Yannis Tsarouchis: Dancing in Real Life

May 7 – Jul 31

Wrightwood 659

Wrightwood 659 hosts the first U.S. exhibition devoted to the work of Yannis Tsarouchis (1910–1989), widely regarded as one of the greatest Greek painters of the 20th century. On view May 7–July 31, 2021, the exhibition will feature some 200 works, including paintings and works on paper from public and private collections in Greece and internationally. Together, these span the entire arc of the artist’s career, showing how he absorbed and transformed influences including Ancient Greek and Early Christian art; Byzantine mosaics, frescoes, and icon painting; Greek vernacular traditions: costume, ornament and shadow theater Karaghiozis; and also the new languages of modern art: Fauvism, Cubism, and Surrealism.

Juan Arango Palacios: Payasadas

Opening: Friday, May 7, 2021 6 – 9 pm

Epiphany Center for the Arts

Juan Arango Palacios presents a new series of large-scale textile drawings that address the artist’s relationship to the Catholic church. These works critique religious archetypes and offer a personification of a queer narrative, exploring themes of fantasy, vulnerability, and performativity.

Ephemera: The Power of Impermanence

May 7 – Jun 12 • Artist Reception: May 21, 5:30 (TBD: Zoom or Outdoor Weather Permitting)

The Art Center Highland Park

The Art Center Highland Park (TAC) is looking forward to bringing the community together for an ‘alive and well’ art experience. For the last year, they have been extending work outwards into the community, from virtual exhibits to art in their city-wide storefront windows. Now, TACHP invites artists to fill the center's walls (and floors) with the many ephemeral art processes that span the range of impermanence. 

Rebecca Gray Smith | Alphabet & Numbers: The Pandemic Prints

May 8 – Jun 18. Opening Reception: Saturday May 8, 2-5 pm | RSVP required

Bert Green Fine Art

Rebecca Gray Smith explores the presence of death in all human endeavors, using traditional signifiers of mortality such as the skeleton as a primary actor and subject. Each letter or number plate corresponds to a specific fatal activity or malady, highlighting the act of existence as a high risk activity fraught with peril. The artist examines how the Medusa of Death stalks us all, in all walks of life, while at the same time looking at the capriciousness inherent in the present: the absurdities, cruelties, and horrors of modern existence. The history of printmaking is elemental in the helix of human civilization, a taproot reaching back to the prehistoric dawn of mankind.

Kurt Kramer

Thru May 30. Opening: Saturday, May 8, 2021 5 – 7 pm

Perspective Group + Photography Gallery, Ltd.

While somewhat house-bound and experimenting this past summer, Kurt Kramer decided to print a few photographs on watercolor paper. He loved the retro look and decided to use it as the basis for this collection titled "Retrographs." For this exhibition, Kramer has drawn from images he has made over the past 22 years. He attributes his search for an old-fashioned sensibility partly to Perspective Gallery member Suzanne Metzel’s December 2019 exhibit of photogravure images.

DIS-

May 8 – Jun 26 • Opening: Saturday, May 8, 2021 12 – 5 pm

Chicago Printmakers Collaborative

An exhibition featuring artists who self identify as having a disability. 

Curated by Matt Bodett

Artists: Bri Beck, Justin Cooper, Timotheus “TJ” Gordon Jr., Riva Lehrer, Katie O’Neil, Reveca Torres, and Sandie Yi