<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418589/jxtusrjkebxcy9rhqqdh.jpg"><figcaption>1709-1711 W Chicago Ave.</figcaption></figure>By FRANCK MERCURIOIn his poem, Carl Sandburg summed up Chicago’s rough-and-tumble reputation as a city concerned with only one thing: making a buck.Proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.But turn-of-the-19th-century Chicagoans were also involved in the commerce of art. Wealthy industrialists purchased art and encouraged artists to settle in the city, especially after the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition had ended. Philanthropists Anne and Lambert Tree even financed the construction of Tree Studios—still thriving at Ohio and State Streets—providing artists with live/work spaces on the Near North Side. Soon after, artists, writers, and musicians congregated in the neighborhood surrounding the Water Tower, then known as Towertown.As North Michigan Avenue developed into the commercial district we know today, the Bohemian types moved on, but artistic enterprises remained. Katharine Kuh opened her eponymous gallery inside North Michigan Avenue’s Diana Court Building, which ran successfully from 1935 until 1943, despite the economic challenges of the Great Depression.&nbsp;Writing in the Encyclopedia of Chicago, MCA Curator Lynne Warren elaborates on the city’s first gallery district: “North Michigan Avenue and its immediate environs were the prime location for commercial art galleries from the 1940s until the 1980s. Pioneering spaces included Madeline Tourtelot’s Gallery Studio, Benjamin Galleries, and the Frank J. Oehlschlaeger Studio.”Today, a few gallerists still call North Michigan Avenue home, most notably Richard Gray (though they opened Gray Warehouse, an expansive West Side outpost, in 2017). But, as time passes, neighborhoods inevitably change. When River North became revitalized in the 1970s, the heart of Chicago’s gallery scene shifted from Michigan Avenue to the intersection of Superior and Franklin, which became the new hotspot for art. Today the neighborhood supports a concentration of approximately 20 galleries, including veterans Carl Hammer and Zolla/Lieberman, one-year-old Gallery Victor Armendariz, and now a pop-up from Aron Packer Projects.As gentrification of River North increased, a new generation of gallerists went in search of less expensive space; many found home in the West Loop, just south of Randolph Street’s restaurant row. Now, as development in that area rapidly increases, several galleries are moving on, seeking larger spaces, less expensive rents, and new audiences in West Town.“Fifteen years ago, the West Loop was all meat packing,” said Anastasia Tinari, director of Rhona Hoffman Gallery. “Now there are cranes on either side of our [former] building; it felt prohibitive. But people already come to this neighborhood [West Town]; and with Rhona having just moved here, her gallery serves as an anchor, along with the galleries upstairs.”Hoffman Gallery recently joined Western Exhibitions, DOCUMENT, Volume Gallery, and Paris London Hong Kong in a large commercial building at 1709 W. Chicago Avenue, making the intersection of Ashland and Chicago the new art nexus of the neighborhood.&nbsp;A new restaurant coming to the same building will also draw regular crowds; Funkenhausen, touted as a big beer hall with traditional German dishes, is a project of the building’s landlord, Daniel Boyd, and chef Marc Steuer (El Che and Carraige House).&nbsp;West Town isn’t new to the Chicago arts scene. A loose confederation of experimental galleries, called Uncomfortable Spaces, was located in the neighborhood in the 1990s. Corbett vs. Dempsey has also been a dynamic presence here since 2004. But recent events have made West Town a magnet for even more galleries.“The West Loop is getting too dense,” said Scott Speh, owner and director of Western Exhibitions. “The landlord of our old space offered this building [1709]; it seemed like the best solution after looking for a year or more. We [the gallery owners] all live nearby and wanted to be on the western fringes of the West Loop.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2757/original/rhona.jpg" alt=""></figure>Hoffman has been in the gallery business for over 40 years, and in that time she has run six different spaces. Her philosophy is practical, keeping the needs of the customer in mind. “If you want to see galleries in Chicago, you have to spend a day getting everywhere,” she says, “So you need to have some kind of a center.”Just up the street at 864 N. Ashland, Jefferson Godard relocated his gallery, Aspect/Ratio, from the West Loop in 2017. Aspect/Ratio had been operating at 119 N. Peoria, directly across the street from Hoffman’s previous space, for several years. Known for cutting-edge video installations, Godard’s 3rd floor West Loop gallery had no street visibility. The new space has large windows looking onto Ashland Avenue and a 1,000-square-foot floor plan, nearly five times the size of the old gallery.&nbsp;“We decided to move to a better, more prominent location,” said Godard. “West Town/Ukrainian Village offered us a great space and community.”The community is growing as other gallerists relocate near the intersection of Chicago and Ashland Avenues, including Mongerson Gallery, Mickey Pomfrey (of Courtney Blades Gallery) and Monique Meloche Gallery.Architect Dirk Denison is designing Meloche’s new space in an expanded location in West Town. The gallery opens June 9 with a solo exhibition of Jeff Sonhouse’s works.“We’ve been looking for a couple of years to move, and we’ve always liked being on the west side in Wicker Park/Bucktown,” said Meloche. “So it was natural to keep looking in the same general area. My gallery has always been a destination, but we are happy to soon be within walking distance of some of our colleagues.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2756/original/5-install-handeye.jpg" alt=""></figure>“Like everything else, things change,” said Speh of Western Exhibitions. “Whenever I see articles about changing gallery districts, and bemoaning that, well this is historical. Every 10 to 15 years, things shift.”With ample street parking and multiple public transportation options, West Town has become a convenient and appealing art outpost. And with new restaurants and amenities continuing to move to the neighborhood, Chicago’s newest gallery district is becoming a destination to spend an afternoon or evening enjoying a meal and viewing art.&nbsp;West Town AREA Galleries:&nbsp;West Town’s general boundaries are considered Bloomingdale to Kinzie; the Chicago River to Kedzie. Neighborhoods within West Town also include: East Village, Humboldt Park, Kinzie Industrial Corridor, Noble Square, Smith Park, Ukrainian Village, and Wicker Park and nearby River West.For the purpose of identifying this new gallery center, we consider the West Town-ish arts boundaries to be between Augusta and Lake and the River to WesternThe list below is current as of May 2018.&nbsp;Aspect/Ratio:&nbsp;864 N. AshlandChicago Artists Coalition:&nbsp;2130 W. FultonChicago Truborn: 1741 W. Chicago&nbsp;Corbett vs. Dempsey: 1120 N. AshlandCourtneyBlades:&nbsp;1635 W. GrandDOCUMENT: 1709 W. ChicagoRichard Gray Warehouse: 2044 W. CarrollRhona Hoffman Gallery: 1711 W. ChicagoIntuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art: 756 N. MilwaukeeJohalla Projects: 1821 W. HubbardTHE MISSION: 1431 W. ChicagoMongerson Gallery:&nbsp;2251 W. Grandmonique meloche:&nbsp;451 N. PaulinaParis London Hong Kong:&nbsp;1709 W. ChicagoPATRON Gallery:&nbsp;673 N. MilwaukeeMatthew Rachman Gallery:&nbsp;1659 W. ChicagoRegards:&nbsp;2216 w. ChicagoRoots &amp; Culture:&nbsp;1034 N. MilwaukeeSpudnik Press:&nbsp;1821 W. HubbardLinc Thelen Galleries:&nbsp;1620 W. CARROLLUkrainian Institute of Modern Art&nbsp;(UIMA): 2320 W. ChicagoVolume:&nbsp;1709 W. ChicagoWestern Exhibitions: 1709 W. Chicago&nbsp;Top image: The&nbsp;1709–1711 W. Chicago Ave. building once housed a factory. Today it is home to several galleries that have moved from the West Loop.</body></html>

A New Westward Migration: Galleries Move in Search of Space and Community

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

The artist Alex Katz is well known around the world for his colorful, stylized portraits and bold natural landscapes. Prolific for decades, he marked his 90th birthday in 2017 and is still making art. His latest exhibition, Grass and Trees, opened April 12 at Richard Gray Gallery, featuring work that goes in a new direction, proving that we as humans never have to stop observing or creating.&nbsp;

Critic John Yau, in an essay on Katz&rsquo;s new work says, &ldquo;The list of artists who break through to a new way of making art after turning eighty is not very long. Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, and Willem de Kooning are among the few in this category.&rdquo; He points out that in this new series of work is, &ldquo;The feeling of not quite knowing where you are or where you are going, which is rather unsettling when you consider the artist&rsquo;s age.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2760" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2760/original/katz-2c-grass-5-2c-2017-0417018-a.jpg" />

When I visited the gallery on a cold spring morning, I entered the quiet, empty warehouse space and came face to face with a large scale vertical painting of a set of sun&ndash; dappled steps buffetted by thick green foliage. It&rsquo;s not clear whether the steps are going down, or up, since the destination is unseen. The lines are curved and the steps themselves are a bit fuzzy, perhaps from the perspective of someone who has spent 90 years on earth. Everything looks a bit broader and softer; the light is fresh and clear.&nbsp;

Yau emphasizes that the Grass paintings are &ldquo;Unlike anything Katz has ever done before,&rdquo; though he notes their art historical ties through &ldquo;a dialog with Franz Kline&rsquo;s black-and-white abstractions, but solely on Katz&rsquo;s terms. Katz&rsquo;s paint is thinner and the strokes are looser, more at ease with themselves. This is plein-air painting taken to a new level.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Alex Katz, Road 2" data-rich-file-id="2731" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2731/original/katz-2c-road-2-2c-2017-1017020-a.jpg" />

In 2015, when he turned 88, Katz told artnet, &ldquo;Most painters, when they get older, they get worse. And the real good ones get better. This is, like, my stab at saying &lsquo;I got better.&rsquo;&rdquo; Indeed he&rsquo;s like the rare musician who, instead of going on a greatest hits tour or taking a standing gig in Las Vegas, continues to write new and relevant music that audiences of all ages enjoy.&nbsp;

In addition to the first painting that greets visitors in the gallery, Road 1, another similar work is hung at the other end of the space, as well as several large scale Grass pieces. On a frigid April day &ndash; snowing, in Chicago, on opening day of baseball season &ndash; the expanses of intense sunny yellow and verdant green are like a caffeine boost after a late night. I feel as if I am standing under a light lamp, absorbing much needed nutrients after too much time in the dark.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="alex katz, three trees 2, 2016, oil on linen, 48 x 84 inches" data-rich-file-id="2732" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2732/original/katz-2c-three-trees-2-2c-2016-1017015-a.jpg" />

Standing close to Grass 5, which at a remarkable 108 x 216 inches is the largest work in the show, I view sections of the linen surface one at a time, noticing the many layers of oil paint in various shades and combinations: green on yellow, green on green, yellow on green, and dark green on lighter green. Marks from Katz&rsquo;s paintbrush bristles are individually visible, creating an effect of blades of grass. I imagin I am shrunk down to the size of a chickadee or suddenly on the lawn of a giant. If that were the case I might feel lost, but standing in the gallery I feel immersed in Katz&rsquo;s powerfully saturated and contrasting colors, moved by brushstrokes that give a feeling of blowing in the breeze.&nbsp;

Commenting on the surface coverage of the works, Yau notes, &ldquo;Katz does not paint even a sliver of sky; there is a feeling of being hemmed in, but it is never oppressive.&rdquo; His focus on the ground makes you look carefully at your surroundings rather than what might be above and beyond. In the case of the Road pieces, I look at what is in front of me, as if truly walking an unfamiliar path. For Yau, art history once again informs these compositions: &ldquo;Katz&rsquo;s Road 1 and Road 2 (both 2017) are in dialog with Paul C&eacute;zanne&rsquo;s La route tournante en sous-bois (Bend in the forest road) (1902&ndash;06). Whereas the road in C&eacute;zanne&rsquo;s painting bends before disappearing, overtaken by the forest, Katz&rsquo;s road goes straight back, narrowing as it rises up the picture plane, until it comes to a halt.&rdquo;

The week that Grass and Trees opened, Katz attended the opening at Richard Gray, and he participated in a talk at the Art Institute with Anne Goldstein, as well as a Q&amp;A at the gallery with Yau and Northwestern University&rsquo;s Ivy Wilson. At 90 Katz continues to push the limits of his own art, as well as participate in an important dialogue about the evolving role of art in our society.&nbsp;

Every year when spring finally comes in the Midwest, everyone knows to enjoy it while it lasts. Katz&rsquo;s career has been long and illustrious. We are fortunate that he has continued to make art that sheds new light on the people and spaces around all of us.

&nbsp;

Alex Katz: Grass and Trees

On view thru June 2

Richard Gray Gallery, Gray Warehouse

2044 W. Carroll, Chicago (60612)

<a href="http://richardgraygallery.com">richardgraygallery.com</a>

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Top image: Grass and Trees installed at Gray Warehouse on Chicago&rsquo;s west side &nbsp;
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Alex Katz at Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago

Seeing the Trees for the Art: Alex Katz Finds New Inspiration at 90

Art Encounter, a non-profit art education organization, is celebrating 40 years this year. Devoted to the mission of educating, empowering, and connecting people of diverse ages and backgrounds through interactive experiences with visual art, the nonprofit also offers art programs to bring greater understanding and connection to underserved youth and seniors at risk of social isolation.&nbsp;

The group is well known for their in-depth and behind-the-scenes art tours, including local day trips to galleries and private collections as well as international trips to see the world&rsquo;s best art. Recent destinations have included Cuba, Venice, New Orleans, Toronto, Detroit, and Brazil.

On May 6, 2018&nbsp;a special 40th anniversary gala, &ldquo;Art Impacts,&rdquo; honors&nbsp;William Lieberman, whose gallery,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/zolla-lieberman-gallery">Zolla/Lieberman</a>, pioneered River North as an art center when his mother Roberta Lieberman co-founded the gallery in 1976. &nbsp;The event is also a tribute to Art Encounter founder Joanna Pinsky&#39;s 40 years of leadership.

Proceeds from the event will help increase the depth and breadth of Art Encounter&rsquo;s future community outreach programming. One of the highlights of this year&rsquo;s Gala will be the art auction of master works by 35 prestigious artists, many of them represented by Zolla/Lieberman, including Phyllis Bramson, William Conger, John Fraser, Josh Garber, Vera Klement, David Kroll, Michael Nakoneczny, Ren&eacute;&nbsp;Romero Schuler, Buzz Spector, Jay Strommen, Maria Tomasula, Glenn Wexler, and others. The event also calls attention to the large number of women artists represented by the gallery.

Art Encounter was founded by three artists who believed that &ldquo;there are many ways to see&rdquo;, and that meaningful and collaborative encounters with art have many benefits. Program offerings, which annually serve over 3,500 people and reach people of all ages and backgrounds, engage with public school children and nursing home residents, residents of Englewood as well as Evanston, young parents and active retirees.

The Art Impacts Gala takes place Sunday, May 6 from 2-5pm at the Woman&#39;s Club of Evanston,&nbsp;1700 Chicago Avenue (Evanston). Tickets are&nbsp;$125.

You can bid in the auction online in advance via <a href="https://paddle8.com/auction/art-encounter/">Paddle8</a>.

Visit&nbsp;<a href="http://artencounter.org">artencounter.org</a>&nbsp;for details.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Art Encounter founder Joanna Pinsky, and Pagoda Red's Betsy Nathan" data-rich-file-id="2725" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2725/original/2.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Art Encounter participants" data-rich-file-id="2727" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2727/original/4.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Phyllis Bramson, The Good Keeper of All Living Things, 2017, collage/mixed media/oil on canvas, 70&quot; × 60&quot;" data-rich-file-id="2743" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2743/original/bramson.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Vera Klement, Vessel and Horizon, 1984 Oil on canvas 60” x 36”" data-rich-file-id="2742" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2742/original/klement.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Honoree William Lieberman" data-rich-file-id="2744" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2744/original/william-laughing.jpg" />

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Art Encounter celebrates 40 years with a gala on May 6 honoring William Lieberman of Zolla/Lieberman Gallery

Art Encounter Celebrates Four Decades Behind the Scenes

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

I have been to the Shedd Aquarium many times since having children. It&#39;s a wonderfully interactive and stimulating place to view so many fish and animals&nbsp;up close in gorgeous aquatic environments.&nbsp;

The&nbsp;Shedd&nbsp;is ultimately much more than a Chicago destination for families and tourists. Scientists at the Shedd are devoted, both publicly and behind the scenes, to&nbsp;saving endangered species and their habitats. Their animal care experts rescue and rehabilitate wildlife in need, across the country and around the world.

An ongoing exhibition uses art to make the case for&nbsp;how important it is for all of us to work to save these beautiful animals, since there is a crisis in our waters.&nbsp;Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea is a&nbsp;limited-time installation featuring&nbsp;colorful sculptures of a 11-foot seahorse, a sinuous 13-foot-long eel, a 150-pound anemone and seven other gigantic aquatic animals.&nbsp;

The sculptures are fun to behold, but looking closely you see that they&#39;re constructed of our every-day refuse that often escapes the trash bin and ends up as a lethal obstacle in the water. It&#39;s important to notice that while this plastic material is being repurposed, it&#39;s not actually recycled - it was just discarded after (most likely) a single use. Trash used in the art includes plastic bottles, straws, lighters, toothbrushes, flip-flops, ropes, toys and other mostly plastic flotsam and jetsam. The things we don&#39;t give a thought to once we are done with them don&#39;t go away; they add up.&nbsp;More than&nbsp;5 tons that was&nbsp;washed up&nbsp;on West Coast beaches&nbsp;was used just in this exhibition for these few sculptures.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2686" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2686/original/seahorse.jpg" />

The traveling exhibition is an endeavor&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Washed Ashore Project,&nbsp;born in 2010 after artist Angela Haseltine Pozzi&nbsp;witnessed mounds of plastic trash piling up on formerly pristine beaches along her native Oregon coast. She organized all-volunteer cleanups and used the collected trash&mdash;washed and sorted&mdash;to create massive, realistic sculptures of the sea animals most affected by the pollution.

Since the project began, 10,000 volunteers have removed more than 38,000 pounds of plastic trash&mdash;largely single-use plastics&mdash;from over 300 miles of beaches. Ninety-five percent of the debris collected has been used in more than 60 sculptures so far. &nbsp;And who knew&nbsp;Americans use an estimated 500 million straws each day?

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2685" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2685/original/clownfish.jpg" />

Though the reality of floating trash is dire, there is whimsy and fun in these sculptures, which is fitting in a wonderous place like the Shedd. My family enjoyed this latest trip, and we have been making extra sure to bring our own water bottles wherever we go.

Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea&nbsp;runs at the Shedd Aquarium&nbsp;through September 2018. A behind-the-scenes video from Washed Ashore is below.

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<a href="https://www.sheddaquarium.org">Click here</a> for more info.

Photos courtesy Shedd&nbsp;Aquarium
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Washed Ashore at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium makes a statement through art using discarded plastic 

From the Sea to the Shedd: Art Makes a Statement

We&#39;ve all been hibernating this winter, and especially the last several days,&nbsp;so now we are eager to get out and visit local galleries and museums to really warm up.&nbsp;This Valentine&#39;s Day there are a handful of thematic exhibitions taking place that you can enjoy with a loved-one. There are shows at Weinberg/Newton and LineDot taking place this week, as well as a concert at the Driehaus, exhibitions at the Art Institute and&nbsp;the Block Museum, and an early reminder about MoCP&#39;s photography benefit party on March 1.&nbsp;

We know everyone needs some (last-minute) gift ideas too, and the Art Institute, the Driehaus and&nbsp;the MCA all offer great art-themed gifts.&nbsp;

Love is in the air, and in the art...&nbsp;

Happy Valentine&#39;s Day!&nbsp;

XOXO

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2595" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2595/original/weinberg.jpg" />

<h2>Haiku Your Love at Weinberg/Newton</h2>

The best gifts are from the heart, right?&nbsp;Spread some love this Valentine&#39;s Day at &quot;Haiku Your Love&quot; at Weinberg/Newton Gallery on Tuesday, February 13.&nbsp;At this fundraiser for the American Heart Association, attendees&nbsp;will participate in making haikus from various love-themed words that will be prearranged from large stencils provided by the David L. Hoyt Foundation. The Poetry Center will make recommendations for words to include in each of the haikus and suggestions for different haiku formats. Participants and attendees will vote on their favorite haiku, which will be framed after the event and put on display at the CLA for extended viewing.&nbsp;Tickets are&nbsp;$3.50 on&nbsp;Eventbrite&nbsp;and $5 at the door. Proceeds will be donated to the American Heart Association. The event is open to the public. <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/haiku-your-love">Details here.</a>

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2589" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2589/original/lister.jpg" />

<h2>Anthony Lister Valentine&#39;s Release + Reception at LineDot Editions</h2>

Join LineDot on Valentine&#39;s night for the release of an exclusive collection of drawings by one of Australia&#39;s most renowned contemporary artists, Anthony Lister. Drinks will be served and the artist will be in attendance.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/anthony-lister-valentine-s-release-reception">Details here.</a>

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2594" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2594/original/driehauscgn18-2.jpg" />

<h2>Baroque Concert at the Driehaus Museum + The Art of Seating</h2>

Love is In the Air with a&nbsp;Third Coast Baroque concert&nbsp;in the always-romantic-setting of the Driehaus. The concert is Wednesday, February 14, 6:30 &ndash; 7:30 p.m. and features &ldquo;Chicago&rsquo;s most accomplished period instrumentalists and singers,&rdquo; (Chicago Tribune) who will present classical music inspired by Cupid&rsquo;s favorite holiday. While you&#39;re there, catch the recently opened exhibition/love letter to The Art of Seating.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.driehausmuseum.org">Details here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;

The Driehaus also has a very nice gift shop... Consider some French poster <a href="https://shop.driehausmuseum.org/collections/for-him/products/cuff-links-mucha-wallpaper">art cufflinks</a> ($54), or a <a href="https://shop.driehausmuseum.org/collections/for-her/products/mayil-peacock-porcelain-diffuser">porcelain diffuser</a> ($62)

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2592" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2592/original/mucha.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<h2>Rodin, Sculptor and Storyteller at Art Institute</h2>

Even though it&#39;s Valentine&#39;s Day, go beyond Rodin&#39;s famous The Kiss at this exhibition.&nbsp;At the beginning of the 20th century, Auguste Rodin (1840&ndash;1917) was the most famous artist in the world. On the centenary of his death, the Art Institute joins museums around the world in celebrating the renowned artist&rsquo;s life and work. Presenting rarely seen sculptures and drawings from private collections, as well as from the museum&rsquo;s rich holdings, this exhibition is the first devoted to the sculptor at the Art Institute since 1923. Rodin was a master of visual communication. His powerfully expressive sculpted bodies speak to us directly through cleverly constructed gestures and poses and in the carefully rendered surfaces of his bronzes and marbles. <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/rodin-sculptor-and-storyteller">Details here.&nbsp;</a>

The Art Institute Gift shop features more gift ideas:&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2596" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2596/original/aicitems.jpg" />

A plate featuring Rodin&#39;s The Kiss (<a href="http://www.artinstituteshop.org/item.aspx?productId=7658">$108 for members</a>) and a sterling silver pin by SAIC alumnus Edward Gorey (<a href="http://www.artinstituteshop.org/item.aspx?productId=7265">on sale for $29.99</a>)

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="LAURA LETINSKY Untitled (Laura and Eric, Dress) (from the Inferred series), 1995. Part of MoCP Darkroom" data-rich-file-id="2598" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2598/original/mocp.jpg" />

<h2>Tickets to MoCP Darkroom, March 1</h2>

What&#39;s better than spending a night out together? We suggest buying two tickets to MoCP&#39;s annual benefit coming up on March 1 - go VIP and spend a fabulous evening enjoying photography and a grand party. You may also want to bid on one of the works of art up for auction. This one can be your ultimate last minute gift (buy tickets, print them out and seal with a kiss!)&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mocp.org/support/annual-benefit.php">Details and tickets&nbsp;here.&nbsp;</a>

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2597" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2597/original/blake.jpg" />

<h2>William Blake and the Age of Aquarius at the Block Museum</h2>

This is a thinking-person&#39;s romantic outing, for sure. In the summer of 1967, more than 100,000 young people streamed into the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco and the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, as well as Greenwich Village in New York and Old Town in Chicago, to celebrate peace, love, music, and mind-altering drugs. Many of the artists, poets and musicians associated with the &ldquo;Summer of Love&rdquo; embraced the work of British visionary poet and artist William Blake (1757&ndash;1827) and used it as a compass to drive their own political and personal evolutions. William Blake and the Age of Aquarius&nbsp;will consider parallels between Blake&rsquo;s time and mid-twentieth-century America, touching on such issues as political repression, social transformation, and struggles for civil rights. <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/william-blake-and-the-age-of-aquarius">Details here.&nbsp;</a>

&nbsp;

<h2>Shop the Museum of Contemporary Art</h2>

The MCA store is frequently the answer to our gift-giving needs, and some of these new and best-selling&nbsp;items in store may delight your art-lover.&nbsp;

<h3>For the hot man in your life ($18.95)</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Hotman Trivet" data-rich-file-id="2587" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2587/original/12596-default-m.jpg" />

<h3>Make your love pop-up ($14.95)</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="I Love You Pop-Up by David Carter" data-rich-file-id="2591" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2591/original/mcabook.jpg" />

<h3>Say it with a Jeff Koons kiss... Or two ($29.95/ea)</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Small Balloon Puppy" data-rich-file-id="2599" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2599/original/mca.jpg" />

<h3>Your love is surreal ($40)</h3>

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Top of page image: Chris Uphues&#39;s installation on a residential garage in Chicago
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Love is in the Air and in the Art 

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417600/agqewx3cn0j0giuotfns.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEA&nbsp;Following 2017's many cultural milestones in Chicago,&nbsp;a new initiative to highlight the city as an international&nbsp;hub and crossroads of visual culture manages to&nbsp;set the bar even higher&nbsp;in 2018. On Thursday, January 11 Art Design Chicago officially kicked off at the DePaul Art Museum to a packed house. Many art world figures,&nbsp;as well as representatives from the City of Chicago and the sponsoring Terra Foundation for American Art&nbsp;and The Richard H.&nbsp;Driehaus Foundation, were present to share why they think championing such an expansive and ambitious program is so critical to the future of not just culture in Chicago but the arts in general.&nbsp;The Terra provided $6 million in funding to the year-long event, in addition to a 1$ million donation from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and $1 million raised from smaller donors. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;A city-wide partnership of more than 40 cultural organizations,&nbsp;Art Design Chicago is&nbsp;intended to gather cultural powerhouses and mass creativity and collaboration under a very big virtual tent. ADC&nbsp;will explore Chicago’s art and design legacy through some 25 exhibitions and hundreds of public programs.&nbsp;Amy&nbsp;Zinck, Executive Vice President of the Terra Foundation, spoke about how&nbsp;a program like Art Design Chicago can elucidate Chicago’s rich art and design history for all.&nbsp;The Terra's goal in mounting and funding such an extensive&nbsp;program&nbsp;is to make ADC&nbsp;a cultural game changer by offering deep, impactful support to a range of organizations. Spurring various groups to combine their efforts and draw large crowds over the course of an entire year has the power to&nbsp;show that art can lead the way in changing lives in the city. As Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Mark Kelly proclaimed, "Art is an essential not tangential part of our lives." Despite Chicago’s thriving visual arts scene and those nearby who hold it in high regard, the city does not yet enjoy as high a cultural&nbsp;profile&nbsp;as&nbsp;the likes of New York, Los Angeles&nbsp;or San Francisco. Art Design Chicago hopes to change that for good,&nbsp;with ambitious and diverse programming that spans the calendar. &nbsp;The simultaneous&nbsp;opening of exhibitions at DePaul Art Museum – <a href="https://www.artdesignchicago.org/events/jose-guerrero-presente-a-memorial-print-portfolio">Jose Guerrero, Presente: A Memorial Print Portfolio</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artdesignchicago.org/events/barbara-jones-hogu-resist-relate-unite-1968-1975">Barbara Jones-Hogu: Resist, Relate, Unite 1968–1975</a>, both thru March 25&nbsp;–&nbsp;showed how&nbsp;printmaking in Chicago has been, and of course can continue to be, a meaningful&nbsp;vehicle for social change and experimentation, and it put on full view what a&nbsp;lasting impact artists can have on their personal as well as larger environments. The actual kickoff of the exhibitions on view was also bittersweet, as the artist Barbara Jones-Hogu passed away this past fall before she could see her own first solo exhibition. Jones-Hogu's family was in attendance at the opening, and DPAM Director Julie Rodrigues-Widholm said it was&nbsp;personally important to her to make sure that the&nbsp;exhibition would happen. Art Design Chicago was a crucial means for the dream to be realized.&nbsp;ADC also just announced a&nbsp;new partnership&nbsp;with Chicago Athletic Association Hotel's Live Storytelling Series,&nbsp;a monthly podcast taking place throughout 2018 in the hotel’s Drawing Room Library - a fitting combination of historic architecture meets new design and new media. For the podcast each live recording will feature an Art Design Chicago exhibition curator in conversation with a contemporary Chicago-based artist or designer to discuss the city’s art and design legacy, focusing on the ways in which contemporary creative practice is influenced by the generations of artists and designers that came before. Storytelling&nbsp;events are&nbsp;free and open and to the public. All sessions are recorded and made available for download and listening at&nbsp;<a href="http://ChicagoAthleticEvents.com">ChicagoAthleticEvents.com</a>&nbsp;and on&nbsp;iTunes.The first&nbsp;program takes place this Sunday, January 21 with&nbsp;Juarez Hawkins + Damon Reed from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Hawkins,&nbsp;curator of the exhibition&nbsp;Bill Walker: Urban Griot&nbsp;currently on view at the Hyde Park Art Center, will talk&nbsp;with artist Damon Reed about the legacy of Bill Walker and his influence on socially engaged art practice and street art of today.&nbsp;Looking ahead, in April, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago will present Picture Fictions: Kenneth Josephson and Contemporary Photography,&nbsp;a consideration of conceptual and contemporary photography from a iconic figure from the field.&nbsp;The Art Institute of Chicago will be hosting a retrospective of African-American painter Charles White in June, through a partnership with the Museum of Modern Art, and they&nbsp;have also organized a highly-anticipated September exhibition about the Hairy Who, the comical and absurd cousin of pop art that became popular during the 1960’s and 70’s.Additional exhibitions will be shown at the Dusable Museum of African American History, National Museum of Mexican Art, The Arts Club of Chicago, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, and more.Elizabeth Glassman, Terra Foundation’s President and Chief Executive, says of the event that, “I would like people to recognize that Chicago has always been important and I would like them to think this is the first word on the subject.”Uniquely drawing upon the cornerstones of Chicago’s visual history, Art Design Chicago will be the first word in a very long conversation of the city’s enduring and underrepresented arts culture.More information at <a href="https://www.artdesignchicago.org">artdesignchicago.org</a>&nbsp;Top image:&nbsp;Barbara Jones-Hogu,&nbsp;Unite, 1969. Courtesy of Lusenhop Fine Art.CGN intern Riley Yaxley contributed to this article.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Art Design Chicago opens a year of artistic collaborations

Art Design Chicago Kicks of a Year of Collaboration

By RILEY YAXLEY

On Monday, The City of Chicago unveiled an impressive 100-foot mural painted on the western side of the Chicago&nbsp;Cultural Center. The mural, titled&nbsp;Rushmore,&nbsp;was commissioned for $1 dollar and created by&nbsp;Chicago&rsquo;s own contemporary art icon, artist&nbsp;Kerry James Marshall. The mural was a part of Chicago&rsquo;s Year of Public Art, a year-long initiative&nbsp;that spearheaded multiple commissions for new public art in each of the City&rsquo;s 50 wards. &nbsp; &nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy City of Chicago DCASE" data-rich-file-id="2507" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2507/original/marshallmural1.jpg" />

Kerry James Marshall currently lives and works in Chicago&rsquo;s Bronzeville neighborhood. His contributions to Chicago&rsquo;s cultural landscape were awarded with a Fifth Star Honor Award from the city on August 28, 2017.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel described the mural as &ldquo;a tremendous gift for the city,&rdquo; from &ldquo;one of the most renowned artists in the world today.&rdquo; The artist is internationally renowned, with his work fetching ever higher prices in the global art market. Here at home,&nbsp;&nbsp;Marshall&#39;s&nbsp;Still Life with Wedding Portrait&nbsp;sold for $5.04 Million during the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago&rsquo;s Benefit Art Auction last month. The painting depicted abolitionist Harriet Tubman at her wedding.

<img alt="" data-caption="Photo Courtesy of MCA Chicago" data-rich-file-id="2508" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2508/original/mcakjm.jpg" />

Marshall described the $1 commision fee for the mural as an act of &ldquo;civic obligation&rdquo; (the mural was funded by Murals of Acceptance, a not-for-profit whose goal is to bring art to all peoples in a free, public setting.) He also reminisced that the project is a very personal&nbsp;return to his roots, because his first exhibition was held at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Rushmore&nbsp;depicts 20 women who have shaped the cultural landscape of Chicago. Included are literary icon&nbsp;Gwendolyn Brooks,&nbsp;Oprah Winfrey,&nbsp;Harriet Monroe, the founder of the Poetry Foundation,&nbsp;famed dancer&nbsp;Ruth Page,&nbsp;the&nbsp;City of Chicago&#39;s&nbsp;longest serving First Lady and cultural ambassador&nbsp;Maggie Daley, and many others.

The mural was started in September and took nine weeks to complete. Jeff Zimmerman, a Chicago mural artist, helped to execute Marshall&rsquo;s vision and design.

This is yet another milestone in Marshall&rsquo;s illustrious career. In 2016, his mid-career retrospective,&nbsp;Mastry,&nbsp;debuted at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and received rapturous praise. His work has also been featured in countless prestigious international exhibitions, such as the 1997 Whitney Biennial, the 2003 Venice Biennial, the 2009 Gwanju Biennial, and the 1999 Carnegie International.

As the Year of Public Art comes to a close, the unveiling of this mural feels like a culmination of the year&rsquo;s rich art programs. Rushmore will stand as another cultural landmark for a city that is already the envy of the world&nbsp;for it&rsquo;s extensive collection of public art, which includes works&nbsp;like Anish Kapoor&rsquo;s Cloud Gate, Jaume Plensa&rsquo;s Crown Fountain, and the Picasso Sculpture in Daley Plaza, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.

Marshall&rsquo;s&nbsp;Rushmore&nbsp;is a timely reminder of the women who have been underrepresented for their contributions to culture and gifts the city with a work that continues to redefine and shape the way that we think about public art.

&nbsp;

Watch the dedication of Rushmore&nbsp;and a timelapse below:

<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z3jA5C-fc1Q" width="560"></iframe>

&nbsp;

For more information, and to read news&nbsp;about the mural&nbsp;written from the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tonight, and the official project statement from the City of Chicago see the links below:

<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-kerry-james-marshall-mural-unveiled-chicago-1204-story.html">Chicago Tribune&nbsp;</a>

<a href="https://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/12/04/kerry-james-marshall-unveils-monumental-mural-loop">Chicago Tonight WTTW</a>&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/kjm_mural.html">City of Chicago&nbsp;</a>
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Kerry James Marshall Mural unveiled on Cultural Center

Chicago gets its own ‘Rushmore’ with new Kerry James Marshall Mural

By DENNIS CALLAHAN

With the advent of digital devices and smartphones that capture and distribute video with the tap of a finger, the genre of electronic art&nbsp;has become ubiquitous, but it most likely first got its start decades ago.&nbsp;Jean Tinguely (Swiss, 1925-1991) &amp; Marcell Duchamp (French, 1887-1968) may have been the first artists to use electrical/kinetic elements in their sculptures, and then in the late 1960s artists such as Nam June Paik, Dan Flavin, Bruce Nauman and Andy Warhol began to expand the presence of&nbsp;electronic components in their art. By&nbsp;the 1990&rsquo;s the practice became more widespread as&nbsp;artists began to frequently&nbsp;incorporate digital media into their work.&nbsp;

While the mediums are now&nbsp;omnipresent at contemporary art shows, they continue to inspire a degree of mistrust among some buyers, notes curator and journalist&nbsp;Judith Benhamou-Huet. A large part of that hesitation is acknowledging&nbsp;the&nbsp;maintenance and conservation these works&nbsp;require as well as what some perceive as a&nbsp;lack of expertise in this new field.

As old technology becomes unavailable or obsolete, keeping them operating becomes more difficult or even impossible. You have to anticipate problems with conservation. That is why files have to be updated every seven years or sometimes even at the same pace as the technology it utilizes. For example the fluorescent tubes which are the heart of Dan Flavin&#39;s sculptures are no longer being manufactured in the U.S. because of EPA restrictions. The glass tubes and coil amps as well as the CRT&rsquo;s used in the television sets of Nam June Paik are no longer available, and very few people know how to work with them. Transformers for high voltage neon tubes age out and the dangerous PCB&rsquo;s leak from them onto collectors&#39; home or&nbsp;museum floors, or worse. (See&nbsp;Figure 2.)

<img alt="" data-caption="Figure 2" data-rich-file-id="2406" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2406/original/figure-2.jpg" />

Digital drivers for computers controlling interactive LED and audio components wear out and are discontinued by their manufacturers. Recently for example, an expensive, no longer in-production Dell XPS Tower that was programmed with custom software designed by the artist more than ten years ago crashed. It was the beating heart of an interactive monumental sculpture in a large private collection open to the public with millions of viewers every year. With 18 large monitors and a huge, multi-ton steel &amp; LED the art measures over 30&rsquo; tall and 125&rsquo; long and 30&rsquo; wide. The components no longer functioned. After extensive on-site diagnostics, our firm, Callahan art &amp; associates,&nbsp;discovered that a single small capacitor on the motherboard had fried (Figure 3). We&nbsp;safely removed&nbsp;the motherboard, removed the bad capacitor, sourced&nbsp;a replacement for it, and soldered it back on the motherboard (see image at top of page). This saved the sculpture, which otherwise would have been de-accessioned and scrapped, as the operating program and software was too old and unique to operate on any other, let alone newer, machine.

<img alt="" data-caption="Figure 3" data-rich-file-id="2408" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2408/original/figure-3.jpg" />

Only a small number of universities&nbsp;offer training in time-based media conservation. At N.Y.U., Hannelore Roemich,&nbsp;professor of conservation science, and Christine Frohnert, of Bek and Frohnert conservation studio,&nbsp;are developing a graduate specialization that will be&nbsp;part of the 2018 curriculum; it&nbsp;will be the first of its kind in the nation. Compared with traditional art conservation, which deals with, say, restoring Impressionist masterworks or Renaissance sculpture, the preservation of these technologic and time-based media&nbsp;works can be even more demanding.

&ldquo;It becomes so much more difficult when it has a plug,&rdquo;&nbsp;is how Professor Frohnert put it. It is crucial, she said, for conservators to forge relationships with experts in related fields.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2410" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2410/original/figure-6.jpg" />

Callahan art and associates has restored many electronic components in-house. When we approach a work, we think of it as a work of art that is in need of conservation, not as a piece of outdated technology. Electronic or computer technicians see these works as simply old machines; they&nbsp;lack the experience, creative problem solving or patience to restore them as works of art. Potentially dismissing the machines as totalled, they may not&nbsp;recognize the important social and&nbsp;cultural value of the artworks. They only see disposable or sometimes replaceable technology.

&nbsp;

About Dennis Callahan:&nbsp;

The principal of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/callahan-art-associates">Callahan art &amp; associates</a>, Dennis Callahan, studied electronic art and holography in the early 1980&rsquo;s at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Studying under Steve Waldek Callahan designed and built solid state circuits to control his kinetic sculptures. He also studied holography and&nbsp;created holograms in the then-cutting-edge lab at SAIC as well as&nbsp;worked making neon signs and sculptures and solid state controllers (before they were available commercially) at a neon shop in Chicago.

Callahan has been fortunate to segue into electronic conservation today, providing the experience and technical know-how to maintain analog and digital based artwork. He is also sharing his knowledge with conservators and students in order to keep such works alive in the future and shares his&nbsp;ability to understand the perspective of the artists, collectors &amp; museums.

<img alt="" data-caption="Dennis Callahan" data-rich-file-id="2405" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2405/original/figure-0.jpg" />

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Contemporary Conservation Challenges: Electronic Art

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2415" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2415/original/50-save-the-date-20170526.jpg" />

The Museum of Contemporary Art opened its doors at 237 East Ontario in October 1967, and a great deal of things have changed both inside and outside of the museum.&nbsp;This weekend on October 21 and 22, 2017&nbsp;the museum will once again be opening its doors to the public to invite everyone in to a major celebration&nbsp;to see and participate in the art that has been at the heart of the MCA&#39;s contemporary programming for five decades. The museum aims to share the role of the contemporary museum in today&#39;s community and to celebrate Chicago itself by highlighting history and fostering new creative connections all weekend long. Visitors can enjoy free admission and join Chicago artists and creatives in a range of mediums and fields to commemorate 50 years, celebrate the present and look to the future.&nbsp;

This weekend&#39;s events also inagurate the MCA&#39;s recent renovation, and visitors are invited to dine in the&nbsp;new restaurant, Marisol. The anniversary weekend also launches the&nbsp;museum&#39;s&nbsp;new&nbsp;community space, the Commons. Of course, there will also be a lot of art on view, particularly notable is&nbsp;a museum-wide exhibition, <a href="https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2017/We-Are-Here">We Are Here</a>, a&nbsp;three-part exhibition drawn from the MCA&rsquo;s significant collection of twentieth-&nbsp;and twenty-first-century art,&nbsp;organized by three of the museum&rsquo;s visual arts curators,&nbsp;that highlights the museum&#39;s permanent collection of art from 1945 to today.&nbsp;

The museum also opens a collaborative exhibition of&nbsp;two of the most important artists in the museum&rsquo;s history, as well as icons of the last 100 years.&nbsp;<a href="https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2017/Heaven-And-Earth-Alexander-Calder-And-Jeff-Koons">Heaven and Earth: Alexander Calder and Jeff Koons</a>&nbsp;finds common ground between these seemingly disparate artists, with Alexander Calder&rsquo;s weightless sculptures nominally representing &ldquo;heaven&rdquo; and Jeff Koons&rsquo;s celebrations of the mundane and concrete as &ldquo;earth.&rdquo; This pairing highlights both artists&rsquo; interest in playing with balance and gravity to make compelling sculptural statements, while reveling in the contrasts between high art aspirations and mundane material choices.

At the end of the day, the birthday celebration is just that &ndash; a party. The events planned promise to be festive and high-energy, and they will take place from morning until late-night. On&nbsp;Saturday evening, October 21, the key program samples the city&#39;s broad range of musical offerings, kicking off with DJ Calixta of CumbiaSazo!, and including showcase sets with theMIND and Kaycee Ortiz as well as a rare live performance by Lupe Fiasco. The evening concludes with Legacy in the Living, an immersive dance party with Kiara Lanier and Dj Duane Powell. that recounts Chicago&#39;s musical history. Visitors are encouraged to come in their best art-inspired dress and to immortalize the occasion with photography by GlitterGuts.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Lupe Fiasco Photo: Rob Norris" data-rich-file-id="2416" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2416/original/img-9366-credit-rob-norris-20-1-.jpg" />

Free reservations for the atrium concert featuring DJ Calixta, theMIND, Kaycee Ortiz, and Lupe Fiasco are available October 18 at noon. Museum galleries and artist projects remain open to all throughout the evening event and the atrium reopens at 9:30 pm for the museum-wide dance party.

A lineup of the anniversary weekend&#39;s events is shown below.*&nbsp;Read the list closely... There are going to be very special birthday cakes served,&nbsp;designed by Emily Nejad of Bon Vivant Cakes, in collaboration with Chicago artists Mari Eastman, Magalie Guerin, Paul Heyer, William J. O&rsquo;Brien, and Amanda Williams.

Here&#39;s to 50 MCA!

&nbsp;

Note: events marked as&nbsp;*Atrium mean that&nbsp;access is by pre-reserved free ticket for these performances. Ticket holders enter Atrium through Plaza steps. Tickets can be reserved starting Wednesday, October 18 at noon. Atrium reopens to the public at 9:30pm for the Dance Party.

MCA Hearts Chicago is co-organized by MCA Chicago and No Small Plans Productions.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

SATURDAY (10 am&ndash;11 pm)

&bull; 10 am&nbsp;Lykanthea&nbsp;(PLAZA) 
&bull;&nbsp;11 am Opening Ceremony, with the&nbsp;Chicago Children&#39;s Choir (PLAZA) 
&bull;&nbsp;Noon&ndash;2 pm&nbsp;Lou Mallozzi with Fred Schmalz,&nbsp;Tracking Shots (PERIMETER OF BUILDING) 
&bull;&nbsp;12:15 pm&nbsp;Liz McCarthy,&nbsp;Whistle Hang Out&nbsp;(ATRIUM and STAIRS) 
&bull;&nbsp;1&ndash;3 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Family Nook and Story Time with Drag Queens&nbsp;featuring Muffy Fishbasket (TERRACE) 
&bull;&nbsp;2 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Participatory Music Coalition&nbsp;(ATRIUM) 
&bull;&nbsp;3 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;South Shore Drill Team&nbsp;(PLAZA &mdash;&gt; ATRIUM &mdash;&gt; TERRACE) 
&bull;&nbsp;3:30 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Cake is served!&nbsp;Artist-designed cakes created by Bon Vivant Cakes (TERRACE) 
&bull;&nbsp;5 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;avery r. young and de deacon board perform&nbsp;protest pretty, followed by&nbsp;Jamila Woods in conversation with avery r. young and Tasha Viets-VanLear&nbsp;(THEATER)&nbsp;

After Hours in the Atrium&nbsp;(ticket required)* 
6 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;DJ caliXta of CumbioSazo! 
7 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;theMIND 
7:20 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Kaycee Ortiz 
7:50 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;DJ caliXta 
8:20 pm&nbsp;Lupe Fiasco&nbsp;with DJ Double L&nbsp;

9:30 pm&nbsp;Legacy in The Living 
Recount Chicago&#39;s musical history in an immersive dance party with Kiara Lanier and Dj Duane Powell.

SUNDAY (10 am&ndash;5 pm)

&bull;&nbsp;9 am&nbsp;&nbsp;Christa Donner,&nbsp;Guided, reservation required (ATRIUM)&nbsp;RSVP with names of attendees 
&bull;&nbsp;11 am&nbsp;&nbsp;Screening: Nobody&#39;s Here but Me&nbsp;(THEATER) 
&bull;&nbsp;11:30 am&nbsp;&nbsp;Young Chicago Authors Pop-Up&nbsp;(GALLERIES) 
&bull;&nbsp;Noon&nbsp;Michael Rakowitz,&nbsp;Enemy Kitchen&nbsp;(PLAZA) 
&bull;&nbsp;Noon&ndash;4 pm&nbsp;Teen Creative Agency: MCA 100&nbsp;(LAKE VIEW ROOM) 
&bull;&nbsp;12:30 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Behind &quot;the Stage&quot; Tour with Yolanda Cesta Cursach, Curator of Performance&nbsp;(4TH-FLOOR LOBBY and BACKSTAGE) 
&bull;&nbsp;12:30, 2, and 3:30 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Brendan Fernandes,&nbsp;Art by Snapchat 
&bull;&nbsp;1 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Aaron Hughes,&nbsp;Tea Performance&nbsp;(PLAZA) 
&bull;&nbsp;1 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Screening: Burden&nbsp;(THEATER) 
&bull;&nbsp;1:30 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Young Chicago Authors Pop-Up&nbsp;(GALLERIES) 
&bull;&nbsp;2:30 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Behind &quot;the Stage&quot; Tour with Tara Aisha Willis, Associate Curator of Performance&nbsp;(4TH-FLOOR LOBBY and BACKSTAGE) 
&bull;&nbsp;3 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Screening: Hairy Who &amp; the Chicago Imagists&nbsp;(THEATER) 
&bull;&nbsp;3:30 pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Young Chicago Authors Pop-Up&nbsp;(GALLERIES)

All details may be found on <a href="https://mcachicago.org/Calendar/2017/10/MCA-Hearts-Chicago">mcachicago.org</a>

Top image:&nbsp;MCA Prime Time: Off Rack September 23, 2017 Photo: Nathan Keay, &copy; MCA Chicago

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The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago celebrates 50 years Oct 21-22, 2017

Happy Birthday MCA! 50th Celebrations Oct 21 and 22

By GINNY VAN ALYEA&nbsp;

If turning 50 means you&#39;re showing your age, then 50 sure looks good if you&#39;re the Museum of Contemporary Art.&nbsp;

Three quarters of the way through its 50th year in 2017, the MCA just unveiled the new building redesign by architects Johnston Marklee as well as opening of the highly anticipated restaurant Marisol, featuring the first US restaurant commission by British artist Chris Ofili.

Below are details from the museum&#39;s press release:&nbsp;

&quot;Today&nbsp;Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, officially opened the dynamic new building redesign by Los Angeles-based architects&nbsp;Sharon Johnston&nbsp;and Mark Lee&nbsp;of&nbsp;Johnston Marklee.&nbsp;Grynsztejn says, &quot;Johnston Marklee understands the strength of our Josef Paul Kleihues-designed building, and they carry a deep respect of history throughout their architectural practice. Their legacy of stellar work-increasingly referenced as a leader in the field-resonates strongly with our interest in making thoughtful interventions to our building, including a new restaurant called Marisol. With this redesign, our distinctive space becomes even more welcoming and flexible for our audiences.&quot;

Johnston Marklee (JML) redesigned select public spaces of the museum to create three major new offerings: Marisol, the ground-floor destination restaurant with an immersive art environment by international artist Chris Ofili; a social engagement space called the Commons on the second floor with an installaion by Pedro y Juana; and a new third floor with classrooms and a flexible meeting space that puts learning at the very center of the museum. These new public spaces are connected by a dramatic new staircase that honors the MCA&#39;s original iconic staircase, and an elegant new vaulted ceiling that recalls the barrel vaults in the fourth-floor galleries. JML&#39;s design of these welcoming and vibrant new spaces reflects the changing needs of a 21st-century contemporary art museum while maintaining the integrity of the Josef Paul Kleihues-designed building opened in 1996. This major $16-million renovation converts 12,000 square feet of interior space and coincides with the MCA&#39;s 50th anniversary.&quot; 
 
<img alt="" data-caption="Photo: Kendall McCaugherty, © Hall+Merrick" data-rich-file-id="2302" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2302/original/jml-marisol-with-mural.jpg" />

Also today, Grynsztejn&nbsp;revealed&nbsp;Turner Prize-winning British artist&nbsp;Chris Ofili&#39;s first restaurant commission in the United States. For this commission, Ofili designed an immersive art environment for the MCA&#39;s new restaurant Marisol with a&nbsp;site-specific art mural as the centerpiece, carried through to every surface&nbsp;of the restaurant -- from line drawings on the walls and etchings on the glass, to all of the colors, fabrics, and textures in the restaurant. Grynsztejn says, &quot;This is not simply putting work from the collection on our walls. This is a&nbsp;full-scale, all-in, immersive art environment&nbsp;that&nbsp;surrounds you&nbsp;when you enter into the restaurant, for which Chris Ofili has&nbsp;decided on every surface.&quot;

The mural, called&nbsp;The Sorceress&#39; Mirror&nbsp;is exemplary of Ofili&#39;s incorporation of the imagined and the real in his paintings, and his unifying of these into a singular, vibrant, and sensuous visual narrative. Inspired by the vaulted ceiling designed by Johnston Marklee for the restaurant, Ofili has leaping figures arcing across the night sky, with two figures riding a beast in flight as it leaps over a red cave and into the stars. Beneath them, the sorceress in her cave seems to emerge from the water as she hunches over her mirror, observing the figures and canopy above.&nbsp;The sorceress&#39;s cave re-imagines the landscape of Trinidad, where the artist lives and works. Ofili drew from trips he made to Paria Bay on the north of the island, where a rock at the edge of the shore has been carved by the sea to create a natural arch through which the water flows. The transition of the sky from saturated black pigment to lighter washes punctuated by colorful glittering stars refers to the sense of an instant captured on the threshold between night and day.&nbsp;

Marisol features local chef&nbsp;Jason Hammel&nbsp;at the helm and&nbsp;re-imagines the relationship between food, art, and design in an immersive art environment created by&nbsp;Ofili.

Chef&nbsp;Hammel&#39;s menu is inspired by the muse of the new MCA restaurant, spirited French/Venezuelan artist&nbsp;Marisol --&nbsp;a star of the New York art scene in the 1960s with her friend Andy Warhol, whose artwork,&nbsp;Six Women&nbsp;(1968), became the first work in the MCA&#39;s collection of contemporary art.

<img alt="" data-caption="Marisol in Venice during the 1968 Biennale Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty " data-rich-file-id="2301" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2301/original/marisol-2.jpg" />Built upon a twenty-year relationship with Midwestern farmers, chef Hammel&#39;s menu incorporates vibrant vegetables and handmade pastas, alongside meticulously sourced meat and seafood. Hammel has created a playfully designed menu that varies with the seasons, filled with imaginative, thoughtful, and contemporary flavors inspired by the artistic surroundings that fuel the mind, body, and soul. The menus reflect not only the seasonal availability of local ingredients, but the creative open environment of the restaurant and the museum. Further, a new area called the Street with the space&#39;s counter service offers coffee, pastries, and inventive small-bites welcoming both passers-by as well as destination travelers. 
&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Dry aged beef with spring onions and black currant vinaigrette Photo: Carolina Mariana Rodriguez, © MCA Chicago" data-rich-file-id="2300" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2300/original/cmr-mca-hires-111.jpg" />

The dinner menu showcases imaginative dishes including the&nbsp;Marisol Salad&nbsp;(apple, dill, macadamia nut, pecorino, Marisol&#39;s natural food salad dressing),&nbsp;Crispy Eggplant&nbsp;(roasted grapes, pistou, sweet and sour pork) and&nbsp;Steamed Swordfish&nbsp;(cauliflower, cherry tomato, uni hollandaise).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Lunch offerings include lighter plates of vegetables and sandwiches, full-bodied entrees, and signature sweets. Standouts on the lunch menu include the&nbsp;Marisol Sandwich&nbsp;(grilled skirt steak, spring onion jam, runny farm egg, avocado),&nbsp;French Omelet&nbsp;(cured salmon and cr&egrave;me fraiche, sourdough toast) and&nbsp;Fried Trout Sandwich&nbsp;(cherry tomatoes, bacon, bibb lettuce, gribiche).&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/takashi-murakami-at-the-mca">The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg</a>, Japanese artist&nbsp;Takashi Murakami&#39;s show at the MCA, closes on September 24. A new show featuring work by Michael Rakowitz opens on September 16.&nbsp;Stop by the museum to see both shows as well as to experience the new restaurant for yourself.&nbsp;

More info on the MCA is <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/museum-of-contemporary-art-chicago-mca">here</a>.&nbsp;

To read about more Chicago restaurants with an artistic environment, click <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/8/eat-more-local-see-more-local-discovering-art-in-chicago-s-restaurants">here</a>.

&nbsp;

Top photo: Kendall McCaugherty, &copy; Hall+Merrick

The MCA's building redesign and a new restaurant, Marisol

Enticing – And Appetizing – Changes Come to the MCA

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418572/yvxkqlsk6y7crdykrz6b.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;This fall the&nbsp;Chicago Architecture Biennial&nbsp;returns for its second edition with an exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center and a number of off-site installations and performances. With so much to see and do, CGN asked&nbsp;Gibran Villalobos, Public Programs and Partnerships Coordinator, to highlight the programs he’s excited about.&nbsp;<h3>white wanderer: creating a Climate Change Soundtrack</h3>Luftwerk, the renowned artistic collaboration of Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, will discuss White Wanderer, an immersive public art installation that takes inspiration from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica. Using real life recordings of the sounds and frequencies of melting and moving glaciers, the artists will create a haunting and contemplative soundtrack of climate change. The panel discussion features collaborators Rob Moore, a Senior Water Policy Analyst at NRDC and Doug MacAyeal, Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. It will be moderated by Neil Stevenson of Ideo.&nbsp;Sep 26, Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center<h3>LAMPO Performance: MARK FELL</h3>Mark Fell premieres his new multi-channel project for the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Lampo. The UK composer will position 24 speakers around the hall and manipulate electronic sound in dialogue with the acoustic and architectural space—a conversation of geometries. This interplay forms a framework within which Chicago bassoonist Katherine Young performs Fell’s score.Sep 29, Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center<h3>Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle &amp; Hannah Higgins</h3>In conversation with art historian Hannah Higgins, author of The Grid Book (MIT Press, 2009), the artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle discusses his use of the grid and its impact on contemporary practice.Oct 3, Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center<h3>VAN ALEN INSTITUTE: VARIETY SHOW</h3>In a medley of music, provocation, and presentations, the Van Alen Institute will reflect on hangouts defined by both personal experiences and physical spaces. How do communities appropriate urban space? How is the experience of hanging out different for different people? The group explores a series of questions in a night of fast-paced performance and conversation.Oct 23, Garfield Park Conservatory<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2234/original/gilla.jpg" alt=""></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Photo: Anjali Pinto; Luftwerk, white wanderer, 2017SaveSaveSaveSave</body></html>

CGN highlights some of the events at the Chicago Architecture Biennial. 

Making New History: Chicago Architecture Biennial

By BRIDGET BROWNLEE AND JAYCEE ROCKHOLD

&nbsp;

Chicago is not lacking in two things these days: food and art. Whether you&rsquo;re grabbing a quick bite to eat or sitting down for a twelve course meal, Chicago is home to a number of restaurants that feature tasty cuisine alongside local art.

ALINEA

You don&rsquo;t have to just look at art, you can eat it, too. In this immersive restaurant that celebrates dining as an artistic experience, enjoy an avant-garde inspired menu, with everything from green apple flavored balloons to lily bulbs, all while admiring new renovations to the space itself, as well as paintings by artist and dealer Thomas Masters.

1723 N. Halsted, alinearestaurant.com

3 ARTS CLUB CAFE AT RH

In a Gold Coast building built in 1914, which was once home to female artists living at the Three Arts Club, the ground floor space has been converted to offer casual dining in an airy artistic setting. The popular cafe is located in the historic courtyard space where artists used to enjoy abundant light by which to paint, sculpt and sketch.

1300 N. Dearborn, 3artsclubcafe.com

THE ALBERT

The Albert, an Albert Einstein themed restaurant, was designed to showcase the intersection between art and science, and it features work by local artists, including murals from cartoonist Jonathan Plotkin, and Art Institute of Chicago Mathematician Dr. Eugenia Cheng&rsquo;s colorful chalkboard musings.

228 E. Ontario, hotelemc2.com/eat-drink

<img alt="" data-caption="GT PRIME, A RIVER NORTH steakhouse, FEATURES PHOTOGRAPHIC MURALS BY JEFF KAUCK. PHOTO: ANTHONY TAHLIER" data-rich-file-id="2246" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2246/original/gtprime-0916-4365.jpg" />

GT PRIME

GT Prime takes food appreciation to the next level with striking culinary-focused murals. Created by artist Jeff Kauck, these larger than life photographs, along with fur-topped bar stools and taxidermy displays, set GT Prime apart from your typical steakhouse.

707 N. Wells Street, gtprimerestaurant.com

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Photo courtesy of Alinea.&nbsp;

CGN highlights art-oriented, locally based restaurants around the city of Chicago. 

Eat More Local, See More Local: Discovering Art in Chicago's Restaurants

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418571/kh2w7e0szd2hu9cpdpun.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;By JAYCEE ROCKHOLDEven though the city of Chicago may be on the map, its photography community isn’t— which is exactly what Jennifer Murray, executive director of Filter Photo Festival and Filter Space, is trying to fix. A grad student turned Loyola University professor, Murray has always had her toes dipped in the Chicago photography community.Still currently the only photography festival in the Midwest, Filter Photo Festival (running September 21- 24, 2017) was founded by Sarah Hadley as a small operation in 2009, but now encompasses hundreds of participants, in-depth portfolio reviews, artist talks and interactive events. “Filter actually began about nine years ago as an annual festival,” said Murray. “This upcoming September will be our ninth annual Filter Photo Festival taking place at the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel, just a short walk away from the Museum of Contemporary Art.” The festival draws both a Chicago centric and national crowd, as well as a few international photographers eager to get their work reviewed.Even though there are multiple facets of the festival, portfolio reviews make up a majority of the festival. Gathering a wide variety of artists and resources for both students and the public is one of the goals that solidifies Filter Photo Festival. It’s a high concentration of well-known artistic individuals in one area made available at a fair price.“The portfolio reviews happen with professionals like gallerists and curators,” said Murray. “We invite them to come from across the country. We usually have around 30 and about 10 of those are Chicago based. We really want people to take advantage of the fact that you have all of these professionals in one specific location as opposed to thinking that you needed to go to San Francisco, New York and different cities around the country in order to have your work looked at.” &nbsp;This year, Matt Austin, founder of Candor Arts, and Teresa Silva from Chicago Artists Coalition are among the Chicago-based reviewers.Murray’s background in teaching urged her to place a heavy emphasis on portfolio reviews (she currently teaches photography at Chicago’s own Loyola University). Proud of the fact that she could practically talk about a piece and workshop it all day long, part of her drive for reviews stems from her experience working in A+D Gallery, a non-photo gallery at Columbia College Chicago. “Teaching photography but running a non-photo gallery really helped me understand the place photography has in the art world,” said Murray. “I think we tend to think of photography as the subset or separate thing and it’s really not.”The public can purchase portfolio reviews in bulk, allowing the individual to spend 20 minutes discussing their work with multiple professionals, and runs on a first come first serve basis. Whoever submits a list of artists they wish to meet with quickly has more of a chance of speaking with the artists on their list.For Murray, the Filter portfolio reviews emphasize that photographers are artists, and should consider themselves so. Ranging from still life to street photography, each photographer has their own artistic value.Besides the public, portfolio reviews also attract plenty of students, who actually have an advantage for portfolio reviews. Not only do they get the chance to have their work reviewed by well-known artists, but they also can participate at a lower cost. Students who are faced with a tight budget can purchase single portfolio reviews versus the require bulk buy for others.&nbsp;“A lot of our local faculty will bring students and classes,” said Murray. “That’s really the goal; to create a festival, to create these four days of programming in Chicago that’s just not for people that can afford this. We really want it to be open to anybody. We want to provide opportunities to students.”Hand-in-hand with portfolio reviews, Filter Photo Festival also organizes artists talks. Topics range from searching for and finding photography opportunities to discussing and showcasing a particular artist’s work. Some talks implement tours or other interactive aspects, such as the Leica Camera walk organized by Chicago’s Tamarkin Camera, in which participants are lent a Leica camera to take photos while walking around the city. This free activity allows people to step out of their own specific area of photography and experience something they wouldn’t have been able to before, especially students who may not be able to afford a Leica camera.“It’s street photography and film based. It doesn’t have to be film, but it certainly could be,” said Murray. “It’s a nice community building opportunity. It’s a way to sample some gear but it’s also a way to be with other folks that want to walk around and take pictures.”Some of the artists speaking at the event this year include photographer Jeffrey Wolin and Catherine Edelman, owner and director of Catherine Edelman gallery in Chicago, both of which will lead a gallery tour of Wolin’s exhibition Pigeon Hill: Then and Now, which includes his photographs taken in a housing project in southern Indiana. Photographers Sara J. Winston and Terry Evans will also lead their own talks as well. Even though the content of each talk will differ, one can expect healthy discussions of what it means to take contemporary photographs, as well as an enlightening method to learn about the artist and their work.In addition to artist talks, Filter Photo also presents numerous opportunities for workshopping photographers. Following a similar formula to that of the portfolio reviews, some, like Filter Photo members and those who sign up when registration opens, get first pick on these workshops. Even though the workshops will give guidance like the reviews, they also take time to pose heavy questions to spur discussion. The workshop Getting Seen, Getting Shown: Professional Practices for the Fine Art Photographer With Sasha Wolf and Jess T. Dugan not only points out skills that a photographer should have to keep their head above water, but also questions when a photographer knows if when their work is ready to be shown, how to connect with others in the art world, and how social media intertwines with this all.“People that take those workshops have the opportunity to develop a peer group with the other people that are there and develop a relationship with that artist,” said Murray. “Most of the time people will bring their own work to the workshop, so they not only hear what the artist has to say about their own practice and how to move forward in this particular area, but also have the opportunity to have the artist look at their own work. [The artist] provides really direct one-on-one feedback.”Overall, the Filter Photo Festival, highlighted by portfolio reviews, artist talks, and workshops, bolsters a photography community. Murray, who hopes the festival continues to attract people from both Chicago and around the world, also intends the festival to stay around the same size as it is now in order to maintain the small, tight-knit community feel. The festival has definitely grown since its conception in 2009, but for now, it fill its own niche in the Midwestern photography community. At the end of the day, for Murray, the main concern isn’t the size of the festival, but the individuals that make it up. From amateur photographers to those who have decades of experience, from still life photographers to student photographers snapping pictures for their own personal project, Filter Festival provides a platform to aid them all.“We know you’re serious and that this isn’t just a passing fad for you,” Murray said. “We know that you’re genuinely interested in being a part of this community and that this is really a career for you. We want to nurture those people.”Photo: Courtesy of Filter Festival&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN interviews Filter Festival director Jennifer Murray.

Putting Chicago on the Map: How Filter Festival Builds Photography Community 

On Tuesday, August 8, 2017 at noon the City of Chicago hosts a restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication in Daley Plaza. The event features Commissioner Mark Kelly, artist Edra Soto and designer Paul Durica.

Mayor Rahm Emanual and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events designated 2017 the &quot;Year of Public Art&quot;&nbsp;with a new 50x50 Neighborhood Arts Project, the creation of a Public Art Youth Corps, a new Public Art Festival, exhibitions, performances, tours and more representing a $1.5 million investment in artist-led community projects.

In honor of the &quot;Year of Public Art&quot;, CGN delved into the history of public art in the city of Chicago. Writer Franck Mercurio explored an array of topics including the controversy surrounding the installation of the Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza. Below you&#39;ll find links to all the articles in the series.

July 6, 2017:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/7/does-man-love-art-a-history-of-public-art-controversy-in-chicago">Does Man Love Art? A History of Public Art Controversy in Chicago</a>

May 18, 2017:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/5/no-little-plans-the-battle-for-public-art-in-chicago">No Little Plans: The Battle for Public Art in Chicago</a>

April 25, 2017:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/public-art-and-the-masses-examining-sculpture-in-grant-park">Public Art and the Masses: Examining Sculpture in Grant Park</a>

March 15, 2017:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/3/the-origins-of-public-art-in-chicago-from-the-bronze-lions-to-skylanding">The Origins of Public Art in Chicago: From the Bronze Lions to Skylanding</a>

Image:&nbsp;Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune

Chicago celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza.

Everyone's Picasso: Celebrating 50 Years of a Chicago Icon

There are a few sights that a Chicagoan expects to see on the river&mdash;friends celebrating the weekend on yachts, people hustling to numerous restaurants on the river bank&nbsp;or the occasional architectural boat tour brimming with eager tourists. However, for the next month, city dwellers should keep their eye out for something a&nbsp;bit more uncommon: The Floating Museum.

Co-directed by Faheem Majeed, Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Andrew Schachman and Avery R. Young, the museum, perched on a barge that literally floats down the Chicago river, is designed to highlight specific areas of the city and, in their own words, &ldquo;create temporary, site-responsive museum spaces to activate sites of cultural potential throughout Chicago&rsquo;s neighborhoods&rdquo;.&nbsp;

Here&rsquo;s when and where you can catch a glimpse of the museum: 
 
August 11-13: Bridgeport/Pilsen (Park 571, 2751 S Eleanor St) 
August 14-27: Riverwalk (River Theater, between LaSalle and Clark) 
August 28: Navy Pier at Polk Bros Park 
 
As the barge travels around the city, there will&nbsp;be events reoccurring each week at all locations.&nbsp;

Song Circle 
Wednesdays, 6-8pm 
In addition to its growing reputation for public art, the city is also known for its music. Come check out some of Chicago&rsquo;s own blues and gospel artists with the group session led by Avery R. Young, fellow vocalist and poet. 
 
Breaking Bread 
Thursdays, 6-8pm 
Anyone who has stepped foot in the Midwest knows that the region has some great grub. Thursdays at every barge location, step on over to the river to talk about site-specific topics while enjoying some of the dishes Chicago has to offer. 
 
Friday Night Live! 
Fridays, 6-9pm 
What&rsquo;s a live event without any music? Take the time to check out some of the city&rsquo;s local venues while enjoying a live show. 
 
Sticks + Tape 
Saturdays, 6-8pm 
Even though those who attend the Floating Museum can certainly observe the art already made, they can help make it too! Join in on a temporary, large-scale sculpture making activity, materials provided.

For a full list of&nbsp;activities,&nbsp;participating artists and organizations,&nbsp;visit <a href="https://www.floatingmuseum.org/river-assembly">floatingmuseum.org/river-assembly</a>

Image: Courtesy of the Floating Museum

The Floating Museum takes to the Chicago River with a mobile gallery.

Following the Floating Museum: Where and When to Expect It

The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) is a unique institution that we are fortunate to have in Chicago. Devoted to supporting contemporary photographers and to housing a wealth of images that represent prime examples of the medium, the museum&#39;s vast archives of photographs are comprised of more than 14,000 works by 1,465 artists. MoCP began collecting these works in 1979.&nbsp;

As the leading photography museum in the Midwest, the MoCP has established a reputation for broadening the visual arts by introducing new national and international talent to the public.&nbsp;The MoCP is committed to broadening the visual arts by constantly searching for new national and international talent to exhibit.

The museum&#39;s latest exhibition, re:collection, which opened July 13 and runs through October 1,&nbsp;is a celebration of MoCP&rsquo;s vast archive&nbsp;and an exploration of how we perceive images. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Photography as a medium is distinctive in its relationship to the practice of sequencing. With its origins in cinematic frames and a typically flat, reproducible form, photography lends itself to a storyboard approach. Photo books and exhibitions often depend on, and capitalize on, the fact that photographs that work well as stand-alone images can be enhanced and enriched by the presence of other images in their vicinity.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Images: Top Left: Angela Strassheim; Lower Left: An-My Lê; Top Right: Guillaume Simoneau; Lower Right: Alison Ruttan" data-rich-file-id="2196" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2196/original/recollection-strassheim-ruttan-le-simoneau-web.jpg" />

A stream of images runs through the galleries, spanning the history of photography and offering a diverse array of approaches. Each photograph speaks to its neighboring photograph in terms of content, form or another, more subtle, connecting factor waiting to be discovered. At certain junctures, tributaries are formed that group related ideas and address some of the most pressing social issues of our time. Each line of images starts with a camera-less construction, a nod to the beginnings of the medium when images were made without the camera apparatus as we know it today, and a gesture meant to underscore the unreliability of photographic representation.

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/re-collection">re:collection</a>&nbsp;is&nbsp;on view through October 1, 2017 at MoCP.

Top images:&nbsp;Left: Guillaume&nbsp;Simoneau;&nbsp;Top Right: Christian Patterson; Bottom&nbsp;Right: Rachel Papo &nbsp;

MoCP's latest exhibition celebrates the museum's vast archives.

re:collection at MoCP

In recognition of Chicago&rsquo;s &ldquo;Year of Public Art,&rdquo;&nbsp;Chicago Gallery News&nbsp;is featuring a series of articles chronicling milestones of public art in Chicago. The fourth in the series examines the history of controversial public art installations.

By FRANCK MERCURIO

Controversy is never far from public art, especially in Chicago. Throughout the years, the city has seen its share of debates and scandals over art installations, ranging from cost overruns and incompetence to charges of public indecency and immorality to misplaced or destroyed artwork.

Even works that are much beloved today often began with rocky public relationships. When the city&#39;s famous &ldquo;Chicago Picasso&rdquo; (officially untitled) was unveiled in Daley Plaza fifty years ago this summer, it was&nbsp;not&nbsp;universally embraced. Indeed, most people puzzled over it.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;The “Chicago Picasso” was fabricated in Gary, Indiana at the American Bridge Division of U.S. Steel.&lt;/i&gt; Photo: Untitled sculpture (“The Picasso”), Chicago Illinois, 1967. Pablo Picasso, sculptor. Fazlur R. Khan Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago. Digital File #199207_151211-007. " data-rich-file-id="2184" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2184/original/199207-151211-007.jpg" />

&ldquo;Was it a joke? Was it for real? Why that? Everyone had an opinion,&rdquo; wrote&nbsp;Chicago Tribune&nbsp;reporter Sheila Wolfe the day after the unveiling ceremony in August 1967.&nbsp;

Writing in the same edition, the Tribune&rsquo;s art editor, Edward Barry, reported on the crowd&rsquo;s decidedly mixed reactions. &ldquo;With applause, startled exclamations, and incredulous smiles,&rdquo; wrote Barry, &ldquo;Chicago received its long awaited gift yesterday from the most celebrated of living artists.&rdquo;

Gwendolyn Brooks seemed to brace Chicagoans for the impending public controversy. In her poem, composed on the occasion of the Picasso&rsquo;s unveiling, she wrote:

Does man love art? Man visits art, but squirms. 
Art hurts. Art urges voyages&mdash; 
And it is easier to stay at home, 
The nice beer ready.

Art&mdash;especially public art&mdash;does indeed urge voyages. Each new work tends to push the boundaries of our collective sensibilities, challenging our shared notions of what art is supposed to be. The rules for evaluating public art go beyond formal and conceptual concerns and take into account other criteria that can make or break an installation. Does the work provide a civic amenity? Does it fit within its urban and architectural contexts? Is it accessible to the general public, both physically and intellectually?

All of these issues were debated with the unveiling of the Chicago Picasso in 1967. But what was then new and provocative gradually became familiar and accepted. Today, the gargantuan modernist sculpture serves as a symbol of Chicago; it&rsquo;s considered a unique civic asset, one that paved the way for subsequent &ldquo;plaza sculptures&rdquo; by other renowned artists, including Calder, Miro, Chagall, Nevelson, and DuBuffet.

Yet despite its current popularity, the Chicago Picasso still presents a conceptual conundrum to many people. What exactly is it supposed to be? A baboon? A dog? A horse? A praying mantis? A woman? For decades, the question has been debated by experts and amateurs alike.&nbsp;

&ldquo;The identity of the sculpture&rsquo;s inspiration [is] an ongoing controversy that to this day has not been definitively resolved,&rdquo; writes Patricia Balton Stratton in her recently published book The Chicago Picasso: A Point of Departure. &ldquo;Part of the reason for the uncertainty,&rdquo; continues Stratton, &ldquo;was that Picasso himself refused to speak about the sculpture&rsquo;s provenance or even to name it, an act of negative creativity that opened up the sculpture&rsquo;s field of meaning and made it truly public.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Photo courtesy of Franck Mercurio" data-rich-file-id="2177" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2177/original/2016-04-29-19-37-48.jpg" />

Despite the intense desire to solve the mystery of the sculpture&rsquo;s identity, the subject matter (if there is any) probably didn&rsquo;t mean much to Picasso himself. Instead, the artist seemed more intent on refining a set of formal concepts that he had pursued and explored throughout his 70-plus-year career.

These explorations can be traced back to Picasso&rsquo;s guitar constructions of 1912&ndash;1914 when he first experimented with planar and linear elements to define space and suggest volume. More radically, the artist used linear elements to compose his&nbsp;Project for a Monument to Guillaume Apollinaire&nbsp;(1928), a collaboration with the sculptor Julio Gonz&aacute;lez. These early works are the ancestors of the Chicago Picasso, which includes many of the same elements, but rendered on a monumental scale.

Picasso also played with the idea of seeing and experiencing the sculpture in different ways depending on the viewer&rsquo;s vantage point.

Looking directly at the work, the viewer is confronted with a gigantic totemic figure, its &ldquo;face&rdquo; reminiscent of an African mask. Picasso collected art from Africa and Oceania throughout his career, and these works often served as inspiration for his own art, most famously in his painting&nbsp;Les Demoiselles d&#39;Avignon&nbsp;(1907).

However, looking at the Chicago Picasso from either side, the viewer&rsquo;s perception changes; a profile of a woman becomes apparent, suggesting the many portraits Picasso made of his wife, Jacqueline, created during the same time period he was working on the Chicago commission.

These shifting perceptions reflect a kind of Cubist sensibility, providing multiple perspectives within one piece. But the Chicago Picasso also represents a lifetime of sculptural explorations, culminating in a single work and making a simple &ldquo;one answer&rdquo; reading of the piece impossible.

But even as debates about the meaning of the Chicago Picasso continue, it&rsquo;s worth noting that it was not the first or last public art controversy in Chicago. One of the earliest to seize the public&rsquo;s attention centered around a bronze sculpture installed on the front steps of the Art Institute in 1916: a rather handsome male nude titled&nbsp;The Sower.

<img alt="" data-caption="Albin Polasek, &lt;i&gt;The Sower&lt;/i&gt;, 1916. &lt;i&gt;The Sower&lt;/i&gt; currently overlooks the Esplanade at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden " data-rich-file-id="2183" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2183/original/sower-183.jpg" />

The artist, Albin Polasek (1879&ndash;1965), had arrived in Chicago from Rome to head the School of the Art Institute&rsquo;s sculpture department. While studying at the American Academy in Rome, Polasek had modeled&nbsp;The Sower, a classically inspired figure in the tradition of monumental male nudes in Western art. (Think Michelangelo&rsquo;s&nbsp;David, but with an agrarian calling.) The Art Institute placed&nbsp;The Sower&nbsp;on public view outside the museum&rsquo;s main entrance, in part to advertise a large exhibition of American sculpture, but also to celebrate the opening of a new gallery space&mdash;Gunsaulus Hall&mdash;spanning the Illinois Central Railway tracks.

The &ldquo;naked farmer&rdquo; immediately caught the gaze of many Chicagoans, who were not accustomed to seeing full-frontal male nudity on Michigan Avenue. It also caught the attention of the city&rsquo;s first &ldquo;censor of public morals&rdquo; Major M.L.C. Funkhouser. He tried&mdash;in vain&mdash;to have&nbsp;The Sower&nbsp;taken off view in the name of public decency. Letters to Chicago&rsquo;s newspapers were both for and against sculpture. Yet throughout the scandal, the Art Institute stood its ground, and Polasek kept his sense of humor.

&ldquo;He was highly entertained by it all,&rdquo; recounted Polasek&rsquo;s wife, Ruth Sherwood, in her biography of the artist. &ldquo;More over, the discussion brought him fame overnight. People who would never have thought to visit the Art Institute flocked downtown to see the &lsquo;Sower.&rsquo;&rdquo;

Chicago newspapers also had fun with the controversy. When the time came to bring&nbsp;The Sower&nbsp;inside the museum (to accompany an exhibition of Polasek&rsquo;s work), the&nbsp;Chicago Tribune&nbsp;wrote that &ldquo;Nippy December breezes whistling about the Art Institute made it necessary for &lsquo;The Sower&rsquo; to put on his pants or get out of the weather&mdash;so he has gone in.&rdquo;

The Sower&nbsp;is now on permanent display at the Chicago Botanic Garden where he watches over the Esplanade four seasons a year&mdash;in all his natural glory.

<img alt="" data-caption="Albin Polasek, &lt;i&gt;The Sower&lt;/i&gt;, 1916. &lt;i&gt;The Sower&lt;/i&gt; currently overlooks the Esplanade at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden " data-rich-file-id="2180" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2180/original/esplanade-20sower-201.jpg" />

Polasek&rsquo;s masterwork remained controversial for only a few months. But not all public art controversies erupt immediately after a work is unveiled. In some cases, the scandal happens long after a work has been de-installed or decommissioned.&nbsp;

Case in point: The controversy surrounding&nbsp;Chicago Rising from the Lake&nbsp;(1954) by artist Milton Horn (1906&ndash;1995) happened years after the sculpture was created. Today, this monumental bronze relief adorns the Columbus Drive Bridge along the Chicago River Walk. But the sculpture took a very circuitous route to its present home.

Horn originally created the massive 12-foot-by-14-foot relief for Parking Facility Number 1, the first city-owned and operated public parking garage in Chicago. Opened in 1955, the modernist structure at Wacker Drive and State Street accommodated a growing number of car commuters within a state-of-the-art facility. The sculpture,&nbsp;Chicago Rising from the Lake, took pride of place on the building&rsquo;s gleaming white brick fa&ccedil;ade, where it faced north toward the Chicago River. There, it presided over a daily parade of automobiles, driving in and out of the facility, until the garage was demolished in 1983, making way for the Renaissance Hotel and the Leo Burnett Building.

But after its de-installation, the sculpture disappeared.

<img alt="" data-caption="Milton Horn’s &lt;i&gt;Chicago Rising from the Lake&lt;/i&gt; (1954) as depicted on the façade of Parking Facility Number 1 (1955) designed by the architecture firm Shaw, Metz and Dolio. Photo courtesy of City of Chicago Bureau of Parking and forgottenchicago.com" data-rich-file-id="2181" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2181/original/parkingfacility1-milton-horn-photo.jpg" />

Several attempts were made to find it. Horn tracked it down in 1987 near the city&rsquo;s Transportation Department office at 31st Street and Sacramento where it was found lying at the bottom of a tarp-covered swimming pool. Sometime later, the sculpture was moved to a metal scrapyard along the banks of the Chicago River. It was rediscovered there in 1994, receiving much press attention in the process.

Chicago Rising&nbsp;soon became a symbol of the city&rsquo;s failures to keep track of and maintain the hundreds of works of public art that had been financed over the years by taxpayers. Horn&rsquo;s sculpture sparked a movement in the 1990s to reform and improve the Chicago Public Art Program, which today oversees more than 500 works of art in 150 locations throughout the city&mdash;including the Chicago Picasso.

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/reallyboring/4040731323"><img alt="" data-caption="Photo: Eric Allix Rogers, &lt;i&gt;Chicago Rising From The Lake&lt;/i&gt; (Milton Horn, 1954). On the Columbus bridge over the Chicago River. © Eric Allix Rogers" data-rich-file-id="2182" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2182/original/4040731323-ffd088ab78-b.jpg" /></a>

Happily,&nbsp;Chicago Rising&nbsp;was restored and reinstalled in 1998. The sculpture, rescued from obscurity, is now enjoyed by citizens and tourists alike as they promenade along the River Walk.

What new controversies will arise now and in the future? Perhaps one is the scarcity of commissions given to women artists and artists of color to create major works in highly visible locations. Projects such as the Wabash Arts Corridor are beginning to address and correct this historic bias. But prestigious civic projects seldom are awarded to artists that fall outside the &quot;old white man&quot; category. Hopefully, new commissions&mdash;going to a broader range of artists working today&mdash;will be as exciting, challenging and significant as the great ones that came before.

Top image: Thousands of people jammed Daley Plaza on Tuesday, August 15, 1967 to witness the dedication and unveiling of the &ldquo;Chicago Picasso.&rdquo;&nbsp;Photo: Richard J. Daley Center, Untitled sculpture (&ldquo;The Picasso&rdquo;), Chicago Illinois, 1963-1965. C. F. Murphy Associates, architect. Fazlur R. Khan Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago.&nbsp; Digital File #199207_151211-009.

Read more from Franck Mercurio&#39;s Public Art series:

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/3/the-origins-of-public-art-in-chicago-from-the-bronze-lions-to-skylanding">The Origins of Public Art in Chicago: From the Bronze Lions to Skylanding</a>

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/public-art-and-the-masses-examining-sculpture-in-grant-park">Public Art and the Masses: Examining Sculpture in Grant Park</a>

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/5/no-little-plans-the-battle-for-public-art-in-chicago">No Little Plans: The Battle for Public Art in Chicago</a>

CGN explores examines controversial public art installations in Chicago.

Does Man Love Art? A History of Public Art Controversy in Chicago

By ALISON REILLY

On June 23, Rashid Johnson&#39;s solo exhibition opened&nbsp;at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Hail We Now Sing Joy initiates&nbsp;a new program for the museum to feature the work of a contemporary artist in the Quadracci Pavilion (designed by&nbsp;architect Santiago Calatrava). The show is&nbsp;an impressive presentation&nbsp;of Johnson&#39;s recent work and an exciting way for director Marcelle Polednik to inaugurate the space with her new vision.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Rashid Johnson leads a tour of his new exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Pictured on the left is &lt;i&gt;Antoine's Organ&lt;/i&gt;, an enormous black scaffolding cube filled with houseplants, books and fluorescent lights. For Johnson, the grid is significant because he grew up in an academic household (his mother is a professor) and he learned how to draw on lined paper. " data-rich-file-id="2168" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2168/original/img-4225.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Inside &lt;i&gt;Antoine's Organ&lt;/i&gt; is a piano that will be activated by local musicians throughout the course of the exhibition. The installation also features some early video work by Johnson including &lt;i&gt;Black Yoga&lt;/i&gt;." data-rich-file-id="2171" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2171/original/img-4252.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="In the next room, Johnson continues to explore his interest in the grid but in this case through a two-dimensional surface. For his series of &lt;i&gt;Escape Collage&lt;/i&gt; paintings, Johnson layers photos from his childhood, stock images of palm trees, and black soap and wax onto ceramic tiles." data-rich-file-id="2170" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2170/original/img-4240.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&quot;I was trying to be coy, but these are self-portraits,&quot; Johnson said. Like the &lt;i&gt;Escape Collage&lt;/i&gt; paintings, the the artist creates the &lt;i&gt;Anxious Audience&lt;/i&gt; work by melting black soap and wax and pouring it directly onto the white ceramic tiles. Johnson then quickly draws on the surface to create a portrait through the removal of material." data-rich-file-id="2174" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2174/original/img-4244.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="In the final room of the exhibition, a large wood table is covered with a Persian rug and blocks of shea butter, which Johnson uses often in his work. For him, the material signifies how he was raised in an Afrocentric, non-religious space. But he noted that as he became an adolescent that familial space shifted leaving him to question his own identity. " data-rich-file-id="2176" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2176/original/img-4247.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/rashid-johnson-hail-we-now-sing-joy">Hail We Now Sing Joy</a>&nbsp;is open through September 17, 2017 at the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/milwaukee-art-museum-mam--2">Milwaukee Art Museum</a>.&nbsp;

Top image: Rashid Johnson,&nbsp;Untitled Escape Collage (detail), 2016, ceramic tile, black soap, wax, vinyl and spray enamel. All images courtesty of Alison Reilly.

Rashid Johnson leads a tour of his new exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Rashid Johnson Leads Tour of Solo Exhibition at Milwaukee Art Museum

The year of public art is turning out to be just that - new elements of the year-long celebration continue to be unveiled regularly, adding to the ongoing joy and affection many of us have for our city&#39;s second-to-none public art collection.&nbsp;

Most recently, the&nbsp;Chicago Loop Alliance unveiled&nbsp;newly commissioned public art banner series on State Street in conjunction with the Year of Public Art. The commissioned&nbsp;series of&nbsp;banners&nbsp;pay homage to the Loop&rsquo;s iconic public art, though they are in fact temporary.&nbsp;Eight unique banner designs feature abstracted and distilled interpretations of public artworks that span the decades (including Pablo Picasso&rsquo;s unnamed sculpture in Daley Plaza (1967) and Anish Kapoor&rsquo;s&nbsp;Cloud Gate&nbsp;(2006). Done&nbsp;in an arresting eight-color Modernist palette, and created by&nbsp;designer and artist&nbsp;Bob Faust, the banners&nbsp;will be displayed&nbsp;July 5&ndash;30 on State Street between Lake Street and Congress Parkway.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2165" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2165/original/image002.png" />

Faust sought a design that allowed each unique sculpture to be recognizable, but also be part of a discreet set, arriving at a simple shape solution. Typography was reduced to its simplest elements, also to be part of the illustrative style and not compete with the illustrations themselves. Matisse&rsquo;s cutouts were among the inspirations for the graphic style.

&ldquo;These banners &ndash; which take familiar works and reduce them to their elements, reinforcing how ingrained public art is in our consciousness -- blur the line between art and design,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Kate Keleman, Creative and Placemaking Manager at the Chicago Loop Alliance.&rdquo; They transform the often-mundane street pole banner into an instrument that changes the experience of the street and creates an immersive design gesture.&rdquo;

&quot;Chicago&#39;s greatest public artworks make powerful memories from the feelings they invoke,&rdquo; said Faust. &ldquo;My goal through these minimalist graphics is to instigate a reaction that reaches back into our memory banks and pull up the original feelings made by the artworks they represent.&rdquo;

To read more&nbsp;about the battle for public art in Chicago click <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/5/no-little-plans-the-battle-for-public-art-in-chicago">here</a>.

Street banners for the year of public art in Chicago 

Look Up! Bright Banners Spread Art in the Loop

Who's Ever Heard of a Pink Octopus? Enjoy Art with Your Family This Summer

An exhibition of recent sculptures and paintings by Rashid Johnson opens June 23, 2017&nbsp;at the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/milwaukee-art-museum-mam--2">Milwaukee Art Museum</a>. Hail We Now Sing Joy includes a number of large-scale work including Antoine&rsquo;s Organ, Anxious Audience, Falling Man and Escaping Collage. Johnson, who is now based in New York, studied at Columbia College Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 2000s. He was offered his first solo exhibition at Schneider Gallery in River North after presenting his photography portfolio for a group show, and he had his first major solo museum exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2012.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2025" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2025/original/-mg-0931-johnr78463-2-.jpg" />

Johnson is now known for his use of glass panes, white ceramic tiles, shea butter, black soap, and wax to create compelling and immersive installations. Antoine&rsquo;s Organ, for instance, the centerpiece of the exhibition, which was shown at Hauser &amp; Wirth in New York in 2016, features a 10 foot tall grid of black scaffolding filled with lush houseplants in handmade pots. Embedded within the leafy greens are analog screens playing his early video work alongside neon tubes and shea butter figurines. Johnson noted, &ldquo;As a kid I remember thinking that if you could actually live in a place with palm trees, if you could get away from the city and the cold, that meant you&rsquo;d definitely made it.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2026" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2026/original/-mg-1034-johnr78716-2-.jpg" />

Rashid Johnson: Hail We Now All Sing Joy is on view June 23-September 17, 2017.

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An exhibition of recent sculptures and paintings by Rashid Johnson opens June 23 at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Among The Palm Trees: Rashid Johnson at the Milwaukee Art Museum

In recognition of Chicago&rsquo;s &ldquo;Year of Public Art,&rdquo;&nbsp;Chicago Gallery News&nbsp;is featuring a series of articles chronicling milestones of public art in Chicago. The third in the series recounts the battles between traditionalists and modernists in the world of public art.

By FRANCK MERCURIO

On&nbsp;summer days, the Art Institute of Chicago&rsquo;s South Garden provides a cool refuge from the heat and noise of Michigan Avenue. Formal in composition, yet modern in conception, the garden is a masterwork of mid-twentieth century landscape architecture. Its designer, Dan Kiley (1912&ndash;2004), planted a simple grid of hawthorns and honey locusts surrounding a large rectangular reflecting pool, activated by rows of water jets. Presiding over this urban oasis are five bronze muses from a bygone era, each representing one of the Great Lakes: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.

<img alt="" data-caption="Lorado Taft, &lt;i&gt;Fountain of the Great Lakes&lt;/i&gt; (1913) as it appears today as the focal point of Dan Kiley’s South Garden at the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo: Franck Mercurio" data-rich-file-id="2097" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2097/original/img-20170507-143811830.jpg" />

Modeled in various stages of dress (and undress), each idealized female figure holds a giant clamshell with water flowing from one shell to the next, mimicking the hydrology of the Great Lakes. This exemplar of American Beaux-Arts sculpture&mdash;titled Fountain of the Great Lakes&mdash;is the work of Lorado Taft (1860&ndash;1936), the Illinois-born sculptor, instructor, writer and lecturer.

Educated at L&rsquo;Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the 1880s, Taft first gained national attention at the 1893 World&rsquo;s Columbian Exposition. There, he put his academic training to good use, creating two monumental groups of figures for the fair&rsquo;s Horticulture Building. Later, in 1903, Taft made a name for himself by writing the first comprehensive history of American sculpture. Around this same time, he conceived the idea for&nbsp;Fountain of the Great Lakes, reportedly inspired by a suggestion from Daniel Burnham (1846&ndash;1912), the Chicago architect, urban planner and promoter of &ldquo;no little plans.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Lorado Taft, &lt;i&gt;Fountain of the Great Lakes&lt;/i&gt;, 1913. Photographed in its original location in front of the south façade of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Allerton Building. Photo: Charles Cushman, 1941. Courtesy Charles Cushman Collection: Indiana University Archives." data-rich-file-id="2099" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2099/original/p02198.jpg" />

Burnham included a rendering of Taft&rsquo;s fountain in his influential 1909&nbsp;Plan of Chicago. A product of the City Beautiful movement, Burnham&rsquo;s plan presented a holistic vision of Chicago, unifying urban design, architecture and public sculpture. Within this context, outdoor sculpture was viewed as an important civic amenity.

But Taft&rsquo;s and Burnham&rsquo;s idea to promote Beaux-Arts ideals through public sculpture did not gain much public traction. Times were changing in 1913. Even before Fountain of the Great Lakes&nbsp;was unveiled that September, it was already out of date. The academic conventions of Beaux-Arts classicism&mdash;and artists like Taft who championed it&mdash;were being challenged by a younger generation of modern artists. The 1913 Armory Show (which opened at the Art Institute six months before Taft&rsquo;s fountain was unveiled) turned the American art scene upside-down. A celebration of European and American Modernism, the exhibition rocked New York before arriving&nbsp;in Chicago, where it was largely greeted with derision.

<img alt="" data-caption="Lorado Taft and group at luncheon at Midway Studios before a plaster cast of the &lt;i&gt;Fountain of the Great Lakes&lt;/i&gt;, circa 1915–16. Courtesy of the University of Illinois Archives, ID: 5338, RS: 26/20/16" data-rich-file-id="2096" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2096/original/0005338.jpg" />

Taft&rsquo;s scorn for some of the Armory Show sculptors&mdash;in particular Matisse, Brancusi, Archipenko, and Gaudier-Brzeska&mdash;was&nbsp;recorded and published in his 1917 book&nbsp;Modern Tendencies in Sculpture. He described their works in colorful language that ranged from &ldquo;foolish caricatures&rdquo; to &ldquo;startling abortions.&rdquo; Taft was no less kind to critics and members of the public who supported and embraced this art of a new age.

But despite Taft&rsquo;s protests, the genie was out of the bottle. In 1916, inspired by the Armory Show, a group of Chicagoans founded the Arts Club of Chicago, expressly as a vehicle for showcasing modern art. Here, many European and American modernists received their first major exhibitions in the United States, including Brancusi and Picasso and a few lesser-known artists, such as Lorado Taft&rsquo;s one-time student John Storrs.

<img alt="" data-caption="Chicago Board of Trade Building, Chicago Illinois, 1928-1930. Holabird &amp; Root. Historic Architecture and Landscape Image Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago. Digital File #31598." data-rich-file-id="2102" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2102/original/l031598b.jpg" />

The son of a Chicago real estate magnate, Storrs (1885&ndash;1956) spent much of his twenties bouncing between the United States and Europe, studying sculpture in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Hamburg and Paris. In 1913, he began studying under Auguste Rodin, and soon fell in with the modernists of the Paris art scene, making social and professional connections with the likes of Jacques Lipchitz, May Ray and Marcel Duchamp. Storrs began experimenting with abstraction, venturing from figurative works into non-objective compositions and working largely in a Cubist style.

Storrs exhibited at the Arts Club of Chicago on three separate occasions in the 1920s, and his works were well received by critics. In his 1927 show, Storrs displayed many of his &ldquo;studies in form&rdquo; and &ldquo;architectural forms&rdquo;&mdash;abstract constructions of stone and metal reminiscent of Art Deco skyscrapers. It is very likely that he met the architect John Wellborn Root, Jr. (1887&ndash;1963) of Holabird and Root at this exhibition. (Root&rsquo;s aunt, Harriet Monroe&mdash;the founder and publisher of Poetry magazine&mdash;was an active member of the Arts Club and hosted a reception at the exhibition.) Within a few months, Holabird and Root gave Storrs his first major public commission: a project to create a monumental figure to adorn the new Chicago Board of Trade Building.

The result was&nbsp;Ceres&nbsp;(1930) a 31-foot-tall aluminum statue representing the Roman goddess of grain. Storrs designed the sculpture as an extension of the architecture; the figure&rsquo;s streamlined form and long vertical lines echo the lines of the building. Capping the structure&rsquo;s pyramidal roof,&nbsp;Ceres&nbsp;serves as a kind of exclamation point at the apex of the building.

<img alt="" data-caption=" Chicago Board of Trade Building, &lt;i&gt;Ceres&lt;/i&gt; statue, Chicago Illinois, 1928-1930. Holabird &amp; Root. Historic Architecture and Landscape Image Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago. Digital File #80225." data-rich-file-id="2101" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2101/original/l080225b.jpg" />

The influence of Modernism is apparent in the design of&nbsp;Ceres. Storrs simplified the figure, reducing its forms to essential&nbsp;elements, much in the manner of Brancusi. Yet, despite the sculpture&rsquo;s abstracted formal qualities and industrial materials, its allegorical subject grounds the figure in earlier traditions.&nbsp;Ceres&nbsp;holds sheaths of wheat in one hand and a trader&rsquo;s sample bag in the other, symbolizing the&nbsp;commodities sold within the building. She&nbsp;is&nbsp;the city&rsquo;s Machine Age goddess of wealth.

Ceres&nbsp;is Chicago&rsquo;s first work of public art designed in a modern idiom, and she influenced later artists in a number of ways. Fast forward to 1991 when an artist of a later generation, Roger Brown (1941&ndash;1997), looked to&nbsp;Ceres&nbsp;and classical mythology as inspiration for two murals located a few blocks north of the Board of Trade Building. The controversial Chicago architect Helmut Jahn commissioned Brown to create the two murals for a new office building at 120 N. LaSalle Street.

Brown was associated with the Chicago Imagists, a group of artists set in opposition to art movements in New York, especially Abstract Expressionism. The Imagists&nbsp;found value in figuration, which they interpreted in surreal, cartoonish and quirky ways, often using humor and satire to inject social commentary into their work.

The interior mural, titled&nbsp;Arts and Sciences of the Modern World: LaSalle Corridor with Holding Pattern&nbsp;(1991) depicts a stylized version of the Chicago Board of Trade Building topped by an outline of&nbsp;Ceres. On either side, skyscrapers rise up along LaSalle Street, while two passenger jets fly high above the scene. A light shines down on the Board of Trade&mdash;through Brown&rsquo;s signature arcs of clouds&mdash;projecting a kind of sacred glow onto the building and on&nbsp;Ceres&nbsp;herself.

<img alt="" data-caption="Roger Brown (1941-1997). &lt;i&gt;Arts and Sciences of the Modern World: LaSalle Corridor with Holding Pattern&lt;/i&gt;, 1991, Italian glass mosaic, 9' x 6'. Interior mural in lobby of 120 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago. Photo: William Bengtson. Courtesy of the Roger Brown Study Collection Archive, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago." data-rich-file-id="2100" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2100/original/3-120-n-lasalle-inside.jpg" />

The massive exterior mural (22 feet tall by 57 feet long) above the entrance to 120 N. LaSalle is well known by many Chicagoans. It depicts two male, winged figures flying above a body of water. Titled&nbsp;Arts and Sciences of the Ancient World: The Flight of Daedalus and Icarus&nbsp;(1991) [Pictured, top of page], the mural takes its inspiration from classical mythology, specifically the story of Daedalus, the architect and inventor, and his son Icarus. The scene depicts them fleeing imprisonment using fabricated wings.

The exact meaning of the mural has been much debated. On one level, it can be read as a cautionary tale about &ldquo;flying too close to the sun&rdquo;; a warning to business leaders on LaSalle (and politicians in City Hall across the street) to reign in unbridled greed and ambition.

But a more subtle reading interprets the two figures as a portrait of Brown and his partner, the architect George Veronda. Curiously, both Daedalus and Icarus are represented in an identical manner&mdash;in fact, they look like brothers instead of father and son. In many of his works, Brown used a coded visual language&mdash;easily read by those in the know&mdash;but perhaps invisible to those outside the world of gay male culture. In this reading, the work represents a radical&mdash;even subversive&mdash;take on public art.

Each generation of artists brings its own mix of radicalism and traditionalism to public art. In a sense, Brown was following the precedents of earlier artists&mdash;such as Storrs&mdash;who developed new forms and concepts for the public to consider within the somewhat conservative, institutional framework that often finances public art commissions. What will the next generation of artists present to the city of Chicago? &nbsp; &nbsp;

Top image:&nbsp;Roger Brown (1941-1997).&nbsp;Arts and Sciences of the Ancient World: The Flight of Daedalus and Icarus,&nbsp;1991, Italian glass mosaic and stone, 22&rsquo; x 57&rsquo;. Mural over the entry of 120 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago. Photo: William Bengtson. Courtesy of the Roger Brown Study Collection Archive, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Read more from Franck Mercurio&#39;s Public Art series:

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/public-art-and-the-masses-examining-sculpture-in-grant-park">Public Art and the Masses: Examining Sculpture in Grant Park</a>

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/3/the-origins-of-public-art-in-chicago-from-the-bronze-lions-to-skylanding">The Origins of Public Art in Chicago: From the Bronze Lions to Skylanding</a>

&nbsp;

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Franck Mercurio recounts the battles between traditionalists and modernists in the world of Chicago public art.

No Little Plans: The Battle for Public Art in Chicago

For the next few days the seventh floor of the Merchandise Mart will packed wall to wall with&nbsp;a wealth of fine antiques and art from many of the world&#39;s top dealers. Chicago has a global reputation for showcasing what&#39;s new and contemporary - in art, food, architecture and design, but this weekend&nbsp;antiques are once again new, in many ways. After a few years without a major antiques&nbsp;show to count on its cultural calendar,&nbsp;Chicago once again has an international fair in town. Thursday evening&nbsp;the&nbsp;Chicago Antiques + Art + Design Show&nbsp;opens with a preview party for collectors and enthusiasts, and Friday the show welcomes the&nbsp;public for the weekend. Thursday&#39;s preview benefits the restoration and conservation efforts of&nbsp;the Illinois Executive Mansion Association, with Honorary Chair Governor James R. Thompson.

Running through Sunday&nbsp;the show highlights fine antiques and artworks reflecting a variety of design periods from 100&nbsp;national and international exhibitors. The show is the only one of its kind in the city all year. Last year it was announced that the Chicago Botanic Garden cancelled its annual April fair. Antiques + Modernism Winnetka still takes place on the north shore in November.&nbsp;

Some highlight&#39;s from this year&#39;s show are shown below.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/chicago-antiques-art-design-show">The Chicago Antiques + Art + Design Show</a> runs May 19-21, 2017

<img alt="" data-caption="A work from Chicago's Richard Norton Gallery" data-rich-file-id="2106" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2106/original/img-1634.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Loana Purrazzo of San Francisco, CA" data-rich-file-id="2108" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2108/original/img-1630.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="A Bird in Hand, Florham Park, NJ" data-rich-file-id="2107" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2107/original/img-1632.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Only Authentics, New York and Palm Beach" data-rich-file-id="2104" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2104/original/img-1629.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Jeff Bridgman, York County, PA" data-rich-file-id="2103" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2103/original/img-1628.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Solomon Suchard, Shaker Heights, OH" data-rich-file-id="2105" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2105/original/img-1625.jpg" />

Key image at top: Earle Vandekar of Knightsbridge, Maryknoll, NY

&nbsp;

The Chicago Antiques and Art and Design fair at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago May 2017

A New Show of the Old Arrives in Chicago: Chicago Antiques + Art + Design at the Mart

This summer the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/art-institute-of-chicago">Art Institute of Chicago</a> presents a major exhibition of work by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin, highlighting his career not only as an accomplished painter but also as a sculptor, ceramicist, printmaker and decorator. Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist, organized by the Art Institute, Mus&eacute;e D&rsquo;Orsay and R&eacute;union des mus&eacute;es nationaux&ndash;Grand Palais (Rmn-GP) features more than 240 multimedia works, including the largest public presentation of the artist&rsquo;s ceramic work to date.

<img alt="" data-caption="Paul Gauguin. &lt;i&gt;Merahi metua no Tehamana (Tehamana Has Many Parents or The Ancestors of Tehamana),&lt;/i&gt; 1893. The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Deering McCormick." data-rich-file-id="2027" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2027/original/g59325-press.jpg" />

Gauguin, best known for his paintings of Tahitian women, was an itinerant; he was born in Paris, but he moved to Peru at a young age only to flee the country with his family after political tides shifted. Throughout his life he lived in Copenhagen, Brittany, Martinique, and the French Polynesian islands, including Tahiti and Hiva-Oa. His paintings, which feature bold colors, stark contrasts and exaggerated proportions, will be presented alongside experiments in clay, stained glass and wood. A selection of ethnographic objects will also be on display. In partnering with the Mus&eacute;e D&rsquo;Orsay and the Rmn-GP, the Art Institute builds on their strong collection of Gauguin, which includes over 200 works on paper.

<img alt="" data-caption="Paul Gauguin. &lt;i&gt;The Singer,&lt;/i&gt; 1880. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, MIN 3230." data-rich-file-id="2028" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2028/original/gauguin2.jpg" />

Gaugin: Artist as Alchemist opens June 25 and will be on display through September 10, 2017. For more information visit <a href="http://artic.edu">artic.edu</a>.

Top image: Paul Gauguin,&nbsp;Mahana no atua (Day of the God), 1894. Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection.

"Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist" at the Art Institute of Chicago features more than 240 multimedia works, including the largest public presentation of the artist’s ceramic work to date.