<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419252/u0x4ii9xx6obrfytqqft.jpg"><figcaption>John Currin (American, b. 1962) Stamford after Brunch,&nbsp;2000 oil on canvas 40 × 60 in. Art Institute of Chicago Gift of Edlis Neeson Collection</figcaption></figure>By BIANCA BOVAI have the privilege of working in a museum. The Art Institute of Chicago occupies in my life the role of the definitive museum, by virtue of being the first that I experienced as child and a space that has served as the backdrop to many moments of significance personally and professionally in my adult life. I am lucky in this regard, if, at the moment, in no other.&nbsp;In a refrain echoed by many of my colleagues, I readily confess to spending less time in the museum's galleries than I should, considering I am already in the building. When my life was beset by bad circumstances last winter, for the first time I made a concerted effort to spend more. I have long held the belief that there are no novel experiences. In the whole unrecorded history of humanity, someone else has undoubtedly encountered just the set of circumstances one finds themself in, albeit arriving there by different means. Likewise, I believe in the canon of art history there is bound to be something that speaks to every human experience; something that reflects it, or that it can be hung on, or pinned to. This is, after all, an argument for why we have museums in the first place, or at the very least, why we collect art. A collector says they “fell in love” with a piece or that they “saw it and just had to have it.” It’s possible that what they saw was dollar signs, or that there is some degree of compulsion at play not dissimilar to the compulsion a gambler feels walking by a blackjack table. It is more in line with my experience, however, that it is a matter of seeing something that calls up some interior aspect of oneself–though, in the heat of that moment, it is seldom clear what aspect–that is the real driver. This abiding belief defines for me, more than any other, the work I do for a living as work worth doing. In an encyclopedic museum like the Art Institute, one generally not need to look too far, either.&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;I began my intentional exploration, as a matter of habit more than anything else, on the second floor of the Modern Wing. There are works there that I have long been in the thrall of, and they now held the promise of stability at a time when I felt the floor perpetually slipping out from under my feet. It was comforting to know I could go up to gallery 296 anytime I wanted, and there, in the same place on the same wall, unchanged would be my favorite work in the whole museum, John Currin’s Stamford After Brunch (whatever judgment that admission earns me I welcome as entirely fair). I know the contents of the Modern Wing 200’s more or less by heart. I have given tours of them. There’s the de Kooning, there’s the Pollack, there’s the Frankethaler, there’s the Mitchell. Old friends. There’s the Robert Gober, perfect and sad and hopelessly attractive, and the Cady Noland that never fails to cause a certain populist shame to rise to the surface. I began going with regularity up to gallery 293 to gather a piece of candy or two from Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.), hoarding them in my desk drawer. After all, what is there to know about the bedfellow relationship between love and grief that can’t be gleaned from Félix González-Torres?&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419253/wmlyep5utfaol6tlxhdq.jpg"><figcaption>Félix González-Torres, Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.). Photo by Bianca Bova.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;In moments of uncertainty there is always the temptation to return to the well. For me, at the bottom of the well reside an unfortunate pair, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edward Hopper. When I realized the impact of wandering the Modern Wing 200’s was less the salve I had hoped it would be, I changed route and wandered in the American Art galleries instead. This development only lasted two days, during which Isamu Noguchi’s impossible aluminum Miss Expanding Universe sent me ricocheting back to Ruth Page’s Sex essay, an undated and diary-ish account of her marriage to Thomas Hart Fisher and her affair with Noguchi, and perhaps the most clear-eyed view of the politics of love in the art world ever committed to paper.&nbsp;Hopper, in turn, dragged me back to the ground, where in the expansive quietness of his work was the bitter confirmation that everything has a price, and proof of the resolve that I was willing to pay it. I also at this time picked back up The Crack-up, a book with a sort of damned quality about it. Curious in that it is both by and about Scott Fitzgerald in turns, it is full of aberrant details that require a depth of familiarity with his oeuvre and his life to grasp that verges on being too much to ask of the general readership. It remains a deeply formative volume for me, but one that I was quickly reminded did not contain any examples of how to handle being in crisis that were not, categorically, cautionary tales.&nbsp;When the art and writing of the 20th and 21st centuries failed me, I turned to art historical criticism by contemporary critics. Over one weekend I revisited Jerry Saltz’s essay on Sandro Botticelli’s La Derelitta, a gut-wrenching piece on a work of art unseen in person by its author, as good an argument for the validity of secondhand consumption of art as it is for the overwhelming power of the works that go undiminished by it. I followed this up with an account of the late Peter Schjeldahl’s legendary tours of the Frick Collection, which included a description of Jean-Honore Fragonard’s The Progress of Love (Love the Avenger) (c.1790), a startling painting that depicts a winged cherub, aloft, with a dagger raised and ready to be plunged into the white dove that, mid-flight, is grasped by the cherub’s other hand. Here, I remember thinking, is a painting I can get behind. It caught me off guard in a way I found pleasing, spoke to me in the way I wanted to be spoken to in that moment; it succeeded where all of the other works I had been desperately seeking connection to had, for the first time, failed.&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;My grasp of art history preceding the 20th century is thinner than I care to admit. I could not, even now, off the top of my head accurately provide the temporal parameters of the Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque, and Rococo periods with any accuracy beyond a reasonable certainty that I have named them here in the correct linear order. My relationship to historical European art derives entirely from being Sicilian and also Roman Catholic. I remember with great clarity the gold-framed print of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper that hung over my grandmother’s kitchen sink when I was a child. In the house where I grew up, a terracotta bas relief of an angel presided over the strings of dried herbs and pepperoncini next to the pantry cabinet, while an elaborately painted and feathered model of a Sicilian cart (replete with horse) had pride of place on a shelf all its own. And the defining piece of decor in my parents’ bedroom was an extraordinary hand carved marble wall rosary. As such, in my adult life, alongside the contemporary art I collect, for many years there could be found in my apartment a retablo of St. Gertrude nailed to the wall, in order to keep the rats at bay. Ex-votos, statues, and gilded prints of saints come and go from the altar that occupies half of my bar as-needed. These objects have been to me something closer to furniture than to art, as they are, in their way, functional.&nbsp;Nevertheless, the next time I ventured into the Art Institute, I headed to Painting and Sculpture of Europe, chasing the high of the Fragonard. The department consists of a network of smallish galleries with jewel-toned walls, interconnected and accessed by narrow, dimly lit hallways. Situated at the heart of the museum’s original building, the warmth and richness fulfills every cliche of what a great museum is supposed to look and feel like. I walked through, my historical ignorance relieving me of the preoccupations that had informed my other late afternoon jaunts.&nbsp;What gratified me about these works was that their complexity was somehow not at odds with their lack of ambiguity. In Jacob Jordaens' The Temptation of the Magdalene (c.1616), an animalian figure is seen emerging from the shadows of the background and into the light, waving two fistfulls of snakes above the exhausted Magdalene’s head. It is, the label explains to us, “a menacing symbol of evil.” The label does not, however, elaborate on the skull she holds tenderly in her lap, as a brothel owner and an angel battle for her soul.&nbsp;Where conceptual art invites us into a set of circumstances and asks us to evaluate them, the art in Painting and Sculpture of Europe seemed only to ask that I bear witness to it. Tintoretto’s Tarquin and Lucretia (c.1578-80) stops time as pearls fall under foot from Lucretia’s broken necklace, and statuary topples in her struggle against Tarquin. This is, emphatically, not a painting of the revolution that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic, though it depicts the events that set it off. Terrifyingly, it demonstrates that it is possible to distill even something so historically momentous down to a single moment of cataclysm. As someone waking up every day wracked with the thought How did my life come to this?, the painting seemed to dispel in one fell swoop the notion I was clinging to that bad luck is so vast and random that it must be indefinable. Here, it answers: this is how.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419254/xkprclqdqklrdj02ktwq.jpg"><figcaption> Bartolomeo Manfredi (Italian, 1582-1622) Cupid Chastised,&nbsp;1613 oil on canvas 69 × 51 3/8 in. Art Institute of ChicagoCharles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;If these were minor revelations, it was Bartolomeo Manfredi’s Cupid Chastised (c.1613) that rocked me back on my heels. It depicts the god of war beating Cupid for causing his affair with Venus, as Venus tries in vain to intervene. It is a shockingly violent painting. Similar to Fragonard’s cherub and dove, the absence of bloodshed and the depiction of the drawback of a weapon–rather than the moment of impact–allows the image to maintain a strange and dramatic visual grace. Fragonard’s title, however, steers us quickly towards a brighter question: what does it mean for love to avenge against peace? Manfredi by contrast does us no such favors. Such is the brutality of Cupid Chastised that on my first viewing of it, my instinct was to look away, as though I might see the first blow land if I looked too long. Cupid, blindfolded, with wings pressed to the floor and an open mouth that suggests the catch of his breath, is one of the most striking figures I have ever encountered in a work of art. He is a portrait of vulnerability and comeuppance.What unnerves me most of all about these works–and compels me to revisit them often–is the awareness that all art is contemporary art, insofar as all art is the art of its own time. When confronted by the peculiar charm of Fragonard’s cherub, the radical humanity of Manfredi’s cupid, or even the ineffable weirdness of Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem’s Venus, Cupid, and Ceres (c.1604) (also on view in Painting and Sculpture of Europe–and acquired, suitably, in 2020), there is the sense not of a historical continuum, but of something less rigid bridging the chasm of time. I would perhaps sleep better if I could convince myself that the true vitality of these works has been inevitably lost to the passage of centuries, if I could reduce them to academic objects for further study. I know that I am better served by the inability to do this, that it would be a disservice to the work and to myself not to acknowledge the aphorism they affirm: Ars Longa Vita Brevis. Art is long, life is short.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Wandering Through Art History In Pursuit of Solace and Hope 

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419272/z7u55ufcvkeocopxumyk.jpg"></figure>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;By ANNA DOBROWOLSKIIf we click our ruby heels three times and return to a pre-pandemic world, the ‘Dark Ages’ had a bright future. Medieval art influence was everywhere in pop culture, from&nbsp;Vogue&nbsp;to video games. Maybe you remember the Met Gala’s ‘medieval’ theme in 2018, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”? That same year&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2018/6/cgn-interview-series-sandra-hindman-of-les-enluminures">CGN interviewed</a>&nbsp;the medieval expert and founder of Les Enluminures, Sandra Hindman, who shared the same optimism in light of an exhibition with the Art Institute featuring nearly 30 manuscript illuminations from her collection.&nbsp;Within a year, there was another parallel: COVID-19 to the 14th-century bubonic plague. People then and now turned to art not only as a response to but also as a reprieve from not understanding the world around them.&nbsp;Perhaps the closest thing Chicago has to the medieval world is hidden in the collection at the Newberry Library, housed in a neo-gothic building adorned with gargoyles that allude to the ‘Old World.’ &nbsp;I visited Sandra Hindman in her office in the One Mag Mile building in downtown Chicago to ask some questions. How can we bring that world of scribes and illuminated manuscripts into our buzzing world of instant messaging and AI? What can that world teach our own—and what light can art advisors like Hindman shed on the Dark Ages for their clients?Somehow the pages from manuscripts on the wall – spawned from another world centuries ago – seem right at home next to the view of Lake Michigan. Hindman’s screensaver is of a miniature of Italian-French poet Christine de Pizan sitting in her study. As we start talking it’s clear that I’m not the only one who feels that there’s much more to appreciate about medieval art. In September, Hindman unveiled a soft rebranding of LE, and launched a parallel art advisory, the first of its kind. Both endeavors are intended to help others bring medieval art home. Below is our conversation about the challenges and creative solutions of keeping medieval art alive.&nbsp;*&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/viaisooiip2yymrsegdv.jpg"><figcaption>Sandra Hindman</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp; How has the market changed in recent years, and what does that mean for you?&nbsp;Sandra Hindman:&nbsp;I think it might have changed more in the last five years than in the last several decades. There has been a dramatic shift. In the early '90s there was the rise of art shows. But now there’s a new king and queen: auction houses and art advisors.&nbsp;Technological advances in general, and the pandemic and lockdown in particular, increased the importance of the internet, including the presence and outreach of big auction houses. Simultaneously there is more money for art in more hands, but the ‘hands’ are too busy to be on the hunt themselves. If the king is the auction house, the queen is the art advisor. Except, there are probably ten times as many art advisors and art advisory ventures than ever before.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/zmvbfwwoimfh5akzqlkb.jpg"><figcaption>A selection of objects and jewelry&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: What are some challenges you face running a business of medieval art today?&nbsp;SH: The expected answers would be: Finding inventory, funding it, finding clients, having enough money to pay all expenses, and purchasing inventory. But in fact, the biggest challenge is different. The Middle Ages seem more distant now than ever before, what with iPhones, iPads, computers, and now Al.I haven't done even an informal survey, but I wouldn't be surprised if most people, even very "qualified" buyers, are not sure when exactly the Middle Ages was* and what happened during it, not to mention why they should care. I think that teaching people why a connection with the past is important and how (and why) they can live with medieval art in the present is the most challenging part of my business now.*In case you need a refresher: the Middle Ages in Western Europe were roughly bookended by the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and the fall of Constantinople in 1453.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: How are you overcoming that challenge of making medieval art more accessible to more buyers? Do you have any advice for those learning how to appreciate these objects?SH:&nbsp;Learn to live with them at home and feel comfortable about them. Christopher de Hamel, author of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.abebooks.com/9781594206115/Meetings-Remarkable-Manuscripts-Twelve-Journeys-1594206112/plp">Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts</a>&nbsp;once wrote “No one can claim understanding of the late Middle Ages who has not read a Book of Hours in bed." Even if you can’t read the physical book in bed, you can read about it – it doesn’t take as much time as you would think!&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419274/yrqxt4fb3yy1kkhz7b8g.jpg"><figcaption>"This ring is round and hath no end/ like my love for thee my friend"</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp;Can you provide an example from your collection (like this Posy ring) and walk us through it?SH:&nbsp;A posy ring originates in the sixteenth century and they appear to be exclusively English (though there are some Latin, French, or Italian ones out there). Shakespeare incorporates them into his Hamlet:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Hamlet: Is this a prologue or the posy of a ring.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ophelia: Tis brief, my Lord&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Hamlet: as a woman’s love”&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN:&nbsp;What can we learn from a single leaf when the rest of a compendium might be missing?&nbsp;&nbsp;SH:&nbsp;There is much to glean from a single page. Art is art. The beauty of the page, even a single page that has survived from a compendium, can give us access to great art by world class artists – some of whom remain anonymous forever – that is otherwise not accessible or financially unachievable in a complete codex.&nbsp;CGN: What piece in your collection has left a deep impression on you lately?SH:&nbsp;Sydrac’s manuscript. The copy I have*, which has been deaccesioned from an Imperial Russian collection&nbsp;has about 600 questions and answers between Christian philosopher Sydrac and ancient Babylonian king Bokkus to explain the natural world. It contains questions like “How do fish sleep?” “Why don’t the stars fall from the sky,” “Where does fire go when it burns out?” “Can we prolong life?” People are thinking about that one now. There’s another, “Will there always be war?”&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419275/gpwcxo19tq0a41g4olcn.jpg"><figcaption>From the book of Sydrac, &nbsp;"Will there always be war?"</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: *The Book of Sydrac&nbsp;(Le Livre de Sydrac) Sandra mentions is a imagined dialogue between Christian philosopher Sydrac and ancient Babylonian king Bokkus to explain the natural world in over a thousand questions—a kind of rhymed encyclopedia. It was originally written for the French king in the 13th century. While ‘bad science’ might not make for good literature (answers range from quirky and moralizing to poetic), as art and as an object that survives today, it shows us that how we (mis)understand the world relates to what we read and what we see.&nbsp;**<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419276/m4espa2rskiz33dbmmbz.jpg"><figcaption>Sanguini/ Fra Angelico, Manuscript cutting, Children of the World</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;CGN: What are you looking forward to?SH:&nbsp;Two things in particular. The first is: we are engaged in a soft rebranding photography project – using new photos in space with people – through which we are trying to show how you can live with medieval art in the modern world.In addition to the soft launch, I’m launching a parallel business called Sandra Hindman Art Advisory LLC, which puts in place functions I’ve been doing for decades anyway. But this is a real gap in the art market internationally. Medieval art is a highly specialized field with few experts and the learning curve is simply too steep for most collectors in this busy world. The client who knows modern and contemporary art, or the museum with a manuscript collection but no specialized curator, they often don't know where to turn. I will advise museums on accessioning as well as deaccessioning projects, where there are special needs. A client who wants to gift their collection, I can find them the appropriate outside IRS appraiser and, equally importantly, advise them on what museum or library would be most appropriate as a gift-home.In other words, one antidote to this fast-paced world is to use these pieces to enter a world previously unknown to us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419277/tc1uxebpirev1d7qkotc.jpg"><figcaption>Hindman with a book from her collection&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;#</body></html>

The Art of (Medieval) Living in Chicago

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419286/dja4hykpwu7a4ltttmgs.jpg"><figcaption>In Milwaukee, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house is for sale after 68 years in the same family. ANDREW MILLER &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/frank-lloyd-wright-in-milwaukee-for-sale-4b4defb3">A Frank Lloyd Wright Home in Milwaukee Lists for the First Time in Almost 70 Years</a>When Barbara and Robert Elsner bought a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in 1955, they wrote the famed architect to ask if he had designed any landscaping for the house. Wright responded that he hadn’t, but told them that their 1917 home was “a good house of a good period for a good client.”&nbsp;Since then, the Elsner family has carefully preserved the Milwaukee house, returning the interiors to their original paint colors and buying back the home’s custom-made furniture.Now, however, the family is ready to hand the house over to a new steward, according to the Elsners’ daughter Margaret Howland, who lives in the home. They are putting the property on the market for the first time in 68 years, asking $1.5 million.Via WSJ&nbsp;<a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/10/01/bronzevilles-the-forum-uncovers-century-old-hand-painted-scenic-theater-backdrops/?utm_source=Pico&amp;utm_campaign=81f50152a9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_10_02+Morning+List+3&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_-cbdb1cc15c-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&amp;mc_cid=81f50152a9&amp;mc_eid=9fac193df8">Bronzeville’s The Forum Uncovers Century-Old, Hand-Painted Scenic Theater Backdrops</a>A trove of historical theater backdrops have been discovered in the attic of The Forum, the long-vacant Bronzeville treasure that’s being restored to its glory.Forum owner Bernard Loyd said the backdrops were found by contractor Michael Beaver, who was working at the site several weeks ago as part of an extensive renovation effort of the venue at 318-24 E. 43rd St.Via Block Club&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/arrested-great-wall-of-china-shortcut-2368758">The Great Wall of China Has Suffered ‘Irreversible’ Damage After Two Workers Excavated a Shortcut Through the Cultural Relic</a>Two suspects accused of digging a hole to create a shortcut over the Great Wall of China have been arrested for causing damage to the world famous heritage site.Last month, police received an alert reporting that the hole had been dug in the Great Wall in Yang Qianhe Township, about 215 miles west of Beijing, the Youyuxian County Public Security Bureau <a href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/PNWdmbZXS7esmGQiUZqurw">said in a statement</a>. Investigators called the historic site “severely damaged.”Via Artnet&nbsp;<a href="https://news.wttw.com/2023/09/27/through-his-work-chicago-artist-shines-light-invisible-disabilities">Through His Work, Chicago Artist Shines Light on Invisible Disabilities</a>Arts Midwest, which presents an annual award to Midwestern artists with disabilities, recently announced its 2023 awardees.Visual artist Matt Bodett is the only Chicago recipient. He said his work gives him a voice.“That power given back to me, I think, was that moment of transition for me,” Bodett said.That power Bodett is referring to comes as a result of hard work, after being diagnosed with what’s described as an invisible disability.Via WTTW&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 10/2/23

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419279/k2cwemv8aftxnsef13o4.jpg"><figcaption>Floating Museum's Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, avery r. young, Faheem Majeed, and Andrew Schachman at the Chicago Cultural Center Credit: Cory Dewald</figcaption></figure><a href="https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/biennial-as-experimentation-chicago-architecture-biennial-floating-museum-this-is-a-rehearsal/?fbclid=IwAR0Zgf_T8Gt_jEgiMSQgXl3-l1gqldzaH_fzjW-uMjFGArqsA12l2rBeqa8">Biennial as experimentation</a>In 2017, a barge drifted along the Chicago River. It wasn’t carrying the usual Ozinga concrete or gravel; instead it floated a museum. Produced by the Floating Museum, an interdisciplinary collective comprised of architect Andrew Schachman, artists Faheem Majeed and Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, and poet avery r. young, the museum barge showcased artwork from dozens of local and national artists. But for those lingering along the Chicago Riverwalk, the barge’s approach was announced by song: every Wednesday night, the group would float up the river, transporting a chorus led by young.&nbsp;Today, the Floating Museum has ascended from participants to artistic directors of the 2023 edition of the CAB, which opens September 21. Borrowing from their experience in 2017, they’ve named this year’s biennial theme, “This Is a Rehearsal.”Via The Chicago Reader&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/picasso-anniversary-celebration-museums-2174113">It’s Pablomonium! A Bonanza of Major Picasso Shows Will Hit Dozens of Museums in 2023 to Mark 50 Years Since the Artist’s Passing</a>April 8, 2023, will mark the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death, and to celebrate the incomparable artist’s legacy, museums around the globe are staging a bonanza of shows.A commission organized by the French and Spanish governments has coordinated 42 exhibitions at top European and American institutions, from the Centre Pompidou to the Mint Museum in North Carolina, all under the banner “Picasso Celebration 1973-2023.”The effort “aims to highlight the career of an essentially European artist who, with a deep knowledge of the heritage and principles of tradition, as well as an understanding of both classicism as an ethical value and of modern issues in art, has projected throughout the world universal symbols,” reads a statement from the commission.Via Artnet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/belinda-tate-director-indianapolis-museum-of-art-newfields-1234680000/">Newfields, Still Reeling from Controversy, Names Indianapolis Museum Director After Lengthy&nbsp;Search</a>Newfields has appointed Belinda Tate as the next director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfield, concluding a nearly four-year hiring process and crisis of identity for the 140-year-old institution.Tate comes to Indianapolis from Michigan’s Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, where she has served as executive director since 2014. She will begin her tenure on November 6 and be the first at Newfields to hold the title Melvin &amp; Bren Simon Director, which was established in February 2021 as the not-for-profit museum revamped its executive structure.Via Artnews&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 9/27/23

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419287/ixscheuobmyhnppxprsa.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/william-buxton-modern-paintings">William Buxton: Modern Paintings</a>September 28Richard Norton Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419288/zbd4makbfy3u6adfpwtr.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/karl-jahnke-solo-show">Karl Jahnke: All Over the Place</a>Opening: Friday, September 29, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmChicago Truborn&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419289/dilmsiktjocg5vlxjubk.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/steve-krakow">The Secret History of Steve Krakow</a>Opening: Friday, September 29, 7 – 10&nbsp;pmFirecat Projects&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419289/anfbbzhebonto0qonlkg.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/zach-weber-then-now">Zach Weber: Then(now)</a>Opening: Friday, September 29, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmThe Golden Triangle&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Open Sept 28 - Oct 2: Part I

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419286/tii4iind9sjw30xlt8y4.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/to-be-continued">To Be Continued...</a>Opening: Friday, September 29, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmChicago Artists Coalition (CAC)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419287/phhgw4hbfakilldqyl0a.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/arc-members-50th-anniversary-exhibition">ARC Members’: 50th Anniversary Exhibition</a>Opening: Friday, September 29, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmARC Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419288/n6ozasbnxyvid0hyj4bi.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/rodney-smith-a-leap-of-faith">Rodney Smith: A Leap of Faith</a>Opening: Friday, September 29, 5 – 7:30&nbsp;pmAnne Loucks Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419289/nutgwrcfqvergx7tbrbo.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/rebecca-morris-2001-2022">Rebecca Morris: 2001-2022</a>September 30Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419289/kntftyt4nyogfbmzgtvc.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/rosy-petri">Rosy Petri</a>October 2Wadsworth Family Gallery at Lewis University&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Open Sept 28 - Oct 2: Part II

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419279/hvfouzwrcknoh5auwrx1.jpg" alt="image001.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;CHICAGO (September 22, 2023)—Next month, the nonprofit <a href="https://www.aaaachicago.org/">African American Arts Alliance of Chicago</a> presents its Black Arts Month programming, a series of free public events highlighting Black artists from across Chicago, Monday evenings at 7 p.m. from October 9 through October 23, 2023. Advance registration isrequired for all events, and is free with a suggested donation of $15, at <a href="https://www.aaaachicago.org/">www.aaaachicago.org</a>.&nbsp;Public programs for Black Arts Month will be held across the city, celebrating and featuring Black artists across artistic disciplines during each event in a series of performances and presentations:&nbsp;Monday, October 9 from 7-9 p.m.Black Arts Month Kick-off and North Side Convening at Black Ensemble Theater4450 N. Clark Street, ChicagoFeatured artists: Black Ensemble Theater and Red Clay Dance Company&nbsp;Monday, October 16 from 7-9 p.m.Black Arts Month South Side Convening at Retreat at Currency Exchange305 E. Garfield Boulevard, ChicagoHosted by Melissa DupreyAn evening celebrating Black storytelling across genres through digital media with a panel discussion facilitated by Troy Pryor and a post-event celebration featuring DJ Rae ChardonnayFeatured artists: Growing Concerns Poetry Collective, Congo Square Theatre, LaTaryion Perry/Missed Turn Productions and Lo Williams&nbsp;Monday, October 23 from 7-9 p.m.Black Arts Month West Side Convening at Muse Coffee Studio747 S. Western Avenue, ChicagoHosted by Melissa DupreyAn evening celebrating Black storytelling through theater, poetry, film, and dance and a post-event celebration featuring DJ Rae ChardonnayFeatured artists: Perceptions Theatre, Enneréssa LaNette Davis, Mckenzie Chinn, Jamal “Litebulb” Oliver&nbsp;Registration for new individual, organizational, and affiliate memberships is now open, and all new members who register by October 31, 2023, will receive 15% off their Alliance membership fee. More information, including member benefits, is available at <a href="https://www.aaaachicago.org/">www.aaaachicago.org</a>. &nbsp;About the African American Arts Alliance&nbsp;Founded in 1997 by a group of Chicago’s leading African American artists and arts organizations, the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago is a nonprofit service organization dedicated to supporting and promoting Black excellence within the performing, visual, literary, technical and design art forms. The Alliance has worked to increase interaction, communication and collaboration within the Black arts community to promote the continuing development of organizations and individual artists, as well as highlighting their accomplishments through its annual Black Excellence Awards. For more information, visit <a href="https://www.aaaachicago.org/">www.aaaachicago.org</a>.</body></html>

The African American Arts Alliance of Chicago presents Black Arts Month in October

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419279/h4ryyi1sntgzrxtn8hgr.jpg"><figcaption>Wanted: More Eyes On John D. Graham, 2023.</figcaption></figure>Manneken Press Hosts Collaborative Exhibition of Works by Richard Hull and John YauManneken Press, based in downstate Bloomington, IL, is an independent fine art press publishing limited editions, unique prints, artist’s books, portfolios and drawings by leading contemporary artists, many with Chicago connections. Art critic and poet John Yau and artist Richard Hull produced a series of prints this past spring that are now part of the exhibition at Manneken on Artsy.&nbsp;Manneken co-founder Jonathan Higgins shared, "Yau and Hull are &nbsp;longtime friends and have both engaged in collaborations with others, but never until now with each other. Loosely following the format of “Wanted” posters of outlaws from the old Wild West for this project, Yau provided pithy phrases which he sketched directly onto rectangular plates. Hull used the texts as prompts, drafting abstracted portraits on a larger square plate. The three plates were placed together and printed once for the initial impression, then a second cognate or “ghost” impression was pulled, a pattern followed throughout the series.Each of the prints contains a message. Some call for more attention to under-recognized artists like John D. Graham, and Miyoko Ito. “Wanted: The Lost Movies of Anna May Wong” (2023) is a lamentation for the first Chinese-American film star whose career was diminished due to stereotyping and Hays Code censorship."The exhibition is <a href="https://www.artsy.net/partner/manneken-press">online through February 4, 2024</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.arcgallery.org/exhibitions-archive/50th-anniversary-exhibition">ARC Gallery to Open 50th Anniversary Exhibition This Weekend</a>Artist Residents of Chicago (ARC) was founded in 1973 as a women-run artists’ cooperative organization at a time when the art world refused to take women’s voices seriously. ARC in 2023 still brings innovative, emerging and experimental visual art to a wide range of viewers. As a non-commercial gallery, we are able to provide a unique atmosphere of continued artistic experimentation and dialogue.&nbsp;The public is invited to attend a reception with ARC as its members celebrate with a 50th Anniversary Members' Exhibition. For this milestone celebration, ARC presents work by members past and present. Featuring an installation piece by founding member Gerda Meyer-Bernstein, now 100 years old. One of the original alternative Chicago galleries of the 1970’s, along with Artemisia, and N.A.M.E., ARC is now the last of these great names still standing.Opening Reception Fri.&nbsp; Sept 29, 5-8pmRead CGN's feature on ARC's anniversary <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2023/6/arc-gallery-at-50">here</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419280/etyf0ypws6zd5a843jeu.jpg"><figcaption>Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-1977), Snared, Oil on masonite, 8 x 10 inches &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><a href="https://mailchi.mp/mongersongallery/new-to-the-gallery-gertrude-abercrombie?e=d4bddc3732">Mongerson Gallery Offers a classically enigmatic work by Gertrude Abercrombie.</a>The gallery shared the acquisition of a work by the celebrated surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie. Painted in 1967, Snared showcases Abercrombie’s penchant for dreamlike tableaux and haunting symbolism. A lone figure stands in a desolate night landscape, reaching out towards the owl before her. Behind her, her long hair is caught in the keyhole of a ghostly door— she is in limbo, snared between what she reaches towards and what holds her back. The piece was exhibited at the The Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL. Gertrude Abercrombie: An Exhibition. July 28 - October 25, 1991.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419281/cqxc4bhoopgsmirnxgxd.jpg"></figure><a href="https://andrewrafacz.com/exhibitions/chicago-exhibition-weekend-2023/">CXW &amp; ANDREW RAFACZ present Chicago Community Board</a>Andrew Rafacz Gallery announced that their now-boarded up facade on the ground floor of 1749 West Chicago Avenue, which was seriously damaged when a truck drove through the gallery window a few weeks ago – will be repurposed as a physical information board and nexus for any and all exhibitions and scheduled events citywide in the arts this fall.The gallery shared in a message, "We encourage all of our fellow galleries, institutions, artists, performers, writers and collectives to post their related show announcements, posters, maps, texts, images and memorabilia to our community board facing a bustling stretch of Chicago Avenue.The visual palimpsest of our city’s dynamic, layered arts community will continue to evolve throughout the fall season, as the gallery rebuilds behind the scenes."They Community Board launches September with Chicago Exhibition Weekend and continues once CXW is over.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Art World Recap: 9/25/23

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419279/oc6dnngxybadnuixxmsc.png"></figure><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/21/bob-ross-painting-for-sale-auction/70917462007/">Bob Ross' 1st painting from famed TV show up for auction. How much is it?</a>Happen to have $10 million lying around?If so, the first-ever painting that legendary artist Bob Ross created on his show could be yours.Via USA Today&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/nfts-are-worthless-1234680119/">Your NFTs Are Totally&nbsp;Worthless</a>A team of&nbsp;researchers have crunched the numbers to explain why you don’t see people hawking ugly cartoon apes on the internet as much anymore:&nbsp;NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, once vaunted as a revolution in&nbsp;crypto&nbsp;and digital&nbsp;art, are largely worthless.Via Artnews&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/van-gogh-museum-pokemon-tease-collaboration-in-new-trailer-2364365">The Van Gogh Museum Enters the Pokémon Universe, Teasing a Collaboration With the Beloved Pocket Monsters</a>The Van Gogh Museum and Pokémon Company have released a teaser trailer for a new and unexpected collaboration set to begin on September 28.In the video, Pikachu and Eevee can be seen running through a field of sunflowers before something in the sky catches their attention. The pocket monsters look up and see the sun and clouds transforming into the painterly style of Vincent Van Gogh—with loose brush strokes, swirls and all.Via Artnet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2023/09/22/chicago-architecture-biennial-2023">Thompson Center transformed for Chicago Architecture Biennial</a>Artistic directors of this year's Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) say they're disrupting the traditional way art and architecture are presented. Though the Biennial celebrates Chicago's global reputation for architecture, the event's main goal is to highlight creativity in our neighborhoods and reimagine well-known spaces.CAB is making closed spaces more accessible and interesting, including those at the Thompson Center, closed to the public since July 2022.<ul><li>As part of the Biennial, the public will be invited inside to experience "HygroShell," a curved sculpture made of malleable timber, at the center's LaSalle entrance.</li><li>Artists are also transforming an abandoned Sprint store there into an art gallery. Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama is using natural materials to drape artwork around the steel, austere structure of the building.</li></ul>Via Axios&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 9/22/23

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419279/plcpsyt2qegzcan3ojjh.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;Event features dozens of artistic tenants, including Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, Exile in Bookville, Jazz Institute of Chicago, Liederstube, Monsieur Pamplemousse, Natya Dance Theatre, Press Here Studio and the Second Floor Art Gallery exhibiting Don Yang&nbsp;Via PR -- Chicago’s historic <a href="https://www.fineartsbuilding.com/">Fine Arts Building</a> (410 S. Michigan Avenue) marks its 125th anniversary with a major public celebration on Friday, October 13 from 5-9 p.m. that activates all ten floors of this Chicago Landmark, an artist haven since its founding in October 1898. Mayor Brandon Johnson has declared Oct. 13 <a href="https://www.fineartsbuilding.com/mayoral-proclamation/">Fine Arts Building Day in Chicago</a> “in recognition of [this] milestone 125th anniversary” and to “encourage all residents to support this historic landmark.”The Fine Arts Building is a home for art in all forms: from pioneers like Poetry magazine’s founding publisher Harriet Monroe, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, sculptor Lorado Taft and the Chicago Little Theatre, to the ongoing legacies of painters, musicians, booksellers, puppeteers, dancers, photographers and craftspeople who inhabit the building today, the Fine Arts Building is buzzing with more than a century of Chicago creativity and innovation.The 125th Anniversary Celebration on October 13 will include a free concert at 7:30 p.m. in the newly renovated Studebaker Theater from Dr. Yulia Lipmanovich, a distinguished concert pianist and piano teacher based in the Fine Arts Building. The Studebaker originally opened with a piano recital by Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler in 1898, and Dr. Lipmanovich will be recreating some of Zeisler’s original setlist to commemorate the theater’s 125th anniversary. Advance registration for the concert program is free and recommended at <a href="https://www.fineartsbuilding.com/events/125/">fineartsbuilding.com/events/125</a>.An expanded version of the building’s monthly <a href="https://www.fineartsbuilding.com/events/second-fridays/">Second Fridays</a> open studios events, the 125th Anniversary Celebration highlights artistic tenants throughout the building, ranging from music, dance and puppetry to literature, fine art and jewelry—illustrating the full range of art forms that fill the halls of the Fine Arts Building today.&nbsp;Programming highlights of the October 13 celebration include (with event locations):&nbsp;·&nbsp;Chicago Human Rhythm Project (Studio 300) will present a “Taste O’Tap” with opportunities for visitors to learn the first steps of the Shim Sham (national tap dance anthem) as well as demonstrations of lesser-seen tap choreographies to classical music, swing and old standards such as “I've Got You Under My Skin.”·&nbsp;Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival (Studio 433) will present an overflowing display of handmade puppets and flowers, created for a special public spectacle in Maggie Daley Park to <a href="https://chicagopuppetfest.org/amal/">welcome Little Amal to Chicago</a>.·&nbsp;Chicago Opera Theater (Studio 404) will present a series of live musical performances in celebration of its 50th anniversary.·&nbsp;Exile in Bookville (Studio 210) will highlight an all-star group of authors as guest booksellers throughout the evening.&nbsp;·&nbsp;Jazz Institute of Chicago (lobby) will present performances from a jazz combo 5-7 p.m.·&nbsp;Liederstube (Studio 721), which presents classical music in intimate and informal settings, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. They will perform selections of their greatest hits, inviting visitors to gather around the piano and sing art songs.·&nbsp;Monsieur Pamplemousse custom jewelry by Alex Agudo (Studio 702) will walk guests through the making of a bracelet or key chain pendant with a special 125th anniversary message. Limited edition for the first 100 guests.·&nbsp;Natya Dance Theatre (Curtiss Hall) will perform the dance theater of India known as Bharatanatyam, which combines percussive footwork, geometrical body movements, hand gestures and facial expressions to convey profound messages.&nbsp;·&nbsp;Press Here Studio (Studio 419) will present the Center for Mad Culture’s interactive exhibition “It’s Not Art Therapy” by Sandie Yi and Katie O’Neill, as well as a reading and book signing with MV Perry, who will read from his new novel A Revolution of the Mind.·&nbsp;The Second Floor Art Gallery (2nd Floor), curated by Stanley Smith of Oak Street Design, will open a new show featuring the plein air paintings of fellow Fine Arts Building tenant and artist Don Yang, showcasing the architectural icons of Chicago and the surrounding areas.·&nbsp;New historic exhibits <a href="https://www.fineartsbuilding.com/windows-into-history/">Art Alone Endures and Staging Ground</a> (5th Floor) offer “windows into history,” sharing stories of the artists and companies that have called the Fine Arts Building home over the past 125 years. The exhibits are free and open to the public daily during normal business hours. A self-guided walking tour of historic sites and artists’ studios throughout the building is available online at <a href="https://www.fineartsbuilding.com/map/">fineartsbuilding.com/map</a>.&nbsp;Additional tenants participating in the 125th Anniversary Celebration include: Ann Pickett Studio and Gallery; portrait artist Lou Ann Burkhardt; Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras; painter, illustrator and editorial cartoonist Richard Laurent; Patrice Olsen Fine Art, presenting drawing, painting and photography for social justice; Ossia Musical Forum, a musical academy and chamber music concert booking specialist; and abstract artist James Tansley.Second Fridays open studios are free to attend at the Fine Arts Building on the second Friday of every month from 5-9 p.m., and include gallery openings, special performances and artistic demonstrations. For more information, visit <a href="https://www.fineartsbuilding.com/second-fridays">fineartsbuilding.com/second-fridays</a>.&nbsp;The Fine Arts Building is a home for art in all forms: from pioneers like Poetry magazine’s founding publisher Harriet Monroe, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, sculptor Lorado Taft and the Chicago Little Theatre, to the ongoing legacies of painters, musicians, booksellers, puppeteers, dancers, photographers and craftspeople who inhabit the building today, the Fine Arts Building is buzzing with more than a century of Chicago creativity and innovation. A Chicago Landmark since 1978, the building features original manually-operated elevators, Art Nouveau murals from the late 19th century and the recently renovated Studebaker Theater, one of the city’s oldest and most significant live theatrical venues.</body></html>

Chicago’s Fine Arts Building to host 125th Anniversary Celebration

Building a Next Gen Collection: Zach Smith

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419235/yhl2k9qpcrqtvkvt1zna.jpg"><figcaption>Derrick Adams's Fun Time Any Time in Polk Bros. Park. Photo CGN.</figcaption></figure>By GINNY VAN ALYEAAt the start of summer I found myself at Navy Pier purely for family adventure and not to spend days walking Festival Hall during an art fair. As it was a cold, windy day we weren't able to enjoy the outdoors for long – we spent 30 minutes playing a &nbsp;wet, quick round of Putt Putt golf, and having paid for parking and determined to get our money's worth, we set out to see Chicago's number one tourist destination as tourists in our hometown.Before heading indoors from mini golf, we walked into Polk Bros. Park, at the west end of the Pier. Thanks to EXPO CHICAGO, the annual rotation of public art installation, part of <a href="https://www.expochicago.com/programs/in-situ-outside">IN/SITU Outside</a>, gives any visitor to the Pier a reason to come back to see new art long after EXPO ends in April. Derrick Adams's Fun Time Any Time was still on view when we visited (it came down after June 25) and the shiny black unicorns were unoccupied. It fell to my family to show other onlookers that the art could, in fact, be interactive and fun. Adams's quartet of magical creatures are also vehicles for leisure as well as cultural understanding. Both adults and children took turns riding the glossy, rainbow-maned unicorns, with my seven year-old son looking like he was training for the Triple Crown.The Navy Pier of today is, thankfully, a far cry from the tired, worn, heavily carpeted Pier of the late '90s and 2000s. A major overhaul, unfortunately timed right around the pandemic, managed to update and refresh all the surfaces and spaces and to also introduce new destinations. The food court is still the food court, and throngs of people still gobble up Garrett's Popcorn and overpay for branded souvenirs and tchotchkes, but the overall look is light and airy and sleek. This may be a tourist destination but it is a modern, very Chicago-style one.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419236/iyjtdsecyndjvrwr2nwc.jpg"><figcaption>Hebru Brantley's Flyboy. Photo CGN</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;After a little lunch (at Harry Caray's – not modern but still fun) we found ourselves standing outside the entrance to the Chicago Children's Museum. We hadn't visited the museum in about 6 years, but now that my children are 7 and 9, and familiar with hand sanitizer, they were desperate to go inside, so off we went. There was much more to do for older children than I remembered, and the art on display, as well as the many creative activities, was prominent. Outside the museum on the south side of Navy Pier near the tour boat docks, we had seen one of Hebru Brantley's towering Flyboys installed, a kid dressed as a hero and ready to take off or at least make some art. Inside the museum Hebru himself could be seen, at the entrance to the art lab in a display explaining the benefits of getting messy and expressing your ideas on paper. A selection of completed art studio works by children are on installed in a glass case nearby. I personally enjoyed seeing a visual artist positioned as an inspirational super star rather than an athlete or movie star.&nbsp;At the entrance to the art studio, an illuminated sign quotes Hebru Brantley in both Spanish and English,&nbsp;<blockquote>"From Kirby's Clubhouse to Sky Studio, my hope is that in these spaces, you will feel free to immerse and express yourself in all sorts of creative ways."</blockquote>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419237/opqlxfw8eakdmylum5q4.jpg"><figcaption>The Art Studio. Photo CGN.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419238/actoavl725kiibr8bljd.jpg"><figcaption>An animated sign in English and Spanish welcomes visitors to the Art Studio. Photo CGN.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419239/u4irbdlp22n1whjp3czq.jpg"><figcaption>Works by artists at the Art Studio. Photo CGN.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;*&nbsp;Just down the walkway from the art studio is a climbable sculpture available to kids and adults alike, as long as you don a helmet. Titled Cloud Buster, the structure by Kevin Winters is built out of steel, wood, wire, rope, acrylic, fiberglass and artificial turf. Winters was inspired by the structure of the particle accelerator complex at Fermilab in suburban Batavia, IL. Bringing art, design and physics together, Winters has created a dynamic playground in the sky through which to expend energy of another sort. After all, young visitors to the museum can be expected to stay still for only so long, even when they're making a mess in the art studio.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419240/abyhxn25htxchjumajbz.jpg"><figcaption>Kevin Winters's Cloud Buster. Photo CGN.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;A visit to any museum wouldn't be complete without having to exit through the gift shop (you also enter the museum here), but in addition to browsing toys and t-shirts for sale, you notice several handwoven, patterned sculptures suspended from the museum entrance's ceiling. Helpful signage visually identifies each work and which group of children created it. Some were crafted at the museum – collaborations between visitors and resident artists – while many others were made by local school groups. 200 visitors, community center members, students, and professional artists were invited to contribute to the collection. Each spinning work is made of yarn and is a tactile exploration of color, layering and storytelling - many resemble traditional Native American God's eyes that watch over and engage these bright, hopeful young minds that pass in and out of the Children's Museum in the heart of a busy city. These parting images from the museum are a reminder that art isn't always right in front of us on the wall, it is often above and all around us, waiting to be explored or even created.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419240/txvbwoiphbv5cetanmhf.jpg"><figcaption>Woven creations at the entrance/exit to the museum. Photo CGN.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;#&nbsp;The Chicago Children's Museum Offers Free Family DaysIn 2023: Last Thursdays from January – May and September &amp; October!In partnership with Navy Pier, Chicago Children’s Museum guests can enjoy five fun-filled activities for families and children (ages ten and under) on the last Thursday of each month from January through May and two additional days of activities in September &amp; October. Free admission to Chicago Children’s Museum.&nbsp;No pre-registration is required. $10 discounted parking at Navy Pier with validation.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org/family-days">Details here.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

Artistic Discoveries at the Chicago Children's Museum 

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419279/di7oa09v6boqjcck5d99.jpg"><figcaption>JNL Graphic Design studio visit, Chicago, 2015. © Iker Gil. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><a href="https://mascontext.com/observations/jnl-graphic-design-celebrating-a-studio-that-sculpted-the-visual-and-cultural-landscape-of-chicago-and-beyond">JNL Graphic Design: Celebrating a Studio that Sculpted the Visual and Cultural Landscape of Chicago and Beyond</a>As JNL Graphic Design closes its doors, we want to celebrate the remarkable contributions by Jason and Leslie with the voices of many who admire their work as clients, collaborators, and friends.Via Mas ContextJust a few of the contributors:&nbsp;<ul><li><a href="https://mascontext.com/contributors/natasha-egan">Natasha Egan</a></li><li><a href="https://mascontext.com/contributors/andrew-fenchel">Andrew Fenchel</a></li><li><a href="https://mascontext.com/contributors/tony-karman">Tony Karman</a></li><li><a href="https://mascontext.com/contributors/donnie-madia">Donnie Madia</a></li><li><a href="https://mascontext.com/contributors/john-mckinnon">John McKinnon</a></li><li><a href="https://mascontext.com/contributors/zo%C3%AB-ryan">Zoë Ryan</a></li><li><a href="https://mascontext.com/contributors/david-salkin">David Salkin</a></li><li><a href="https://mascontext.com/contributors/tony-tasset">Tony Tasset</a></li><li><a href="https://mascontext.com/contributors/richard-wright">Richard Wright</a></li></ul>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagobusiness.com/arts-entertainment/warrant-issued-seize-schiele-drawing-art-institute-chicago">Warrant issued to seize an allegedly stolen Schiele drawing at the Art Institute</a>New York authorities have issued a warrant to seize a watercolor and pencil drawing by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele from the Art Institute of Chicago. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office issued a series of warrants last week seeking to seize three artworks created by Schiele that it believes to be stolen.Via Crain's&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jens-haaning-empty-frames-museum-loan-2364634">A Court Has Ordered an Artist to Repay a Danish Museum $72,000 for Submitting Two Empty Frames for a Commission</a>A Copenhagen court has ordered a Danish artist to repay the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art nearly $72,000 after he delivered two empty frames in lieu of a commissioned artwork in 2021, claiming that the frames were a new conceptual piece, provocatively titled Take the Money and Run.The museum had loaned the artist, Jens Haaning, 534,000 krone ($84,000) to recreate a 2007 sculpture, in the form of banknotes, titled An Average Danish Annual Income, which represented the salary using krone bills affixed to a canvas. A 2010 version used euros to represent a typical Austrian income.Via Artnet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/12/arts/design/van-gogh-returned-dutch-museum.html">Stolen Van Gogh Painting Is Returned in Ikea Bag</a>A Vincent van Gogh painting stolen from a Dutch museum in March 2020 was returned on Monday by a tipster, who delivered it encased in Bubble Wrap and tucked in an Ikea bag to the home of a private Dutch art crimes detective.Via NYT&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 9/20/23

<html><head></head><body>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419279/veeqo9agvpoxrs5iffcb.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/under-the-cherry-moon-solo-exhibition-by-chicago-artist-ashkon-haidari">Under the Cherry Moon: Solo exhibition&nbsp;by Chicago artist Ashkon Haidari</a>Opening: Friday, September 22, 5 – 9&nbsp;pmPovos GalleryDrawing on a deep relationship with ancient history as well as his Persian heritage, Ashkon tells contemporary stories. In layered spaces that reference centuries of graphic art, he contributes uniquely to the legacy of surrealism.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419280/en3fsy9gu4nqunx4vagw.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/ben-stone-sports">Ben Stone:&nbsp;Sports!&nbsp;</a>Opening: Saturday, September 23, 5 – 8&nbsp;pm(northern) Western ExhibitionsA survey of Ben Stone’s athletics-themed work,&nbsp;SPORTS!&nbsp;opens at our second location, (northern) Western Exhibitions, in Skokie, Illinois with a free public reception on Saturday, September 23, from 5 to 8pm. Gallery hours at nWX are Wednesday to Saturday, 12-6pm and Sundays 12-4pm. The show will be accompanied by an essay by Abraham Ritchie.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419281/exvye9qacil6swcv3j8s.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/letters-lost-series-by-drago">Letters, Lost Series by Drago</a>Opening: Friday, September 22, 7 – 10&nbsp;pmT. Mari GalleryDrago captures the moment in time, his thoughts, and who he is as an artist. His focus is to express the beauty and create what inspires him like the innocence of a hug or a feeling from a kiss. Everything he produces resonates with an inner conception, a passionate introspection. What he designs is personal, innocent, and unrestrained.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419282/upbg44eppv9nvvbslw4q.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/bruno-surdo-tree-spirits">Bruno Surdo: Tree Spirits</a>Opening: Saturday, September 23, 2 – 5&nbsp;pmPAGODA REDWe are thrilled to announce that Bruno Surdo, the acclaimed painter and teacher, will be exhibiting for the first time at PAGODA RED.TREE SPIRITS is a recent body of work that manifests Surdo's mastery of classical portraiture in the deeply personal twists and turns of burls and branches.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419283/nzdldvnzbro9aawpvqqm.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/janet-trierweiler">Janet Trierweiler</a>Opening: Saturday, September 23, 6 – 9&nbsp;pmBlue Moon GalleryJanet’s work is in collections worldwide. Collectors include: Northwestern University, The Illinois Institute of Art and Fifield Companies. Her work has been featured in Voyage Chicago, Chicago Tribune, Evanston Magazine, Sheridan Road Magazine and Northwestern News.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events?filter=upcoming">VIEW CGN'S FULL CALENDAR HERE&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Open Sept 21 - 23: Part II

<html><head></head><body>By GINNY VAN ALYEAChicago’s architectural influence and legacy is known around the world, its lakeside site and modern skyline fascinating admirers of architecture and design throughout the decades and dazzling tourists every day. The city’s skyscrapers are progressive ideas and daring made real, defining the modern city and climbing to heights that continuously defy what we think could be the limits of engineering, design and physics. Two major city-wide events take place this fall: The 5th edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial opens in September and the return of Open House Chicago, put on by the Chicago Architecture Center in October.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419272/orlq6lwgs76i1w5rqv7e.jpg"><figcaption>The CAB5 curatorial team</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Chicago Architectural BiennialThis fall the city will be the nexus of ideas about how architecture can do far more than skim the atmosphere and sell boat tour tickets when the fifth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial opens September 21. Co-led by Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Faheem Majeed, Andrew Schachman and avery r. young–the team behind the art collective Floating Museum–CAB5: This is a Rehearsal takes an expansive view of design as an iterative rehearsal process to explore architecture, cities, and the different social, ecological, economic and political forces that shape them.&nbsp;The Biennial has examined the roles of architecture and public space since its founding, and this edition will be no different, except that the global city of 2023 is quite altered from the city of 2021, and certainly 2019. This year CAB5 is a large-scale, multilayered art exhibition that invites the public to participate in a meeting of the minds in order to consider just what is possible today that builds upon what was created in the past.&nbsp;The Chicago Architecture Biennial runs Sept 21–Jan 2, 2024<a href="https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org">chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org</a>&nbsp;*</body></html>

Beyond the Dazzle: Inspiration,  Admiration and Lessons in Chicago’s Architecture This Fall

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419279/kjm0n9kyjytqzzk0xyls.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/gregg-bordowitz-tetragrammaton">Gregg Bordowitz: Tetragrammaton</a>Opening: Thursday, September 21, 6 – 8&nbsp;pmCorbett vs. DempseyCorbett vs. Dempsey is honored to present Gregg Bordowitz, Tetragrammaton, featuring a selection of recent monotypes. This is CvsD’s first exhibition with Bordowitz and is the artist’s debut in a commercial gallery.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419280/mmcpjuyrludykgknmdy6.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/josiah-mcelheny-red-black-to-black-from-blue-black-to-black">Josiah McElheny: Red Black to Black, from Blue Black to Black</a>Opening: Thursday, Sep 21, 6 – 8&nbsp;pmCorbett vs. DempseyFrom Red Black to Black, from Blue Black to Black, a suite of new works including a sculpture, an installation, and four paintings by Josiah McElheny. This is the artist’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419280/tt5wbnesxmueqjontopv.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/deborah-stratman-laika">Deborah Stratman: Laika</a>Opening: Thursday, Sep 21, 2023 6 – 8&nbsp;pmCorbett vs. Dempsey&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419281/smqwhvkvyiafrnkpfpey.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/scottish-artist-frances-lightbound">Scottish Artist: Frances Lightbound, Tectonics</a>Opening: Thursday, September 21, 5:30 – 7:30&nbsp;pmJohn David Mooney FoundationTectonics&nbsp;is about things in process; objects out of place and/or out of time. About buildings as condensations of human and non-human activity. About navigating tides of sensation while being occasionally anchored to islands of familiarity; about objects and spaces that rhyme.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419282/irtv5awpubp9nvsdjikj.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/day-of-an-affair-owen-spryszak">Day of an Affair: Owen Spryszak</a>and<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/winter-salon-works-by-over-50-gallery-artists-be8e7ec6-c996-4231-938c-bd81ac3186d5">The Psalms: New Work by Tony Fitzpatrick</a>Both opening: Thursday, September 21, 7 – 10&nbsp;pmT.F. Projects and The Dime&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419283/qxcu1rqv7f4bfxhyfoms.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/ruth-duckworth-life-as-a-unity">Ruth Duckworth: Life As a Unity</a>Opening: Thursday, September 21, 6:30 – 8:30&nbsp;pmSmart Museum of ArtThe Smart Museum of Art presents the first monographic museum exhibition devoted to Ruth Duckworth in nearly twenty years, foregrounding the artist’s sculptural production across a prolific period in Chicago and at the University of Chicago.&nbsp;*Read CGN's fall issue feature on the exhibition <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2023/9/a-transcendant-sculptural-legacy-ruth-duckworth">here*</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419284/jqsxnzd2aepeg1vpthuc.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/sequence-of-a-dream">Sequence of a Dream</a>Opening: Friday, September 22, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmChicago Printmakers CollaborativeFeaturing work by Kouki Tsuritani, Kumi Obata, and Alberto Cruz&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events?filter=upcoming">VIEW CGN'S FULL CALENDAR HERE&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Open Sept 21 - 23: Part I

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419272/b0ocnv99gjxvfj8aozxm.jpg"><figcaption>Ruth Duckworth, Earth, Water, Sky, 1967–1968, Ceramic mural, 400 square feet, covering four walls and the ceiling, Located in the entrance to the Henry Hinds Laboratory for Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago, Presented to the University in honor of Jane H. Sherr by the Leonard J. Horwich Family. Photo by Michael Tropea. © Estate of Ruth Duckworth.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By MARY DEYOEThis fall the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago presents the monographic exhibition: Ruth Duckworth: Life as Unity (September 21, 2023–February 4, 2024). The show focuses on the artist’s sculptural work, and features nearly 60 objects made between 1966–2005, some of which are on loan from close friends of the artist and have never been publicly exhibited.&nbsp;In the documentary from the early aughts by Karen Carter, Ruth Duckworth: A Life in Clay, the octogenarian artist says “I don’t think everyone has a destiny. It’s more haphazard than that.” This rings true for an artist whose sculptural work demonstrates a deep fascination with nature, geomorphology and the interconnectedness of the natural world as a whole.“Like many women working in craft media at the mid-century, Ruth Duckworth (1919–2009) did not receive the critical consideration her work merits,” said Laura Steward, Curator of Public Art. “This exhibition and accompanying catalogue are the result of the growth of ‘eco-criticism’ in the field of art history. This novel critical framework allows us to center the artist’s relationship with the natural world, which in Duckworth’s case was profoundly influenced by the ‘Satellite Era’ and her engagement with geophysical sciences at UChicago.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/zwvhakjmhbhyuapenbmh.jpg"><figcaption>Ruth Duckworth, Untitled (Wall Sculpture), 1970, Porcelain, 33-3/4 x 17-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches, Courtesy of the Estate of Ruth Duckworth and Salon 94. © Estate of Ruth Duckworth.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;In 1964, Duckworth came to Chicago after receiving an invitation to teach at University of Chicago’s Midway Studios. She planned to stay for only one year, but instead made Chicago her home. She lived in the city until her death in 2009. Although widely known as being a “British studio potter” (she attended art school in England to escape Hitler’s Germany, and lived there for nearly two decades before coming to the United States) her childhood in Hamburg and life and career in Chicago played important roles in shaping this artist.The title of the exhibition derives from a quote by Duckworth, which evocatively captures the range of scale in which the artist worked as well as the common thread throughout her career. “I think of Life as a unity. This includes mountains, mice, rocks, trees, women, and men. It’s all one big lump of clay.” From the magnitude of the mountains to the tiniest of creatures, Duckworth saw them as all connected. It is fitting then, that in addition to the exhibition, two of Duckworth’s massive murals will be available to the public for viewing throughout the exhibition. Clouds over Lake Michigan, originally commissioned in 1974 by Dresdner Bank for its Chicago office and was recently gifted to the University by Cboe Global Markets and installed at the Joseph Regenstein Library on the UChicago campus, and Earth, Water, Sky, commissioned in 1968 for the Henry Hinds Laboratory for Geophysical Sciences. Both works are huge, and are in contrast with her sculpture, much of which can easily be held in one’s hands.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/fuf830z4dmooiz1lux4d.jpg"><figcaption>Ruth Duckworth, Untitled, 1972, Stoneware, 17-1/4 x 19 x 3 inches, Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Gift of Margaret Fisher, 1967.24. © Estate of Ruth Duckworth.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;With Life as Unity, Steward readdresses much of the artist’s work through the lenses of “eco-criticism” - focusing, in part, on new approaches of the natural sciences and environmental perspectives and activism of the 1960s. The exhibition draws connections between Duckworth and key figures at the University of Chicago and in Hyde Park such as Laura Fermi, who founded the Hyde Park committee for Cleaner Air and Professor of Meteorology Tetsuya “Ted” Fujita, whose photographs of clouds Duckworth first encountered when working on the commission Earth, Water, and Sky.&nbsp;When one enters the exhibition, they are met with nearly 30 objects in stoneware and clay – earthy-hued abstracted figures (some birdlike), vessels, pots, and nearly translucent porcelain sculptures&nbsp; – the majority of which, like much of Duckworth’s pieces, are untitled. As the artist explained “titles pin people down [...] I want them to have their own ideas.” The presentation is punctuated by murals and wall sculptures many of which illustrate the influence of geomorphology on her work. Indeed as a result of the Satellite Era, Duckworth was able to view images from space of weather patterns. In the documentary, while standing in front of Clouds Over Lake Michigan she points out just some of the many different types of clouds she sculpted on the surface.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419274/kfhdwwj0flbi06mcd00q.jpg"><figcaption>Portrait of Ruth Duckworth inside of Earth, Water, Sky, undated. The University of Chicago Archival Photographic Files, apf1-05879. Photo courtesy of Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Ruth Duckworth: Life as Unity shines a light on an artist with deep roots in Chicago and the UChicago community. Duckworth saw herself as “a survivor.” She said, “I survived Hitler, being a refugee, being poor several times in my life, being depressed - I have survived. I’ve had accidents that should have killed me and they didn’t.” She is undoubtedly survived by her own large body of work that, for us and for future generations, fortunately continues to reveal new threads of interconnectedness. It is, afterall, “all one big lump of clay.”*In conjunction with the exhibition the Smart Museum presents a series of free programs from tours, kiln crawls, and musical performances to family days and scholarly talks featuring faculty from UChicago’s Department of Geophysical Sciences and the Divinity School.&nbsp;The accompanying catalogue features an introduction by exhibition curator, Laura Steward as well as essays and contributions by Abigail Winograd, Jack Schneider, and Kendra Thornburgh-Mueller. The catalogue is also fully illustrated with images of all the works in the exhibition, including new documentation of Clouds Over Lake Michigan in its new home in the 1st floor reading room of the Joseph Regenstein Library.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/exhibitions/ruth-duckworth-life-as-a-unity/">Ruth Duckworth: Life as Unity</a>Smart Museum of ArtSeptember 21, 2023 - February 4, 2024&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

A Transcendant Sculptural Legacy: Ruth Duckworth

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419279/gsz2boddys7iueksfzyt.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/rock-paper-scissors">Rock, Paper, Scissors</a>Alma Art &amp; InteriorsOpening: Friday, Sep 15, 5 – 9&nbsp;pmSep 15 – Nov 3 • BridgeportElizabeth Burke-Dain features a series of artworks made from ceramics, paper, and textiles in a solo debut. These works are presented in an immersive art installation setting that reflects the color, geometry, and architectural features found in her ceramic paintings. Designed to encourage participation from the owner, these artworks may be arranged in any configuration preferred, based on personal taste and available space.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419280/wwwhufwjykycmr6ibj5y.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/no-martins-encontros-politicos-political-encounters-part-2">No Martins: Encontros Políticos (Political Encounters)…Part 2</a>Mariane Ibrahim GallerySep 15 – Oct 28 • West TownNo Martins’ newest body of work confronts Brazil’s aspirational thesis of racial democracy. Through a series of nine large scale canvases, Martins depicts dark skinned Black people of varying genders, body types, friend groups, and familial dynamics in varying states of repose and interaction. Their gaze is turned towards each other, the ocean, or whatever thing they’re focused on - but never towards the viewer. Intentionally, Martins’ figures have no concern for anyone but themselves and the experience of sun, salt, and sea. In this manner, Martins gifts the Black people in his paintings an agency that is not recognized by the broader Brazilian society.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419280/jsqs7any0rk09edvhxx3.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/data-nasser-adonis-river">Dala Nasser: Adonis River</a>The Renaissance SocietyOpening: Saturday, Sep 16, 4 – 7&nbsp;pmSep 16 – Nov 26In the fall of 2023, the Renaissance Society will present the first institutional solo exhibition of Beirut and London-based artist Dala Nasser, featuring a new site-specific commission responding to the expansive height and volume of the Ren’s exhibition space.As an artist working through abstraction and alternative forms of image-making, Nasser applies an interdisciplinary approach through painting, performance, and film. Her indexical paintings of land, made through direct contact on location, stand in opposition to the sweeping vistas offered by traditional landscape painting.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419281/q1ustqtm6ur9utvryxhg.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/cydney-m-lewis-beauty-amongst-the-darkness">Cydney M. Lewis: Beauty Amongst the Darkness</a>Elephant Room GalleryOpening: Friday, Sep 15, 6 – 9&nbsp;pmSep 15 – Oct 14 • South Loopydney Lewis is a multimedia artist with a multi-disciplinary and distinguished background. Currently living in Chicago, her art practice highlights the transformation and manipulation of materials. As a self-described “visual archaeologist,” Mrs. Lewis considers the intersection of the natural, spiritual, and scientific worlds. Through our current landscape, she observes nature’s perseverance and ability to adapt, and asks how we might coexist in harmony. Pattern, repetition, and constant movement form the foundation of her work. By weaving nature, technology, destruction, and beauty, she presents her intuition of the surreal and the real.&nbsp;The fluidity of her ability to transform materials reflect her mastery of ballet as well as her endeavors in film.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419283/huvql0srctnbwo8khdjh.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/ornament-is-arguments-on-ornament-in-design">ornament IS – Arguments On Ornament in Design</a>Bridgeport Art CenterOpening: Friday, Sep 15, 7 – 10&nbsp;pmSep 15 – Nov 3 • Bridgeport“ornament IS”&nbsp; will document through drawings, paintings, essays and artifacts, the dominant and discarded movements of architecture and design, as well as the diverse resources of architectural ornament throughout the world history. The other goal is to exhibit an exploration of new possible theories of ornament in architecture and design and to display them as renderings, writings and artifacts.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419283/oeqbzcejmjaykpbihlpr.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/the-stop-motion-worlds-of-joe-baughman">The Stop Motion Worlds of Joe Baughman</a>Krasl Art CenterSep 16 – Nov 26 • St Joseph, MIImagine a production studio: You walk past the set of an attached garage – a car, workbench, and sofa inside. You can see up the steps and through the open door that the rest of the house is missing. In the background, someone is working on the battery-powered lights to some street lamps. Around the corner is a nature scene with a giant fake tree in the middle. An otherworldly creature – a cross between a bird and a bear – is resting near the tree. Beyond that, you see painted mountains. Now, imagine all of this inside someone’s home.These miniature worlds form the basis of artist Joe Baughman’s stop-motion animations, the likes of which you might have seen in music videos for Wilco, The Roots, and Julien Baker as well as his own band, Joe Baughman and the Righteous Few.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419284/ti5yiisdaqpth0ov34a6.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/through-our-eyes">Through Our Eyes</a>Istituto Italiano di CulturaSep 16 – Oct 8 • Michigan Ave.“Through Our Eyes” is a long-term photography project which launched in 2019. So far, it has involved 156 children aged 9 to 17 in Samos, home to one of the Greek islands' hotspots for migrants, in North-West Syria, in the internal displacement camps of Ad-Dana, and in the Mathare slum in Nairobi where roughly 500,000 people live in extreme poverty.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419285/zjouobipwhlloakt0pty.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/mardy-sears">Mardy Sears</a>Evanston Art CenterOpening: Saturday, Sep 16, 1 – 4&nbsp;pmSep 16 – Oct 29Mardy Sears is an Evanston artist and a member of the Evanston Made art community. She is a printmaker, ceramicist, and artist book maker. After graduating with a Masters in Fine Arts from The Center for Book and Paper Arts, Columbia College Chicago in 2006, she began working as a Conservation Technician with a focus on paper at The Art Institute of Chicago.Mardy’s visual language includes images of animals, primarily birds and sea creatures. Her animals tell stories of humanity and connect our everyday lives to the environment we live in. She incorporates text and poetry into her image making, that is often presented in book format.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events?filter=upcoming">VIEW CGN'S FULL CALENDAR HERE&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Open Sept 15 and 16

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419272/r1yum3kc9au7s53ubxz2.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/sanford-biggers-back-to-the-stars">Sanford Biggers: Back to the Stars</a>moniquemelocheOpening: Thursday, Sep 14, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmSep 14 – Oct 28 • West TownBack to the Stars, the Biggers's fourth solo presentation with the gallery, showcases new artworks from his ever-evolving Chimera and Codex series, which juxtaposes figurative marble sculptures and quilt compositions. These new works bring aesthetic, poetic, and social insights to the intertwining stories embedded in material culture. Biggers’ creative processes recognize and conflate syncretic impulses between aesthetic expressions from seemingly disparate societies and histories, transforming them into rigorously formal and conceptual new works.Biggers’ Chimera sculptures combine various African and European masks, busts, and figures that explore historical depictions of the body and their subsequent myths, narratives, archetypes, perceptions, and power.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/nxsaahxczy8oqcfie0oa.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/anna-kunz-rosy">Anna Kunz: ROSY</a>McCormick GalleryOpening: Thursday, Sep 14, 2023 5 – 7&nbsp;pmSep 14 – Oct 27 • West LoopROSY is a new body of work featuring thirty small oil paintings and eight works on paper.&nbsp;Anna has also installed one of her beautiful diaphanous, curtained installations — layers of dyed and printed textiles hanging from the ceiling before the gallery’s front window. The conversation between the arrangement of small oils and the undulating curtain of color serves as a reminder that immersiveness, architectural intervention (“softening,” as she puts it), and shared experience are crucial themes for Kunz. She intends her installations to create a social space that encourages reflection and invites multiple points of view — "Compassionate Geometry."&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419274/mefqwlqwhlmsqy2zz4pl.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/harriet-monroe-the-open-door">Harriet Monroe &amp; the Open Door</a>Poetry FoundationOpening: Thursday, Sep 14, 7 – 8&nbsp;pmSep 14 – Jan 13, 2024 • River NorthHarriet Monroe (1860–1936) was a poet, a critic, and the founding editor of Poetry magazine whose steadfast commitment to the art form and its creators altered the course of American literary history.&nbsp;Harriet Monroe &amp; the Open Door maps the evolution of Monroe’s editorial philosophy, locating it within the cultures and structures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This exhibition includes original artwork by Lilli Carré alongside archival photographs, letters, and other documents from Monroe’s life.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419275/k0ojtwhaklggsktkn68v.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/not-just-another-pretty-face">Not Just Another Pretty Face</a>Hyde Park Art Center&nbsp;Opening: Thursday, Sep 14, 6 – 8&nbsp;pmSep 14 – Nov 5The exhibition commemorates the 2020 and 2023 installments of the Not Just Another Pretty Face project. The triennial program, created by Hyde Park Art Center in the mid-1990s, allows the Art Center to play matchmaker for artists and potential art buyers. This dynamic project facilitates a fun and accessible commissioning process that builds lasting relationships between artists and patrons, creates a new base of support for artists, and invests in the vitality of Chicago’s cultural community. The completion of each installment is celebrated by an exhibition, a catalog documenting the process, and a lively event to unveil the finished pieces, which will make their way to the patrons’ homes following the exhibition.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419275/uiuzwfmxliwchhz4gg0c.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/material-revolution-ii">Material Revolution II</a>Pistachios Contemporary Jewelry Gallery&nbsp;Opening: Thursday, Sep 14, 4 – 7&nbsp;pmSep 14 – Nov 12 • River North&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419276/mju1154ufkejuzgfgujf.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/the-resilience-of-hope-new-works-by-carrie-seid">The Resilience of Hope: New Works by Carrie Seid</a>gallery 1871Opening: Thursday, Sep 14, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmSep 14 – Nov 14 • Lincoln ParkSeid's colorful squares of acrylic, mylar and vinyl reflect the light and offer an image of hope.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events?filter=upcoming">VIEW CGN'S FULL CALENDAR HERE&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Open Sept 14

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419272/sj3s3bsp433nu2zsgwrn.jpg"><figcaption>Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. The Cardsharps, about 1595. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Two of the Italian master’s rarely loaned works are on view the Art Institute of Chicago this fall.&nbsp;Visitors to the Art Institute have a rare opportunity to view a stunning pair of paintings by Caravaggio, on loan from the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas and the Detroit Institute of Arts. The works, dating from 1595 and 1598, rarely travel, so this trip to Chicago is a special journey. At The Art Institute they will be accompanied by 16th century groupies, if you will, known as Caravaggisti, or followers of Caravaggio. Since there are only seven Caravaggio paintings in collections in the United States, this is a rare opportunity to view the innovation and influence of Caravaggio’s work in person without springing for a plane ticket to Italy. Don’t miss the chance to see the drama and eternal beauty of these remarkable works up close. Then perhaps consider how influential they were in their own time as well as centuries later.&nbsp;&nbsp;Among Friends and Rivals: Caravaggio in RomeSept 8–Dec 31, 2023The Art Institute of Chicago&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/sllhzuzbxiioucun5d9q.png"><figcaption>Martha and Mary Magdalene, about 1598Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Detroit Institute of Arts, gift of the Kresge Foundation and Mrs. Edsel B. Ford</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419274/qa7cxvtxwznfbjdbblhx.png"><figcaption>The Resurrection, c. 1619-20, Francesco Buoneri</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;</body></html>

City Highlight: Caravaggio in Chicago

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419272/pt1q0eizji2mbvhrzs6u.jpg"><figcaption>Vito Acconci and Judith Kirshner in&nbsp;Maze Table, 1985. Courtesy of Rhona Hoffman Gallery.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By BIANCA BOVAChicago’s place in the commercial art world has always eluded easy categorization. You can find as many people who insist its relevance is ironclad as you will those who insist it is little more than an afterthought in flyover country. As time and the tides of the market have shifted, both have been true in turn. While Chicago’s galleries may not operate competitively with, say, New York in terms of real estate (Gagosian’s Chelsea location alone occupies 25,000 square feet), or with London in terms of historical pedigree (Colnaghi, Est. 1760) its defining merit is its galleries’ highly individualized programs.There are the galleries which have for decades served as tent poles for the Chicago art world–beginning with Rhona Hoffman, its doyenne. The gallery’s artist roster reads like the table of contents of a twentieth century art history book: Sol LeWitt, Gordon Parks, Jenny Holzer, Gordon Matta-Clark, Vito Acconci. There is also a prominent Chicago streak: Michael Rakowitz, Amanda Williams, Judy Ledgerwood, Richard Rezac, Julia Fish. Few are the galleries (and fewer are the dealers themselves) who endure long enough to restage significant works, as Hoffman did in exhibiting Acconci’s Maze Table, first in 1985-86, and then again in late 2022. This dual model of developing the careers of the brightest artists working, while also maintaining a commitment to their practices long enough to introduce their canonized works to a second generation is, quite simply, art dealing in service to its highest purpose. It’s also not a bad way to make a living.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/no76zbrxlysje1nbqxjn.jpg"><figcaption>GRAY at 60, Gray Chicago, 2023. Courtesy, Gray Chicago/New York. Photo: Jim Prinz</figcaption></figure>Richard Gray is another name that looms large in Chicago’s commercial history. The gallery’s recently mounted anniversary exhibition, GRAY at 60, included works by sixty artists who have shown with the gallery (or whose works the gallery has specialized in) since opening its doors on East Ontario in 1963. Representing over a century of art making, the exhibition rivaled a museum show in its scale and scope.&nbsp;Despite this grandiosity, GRAY’s program is so well-defined as to leave a kind of signature on art collections it has helped to build.&nbsp;In a recent New York Times profile on winemaker Maggie Harrison, it was noted that Harrison, now in her fifties:“Grew up in a suburb of Chicago,” and that her parents’ “passion was collecting art. The walls of their otherwise unremarkable house were crowded with canvases by David Hockney, Alex Katz and Chuck Close. A large painting of a heart by the artist Jim Dine hung in Harrison’s bedroom.”&nbsp;Is there any question what gallery her parents were clients of?&nbsp;Reaching such milestones as Rhona Hoffman and Richard Gray have first requires surpassing other, smaller milestones. MICKEY, as well-appointed a gallery space as you will find anywhere (unsurprising given that it is the work of Dirk Denison Architects), has just reached one, celebrating five years of operations on Grand Avenue last month. As evidenced by MICKEY, a summer group exhibition, a survey on view until September 10th that includes a work by every artist the gallery has shown since opening its doors, the program there is, in a word, wild. It seems distinctly possible that the only straight line that can be drawn through the work of Michelle Grabner, Michael Madrigali, Paul Heyer, Leonardo Kaplan, Chloe Seibert, and Zach Meisner is gallery owner Mickey Pomfrey’s almost alarmingly keen eye. Pomfrey is, after all, one of the first dealers to have shown the work of art star Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), albeit under the auspices of an earlier space, Courtney Blades. The highly refined strangeness of MICKEY’s program is perhaps only rivaled by the highly refined strangeness of the gallery’s informal, in-house wine program. Ask director Tim Mann to recommend a bottle before your next dinner party; you won’t regret it.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/bbu8eyxfs3rsflcowsfe.jpg"><figcaption>Five years of MICKEY installation view, Courtesy of MICKEY, Chicago</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;This hyper personalized approach to programming a gallery is not a new concept. A look over the exhibition history at Dan Devening’s gallery, Devening Projects (one of the first spaces to make the move to Carroll Street in West Town) shows a veritable who’s-who of the last two decades in the Chicago art world. While it’s no surprise to see names like Nathaniel Robinson, Richard Rezac, Jin Lee, Peter Fagundo, and Christine Tarkowski on the roster, it’s often a curiosity to see when in their careers Devening mounted these shows. What’s more fun is to see the names of dealers, curators, and other industry figures who maintain their own practices as artists crop up, including Jason Pickleman, Aron Gent, and Sterling Lawrence. Add to this Devening’s impressive CV as an artist himself, and his long tenure as a member of the faculty of the School of the Art Institute, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone more professionally embedded. Bearing this all in mind, it would serve collectors attracted to young talent well to keep an eye on the emerging artists like Zander Raymond, Maggie Crowley, and Jacqueline Surdell that show with Devening.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419274/r4ssxnnexiafo8fq7t55.jpg"><figcaption>&nbsp;Jacqueline Surdell, Score! installation view at Devening Projects. Photo by Ian Vecchiotti courtesy of the artist and Devening Projects &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;These are, of course, homegrown examples of why Chicago’s market has sustained. Long is the list of great galleries that had their genesis in Chicago and later expanded–Feature, Richard Feigan, GRAY, and Document, to name a few–and rightfully so. In more recent years, Chicago has also become an attractor of galleries established in other markets. Mariane Ibrahim Gallery moved operations in 2019, closing its original headquarters in Seattle in favor of relocating to Chicago. Having subsequently expanded to Paris in 2021 and Mexico City in 2022, bypassing the opening of any additional domestic spaces, it seems Chicago serves the gallery’s American market more than sufficiently.&nbsp;With the recent acquisition of EXPO Chicago by Frieze, and the rampant speculation surrounding the likelihood of a significant uptick in the blue chip art market in the city it might bring, one wonders if Chicago will increase in desirability as location for future outposts of other galleries with established global footprints. Perrotin? LGDR? Gagosian? A girl can dream.While there is much to be said about the economics (macro and micro) of the art market, and the geographic and political boundaries that have a way of regulating it (or not), at the end of the day, there is no greater force or factor that defines a gallery than the vision of its founder, and the program they build. Chicago is rich in these legacies. Taking into account the view from this moment, it appears it will be for generations to come.&nbsp;</body></html>

The Gallery Continuum: Reviewing Spaces Standing the Test of Time

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419272/q6tiiaa5gaatj61qv9cb.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NationalMuseumofMexicanArt">National Museum of Mexican Art Unveils New Mural Created with Chicago Bulls</a>The Museum's youth initiative, Yollocalli Arts Reach unveiled a new mural in partnership with the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/chicagobulls?__cft__[0]=AZU_Mst33WCbFpRyJaboY1zrgoZm9W2hYU6Ojwe4-cu1StyxfVlBemNRJZrPO1FrCmpTd-lLPztqjmYjtqT5ice7Bd54Uqa9J0ejcC30Uw4DF51qBfJRNWwa2vNdNLfztAATdtAClOUsre6d9uB4hkPkyOUnwaAXiRZ_ywkhwwIPfEhYpQhf_L3BA8uY0KQqD-aKDhrFaxbY0Kv3AW3Q7v7U&amp;__tn__=-]K-R">Chicago Bulls</a>! Youth from Yollocalli’s Street Art Program participants spent the summer alongside their teaching artist, Mario Mena designing and painting a mural with an uplifting message that celebrates Mexican culture. The mural is located at 1859 W. 19th St.&nbsp;<a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/09/11/new-lakeview-master-plan-calls-for-wider-sidewalks-safer-crossings-and-more-public-art/?utm_source=Pico&amp;utm_campaign=369f678aa1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_09_11+Morning+List+3&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_-cbdb1cc15c-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&amp;mc_cid=369f678aa1&amp;mc_eid=9fac193df8">Plans for Lakeview Arts Include Art Spaces Called 'Alleries'</a>With a new master plan, neighborhood groups are hoping to improve Lakeview and Roscoe Village by adding more art and advocating for projects that cater to pedestrians.&nbsp;Throughout the past year, the Lakeview and Roscoe Village Chamber of Commerce surveyed more than 700 residents and 65 business owners to develop a master plan that will help guide development for the next decade.&nbsp;One way neighbors hope to add more public art to the area is by turning alleys into art galleries, called “alleries,” particularly along Lincoln Avenue. Planners envision business owners would donate their back walls to display art and allow the alley space to be used for community events.Via Block Club&nbsp;<a href="https://rivernorthdesigndistrict.com/podcast/?fbclid=IwAR3DT3UWDYJ7pl6rAgw8imrlSRVlLkodormbzbHmFyk95K2kn-uUePkP55g">RNDD Releases Latest Art and Design Podcast&nbsp;</a>A new episode of Design District is out now. In this episode of Design District, RNDD sits down to chat with Cristina Dordas, National Commercial Sales Manager at Roca Tile USA, Jennie Bishop, Principal and Founder of interior design firm Studio Gild and Zach Pruitt, Design Channel Manager of JC Licht. Listen in as we talk about trends in wall surfaces.<a href="https://rivernorthdesigndistrict.com/podcast/?fbclid=IwAR3DT3UWDYJ7pl6rAgw8imrlSRVlLkodormbzbHmFyk95K2kn-uUePkP55g">Listen here</a>&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-side"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/k7tdeq70xg3cof54kprd.webp"></figure><a href="https://fineline.org/pages/the-great-orb-hunt?fbclid=IwAR3pGexRKjkL6YOxcm4zJmvS50KMLvNe8Qm_GiNdb_WBbFVaqHfw7AoMqVA">Fine Line Creative Arts Center Hosts 'Orb Hunt' for Art Objects</a>Fine Line Creative Arts Center has teamed up with the Forest Preserve District of Kane County on an Orb Hunt in the forest preserve, hiding hand-crafted glass and ceramic orbs on the grounds at Fine Line and at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.Visitors are invited to walk or bike around both locations and find one of these orbs. If&nbsp;you are lucky enough to find an orb, it's yours to keep,&nbsp;but we ask that you only keep ONE orb please.&nbsp;If you find another orb, leave it where it is to be found by another seeker.&nbsp; &nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Art World Recap: 9/12/23

<html><head></head><body><a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/nicole-berry-armory-show-2023-plans-2354456">Armory Show Director Nicole Berry on Hiring Women Curators to ‘Challenge the Canon,’ and What’s in Store for the Fair Now That It’s Owned by Frieze</a>The unexpected news that the international art fair conglomerate Frieze would acquire the Armory Show and Expo Chicago in July set the art world wondering what changes might be afoot for the upcoming New York fair, which has been an art world mainstay since its founding in 1994.“It will be business as usual,” fair director Nicole Berry told Artnet News, noting that when the sale went through, “everything was already well in place” for the fair’s 2023 edition, which opens this week at the Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side.Via Artnet&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419263/syplxqw0qxxumln7y46r.jpg"><figcaption>Credit: The Obama FoundationObama Presidential Center construction</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.chicagobusiness.com/nonprofits-philanthropy/obama-presidential-center-chicago-south-side-tour">Inside and around the Obama Presidential Center as it rises in Jackson Park</a>It’s still far too early to tell whether it indeed will be a transformative project, one that will raise Chicago’s profile and change the direction of a big chunk of the South Side for better — or, according to a few critics, for worse.But after years of planning and raising well over $1 billion, the Obama Presidential Center finally has emerged from the ground as a physical presence in Jackson Park, just across the street from Hyde Park Academy High School and a quick walk from the University of Chicago campus.Via Crain's&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/british-museum-cataloging-debacle-2356464">A Weak Cataloguing System Made It Easy to Steal From the British Museum. Institutions Around the Globe Are Reckoning With the Same Vulnerabilitie</a>sGreece’s culture minister Lina Mendoni wrote a blistering commentary in response to the ongoing scandal at the British Museum, where it has come to light that more than 1,500 items from the collection were stolen by a staff member.“The thefts by the responsible curator, but also the proud silence of the leaders who neither take care of their collections nor implement the appropriate security measures, proves that the ‘hospitality’ provided to the Parthenon marbles at the British Museum has always been flawed, incomplete, and problematic,” she stated in opinion piece for <a href="https://www.tanea.gr/print/2023/08/29/opinions/praksi-dikaiosynis-cri-epanenosi-ton-glypton-crtou-parthenona-stin-athina/">Ta Nea</a>.Via Artnet&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 9/10/23

<html><head></head><body><h3>September 9</h3>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419272/u3ahidebn8ylhipnuwak.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/danny-j-martinez-aka-van-dam-one-leopard-brains-solo-show">Danny J Martinez (aka Van Dam One) "Leopard Brains" Solo Show</a>Vertical GalleryOpening: Saturday, Sep 9, 12 – 5&nbsp;pmSep 9 – 30 • West Town‘Leopard Brains,’&nbsp;features more than two dozen new paintings and sketches, all exquisitely rendered in Martinez’s colorful pop-surrealist style.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419273/vxvytljbvywcvagypjkg.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/cameron-spratley-violets-and-daisies">Cameron Spratley: Violets and Daisies</a>M. LeBlancSep 9 – Oct 29 • Logan SquareM. LeBlanc is proud to present its second solo exhibition with Richmond-born, Chicago-based Cameron Spratley, Titled ‘Violets and Daisies’, the exhibition brings together a body of work Spratley has been developing over the past two years.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419274/adurq9fuefjwwtgqbmmz.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/deborah-maris-lader-the-air-water-show">Deborah Maris Lader –&nbsp;The Air &amp; Water Show</a>Bert Green Fine ArtOpening: Saturday, Sep 9, 3 – 5&nbsp;pmThru Sep 30 • Michigan Ave. / The LoopDeborah Maris Lader is the founder and director of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative. She makes prints, drawings, and mixed media artworks, primarily driven by representational styles but with an eye for experimentation. Thematically, her diverse output emphasizes the fragility of life, while celebrating it at the same time. This show is a selection of many years of her printmaking, some of which utilizes non-traditional materials and methods.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419275/hohwnys9ivsh9mafiufp.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/ghosts-of-displacement">Ghosts of Displacement</a>Opening: Saturday, Sep 9, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmSep 9 – Oct 1 • EvanstonPerspective Photo GalleryThis poignant series delves into the artist's family history, where the echoes of displacement and survival resonate deeply.&nbsp;&nbsp;Through her exploration of photographs, papers, and cherished objects carried by her family across an ocean, Frangos enters a profound connection with the ghosts of the displaced. In each composition, she seeks communion with these spectral figures, honoring their legacy while sharing a post-war migrant experience that resonates with countless others. The series&nbsp;serves as a reminder of the profound impact our family histories have on shaping who we are today.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419276/j269rsomdbsg4qni7ojm.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/gallery-closing-event">Closing Celebration for Weinberg/Newton Gallery</a>Weinberg/Newton GallerySaturday, Sep 9, 6 – 9&nbsp;pm • River WestJoin the gallery for a celebratory closing party to commemorate the hard work and creativity of the Weinberg/Newton Gallery team and the numerous exhibiting artists, who worked hard to engage the Chicago community through a wide range of social justice issues through art. Food and refreshments will be served. <a href="https://weinbergnewtongallery.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=13d5172bf37bbf601de9678f4&amp;id=e450e3b5d8&amp;e=dd04d0a94f">RSVP here</a> &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419277/odvrtp1kpsfmb2snhgih.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/kaveri-raina-songs-of-silence-yet-bluebirds-hum">Kaveri Raina : Songs of silence, yet bluebirds hum</a>PATRONOpening: Saturday, Sep 9, 5 – 7:30&nbsp;pmSep 9 – Nov 4 • West TownKaveri Raina’s multilayered paintings emerge from the artist's unique approach to narrative construction; a performed collection of gestures and events that evoke a chorus of abstraction coiled through the threads of visual storytelling. While referencing various sources of imagery from the personal to the art historical, her visual language of recurring, abstract forms are culled from a net of art history, cinema, and fantasy. Painted entirely on heavy, pigmented burlap, Raina transforms the agrarian material into a diaphanous screen across and through which she pours and contours acrylic paint that is then further obfuscated through layers of loose graphite, oil paint, and pastel. Visible on both sides of the porous, rough fabric, the compositions appear as fleeting, momentary constellations of information.&nbsp;<h3>September 10</h3>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721419278/rscfra1mh8tcg8jrtdvc.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/scott-wolniak">Scott Wolniak: Crosscurrents</a>GoldfinchOpening: Sunday, Sep 10, 2 – 5&nbsp;pmSep 10 – Oct 21 • East Garfield ParkWolniak's newest&nbsp;paintings can be seen as outward projections of interior spaces,&nbsp;manifesting the artist’s interest in the ways that abstraction can convey a sense of rhythm, transformation, groundlessness, and internal movement. These lively, densely-layered works oscillate between their indexical, physical surfaces and illusory fields of depth, cultivating a non-objective visual language that embodies the energy of natural phenomena, without explicitly depicting it.<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events?filter=upcoming">VIEW CGN'S FULL CALENDAR HERE&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;#</body></html>

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