<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418952/trf2cvihqxoccpkgn52q.jpg"></figure>Via PRAt 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8, two radiant 8’ x 10’ murals by Tony Fitzpatrick will be unveiled in the heart of Glen Ellyn at 427 N. Main St. The murals will be displayed near the new pedway completed this past spring, which connects pedestrians to the Metra, garages and downtown businesses. The murals depict birds native to the area: a woodpecker and a cardinal. Composed of acrylic paint on aluminum board, the visually collaged background features imagery distinctive to pop culture influences in Fitzpatrick's work. In creating the murals, Fitzpatrick was assisted by his studio partner and protégé, Danny Torres, and Sam Decarlo who, like Fitzpatrick, is a former College of DuPage student. “I was honored to be have the opportunity to create this work for Glen Ellyn,” says Fitzpatrick. “It’s one of my core beliefs that art is best made via cultural and community efforts and this project is a perfect opportunity to show that in action.” The Fitzpatrick murals are part of the DuPage Public Art Project proposed by Diana Martinez, Director of the McAninch Arts Center, and approved by the College’s Board of Trustees in October 2020 with the goal of initiating public art events and art installations. The partnership with Glen Ellyn is the inaugural kick-off to the College’s Public Art Project, where COD will work with the Village to establish a public arts committee, and partner for the creation of two public art installations and one community arts engagement effort. At the conclusion of the agreement, COD will partner with another town for two years in hopes that the established committee in Glen Ellyn will continue on its own. Martinez proposed the idea in an effort to build Public Art Committees in cities throughout DuPage County. The idea of the Project was inspired by the announcement by COD President Dr. Brian Caputo of the Arts, Culture and Community Engagement Pillar of the College’s 2021-2026 Strategic Long-Range Plan. “The College is committed to supporting arts, culture and community engagement throughout District 502 and beyond,” Caputo said. “The DuPage Public Art Project will foster partnership and continued involvement within our neighborhoods, and I am excited to forge ahead as we unveil this first work of what I know will be a worthwhile endeavor.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418953/gdngmdjatlyzfvyu3p58.jpg"><figcaption>Fitzpatrick and Torres at the unveiling&nbsp;</figcaption></figure> “Tony’s works are a perfect first project to launch this public art initiative as he grew up in DuPage County and has many connections to COD,” says Cleve Carney Museum of Art Curator Justin Witte. “He was also close friends with the founding donor of the Cleve Carney Museum of Art, Cleve Carney. The timing of this installation is ideal as it serves as a precursor to his upcoming exhibition at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art opening October 16.” A Public Arts Project Committee comprised of residents Dawn Smith, Geoff Bevington, Carol White, Jennifer Umlaff and Chair, Diana Martinez (MAC Director), and MAC Project Coordinator Molly Junokas and College of DuPage/CCMA Curator Justin Witte was tasked by the Village Board to provide a proposal for a mural for the pedway on the north brick wall. “The committee met and wanted to present something that reflects the beauty and nature of Glen Ellyn by a professional artist that would garner national artistic attention,” says Martinez. “Tony is an author, actor and acclaimed artist whose work has been exhibited in nationally renowned museums. He grew up in Lombard, was a dear friend of the late Cleve Carney and attended COD so was the perfect choice. The committee unanimously agreed on approaching Fitzpatrick to paint the mural. He accepted and suggested the idea of classic bird images, which reflect the nature and trees of Glen Ellyn, customized with words and details reflecting other aspects of the village.” “Public art is more than just pictures on the side of a building. &nbsp;Public Art is a catalyst for economic development and has the power to draw people to our community,” observed Glen Ellyn President Mark Senak. &nbsp;“Art provokes our emotions, activates our minds and widens our consciousness. &nbsp;People gravitate to public art, like the Bean in Millennium Park. &nbsp;These murals are a great start. I want to thank our friends at College of DuPage for raising awareness of the virtues of public art and look forward to working with them on making public art part of the Glen Ellyn brand.” &nbsp;The mural was sponsored by, College of DuPage, the Village of Glen Ellyn, and by the Glen Ellyn Environmental Committee who was awarded a grant from the DuPage Foundation, whose generous award contributed to the installation. Tony Fitzpatrick is a Chicago-based artist best known for his multimedia collages, printmaking, paintings, and drawings. Fitzpatrick's work is inspired by Chicago Street culture, cities he has traveled to, children's books, tattoo designs, and folk art. Fitzpatrick has authored or illustrated eight books of art and poetry, and, for the last two years has written a column for Newcity. Fitzpatrick's art appears in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC. The Neville Brothers' album “Yellow Moon” and the Steve Earle albums “El Corazon” and “The Revolution Starts Now” also feature Fitzpatrick's art. In 2015, Fitzpatrick opened The Dime, an exhibition space in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Before making a living as an artist, Fitzpatrick worked as a radio host, bartender, boxer, construction worker, and film and stage actor. Fitzpatrick’s final museum exhibition will be Tony Fitzpatrick: Jesus of Western Avenue at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art, 425 Fawell Blvd. on the campus of College of DuPage, Oct. 16, 2021 through Jan. 31, 2022. More information can be found at <a href="http://theccma.org/">TheCCMA.org</a>&nbsp;To read CGN's fall 2021 interview with Fitzpatrick, <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2021/8/a-man-walks-into-a-museum-for-tony-fitzpatrick-2021-is-a-return-to-more-than-before">click here.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Tony Fitzpatrick to Unveil Murals in Glen Ellyn Featuring Native Birds

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/y1jvh2ovohnifrpdnffv.jpg"><figcaption>The 2020 Youth Art Winner displays her work at the Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center’s Youth Fest &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By Jacqueline LewisIt’s difficult, maybe impossible now, to go one day without seeing heartbreaking news about violence and fear rippling through Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods. However, the plague of crime and grief in the city can obscure notable successes borne from a great deal of resilient creativity and a love of culture.Many collectors and arts patrons in Chicago, as well as around the world, are familiar with the groundbreaking art and community efforts of artist Theaster Gates, who has founded multiple arts organizations in areas facing challenges foreign to most neighborhoods in the city – Gates’s Dorchester Art &amp; Housing Collaborative, Chicago Arts &amp; Industry Commons, <a href="https://rebuild-foundation.org/chicago/">Rebuild Foundation</a>, and the Stony Island Arts Bank have become dynamic spaces for artists as well as their communities.&nbsp;CGN wanted to share the missions and efforts of several additional area arts organizations, many of which have been operating for decades to support Chicago’s youth one student at a time. Each one is devoted to cultivating and facilitating impactful programs while utilizing arts education as a vehicle through which to bolster underserved communities. By harnessing their energies towards furthering their education through creativity, who knows, one of the students in these programs could become the next Theaster Gates.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/nsltm5y5mhj9fjtf3d7h.png"></figure><a href="https://marwen.org">Marwen</a>Located at the top edge of River North, Marwen offers free visual arts classes and college career programming to Chicago’s middle and high schoolers, with courses ranging from color theory to photography to social responsibility. The organization has recently launched The Artist Roster, which exhibits art from local emerging and teaching artists and alumni.Marwen sees art as a vehicle for social change, leadership development, and a path to employment and seeks to inspire young people to build their future through art.A former student testified, “Marwen made me more comfortable with myself and helped me become more involved in my community.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418945/ul77blsxs04p2mpyl9na.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.urbanartretreat.com">Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center&nbsp;</a>North Lawndale’s Chicago Urban Art Retreat Center (CUARC) offers workshops, women’s retreats, and volunteer opportunities, in addition to free youth programs that work with students where they are, at any age, and whether or not they are in school.&nbsp;Director and Board President Dianna C. Long shared a story with CGN about the program’s impact on just one student, emphasizing that tangible successes are what these organizations hope to accomplish.“Demarcus and his older brother Chris came into our art program when they were 6 and 7 years-old. Demarcus clearly enjoyed making art. I remember we were working on writing and illustrating a little book about family for each child, and Demarcus was very frustrated. When I offered to help, he told me that he could not spell or write. I had him tell his story to me so I could put the words into his book and he made the pictures. He revealed that this dad was in prison, and his mom was in a drug treatment center. He and his siblings were living with his grandmother. &nbsp;After a year, I noticed that Chris no longer came to art, and Demarcus told me Chris had joined a gang and had also said he was too old for art. Demarcus learned to read and write, and he continued to enjoy making art. Quite a long time later, a very tall Demarcus came to the door with his family for our Christmas giveaway. I didn’t recognize him, but he remembered me. It was a tearful reunion. I was so happy to see him. He never joined a gang or been in trouble with the law.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418946/gkkjoh48ibkg6l4fkm2j.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.lbpacademy.org">Little Black Pearl Art &amp; Design Academy</a>Little Black Pearl Art &amp; Design Academy is a 40,000 square foot center serving the youth of Kenwood, Woodlawn, and Bronzeville. Since 2011 Little Black Pearl has combined art and more formal education, focusing on STEAM studies and prioritizing creativity, culture, and entrepreneurship skills.The organization believes that “no gift is as precious as a child.” Because students entrust their hopes, needs, questions, and talents to their leaders, in turn, LBP attests they must guide, support, and challenge them to reach their full potential. Through programs like Arts = Smarts, and by exhibiting student art for sale, LBP offers its students opportunities to pursue a career in the arts.Aware of the challenges urban youth face LBP aims to provide a safe environment led by positive role models who offer can offer students a physical and emotional alternative in which to creatively explore instead of turning to more destructive outlets.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418947/rujlbnrox25rqsamchuq.webp"></figure><a href="https://www.skyart.org">SkyArt</a>SkyArt, based on Chicago’s South Side, offers visual art programs for students 5–24 years old and brings consistent and free art education to areas of Chicago with few other cultural opportunities.&nbsp;What started as a passion project with one employee and 18 students has flourished into a bustling organization whose mission is to “transform the lives of young people who call these underserved parts of the city home.” Classes include cultural field trips and a year-long program for serious art students called Project 3rd Space.Studio programs utilize an approach called SkyWay, which blurs the lines of formal art education and the less subjective experience of art-making. SkyArt also runs school and community programs that venture out to classrooms and other community venues, bringing the art directly to the students. A beautiful artist garden on site covers four city lots.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418947/iaya5sxqwiiv3bp9gugx.jpg"></figure><a href="https://thefcac.org">Firehouse Community Arts Center</a>In 2003 Pastor Phil Jackson hosted hip-hop services for young adults in North Lawndale. After noticing that people with a passion for the arts were coming from all over the city, Pastor Phil began the early stages of Firehouse. With a mission to “interrupt the cycle of violence among youths in North Lawndale through the power of the arts” Firehouse offers year-round arts programming as well as mentorship and career development opportunities.Using what they call the Theory of Change, Firehouse guides participants to discover their worth and mission in a safe, loving space while sparking an interest in the arts and working to prevent violence by channeling art and creativity. For Firehouse, the goal is for students discover their life’s purpose and forage their own path while halting violence cycles.&nbsp;</body></html>

Art in Action: Supporting Chicago’s At-Risk-Youth

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/pettrawdjc62qjrqxnes.jpg"><figcaption>Ray Johnson c/o, front cover with orange ink &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>By JASON PICKLEMAN&nbsp;It’s a wonderful thing that museums continue to create well-produced exhibition catalogs. Blockbusters come and go, but what remains after these shows are gone are the collected photographs, images, and essays reproduced, printed and bound in the volumes that carry the exhibition title. To that end, I present for your consideration Ray Johnson c/o, a marvelous monograph available in advance of the exhibition at the <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9300/ray-johnson-c-o">Art Institute of Chicago</a> of the same name.&nbsp;Edited and curated by Caitlin Haskell and Jordan Carter, Ray Johnson c/o measures 9-inches wide, 12-inches tall, and has a spine width of just more than 1-inch. With a soft cover, artfully folded, the 376-page body feels casual in the hands thanks to the recurrent use of a kraft-color text weight sheet (possibly 70#) that is gently textured on one side, but smoother on the other. It is interesting to note that the images printed on this paper have different levels of clarity and snap depending on which textured side the work is reproduced: just look at the differing density of the black ink on pages 6 &amp; 8, for example. Not that this matters, as Johnson’s work only rarely relies on reproductive verisimilitude. Suffice it to say, the kraft-colored pages give the catalog the air of a vintage store find, a retro suggestion of aged paper and graphic pluck.What is not printed on this kraft paper is printed on an uncoated natural white text weight sheet (possibly 80# with modest show-through). These two papers alternate every 8, 16, 24 or 32 pages creating the visual equivalent of skip and hum. I mention this because the experience of looking at this book is constantly framed by this design decision. The kraft colored pages are mostly dedicated to vintage-looking reproductions of Johnsonian ephemera: letters, collages, drawings, envelopes—the remains of an epistolary exchange. The natural white text pages contain twenty-one short essays, easily digestible, and amounting to a veritable “Ray Johnson Reader”, which, in total, present a strikingly spot-on overview of one of the most wily artists of the 20th Century.&nbsp;The book and exhibition chronicle the 55 year artist-collector relationship between Johnson and his patron/archivist William S. Wilson (commonly referred to, and written as: Bill). The collection spans many thousands of works which were painstakingly saved, filed and inventoried by Wilson. Organized into a series of more than 175 three-ring binders containing transparent plastic sleeves, the collection has entered the Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection and will be on view this November. The exhibition in the Modern Wing promises to be an eye opening affair luxuriating in the flotsam and jetsam of aged paper, hand-addressed envelopes, canceled stamps, and cheeky turns of phrase.Johnson’s artwork is all play. Suggestion, innuendo, and mischief seem to be Johnson’s creative repartee. Conventional images are often captioned or titled in such a way as to develop new readings, often sly, humorous, or tawdry. Along with an ever-growing cadre of personal glyphs (bunnies, ducks, snakes, buttons, phalluses), Johnson détourned the most conventional source material into the equivalent of visual koans with attendant instructional dictates.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/maysa6di3gb6zhpa4wuj.jpg"><figcaption>Ray Johnson c/o, interior spread with 3-ring binder, pages 198-199 &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Though he showed with the New York gallery Feigen for many years starting in 1967, the bulk of Johnson’s artistic practice skirted the gallery market place; he seemingly preferred mailing his art to friends and colleagues in lieu of pursuing substantive exhibition opportunities. Fabled stories circulate of Johnson’s reluctance to give his gallerist-admirers the pleasure of exhibiting his work. Often, given the opportunity to exhibit or perform, Johnson would produce what he called “a nothing”, and often mistaken as such.&nbsp;The book, Ray Johnson c/o, was designed by Irma Boom, a rock star in the world of exhibition catalog design. When you go see the Rolling Stones you don’t tell Mick Jagger how or what to sing: he can sing whatever the hell he wants, because he’s Mick fucking Jagger. Likewise, if you hire Irma Boom to design your exhibition catalog, you let her do whatever the hell she wants. She’s Irma fucking Boom. For the most part, the team behind the Ray Johnson c/o catalog has given Boom full creative license to interpret and present Johnson afresh. With that freedom, she has delivered a catalog that is gallopingly eccentric, and novel in a thoughtfully sensitive manner with an artistically commiserate wit to keep up with the creative dexterity of the book’s namesake. The catalog is beyond excellent. You should buy one immediately. I paid $60 for mine.&nbsp;Stylistically, the book is adventurous, with graphic conventions nudged throughout: eliminating the use of italics in favor of underlining being one such example. This is the sort of graphic intervention that only a supremely trusting client can foster through the arduous nit-picky process of book production. Everybody always says they want something different; that is, until you show them something different—at which point, most clients turn tail and assume the dictatorial role of conservative editorship. Not so with Ray Johnson c/o. The book layout is awash with odd column arrangements and irregularly placed image reproductions with captions at custom angles relating to the frequently unusual shapes of Johnson’s hand-cut and torn visuals.On a personal note, I’d like to commend the curators and editors for the inclusion of many examples of Johnson’s earliest commercial design practice. Letterhead announcing “Ray Johnson–Graphic Design” and examples of book cover designs for New Directions Paperbooks portray Johnson as someone determined to bring a stamp of personal artistic touch to client-directed projects. How many of you as angsty teenagers had a copy of Arthur Rimbaud’s book Illuminations, with the poet’s serious, side-ways gazing, black and white, high contrast portrait egging you on into artistic admittance. Well, you can thank Ray Johnson for the cover, a 1957 commercial design job. Dare I say, the dot screen, color and demeanor of the Rimbaud portrait could almost be mistaken for one of Andy Warhol’s 1964 Most Wanted Men. Warhol and Johnson were good friends, so one can only wonder if Warhol cribbed the style of Johnson’s Rimbaud portrait for his own pop use.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418945/c7jpzv5a3y9rvjzambwc.jpg"><figcaption>Ray Johnson c/o, interior spread with Rimbaud, pages 304-305 &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Many of the reproductions in Ray Johnson c/o are photographs of the 3-ring binders organized by Wilson and splayed open to various 2-page arrangements (what Boom calls “Bill’s collages”). Wonderfully photographed by Amy Kaczmarek with a dead-pan clarity that includes stray post-it notes and additional hand-written adhesive labels, these documentation photos are clinical but personal—the work of a cold-blooded archivist. The binders are the key to understanding the exhibition. The order and the sequence of images contained within the binders was not dictated by the artist, but by the collector and archivist: Bill Wilson. Without Wilson, there is no Ray Johnson c/o. In this light, Wilson can be thought of as a collaborator and enabler of the artist—a patron of the highest order. Whether money between the two men ever changed hands I don’t know, but nobody continues a 55-year artistic project with another person without the involvement of a far more radical currency: love.The cover of the book is a marvelously tactile collage of Johnson’s greatest hits. Technically a glued-to-the-spine, uniquely folded dust jacket, the cover sports a spot orange ink (most likely Pantone 021U) that I have on good word was not originally specified by Boom. Rumor has it that Boom wanted the name of the show (set in sentence case Cooper Black) to print in black ink; but the book’s distributor, Yale University Press, got worried that the book-buying public wouldn’t recognize and differentiate the typeset title of the book from all the other graphic language of Johnson’s artwork that is also reproduced on the cover. Boom lost this one creative battle. The book title is printed in orange ink, not black. [Hey, Mick: play Sympathy for the Devil for me.]The book’s underlying architecture is that of a 4-column grid that is adaptable into both 2-column and 3-column variations. Set in a typewriter-like font, the text is large and easy to read, with ample word spacing creating text fields that are visually steady even when line lengths get short owing to weirdly-placed inset reproductions of Johnson’s art. Folios are indented from the outer margins. Double hyphens are used in place of em dashes. Two spaces separate sentences. Attention to these conventions matter, as the sum total of them are what gives any book its character, charm or heft. Ray Johnson c/o, the book, comes off as warm, approachable, and lovingly researched and reported—the furthest thing from “fussy” the Art Institute of Chicago has ever produced.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9300/ray-johnson-c-o">Ray Johnson c/o, at the Art Institute of Chicago</a>, Nov 26, 2021–Mar 21, 2022&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jnldesign.com/studio/">Jason Pickleman</a> is an artist and graphic designer in Chicago. He has produced graphic identities for EXPO Chicago, Millennium Park, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. His professional design work is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Book Report: Ray Johnson c/o 

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418952/lxcem7zaj2tvhakzncao.png"></figure>By CGN StaffThe River North Gallery District spaces are banding together again to host their traditional fall gallery walk on the Friday after Labor Day – September 10, 2021 from 5-8pm. Afterward, walk attendees are invited to enjoy cocktails and al fresco dining at River North's modern Greek restaurant <a href="https://avli.us/">Avli</a> at the corner of Wells and Huron or sample home made Italian fare at <a href="https://www.torchiopastabar.com/">Torchino Pasta Bar</a> on Wells.A September gallery walk has been around in the district for decades. After a 2020 hiatus due to the pandemic, galleries are eager to invite collectors and visitors to the city on self-guided tour of eight spaces, from Huron, Superior, and Wells Streets, while meeting artists, curators, and gallery staff.&nbsp;Last year was challenging for most galleries. Many had to get creative with their exhibition plans while boosting their online offerings in order to continue to reach collectors they might normally engage with in person during openings and art fairs.The galleries held a successful and busy Mid-Summer Gallery Walk this past July and this fall gathering promises to even busier and buzzier, since it also coincides with the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/6th-annual-river-north-design-district-fall-gallery-walk">River North Design District</a> walk, happening simultaneously (details here).&nbsp;The Fall River North Gallery Walk is totally free and open to the public. Maps are available at Addington Gallery (704 N Wells St.)&nbsp;Saturday Morning TourThere is also a monthly <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2021/6/river-north-s-popular-saturday-morning-gallery-tours-are-back-with-updates">free Saturday morning gallery tour</a> taking place the following day, September 11, at 11am.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/second-saturday-gallery-tour-c394584b-e981-4eaf-86e5-e164772f717b">Details and Rsvp here</a>.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Participating galleries:<a href="https://zollaliebermangallery.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b2b04f842b0918c879d49d6fd&amp;id=714dd787a0&amp;e=6447216ad9">Addington Gallery</a><a href="https://www.carlhammergallery.com">Carl Hammer Gallery</a><a href="https://zollaliebermangallery.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b2b04f842b0918c879d49d6fd&amp;id=673bc3304b&amp;e=6447216ad9">Gallery Victor Armendariz</a><a href="http://jeanalbanogallery.com">Jean Albano</a><a href="https://zollaliebermangallery.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b2b04f842b0918c879d49d6fd&amp;id=8a8561d80b&amp;e=6447216ad9">Hilton | Asmus Contemporary</a><a href="https://zollaliebermangallery.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b2b04f842b0918c879d49d6fd&amp;id=ea408a7455&amp;e=6447216ad9">Vale Craft Gallery</a><a href="https://zollaliebermangallery.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b2b04f842b0918c879d49d6fd&amp;id=4037903f01&amp;e=6447216ad9">Zg Gallery</a><a href="https://zollaliebermangallery.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b2b04f842b0918c879d49d6fd&amp;id=00f6886f66&amp;e=6447216ad9">Zolla/Lieberman Gallery</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

2021 Fall River North Gallery Walk Planned for Sept 10

<html><head></head><body><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/what-just-happened">What Just Happened</a>Exhibition starts September 1Zhou B Art Center&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418952/tecjxy1bleqhmnuiips2.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/small-expressions-the-art-may-be-small-but-it-is-intriguing-to-view">Small Wonders</a>Exhibition starts September 2Kavanagh Gallery at Fine Line Creative Arts Center&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418952/bmhecflgqxtuy6c61kjj.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/nancy-fritz-arc-members-show">Nancy Fritz</a>Exhibition starts September 2ARC Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418953/cbeumieom19w0hqijc9w.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/contemporary-chronicles">Contemporary Chronicles</a>Opening: Friday, September 3, 11&nbsp;am – 6&nbsp;pmSouth Asia Institute&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418954/mh8zlz7y3x3bp28yxs8c.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/claudia-hart-the-unfolding">Claudia Hart: The Unfolding</a>Exhibition starts September 3Haynes&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418955/ed1huv50kepcqwigwhyd.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/dredske-a-ridiculous-clusterf-k">Dredske: A Ridiculous Clusterf#*k</a>Opening: Friday, September 3, 6 – 9&nbsp;pmElephant Room Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418955/q3e3pvgo5lwcjpc4sbxu.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/no-space-between-us-teresa-james-fred-stonehouse">No Space Between Us: Teresa James &amp; Fred Stonehouse</a>Opening: Friday, September 3, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmHofheimer Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/bani-abidi-the-man-who-talked-until-he-disappeared">Bani Abidi: The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared</a>Exhibition starts September 4Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA)&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/see-my-story-a89717b5-b4e3-47de-bc37-74e51ef940f8">See My Story</a>Opening: Saturday, September 4, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmPerspective Group + Photography Gallery, Ltd.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Start September 1 - 4

<html><head></head><body>By CGN StaffSchool is in session (!), galleries are coming back from their last days of vacation before the final install for next week's shows, and everyone is eager to get into the districts to see art again. Things are happening, and it's about to feel like fall in Chicago.&nbsp;The new issue of CGN has just been published, covering news and exhibitions from September through the end of 2021. We're especially happy to welcome back a slate of strong new exhibitions as well as much loved opening receptions for the start of their big fall shows. The gallery buzz is a totally in-person experience, one that has been truly missing since 2019, so whether you will be visiting a gallery by appointment, during regular hours, or with friends for an opening gallery walk, art face-to-face is surely back, triumphantly in sprite of 2021's twists and turns.&nbsp;A handful of shows open this first weekend of September, including the new pop-up Neon and Light museum on West Huron, and then things really get going the Friday after Labor Day and through the first half of the month. Below are some highlights we have grouped for you so you can plan your outings by date and district.&nbsp;See you in the galleries!&nbsp;&nbsp;Labor Day Weekend Openings<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418952/zy9jepbx5e7ggvh01ew2.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/no-space-between-us-teresa-james-fred-stonehouse">No Space Between Us: Teresa James &amp; Fred Stonehouse</a>Hofheimer GalleryOpening Reception: Friday, September 3, 5 to 8pmTeresa James's time secluded in the Wisconsin woods during the pandemic inspired her for this exhibition: No Space Between Us is a body of work that reminds us of our role here on Earth. We need each other, and even social distancing can’t keep us apart.&nbsp;The narratives in Fred Stonehouse's work suggest the mythic as seen through the lens of the everyday. Subjects as big as life and death, love and loss, culture and politics commingle with the mundane details of daily life.<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418953/ehwuoimod7jav9fxe0m2.jpg"><figcaption>GHULAM MOHAMMAD (Pakistani, b. 1979) Untitled 2014Iranian Ink and Paper Collage on Wasli 12 x 10 2/4 in. (30.5 x 26.5 cm).</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/contemporary-chronicles">Contemporary Chronicles</a>South Asia InstituteOpening: Friday, Sep 3, 11&nbsp;am – 6&nbsp;pmFeaturing 15 contemporary South Asian artists, this exhibition represents the manipulation of craft to further reflections on environments, languages, and identities. Artists trained in traditional techniques expand and contract these practices, utilizing new tools and media to complicate their global, national, and individual identities.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418954/m5ahzd6uwiq57zg4v42x.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/dredske-a-ridiculous-clusterf-k">Dredske: A Ridiculous Clusterf#*k</a>Elephant RoomOpening: Friday, Sep 3, 6 – 9&nbsp;pmDredske is tapped into current moods and trends, translating that through imagery and collage. This particular body of work addresses intellectual property rights and its role in art. The artist focuses much of his attention on the Supreme brand and logo because of its prominence in the streetwear market and the fact that their logo, white text in italicized Futura Oblique font inside a red box, is an appropriation of artist Barbara Kruger’s text in her artwork.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418955/kfrjgybw0yhugrogir1m.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;RNDD Gallery Walk: September 10The <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/6th-annual-river-north-design-district-fall-gallery-walk">River North Design District's</a> partnership with River North galleries means there will be a big crowd gathering in dozens of spaces on September 10. For the 6th year (after taking 2020 off) the RNDD showrooms will feature a variety of fine artists and designer vignettes along with special events throughout River North. Each participating showroom and art gallery will be exhibiting artwork created by contemporary artists. Chicago’s top designers will also be selecting their favorite art and creating inspirational vignettes in each showroom.The 2021 lineup begins with a VIP kickoff party at Calia Stone Boutique at 5:30pm, featuring design vignette and work curated by Yamini Designs and Interiors by Francesca. Headline artist is Linc Thelen also featuring art from philanthropic partner Aspire Art360.&nbsp;The walk concludes with an after party hosted by 210 Design House and PROjECT. interiors with artist Pat Sansone and philanthropic partner Digs with Dignity from 8-10pm.View the full list of participating galleries, artists and showrooms <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/6th-annual-river-north-design-district-fall-gallery-walk">here</a>, and buy your VIP and after party tickets as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418955/lvpq6njnvysnxmtt0ebr.png"><figcaption>A summer crowd at Addington Gallery</figcaption></figure>River North Gallery OpeningsWe will highlight individual River North gallery openings next week as well. You can <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events?district=river-north&amp;filter=upcoming">see the full list here</a>.&nbsp;<h3>&nbsp;</h3>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418956/quxfseyp1zyar5rzgpkz.png"></figure>The Neon and Light MuseumWe covered this earlier this summer, but for a few weeks this fall, there is a very bright pop-up coming to W Huron Street in River North. Dealer Ken Saunders had a light bulb moment earlier this year to highlight the various artists working in neon. The experience promises to be illuminating. <a href="https://neonandlightmuseum.com">Tickets</a> are available in advance for $40.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Logan Square, Garfield Park, West Town/Ukrainian Village<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418957/stptdzrt8l9zoais8vup.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/an-abstract-universe">Abstract Expressionism – Stanley Dean Edwards</a>Oliva GalleryOpening Sep 10, 5-8pmThe paintings presented here by the artist meet at the nexus of spontaneity and control. Two emotional forces that collide on the canvas, expressing the Yin and Yang of the human psyche.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418958/bqnfwtzqscv307edeuua.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/group-ceramics-show">Tender to the Bone</a>GoldfinchOpening Sep 12, 12 - 4pmThrough a range of ceramic forms, the nine artists in “Tender to the Bone” expose relationships between malleability and calcification—the ossifying, changing, breaking, and “resoftening” parts of life.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418958/eqc38y4zqitjljppsqew.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/david-heo-presence-solo-show">David Heo&nbsp;– Presence</a>Vertical GallerySaturday, Sep 11, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmA native of rural Acworth, Georgia, David Heo took his earliest creative inspiration from the drawings of his older brother. As a teen he immersed himself in tattooing, a craft that deeply influenced the hard edges, detailed imagery and bold color palette that are hallmarks of his work today. Heo received his Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; while at SAIC, he frequently employed non-traditional materials like crayons, house paint and construction paper.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418959/e7cf99uvcnbdcz0dvope.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/susan-rothenberg-on-both-sides-of-my-line-1974-1979">Susan Rothenberg: On Both Sides of My Line, 1974-1979</a>Gray WarehouseSep 10 – Oct 9On Both Sides of My Line is a solo exhibition celebrating the life and work of renowned American painter Susan Rothenberg (1945 – 2020) through key examples of her most iconic series: the profile horse paintings.&nbsp;Coming In Part II: Sept 13–30• West Loop and West Town• Art Fairs as well as Other Shows at Museums and Art Institutions&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

The Fall Art Season Is Here: Part I (Sept 1 - 12)

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/lt8vydd0cxlu6vwtvtuz.png"><figcaption>Isobel Neal (center) with daughter-in-law Jeanette Sublett and son Langdon Neal, pictured at the family’s law office of Neal &amp; LeRoy in front of a painting by Robert Dilworth</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEAIsobel Neal was looking for something to do. By the 1980s she had been a retired teacher for more 10 years, and when Neal told her friend Ann Nathan that she wanted to open a gallery, Nathan said, “You must be crazy.” Neal responded, “Well, I guess so.” Nathan would know, as she had opened her own gallery in River North a few years prior.&nbsp;Neal wasn’t afraid of crazy, having managed a classroom of 60 fourth graders during her years as an inner-city public school teacher at Beethoven School on 47th street. In fact, it was art that helped her manage the daily chaos, wielding it as an incentive to work.&nbsp;She recalls, “At Beethoven if you had any difficulties behaving, you lost your chair. Nobody wanted to stand all day, so art worked as the treat and a motivator. They wanted to get their work done so they could have some fun.”At home she employed art in the same way with her young son Langdon, who still remembers working on potato prints and string paintings he was proud to put up on the wall.&nbsp;Neal’s impulse to open a gallery was no vanity project. She had years of experience as an educator, and she had gradually found herself with a new lesson to teach, having realized that no one in Chicago was representing the scores of Black artists whose work she was seeing. She knew she wanted to do something about it.&nbsp;*&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418945/zbc2lil6emsu5edr9nd8.png"><figcaption>Painting by Alvin “Al” Loving &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Prior to living in Chicago, Neal lived in New York City, where she attended NYU. When she took an interest test upon graduation, she was still surprised that her top result was art. “I laughed,” she recalls. “I said, “Art? What am I going to do with that? At the time [women] were either going to be&nbsp; teachers, social workers or nurses. Those were the options. So, I never thought about art for years, except that I liked it.”Neal taught in Chicago for two decades. When she retired, she wanted to pursue other interests fully. At her husband’s encouragement she took a sabbatical and went back to school, spending time in California getting a master's degree in anthropology/archeology. Upon returning to Chicago she taught adult education classes on African pre-history and archeology at the Northwestern Center for American Archeology as well as at the Field Museum.Around the same time she was asked to chair the Black Creativity Art Show at the Museum of Science and Industry. It was when poring over slides for the juried exhibition that Neal says she began to see so many artists from all over the country send in work they wanted to submit.&nbsp;Neal began to think, “Who’s representing all these Black artists? What I found was that this town, at that time, only knew about Richard Hunt. Other Black artists who were living here, or not, would drop off a piece in a gallery, leave it on the floor, and if somebody saw it and wanted to buy it, that’s the way it went. Nobody was getting an exhibit or any real backing.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418946/ja6soageom9stqqicddq.png"><figcaption>A painting by Calvin B. Jones hangs in the law offices of Neal &amp; LeRoy &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>Neal was inspired to look around for a space to rent so that she could begin to think about building a gallery program around Black artists. “I wanted the kind of space that everybody else had then,” she says.&nbsp;It was the 1980s, and things were buzzing in the area that had become known as River North. It was also at that time that she got Ann Nathan’s frank opinion on opening a gallery. Neal thought she was on to something, crazy or not, and she settled on a space, located at the corner of Superior and Wells streets, that she could divide up into three distinct areas to show different artists simultaneously.&nbsp;Neal knew the building from years earlier, during her time as a teacher for Homebound, a public school program that was the Zoom of its time. She had been assigned to teach a child who was unable to come to school, and she was sent to a family that lived at 200 W. Superior. She remembered just standing outside the building. It was in such disrepair, she says, that she didn’t go in. “I sort of walked in the hall and thought, ‘I’m not going up there. Nobody’s around to tell me which apartment it is.’”&nbsp;The neighborhood changed quickly, once pioneering galleries, run by figures like Rhona Hoffman, Donald Young, and Carl Hammer, moved in, and the district expanded and became established. Eventually Neal moved into a renovated space in the same building that she didn’t want to go into all those years before.In search of artists to exhibit, Neal ventured to New York, using some connections to meet new artists. She went on a shopping spree of sorts, buying a range of art from artists like Ed Clark, Romare Bearden, and Jacob Lawrence, and she visited African American art dealers.For the gallery’s first opening, at the start of the fall art season in September 1986, Neal decided on a show of work by local artists as well as others from around the country whose work she admired.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418946/rzyhjog3lxzpi6npmhlb.png"><figcaption>Neal in her gallery in the 1990s</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Chicago artist William Carter was part of the inaugural show. Neal recalls, “He had quite a following, but he had been selling out of his house. A big, heavy man, right before the opening, I realized he would need a place to sit, so I ran across the street to another gallery to borrow a big, antique chair.“Carter sat in the corner, and he just loved it, because it was like a throne. There was a big crowd. All my family thought I was crazy, but my friends said, ‘We’ll come.’” The success of that evening was the beginning.&nbsp;“[Openings] became a meeting place,” remembers Neal. “The day after I was scrubbing [scuffs] off the white walls. I was really busy, and it was exciting. I was never bored. I was thrown in with artists who were as fun to talk to and be with as you could ever imagine.”In 10 years, Neal says she showed 100 artists, doing exhibitions every six to eight weeks, usually with three different artists’ work at a time. She was never at a loss for artists.&nbsp;“I didn’t have to find anybody. They found me from everywhere. I had an artist who was Haitian, she was living in Paris. I had people from Canada and from Mexico. There were so many Black artists who needed exposure.”Jeanette Sublett, Neal’s daughter-in-law, who is married to her son Langdon, remembers, “The gallery was sort of the place, at the time in this area, for these artists to be exhibited, not to mention represented. Isobel always threw a great opening. Sometimes she had live music. There was always great food and drink. A lot of people attended; it was a place to be and to be seen.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418947/cohkygwl27ocbmkkytmf.png"><figcaption>Neal seated in the antique "throne" chair in the gallery&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Giving Black artists the opportunity and visibility to be full participants in the art economy drove Neal. She also needed to make that a reality for the gallery in order to continue her work. Though electrified by the enthusiasm for her gallery, business success was not immediate. Neal realized that selling enough art to pay the bills was going to be tougher than she expected and that the teaching nest egg she had used to get started was rapidly running out.&nbsp;“I thought I had a lot of money until maybe two or three months went by,” Neal says, “and then I thought, ‘Oh.’ So, the family stepped in and became backers, and it became a family business.”Her exclusive support for Black artists gained the attention of other prominent Black Americans. She once hosted a reception at the gallery for Mae Jemison, the first Black female astronaut, when she returned from a space mission. Neal recalls that Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley offered to have a reception for her at Soldier Field, or Navy Pier, but Jemison said, “I want it to be at Isobel Neal Gallery.” Neal had taught with the astronaut’s mother at Beethoven School and had discussed the gallery with her a little. “It was a huge crowd,” Neal remembers. “I have a wonderful photograph of the aurora borealis that she took from space. She wrote on the top, ‘To Isobel Neal Gallery.’ We just got flowers for her, but she was the star.”&nbsp;*<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418948/esu139yc1ugcy2kwzal5.png"><figcaption>A painting by Clarence Ferguson on view at Neal &amp; LeRoy</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Neal’s roster of artists ranged from well-known figures like abstract painter Ed Clark, and Mexico-based Elizabeth Catlett, who studied with Grant Wood in the 1930s and showed prints with the gallery, to many artists who were not (yet) widely recognized but who did find recognition in line with their talent. Herbert House, a sculptor, sold so much work through the gallery he fulfilled his life-long dream and retired to Hawaii. Preston Jackson and John Rozelle both were offered jobs at the School of Art Institute because of their exhibition history. Neal’s crazy idea to start a gallery gave many artists the critical exposure and CVs they needed to reach new levels.&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;Neal’s husband, who was a prominent attorney at his own firm, considered that no artist should have a show without a sale. That commitment greatly scaled up the amount of art the Neals collected, because, if there was no sale, they bought something. The focus was on the artist’s success.&nbsp;Neal had been collecting art for quite a while before she began selling it, and she always enjoyed returning to New York and visiting galleries. She fondly remembers one trip when she picked out a Charles Alston painting as a birthday present. But, she confesses, what she and her husband largely did to fill their walls and amass their collection was attend events like The South Side Community Art Center yearly benefit auction as well as Hyde Park’s 57th Street Art Fair to find a range of appealing prints, sculptures and paintings, even commissioned portraits. In at least one such case a picture of young Langdon Neal was painted by an artist on the spot in the street.&nbsp;*<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418949/a3rybwcjwfp4i3xiyjcj.png"><figcaption>Neal, second from left, with an artist and collectors at an opening</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;As the child of serious collectors, Neal’s son Langdon grew up exposed to art from the beginning, but what sticks out the most from his youth was making art. His mother incentivized and entertained him as she did her students. “We passed time during those early years doing art projects in school and at home. It was just kind of what we did to fill in the day.”Over the years he graduated from art making to being a part of the collecting. Now they each consider their family’s leadership and art mission a collaborative effort. “It is definitely a family art collection,” explains Langdon. “Part of it is in my mother’s home now, part is in Jeanette’s and my home, more of it’s here in our [law] office, and we have things in storage. Between all of us we don’t have enough walls to display our artwork.”&nbsp;The collective effort is a shared pride. “It was a combination of,” admits Langdon, “the enjoyment of giving African American artists a place to show their works, something they never had, and carrying that into displaying their art in places where people could enjoy them. Even now having art throughout our [law] office means clients as well as our staff can enjoy this work. The collection was bigger than just the art itself. It was about opportunity and exposure for Black artists.That is still our focus today. Even outside the art world we try to act as mentors and supporters.”Though the collection is dispersed amongst the Neals’ homes and their office, I was surprised to learn that it has not been exhibited in its entirety. Works by artists like Catlett and Clark have been loaned to the Museum of Contemporary Art and other museums, but so far, not the majority of the collection. Assembled over a period of decades, drawn from several sources and by multiple people, the sheer volume of art and historic material that has come together should capture the attention of a very ambitious curator.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418950/nfssxzikxm1boivxlykj.png"><figcaption>Robert Dilworth</figcaption></figure>*<figure class="image image-style-side"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418951/kox1qvw24gmlbfe8ekrr.png"><figcaption>A bronze sculpture by Preston Jackson</figcaption></figure>Neal closed the gallery in the late 90s. Today she is focused on her work with the Art Institute of Chicago, where she sits on the Board of Trustees and on several of the museum’s committees, continuing to work on behalf of Black artists. Neal serves with Denise Gardner, who will officially become the first Black person and first woman chairperson of the board this November. The two women are friends, and Gardner is a former client of Neal’s gallery. “Denise and her husband Gary credit me for getting their collection started.”When I ask Neal about how she sees her role today from the position of a trustee of an internationally renowned museum, compared to her time as an art dealer starting out, she says she’s seeing a real attempt at change, so far, with some of the Art Institute’s collections and the representations within them–a natural continuation of what inspired her to start the gallery.&nbsp;“These are big changes,” she explains. “This has been a huge upheaval that we’ve lived through, not only through COVID, but George Floyd. [The Trustees] have looked at pages and pages of changes and had Zoom meetings galore about where to go next.”&nbsp;While much of the conversation around representation is very familiar to Neal, she says the perception of value in the market and within institutions is different this time. It’s what she sought for Black artists decades ago. When I ask her why the change might be for real now, she refers back to those busy openings at the gallery in the 80s.&nbsp;“I can’t say that nobody ever did it before, but there wasn’t a dedicated initiative to show Black artists. I feel that my greatest contribution, really, in 10 years at the gallery, was to make the art world know that African Americans had disposable income. I think that is the basis of why nobody widely showed work by Black artists before. They didn’t believe that anybody would buy their art. At my gallery, they saw people literally lining up. These artists were worth the money.”&nbsp;Because of Neal, no longer could collectors, and others, think Black art was only created and shown on the South Side, when every few weeks a diverse clientele was packed into a popular gallery on the North Side of Chicago, showing exclusively Black art.&nbsp;Neal never stopped being a teacher, and she continued to use art as a motivator. “I purposely wanted to have the gallery where everybody else was,” she says. “That was my whole drift: to educate, I suppose, everyone. My philosophy really was that art was universal. Everybody can enjoy it, and everybody can recognize talent. That’s the story.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Stewards For Generations: The Neal Family's Influential Support for Black Artists

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418952/kvmaihhog34aru9ehruf.jpg"><figcaption>Paula Crown, JOKESTER, 2018 &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;By ANNA DOBROWOLSKIA crushed 10-foot-tall red solo cup, a stack of coolers, and acoustic drums may seem like the remnants of a giant’s tailgate—in Milwaukee, WI these larger-than-life sculptures are part of there is there is this We, Sculpture Milwaukee’s fifth run, guest curated by Michelle Grabner and Theaster Gates.&nbsp;Grabner is a Milwaukee-based artist, writer, and curator who was recently named a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow. Gates, a Chicago-based artist and curator and professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Visual Arts and the College, is known for his work with urban spaces.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418953/wmxz16skrinqatgkcnnj.png"><figcaption>Kara Hamilton</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;This year, Gates and Grabner’s initiative galvanized working artists and the community. In just under six months, the exhibition gained more than half a dozen new works, including Plein Air Super Catcher, a premier sandcast work by Brad Kahlhamer; the first large-scale sculpture by Jason Pickleman, Hand Heart; and work made of locally sourced cream city brick by Kara Hamilton, the Curtain Wall. Facilitating these (often-experimental) processes required a great deal of flexibility, problem solving, and quick thinking by both curatorial and exhibitions teams, according to Bianca Bova, Sculpture Milwaukee’s Associate Curator.&nbsp;“We worked with not just the artists, but a range of commercial fabricators, stone masons, and foundries (along with our dedicated team of installers at Methods &amp; Materials) closely and collaboratively to realize these works,” she said.&nbsp;Students and community members also participated in some installations. In July, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Architecture and Urban Planning students assisted with artist Matthias Neumann’s wood sculptures in his series “Basics 51.”&nbsp;“Sculpture Milwaukee understands the power that artists have, and the power that art has to potentially help give new form to the city,” says Gates. “To reshape the conversations that are happening socially by not just having one or two artist commissions in a downtown but really having a brief that brings in artists from all over, and who have a relevant voice, to be present in Milwaukee – I think that this is a transformation. It’s really the way a radical city should work.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418954/yvvegdtniyhd26obmewn.jpg"><figcaption>Curators Theaster Gates and Michelle Grabner</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Grabner mentions the ‘poetics of perseverance’ as the driving factor in selecting the works. As poet Gwendolyn Brooks poignantly conveys in her poem An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire, “In a package of minutes there is this We. / How beautiful.” The exhibition’s title reminds us about the elusive thing we call community. “[It] reflects the collective power of the works included and honors a belief in social change through the provocations of the artistic imagination,” says Grabner.&nbsp; Sculpture Milwaukee’s fifth edition looks at sculptures and public art as social commentary on what’s left behind, and how we can continue building a radical city.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418954/ktlqf4z0rh7dvmmyfrmb.png"><figcaption>Matthias Neumann</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;‘there is this We’: Sculpture Milwaukee 2021 investigates global issues and shared urban spaces using public art. It is free and open to the public until fall 2022 •&nbsp; <a href="http://sculpturemilwaukee.com">sculpturemilwaukee.com&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

Sculpture Milwaukee No. 5: There Is This We

<html><head></head><body>VIA PR &nbsp;CHICAGO – The Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) and the Chicago Architectural Club have announced seven finalists for the architectural design competition calling for new, creative visions for the State of Illinois Thompson Center designed by Helmut Jahn, built in 1984 and put up for sale in May 2021. The winning design proposal will be announced Tuesday, September 14 at the opening of a pop-up exhibit featuring the winning and finalists’ designs on view at the CAC through October.The competition seeks to give the building new life through restorative architecture while preserving its architecture and public character. The competition was open to anyone with a vision for the building including students, architects, designers, planners, and artists. The jury reviewed 59 entries from 5 countries representing work by professional designers and established firms as well as young architects and students.The finalists include:"The jury’s selection of the seven finalists for the 2021 Chicago Prize Competition provide an impressively diverse set of possible uses for a re-imagined space devoted to Chicago’s civic ideals," said Elva Rubio, Chicago Architecture Club co-president. "The design proposals turn the space into a new civic center with a state-of-the-art glass façade, a mixed-use development with an open-air park on the ground floor, a new Chicago Public School, a hotel and indoor waterpark, an urban farm, an art and civic culture destination with imaginative spaces suspended in the atrium, and a conical skyscraper skinned as a 3D LED screen."<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/pejej9dtlykdss7dmtfx.jpg" alt="page1image32473920"><figcaption>"Offset: The Vertical Loop" is a mixed-use development with a new thermal envelope behind the original curtain wall that is set atop a ground-level remade as a public park within hanging gardens. Each floor is zoned, moving from public at the ground level park to private residences and vegetable gardens nearer the roof. Submitted by Tom Lee and Christopher Eastman of Eastman Lee Architects.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/j68fg1sj1apjri9v71m0.jpg" alt="page1image32481824"><figcaption>"One Chicago School" is a new prototype public school focused on public policy and civic engagement for students in Chicago to learn, question, and ignite change. Submitted by Jay Longo, James Michaels, Kaitlin Frankforter, Michael Quach, Abaan Zia, Mackenzie Anderson, Nicolas Waidele, Roberta Brucato, Zachary Michaliska of Solomon Cordwell Buenz, Chicago.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418945/pzbcplgmgvapsoi3uwgd.jpg" alt="page2image32166576"><figcaption>"Public Pool" is a hotel in place of offices ringing an indoor waterpark with monumental waterfalls dominating the atrium set in a garden. Submitted by David Rader, Jerry Johnson, Ryan Monteleagre, and Matt Zelensek of Perkins&amp;Will, Chicago.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418946/pzn7otgeoyssyzyvygvh.jpg" alt="page2image32164288"><figcaption>"Rejuvenation" wraps the existing exterior in a new “smart glass” façade using electronically tintable glass controlled by occupants to improve comfort, maximize daylight, and reduce energy costs. Exterior video projections share Chicago civic news and digital arts media. Submitted by Yuqi Shao and Andrew Li, students at the College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418946/rcdixr3yprnixiaeggzq.jpg" alt="page2image32166992"><figcaption>"Ripple" envisions a new sustainable public attraction comprisedof auditoriums, art galleries, and community spaces rising within the exterior arc of the current atrium. These new spaces lead to a top-floor urban farm with rooftop green houses that use the existing CTA tracks to distribute the produce from the farm to food deserts around the city. Submitted by Patrick Carata, Simon Cygielski, Sarah Bush, Ilyssa Kaserman, Sean King, Amparito Martinez, Marcin Rysniak, Mica Manaois, Ed Curley, and Cameron Scott of Epstein.</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418947/ww2z0t8qyj848tw10iey.jpg" alt="page2image32167200"><figcaption>"There's Something for Everyone" creates an authentic new civic and social spacelinked to cultural groups across the city. Existing floor plates contain support or “back of house” spaces while the volume of the atrium will house performance stages, cinemas, arts galleries, and rehearsal spaces creating strong ties to the diverse arts and civic life of the City of Chicago. Submitted by Chava Danielson, Eric Haas, Tim Jordan, Bohan Charlie Lang, and Xixi Luo of DSH architecture, Los Angeles.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418947/f9ibpet9kuelbcffjke9.jpg" alt="page2image32167408"><figcaption>Thompson-Scraper opens the atrium to the outdoors while wrapping the interior floors above with a façade that becomes a 3D LED matrix able to display images and video. Using the existing elevator banks as a core tube support structure, new floors rise above the existing structure with the familiar step-backs and topped with a conical “spire” also wrapped in 3D LED matrix. Submitted by Wenyi Zhu of Zhu Wenyi Atelier at Tsinghua University, Beijing.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;The jurors include international experts in the design of museums and civic spaces, restorative architecture and landscape architecture, historic preservation, civic culture, and the work of Helmut Jahn, architect of the Thompson Center. The jury includes Carol Ross Barney, Founder and Design Principal, Ross Barney Architects, FAIA, HASLA; Michelle T. Boone, President, The Poetry Foundation; Philip Castillo, Executive Vice President, JAHN, FAIA; Peter D. Cook, Design Principal, HGA Architects &amp; Engineers, AIA, NOMA; Thomas Heatherwick, Founder and Design Director, Heatherwick Studio; Mikyoung Kim, Founding Principal, Mikyoung Kim Design; Bonnie McDonald, President &amp; CEO, Landmarks Illinois.The sale and possible demolition of the Thompson Center has been controversial among Chicagoans and architecture and design professionals around the world. Despite the toll caused by lack of maintenance, Helmut Jahn’s design of the Thompson Center is prized by the design world as a unique example of post-modern architectural design in a civic building meant to draw citizens into the daily workings of government. The State of Illinois issued a request for proposals for the Thompson Center site in August 2019. On August 17, 2021, the State of Illinois delayed the announcement of the winning bid from January to April 2022, reportedly at the request of developers submitting proposals.“In reviewing the design proposals and selecting these seven finalists, my fellow jurors and I considered how to ‘crack open’ the ground floor of the Thompson Center and make it breathe life into the streets,” said juror Thomas Heatherwick. “The strongest proposals show how emphasizing the ground experience and creating a dynamism inside the building can become an attractor that brings a new chemistry to the city. There is such a great opportunity here to reimagine a new type of public space and again showcase Chicago as a global hub for top design.”The CAC’s pop-up exhibit featuring the winning and finalists’ designs will join the CAC’s current Helmut Jahn retrospective Both will be open to the public through October. In July, the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) opened its first, major limited-run exhibit, HELMUT JAHN: LIFE + ARCHITECTURE, the eagerly anticipated career retrospective of Helmut Jahn’s innovative architectural designs. The July 8 announcement of the new exhibit garnered global interest for the pathbreaking architect whose bold building designs can be found in virtually every major metropolis—from his adopted home of Chicago to Bangkok to Berlin to New York to Shanghai to Tokyo—buildings which are all part of Jahn’s enduring legacy. The exhibit, organized after Jahn’s death in May, includes numerous scale models of Jahn’s pathbreaking designs throughout his career and runs through October.• Legacy of Helmut Jahn - January 4, 1940 - May 8, 2021Helmut Jahn, FAIA, has earned a reputation on the cutting edge of progressive architecture. His buildings have had a “staggering” influence on architecture according to John Zukowsky, former Associate Curator of Architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago. Jahn’s buildings have received numerous design awards and have been represented in architectural exhibitions around the world.Born in Germany, Jahn graduated from the Technische Hochschule in Munich. He came to the United States for graduate studies in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After attending IIT, he worked at C.F. Murphy Associates as a Project Architect under Gene Summers, designing the new McCormick Place. In 1976, his first major high-rise building in Chicago, Xerox Centre, received great critical acclaim.Jahn has been called Chicago’s premier architect who has dramatically changed the face of Chicago. His national and international reputation has led to commissions across the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia. His projects have been recognized globally for design innovation, vitality, and integrity. Featured in numerous publications, his work has generated much excitement amongst the press and general public alike.Jahn’s work has been included in exhibits worldwide since 1980. He has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was the Elliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Design at Harvard University and the Davenport Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University, and Thesis Professor at IIT.• About the State of Illinois “James R. Thompson Center”Designed by Helmut Jahn, the State of Illinois Center, also known as James R. Thompson Center, is facing the threat of complete demolition. Located in the Chicago “Loop” it is a major transportation node, commercial center, and workspace. The building has been criticized for being ugly, oversized, inefficient, and poorly maintained. However, the Thompson Center has been pivotal to urban transit and a highly democratic contemporary civic center. At the time of its construction in 1985, Helmut Jahn’s State of Illinois Center was a stark contrast to Chicago’s historic and modernist architecture, yet today it is an architectural icon in its own right. For the fourth year in a row, the Thompson Center has been listed in the Landmarks Illinois’ annual Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois and it was included in Preservation Chicago’s Chicago 7 Most Endangered list in 2018, 2019, and 2020.&nbsp;</body></html>

Seven Finalists Announced for Design Competition For New Visions for Helmut Jahn's State of Illinois Building

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/amgcekxijhglorjnhmqo.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/jim-dine-american-icon">Jim Dine: American Icon</a>Opening: Thursday, August 26, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmSnite Museum of ArtAmong the most distinguished figures in Contemporary art, Jim Dine (b. 1935) is an inspiring presence as a painter, printmaker, sculptor, and poet.&nbsp;Fearlessly experimental, Dine helped define the Pop Art movement, then expanded his creative reach within and beyond the American art scene to become one of the most iconic and influential artists on the international stage.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418945/lbda4gvzuxfqs7g3rnu4.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/hal-fischer-photographs-seriality-sexuality-semiotics">Hal Fischer Photographs: Seriality, Sexuality, Semiotics</a>August 26Krannert Art Museum, University of IllinoisThe exhibition includes a generous selection from Fischer’s earlier work (some of it produced in Urbana), which has not been publicly displayed in decades. This earlier work contextualizes Fischer’s development as an artist, from his student days at the University of Illinois to his creative maturity in San Francisco.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418946/sdvfneqpbr1tzqxcynbm.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/duck-feet-guest-curated-by-ricardo-partida">Duck Feet: Guest Curated by Ricardo Partida</a>Opening: Friday, August 27, 5:30 – 8:30&nbsp;pmCircle Contemporary (Arts of Life)Ricardo Partida is a Mexican-born, Chicago-based painter and recent graduate from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago’s Master of Fine Arts in Studio program. His work largely critiques and illuminates depictions of gender and desire in the Western Art Canon by creating exalted alter egos that question conventional power structures while obscuring artist and subject.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418947/tkgvy0ge4o1gdktyu5v3.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/origins-paul-nicklen-cristina-mittermeier">Origins: Paul Nicklen &amp; Cristina Mittermeier</a>August 27Hilton | Asmus ContemporaryPaul Nicklen (Canadian) is a visual artist and marine biologist who has documented both the beauty and the plight of our planet for over 20 years.&nbsp;Paul’s photography informs and connects by creating an emotional bond with wild subjects in extreme conditions.&nbsp;Cristina is a pioneer in the use of powerful and emotive imagery to propel conservation efforts. Born in Mexico, Cristina is a marine biologist, photographer, and writer who specializes in issues surrounding fisheries and indigenous cultures. Cristina's work has exhibited at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, The Miller Gallery in Cincinnati, The Paul Nicklen Gallery in New York, Xposure in the UAE , Art Basel Miami, Terras de Salitre/Mar de Mares Festival in Santiago, The Museum of Plastic Pop-Up in New York, The United Nations Headquarters in association with Disney and Girl Up, and at Fotografiska in Stockholm, Sweden.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418948/lk5jes5uggxjcwjwznox.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/moment-like-this-juried-by-jessica-bingham">Moments Like This</a>Opening: Saturday, August 28, 4 – 7&nbsp;pmWoman Made GalleryA group exhibition juried by&nbsp;Jessica Bingham&nbsp;featuring the work of 42 women and non-binary artists. Moments Like This&nbsp;explores the Slow Living lifestyle, and considers the practice of rest and retreat as an anti-capitalist practice. The works invite the audience to contemplate, process, rest, and come back into ourselves and our communities.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418948/jo3rmdw27hfw4rye2l4s.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/sandra-leonard">Sandra Leonard</a>August 28Evanston Art Center&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Start August 26 - 28

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/dorcqeicy22motxrwrjs.jpg"><figcaption>Publisher and Intern Supervisor Ginny Van Alyea enjoying art in person again. Pictured: A Mirror Painting by Anjali Srinivasan at Ken Saunders Gallery</figcaption></figure>By GINNY VAN ALYEAI listened to a church sermon recently about brokenness and disrepair. The priest then asked the parish to consider, ‘What’s wrong with being broken?’&nbsp;We typically regard fragmentation as bad. A mess is there to be cleaned up.&nbsp;His question made me think, if we’re always seeking perfection, we are certain to never achieve it. We will be left unfulfilled. What if we look at broken as a new state of being – like a work in progress? Being less than whole may not equal imperfect.&nbsp;We are each living amidst ongoing uncertainty, and in response many of us have been reaching our individual and collective limits, sometimes hitting new breaking points. As we continue to live life in a pandemic, we also have the chance to look at ourselves with fresh eyes and take on new projects and causes. &nbsp;I keep looking at this fall compared to 2020, or even 2019. I see that day to day life is still weird, but it’s beginning to take shape. At CGN I’m especially grateful we have had the chance to interview artists and collectors in person in order to learn from them as well as be in the presence of figures who have been a part of, and influenced, Chicago’s artistic legacy.&nbsp;&nbsp;In this issue we hear from the following people (stories will all be posted online in the coming days and weeks): &nbsp;• Artist <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2021/8/a-man-walks-into-a-museum-for-tony-fitzpatrick-2021-is-a-return-to-more-than-before">Tony Fitzpatrick</a> says he became an optimist after a serious heart attack in 2015. Now 63 he’s still a work in progress, and he’s not done yet.&nbsp;• Isobel Neal started a revolutionary gallery in the 1980s dedicated to exhibiting Black artists. What Neal saw as an imperfect art market led her to open a business to serve as a solution for more meaningful and representative exposure.&nbsp;• Artist Pooja Pittie was cut off from her new studio space during lockdown, but her day to day challenges living with a disability were eased by proximity to a home studio and by the chance to work on a new scale.• Audrey Niffenegger is putting together the Artists Book House piece by piece, and it’s been a multi-year project already. It won’t be ‘finished’ for years to come. &nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;We are steadily seeing <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events?filter=upcoming">CGN’s exhibition calendar</a> fill up again. In-person art events still change frequently and are less predictable but planning and making the effort is brave. There is still a lot to go out and see.&nbsp;Two exhibitions I visited with my children this past summer aligned with my new outlook on the splintering of things and how to enjoy beauty in the unexpected:• <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/ken-saunders-gallery-bdeab8a5-f8dd-41ff-8ec9-1c2d97c08a4f">Ken Saunders Gallery</a> had two large mirror paintings on display by Anjali Srinivasan (pictured above). The glass had been smashed into pieces that were still held together. Whatever your superstitions might be about broken mirrors and bad luck, the result is beautiful and captivating – the old mirror showed one image. The new, broken one revealed many more.&nbsp;• Theaster Gates’s <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/theaster-gates-how-to-sell-hardware">How to Sell Hardware</a> at Gray Warehouse told the story of a South Side True Value that went out of business and sat, intact, for years before Gates purchased it and scattered the contents into breathtaking gallery installations. The store was never going to be made whole – the stock suddenly for sale again on the shelf, but it did transition into something beautiful and revelatory.&nbsp;&nbsp;Maybe as we look at art again in fall 2021 we can each be rescuers of overlooked treasure, seeing something anew, appreciating the value and opportunity of a fresh start this season.&nbsp; &nbsp;– Ginny Van Alyea&nbsp;You can subscribe to the new fall 2021 issue of CGN <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/print-subscriptions">here</a> for $20/year for three issues&nbsp;</body></html>

Fall 2021 Publisher's Letter: Regarding Beauty And Opportunity in The Broken

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/bmo97jbsxxmn4rhmze9b.png"><figcaption>Tony Fitzpatrick. Photo: Peter Rosenbaum</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;Fall 2021 CGN Cover Interview. Subscribe to receive the print version <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/print-subscriptions">here</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;By GINNY VAN ALYEAFresh from a positive report from his cardiologist, artist Tony Fitzpatrick invites me to sit down and indulge in some fried chicken and cake. Following a 2015 heart attack Fitzpatrick, at 63, is full of life and fire. A widely-known creative force in Chicago and well beyond, the artist says he was given a second act (or third, or fourth, if you listen to his stories of previous close calls) in order to keep making art.&nbsp;Fitzpatrick’s stories are legend, and he loves a listener. More than that, he loves an audience. He’s sure to get one this October, when he opens Jesus of Western Avenue, an expansive exhibition taking place at the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/jesus-of-western-avenue">Cleve Carney Museum of Art</a> in suburban Glen Ellyn. The artist will also be publishing Apostles of Humboldt Park, a book featuring a collection of work Fitzpatrick created in isolation: signature drawing collages of birds he’s observed and admired throughout Chicago’s famed west side park.As much as Fitzpatrick loves connecting with people and sharing his stories, from Facebook to a theater stage, he seems most at home in his west side studio, working on his latest collages as well as directing deliveries and shipments of art, hosting visitors or introducing artists and collectors through exhibitions at The Dime and T.F. Projects. If Western Avenue is the solar system, Fitzpatrick might be its sun. There is a gravitational pull that keeps everything in orbit around this particular star.&nbsp;Fitzpatrick wears his heart (tatooed) on his sleeve. There is no speak softly and carry a big stick. There is if you don’t like what he says, you can see yourself out. What pours from Fitzpatrick’s stream of unselfconsciousness are positions on a multitude of topics. When Fitzpatrick took to Facebook during 2020’s lockdown to encourage fellow citizens to be masked and socially distant, he chose the hashtag #staythefuckhome over the more pedestrian, #StayHomeStaySafe.Art, not surprisingly, occupies many of Fitzpatrick’s areas of opinion. For the dozen or so years I’ve known him, Fitzpatrick has frequently shared that he dislikes art fairs. The multi-day, scene-obsessed frenzy they can generate has represented, for him, the apex of all that can be obscenely money-driven, ego-centric and just plain ridiculous about the art world. However, during a recent shared ride to attend the funeral of a friend, Fitzpatrick had the chance to tell Tony Karman, founder of EXPO Chicago, one of the country’s most prominent contemporary art fairs, that he sees fairs in a different light now.&nbsp;Where he once ranted at the affront of an art marketplace that seemed to rule at the expense of true creativity and art appreciation, he says he now realizes that when many people gather for fairs there are celebrations of art as well as unparalleled opportunities for idea sharing and artist recognition; not everyone is a self-interested speculator. The professional convergence and standards set at the best art fairs have facilitated timely and productive discussions and projects that benefit a broader public. Fitzpatrick sees Karman, amidst a landscape more challenging than ever, as a man trying to harness the best forces of the market in order to bring people together – to Chicago – in a way that positively moves art and artists forward together. &nbsp;“I think Tony’s been a good steward of culture in this city. He’s the most brutal optimist you’ve ever met in your life. It’s infectious,” Fitzpatrick exhalts.&nbsp;This about face is just one sign that Fitzpatrick continues to be full of surprises. He considers, “I got a new lease on life from heart surgery, and I lead a really different life now. I swim every single morning. I don’t eat fried chicken a lot (just today).” His opinions, as well as his habits, are like the man himself: sometimes stubborn, but never immoveable. &nbsp;“In the last five years I realized the glass is half full. I wasn’t looking for the good, but I found it. I learned that even just walking around Humboldt park could do me a world of good. I’ve gotten into birding in a big way and also become kind of an activist on behalf of birds and the environment.”&nbsp;With more time to himself in 2020, except for socially distanced jigsaw puzzle deliveries via pizza peel to friends and clients, Fitzpatrick says he had the chance to care more about the local and global environment and how change relates to weather as well as his much loved local birds. “That’s one issue I think we really have to face as a culture and as artists – being better stewards of our planet. Everything’s changed. I think COVID kind of made us somebody else.”&nbsp;Fitzpatrick has also been a sort of activist on behalf of emerging artists who need mentoring support and exhibition exposure and has launched several gallery spaces in Chicago, from partnering on AdventureLand, to founding The Dime, and the newer T.F. Projects. In each case he has sought to adjust the traditional gallery model from an even split between dealer and artist to one that favors the artist. Fitzpatrick recently appointed a new full-time director, Rachael Raab-Wasaff, to manage the galleries and lead from a female vantage point, while also managing Fitzpatrick’s career, freeing him up to work on his art.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418945/c2w5cleso7sqadzkrf15.png"><figcaption>Blackhawk, Illinois Indigo Bunting (Dreaming of Stars), 2021 &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>Of course, Fitzpatrick is really never just making art. He’s also designing puzzles, publishing books, collaborating on public art–he unveiled a large-scale mural for Steppenwolf Theater Company this summer–and preparing for what he says will be his final museum show this fall, at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art.“I feel really good about the exhibition,” says Fitzpatrick. “Right now we have at least 75 pieces in it, so far. We may have to cut, but we’re working with a lot at this point.”&nbsp;The Cleve Carney Museum of Art, formerly the Cleve Carney Art Gallery, part of the College of DuPage and the McAninch Art Center, underwent a renovation and expansion of its galleries as well as a name change in 2019, in anticipation of Frida Kahlo: Timeless, which, along with Fitzpatrick’s show, was delayed for a year due to the pandemic.&nbsp;When I ask about Fitzpatrick’s connection to the museum, he reveals, “I started caddying for Cleve Carney’s father, Marv Carney, in the 70s when I was about 12.” Looking across the table at Fitzpatrick, wearing his favorite White Sox hat and with gray in his beard, his fair skin mostly obscured by colorful tattoos, I am trying to picture him as a country club caddy, let alone a pre-teen. Fitzpatrick confirms he was never a golfer. “Why would I wear funny pants and chase a little ball around?” he asks me. He explains, however, that he was particularly good at reading greens, a skill he possessed because his drawing acumen helped him understand planes and trajectories. &nbsp;Fitzpatrick emphasizes that he learned a lot from that time. “You wouldn’t think it would be the job that most formed me, but it did. I learned how to win graciously, and how to lose gracefully.” Fitzpatrick also got to practice the art of listening (to more than a few dirty jokes), as well as getting, and holding, someone’s attention – skills that would all be put to use when he would later perform and tell stories in theaters and on film.&nbsp;He says, “I had a remarkably bad attitude, but Marv liked me because I read his putts, and they played for money.” Following some remarks on the course one day–Carney let Fitzpatrick know he needed a haircut as well as an attitude adjustment–when asked what he was going to do with himself in life, Fitzpatrick responded, “I wanna be an artist.” To which Carney exclaimed, “Fuck. You’re not going to make any money. My kid’s into that. He just got out of law school. Every damn dime he makes, he spends on art.” Carney offered to introduce Fitzpatrick and his son the next time he was out golfing.&nbsp;However stern Marv was, Fitzpatrick says, Cleve was a lot of fun. “If I were to liken him to something in nature, it would be a pond full of otters.” When he did get to know Cleve, eventually Fitzpatrick showed him some drawings, and Cleve, in his late 20s at that point, responded by telling the young artist about many others, such as the German expressionists, and the artists of the Weimar Republic. When Fitzpatrick shared that he wanted to learn how to make etchings, Cleve pointed him to study Hogarth, and Picasso. “He really came to me with the right things at the exact right time [in the 70s.] When I started making a name for myself in the 80s, Cleve was the first guy to come to my studio, and every time he came, he would buy something. He was just unbelievably kind and supportive of me.”&nbsp;Cleve Carney built a major art collection over the years and championed a wide range of nonprofits and causes throughout Chicago. His 2012 donation of $1 million in cash and art to the college helped establish the Cleve Carney Arts Gallery which became the Cleve Carney Museum of Art in 2019. Fitzpatrick knew he had to do this exhibition, the one he says will be his last museum show, because he credits the support of this one man with making him an artist.&nbsp;&nbsp;*<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418945/ge7qs2dgr4owtpzo19dk.jpg"><figcaption>Left: Western Avenue (Street of Crocodiles), 2021; Right: The Emerald Bird (Absinthe Bird for Lenora Carrington) drawing collage, 2018</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;I’ve heard Fitzpatrick talk about lasts before, so knowing he’s looking to keep going, following his heart attack, rather than call it quits, I press him if he really means it. Does he wonder what new, impossible to pass up offer could still come along?&nbsp;“The museum thing, for sure it’s the last,” he responds. “It’s time to get out of the way for people who don’t look like me. If I deal myself out of that equation, then some institutional wall space becomes available for somebody else. I think it’s important for us to create some equity, and it starts with every single artist.”&nbsp;He emphasizes the significance in artists recognizing that they are each other’s advocates as well as worthy of accepting each other’s support. “The one thing the community has to realize is the most valuable assets we have are each other. Most things one artist cannot do by themselves. You put four or five of them together, and you can move mountains.”&nbsp;*<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418946/g3o3dbz4udfj1ie0q3ol.webp"><figcaption>Art work for Fitzpatrick's mural, Night and Day in the Garden of All Other Ecstasies. &nbsp;</figcaption></figure>Fitzpatrick’s new Steppenwolf Theater mural, titled Night and Day in the Garden of All Other Ecstasies and completed this spring, may also be his last mural in Chicago. Created in honor of the theater’s former artistic director, and Fitzpatrick’s friend, Martha Lavey, it represents the evolution of the storied company. At 12 feet high by 76 feet long, the mural hits some firsts for Fitzpatrick–his first outdoor mural and his largest work to date. Artist Danny Torres is credited with the laborious process of digitizing Fitzpatrick’s images for the mural inch by inch, which took him six weeks before they could be transferred to tile by a company in Italy. The quality and durability of the images on tile means that the mural won’t be as vulnerable to degradation by sun or weather. Says Fitzpatrick, “I think it’s a future of public art. I love the romance of painting onto something, like Michelangelo, but how often is most of that covered up?”&nbsp;Coming off of the Steppenwolf mural, Fitzpatrick and Torres started their own company–Fitzpatrick, Torres, Humboldt, Caballo–and are now looking for opportunities around the country and the world. Though this is supposed to be the last one they do in Chicago, time will tell. Either way, their work will not end.&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;Whereas some people become more stubborn with age, swearing off new things, and people, Fitzpatrick thrives on fresh energy. His friendship and business partnership with Torres, who is about half Fitzpatrick’s age, was also borne from what followed Fitzpatrick’s heart attack. Torres’s aunt, a cardio rehabilitation nurse at St Mary’s Hospital where Fitzpatrick received care, called Fitzpatrick. He recalls, “She just says, ‘This is Rosa, who restored you to life. I want you to meet my nephew, who is a marvelous artist.’ The minute we started talking, it was like we knew each other. We were already kind of the same.”&nbsp;Fitzpatrick liked Torres and wanted to support him, so they talked about taking 18 months to get enough work ready to hang at AdventureLand, the gallery which used to be where T.F. Projects is now. Torres sold out his first show on the opening night. Not long after that was when Steppenwolf approached Fitzpatrick about the mural for their new building. He knew he could make the maquettes but he would need a top crew of artists to work with to execute it on a grand scale. Torres was his first choice. And once COVID altered the project’s entire timeline and prospects, just the two of them were mainly left to see it through.&nbsp;“No one could say they knew what [COVID-19] was yet,” Fitzpatrick recalls, “We were kind of lost for a while, until Mike Tobin, the head of Steppenwolf’s board, introduced us to the guys at Imola Ceramica.” Around for centuries, the company became known for fabricating decorative porcelain and ceramic tea sets before delving into cutting edge imaging about 30–35 years ago. That connection made the Steppenwolf mural’s production possible, and it also revealed new collaborations for Fitzpatrick and Torres, as well as any future players who come into their orbit.&nbsp;The mural commission was obviously a significant artistic and business win for Fitzpatrick and his team, but what he says he finds most valuable is the work as public art in Chicago that will last long after he is gone.&nbsp;“To do this in a public way, where people don’t have to pay a dime to see it? I love that.”&nbsp;Jesus of Western Avenue is on view at the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/jesus-of-western-avenue">Cleve Carney Museum of Art</a>: October 16–Jan 31, 2022&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418947/cmv7rt60qdnevhvah2e5.png"><figcaption>Tony signing limited edition posters for Steve Earle's tribune album to his son Justin Townes Earle</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

A Man Walks Into a Museum: For Tony Fitzpatrick, 2021 is a Return to More Than Before

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418938/lb0wpjvnsgq7o6aehebq.jpg"><figcaption>The Chicago Architecture Biennial, opening September 17, reimagines city-owned vacant lots.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/september-2021/the-chicago-architecture-biennial-takes-a-fresh-approach/?fbclid=IwAR2KSzwpztPiA5v3BGZwe4t_ytW6PuJCbkQYef72YEMIOBtgXhAVfDC-dCE">The Chicago Architecture Biennial Takes a Fresh Approach</a>For many, the mention of “architecture” conjures thoughts of floor plans and blueprints that become houses and buildings and skylines — facts and figures about which are conveyed to us on riverboat tours of the built environment.But the fourth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which opens September 17, centers on the unbuilt. Dubbed The Available City, the 2021 biennial pairs contributing architects and designers with community organizations to imagine — and, in some cases, implement — new projects for Chicago’s approximately 10,000 city-owned vacant lots.Via Chicago Magazine&nbsp;<a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/3aqvpk/dawoud-bey-early-photos?fbclid=IwAR3IM6S75yHa1de-yhR27JosJOWFg5ioSuVSAUKq3W1hG9_jwxzty1DKfg4">Dawoud Bey picks 8 of his favourite early images</a>Dawoud Bey began photographing the streets of Harlem in the mid 1970s after receiving a camera that belonged to his late godfather. He took a class at his local YMCA, purchased some books, and quietly began observing the street with this camera in hand. Almost 50 years later, Dawoud’s archive of portraiture traces seismic changes – social, political and technological – that play out in the grandest and smallest details of his images. This year, an exhibition of his work, <a href="https://whitney.org/exhibitions/dawoud-bey">Dawoud Bey: An American Project</a>, currently on show at the Whitney Museum, further cements his status as one of America’s most vital documentarians, and a pioneer of a medium that was once overlooked.Via I-D Vice&nbsp;<a href="">Dead Tree Near Loyola Beach Gets New Life As 16-Foot Sculpture</a>For decades, a massive locust tree at Loyola Beach provided shade to parkgoers, including chess players squaring off under its canopy. The tree has died, but it is being reborn as a 16-foot-tall sculpture.The <a href="http://www.chicagotreeproject.org/">Chicago Tree Project</a>, a joint effort from the Park District and Chicago Sculpture International, turns diseased and damaged trees into public art. Artist and sculptor Plamen Yordanov is using a chainsaw to reconfigure the Loyola tree into a stack of geometric shapes.Work started last week and will likely be complete in early September, making it the 46th tree transformed into a sculpture under the seven-year-old initiative.Via Block Club&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chuck-close-portraits-photorealism-richard-serra-vija-celmins-roy-lichtenstein-cecily-brown-walker-art-center-11629481046?fbclid=IwAR31A9HMNYq1zVOQR0E_MtnYxBfZwhxNenlt1OTaRLBvWn0SS9e3MeP8-vU">Chuck Close (1940-2021): Painting Monumental Portraits, Chronicling the Art World</a>Chuck Close, one of the most important painters of the postwar era and a blue-chip name in the contemporary art world, died on Thursday at age 81. One of the last surviving pioneers of the old New York art scene in SoHo, where he moved in 1967, Mr. Close became a marquee figure thanks to his monumental portraits. Painted from photographs taken by Mr. Close and executed with such precision that he found himself included in the nascent Photorealism movement (an association he rejected), they were field-filling head shots in which every detail down to the smallest pore was meticulously recorded. While he experimented with style and medium across his long career—painting, printmaking, drawing, collage, photography, tapestry—Mr. Close will always be remembered for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-SEB-1388?mod=article_inline">his attentiveness to the human face,</a> for his regard for and manipulation of that most unique of physical characteristics.Via Wall Street Journal&nbsp;Thumbnail image: Chuck Close’s ‘Big Self-Portrait’ (1968) PHOTO: CHUCK CLOSE/PACE GALLERY&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 8/23

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418944/odiwb92fyze1qkldkr1l.jpg"><figcaption>(l-r, t-b): William Estrada, Cecilia Beaven, Farah Salem, Moises Salazar, Alexandra Antoine, Aaron Hughes, Jory Drew, Devin T. Mays, Dorothy Burge, and Bermet Borubaeva. Courtesy of Hyde Park Art Center.</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;Via PR<a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/">Hyde Park Art Center</a>, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, proudly marks the tenth anniversary of its Jackman Goldwasser Residency program, offering four comprehensive residencies of varying lengths for local, national and international artists and curators. For over a decade, the residency program—with a particularly focus on ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Native American) artists—has been providing valuable studio spaces, art classes, and supportive resources, while connecting the resident artists to the city’s artists, institutions, and cultural communities.In response to COVID-19 and the crises it brought forth and amplified, the selection of the 2021 roster of residents and supportive public programming have been adapted to increase support for Chicago artists (vs. those requiring travel), fortifying the program’s effort to help artists sustain art practices especially in the face of the pandemic. The 2021 cohort features ten artists of various disciplines, from painting to printmaking and textiles, in four programs of varying length and focus. In general, residencies range from six to eight weeks for national and international residents, while Chicago artists may participate in a yearlong intensive in the signature Radicle Studio Residency.&nbsp;The artist application for the 2022 class is open to apply for the year-long Radicle Studio Residency and seasonal Flex Residency, by Monday, August 23, 10 p.m. CST at <a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/">www.hydeparkart.org</a>.“Over an incredibly challenging year for arts organizations, and most of all artists, Hyde Park Art Center took this opportunity to reset intentions and recommit our programs to supporting art in Chicago, ensuring that artists across the city can continue to make their work and thrive. This year, we were able to refocus attention locally, expanding support for Chicago artists,” says Megha Ralapati, Art Center Residency Manager.&nbsp;The ten artists in the 2021 cohort of the Jackman Goldwasser Residency program are:• Radicle Studio Residency, Year-Long Residency for Chicago ArtistsRadicle Studio Residents are rooted for a year at the Art Center through high-quality, free studio space where artists make work, research new projects, have access to the Art Center’s broad international network of artists and resources, and connect with a dynamic public.• <a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/directory/cecilia-beaven/">Cecilia Beaven</a> is a visual artist and art instructor from Mexico City whose multimedia practice serves as a vehicle for retelling stories from Mexican mythology combined with fictional personal narratives.• <a href="http://hydeparkart.org/directory/farah-salem/">Farah Salem</a> is an artist and art therapist working across media to investigate the gendered nature of trauma as it is embedded within her experiences as an Arab woman.• <a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/directory/william-estrada-2/">William Estrada</a> is an artist and art educator whose community-centered practice seeks to transform, question, and make connections via discussion, creation, and amplification of stories from across Chicago’s rich neighborhoods.• Flex Residency, Seasonal Residencies for Chicago ArtistsFlex Residents participate in focused seasonal residencies where they are given free studio space to make work and develop new projects. They receive access to the Art Center’s broad network of artists and resources and connect with the Art Center's staff and dynamic community. The 2021 Flex Residents include <a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/directory/aaron-hughes/">Aaron Hughes</a>, <a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/directory/alexandra-antoine/">Alexandra Antoine</a>, and <a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/directory/moises-salazar/">Moises Salazar</a>.&nbsp;• BAC x Art Center Residency, Seasonal Residencies for Chicago ArtistsA new partnership with the Black Arts Consortium at Northwestern University offering focused seasonal residencies and access to both the Art Center’s and the Black Arts Consortium’s broad network of artists and resources. The 2021 BAC X Art Center Residents include <a href="https://chicagoartistscoalition.org/artists/devin-mays">Devin T. Mays</a>, <a href="https://envisioningjustice.org/grants-commissions/dorothy-burge/">Dorothy Burge</a>, and <a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/directory/jory-drew/">Jory Drew</a>.• International ArtsLink Fellowship, Ongoing Residency for International ArtistsOngoing partnership with <a href="https://www.cecartslink.org/">CEC ArtsLink</a>’s acclaimed international fellowship program, currently supporting&nbsp; <a href="http://cecartslink.org/grants/participants/residencies_awardees_2020.html">Bermet Borubaeva</a>, artist, curator and educator, who continues her research-focused residency virtually, exploring the intersection of food justice, and innovative trash and recycling practices between her home town Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and in Chicago.&nbsp;In addition, in June 2021, Hyde Park Art Center commenced a new partnership with Les Ateliers Medicis, an art space supporting emerging artists in Clichy-Montfermeil, France, through ongoing collaboration with the French Cultural Council, which builds upon the residency's international collaborative work both with France and beyond. This partnership provides one of the few valuable residency opportunities in the City that enable international traveling for Chicago artists. The collaborative residency, Clichycago, is a new initiative that aims to weave a strong link between urban peripheries from the South Side of Chicago and the Parisian suburb of Clichy-Montfermeil. Chicago artist <a href="https://www.faheemmajeed.com/">Faheem Majeed</a> (whose exhibition Planting and Maintaining a Perennial Garden: Shrouds by Faheem Majeed is now on view at the Art Center) participated in an in-person residency in France through this collaboration.&nbsp;About Hyde Park Art CenterHyde Park Art Center, at 5020 South Cornell Avenue on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering and production space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. Since its inception in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center has grown from a small collective of quirky artists to establishing a strong legacy of innovative development and emerging as a unique Chicago arts institution with social impact. The Art Center functions as an amplifier for today and tomorrow’s creative voices, providing the space to cultivate and create new work and connections.&nbsp;For more information about Hyde Park Art Center, please visit&nbsp; <a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/">https://www.hydeparkart.org/</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2012/1/collector-conversations-deone-jackman">Read CGN's 2012 interview with collector Deone Jackman here</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Hyde Park Art Center Marks Decade of Jackman Goldwasser Residency 

<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/15/1025950962/black-lives-are-celebrated-in-bisa-butlers-extraordinary-technicolor-quilts">Black Lives Are Celebrated In Bisa Butler's Extraordinary, Technicolor Quilts</a>At the top of the Grand Staircase at the Art Institute of Chicago hang massive, colorful banners announcing the art work of Bisa Butler.Butler's specialty is fabric, specifically quilts. And the bold images of Black people she stitches together, using textiles like paint in an explosion of color, is quilting transformed.Via NPRThumbnail: Bisa Butler, Dear Mama, 2019, Collection of Scott and Cissy Wolfe. Photo by Margaret Fox. © Bisa Butler&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/museums/ct-ent-art-banksy-chicago-opens-20210814-hdbi5peonbhqrjzbvw3gxyw7eu-story.html">‘Art of Banksy’ opens in Chicago with the British street artist’s ‘Flower Thrower’ and ‘Flying Copper’ — but not his involvement</a>After a few bumps and curveballs, “The Art of Banksy” is finally open. With a month’s delay and a change of venue, the exhibit officially launched Saturday on the fourth floor of 360 N. State St., atop the Museum of Broadcast Communications.Via Chicago Tribune&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/new-york-book-fair-canceled-armory-show-pivots-1234601393/">In New York, Fair Weather Darkens As Books Show Cancels, Armory Pivots 55 Dealers&nbsp;Online</a>Because of the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus and uneven vaccination rates, as well as ongoing travel bans, plans for upcoming in-person trade fairs, including art fairs, are looking shaky. Two prominent New York events have been canceled within the last two weeks.Via ARTnews&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/stonehenge-secret-sandstone-quartz-crystal-1998477">Scientists Have Conducted Tests That Reveal Stonehenge Is Made From a Nearly Indestructible Ancient Material</a>A long lost piece of England’s Stonehenge monument is helping experts understand the mysterious prehistoric structure. Analysis of a core sample taken from one of the site’s massive slabs suggests that the stone’s&nbsp;geochemical composition may have made it uniquely well-equipped to stand the test of time.Made from 99.7 percent quartz crystals, the stones are practically indestructible, according to a new study published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254760">Plos One</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

What We're Reading: 8/16

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418938/s5oymh9moev4rxnnp538.jpg"><figcaption>Joseph E. Yoakum, Mt Colbart of Nome Alaska, n.d., ballpoint pen, pastel, and colored pencil on paper, 12 by 19 in. PHOTO: ROBERT GERHARDT. COLLECTION OF CHERYL CIPRIANI</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/joseph-yoakum-art-institute-chicago-1234601059/?fbclid=IwAR1sV9qM3bJhvEjUPvx0MCjGhhVbQQ2HYu1H2oaQPHROTFu80abgwWzOUec">The World on a Single Plane: Joseph E. Yoakum at the Art Institute of Chicago</a>Joseph E. Yoakum’s origin story has long been inseparable from the reception of his artwork. In 1962, when he was a 71-year-old retiree living in a storefront apartment on Chicago’s South Side, Yoakum had a dream in which he was urged to make art. He drew nearly every day for the remaining ten years of his life, using inexpensive paper, ballpoint pens, pastels, colored pencils, and sometimes watercolors to create more than two thousand pieces that constitute an atlas of his psychic geography. Among his best-known works are undulant landscapes that are almost psychedelic in their vertiginous perspectives. “What I Saw,” on view at the Art Institute of Chicago, gathers nearly one hundred of these works, plus portraits, sketchbooks, and ephemera—a small but revelatory fraction of Yoakum’s singular output. &nbsp;Via Art in America&nbsp;<a href="https://sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/more-in-common-a-review-of-the-sindhu-project-enigma-of-roots/">More in Common, a review of The Sindhu Project: Enigma of Root</a>Who could have imagined that a casual conversation in Chicago in 2016 between Mahwish Chisty, an American-based artist from Pakistan, and Gunjan Kumar, an American-based artist from India, would result in the compelling exhibition currently on view at South Asia Institute? During their chat, the artists discovered that their family homes were only four hours apart. But, in an interview with the artist Chisty notes, “Due to the tense political relations between India and Pakistan, we could not have met if we lived in our respective countries, even though we share the culture, traditions, and Punjabi language.” Their conversation and the realization that despite the political situation, they had more things in common than divided them became the genesis for The Sindhu Project: Enigma of Roots.Via Sixty Inches from the Center&nbsp;<a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/08/10/chicago-ugly-buildings-tour-is-an-educational-roast-of-downtowns-least-loved-buildings/?fbclid=IwAR35L1p4sIKMJsWbe1Dvd_PhKTr7TqDkAmFWJIMASFtPx1xvmvxKTjjyVHw">Chicago Ugly Buildings Tour Is An ‘Educational Roast’ Of Downtown’s Least-Loved Buildings</a>Chicago may be the architecture capital of the United States — but that doesn’t mean it’s without unsightly buildings.Mike McMains, of <a href="https://tourswithmike.com/">Tours With Mike</a>, is highlighting some of that ugliness with his tongue-in-cheek Ugly Buildings Tour. It starts Friday, with McMains helping attendees see Chicago’s best, worst buildings and understand why they’re just so hideous.Via Block Club Chicago&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 8/11

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418938/yuikrqfjwibrq3wsaucg.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/chop-it-up-black-wall-street-journey-7f74b3c8-9b4c-4d37-8e89-c890ea7eb2ec">CHOP IT UP: Black Wall Street Journey</a>Thursday, August 12, 5:30 – 7&nbsp;pmSmart Museum of Art&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418939/fnbjjtckbrmw7qgwsxog.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/photos-at-zoom-discussion-session-wardell-milan">Photos at Zoom Discussion Session: Wardell Milan</a>Friday, August 13, noon – 1&nbsp;pmMuseum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418940/jqkixb6qalzzzppu1hkt.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/special-musical-guest-rb-green">Special Musical Guest RB Green</a>Friday, August 13, 6 – 9&nbsp;pmEat Paint Studio&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418940/veclelwnkhk3brfczvyv.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/case-talks-presents-cathy-edelman-anette-skuggedal-in-conversation-with-leslie-thomas">Case Talks Presents: Cathy Edelman / Anette Skuggedal in conversation with Leslie Thomas</a>Saturday, August 14, 10 – 11&nbsp;amCASE Art Fund&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418941/ckwbxjy5rbxvqgolafrb.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/artist-talk-nereida-patricia-and-jack-schneider">Artist Talk: Nereida Patricia and Jack Schneider</a>Saturday, August 14, 1 – 2&nbsp;pmMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Talks This Week: August 12 - 14

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418938/lymhsu0ldgwk2xqazxjz.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/hard-soft-the-work-of-daniel-flood-and-marc-benja">Hard/Soft: The work of Daniel Flood and Marc Benja</a>Opening: Friday, August 13, 5 – 10&nbsp;pmOliva Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418939/fwdgd9ehul2mdfymupbc.gif"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/deborah-butterfield-new-sculptures">Deborah Butterfield: New Sculptures</a>August 13Zolla / Lieberman Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418940/ked4kpnaqafvakjqso5g.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/sue-julien-83377e01-0194-4d4f-b52c-94ce60ad00ff">Sue Julien</a>Opening: Friday, August 13, 7 – 10&nbsp;pmFirecat Projects&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418940/qh6frtfj6m1n3rljn530.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/survey-3-i-sense-something-has-changed">Survey 3: I Sense Something Has Changed</a>Opening: Friday, August 13, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmHatch Projects&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418941/nz6exvm6npsskfbqz6fe.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/art-resuscitation-celebration">Art Resuscitation Celebration</a>Friday, August 13, 6 – 7&nbsp;pmARC Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418942/haljrvz7t6xbydh733qh.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/wingchow-solo-show">Wingchow – solo show</a>August 14Vertical Project Space&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Start August 13

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image image-style-side"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418938/jsopoijaaw3rfjfebsvt.png"><figcaption>Theaster Gates via his Instagram Account on August 3, 2021</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.instagram.com/theastergates/">Theaster Gates Was Turned Away from Gold Coast Restaurant</a>&nbsp;Truluck's, a high-end chain seafood restaurant at Chestnut and Rush, told the internationally renowned, barrier breaking artist that his hoodie and sweats didn't meet their dress code.On Instagram Gates posted to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theastergates/">followers</a> on August 3, "CHICAGO’S TRULUCK RESTAURANT DENIED ME BECAUSE I HAD ON A HOODY AND “SWEATS!!!!... I was shocked and confused. I asked for the manager and he didn’t back down. It was movie material. I’m not big on boycotts, but damn, CAN’T A BROTHER EAT!"&nbsp;The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art Both Now Require Masks for All Visitors&nbsp;As of July 31 AIC's new (or renewed) policy is in accordance with an advisory in place from the City of Chicago, following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued due to concern about the potential of vaccinated people to spread the <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/07/30/contagious-delta-variant-chicago/">Delta variant</a> of the novel coronavirus. – <a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/07/31/art-institute-of-chicago-requires-masks/">Via CBS2</a>The <a href="https://mcachicago.org">MCA requests</a> that visitors reserve tickets online in advance and says that masks are required inside the museum.&nbsp;<a href="https://news.wttw.com/2021/07/29/lollapalooza-organizers-donating-22m-expand-arts-education-cps">Lollapalooza Organizers Donating $2.2M to Expand Arts Education in CPS</a>Lollapalooza event organizers announced the launch of a fund that will support arts education over the next five years&nbsp;for more than 100,000 students within Chicago Public Schools.The music fest organizers are donating $2.2 million to CPS to create the <a href="https://www.ingenuity-inc.org/creative-schools-fund/lolla-arts-ed-fund/">Lollapalooza Arts Education Fund</a>, a new partnership with <a href="https://www.ingenuity-inc.org/about/news-update/lolla-faqs/">Ingenuity</a> that will help pay for arts programs in CPS schools for students who currently have the least access to such instruction.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.21cmuseumhotels.com/offer/art-lovers-package/">21C Hotel in Chicago Now Offering Hotel Stay Called "Art Lovers Package"</a>21c Museum Hotel Chicago is one of nine locations that form North America’s only multi-venue museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting the art of the 21st&nbsp;century. Complementing its 10,000+ square feet of exhibition space and current exhibition on view,&nbsp;This We Believe, 21c Museum Hotel Chicago has put together a one-of-a-kind experience that allows art lovers to explore the best of the city’s art scene in one convenient package.Those who purchase the Art Lovers Packages will receive two general admission tickets to three area museums: The Art Institute of Chicago, The MCA and The Driehaus Museum.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Art World Recap: 8/4/21

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418938/epswhmuwkryrvrctumco.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/photos-at-zoom-discussion-session-ike-ude">Photos at Zoom Discussion Session: Iké Udé</a>Friday, August 6, 12 – 1&nbsp;pmMuseum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)Join our Curator of Academic Programs and Collections every Friday at noon for a casual drop-in session where we closely read and discuss one photograph together in the museum's collection. This week we will look at&nbsp;Savoy #3, 2003, by Iké Udé.Presented virtually on Zoom | Register&nbsp;<a href="https://mocp.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9e4250b7536dc23e9352b28ee&amp;id=778a1d28dc&amp;e=62775191de">here</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418939/acyr9oeanmohjm7syyea.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/artist-talk-tracy-ostmann-haschke-a97ea81a-c58e-4afa-9ae9-b78c7b8827e6">Artist Talk: Tracy Ostmann Haschke</a>Friday, August 6, 6 – 7&nbsp;pmSpringboard ArtsMeet Chicago artist Tracy Ostmann Haschke, whose paintings are&nbsp;now on display in our Paradigm exhibit.&nbsp;<a href="https://springboardarts.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=75badec5b84b5e7f40a5a74cb&amp;id=2bb8b56afb&amp;e=5a553c7ecf">Reserve a ticket</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418939/b7tpl3sigxa3jbqrbesq.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/social-justice-sewing-academy-workshop">Social Justice Sewing Academy Workshop</a>Saturday, August 7, 12 – 3&nbsp;pmIntuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider ArtJoin the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) in a workshop aimed at bridging artistic expression with activism. In the virtual program led by SJSA Executive Director Lauren Black, participants will design quilt blocks that reflect social issues significant to them.<a href="https://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0019_KAKQqyFJwyF9UKGIFe1AG5jw2amMuCclOj3aY8kMsqXtqFPr3TOPso2B5OnaGsIBItzQnbDYpCv84R5v01JIfSVPYx41USkGp8e0E8Q_AG8lm7C844Be00BUy-1RlYLD3J0nmQYZhJ9c08hVP4q-Ntky0Bo4X9dygebTNmWyUcBGU40cYOb02bH1MnOgUdrqx3BU_fF0QT8vFSJ75dCjvalP-ItBA5NtXSTJhGxTU=&amp;c=-Gd0zsR33QMgN95Pg7iPwAKr1or06XHnFp0c_Sr_nDPcoJEpa8qExg==&amp;ch=gaBpnb1dTP0rM4o7A2_kKwuqsqCj4GTi39Wu60myWDfHlaMJWji1-A==">Register Here</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Talks This Week: August 6 - 7

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418938/isq3ox8edjflcoli8ojz.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/larry-chait-the-sky-from-the-air">Larry Chait: The Sky from the Air</a>August 5 – 29Perspective Group + Photography Gallery, Ltd.Larry Chait is a Chicago-based photographer who has been pursuing his artistic vision since 2002. He studied photography at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Columbia College, Chicago. His work has been included in the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, the Block Museum at Northwestern University and the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis. He has exhibited widely throughout the U.S. and internationally in more than 100 solo and group exhibitions.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418939/tttcuh38n5nlsw0d2fqo.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/howard-hart-remains">Howard Hart: Remains</a>August 5 – 29Perspective Group + Photography Gallery, Ltd.What does an urban street photographer do when there is no one on the streets? Although he shot plenty of empty streetscapes, like many people last year, Howard Hart spent more time in the natural world than in the city. There he learned to slow down and look at things more closely. Consequently, he found that silence and stillness have a different type of visual interest that can be just as captivating as the chaos of the street. In his exhibition, "Remains," at Perspective Gallery in Evanston, Hart presents us with his discovery of subtle and intricate patterns of light, texture and color that he discovered in the decomposing remains of plant life exposed by the melting snow of Spring.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418940/p9kaphcqvornbh4t8esg.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/larry-chait-the-sky-from-the-air">A Quiet Impression</a>Opening: Thursday, August 5, 6 – 7&nbsp;pmThe Silver RoomJazmine Harris deconstructs personal, communal, and political narratives through photography, video, and text, Memory, both found and fabricated, serves as her primary material; the acts of remembrance inform and shape the processes she employs. As she addresses the beauty and failure of collective memory, Jazmine. seeks to mine, archive, and reimagine impressions left on the personal as one navigates the everyday familiar and unknown.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418940/dgt7drwaaxgvgjfzhmiw.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/words-matter">Words Matter</a>Opening: Friday, August 6, 5:30 – 8&nbsp;pmThe Art Center Highland ParkWith ‘Words Matter’, The Art Center Highland Park sought art that exists in the intersection between visual art and language. The featured artist/ guest juror, Makeba Kadem-DuBose uses vintage newsprint as a form of activism by shedding light on the lack of “news” about women, especially those who had gone missing. She states, “stories of women positive or otherwise that were missing from the “official” media archives...&nbsp; America Me: Missing 1930s through 2021 is intended as an homage, an ongoing series in honor of, and to bring light to the many women who’ve gone missing, and those who’ve survived attempts to disappear us."&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418941/i33qjkth80osoepfpq9p.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/b222a646-ca45-49a6-a593-8af9b29fab3f">Ed Valentine : Good Paintings</a>Opening: Friday, August 6, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmHofheimer Gallery&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418942/beymrqq6369qwdutqw7i.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/nicholas-sistler-reverence">Nicholas Sistler : Reverence</a>Opening: Friday, August 6, 5 – 8&nbsp;pmHofheimer GalleryFor “REVERENCE,” Sistler has focused on inventive playfulness through an intuitive process developed over decades of practice. "I'm fascinated by optical illusions and how visual information can be ambiguous, first appearing one way, then morphing into something entirely different," says Sistler. “My art is about spaces and spacial distortion. Appearing tiny on an expanse of wall, they counterintuitively enlarge our notions of space and perspective. The precise, diminutive work encourages close inspection, even magnification. Upon being pulled into the work, one discovers sharp detail that demands immersion into the proportionately enormous experience.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418943/hiocuiztkxhoi95kxmaq.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/thresholds-perspectives-on-y-ourselves-10dc6000-54ba-4162-b474-58f0195bbe78">Opening Reception: Thresholds: Perspectives on (Y)OURselves</a>Opening: Friday, August 6, 6 – 9&nbsp;pmEpiphany Center for the ArtsIdentity: Perspectives on Y(OUR)selves presents artwork created in Thresholds’ Art Therapy Program. The exhibition examines the topic of identity through the lens of creative expression. These artists all participated in art therapy sessions and were asked to consider how they fit into their created communities at the micro, mezzo and macro levels. They were also encouraged to explore how these communities themselves are formed.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Start August 5 - 6

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image image-style-side"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417815/rnvvp6nptpgeolkjft4n.jpg"><figcaption>(Courtesy Whitney Bradshaw / “Outcry”)</figcaption></figure><a href="https://news.wttw.com/2018/11/27/photographer-s-scream-sessions-aim-challenge-stereotypes">Photographer’s ‘Scream Sessions’ Aim to Challenge Stereotypes</a>Since January 2018, Whitney Bradshaw has photographed more than 375 women who participated in her “Scream Sessions.” All portraits are now on display together for the first time in a new exhibit at the McCormick Gallery called “<a href="https://www.thomasmccormick.com/exhibitions/129">Outcry</a>.”The photos will be up through September 4.&nbsp;And those interested in signing up for a “Scream Session,” can contact Whitney Bradshaw&nbsp;<a href="http://whitneybradshaw.com/contact/">here</a>.Via WTTW&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-epic-style-of-kerry-james-marshall">The Epic Style of Kerry James Marshall</a>For the first thirty years of his career, Kerry James Marshall was a successful but little known artist. His figurative paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and videos appeared in gallery and museum shows here and abroad, and selling them was never a problem. He won awards, residencies, and grants, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1997, but in the contemporary-art world, which started to look more closely at Black artists in the nineties, Marshall was an outlier, and happy to be one. He had an unshakable confidence in himself as an artist, and the undistracted solitude of his practice allowed him to spend most of his time in the studio. The curator Helen Molesworth told me that during the three years it took to put together “Mastry,” Marshall’s first major retrospective in the United States, which opened in 2016 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and travelled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, “there were still people in the art world who didn’t know who he was.”This is no longer the case.Via The New Yorker&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/sevierville-sevier/three-people-hospitalized-after-iceberg-wall-collapses-at-the-titanic-museum-in-pigeon-forge/51-03b562fc-1d26-4800-8ea3-6c514599183e">'Wall of ice' display falls at Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, hospitalizing 3 people</a>The collapse of an icy display that injured three at the Titanic Museum attraction in Pigeon Forge, TN appears to be an accident, according to the Pigeon Forge Police Department."Officers arrived to find that a wall of ice display fell and injured several visitors," according to an update Tuesday from the Police Department.The wall is located on the Promenade Deck, meant to give an example of the bitter nighttime conditions on the night the ship sank. Patrons can touch a large wall of ice.Via WBIR&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/anish-kapoor-foundation-venice-palazzo">Anish Kapoor is converting a vast, crumbling Venetian palace into his permanent exhibition space and workshop</a>The foundation of the British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor has begun renovating a palazzo in Venice that will eventually become the organisation's headquarters.Earlier this year, the Venice city council green-lit construction plans for the Anish Kapoor Foundation to convert the dilapidated 18th-century Palazzo Priuli Manfrin into an exhibition venue, artist studio and repository for a number of Kapoor's most significant works.Via The Art Newspaper&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 8/3/21

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418938/kdjbh2b3gqnf7d8oyexd.jpg"><figcaption>Chicago: Where Comics Came to Life (1880-1960). Credit: Vashon Jordan Jr. Image courtesy of Chicago Tribune</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.saic.edu/news/alum-chris-ware-curates-and-designs-comics-exhibition-chicago-cultural-center?utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=VAP&amp;fbclid=IwAR0URNiNPHDPLGw8fMnn8tJX8YGJgXwKdYtF0Ie6No1R5iazAeERHYo8Zt4">Alum Chris Ware Curates and Designs Comics Exhibition at Chicago Cultural Center</a>Artist, writer, and alum Chris Ware (SAIC 1991–93, HON 2019) and Chicago Cultural Historian Emeritus Tim Samuelson curated and designed the Chicago Cultural Center’s <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-cultural-center-comics-shows-chris-ware-20210701-ln3djwfctvhf5ig5h6w7ommvwe-story.html">newest exhibition</a>. Chicago: Where Comics Came to Life (1880–1960) spans almost a century of content from Chicago’s early comics scene, including pieces from Ware and Samuelson’s own collections. According to the Chicago Cultural Center’s website, the exhibition is an “intentional historical companion to the concurrently appearing survey of contemporary Chicago comics” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Chicago: Where Comics Came to Life (1880–1960) will be exhibited through October 3 in the Sidney Yates Gallery at the Chicago Cultural Center.Via SAIC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-nighthawks-is-a-play-0727-20210727-ops64vvcubcjxk6kfx5axasume-story.html?fbclid=IwAR30tUJkvyq0Yuf9iBDFqCE6wdBjoslNRssqAVt_oqVQOh-U8FaTiD-qcLE">New play will bring Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ one of Art Institute’s most popular paintings, to theatrical life</a>A little boy was trying energetically to climb atop one of the two lions that have long “guarded” the Art Institute as people poured through the doors on Saturday, becoming the latest of the millions of people who have gotten pleasure from the art inside.Some of those creations have provided inspiration for artists in other realms — writers, musicians, playwrights — and the latest of these is June Sawyers, who has created a show titled “Nighthawks: A Theatrical Meditation on Solitude and Loneliness.”Via Chicago Tribune&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/real-estate/ct-re-kenwood-gardens-theaster-gates-0726-20210728-u2y3gcee2ng55gdrsfw34ov3ua-story.html">Theaster Gates is transforming a neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side one project at a time. Next up? The $4.5M Kenwood Gardens.</a>A 1.3-acre garden on the South Side filled with crab apple, Musclewood and Korean dogwood trees is being molded into a green oasis where residents will be able to enjoy the environment alongside educational programming and community-focused gardening.Chris Abraham, head of the planting for Kenwood Gardens, has plans to add Minnie Pearl Phlox, Lilac Squirrel and other plants, but those aren’t the only seeds being laid. The garden is part of an ongoing effort led by artist, developer, urban planner and community activist Theaster Gates to transform neglected areas of the South Side neighborhood into sustainable community spaces.Via Chicago Tribune&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 7/28

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418936/vysw8aejilb3qnvyxb9s.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/eulogy-a-show-with-jovan-c-speller">Eulogy, a show with Jovan C. Speller</a>Exhibition Begins July 29Aspect/Ratio ProjectsEulogy is a mixed media series by artist Jovan C. Speller that documents the artist’s notions of reincarnation. The works represented in this series are materializations of distant recollections of a past life - accepting the unreliability of memory itself, and exploring the myths that remain instead. With this body of work Speller reflects on memory and the transient nature of consciousness.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418936/rdaynfzsvf2jt5rv5wu4.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/paul-nudd">Paul Nudd’s Purple Mayonnaisery + The Uncollected Pictures of Paul Nudd</a>Exhibition Begins July 31Western ExhibitionsIn art ltd in 2011, James Yood wrote of Paul Nudd, “If the body is a temple, Nudd offers it as crumbling and collapsing, as an amazing remnant soon to be food for very busy worms.” Nudd is committed to central themes of primal sludge, growth and disease, systems of classification, mutation and life, patterning and mark making.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418937/cj2sypiyemsfrj9kfiji.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/heather-brammeier-maybe-never">Heather Brammeier: Maybe Never</a>Exhibition Begins July 31Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC)Heather Brammeier is a sculptor, painter and installation artist whose work engages the function of childhood play into adulthood. Brammeier creates visual puzzles that invite movement in and around the artwork, testing physical and perceptual boundaries, mirroring emotional and psychological limits.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

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