CGN adds to its calendar of art events daily, and there is no shortage of new exhibitions, openings, art fairs, talks and family art events to explore. We have put together a preview of what is coming up the rest of this month. Events happen throughout the city as well as in the suburbs and within a days drive. Whether you have an hour after work or you are looking for a weekend road trip, take a look and do a little planning in order to take a step into the world of art. Everyone is welcome!

Highlights are organized by event type. Dates vary and are subject to change.

– Ginny

CGN Publisher

• Exhibition Highlights

Mwangi Hutter: You Begin to See the Signs

Mar 4–Apr 16, 2025

Mariane Ibrahim

Mariane Ibrahim presents an exhibition featuring the artist duo Mwangi Hutter, entitled You Begin to See the Signs. This is the artists' third solo exhibition with the gallery and first in Chicago.

The exhibition will be on view in tandem with the group exhibition Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica at the Art Institute Chicago, which includes Static Drift (2001), part of the museum's permanent collection.

Jill Wells: Sewn From Resistance

Mar 7–Mar 28, 2025

Opening: Friday, Mar 7, 2025 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

ARC Gallery

SEWN FROM RESISTANCE: Deconstructing Black Disability Narratives in America is a site-specific, multi-sensory installation by Jill Wells that critically examines the intersection of Black and Disability histories within the American context. This work challenges stereotypical portrayals of Black disability identities while celebrating the resilience and resistance embedded within these lived experiences. Through a fusion of installation, painting, sound, and tactile sculpture, Wells engages sensory elements that shape how individuals' access and engage with information. 

Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures

Mar 20–Aug 3, 2025

Opening: Thursday, Mar 20, 2025 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

DePaul University Art Museum (DPAM)

Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures surveys the work of Fernandez, a Los Angeles-based artist who from the late 1980s to the present has conducted a rich exploration of migration, labor, gender, and her Mexican American identity through photography. “Multiple Exposures” will open March 20 and run until Aug. 3 at the museum, located on DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus. 

Expanding the 50th: Shared Stories

Mar 25–Jul 13, 2025

Opening: Friday, Mar 28, 2025 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM

Smart Museum of Art

This second iteration of the 50th exhibition continues to trace the layered, sometimes hidden, histories that have made up the Smart Museum of Art, including newly commissioned artwork.

Farah Salem: Uninhibited People of the Earth

Mar 15–Jul 13, 2025

Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC)

People throughout the Arabian Peninsula are taught to live in relationship with spirits that live beneath the earth called “ahl al ‘arth,” (people of the earth). Kuwaiti-Iraqi artist and art therapist Farah Salem grew up aware of regular interactions with these spirits. The knowledge that we don’t “exist alone, but rather in relationship with plants, rocks, animals, and unseen forces” drives her artistic practice. This exhibition presents new and existing sculpture, photography and installation work that continue the artist’s study and reinterpretation of healing and ceremonial migratory practices of people of the Arabian Peninsula that seek to repair one’s relationship with oneself, the earth, and other beings. 

• Auctions and Previews

Essential Design

Thursday, Mar 13, 2025 11:00 AM – 1:30 PM

Wright

Twice a year, Essential Design brings an exciting mix of our favorite designs to auction. From classic mid-century works to innovative contemporary pieces, the collection travels the globe to present works at a variety of price points to add something special to any interior.

Important Jewelry

Thursday, Mar 20, 2025 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Freeman's | Hindman

• Talks and Special Events

Conversation with Cosmo Whyte and Jeremiah Matthew Davis

Saturday, Mar 8, 2025 1–2:00 PM

The Arts Club of Chicago

Coinciding with the citywide celebration of Panafrica Weekend, artist Cosmo Whyte will be in conversation with longtime colleague and director emeritus of Oklahoma Contemporary Jeremiah Matthew Davis. The two will explore the three distinct bodies of work present in The Mother's Tongue, Pressed to the Grinding Stone. From his roots in painting to his experiments in sound art and performance, to his ongoing posthumous collaboration with his father's unrealized architectural designs, the conversation will trace the arc of his artistic practice from Bennington College to The Arts Club of Chicago.

Lucy Railton

Saturday, Mar 15, 2025 8–9:00 PM

The Renaissance Society

British cellist and composer Lucy Railton presents a visceral live set drawing on music from her Modern Love release Corner Dancer, bridging experimental electronic and electroacoustic practices with the conventions of new music. Employing a deep consideration of sound and its properties, the work implements cello and antiquated string instruments, analog and digital synthesizers, drum machines and voice, and explores alternate tuning systems, psychoacoustic phenomena, and timbral control.

Reception for Altered States: Plastics Transformed

Thursday, Mar 27, 2025 4–7:00 PM

Pistachios Contemporary Art Jewelry and Objects

With work from Jennifer Merchant, Emiko Oye and Nikki Couppee, the exhibition features three artists that are transforming plastic into wearable works of art. Plastic is undoubtedly a part of our everyday lives, and is an often overlooked material for jewelry. But this transformation from ordinary to something spectacular calls into question: how do we place value on objects? What is cherished? Each artist has their own unique way of interpreting these questions and reinventing the material by tapping into intuition, with color remaining a key component to the work.

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View the full CGN Calendar here