By CGN Staff

Weinberg/Newton Gallery announced today that it will be closing in 2023 after 9 years in business. The gallery's final exhibition opens in June and they will have a celebration of art and social justice in September.

In an email announcement the gallery team said, "Your interest, paired with the hard work and creativity of the Weinberg/Newton Gallery team and the artists that have exhibited here, allowed us to engage in a wide range of social justice issues through art. Inspired by nonprofit partners, our exhibitions and programs were highly collaborative efforts that focused on establishing and expanding common ground."

David Weinberg opened his eponymous gallery, David Weinberg Photography, in the heart of River North in 2006 following a successful career running a family business. He showed his own fine art photographs at the gallery alongside the work of other artists. In 2014 he decided to shift direction and focus on art and social justice, using partnerships with local and national nonprofits and grassroots organizations to mount exhibitions that also featured education, engagement and activism. In 2016 the gallery became Weinberg/Newton (Newton is Weinberg's wife Jerry's last name) and moved to a larger space in River West on Milwaukee Ave.  In a 2019 interview with the Chicago Tribune Weinberg said, “I felt like this was something that should be done, that the art world should step up and help the social justice world,” Weinberg says. “And it feels very natural right now."

The opening reception for Weinberg/Newton's final exhibition will take place on Friday, June 23, 5–8pm: I​n partnership with Firebird Community Arts and Gun Violence Prevention PAC

Save the date for the Weinberg/Newton Closing Party on ​Saturday, September 9, 6–9pm

The gallery shared a comprehensive list of wide-ranging partners and topics that have taken place at the gallery since 2014. The complete list and more information may be found on their website.

Weinberg/Newton Gallery
Exhibitions 2014–2023

• The Way the Mystic Sees surveyed contemporary perspectives and historical approaches to technology and surveillance. In partnership with Human Rights Watch.

• We All We Got explored the consequences and devastation of youth violence in contemporary America. In partnership with the Youth Service Project.

• Try Youth As Youth examined the juvenile justice system in America. In partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

• An Invisible Hand unpacked diverse experiences of poverty. In partnership with the Shriver Center on Poverty Law.

• Field Study illustrated the indelible relationship between humans and nature. In partnership with Openlands.

• Pearly Foam addressed themes of identity and was in support of trans rights. Partnered with the Center on Halsted.

• This Heat responded to the ongoing gun violence epidemic in Chicago. In partnership with Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.

• Block Building juxtaposed the past and present while tracing the rich history and vibrant future of Chicago’s block clubs. In partnership with My Block, My City, My Hood.

• Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40 was an expansive, multi-venue exhibition taking place across the city of Chicago that explores the extent to which certain resources—air, land, water, and even culture—can be held in common. Organized by the Smart Museum of Art.

• For Those Without Choice brought together new and established pro-choice voices in overwhelming support and demand for reproductive rights. In partnership with Planned Parenthood of Illinois.

Key image: Installation view from The Way the Mystic Sees, featuring a work by Nick Cave