While the new year officially begins in January, for many in Chicago, things do not truly get started until the weather turns warm. At CGN we are thrilled to greet this season of activity that beckons us outside to wander and soak up what&rsquo;s fresh and new.&nbsp;

This is the season to be outdoors, where we may appreciate Chicago&rsquo;s unparalleled collection of public art while strolling city streets. Jaume Plensa&rsquo;s Crown Fountain in Millennium Park has just refreshed its screens in time for summer time splashing, and the Picasso, the one that started it all, turns 50 in August. Grant Park&rsquo;s Agora is all the more poignant with the April passing of artist <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/polish-sculptor-and-agora-artist-magdalena-abakanowicz-has-died-at-86">Magdalena Abakanowicz</a>. Other area highlights and history are detailed in CGN writer Franck Mercurio&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/public-art-and-the-masses-examining-sculpture-in-grant-park">online series about public art</a>.

In our fall 2016 issue, I urged readers to be present to experience art and to step back from the digital overload. The art collectors we interviewed for this issue also emphasized that same message and shared their own stories of discovering art in many places throughout the years.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2053" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2053/original/cgn-cover-summer2017.jpg" />

In area museums and arts institutions, major shows open in time for tourist season. The Art Institute&rsquo;s summer blockbuster showcases more than 240 works by Paul Gauguin, while Japanese megastar <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/5/takashi-murakami-at-the-mca">Takashi Murakami&rsquo;s exhibition at the MCA</a> sheds light on the role that pop culture can play in art, as well as explore how an artist can offer a lens through which to view current events.&nbsp;

The current political landscape inspires artist <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/a-protest-banner-lending-library">Aram Han Sifuentes</a>, who is currently an artist-in-residence at the Chicago Cultural Center. The public is invited to sew protest banners for free with the artist until May 18.&nbsp;

These warmer months are reasons to road trip throughout the Midwest. In Milwaukee, large-scale works by Rashid Johnson are on view. Architecture fans can celebrate <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/5/architectural-adventures">Frank Lloyd Wright&rsquo;s 150th birthday</a> in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.&nbsp;

There is much to see out in the art world right now. Go, enjoy and experience.&nbsp;

&ndash;Ginny Van Alyea, Publisher,&nbsp;Chicago Gallery News

Below, you will find links to features, interviews and seasonal highlights included in CGN&#39;s&nbsp;summer issue:

<ul>
	<li><a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/5/takashi-murakami-at-the-mca">Takashi Murakami at the MCA</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/season-previews-summer-2017">Season Previews</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/exploring-west-town-with-sibylle-friche">Exploring West Town&nbsp;with Sibylle Friche</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/in-search-of-the-eclectic">In Search of the Eclectic: Sally Schwartz and Reid Brody</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/a-protest-banner-lending-library">A Protest Banner Lending Library: Aram Han Sifuentes Creates a Space for Dissent</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/the-personal-art-of-collecting">The Personal Art of Collecting: A Chicago Imagists Collection Spans Two Cities</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/5/architectural-adventures">Architectural Adventures: Five Frank Lloyd Wright Designed Building to Explore in Honor of the Architect&#39;s 150th Birthday</a></li>
</ul>

Publisher Ginny Van Alyea shares what's new for the summer season.

Publisher's Letter: Summer's Fresh Take on Art

<h3>FIVE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT DESIGNED BUILDINGS TO EXPLORE IN HONOR OF THE ARCHITECT'S 150th BIRTHDAY</h3>By ELIZABETH METCALFEMost Chicagoans are familiar with the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright due to nearby Oak Park, the suburb in which he lived and worked for 20 years. With the highest concentration of Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses in the world, Oak Park is an architectural mecca. However, a wealth of Wright designed architecture awaits just beyond Chicagoland. Summer is the perfect opportunity for a day trip out to one of the many Wright buildings open to the public.&nbsp;Monona Terrace (Madison, WI)&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2044/original/s-monona-terrace-from-lake.jpg" alt=""></figure>Though proposed by Wright in 1938, government bureaucracy halted the construction of this beautiful civic convention center. Wright made several modifications to the design from 1938 until his death in 1959 and project construction finally began in the 1990s. Wright spent much of his childhood in Madison, and Monona Terrace connects two of the city’s landmarks: Lake Monona and the Wisconsin State Capitol. While the exterior of the building is decidedly Wright, the center’s interiors are designed by Taliesin architect Tony Puttnam.John Nolen Dr., Madison, WI, <a href="http://mononaterrace.com">mononaterrace.com</a>, 608-261-4000&nbsp;Dana-Thomas House (Springfield, IL)<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2017/original/danathomas.jpg" alt=""></figure>Visiting the state’s capital? Why not swing by Frank Lloyd Wright’s impressive Dana-Thomas House? Built from 1902-1904, the Dana-Thomas House boasts 35 rooms and an abundance of art glass windows. Don’t miss the Wright-designed bowling alley in the basement or the Japanese-inspired interior Torii gate, which connects the home to the Lawrence Memorial Library.300 E. Lawrence Ave., Springfield, IL, <a href="http://dana-thomas.org">dana-thomas.org</a>, 217-782-6776&nbsp;&nbsp;Meyer May House (Grand Rapids, MI)&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2045/original/mmh-ext-porch3-copy.jpg" alt=""></figure>Beautifully restored with funds from Steelcase Inc., the Meyer May House will likely remind Chicagoans of the Robie House, one of Wright’s most famous Prairie Style buildings. Though designed in the same year and similar in style to the Robie House, the Meyer May House is distinctive due to its T-shaped plan, tan brick, and hollyhock partition wall mural by interior architect George Mann Niedecken.450 Madison Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI, <a href="http://meyermayhouse.steelcase.com">meyermayhouse.steelcase.com</a>, 616-246-4821&nbsp;Wingspread (Racine, WI)&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2019/original/wingspread.jpg" alt=""></figure>Wright’s famous S.C. Johnson Wax Headquarters may be nearby and is definitely worth a visit, but don’t leave the Racine area without visiting Wright’s lesser known but equally innovative Wingspread. Wright designed this mansion for Herbert Fisk Johnson Jr., the president of S.C. Johnson, in the late 1930s. From above, the house resembles a pinwheel, with a central core uniting four wings of the house. One wing houses a “Romeo and Juliet” style cantilevered balcony and a unique “crow’s nest” lookout sits atop the house.33 E. 4 Mile Rd, Racine, WI, <a href="http://johnsonfdn.com">johnsonfdn.com</a>, 262-639-3211&nbsp;Unity Temple (Oak Park, IL)&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2020/original/unity-temple-oak-park-il-9-3224132995-1-.jpg" alt=""></figure>Though many Chicagoans have likely been inside Wright’s iconic Unitarian Universalist church before, the structure is currently undergoing a massive restoration project. Overseen by Harboe Architects, the firm also responsible for restoring the Rookery Building in downtown Chicago, the restoration of Unity Temple is expected to be complete this summer. After being closed for nearly two years, the Unity Temple will surely delight new and old guests alike with its fully restored art glass windows, lighting fixtures, paint finishes, and oak trim.875 Lake St, Oak Park, <a href="http://utrf.org">utrf.org</a>, 708-383-8873Top image: Exterior view of Monoma Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin. Courtesy of Monoma Terrace Community &amp; Convention Center&nbsp;

Five Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings to explore in honor of the architect's 150th birthday.

Architectural Adventures 

Known for his collaborations with pop icon Kanye West and fashion house Louis Vuitton, and for vibrant anime-inspired characters, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami (b. 1962) has blurred the boundaries throughout his career between high and low culture, ancient and modern, East and West. This summer the MCA presents a major retrospective of his paintings, featuring 50 works that span three decades of his career.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Takashi Murakami, Photo: Koichiro Matsui." data-rich-file-id="2042" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2042/original/tm-matsui-copy.jpg" />

The exhibition shows how Murakami&rsquo;s increasingly complex art is filled with characters and scenarios both cute and menacing, saccharine sweet and critically acidic. His work is rooted in traditions of Japanese painting and folklore with an eye for the contemporary influences of globalization, media culture and the continued threats of nuclear power.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Takashi Murakami, Flowers, flowers, flowers, 2010. Collection of the Chang family, Taiwan. © 2010 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Photo: Norihiro Ueno" data-rich-file-id="2043" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2043/original/tm-kk-flowers-copy.jpg" />

Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg is on view at the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/museum-of-contemporary-art-chicago-mca">Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago</a> from June 6&ndash;Septemper 24, 2017. 220 E. Chicago Avenue,&nbsp; mcachicago.org

Top image: Cover image for Summer 2017 issue of Chicago Gallery News. Takashi Murakami,&nbsp;ZuZaZaZaZaZa (detail), 1994. Takahashi Collection. &copy; 1994 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Photo: Norihiro Ueno

Takashi Muraki opens June 6 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Takashi Murakami at the MCA

In January DOCUMENT, Paris London Hong Kong, Volume Gallery and Western Exhibitions moved from the West Loop to 1709 Chicago Avenue in West Town. CGN asked Sibylle Friche, Gallery Director at <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/document">DOCUMENT</a>, to share her favorite spots in her new neighborhood.

&nbsp;

<h2>RUXBIN</h2>

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of Ruxbin" data-rich-file-id="2051" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2051/original/ruxbin-interior-05-1000x0-c-default-copy.jpg" />

&quot;I love Ruxbin on Ashland Avenue. The food is unique and very sophisticated, yet the atmosphere is relaxed, because it&rsquo;s BYOB.&quot;&nbsp;851 N. Ashland, <a href="http://ruxbinchicago.com">ruxbinchicago.com</a>

&nbsp;

<h2>PICKWICK COFFEE</h2>

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of Pickwick Coffee Roasting Company" data-rich-file-id="2049" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2049/original/pickwick.jpg" />

&quot;I get my espresso fix at Pickwick on Chicago Avenue, half a block from the gallery. They also have a great selection of chai teas. The staff is super friendly.&quot; 1651 W. Chicago, <a href="http://pickwickcoffee.com">pickwickcoffee.com</a>

&nbsp;

<h2>DOVETAIL</h2>

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy Dovetail Instagram @dovetailchicago" data-rich-file-id="2048" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2048/original/dovetail.jpg" />

&quot;Julie Ghatan opened Dovetail on Chicago Avenue in 2008 and has an amazing selection of vintage items, gifts and jewelry. She carefully handpicks everything, and you can&rsquo;t beat her sense of style.&quot; 1452 W. Chicago, <a href="http://dovetailchicago.com">dovetailchicago.com</a>

&nbsp;

<h2>WICKER PARK FARMERS MARKET</h2>

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of Wicker Park Farmers Market" data-rich-file-id="2052" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2052/original/wickerpark.jpg" />

&quot;Wicker Park is a must-see during the summer for the farmers markets, but I enjoy walking or biking around the neighborhood&rsquo;s residential streets and admiring the unique mix of old and new architecture.&quot; 1425 N. Damen, <a href="http://chicagoparkdistrict.org">chicagoparkdistrict.org</a>

&nbsp;

<h2>CLEOS &amp; HAPPY VILLAGE</h2>

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of Cleos" data-rich-file-id="2050" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2050/original/lut5e.jpg" />

&quot;Cleos is great for anyone who enjoys watching international soccer championships! I also like Happy Village for its casual patio, and I love that they have ping pong tables.&quot; 1935 W. Chicago, <a href="http://cleospub.com">cleospub.com</a>; 1059 N. Wolcott; 773-486-1512

Top image:&nbsp;Courtesy of Pickwick Coffee Roasting Company

DOCUMENT gallery director Sibylle Friche shares her favorites spots in West Town.

Exploring West Town with Sibylle Friche

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 second in the series examines the connections between three sculptures in Grant Park.&nbsp;

By FRANCK MERCURIO

Public art, by definition, is intended for the public&mdash;you, me, and the rest of the masses&mdash;it&nbsp;is meant to be consumed by all, no matter one&#39;s individual social status, economic means, or political influence. But public art is not only&nbsp;for&nbsp;the masses; it is often&nbsp;about&nbsp;the masses. The south end of Grant Park provides three great sculptural&nbsp;examples: two permanent and one recently de-installed.

<img alt="" data-caption="Magdalena Abakanowicz, &lt;i&gt;Agora&lt;/i&gt;, 2006. Courtesy of the artist and Richard Gray Gallery. Photo: Kenneth Tanaka" data-rich-file-id="1962" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1962/original/agora-1-photo-by-kenneth-tanaka.jpg" />

Agora&nbsp;(2006) by Polish artist <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/4/polish-sculptor-and-agora-artist-magdalena-abakanowicz-has-died-at-86">Magdalena Abakanowicz</a>,&nbsp;who recently passed away, gives new meaning to the phrase &ldquo;the faceless crowd.&rdquo; Pedestrians walking along Roosevelt Road toward the Museum Campus can&rsquo;t help but notice&mdash;and often engage with&mdash;this collection of 106 headless human-like forms. Giant in size, each figure walks in a different direction, seemingly intent on reaching its destination, oblivious to the mortals milling below them. In their preoccupation and hurry, these iron (not bronze) figures seem to reflect the anonymous hustle of city life.

Agora means &ldquo;gathering place,&rdquo; and appropriately, Abakanowicz&rsquo;s installation marks the spot where one of Chicago&rsquo;s greatest gathering places once stood: the Illinois Central Depot (1893&ndash;1974). The artist&rsquo;s ghostly figures seem to evoke the unnamed millions who passed through this railway station during its 81-year existence. Many of those passengers included African Americans escaping the Jim Crow South during the Great Migration. According to the&nbsp;Encyclopedia of Chicago, more than 500,000 African Americans migrated to Chicago between 1916 and 1970. The majority traveled by train along the Illinois Central Railroad lines, which linked the southern states to Chicago.

<img alt="" data-caption="Grant Park in 1891 looking north from the Kimball Building before the installation of the Logan Memorial. Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum" data-rich-file-id="1963" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1963/original/grantpark-kimballbldg.jpg" />

The new arrivals must have been impressed by the view of Grant Park and the city skyline that greeted them outside the railway station&rsquo;s great Romanesque Revival archway. Just north of the station, they could see the&nbsp;General John A. Logan Memorial&nbsp;(1897) rising some 30 feet above the park.

Dedicated in 1897, the Logan Memorial stands today as an example of a not-so-typical &ldquo;bronze man on a horse.&rdquo; American artists Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848&ndash;1907) and Alexander Phimister Proctor (1860&ndash;1950) collaborated on the commission, capturing the dynamism of the General riding his warhorse into battle. The memorial was a true team effort; Proctor, an animalier, modeled the stallion; and two women sculptors, Annette Johnson and Mary Lawrence Tonetti, assisted Saint-Gaudens in modeling the figure of Logan. (Regrettably, Johnson&rsquo;s and Tonetti&rsquo;s contributions have often been omitted from the historical record.)

<img alt="" data-caption="Vintage postcard, Grant Park, c. 1900. Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum" data-rich-file-id="1964" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1964/original/grantpark-1900.jpg" />

Cast in bronze, the Logan sculpture stands atop a giant earthen mound, a dramatic architectural element that anchors the memorial to its site in Grant Park. Designed by Stanford White (of the New York architecture firm McKim, Mead and White), the mound recalls the Anglo-Saxon burial tumuli of Dark Age Britain, but also evokes the monumental earthworks of Cahokia in southern Illinois, Logan&rsquo;s old stomping grounds.

Logan was a complex character. A popular Illinois politician before the Civil War, he helped legislate the state&rsquo;s infamous &ldquo;Black Laws&rdquo; of 1853, which prohibited African Americans from settling in Illinois. But the General seems to have experienced a kind of political&mdash;and moral&mdash;conversion while serving in the Union Army and later as a US House representative and US Senator. According to the John A. Logan Museum, &ldquo;This was a very different Logan. It was a Logan who voted for constitutional amendments to abolish slavery and to grant citizenship and voting rights to African Americans&hellip;Throughout this time, Logan continued to fight for civil rights for America&rsquo;s former slaves and supported women&rsquo;s suffrage.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="A contemporary view of the &lt;i&gt;General John A. Logan Memorial&lt;/i&gt; (1897). Photo: Franck Mercurio" data-rich-file-id="1967" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1967/original/logan-memorial-2.jpg" />

Logan had transformed himself into a &ldquo;man of the people,&rdquo; and on the occasion of his death, the Illinois state assembly commissioned the memorial in his honor. In July 1897, a staggering 500,000 Chicagoans turned out for the unveiling of the equestrian sculpture&mdash;nearly one-third the city&rsquo;s population at that time. &ldquo;Logan Day&rdquo; was designated an official city holiday and celebrated with a 17,000-person military parade on Michigan Avenue and a naval procession on Lake Michigan. The masses had turned out&nbsp;en masse&nbsp;to honor Logan and dedicate his bronze likeness.

Fast forward to 1968 when the Logan Memorial was again at the center of a mass gathering, this time the political protests outside the Democratic National Convention. Barred from protesting in front of the Conrad Hilton, the site of the convention, hundreds of people staged an impromptu &ldquo;sit-in&rdquo; around the Logan monument. Iconic photographs record crowds of protestors occupying the memorial&rsquo;s great mound&mdash;with General Logan seeming to lead them into battle [see top image]. &nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Tony Tasset, &lt;i&gt;Artists Monument&lt;/i&gt;, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Kavi Gupta" data-rich-file-id="1965" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1965/original/tasset-monument.jpg" />

For a brief period, one other public work f&ecirc;ted the masses in the south end of Grant Park. In 2016, the city installed Tony Tasset&rsquo;s&nbsp;Artists Monument&nbsp;(2015) adjacent to the Logan Memorial. A literal recording of the masses, this sculptural work documented the names of nearly 400,000 artists&mdash;the famous and the obscure&mdash;on colorful panels wrapped around two reclaimed shipping containers. Tasset listed the names in alphabetical order, treating each artist equally&mdash;a gesture that calls attention to the collective power of artistic creativity. Paradoxically, this &ldquo;monument&rdquo; was a temporary proposition and de-installed after a few months on view. But you can still visit its more somber sister installations, which recall Chicago history and celebrate the power of the people in their own distinctive ways.

Up next: Franck Mercurio recounts the battles between traditionalists and modernists by looking at Lorado Taft&#39;s&nbsp;Fountain of the Great Lakes&nbsp;and John Storrs&#39;&nbsp;Ceres&nbsp;and making&nbsp;connections to contemporary public works by Roger Brown and Richard Hunt.

Top image: Protesters climb the General Logan statue in Grant Park while thousands gather on the ground in August of 1968. The Illinois Central Railway Station&nbsp;can be seen in the background. Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune Historical Archives

Chicago Gallery News explores examines the connections between three sculptures in Grant Park.

Public Art and the Masses: Examining Sculpture in Grant Park

By JACQUELINE LEWIS

Brazilian artist H&eacute;lio Oiticica&rsquo;s first U.S. retrospective is now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. The survey includes a number of well-known works alongside material that has never been exhibited. Spanning his short but impactful career, To Organize Delirium maps out his early modernist works while recreating a number of large-scale, interactive environments.

Oiticica strongly believed that art was a social and ethical pursuit that must be embedded into daily life, and he often argued that art simply could not function outside of society. The&nbsp;title of the exhibition comes from Oiticica&rsquo;s friend, the Brazilian poet Haroldo de Campos who noted that the artist&rsquo;s philosophy &ldquo;combined extreme diligence for organization with strong need for freedom&rdquo; which culminates in &ldquo;chaos and order coexist[ing] and in this way, he managed to organize delirium.&rdquo;

Oiticica&rsquo;s interactive works require the direct participation of viewers. At first, it feels jarring to play and explore in the galleries at the Art Institute, because the museum and others like it have such strong, performative social codes of respect and reserve. However, these rules must be broken in order fully experience Oiticica&rsquo;s environments.

Early in his career, Oiticica realized the significance of removing art from its canvas and pedestal. He disagreed with the belief that art should be positioned behind the ropes of a museum or hidden from the populous. Instead, he advocated for human interaction with art in order to promote activism and fight corrupt political agendas.

<img alt="" data-caption="Hélio Oiticica, &lt;i&gt;Seja marginal, seja herói (Be an Outlaw, Be a Hero)&lt;/i&gt;, 1967, screenprint on fabric, 41 5/16&quot; x 35 3/8&quot;. © César and Cláudio Oticica. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. " data-rich-file-id="1919" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1919/original/se-20heroi.jpg" />

The exhibition demonstrates Oiticica&#39;s political involvement with the inclusions of&nbsp;Seja Marginal, Seja Her&oacute;i (Be an Outlaw, Be a Hero), made in 1968 for the Festival of Flags. At this time, Brazil&rsquo;s dictatorship became increasingly oppressive and opposing ideas were stifled through torture and imprisonment.&nbsp;However, a resistance was able to form, and Oiticica helped fuel that movement through his work.&nbsp;At the Festival of Flags, the bossa nova musicians Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil held up Oiticica&rsquo;s banner Se Marginal, Se Her&oacute;i.&nbsp;They were subsequently jailed and deported for their actions but their message was clear.&nbsp; They would break the law and become &quot;outlaws&quot; to further their fight against the censorship and the oppression of the Brazilian people.

Oiticica came from a privileged background yet felt a connection to the favelas or shantytowns of Rio and visited them often.&nbsp;His visits inspired his most inventive and participatory art, Parangol&eacute;s.

<img alt="" data-caption="Hélio Oiticica with &lt;i&gt;P8 Parangolé Cape 5, Homage to Mangueira (P8 Parangolé capa 5, Homenagem à Mangueira&lt;/i&gt;, 1965) at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1969. César and Claudio Oiticica Collection, Rio de Janeiro. © César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro." data-rich-file-id="1911" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1911/original/parangole.jpg" />

Parangol&eacute;s are objects intended to be carried or worn, often realized in the form of fabric wrappings. They are considered unfinished objects until they are &ldquo;activated&rdquo; on a human body, especially through dance. This embodies the idea of a work that is &ldquo;collaborative, constantly developing, and open to change,&rdquo;[1] which is a guiding philosophy for Oiticica.

At the Art Institute&nbsp;visitors are allowed to become active participants by wearing reproductions of Parangol&eacute;s and dancing in them, if they so choose.&nbsp;Many were&nbsp;skeptical and only wore them for moments, unsure whether or not they could actually touch and wear objects in a museum.

After the Parangol&eacute;s station, visitors can enter the sandboxes of Eden and Tropic&aacute;lia. Both environments are open-ended &ldquo;instruments for reflection&rdquo; meant to &ldquo;proposition for behavior.&rdquo;[2] &nbsp;The installations include places for rest, contemplation, reading, and listening to music. Oiticica called these areas penetrables, a term he used throughout this career.

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium&lt;/i&gt;, installation view of &lt;i&gt;Eden&lt;/i&gt;, 2017. Photo: Jacqueline Lewis" data-rich-file-id="1912" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1912/original/17357449-1634538683242531-1583685241-o.jpg" />

Museum-goers seem to hesitate before entering this space as if security will arrive the second they cross into the sandbox and touch the objects.&nbsp;In this controlled setting, the penetrables become a sort of social experiment, everyone looking to each other to see what they should do because of the now ambiguous social codes.&nbsp;A note of caution to the enthusiastic adventurer: be careful when exploring the penetrables, because there are hidden areas full of water ready to soak your socks.

Tropic&aacute;lia became a decisive work in Oiticica&rsquo;s career and eventually became the name of a movement that transcended the defined contours of music, literature, theater and film. &nbsp;The work&nbsp;rejects&nbsp;the influence of North American and European culture and embraces the local&nbsp;Brazilian lifestyle, while addressing&nbsp;stereotypes of tropical cultures through the inclusion of palm trees and live birds.

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium&lt;/i&gt;. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago." data-rich-file-id="1917" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1917/original/tropicaliabirdcage.jpg" />

CC Coke Head&rsquo;s Soup also challenges expected museum etiquette. The work appropriates the&nbsp;Rolling Stone&rsquo;s album Goat&rsquo;s Head Soup.&nbsp;Images of the album covered in cocaine flash on the walls of a room with a padded floor, immersing the viewer and moving them into another realm, aided by John Cage-like chance sounds and Rolling Stones song, Sister Morphine.&nbsp;

The unsettling sounds and images of drug use contrast with the lighthearted feel of the floor that just begs to be jumped on. Viewers walk in, look around nervously, and then jump a few times before getting embarrassed. Many seem to hold back their desire to break loose in the room, possibly due to the subject matter but most likely due to its location in a museum. In general, adults do not expect to bounce around in a museum, yet the exhibition demands that kind of spontaneity.

To Organize Delirium asks visitors to rethink&nbsp;the social constraints and etiquette expected in museum settings. Oitcica intended&nbsp;his work to combat social and political issues within&nbsp;communities, instead of&nbsp;hanging behind a rope in a museum.&nbsp;As a participant, letting go of culturally proscribed notions of the museum space will, in turn, help you&nbsp;better understand the work of this important&nbsp;artist. &nbsp;&nbsp;

H&eacute;lio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago through May 6, 2017. Click <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/art-institute-of-chicago">here</a> for more information.

Top image:&nbsp;H&eacute;lio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium, installation view, 2017.&nbsp;Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

[1] Wall text, H&eacute;lio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium, Art Institute of Chicago, February 18-May 6, 2017.&nbsp;

[2] Wall text,&nbsp;H&eacute;lio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium, Art Institute of Chicago, February 18-May 6, 2017.&nbsp;

The Art Institute of Chicago presents a large-scale survey of the Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica.

Hélio Oiticica Exhibition at the Art Institute Activated by Spontaneity of Visitors

Chicago-based artist Michael Rakowitz, who is represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery, has had two exciting announcements in the past day. He was selected for the 2018 Fourth Plinth Commission at&nbsp;Trafalgar Square (London), and the first US museum survey of his work is scheduled to open at the MCA Chicago this fall.

The Fourth Plinth is a prestigious&nbsp;public art program in the United Kingdom, and Rakowitz was selected along with British artist Heather Phillipson. Rakowitz will recreate a statue of the Lamassu, a hybrid winged bull with a human head, that stood at the entrance to the Nergal Gate of Nineveh from 700 BC until February 2015 when it was destroyed by ISIS. Rakowitz noted that&nbsp;&quot;Rebuilding the Lamassu in Trafalgar Square means the sculpture can continue performing his duties as guardian of Nineveh&rsquo;s past, present and future, even as a refugee or ghost, hoping to one day return to Iraq.&quot; The work is part of a larger project,&nbsp;The Invisble Enemy Should Not Exist, in which Rakowitz has attempted to recreate over 7,000 looted artifacts from the Iraq Museum during the Iraq War.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Michael Rakowitz, &lt;i&gt;May the Arrogant Not Prevail&lt;/i&gt;, 2010. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Marshall Field’s by exchange. Image courtesy of the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery." data-rich-file-id="1940" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1940/original/rakowitz-arrogant-09.jpg" />

Backstroke of the West&nbsp;is curated by Omar Kholeif, Manilow Senior Curator at the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/museum-of-contemporary-art-chicago-mca">MCA Chicago</a> and will be on view September 16, 2017-March 4, 2018. The survey of Rakowitz&#39;s work&nbsp;will feature a new commission along with&nbsp;Enemy Kitchen,&nbsp;Spoils&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist.

Read CGN&#39;s review of Michael Rakowitz&#39;s 2016 exhibition <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2016/6/the-flesh-is-yours-the-bones-are-ours">The Flesh Is Yours, The Bones Are Ours</a>, which was on display at <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/rhona-hoffman-gallery--2">Rhona Hoffman Gallery</a> and the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/graham-foundation-for-advanced-studies-in-the-fine-arts">Graham Foundation</a>.

Top image:&nbsp;Michael Rakowitz, Lamassu maquette,&nbsp;2016. Courtesy of the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery.

Chicago-based artist Michael Rakowitz was selected for the UK's Fourth Plinth program and the MCA Chicago announced a major survey of his work for fall 2017.

Michael Rakowitz Selected for Public Art Commission in London & MCA Chicago Announces Major Survey of His Work

In recognition of Chicago&rsquo;s &ldquo;Year of Public Art,&rdquo; Chicago Gallery News is featuring a series of articles chronicling milestones of public art in Chicago. The first in the series looks at the unlikely connections between Yoko Ono&#39;s Skylanding and the Art Institute of Chicago&#39;s bronze lions.

By FRANCK MERCURIO

Just south of the Museum of Science and Industry, on Wooded Island in Jackson Park, sits one of Chicago&rsquo;s newest works of public art. Unveiled this past October, Yoko Ono&rsquo;s Skylanding (2016) occupies the site of the Japanese Pavilion and Osaka Garden created for the 1893 World&rsquo;s Columbian Exposition. The pavilion is long gone (destroyed by arsonists in 1946), but a resurrected version of the original garden remains. Here, Ono installed a sculptural composition consisting of 12 large stainless steel &ldquo;petals&rdquo; (each 12 feet tall), which suggest a giant lotus flower emerging from the earth. The work is part memorial, part peace gesture, and part ode to Chicago&mdash;the city that &ldquo;blossomed&rdquo; after the Great Fire, rising up from the marshy shores of Lake Michigan.

<img alt="" data-caption="Members of Thodos Dance Chicago performing at the unveiling ceremony of Yoko Ono's &lt;i&gt;Skylanding&lt;/i&gt; © Diane Hutchinson Reilly / Courtesy of Thodos Dance Chicago" data-rich-file-id="1897" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1897/original/skylanding-8.jpg" />

Like most works of public sculpture in Chicago, the location of Skylanding is no accident. It is situated where Chicago&rsquo;s tradition of great public art first got its start more than 120 years ago. In 1893, Jackson Park hosted the World&#39;s Fair and the &ldquo;White City,&rdquo; a showcase of late 19th-century art, architecture, and urban planning. Fair officials commissioned dozens of American artists to create sculptures that complemented the fairgrounds&#39; Beaux-Arts buildings. Perhaps best remembered is Daniel Chester French&rsquo;s monumental Statue of the Republic (1891&ndash;1893), which dominated the fair&rsquo;s Great Basin. A smaller version&mdash;24 feet tall&mdash;stands in Jackson Park today, a testament to the fair&#39;s artistic ambitions.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Edward Clark Potter, &lt;i&gt;Statue of Industry&lt;/i&gt; (foreground) and Daniel Chester French, &lt;i&gt;Statue of the Republic&lt;/i&gt; (background) © The Field Museum, GN85649c" data-rich-file-id="1906" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1906/original/gn85649c.jpg" />

For many Chicagoans, the World&rsquo;s Columbian Exposition provided a vision of how art could be integrated into an urban setting. Outside the major exhibition buildings, fairgoers walked among sculptures of mammals native to North America&mdash;bison, elk, moose, bears, and mountain lions&mdash;sculpted by Edward Kemeys and Alexander Phimister Proctor. Both artists specialized in depicting wildlife, having spent considerable time observing and hunting animals out West, learning first hand their behaviors, movements, and anatomies. It was an amazing spectacle for visitors to see these life-like &ldquo;charismatic beasts&rdquo; flanking bridges, walkways, and building entrances.

<img alt="" data-caption="Edward Kemeys, &lt;i&gt;Bison&lt;/i&gt;, Brooklyn Museum, S03i2190l01" data-rich-file-id="1907" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1907/original/s03i2190l01-sl1-1.jpg" />

It&rsquo;s no surprise, then, that the Art Institute of Chicago commissioned Kemeys to create the famous African lions that guard the museum&rsquo;s Michigan Avenue entrance. Unveiled in May 1894&mdash;six months after the Exposition closed&mdash;the Art Institute lions were modeled after a pair originally displayed outside the fair&rsquo;s Palace of Fine Arts. Kemeys and his wife Laura (a noted sculptor in her own right) created these temporary lions from staff, a mixture of plaster and plant fibers. After being cast in bronze for the Art Institute, the lion figures achieved a kind of immortality. Today, they rival the city&rsquo;s Picasso sculpture in popularity, decked out with wreaths for the Christmas season and professional sports helmets during championship playoffs.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="World’s Columbian Exposition, sculpture, Chicago, IL, 1891-1893. Edward Kemeys and Laura Kemeys. World’s Columbian Exposition Photographs by C. D. Arnold, 1891-1894, Ryerson and Burnham Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago. Digital File #198902.02_036-112." data-rich-file-id="1908" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1908/original/198902-02-036-112.jpg" />

Up until the 1890s, Chicago&rsquo;s public sculpture consisted mainly of monuments and memorials confined to the city&rsquo;s parks and cemeteries. But the Art Institute lions broke that mold (so to speak) and served as the first real examples of public art displayed in the city center where all passers-by could see. Florence Lathrop Field Page paid for the Art Institute commission in memory of her late first husband Henry Field (one of Marshall Field&rsquo;s brothers), and with this commission, she established the precedent of public art patronage in Chicago by wealthy citizens and family foundations, a tradition that lives on today with such projects as Millennium Park&rsquo;s Crown Fountain.

<img alt="" data-caption="Marquette Building Lobby © 2007 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation" data-rich-file-id="1905" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1905/original/marquette-building-3-720x563-72-rgb.jpg" />

In 1895, a year after Kemeys&rsquo; bronze lions were unveiled, Owen Aldis, the developer of the Marquette Building (now home to the MacArthur Foundation) took public art in Chicago a step further by incorporating mosaics and sculptural reliefs into his latest commercial building. Aldis commissioned works by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Edward Kemeys, Herman Atkins MacNeil, and Amy Aldis Bradley to adorn the fa&ccedil;ade and lobby of his new Loop office building. Today, you can still see the Marquette Building&rsquo;s opulent mosaics and bronze reliefs, inspired by the artistic examples set by the 1893 World&rsquo;s Fair, the international event that kicked-off the great tradition of public art in Chicago and paved the way for the future installation of Ono&#39;s&nbsp;Skylanding.

Up next: Franck Mercurio explores the connections between three large-scale installations in the southern end of Grant Park including&nbsp;Augustus Saint-Gaudens&#39; General John Logan, Magdalena Abakanowicz&#39;s Agora, and&nbsp;Tony Tasset&#39;s Artists Monument.

Top image:&nbsp;Edward Kemeys,&nbsp;Lions. Bronze with Green patina. Gift of Mrs. Henry Field, 1898.1a-b. The Art Institute of Chicago. The lions are the registered trademarks of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Chicago Gallery News explores the unlikely connections between Yoko Ono's Skylanding and the Art Institute of Chicago's bronze lions.

The Origins of Public Art in Chicago: From the Bronze Lions to Skylanding

In this two-part series, CGN intern Jacqueline Lewis shares her insights into the new&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/3/a-new-survey-highlights-merce-cunningham-s-collaborative-career">Merce Cunningham: Common Time</a>&nbsp;exhibition and accompanying performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Lewis has been a dancer for most of her life; she took&nbsp;her first dance lesson at two years old,&nbsp;and she began training with the&nbsp;Lou Conte Dance Studio at the age of sixteen. The second part in the series focuses on&nbsp;Centre Chor&eacute;graphique National&ndash;Ballet de Lorraine&#39;s recent performance&nbsp;of works from Cunningham&#39;s repertoire.&nbsp;

By JACQUELINE LEWIS

The stage of the Edlis Neeson Theater at the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/museum-of-contemporary-art-chicago-mca">Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA)</a>&nbsp;was dark when the performance&nbsp;Works by Merce Cunningham and Others began with Untitled Partner #3.&nbsp;The only light&nbsp;radiated from movable LED lights and video projections of dancers dressed in&nbsp;white. Four male dancers entered the stage&nbsp;and began to interact with the&nbsp;highlights and shadows provided by this unconventional stage lighting. At times, the dancers manipulated the projectors and lights, adding a dimension of uncertainty&nbsp;to the performance.

The choreography demonstrated the dancers&#39; strength and trust in their&nbsp;partners.&nbsp;They ran back and forth, throwing themselves towards the ground and rolling away, while at the same time&nbsp;supporting each other in an&nbsp;effort to create and hold difficult shapes.

<img alt="" data-caption="CCN-Ballet de Lorraine, &lt;i&gt;Untitled Partner #3&lt;/i&gt;. Photo: M.Rousseau." data-rich-file-id="1883" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1883/original/parnter-3-fly-resize.jpg" />

Untitled Partner #3 was created by CCN-Ballet Lorraine&rsquo;s artistic director Petter Jacobson and the coordinator of research, Thomas Caley.&nbsp;Caley danced with Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1993-2000, and the iconic choreographer&#39;s influence is apparent in Caley&#39;s&nbsp;mixed media approach to performance, his choice of&nbsp;electronic musical&nbsp;and the athletic choreography.

The next piece, Fabrications,&nbsp;showcased Ballet de Lorraine&rsquo;s large cast of dancers. The company&nbsp;is based in Nancy, France and has developed an impressive reputation due to their&nbsp;large contemporary repertoire as well as works that span&nbsp;modern history.&nbsp;This, along with their director&rsquo;s experience, makes them an ideal company to demonstrate the works of Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC).

<img alt="" data-caption="Performance view, CCN-Ballet de Lorraine, &lt;i&gt;Works by Merce Cunningham &amp; Others&lt;/i&gt;, MCA Chicago. Photo: Nathan Keay." data-rich-file-id="1885" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1885/original/fabrications-2-resize.jpg" />

Merce Cunningham created Fabrications&nbsp;for MCDC in 1987 at the Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The work&nbsp;consists of 64 different movement phrases, which correspond to the 64 hexagrams found in I Ching, the Chinese book of chance.&nbsp;These phrases are mixed-up and combined to create a work that exemplifies Cunningham&rsquo;s strong interest in chance and randomness. The flowing costumes are colorful, yet simple enough to focus attention on the movement.&nbsp;Fabrications highlights the strong, classical abilities necessary for Cunningham choreography, which the Ballet Lorraine dancers most definitely possess.

<img alt="" data-caption="CCN-Ballet de Lorraine, &lt;i&gt;Fabrications&lt;/i&gt;. Photo: Bernard Prudhomme." data-rich-file-id="1884" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1884/original/fabrications-resize.jpg" />

After Fabrications, the performance broke for an intermission, which gave the audience a chance to prepare for the enveloping experience of Sounddance.&nbsp;Cunningham described this work as &ldquo;vigorous, fast, complex,&rdquo; and as &ldquo;a space observed under a microscope.&rdquo;&nbsp;He does not exaggerate.&nbsp;The full experience captures your attention and draws&nbsp;you in until you are on the edge of your seat.

<img alt="" data-caption="CCN-Ballet de Lorraine, SOUNDDANCE. Photo: Laurent Philippe." data-rich-file-id="1893" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1893/original/key-image.jpg" />

Sounddance was created after Cunningham spent nine weeks with the Paris Opera Ballet, and the influence is evident in multiple aspects of the piece.&nbsp;From the costuming to the partnering and the balletic movements, Cunningham takes the classical qualities of ballet and gives them his own&nbsp;modern twist.&nbsp;Even the luscious, golden backdrop is reminiscent of the billowing curtains that frame the stages of classical ballet.&nbsp;In this case, Cunningham turns&nbsp;the curtains into part of the movement.&nbsp;Dancers enter&nbsp;and exit through openings that seem&nbsp;invisible until they burst through them.&nbsp;The&nbsp;stage design becomes a&nbsp;living part of the performance, a characteristic very common in Cunningham choreography.

<img alt="" data-caption="CCN-Ballet de Lorraine, &lt;i&gt;SOUNDDANCE&lt;/i&gt;. Photo: Laurent Philippe." data-rich-file-id="1888" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1888/original/sounddance-partnering-resize.jpg" />

The most difficult part of the performance was trying to take it all in at once for the fullest experience possible.&nbsp;As a dancer, I tend to focus on one dancer or a single movement and watch every detail as it comes to life. While this is often enjoyable, for this performance I made sure to observe the entire production in order to comprehend the fullness of the work.&nbsp;This created an entirely different experience that integrated the rich gold color,&nbsp;the choreographed formations, the connections amongst dancers and their synchronicity.&nbsp;I was moved into a trancelike state that elevated the performance beyond what I expected.

<img alt="" data-caption="CCN-Ballet de Lorraine, &lt;i&gt;SOUNDDANCE&lt;/i&gt;. Photo: Laurent Philippe." data-rich-file-id="1887" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1887/original/sounddance-curtain-resize.jpg" />

CCN-Ballet Lorraine brought Merce Cunningham&rsquo;s choreography to life at the MCA&rsquo;s stage.&nbsp;The performance was co-presented by the Dance Center of Columbia College Chigago and complemented the exhibition Common Time that is on view through April 30 at the MCA.&nbsp;Information about the exhibition and programming&nbsp;can be found <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/museum-of-contemporary-art-chicago-mca">here</a>.

To read the first article in this two-part series visit: <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/3/a-new-survey-highlights-merce-cunningham-s-collaborative-career">New Survey Highlights Merce Cunningham&#39;s Collaborative Career</a>.

Top image: Performance view, CCN-Ballet de Lorraine,&nbsp;Works by Merce Cunningham &amp; Others, MCA Chicago. Photo: Nathan Keay.

French dance company Ballet de Lorraine recently performed work by Merce Cunningham in conjunction with the MCA's exhibition Common Time.

Ballet de Lorraine Performs Captivating Works by Merce Cunningham

In this two-part series, CGN intern Jacqueline Lewis shares her insights into the new&nbsp;Merce Cunningham: Common Time&nbsp;exhibition and accompanying performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Lewis has been a dancer for most of her life; she took&nbsp;her first dance lesson at two years old,&nbsp;and she began training with the&nbsp;Lou Conte Dance Studio at the age of sixteen. The <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2017/3/ballet-de-lorraine-performs-captivating-works-by-merce-cunningham">second part in the series</a>, which focuses on the Centre Chor&eacute;graphique National-Ballet de Lorraine&#39;s recent MCA Stage&nbsp;performance, will be published Friday, March 10, 2017.

By JACQUELINE LEWIS

On view now through April 30&nbsp;at the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/museum-of-contemporary-art-chicago-mca">Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA)</a>&nbsp;and the Walker Art Center&nbsp;in Minneapolis are&nbsp;two simultaneous presentations of <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/merce-cunningham-common-time">Merce Cunningham: Common Time</a>.&nbsp;They are the largest surveys to date of Merce Cunningham and his multiple artistic collaborations.

Cunningham, who was a&nbsp;prolific choreographer, determined that &ldquo;music and dance and art could be separate entities independent and interdependent, sharing a common time.&rdquo;&nbsp;The MCA successfully demonstrates this idea in the exhibition, which displays these three aspects in a cohesive yet distinct manner.

In order to create these multidimensional works, Cunningham collaborated with artists spanning diverse artistic fields of expertise.&nbsp;Even though he was primarily a choreographer and dancer, Cunningham&nbsp;believed that all facets of performance were equally important.&nbsp;He did not prioritize dance over the set design or the music&nbsp;since&nbsp;they all worked together to create a cohesive work of art.&nbsp;In fact, Cunningham believed that dance did not have to be deliberately connected to music so he would often ask composers for music without showing them the choreography.

<img alt="" data-caption="Charles Atlas, &lt;i&gt;MC9&lt;/i&gt;, 2012. Installation view, Charles Atlas and Collaborators, BMW Tate Live, The Tanks, Tate Modern, 2013. Edition of 3, aside from 2 artist’s proofs. © Charles Atlas and Tate. Photo: Gabrielle Fonseca Johnson for Tate Photography." data-rich-file-id="1877" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1877/original/video-room.jpg" />

One of the first galleries in the exhibition at the MCA immerses the viewer in performance videos that continuously change on screens to a musical score that does not match any of the dances.&nbsp;The installation allows the viewer to experience the disjointed connection that Cunningham strived for in his music and dance compositions.

The videos are projected in a long, dark gallery solely dedicated to excerpts of choreography.&nbsp;The screens hang at different levels and angles,&nbsp;which envelopes the viewer&nbsp;in Cunningham&rsquo;s world of dance and allows&nbsp;them to experience the intricacies of his style from the inside. The movements are strong, sharp and full of classical technique with a new twist.

Cunningham famously used the element of chance in his choreography, and often consulted the Chinese book of chance, I Ching, when creating movement patterns for his dancers.&nbsp;Later in his career, Cunningham choreographed with the help of computer programs, which gave him the opportunity to test human physical limits.&nbsp;He would create a seemingly impossible movement with the software and then see how closely his dancers could mimic that technique.&nbsp;Cunningham dancers can attest to the physical and mental demands of these techniques due to their almost inhuman nature.

<img alt="" data-caption="Merce Cunningham at Black Mountain College, 1948. Photo: Hazel Larsen Archer, courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer and the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center." data-rich-file-id="1876" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1876/original/hazel-larsen-archer-cunningham-bmc-.jpg" />

Common Time also includes a room dedicated to Cunningham&rsquo;s notebooks, company fliers, costumes and photographs, most notably one that depicts him and Martha Graham.&nbsp;This room, along with a timeline on one of the walls, allows viewers to gain an appreciation of the man behind the synergistic works that light up the exhibition space.

Cunningham was born in Centralia, Washington in 1919, and studied dance in the small town throughout his youth.&nbsp;He applied to Seattle&rsquo;s Cornish School (now Cornish College for the Arts) as a drama major but changed it to dance after taking a life-changing course with former Martha Graham Dance Company member, Bonnie Bird.&nbsp;Around this time, he met composer and visiting lecturer John Cage, who would become immensely influential to Cunningham&rsquo;s artistic philosophy.&nbsp;

After college, Cunningham danced with the famed Martha Graham Dance Company until the summer of 1945 when he left to pursue his own work.&nbsp;He created The Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) in 1953 while at Black Mountain College.&nbsp;His company ran from then until 2011 after which it performed a legacy tour, which had been planned by Cunningham before his own death.&nbsp;This tour celebrated almost sixty years of work.

<img alt="" data-caption="Installation view, &lt;i&gt;Merce Cunningham: Common Time&lt;/i&gt;, MCA Chicago. Feb 11 – Apr 30, 2017. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago." data-rich-file-id="1875" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1875/original/decor.jpg" />

Along with archival materials, the exhibition&nbsp;also features a set design&nbsp;installation consisting of movable chairs, bicycle frames, ropes, sails and can tins created by Robert Rauschenberg for Cunningham&rsquo;s performance, Summerspace (1958/77).&nbsp;&nbsp;The inclusion of the chair acknowledges Marcel Duchamp and his Bicycle Wheel readymade, thus connecting Cunningham&rsquo;s work directly to the visual arts.&nbsp;

In another gallery, Jasper Johns&rsquo; set design for Walkaround Time&nbsp;(1968/85)&nbsp;is on display.&nbsp;By 1968, Jasper Johns became the artistic director of the MCDC and considered himself a curator of ideas.&nbsp;He reached out to Marcel Duchamp and inquired about using some form of The Large Glass for stage d&eacute;cor.&nbsp; Also known as&nbsp;The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even,&nbsp;the work&nbsp;is a glass sculpture fused with other materials such as wires and lead foil. The Large Glass is transparent, allowing the viewer to look through it, and Duchamp, who must have found the piece to hold a great deal of importance, worked on it&nbsp;for about eight years.&nbsp;Jasper Johns was permitted to recreate The Large Glass in a way that allowed dancers to move around sections of the work while others hung above the stage.&nbsp;The transparent quality of the pieces heightened audience perception and gave the illusion of the dancers living within the d&eacute;cor itself.

<img alt="" data-caption="Jasper Johns, Set for &lt;i&gt;Walkaround Time&lt;/i&gt;, 1968. Walker Art Center, T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2000. © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY." data-rich-file-id="1878" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1878/original/johns-2000-404-1-14.jpg" />

Finally, in what will most likely be a visitor favorite, the exhibition presents a gallery&nbsp;dedicated to Andy Warhol&rsquo;s Silver Clouds, which were used as stage d&eacute;cor for Rainforest (1968). Adapted for the dance, the helium filled balloons floated around the dancers while some remained on the ground to be kicked.&nbsp;The set design became a living organism that could respond and mutate based on chance encounters with dancers.&nbsp;Now, museumgoers have the opportunity to interact with the &ldquo;clouds,&rdquo; too.

The cross-disciplinary programming of the MCA and the Walker provide an ideal platform to explore Cunningham&rsquo;s own multi-dimensional, collaborative approach.&nbsp; Common Time is an immersive experience incorporating audio, painting, video, sculpture, technology and fashion.&nbsp; Accompanying the exhibition are a number of performances including Music for Merce&nbsp;and Ballet de Lorraine: Works by Merce Cunningham and Others.&nbsp; More information on these events and the exhibition&nbsp;can be found <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/museum-of-contemporary-art-chicago-mca">here.</a>

Top image:&nbsp;Installation view,&nbsp;Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago. Feb 11 &ndash; Apr 30, 2017. Photo: Nathan Keay, &copy; MCA Chicago.

The MCA's new exhibition 'Merce Cunningham: Common Time' surveys the collaborative performances of the prolific American choreographer.

A New Survey Highlights Merce Cunningham's Collaborative Career

By JULIANNA TANCREDI, Restoration Division

At <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/restoration-division">Restoration Division</a>, a fine art conservation studio in Chicago, murals are given a new lease on life regularly. Murals are unique in their physical and stylistic connection to a location, and this creates issues as older buildings with murals are renovated, demolished, or repurposed. The process can potentially be devastating for an artwork that is on a wall or ceiling, but it can also be seen as an opportunity to save, restore, and transfer a mural to a new environment. Older murals inherently have their own trail of thoughts and histories, and incorporating them into new spaces can create nuanced and complex interiors. The juxtaposition of the modern and antique is a trend that has gained recognition and popularity year over year, and fine art conservators are on the front line of this movement.

<img alt="" data-caption="Randolph Tower Mural, before removal and conservation" data-rich-file-id="1814" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1814/original/randolph-tower-mural-before-removal-and-conservation.jpg" />

A striking revitalization project undertaken by Restoration Division was the restoration of badly damaged murals located in what is now the Chicago Randolph Tower. The Gothic Revival skyscraper was built in 1929 for the Steuben Club, which promoted German-American heritage. The club included a ballroom decorated with neoclassical murals by Gustave Brand (1862-1944), a German-American artist, which celebrated the history and accomplishments of the German people. The building subsequently went through a period of extreme neglect and disrepair in the mid-20th century and eventually resurrected from 2011 to 2013.

<img alt="" data-caption="Restored Randolph Tower murals in their new location" data-rich-file-id="1851" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1851/original/restored-randloph-tower-murals-in-their-new-location.jpg" />

The ballroom with Brand&rsquo;s ceiling murals particularly suffered, as the space was divided into offices and bathrooms installed above. The murals were damaged to the point of tatters by time, water, and contractors&rsquo; carelessness. Rather than declare the paintings a loss, Restoration Division was asked by Paul Alessandro of Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture and Kenneth Barnes of Lexington Homes to transform them into framed, individual artworks. After months of conservation and restoration, the framed murals were installed in the newly redesigned Randolph Tower interiors. The historic murals and the contemporary interiors now successfully interweave with each other to create a new, vibrant architectural vocabulary.

Another mural Restoration Division recently breathed new life into is the first ever mural project by William de Leftwich Dodge (1867-1935), an American painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1893, Dodge was commissioned to paint the enormous dome of the Administration Building at the World&rsquo;s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The artist first made a large study in oil on canvas for the full scale mural, which was painted directly onto the structure&rsquo;s plaster ceiling. As with much of the White City, the Administration Building and its mural were demolished once the fair closed. Despite the destruction of his work, Dodge emerged as one of the most prominent muralists of the era as a result of the commission, &nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Restoration Division conservator Olga Knopf removing William de Leftwich Dodge mural" data-rich-file-id="1852" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1852/original/restoration-division-conservator-olga-knopf-removing-william-de-leftwich-dodge-mural.jpg" />

Although the full scale mural is lost, the study survived and later placed on the ceiling of an 1893 suburban Chicago home. The home owners, Allan and Judy Koessel, are deeply knowledgeable and sensitive to art and history. They decided to have Restoration Division remove the mural from the ceiling, where it was barely visible, and restore it to its former glory.

Rather than reinstall the mural on the ceiling after restoration, the Koessels have decided to display the artwork vertically, in a custom-built frame. Like the Administration Building mural, the Koessels&rsquo; study is a depiction of The Glorification of the Arts and Sciences. A procession of figures representing Architecture, Agriculture, Art, and Science flamboyantly and colorfully parades the roundel. Through the re-imagination of its display, viewers can now see the mural&rsquo;s fascinating details and connect with the time of the Columbian Exposition. The Koessels&rsquo; plan to exhibit the framed mural in different locations, so audiences can view and learn about an important piece of Chicago history. The couple ultimately hopes to find a permanent location for the painting, where it can radiate its colorful style and masterful composition for many generations to come.

Significant murals are artworks worthy in their own right and they can offer more than just a glimpse into things past. They are intricate paintings that can argue and coexist with new environments, creating new visual vocabularies in contemporary interiors. Art can go out of style, but qualities of a good artwork are eternal. Restoration Division is pleased to have the duty of reintroducing murals into contemporary life.

Top image:&nbsp;William de Leftwich Dodge mural, before and after restoration&nbsp;

Find more information about Restoration Division <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/restoration-division">here</a>.

A restoration case study from Restoration Division in Chicago.

Restoration Case Study: Mural Revival

In celebration of Henry Darger&rsquo;s 125th birthday, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art presents five exhibitions in 2017. Darger, who was born in Chicago and lived in a one-room apartment in Lincoln Park for most of his life, was a prolific self-taught artist and author. By day Darger lived as a hospital janitor and dishwasher, but at home in his apartment-turned-studio he was secretly writing thousand-page novels and illustrating hundreds of drawings.

Intuit is home to The Henry Darger Room Collection, which offers a rare window into the life of this reclusive artist. This year, visitors will also have the opportunity to view a number of exhibitions, which explore Darger&rsquo;s own writing and work, along with work by other artists who immerse themselves in complex, otherworldly places.

Darger&rsquo;s 15,000 page unpublished novel, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, now referred to as Realms of the Unreal, was discovered in 1972 by Darger&rsquo;s landlord, Nathan Lerner, who was cleaning out his former tenant&rsquo;s room. Along with the novel, more than 350 watercolors, pencil drawings and collages were found.

<img alt="" data-caption="Henry Darger (American, 1892-1973). &lt;i&gt;COLONEL JACK F EVANS&lt;/i&gt;, mid-twentieth century. Watercolor, pencil, ink and collage on board, 13 ¾ x 11 ½ in. Collection American Folk Art Museum, New York, museum purchase, 2002.22.5. © Artists Rights Society ( ARS), NY, Photo credit: Gavin Ashworth, ©American Folk Art Museum / Art Resource, NY" data-rich-file-id="1758" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1758/original/darger-1-20-1-.jpg" />

The suite of exhibitions, organized by Intuit in partnership with the American Folk Art Museum in New York, juxtaposes Darger&rsquo;s writing alongside his visual art, while contextualizing the artist in the historical tradition of the epic novel.

For information on Henry Darger and a full schedule of exhibitions visit <a href="http://art.org">art.org</a>

Top image:&nbsp;Henry Darger (American, 1892-1973). GIGANTIC ROVERINE WITH YOUNG ALL POISONOUS ALL ISLANDS OF UNIVERSAN SEAS AND OCEANS. ALSO IN CALVERINA ANGELINIA AND ABBIEANNIA, mid-twentieth century. Watercolor, pencil, and carbon tracing on pierced paper, 14 x 33 &frac34; in. Collection American Folk Art Museum, New York, anonymous gift, 2001.16.4. &copy; Artists Rights Society ( ARS), NY, Photo credit: James Prinz, &copy;American Folk Art Museum / Art Resource, NY

Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art celebrates the 125th birthday of Chicago artist Henry Darger through a series of exhibitions.

A Year of Exhibitions to Mark Outsider Henry Darger’s 125th Birthday

Breaking away from the&nbsp;narrative&nbsp;of representing&nbsp;AIDS&nbsp;through&nbsp;pain and suffering,&nbsp;ART AIDS AMERICA&nbsp;celebrates&nbsp;strength and beauty in the face of&nbsp;a devastating disease. The exhibition&nbsp;is now on view through April 2 at&nbsp;Alphawood Gallery on North Halsted.

The expansive installation showcases&nbsp;170 works from over 100 American artists, ranging from the 1980s to the present day. The exhibition has traveled to a number of cities, including Tacoma, Washington and Bronx, New York. For the Chicago iteration, a number of artists with ties to the ciy including&nbsp;Gregg Bordowitz, Roger Brown, Doug Ischar, Patric McCoy, Michael Qualls, Oli Rodriguez, Daniel Sotomayor and Israel Wright, are featured.

Art AIDS America has a full schedule of programming available to the public in hopes of creating space for a citywide dialogue regarding the cultural impact of HIV/AIDS over the recent decades. In partnership with StoryCorps, the organization invites visitors to share and preserve their personal accounts of the AIDS crisis.

<img alt="" data-caption="LADZ (John Arsenault and Adrian Gilliland), &lt;i&gt;Eden #31&lt;/i&gt;, 2012. Chromogenic color print, 32&quot; × 52½&quot;, Courtesy of the artists." data-rich-file-id="1756" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1756/original/8-inch-350-dpi-ladz-eden-number-31-2012-arsenault-and-gilliland-2-20.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Roger Brown, &lt;i&gt;Peach Light&lt;/i&gt;, 1983, Copyright: The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brown family. Courtesy of Kavi Gupta. Photo: James Connolly" data-rich-file-id="1755" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1755/original/roger-brown-peach-light-1983-copyright-the-school-of-the-art-institute-of-chicago-and-the-brown-family-courtesy-of-kavi-gupta-photo-james-connolly.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Tino Rodriguez, &lt;i&gt;Eternal Lovers&lt;/i&gt;, 2010. Oil on wood, 18&quot; × 24&quot;. Private collection. Photo courtesy of the artist." data-rich-file-id="1754" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1754/original/400-dpi-7-inch-rodriguez-img-8504.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Patric McCoy, &lt;i&gt;Only 18 Pawns&lt;/i&gt;, 1983" data-rich-file-id="1753" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1753/original/patric-mccoy-35mm-17a-rtp-33x50-medres.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="ACT UP NY/Gran Fury (active New York, New York, 1987–1995), &lt;i&gt;Let the Record Show…&lt;/i&gt;,1987/recreated 2015. Mixed media installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy of Gran Fury and the New Museum, New York. Photo courtesy of the artists." data-rich-file-id="1752" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1752/original/400-20dpi-20gran-20fury-gran-20fury-2026.jpg" />

Admission is free and open to the public. 
 
Events: 
<a href="http://www.artaidsamericachicago.org/events/">http://www.artaidsamericachicago.org/events/</a> 
 
Artists: 
<a href="http://www.artaidsamericachicago.org/exhibition/artists/">http://www.artaidsamericachicago.org/exhibition/artists/</a> 
 
Hours: 
<a href="http://www.artaidsamericachicago.org/visit/">http://www.artaidsamericachicago.org/visit/</a>

Top image: Thomas Haukaas,&nbsp;More Time Expected, 2002. Handmade ink and pencil on antique ledger paper, 16&frac12; &times; 27&frac12; inches. Tacoma Art Museum, Gift of Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom in honor of Rock Hushka, 2008.10. Photo &copy; TAM, by Richard Nicol.

ART AIDS AMERICA  is now on view through April 2 at the Alphawood Gallery on North Halsted.

Exhibition at Alphawood Gallery Constructs New Narrative about AIDS

The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) exhibits and promotes works by national and international artists, focusing many of its efforts on providing exposure and support to up-and-coming talent. One way the museum is able to tap the energy of fresh and innovative artwork being made in the region is through the Midwest Photographers Project, or MPP for short. MPP is a rotating collection of portfolios on loan from artists for a three-year period. “Oftentimes we see artists making exciting new bodies of work that are still in progress or have recently been completed,” says MoCP’s Executive Director Natasha Egan. “We may not be ready or able to acquire the artwork for the museum’s collection or to display it in an exhibition. In those cases, we include artists in MPP, where their works are accessible to students and researchers looking to learn about what’s new in the field.” The collection is made accessible to the public by appointment in the museum’s Print Study Room and via the museum’s <a href="http://www.mocp.org/collection/mpp/">website</a>.&nbsp;Egan recommends checking out portfolios by Zora J. Murff and Clarissa Bonet. Both artists make photographs about particular aspects of life in their hometowns.Zora J. Murff (American, b. 1987; resides in Cedar Rapids, IA)<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1717/original/mocp1.jpg" alt=""></figure>With a background in psychology and social services, Zora J. Murff began a position at Iowa’s Linn County Juvenile Detention and Diversion Services in 2012. Working with minors on probation as a “Tracker,” he was responsible for keeping tabs of their whereabouts (either digitally or in person), and assisting in their rehabilitation. According to the artist, “Tracking and other similar community-based services are being increasingly used as an alternative to detention facilities. These services, which allow juveniles to stay in their homes, show a higher rate of success than strict incarceration.”[1] Reflecting on the relationships the artist forms with the juveniles he serves— which range from stable to contentious—Murff began his ongoing series Corrections in 2013. His images portray not only young people and the ephemera related to their probation, but also offer a glimpse into the systems that are used to contain the individuals. &nbsp;Obscuring his subjects’ faces, Murff’s images focus on themes broader than personal identity –including control, privacy, and personal development—and the ways these issues are embedded in the juvenile corrections system.Corrections will be on view in an upcoming solo exhibition at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The project has also been shown at Filter Space, Chicago, IL; ARCADE Museum, St. Louis, MO; and SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA, among other galleries and institutions.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1718/original/mocp2.jpg" alt=""></figure>The street scenes in Clarissa Bonet’s ongoing project City Space&nbsp;(2011-2016) are re-staged from events she witnesses as a pedestrian living in Chicago. Though the city is densely populated, Bonet seeks to express her sense of isolation within the continuous crowd of strangers. Her images represent fleeting encounters with anonymous individuals, which unfold against the stark contrast of light and shadow shaped by the city’s looming architecture. These are reinterpretations of chance encounters and observations, yet Bonet’s images offer a glimpse into the unique psychological experience of living within an interminable urban landscape.Bonet is represented in Chicago by Catherine Edelman Gallery, where her solo exhibition City Space + Stray Light recently closed. She has exhibited widely at venues including Workspace Gallery, Lincoln, NE; the Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, CA; and the Aperture Foundation, New York, NY&nbsp;MoCP is located at 600 S. Michigan, Chicago, IL 60605. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10-5, Thursday till 8, Sunday, 12-5. Admission is always free, $5 suggested donation.&nbsp;

Museum of Contemporary Photography's Midwest Photographer's Project 

MoCP’s Midwest Photographers Project Offers a Look at What’s New in Photography

By Dennis CallahanThe internationally famous artist Anish Kapoor may&nbsp;not be a household name, yet, but here in Chicago his monumental sculpture Cloud Gate&nbsp;(aka ‘The Bean’) might be.Callahan art &amp; Associates has&nbsp;a few collectors who own a number of Kapoor’s works. Of course they are smaller than Cloud Gate&nbsp;but all are just as polished and technically sophisticated. When it comes to installing them in a home, they present complex and unique challenges. Kapoor’s own notorious demands for perfection create a high bar many installers cannot meet.One of our clients owns a wonderful small sculpture from Kapoor's Void&nbsp;series. It presents itself as an enigmatic, perfectly circular, nearly black, spatially boundless hole in a wall. The success of this illusion depends entirely on the mounting and installation of the work. Mountmaking and installation are two things almost no one would consider when viewing art, but&nbsp;I strongly believe the success of a mount for a sculpture and the installation of a work of art can be measured inversely by the amount of attention they call to themselves.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1708/original/callahan1.jpg" alt=""></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1707/original/callahan2.jpg" alt=""></figure>Mountmaking can be broken down to design, engineering and fabrication. The design for Void required that it appear not to be hung behind the wall&nbsp;but to exist on the same surface plane as the wall. So we had to eliminate the thickness of the drywall at the point of contact (figures 1. &amp; 2.). When engineering a mount our primary concerns are archival safety, and reversability. We often start with Michaelangelo’s understanding of how the human body supports itself and holds an object. In this case we arrived at two simple steel rings on a precision adjustable track to hold the sphere (figures 3. &amp; 4.). We fabricate all our mounts in our metal shop. This ensures our high standards are met and small modifications can be resolved before we test each mount in our shop (figures 5. &amp; 6.).<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1709/original/callahan3.jpg" alt=""></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1710/original/callahan4.jpg" alt=""></figure>The final installation required expert drywall and plastering skills. It also required the safe execution of these trades while working with the art. Our Certified Art Handlers are also highly skilled in many trades and were up to the challenge (figures 7 &amp; 8 (at top of page)). The finished installation came out beautifully. In fact, I am sure no one thinks about the mount or installation when looking into this abyss (Figure 9.). The structural integrity of the mount also exceeded expectations. The client called me later to share a story of a 10 year old boy who reached into the “Void” and lifted himself up by it to peer inside! The mount and the plaster did not fail!<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1711/original/callahan5.jpg" alt=""></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1713/original/callahan6.jpg" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1714/original/callahan7.jpg" alt=""></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1712/original/callahan9.jpg" alt=""></figure>If you want to watch a video of the whole process,&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/S48HiXbKXkY">click here</a>.

Dennis Callahan shares the story of installing a mount for an Anish Kapoor sculpture in a home

The Unique Challenges of Installing Contemporary Sculpture: An Anish Kapoor Case Study 

By ALISON REILLY

Zina Saro-Wiwa&rsquo;s new exhibition, now on display at the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, offers a mesmerizing view of the culture of the Nigerian-born, British-raised artist. Installed across several galleries in the recently&nbsp;renovated university museum, Did You Know We Taught Them How to Dance? features analog televisions, large-scale projections, and multi-channel installations alongside photographs and sculpture. The show, which premiered at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, is the first solo museum exhibition for Saro-Wiwa.

Amy Powell, curator of contemporary and modern art at the Krannert, notes that as an artist Saro-Wiwa has &ldquo;long been invested in countering prominent Western media models of how Africa is framed.&rdquo; For an exhibition in Houston titled Progress of Love, Saro-Wiwa felt that she never saw expressions of intimacy between Africans represented in the United States, so she traveled around the country to interview Africans about their experiences and to film couples kissing. The project, Eaten by the Heart, which was commissioned by The Menil Collection, allowed her subjects a platform to talk openly about the ways in love is performed, represented and viewed in society.

<img alt="" data-caption="Zina Saro-Wiwa, &lt;i&gt;Niger Delta: A Documentary&lt;/i&gt;, 2015, digital video (color, sound) 3:50 min. Courtesy of the artist." data-rich-file-id="1692" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1692/original/niger-delta-a-documentary-video-still-.jpg" />

Powell has been working with Saro-Wiwa since 2012 when the two met in Houston at the Progress of Love exhibition. At the time, the filmmaker and video artist was based in the UK but the two women stayed in touch as Saro-Wiwa began visiting Nigeria for extended periods of time to develop a number of new projects. For Saro-Wiwa, who had visited Nigeria during her youth but had not lived there permanently, it was an opportunity to reconnect with the local community in Port Harcourt and the surrounding area.

Saro-Wiwa has a notably complex relationship with the region. Her father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, was a prominent environmental activist who was falsely accused of murder and subsequently executed in 1995&nbsp;by the Nigerian government. In 2014, after returning to Port Harcourt, Saro-Wiwa opened a gallery called the Boys Quarters Project Space, located in her father&rsquo;s former office. She remodeled to create a clean gallery with polished concrete floors and white walls that now serves as a rotating exhibition space for local artists. She decided, however, to leave her father&rsquo;s office intact with every detail including his desk, papers, and pipes. Visitors are allowed to see the office but not enter it, and Saro-Wiwa now projects her own experimental videos into the room. &nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Zina Saro-Wiwa, &lt;i&gt;Did You Know We Taught Them How to Dance?&lt;/i&gt;, Krannert Art Museum, November 17, 2016-March 25, 2017, installation view. Courtesy Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign." data-rich-file-id="1693" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1693/original/f2016-zinasarowiwa-p1.jpg" />

In some ways, the Boys Quarters represents how Saro-Wiwa operates as an artist, at once bringing in her contemporary &ldquo;Afropolitan&rdquo; perspective while honoring and challenging her past.[1] For instance, in Karikpo Pipeline, a five-channel video installed on widescreen monitors hung side-by-side, Saro-Wiwa superimposes Karikpo dancers on abandoned oil infrastructures in Ogoniland, a region in the Niger Delta belonging to the Ogoni people. The dancers, who wear masks reassembling antelopes, fade in and out of the landscape like apparitions, at once highlighting the spirituality of their practice and the effects of oil production on the environment. Saro-Wiwa effectively edits drone footage of the area with the dancers to create a surreal and at times lush landscape.

In Western media reports, Ogoniland is often characterized as a corrupted region devastated by Shell oil spills. But in her work Saro-Wiwa seeks to move beyond these narratives by evoking the &ldquo;internal landscape&rdquo; of the people and the region. Prayer Warriors is a powerful study in the cathartic performance of evangelical Christian pastors from Ogoniland. Dressed in shades of purples and reds, these men and women prophesize directly into the artist&rsquo;s camera. Saro-Wiwa removes them from their pulpits, filming them against a black backdrop to emphasize their facial expressions, gestures, and conviction. As their voices and images echo across the large room, the ministers engage in what Saro-Wiwa describes as &ldquo;psychic survival,&rdquo; a way of processing their earthly existence.

<img alt="" data-caption="Zina Saro-Wiwa, &lt;i&gt;Table Manners&lt;/i&gt;, 2014-15. Eight single-channel videos, sound. Courtesy of the artist." data-rich-file-id="1694" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1694/original/kam-still-table-manners-barisuka-eats-roasted-ice-fish-and-mu.jpg" />

In the exhibition, Saro-Wiwa explores another type of performance: eating. In Table Manners, eight analog televisions are positioned in a circle on a bed of black periwinkle shells. A few small chairs are placed in front of the screens, inviting visitors to sit and watch. In one still shot, each video depicts an individual from the Niger Delta eating a meal by themselves from start to finish. The title of each video, for example Barisuka Eats Roasted Ice Fish and Mu, tells the viewer precisely what will happen. Saro-Wiwa&rsquo;s films succeed in their subtlety; the noise of the diner chomping on their food is not shunned but quietly embraced, thereby elevating an everyday activity to the realm of performance.

The presentation of Saro-Wiwa&rsquo;s work on the Urbana-Champaign campus also offers a unique opportunity to engage students and professors across disciplines in the role of performance in the Niger Delta. Powell, who joined the museum staff in 2014, said, &ldquo;once I met colleagues here and saw the museum, the spaces and how people on campus, not just in Art and Art History, but in all kinds of disciplines really see the museum as a real interlocutor, I was really excited about coming here.&rdquo; In conjunction with the&nbsp;exhibition, Powell has organized a panel of professors from diverse disciplines like gender studies, urban planning, law, and political science to convene to discuss their interpretations of Saro-Wiwa&rsquo;s work. &ldquo;There are so many ways into the work&nbsp;that do and don&#39;t line up with Zina&#39;s perspective,&rdquo; Powell noted, &ldquo;so I&#39;m curious in terms of those interdisciplinary perspectives what I can learn from my colleagues and what they learn from it.&rdquo;

Accompanying the exhibition is an impressive catalogue complete with essays by Powell&nbsp;and Taiye Selasi, along with a number of Saro-Wiwa&rsquo;s own recipes. Did You Know We Taught Them How To Dance? is on display at the Krannert Art Museum through March 25, 2017. For more information visit <a href="http://kam.illinois.edu">kam.illinois.edu</a>.

[1] See Taiye Selasi&rsquo;s essay &ldquo;Afropolitan in a State of Grace&rdquo; published in the exhibition catalogue Zina Saro-Wiwa: Did You Know We Taught Them How to Dance?, University of Washington Press, 2016.

Top image: Zina Saro-Wiwa,&nbsp;Did You Know We Taught Them How to Dance?, Krannert Art Museum, November 17, 2016-March 25, 2017, installation view.&nbsp;Courtesy Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

An exhibition of work by British-Nigerian artist Zina Saro-Wiwa is now on display at the Krannert Art Museum.

Zina Saro-Wiwa Displays Powerful Performance Work in Renovated Krannert Art Museum Galleries

A trip out to the Rockford Art Museum is always an adventure. &nbsp;The exhibition space, carved out of a former factory and now attached to a larger cultural center, is vast and well-suited to displaying larger scale works of contemporary&nbsp;art.&nbsp;

The current exhibition,&nbsp;Deconstructing the American Landscape, with&nbsp;work by Sarah Krepp and Joel Ross, features Krepp&#39;s large scale, vivid multimedia paintings&nbsp;adjacent to a space displaying&nbsp;surprising sculptures and thought-provoking installations by Ross.&nbsp;

The show&#39;s grounding&nbsp;inspiration, of course, is the&nbsp;American landscape.&nbsp;Both Krepp&nbsp;and Ross&#39;s artistic&nbsp;translations of&nbsp;interactions between society and the land&nbsp;invite viewers&nbsp;to reconsider the notion of landscape in art.

Krepp&#39;s signature colors of black, white, red and yellow are wielded in large works and on hyper-textured surfaces, sometimes containing hundreds of words and messages. Other works use everyday materials from the road, such as tires,&nbsp;taking&nbsp;seemingly used up things and&nbsp;rendering beautiful compositions.&nbsp;

Ross&#39;s text-based sculptures first invite viewers to read, and then to consider the message in a landscape context. The objects, installations and photographs offer a break from just passing by and instead provide a means for looking anew at the every day (empty lots, alleys, roads, shopping centers). A tower of old suitcases asks, what do we really need to bring along, or leave behind? What&#39;s shut up inside?&nbsp;

Sarah Krepp is Founding Director of&nbsp;DIALOGUE Chicago,&nbsp;and a&nbsp;professor emeritus and former chair of the painting program at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Joel Ross is currently an associate professor at the&nbsp;University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; he is represented by&nbsp;Monique Meloche Gallery.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/deconstructing-the-american-landscape-sarah-krepp-joel-ross">Deconstructing the American Landscape: Sarah Krepp &amp; Joel Ross</a>&nbsp;runs through January 29, 2017 at the Rockford Art Museum.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption=" Sarah Krepp, Rip Currents III (#112), n.d., oil, tire, mixed media on panel" data-rich-file-id="1685" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1685/original/krepp3.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Sarah Krepp, Switchback (#516), n.d., oil, acrylic on linen" data-rich-file-id="1684" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1684/original/krepp2.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Sarah Krepp, Residue (#816), n.d., tire, screws on wall" data-rich-file-id="1683" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1683/original/krepp4.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption=" Sarah Krepp, Blow-Out: Full Force (#716), n.d., tire on panel, steel, acrylic" data-rich-file-id="1682" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1682/original/krepp1.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Joel Ross, Failure to Communicate, 2000, color photograph, parking meter, Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago" data-rich-file-id="1686" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1686/original/ross1.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Joel Ross, Room 28, 1997, mixed media, Collection of the James Hotel, Chicago. Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago." data-rich-file-id="1687" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1687/original/ross2.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption=" Joel Ross, Unstoppable, 2016, shims, acrylic paint on wood, Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago" data-rich-file-id="1688" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1688/original/ross3.jpg" />

<img alt="" data-caption="Joel Ross, &lt;i&gt;False Promises&lt;/i&gt; (installed and abandoned, Champaign County, IL), 2000, archival pigment. Print ed. 1/3, Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago" data-rich-file-id="1690" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1690/original/joel-ross-false-promises.jpeg" />

Images at top of page: Left:&nbsp;Sarah Krepp,&nbsp;Switchback I (#416),&nbsp;n.d., oil, acrylic on linen; Right:&nbsp;Sarah Krepp,&nbsp;Switchback II (#516),&nbsp;n.d., oil, acrylic on linen

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Exhibitions by Sarah Krepp and Joel Ross are now on display at the Rockford Art Museum.

Deconstructing the American Landscape: Sarah Krepp & Joel Ross at Rockford Art Museum

By KARA JEFTS

Following the Presidential election results of the previous week, the country is experiencing a notable cultural divide. Many will look to history to try to understand this moment, and many will turn to their community for reassurance and support. Art making as a way of understanding one&rsquo;s self, and as a way to relate to others, will also prove important during this fracture of our nation&rsquo;s bedrock. The Cairn Project, conceived by artist Corinne D. Peterson, provides an exemplary model of art&rsquo;s power to create a unified sense of community, and it will be installed at Citlalin Gallery in Pilsen from November 19-December 31, with an opening reception on November 18 from 7-10 pm.

&ldquo;We live in a culture that discourages us from looking at pain&rdquo; notes Peterson, reflecting on the reasons she has spent over two years working on the Cairn Project, a series of workshops that have engaged over 550 participants in the greater Chicago area, including: immigrants; LGBTQ youth; cancer survivors; survivors of sexual abuse; families of gun violence victims; the homeless; Iraqi, Burundi, and Burmese refugees; veterans; nurses; the bereaved; the blind; among many other men, women, and children from diverse communities across the city.

Peterson believes that rocks, like people, are shaped through traumas: tumbled by the sea, split by tectonic shifts, born through the violent molten explosion of volcanoes, or slowly dissolved by the weathering of acid rain. She leads each community group participating in the Cairn Project to consider form and feeling, and upon entering the room each person is asked to select a rock from a small but thoughtful collection, which she has provided. As the workshop begins, the participants introduce themselves by describing why they selected their rock.

<img alt="" data-caption="&quot;When asked to think about trauma, I imagined an angel wrapping their wings around me and creating calm.&quot; - John, image courtesy of the National Veterans Art Museum" data-rich-file-id="1661" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1661/original/john-veteransmuseum.jpg" />

The introductions become a way for participants to bond and reflect on their personal experience, choosing to respond by directly addressing their own trauma or by speaking in metaphor to express their feelings. As the archivist for the project, I have been working with participants who volunteered to share their reflections on audio or video recordings in order to build an oral history surrounding the project. Carol, a woman from The Mather, a senior living community, reflected on her selection: &ldquo;I like this stone because it has within a very small space a geography of rough spots and smooth spots&hellip;it has both difficulty and the working through of difficulty right here in your hand.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Cairn Project workshop participants from an Iraqi refugee group doing a walking meditation around their finished rocks and tokens." data-rich-file-id="1660" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1660/original/iraqirefugeeworkshop.jpg" />

Following introductions, the workshop leader guides a meditation to calm emotions and re-center the group. Participants are then asked to work in silence while shaping two forms: a rock from stoneware clay that embodies their inner experience of pain and loss, and a small white porcelain token that represents their inner light and hope. The tactile experience of working with clay becomes a way to communicate emotion and experience. As one teen reflected:

<blockquote>
Obviously my rock is in the shape of a heart. I used three different hearts to make it. The first one was perfect. It represents how I was very loving when I was little, and I didn&rsquo;t know hurt. The second was ruined and had lots of damage. It represents me giving up. I was less na&iuml;ve and recognized hurt and pain, and at some point in my life that was all I felt. Then I used a mix of both of them, a bit damaged, but also loving. I mashed them all together and it&rsquo;s a big heart now, still learning so it&rsquo;s still a bit na&iuml;ve, it&rsquo;s been through pain so it&rsquo;s damaged, but it&rsquo;s still big and loving.
</blockquote>

After firing the clay, Peterson uses the stoneware and porcelain forms that embody individual experience to build an installation that celebrates the collective community, titled Cairn &amp; Cloud. A cairn is a man-made heap of stones constructed as a monument or landmark. The Cairn &amp; Cloud takes inspiration from examples of this type of stone memorial, which are found across the world and can be dated back to prehistoric times. For the installation, trauma stones are arranged in a circular mound on the floor, and the porcelain tokens of hope (painted with gold lacquer to recall Japanese kintsukuroi pottery to relate the objects to the metaphor that that which has been broken is more beautiful) are suspended above the mound.

The memorial cairn continues to grow with each workshop, and the installation is currently around six feet in diameter. In addition to the upcoming exhibition at Citlalin Gallery, Cairn &amp; Cloud has been installed at the Oak Park Art League, Lillstreet Gallery Annex, National Veterans Art Museum, Zhou B Art Center, Art on Armitage, and Wicker Park Lutheran Church. Following the exhibition in Pilsen, Peterson is looking to find a permanent location where Cairn &amp; Cloud could be installed as a public memorial for the Chicago community to visit and reflect upon.

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Cairn &amp; Cloud&lt;/i&gt; installation at the Oak Park Art League, photograph by Cindy Trim" data-rich-file-id="1659" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1659/original/cairncloud-oakparkinstall.jpg" />

As part of the Cairn Project, Peterson is also working on establishing a platform for the growing archive of works and reflections. Peterson maintained a record of each participant&rsquo;s piece by photographing the un-fired clay at workshops, and I have been working with her to photograph each individual rock and token, and to pair images with collected audio, video, and written reflections volunteered by participants. The archive will give prominence to each ceramic piece as a valuable object worthy of individual appreciation; just as each person and their life experience is worthy of attention and respect.

The website hosting the archive, scheduled to be launched on November 18 in conjunction with the exhibition opening, will act&nbsp;as an illustrated history of the lives of hundreds of Chicagoans. As the website expands it will include not only the record of each ceramic piece created, but it will also aspire to create a platform for understanding, inspiring online audiences beyond Chicago. The archive will exist as a forum for those who don&rsquo;t pen our history per-se, but instead, are the reason for its writing.&nbsp;

Top image: Detail of&nbsp;Cairn &amp; Cloud&nbsp;installation

The Cairn Project, conceived by artist Corinne D. Peterson, provides an exemplary model of art’s power to create a unified sense of community.

Th­e Cairn Project: Chicago Communities Share Stories of Trauma and of Hope

By SHELBY BEASLEY

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) presents a new exhibition of work by Los-Angeles based artist Diana Thater. The&nbsp;Sympathetic Imagination&nbsp;utilizes&nbsp;LED lights and projectors to display large-scale film and video installations. Thater&nbsp;explores ideas related to&nbsp;shared public spaces and critiques the human tendency to misuse&nbsp;them.

Incorporating visuals from &ldquo;a range of natural phenomena-such as the weightless, seamless, underwater world of dolphins; honeybees who communicate through dancing; and the surprising fortitude of animals in Chernobyl in the aftermath of the worst nuclear meltdown ever- her works explore the subjectivity of animals and the complex relationships humans have constructed with nature.&rdquo;[1] In doing so, Thater brings to the forefront of her viewers minds the reality of the harm humans are causing to the natural world. She exposes what has previously been overlooked in our day-to-day lives and forces the public to investigate further their impact on the planet.

Thater&rsquo;s installation at the MCA allows visitors to experience the subject matter in an enveloped hyper reality, existing within the work itself. &ldquo;Thater&rsquo;s dynamic, immersive installations challenge and invert accepted positions and realities through the deployment of color, movement, scale, and architecture.&rdquo;[2] The extensive imagery subtly alters physical, emotional, optical, and investigative senses.

Photographs below taken by Shelby Beasley. All are installation views of Diana Thater&#39;s&nbsp;The Sympathetic Imagination at the MCA Chicago. Exhibition on display October 29, 2016-January 8, 2017.

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;knots + surfaces&lt;/i&gt;, 2001" data-rich-file-id="1645" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1645/original/untitled-8.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Untitled Videowall (Butterflies)&lt;/i&gt;, 2008" data-rich-file-id="1640" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1640/original/untitled-2.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Delphine&lt;/i&gt;, 1999" data-rich-file-id="1642" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1642/original/untitled-4.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;knots + surfaces&lt;/i&gt;, 2001" data-rich-file-id="1644" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1644/original/untitled-7.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Oo Fifi, Five Days in Claude Monet's Garden, Part 1 and Part 2&lt;/i&gt;, 1992" data-rich-file-id="1646" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1646/original/untitled-9.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;knots + surfaces&lt;/i&gt;, 2001" data-rich-file-id="1648" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1648/original/untitled-10.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Six-Color Video Wall&lt;/i&gt;, 2000" data-rich-file-id="1641" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1641/original/untitled-3.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;A Cast of Falcons&lt;/i&gt;, 2000" data-rich-file-id="1643" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1643/original/untitled-5.jpg" />

&nbsp;

[1] <a href="http://www.lacma.org/diana-thater#about-the-exhibition">http://www.lacma.org/diana-thater#about-the-exhibition</a> 
[2]<a href="https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2016/Diana-Thater">https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2016/Diana-Thater</a>

Top image: Diana Thater, Life is a Time-Based Medium, 2015. Photo: Shelby Beasley

A photo essay featuring Diana Thater's The Sympathetic Imagination now on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA).

Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination in Photos

By MADELINE HAPPOLD

Clusters of people descend down colorfully painted stairs at the 18th Street&nbsp;Pink Line stop in Pilsen. Walking west wrapped in scarves and light fall jackets, they are greeted by humming sounds of street music and warm October sun.

It&rsquo;s mid-afternoon and store doors are open, displaying shelves of fresh conchas, antique trinkets and vintage clothing. Weaving down the street, vendors sell small prints and handmade jewelry, chatting idly with customers. Bright yellow, pink and blue papel picado wave lightly overhead in the autumn air. Some stores and residential homes are marked with large, bullseye numbers. Pedestrians cannot help but take a peek inside and are met with an array of color, paintings, sculptures: art.

Continuing down 18th Street&nbsp;visitors are tempted to window shop for art.&nbsp;Prospectus Gallery&nbsp;with its large, glass windows brings art to the people, asserting its presence in the community. People continue to flow in and out of the space as an #18 Bus boards.

Across from the gallery stands Thalia Hall with a tall, black tour bus parked in front for a night show. Next to the venue, an ominous flyer is plastered to a streetlight: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll buy your property!&rdquo; with a number listed below.

On Saturday, October 22&mdash;23, Pilsen held its 14th annual Pilsen Open Studios, a community art walk organized by local artists and volunteers. Started in 2003, the event opens up studio spaces to allow the public to see how and where art is made in Pilsen. The art walk extends beyond artist studios to include community spaces and cafes displaying artwork and tours of the neighborhood&rsquo;s infamous murals.

The event was originally organized by a group of Pilsen artists who wanted to independently feature the neighborhood&rsquo;s artwork, outside of commercialized spaces.

&ldquo;Little by little [neighbors] warmed up to come into the studios to look at art and see what we were doing,&rdquo; said Mark Nelson, an artist and Pilsen resident who has been involved with Open Studios since 2003. &ldquo;They were surprised there were&nbsp;so many of us creating art and culture in the community.&rdquo;

The annual event features a variety of artists, some with their own studios while others showcase artwork in local community spaces and cafes. &nbsp;

&ldquo;I think Pilsen is a great place where you can see&nbsp;established artists, rising artists, outsider artists, all of these different labels that are there,&rdquo; said Victor Monta&ntilde;ez, an artist who has been affiliated with Pilsen since moving to the community in the 1980s. &ldquo;Once they&rsquo;re in Pilsen you see, well, they are artists.&rdquo;

The Pilsen area has been receiving increased attention recently, even outside of the realm of art. For the community, it&rsquo;s a give and take: with increased exposure comes increased interest. Art and artists in Pilsen are being recognized, but rent is rising. Where attention goes, money, and the opportunity to make money, follows.

&ldquo;It&#39;s always good and bad,&rdquo; said Monserrat Alsina, Colibri Gallery owner and local artist who helped originally organize Open Studios. &ldquo;The bad would be the artists having to move away because of the raises in prices of rent. The other thing is that people are coming in, and they&rsquo;re looking at art, and maybe they&#39;re buying more than before. It&#39;s not like we sell tons of stuff, but its exposure. It&#39;s exposure for us, it&#39;s exposure for the neighborhood, for the businesses, it&#39;s like the whole economy is&nbsp;better for.&rdquo;

With its proximity to the University of Illinois at Chicago&rsquo;s (UIC) campus and short &ldquo;L&rdquo; commute to the Loop, Pilsen has become a hotspot for students and young professionals. &nbsp;

&ldquo;There are a lot of young students moving into the area. The new residents aren&rsquo;t interested in fine art, they&rsquo;re more interested in the hip places.&rdquo; said Israel Hernandez, owner of Prospectus Gallery. Hernandez opened the gallery in 1991 as a &ldquo;social hub&rdquo; for the community.

<img alt="" data-caption="Prospectus Art Gallery in Pilsen" data-rich-file-id="1614" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1614/original/prospectus-key.jpg" />

Pilsen&rsquo;s homely appearance is getting an urban makeover, though. The area has had three record stores open in the past year. Housing developers like Property Marketing Group (PMG) are pushing to build new housing units in the area (a project to build 500 new housing units was recently stopped this past June). Bow Truss Coffee Roasters opened in 2014 with some backlash; the storefront was repeatedly vandalized with anti-gentrification messages such as &ldquo;white people out of Pilsen&rdquo; and &ldquo;wake up and smell the gentrification.&rdquo;

&ldquo;The neighborhood has changed, that&#39;s obvious,&rdquo; said Alsina. &ldquo;There&#39;s a lot of gentrification going on.&rdquo;

With talk of gentrification, longtime residents like Hernandez and Alsina worry for the future of the community.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s becoming like Wicker Park or Bucktown,&rdquo; said Hernandez. &ldquo;It will lose its charm, if you want to call it that.&rdquo;

Pilsen has a history of being a hub for immigrants. In 1940s, Pilsen was home to a large community of Polish immigrants, until younger Czechs began moving to western suburbs in the mid 50s. Mexicans and Latinos were moving west, too, pushed by the construction of the UIC campus in the 1960s. By the 1970 census the area recorded its first Latino majority, acting as a gateway for first generation immigrants and families.

&ldquo;The thing that I&#39;ve always liked about Pilsen is that it&#39;s a family neighborhood and the one thing that it seems to have over a lot neighborhoods is that families seem to stick together here,&rdquo; said Mark Nelson, an artist and Pilsen resident since the mid 80s. &ldquo;I mean, it&rsquo;s not&nbsp;Mayberry R.F.D.&nbsp;but who would want that, right?&rdquo;

Yet, Pilsen&rsquo;s family-centered community is shifting. Based on census and annual American Community Survey data, a study by UIC professor John Becantur and graduate student Youngjun Kim found that while Pilsen remains largely Hispanic, the number of Hispanic residents is decreasing as wealthier, single whites move in. The largest decline was in the number of Mexican families in the area, a 41 percent decrease from 2013 census, continuing the downward trend from the 2000 census.

As of 2000, more than 10,300 Hispanics have left the area, a 26 percent decline. The latest number from&nbsp;2013 report&nbsp;an estimated 28,835 Hispanic residents living in Pilsen. &nbsp;

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a beautiful place to be, but, unfortunately, that attraction tends to draw investors,&rdquo; said Nelson. &ldquo;If it drew more families in that would be one thing.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Stickers containing anti-gentrification messages are stuck to a vacant storefront window on 18th Street by the 18 Pink Line &quot;L&quot; Stop. " data-rich-file-id="1618" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1618/original/pilsen2.jpg" />

Both Alsina and Nelson admit they frequently receive mail from realtors offering to buy their property. According to Alsina, her current tax payment was double her previous bill, and she predicts the trend will continue.

&ldquo;They raise taxes, raise insurance, homeowner&#39;s insurance, to make it difficult for people like us who are middle class and trying to make it,&rdquo; said Alsina. &ldquo;It&#39;s tough. So many people opt to sell because they can&#39;t afford taxes when its double.&rdquo;

In August of this year&nbsp;Cultura in Pilsen, a non-profit arts organizations located at 1900 S. Carpenter, was forced to move when their landlord doubled their rent. The building manager gave them the ultimatum of moving out by August, or paying month-to-month rent of $2,500, double their current payment. The organization now temporarily resides in La Catrina Caf&eacute;.

Owner Salvador Corona claims the caf&eacute; expanded from a business to a &ldquo;community center,&rdquo; hosting community meetings and displaying artwork from featured artist each month. La Catrina hosted the Pilsen Open Studios&nbsp;kick-off event on Friday October 21.

&ldquo;I think we tend to flock where there&#39;s artists because you relate to them, and they become your friends,&rdquo; said Corona. &ldquo;Pilsen has been like that for a long time. There has really been like a little nest of artists, always, and everyone else just becomes stronger because there are more people.&rdquo;

In Pilsen, art and community coincide, from street murals to local galleries and open studios.

&ldquo;There is no art world,&rdquo; said Monta&ntilde;ez. &ldquo;There is one world, and we all live in the same world. It&#39;s an artist community, and I think that that&#39;s very important about the open studios, that at least for one weekend out of the year in this community everybody sets aside their differences and says &#39;OK, we are all part of this together.&#39;&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption=" Artwork by Victor M. Montañez on display in an artist tent located alongside 18th Street for Pilsen Open Studios." data-rich-file-id="1619" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1619/original/pilsen1.jpg" />

Yet culture and community are always fluctuating, as urban landscapes begin to change. People are moving in as others are moving out, and with new community members comes a variety of cultures. For Pilsen, culture now includes a much steeper price tag.

&ldquo;People tend to think that culture is something that gets handed down from generation to generation and that the community&#39;s culture does that too,&rdquo; said Monta&ntilde;ez. &ldquo;But culture is constantly in conflict, constantly in a struggle for becoming something else.&rdquo;

East on 18th Street, vendors sell fresh produce and bagged chicharones from pop-up shops and pick-up trucks. Groups congregate in Harrison Park, playing in the open field and greeting neighbors as they pass down the street. A family huddles around a steaming pot of tamales at a picnic table. Plastered to a vacant storefront window another flyer responds, &ldquo;Pilsen is not for sale.&rdquo; In the background a Pink Line train rumbles from the tracks above as more visitors walk onto the street.

&nbsp;

Top Image: Mural located outside of La Catrina Caf&eacute; on 18th Street.&nbsp;

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CGN talks with local artists, dealers, and business owners about the changing landscape of the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago.

Pilsen’s Changing Landscape has Mixed Effects on Longtime Artist Community

By ALISON REILLY

CGN is excited to announce a new online series called Eye For Collectors. Each month, we talk with dealers and artists to get the inside scoop on affordable artwork for those interested in starting a collection, seasoned collectors who want to discover new artists, or anyone who wants to learn more about purchasing a work of art. Our goal is to pull back the curtain on the process of buying contemporary art while highlighting some of the most exciting artists showing work in Chicago.

Overtaking the walls of the Hyde Park Art Center&rsquo;s main hallway this past summer was Tina Tahir&rsquo;s expansive installation Botany of Desire. Tahir painted several species of orchids on the walls and floor to create an immersive experience for viewers. The winding vines reference the deceitfulness and trickery of orchids that can imitate different smells in order to attract insects for pollination.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Tina Tahir, &lt;i&gt;Shifting Frames Shifting&lt;/i&gt;, 2015, beeswax, dimensions variable, $1,200. Courtesy Kasia Kay Art Projects" data-rich-file-id="1571" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1571/original/tahir-shifting-frames-02.jpg" />

Tahir&rsquo;s interest in vegetal forms can be found in a number of her projects, including Shifting Frames Shifting from 2015. Like Eva Hesse&rsquo;s Hang Up, Tahir focuses attention solely on the frame itself, removing any material from the center of the work. Inspired by Baroque frames, she creates intricate sculptures made of beeswax, a material that is certain to transform over time. While the frames are based on floral patterns, the result, much like Botany of Desire, is an overgrowth&mdash;a barnacle-like formation that at once exudes beauty and decay.

Tahir is represented by <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/kasia-kay-art-projects">Kasia Kay Art Projects </a>and sculptures from the Shifting Frames Shifting series can be purchased for $1,200. Kasia Kay also has a line of fine art wallpaper, and Tahir recently created a number of patterns under the name Tapisseries.

Last fall at the Lillstreet Art Center, Chicago based artist Amanda Gentry presented works from her Brother John series. Seventeen hollow ceramic pillows hung side by side on the gallery wall. In order to make the sculptures, Gentry instructed individuals to lay their heads on the wet clay to make a unique impression on the square clay block. The repetition of the simple, yet haunting forms speaks to the heart of Gentry&rsquo;s practice.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Amandra Gentry, &lt;i&gt;Ranch Study 4&lt;/i&gt;, 2016, unglazed raku clay with silicon carbide and copper oxide wash, gas fire reduction, 4” x 7” x 2.5”, $350. Courtesy Matthew Rachman Gallery" data-rich-file-id="1570" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1570/original/amandagentry-1.jpg" />

More recently, Gentry has been experimenting with additives and oxide washes in her ceramic works. In Ranch Study 4, she mixed silicon carbide into raku clay. The artist then added a copper oxide wash to the unglazed piece to emphasize the textured surface. The smooth lines of Ranch Study 4 are contrasted by the uneven marks, as if Gentry had etched directly into the surface of the clay.

Gentry is represented locally by <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/matthew-rachman-gallery">Matthew Rachman Gallery</a> and Ranch Study 4 is available for purchase for $350. The piece will be included in the upcoming holiday show Peace on Earth, which features a range of works by Chicago artists priced under $2,000.&nbsp;

At EXPO Chicago in September, Chicago painter Anna Kunz installed Warp, a large, billowing tapestry that hung from the ceiling of the immense exhibition hall. The latex on fabric composition represents Kunz&rsquo;s aesthetic and material interests well. Her canvases, layered with fabric, often emerge from the wall and expand into three-dimensional space. The installation was part of EXPO Projects, which featured a number of prominent artists including Magdalena Abakanowicz and Alfredo Jaar.

<img alt="" data-caption="Anna Kunz, &lt;i&gt;Untitled&lt;/i&gt;, gouache on Sakamoto paper, 2008, 12 3/4&quot; x 14 1/4&quot;, $1,500. Courtesy McCormick Gallery" data-rich-file-id="1572" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1572/original/annakunz.jpg" />

Along with her experiments in painting, Kunz also creates small-scale works on paper. Untitled from 2008 demonstrates her ongoing exercises&nbsp;using contrasting blocks of color. The gouache is applied thickly and bleeds onto the sturdy Sakamoto paper. Fluorescent pinks are contrasted by stokes of soft browns and rich purples. Kunz&rsquo;s abstract work is evocative on both the large and small scale.

Kunz is represented by <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/mccormick-gallery">McCormick Gallery</a>. This past summer, she was included in the recent exhibition How Much Land, which was curated by Jessica Cochran. Untitled is available for purchase for $1,500.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Top image: Tina Tahir,&nbsp;Botany of Desire, 2016, installation view. Courtesy Hyde Park Art Center

CGN is excited to announce a new monthly series, Eye for Collectors.

Eye for Collectors: A New Monthly Series

<h3>Clarissa Bonet’s newest exhibitions City Spaces + Stray Light explore the connection between humans and the surrounding urban environment</h3>By MADELINE HAPPOLDIt’s a cool, late fall morning. The lakefront breeze turns the city air frigid and harsh. Clarissa Bonet steps into the Chicago Loop to begin one of her “wanderings.” No earphones, no text alerts, no companion, not even her camera. She has no plan, no map, and no agenda. Just a couple of free hours to absorb the beauty—and chaos—of the surrounding world.It’s rush hour, and the downtown area is buzzing with life. The Metra trains are unloading as hoards of passengers swarm the streets. It’s just another Chicago workday.The young photographer follows the crowd, which squirms like bugs towards a distant light. People seem to move like a unit rather than individuals. Bonet lets herself get swept up in the city’s commuting commotion, the ebb and flow of workers retracing their morning routine. Constantly, new faces pass, lives flashing before her eyes only to disappear just as quickly. She attempts to pinpoint a face, hold onto that individual image before it is replaced with someone else. She tries, focusing on faces, on the people, but each one fades.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1543/original/unnamed.jpg" alt=""></figure>This is just one of Bonet’s many “wanderings.” These explorations are her source of inspiration, this experience spawning the idea for her 2011 piece, In the Crowd. In the photograph, faceless commuters blend into the surrounding city, becoming lost in black and grey monotony.“I’m really paying attention to my viewpoint as an individual and how I experience the city on foot, and then how to make images recreating that experience, the pedestrian-inspired experience,” said Bonet.Bonet currently has two photography series, City Space&nbsp;and Stray Light, on display at the Catherine Edelman Gallery in the River North neighborhood. The two exhibitions are actually separate but work cohesively, offering unique insight to urban life, space and its interaction with the physical world.Bonet started the ongoing project City Space&nbsp;formally in 2011, but has been experimenting with urban images since moving to Chicago in 2009. Making the move to pursue a graduate degree at Columbia College, Bonet didn’t switch from shoreline to skyline with the snap of a lens.“I remember feeling all of these conflicting emotions at once,” said Bonet. “I felt like I had to relearn how to navigate the city. I had to relearn how to photograph in the city... I was so overwhelmed by the amount of visual chaos.”Turning her surroundings into art, the series focuses on the different kinds of spaces that comprise city life.“All the images from City Space&nbsp;come from experiences of life, either personal experience or things I see happening on the street,” said Bonet. “I think about them, I make notes, I take sketches with my iPhone, and then I go back and recreate this performance for the camera.”In her 2014 work Sweeping Traces, Bonet uses the mundane image of a man sweeping trash off a deserted sidewalk to display this lingering effect of human presence. The trash thus embodies the notion of human life beyond what the image displays. With her 2015 piece Removal, Bonet was inspired by a man who constantly washed the exterior of a glass building, only for it to be smudged again by passerbys, coming and going. The man continually erases these traces of life, only for them to reappear.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1544/original/sweeping-traces-2c-20142.jpg" alt=""></figure>“With the City Space project I was thinking about the psychological and both physical space,” said Bonet. “I was really interested in these traces that were left behind in the urban environment and how we can feel the presence… of people when they are not actually physically present.”Bonet keeps these themes prevalent in the Stray Light series as well.“There’s a thread that pulls along into the Stray Light work in a really tangible way,” said Bonet. “Light is the traces of people and the human environment.”Started in 2012, the project is comprised of nocturnal images from buildings in the major U.S. cities Chicago, L.A. and New York. The optical term stray light simply refers to unintended light.In astronomy, stray light can arise from sky glow, the presence of artificial light in the sky. Sky glow is a form of light pollution that limits the ability to see faint objects, such as stars in a night sky.Bonet likes to consider her images as compilations of stray light, too. Stitching together light from windows contrasted against the dark of night, Bonet creates an urban sky, or what she refers to as “man-made cosmos.”“The windows I’m capturing are this kind of stray light, it’s this light that isn’t really intended for anyone but the user of the space… but then it’s also acting as this beacon of presence,” said Bonet. “This is a constructed environment, this is one of our byproducts, which is this beautiful thing but it also in a way is destroying the thing that I’m referencing.”Walk through the gallery exhibition and Bonet’s photographs flow with cohesion. Concrete-greys mix with skyline slate blues and monotone hues, turning into pitch-black shadows. The urban cosmos add a pop of color, highlighting vibrant hues of illuminating greens, blues and fluorescent yellow. &nbsp;The artist likes to think of her images like a television series: each image has a theme that can stand on its own, but the whole series also contains an overarching narrative embedded in each episode.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1546/original/city-space-and-stray-light.jpg" alt=""></figure>“I think the project as a whole has these overarching ideas that go behind it,” said Bonet. “These I feel like are a little chapter in a longer book.”While the show may be her first solo exhibition with the gallery, Bonet has been associated with the Catherine Edelman Gallery for almost four years. As a recent graduate from Columbia College in 2012, Bonet entered a show juried by gallery owner Catherine Edelman. Edelman then invited Bonet to be a part of The Chicago Project, an online gallery devoted to rising photographers in the Chicago area. The pair built a relationship from there, until Bonet became a represented artist in 2015.For Bonet, though, photography as an art form is less about the image and more about the experience.“I think there’s something that falls short between an image of something and an experience of something,” said Bonet. “By constructing the works I’m able to get closer to that feeling because in essence I’m trying to photograph something that is almost not existent, invisible.”Bonet’s City Space&nbsp;and&nbsp;Stray Light&nbsp;exhibitions are&nbsp;on view at the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/catherine-edelman-gallery">Catherine Edelman Gallery</a> through Saturday, October 29.For more information about Clarissa Bonet visit: <a href="http://www.clarissabonet.com">clarissabonet.com</a>&nbsp;Top image: Catherine Edelman Gallery, Clarissa Bonet stands with her exhibitions,&nbsp;City Space&nbsp;and&nbsp;Stray Light.&nbsp;

 Clarissa Bonet’s newest exhibitions City Spaces + Stray Light explore the connection between humans and the surrounding urban environment.

Navigating Chicago’s Urban Chaos: Photographer Clarissa Bonet’s New Work 

By MADELINE HAPPOLD

With the heated 2016 presidential election weeks away, artists are using their talents to&nbsp;turn&nbsp;the political&nbsp;personal. From creating unofficial voting stations to commenting on social justice issues, these exhibitions allow artists to&nbsp;share their voices, opinions, and hopes for the&nbsp;future.

<h3>Official Unofficial Voting Station: Voting For All Who Legally Can&rsquo;t at Jane Addams Hull House Museum</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Courtesy of Sara Pooley/JAHHM " data-rich-file-id="1526" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1526/original/sara-20pooley-vox-pop-aram-han-sifuentes-204.jpg" />

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/jane-addams-hull-house-museum">The Jane Addams Hull House Museum</a> presents&nbsp;artist Aram Han Sifuentes&rsquo; rebellious&nbsp;project <a href="http://www.hullhousemuseum.org/vox-pop-the-disco-party/">Official Unofficial Voting Station: Voting for all who legally can&rsquo;t</a>. Sifuentes, who has permission to&nbsp;be in the United States but cannot vote,&nbsp;wanted to create a unsanctioned voting process for the upcoming election to honor the voices of those who cannot participate in the election. Other non-legal voters can cast their own unsanctioned ballots at Unofficial Official Voting Stations located throughout the country and in parts of Mexico.

Sifuentes&rsquo; project explores questions about participation, citizenship, and exclusion in the United States. Ballots from other stations will be collected and returned to the Jane Addams Hull House to be counted, then repurposed and featured as an installation at the museum.

Official Unofficial Voting Station is on display through November 8.

&nbsp;

<h3>Power and Politics at Filter Photo</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Rebecca Sittler, &lt;i&gt;Resolute Reflection&lt;/i&gt;" data-rich-file-id="1514" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1514/original/power-and-politics.jpg" />

<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/power-and-politics--3">Power and Politics</a> questions the idea that &quot;the personal is political&quot; and challenges those that influence the voting decisions&nbsp;of citizens. Juried by Barbara Tannenbaum, curator of photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the exhibition features the work of 30 artists and coincides with the galleries&rsquo; other featured exhibit, On the Shelf.

The participating photographers explore current issues addressed by candidates while also highlighting those neglected by current political discourse. Tannenbaum notes, &quot;Whether working in documentary or other modes, they all continue the noble goal of social documentary photography: they urge viewers to analyze, understand, and act.&quot;

Power and Politics is&nbsp;open at<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/filter-photo"> Filter Photo</a> through October 22.

&nbsp;

<h3>Sapphire at Weinberg/Newton Gallery</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Anna Elise Johnson, &lt;i&gt; Blue Suit &lt;/i&gt;, 2016. " data-rich-file-id="1506" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1506/original/sapphire.jpg" />

Coinciding with the heated 2016 presidential election, <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/weinberg-newton-gallery">Weinberg/Newton Gallery</a> and Common Cause Illinois are partnering to showcase the group exhibition <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/sapphire">Sapphire</a>. The exhibition features collages, paintings, sculptures highlighting issues such as voting, money in politics, and media ethics.

Weinberg/Newton Gallery is an exhibition space dedicated to social justice issues and providing an environment for both artists and attendees to engage in contemporary political topics. &nbsp;Sapphire&nbsp;is open to the public&nbsp;October 7 through January 14, 2017.

&nbsp;

<h3>100 Years of Women in Government&nbsp;at the Dole</h3>

<img alt="" data-caption="Diana Zipeto, &lt;i&gt;Malala Yousafzai&lt;/i&gt;, acrylic on canvas. " data-rich-file-id="1528" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1528/original/malala.jpg" />

In 1916, the state of Montana elected Jeannette Rankin into the House of Representatives,&nbsp;making her&nbsp;the first woman sworn into Congress. This monumental achivement happened four years before the 19th amenendment was ratified, guaranteeing women the right to vote in the United States.&nbsp;Next month <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/lakeside-arts-park-at-the-dole">Lakeside Arts Park at the Dole</a> will celebrate Rankin&rsquo;s accomplishment and those of other women in political office&nbsp;over the past century.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/100-years-of-women-in-government">100 Years of Women in Government</a>&nbsp;highlights the past, present, and possible future of women in politics.

The exhibition&nbsp;is sponsored by Illinois State Representative Barbara Wheeler and is&nbsp;open to the public from November 4 through November 18.

&nbsp;

Top image:&nbsp;Danh Vō, Pao Soft, 2010. Courtesy Weinberg/Newton Gallery.

With the heated 2016 presidential election weeks away, artists are using their talents to turn the political personal.

Let's Talk Politics

By ALISON REILLY

The fifth edition of EXPO Chicago took place this past weekend at Navy Pier, and we&rsquo;re already looking forward to the next iteration in 2017. Alongside the major gallery exhibitors were a number of non-profit organizations, institutions, publications, and emerging galleries. Here are highlights from some of CGN&rsquo;s favorite booths.

<h3>Black Athena Collective at Threewalls (Chicago)</h3>

Embracing their transitory state, Threewalls partnered with the Black Athena Collective to showcase the group&rsquo;s research on migration, mobility and architecture in the Red Sea region (Eritrea to Egypt). Founded by Heba Y. Amin and Dawit L. Petros, the experimental collective presented photographs, videos, and a large wooden structure. Most notable was an accordion style artist book documenting their archival research thus far. In a time of political turmoil over border control and the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Amin and Petros poetically pose the question, &ldquo;Can our art practice and methodology allow us to achieve more complex and definitive ways of thinking and interacting with land?&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Black Athena Collective, “Nowhere is a Place”, 2016, Art Book, Archival Digital print on Hahnemühle Museum Etching Paper, 301.4” x 9.4” (Book detail)" data-rich-file-id="1508" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1508/original/bac-expo1.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<h3>Tony Orrico at Marso (Mexico City)</h3>

At first glance, Tony Orrico&rsquo;s work Prepare the plane appears to be an exercise in geometric abstraction. A textured piece of white paper with rows of indentations covers the outside wall of Marso&rsquo;s booth. The composition, however, is an artifact from Orrico&rsquo;s ongoing performance series in which he systematically chews the entire sheet of paper. When first performing the piece in 2012, Orrico believed it would be a two-hour process; instead it took eight and a half. On display at EXPO was the gnawed paper from his 2015 performance at Defibrillator in Chicago. Orrico, who was once a member of the Trisha Brown Company and Shen Wei Dance Arts, has a special condition in which his jaw dislocates without his control. Through physical therapy and his own techniques, Orrico has learned to control it but his orifice continues to play a major role in his artistic practice.

<img alt="" data-caption="Tony Orrico, Detail from &lt;i&gt;Prepare the plane&lt;/i&gt; (DfbrL8r, Chicago, IL) 2015, 2012, Dental occlusions on paper, performance (8.5 hours), 96” x 96”" data-rich-file-id="1515" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1515/original/tony-orrico-prepare-the-plane.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<h3>Margo Wolowiec at Jessica Silverman Gallery &nbsp;(San Francisco)</h3>

Jessica Silverman Gallery&rsquo;s well-curated booth at EXPO Chicago featured an impressive roster of emerging and established female artists including Judy Chicago, Tammy Rae Carland, and Margo Wolowiec (see top image). Hung side-by-side, Wolowiec&rsquo;s two abstracted canvases reference the historical relationship between weaving and computing. Wolowiec searches for images using hashtags like #landscape, #blackandwhite, and in this case: #floodwater. After collecting a number of images, she collages them together and uses a dye sublimation process to transfer the images onto polyester and linen thread, which are then woven onto the canvas. The result is a mesmerizing image full of slight irregularities that continuously capture the viewer&rsquo;s attention.

<img alt="" data-caption="Margo Wolowiec, &lt;i&gt;Floodwater I&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Floodwater II&lt;/i&gt;, 2016, Courtesy Jessica Silverman Gallery" data-rich-file-id="1511" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1511/original/jessicasilvermman-wolowiec-floodwater-i-26-ii-2c-2016.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<h3>Laura Letinsky and John Paul Morabito at Document (Chicago)</h3>

Laura Letinsky and John Paul Morabito, an artistic duo who have been collaborating since 2013, also explore the complex relationship between weaving and photography. The Chicago based gallery and printmaking studio Document installed a heavy tapestry from their series Telephone Game. Letinsky supplies the digital photographic collages while Morabito weaves and abstracts the images into the final composition. Trying to discover the origin of the initial images, which were taken by Letinsky while traveling throughout India, proves to be a futile task. The rough handling of the materials results in a textured and uneven canvas with stray threads dangling from the top and bottom of the piece.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Laura Letinsky and John Paul Morabito, &lt;i&gt;vereVereAslipFlowers&amp;haneemoon(payforthelie)&lt;/i&gt;, 2016, Cotton and wool, 41&quot; x 71&quot;" data-rich-file-id="1509" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1509/original/laura-letinsky-and-john-paul-morabito-verevereaslipflowers-26haneemoon-payforthelie-2c-2016.jpg" />

&nbsp;

<h3>Matthew Craven at ASHES/ASHES (Los Angeles)</h3>

Matthew Craven&rsquo;s collage compositions are a nod to the recent past, a time when students and scholars learned about the world&rsquo;s treasures through the printed page. The artist sources his images from discarded school textbooks and collages them onto vintage paper, giving the appearance of forgotten archival materials. Craven insists that there are no social or political overtones to his work: he organizes the archaeological objects loosely according to aesthetic similarity. Buried within Craven&rsquo;s two-dimensional cabinet of curiosities are his own hand-drawn objects. At EXPO, Los Angeles based gallery ASHES/ASHES presented six of Craven&rsquo;s collages in a grid alongside a large-scale geometric ink drawing.

<img alt="" data-caption="Matthew Craven, &lt;i&gt;TimeLINE (outlines)&lt;/i&gt;, 2016, ink and found images on found paper, 28” x 22&quot;" data-rich-file-id="1507" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/1507/original/matthewcraven-timeline1j.jpg" />

&nbsp;

Top image: Jessica Silverman Gallery, Installation view, &nbsp;EXPO Chicago, September 22-25, 2016.&nbsp;Courtsey of Jessica Silverman Gallery

CGN shares highlights from EXPO Chicago 2016