BY GINNY VAN ALYEA
 

Everyone has been itching for the beginning of summer to come along - who can blame us for having sunshine and above 50° temperatures on our mind? Finally, the mercury is rising every day, and the art world is heating up too. 

While this is always a busy weekend for people to escape work for a precious three days, there is actually quite a lot happening at home in our art world. If you're having a staycation and looking to make casual plans, we've combed our calendar to bring you some highlights. From a $20 Cash N Carry sale to an opening of new works by mega artist Tony Tasset, to a puppet performance of the work of Edward Gorey, there is a lot to do and see. 

Happy summer!

- CGN

• Gallery Openings

gallery receptions takE place Friday night. Our full list is here.  

• The Chicago Printmakers Collaborative in Lincoln Square offers a few signature sales and events during the year, and now is the time for their very popular $20 Cash 'N Carry Sale. Works by the dozens of artists who are members of the collaborative can be yours to take home right away. This is a great place to find inexpensive art for yourself or to give as a gift. The sale opens Saturday and Sunday 11-6 and runs through June 21. 

• Enrique Santana is a popular painter of ethereal Chicago landscapes (often lakescapes). He has a new show opening at Maya Polsky Gallery Friday evening from 5-7:30 in River North. (Image at top of page: Enrique Santana, By the Aquarium, 2014, Oil on canvas; 36" x 60")

• Carl Hammer Gallery will be exhibiting new pen and pencil drawings by self-taught artist CJ Pyle. The show, Saints and Sinners, features new works drawn on the backside of LP albumcovers. 

• In the West Loop Linda Warren Projects opens a show Friday evening featuring side by side solo exhibitions of two gallery artists: William Eckhardt Kohler, Portals, Passages and Vessels, and A Good Wander by Judith Mullen.

Two galleries at 835 W. Washington are opening Saturday night: Kavi Gupta Gallery opens Tony Tasset's Spill Paintings (at Gupta's Elizabeth St. location McArthur Binion: DNA Study opens.) Andrew Rafacz Gallery has two artists exhibiting in his space: Kelly Kleinschrodt: Murmelte Instrumente - a show of new objects and photographs exploring notions and depictions of motherhood, is in gallery 1.  In gallery 2 is April Street: Runner. Street's show is comprised of the artist’s black hole paintings and an installation of 150 cast bronze birthday candles running in and out of the gallery walls.

• Grimm seems to be popular now, thanks to the TV show with the same name. Galerie F in Logan Square opens a show Friday evening from 6-10 in honor of the 200th anniversary of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Two artists, Shawn Knight and John Vogl mark the anniversary in their work. 

• The suburbs also offer art this weekend. At Tall Grass Arts Association in Park Forest, stop by Friday evening for Identity Interpreted and Assumed: National juried exhibition of self-portraits beyond mere physical appearance; curated by Tom Lanham. Opening reception Friday, May 23, 7-9pm. At the College of Lake County Robert T. Wright Gallery in Grayslake you'll find Paula Palmer & Michael Brown: Digital Photography. Palmer constructs compositions of disparate images that reference the four elements. Brown creates “lenticular” images that change with the viewer’s vantage point. Opening reception Friday, May 23, 7-9 pm.

• Other events

markets, screenings and puppet shows

• Randolph Street Market May Days Sale, Saturday and Sunday 10-6 in the West Loop. Get an early start on your summer shopping by scouring this sunny outdoor market where many amazing vintage and antique finds may be discovered. 

• MCA Sunday screening of Jellyfish Eyes by Takashi Murakami. This screening is sold out, but if you were fortunate enough to get a ticket, lucky you! Acclaimed artist Takashi Murakami visits the MCA to introduce his first live-action feature film Jellyfish Eyes (2013) as part of an eight-stop screening tour of major art institutions across the United States.  

• The Vinegar Works: Puppet Show Inspired by the Art of Edward Gorey, Saturday afternoon, LUMA. Enjoy a fun-filled time of puppets and Gorey tales. Audience members, young and old, will delight in the magical world created by Chicago's own Blair Thomas & Company, known for combining puppets and visual theater. Goreys stories filled with wild animals, imaginative creatures, and odd folks are an invitation to the imagination. LUMA will host a toy theater staging of The Vinegar Works.