial India, it traces the lives of several people as they search for a fabled journal that charts a route to Kayamgadh. This exhibition will be Oleomingus’ first in America and will include debut work that has not been previously released to the public.
Serious Topics presents a densely curated booth of 23 artists in 3 days at BARELY FAIR
BARELY FAIR
Opening Friday, September 20.
3311 W. Carroll Ave., Chicago
BARELY FAIR is a miniature art fair hosted by Julius Caesar. The fair presents a tiny peek inside the programming of two dozen contemporary art galleries, project spaces, and curatorial projects during EXPO Art Week in Chicago. Included spaces will exhibit works in 1:12 scale booths built to mimic the design of a standard fair.
BARELY FAIR opens with a vernissage on Friday, September 20, 6–10pm and the fair will run daily through the weekend and be open for weekly gallery hours and by appointment through October 20th.
VERNISSAGE
