West Town, Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village, Kinzie Corridor, Humboldt Park

West Town

Wisconsin

IL • MI • IN

West Loop, Fulton Market, East Garfield Park

West Loop and West Side

Evanston, The North Shore, Northern, Western and Southern Suburbs

Suburbs

Old Town, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Roscoe Village, Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square, Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, Uptown, Edgewater, Andersonville, Rogers Park

North Side

Michigan Avenue, Streeterville, The Gold Coast, The Loop, and South Loop

Michigan Avenue

Pilsen, Bridgeport, Chinatown, plus Hyde Park, Jackson Park/Dorchester, and Bronzeville

South Side

Superior and Franklin streets, West Chicago Ave, and down to Merchandise Mart and the River

River North

Unbounded Territories: Where to Imagine an Alternative&nbsp;invites viewers to reflect on the current spaces we inhabit as humans and envision radical alternatives in their place.&nbsp;Unbounded Territories&nbsp;posits that our contemporary spaces—private, public, and national—are arenas where multiple, intersecting struggles materialize. Through diverse approaches and media, artists in&nbsp;Unbounded Territories&nbsp;expose how our surroundings, from city layouts to office designs, shape society's valuation of human work, often dulling our senses and alienating us from our labor.&nbsp;

Unbounded Territories: Where to Imagine

Mariane Ibrahim is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition in Chicago by artist duo Mwangi Hutter, entitled&nbsp;You Begin to See the Signs. The show will be on view from March 4 to April 16, 2025, and will mark the artists' third solo exhibition with the gallery and first in Chicago.&nbsp;The exhibition will be on view in tandem with the group exhibition&nbsp;Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica&nbsp;at the Art Institute Chicago, which includes&nbsp;Static Drift&nbsp;(2001),&nbsp;part of the museum's permanent collection.&nbsp; <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://marianeibrahim.com/exhibitions/93-mwangi-hutter-you-begin-to-see-the-signs/overview/" target="_blank">Details</a>

Mwangi Hutter: You Begin to See the Signs

The Kim Storage Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition&nbsp;Connections&nbsp;featuring&nbsp;Chicago&nbsp;Artist Jordan Scott.&nbsp; Closing Reception: Friday, April 11 from 5 to 9PM (Gallery Night MKE)Artist Talk: Saturday, April 12 starting at 1PM (Gallery Day) Elements, Used U.S. postage stamps and resin on canvas, diptych, 36 x 36"

Jordan Scott: Connections

The Art Center Highland Park will host students from twelve Chicago area high schools as part of the Central Suburban League (CSL) Student Exhibition.

Central Suburban League Student Art Exhibition

At RAM’s Wustum Museum Now in its 58th year,&nbsp;Watercolor Wisconsin&nbsp;was started in 1966 to honor the depth and breadth of watercolor in the state. This year’s exhibition features 80 works by 69 artists from across Wisconsin. Jurors Tony Armendariz and Shelley Gilchrist considered 200 pieces submitted by 116 artists and curated the works seen in the 2024 exhibition. Armendariz is a contemporary realist artist living and painting in Palatine, Illinois. His work focuses on figurative subjects rendered in watercolor. Armendariz has won numerous awards in regional and national competitions and has exhibited his work in many group and solo exhibitions. Armendariz is a signature member of many national societies, including the American Watercolor Society and the Illinois Watercolor Society, where he also served as director. Gilchrist is an award-winning abstract artist based in Evanston, Illinois, working in two and three dimensions in a variety of media, including acrylic. In 2006, her work turned toward abstraction when she began to shape her painting surfaces and explore line and color in her designs. Gilchrist has juried shows at Woman Made Gallery and ARC Gallery in Chicago. She is a member of Chicago Sculpture International and the founder of FUSEDChicago, a professional group for artists using encaustic. Similar to previous years, Executive Director and Curator of Collections Bruce W. Pepich used memorial purchase award funds to obtain four works from this exhibition for RAM’s collection holdings. Thanks to generous donors over the years, and the ability to use specified funds to acquire work, RAM can count almost 600 watercolors as part of its works on paper collection.

Watercolor Wisconsin 2024

A new show at the Kavanagh Gallery opens on March 27. It features art from 27 artists, many of them local. Items were required to meet a 16" x 16" or 16" x 16" x 16" display size to be included.&nbsp;Join us on Thursday, March 27, from 6 to 8 p.m. for our show opening. It will include talks by some of the artists attending and awards.

Does it Fit?

Visionary Opening Reception: Friday, March 7, 2025 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM March 7, 2025 – April 26, 2025 Join us in celebrating Oliva Gallery’s ninth anniversary with Visionary, a solo ceramic exhibition by artist Aaron Becker. Becker’s unique approach to ceramics explores themes of memory, the future, and human experience. From intricate contemporary ceramic objects to whimsical "thought factories"—sculptures inspired by childhood dreams—his work invites both playfulness and reflection.&nbsp; Coinciding with EXPO Chicago week, Visionary has already drawn attention from Chicago Gallery News and Newcity, and we are truly grateful for the recognition and support from our arts community.&nbsp; We look forward to celebrating with you soon!&nbsp;

Visionary by Aaron Becker

The President’s 17th Annual Art Exhibition highlights top artwork from Lewis University Students and Alumni. This important juried exhibition is hosted by the Department of Art and Design and sponsored by Dr. David Livingston, President of Lewis University.&nbsp;Image: “When Fear Comes Knocking” Oil on Canvas by Katie Melzer, 1st Place Winner at The President’s 16th Annual Art Exhibition, 2024.&nbsp;Awards Reception: April 10, 7-9pmGallery Talk with Prize Winners: April 24, 2-3pmEvents are free and open to the public Wadsworth Family GalleryLewis UniversityOremus Fine Arts CenterOpen 9am-9pm DailyContact Natalie Swain for more information,&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="mailto:swainna@lewisu.edu" target="_blank">swainna@lewisu.edu</a>

President's 17th annual art exhibition 

Shadows are more than just the absence of light—they are symbols of the hidden, the fleeting, and the ambiguous. Across psychology, literature, art, and philosophy, shadows have long served as metaphors for the complexities of human experience. They invite us to explore what lies beneath the surface, confront the unseen, and embrace the mystery of what we cannot fully grasp.Carl Jung’s concept of the “shadow self” speaks to the parts of ourselves we often deny or suppress—the fears, flaws, and truths that challenge our ideal self-image. Yet, in engaging with this shadow, we embark on a journey of self-discovery, finding strength in vulnerability and balance in the dualities of our existence.Shadows shift, stretch, and dissolve, echoing the impermanence of our world. They remind us to savor the fleeting beauty of the moment, to find wonder in the transient, and to reflect on life’s fragile brilliance.Exhibiting Artists: Nicole Beck, Charlotte Briskin, Catie Burrill, Bethany Cordero, Helen Dannelly, Christine Forni, James Hajicek, Alex Jarus, Jen Leibowitz, Dawn Liddicoatt, Marianne Lovink, Dana Major, Angela McElwain, Bill Mitchell, Julia Paloma, Kelly Pelka, Thomas Plum, Vaso Georgulis Powers, Marky Salvati, Howard Sandroff, Zelene Jiang Schlosberg, Snail Scott, Marvin Shafer, David Vosburg, Sishi Wang, Bruce Webber, Charles Yost Curator: Micki LeMieux The CSI Project Space Gallery is located at 1912 N. Damen Ave.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Gallery Hours: Fri, 2-6 pm; Sat, 12-8 pm; Sun, 1-5 pm Image credit: (left)&nbsp;Reception, Snail Scott, (right) Christine Forni,&nbsp;Looking for Refractions in the Light

Shadows

The&nbsp;Driehaus Museum&nbsp;is proud to announce&nbsp;A Tale of Today: Materialities, an expansive contemporary exhibition that invites viewers to discover the history and architectural richness of the Museum through the eyes of artists who are rooted in the Midwest. In the autumn of 2023,&nbsp;the Driehaus Museum held an open call for submissions, asking artists to identify a material from the Museum, research its history, and produce site-specific responses that connect the fabric of the building to distant shores, traditions, and ideologies. The commissioned works connect the past and present in original and compelling ways, linking different cultures to specific materials and&nbsp;allowing visitors to see the Nickerson Mansion through different perspectives. An original idea of guest curator&nbsp;Dr. Giovanni Aloi,&nbsp;organized by the Driehaus Museum,&nbsp;this dynamic, three-floor exhibition includes works from artists&nbsp;Rebecca Beachy, Jonas Becker, Olivia Block, Barbara Cooper, Richard Hunt, IOTO, Beth Lipman, Luftwerk, Dakota Mace, Bobbie Meier, Laleh Motlagh, Ebony G. Patterson, Jefferson Pinder,&nbsp;and&nbsp;Edra Soto,&nbsp;working across a variety of disciplines.&nbsp;A Tale of Today: Materialities&nbsp;will be on view at the Driehaus Museum,&nbsp;50 E. Erie Street&nbsp;from&nbsp;February 7 to April 25, 2025.&nbsp; Driehaus Museum Executive Director&nbsp;Lisa M. Key&nbsp;states, “It has been wonderful to work with Dr. Aloi, whose own unique perspective on the connection between art and nature supports the concepts of this exhibition. This exhibition explores how materials themselves can be storytelling devices, bridging our modern times with those that came before.” Guest Curator&nbsp;Giovanni Aloi&nbsp;adds, “For this exhibition at the Driehaus Museum, it was clear to me that I had no other choice but to directly engage with the building’s incredibly rich material essence. I became fascinated with the idea of following materials, tracing the often invisible connections that tie this one-of-a-kind architectural gem to a multitude of historical, ecological, and cultural universes. It was wonderful to steward the creative approaches of this group of artists through this process.” Exhibition-related programming will include two free community days, plus engaging panel discussions with both the curator and the artists that examine the hidden cultural, economic, political, and ecological histories and networks reflected in the Museum’s materials. These programs will invite visitors to consider the global systems involved in building and decorating the home, as well as the contributions of unrecognized artists and laborers from around the world who played a pivotal role in its construction. Conceived in 2019, the&nbsp;A Tale of Today&nbsp;series fulfills the Museum’s mission to help audiences understand the relevance of the past—particularly&nbsp;the history of the Gilded Age—through different lenses, and to see the present with new eyes. Past iterations include solo exhibitions of notable contemporary artists Yinka Shonibare CBE (2019), Mika Horibuchi and Nate Young (2020), Theodora Allen (2022), and Sif Itona Westerberg (2024), whose works&nbsp;engaged with the Museum’s historic environment to allow visitors to appreciate&nbsp;the enduring appeal&nbsp;of its remarkable interior art and design. A Tale of Today: Materialities&nbsp;is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city's artistic heritage and creative communities.&nbsp;A Tale of Today: Materialities&nbsp;is funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art. ABOUT THE ARTISTSRebecca Beachy&nbsp;is a Chicago-based artist, writer, and educator whose practice explores the complex relationships we have with the natural world. She holds an MFA in Studio Arts and an MA in Art History from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Jonas N.T. Becker&nbsp;is an interdisciplinary, research-based artist. Recent exhibitions include a survey at Wexner Center for the Arts and exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography, and Nazarian/Curcio. He works in Waiteville, WV, and Chicago, IL, where he is an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute. Olivia Block&nbsp;is a Chicago-based, experimental music composer, performer, and contemporary media artist. Her research-driven installations include field recordings, found sounds, found images, electronic sounds, video, and objects. She is known for presenting sound work through installations of multiple speakers. Block regularly performs at festivals and tours throughout America, Europe, and Japan.&nbsp; Barbara Cooper&nbsp;works in sculpture, drawing, and public art, as well as designing gardens and structures for dance and theater. She has had numerous exhibitions, residencies and fellowships, both in the US and internationally, and has used them as opportunities to research and engage with new environments and geographies. A graduate of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Cleveland Institute of Art, Cooper’s work is in the collections of many esteemed museums. Richard Hunt&nbsp;is one of the most recognized American sculptors of the past century. His distinguished art career spanned seven decades. During his lifetime, Hunt held over 160 solo exhibitions and is represented in more than 100 public museums across the globe. Hunt passed away in 2023.&nbsp; Industry of the Ordinary&nbsp;(IOTO) is a two-person conceptual art collaborative, made up of Chicago-based artists and educators Adam Brooks and Mathew Wilson. Their work is often performative or sculptural, incorporating audience participation and interaction with the artists.&nbsp;For over 20 years, they have used performance, installation, objects, and interventions to explore and celebrate “ordinariness” and to challenge and elevate the everyday experience into an endeavor worthy of study and veneration. Beth Lipman&nbsp;is a glass artist who is renowned for her sculptural compositions which recreate the bounty and visual sumptuousness of Renaissance and Baroque still-life paintings, particularly 17th-century Dutch scenes. Lipman earned a BFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 1994. Luftwerk&nbsp;is comprised of artists Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero. Since founding Luftwerk in 2007, their practice has developed a significant body of work that explores the interplay of light, color, and space through the exploration of data, nature, history, and architecture. Their work is multi-faceted, taking the form of installations, site-specific interventions, and artwork, engaging with landscapes and architecture as well as galleries, museums, and art centers. Dakota Mace&nbsp;is an interdisciplinary artist who focuses on translating the language of Diné history and beliefs. Mace received her MA and MFA degrees in Photography and Textile Design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her BFA in Photography from the Institute of American Indian Arts. As a Diné (Navajo) artist, her work draws from the history of her Diné heritage, exploring the themes of family lineage, community, and identity.&nbsp; Bobbi Meier&nbsp;is a Chicago-based visual artist. She is the recipient of numerous awards from organizations including John Michael Kohler Arts/Industry Program, Illinois Arts Council, The Ragdale Foundation, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Meier has exhibited work in over 40 museums and galleries in the US and Europe. Laleh Motlagh,&nbsp;born and raised in Iran, is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. Motlagh received her MFA from the University of Illinois Chicago. Ebony G. Patterson&nbsp;is a multimedia artist creating intricate, densely layered, and visually dazzling works that center the culture and aesthetics of postcolonial spaces. Patterson’s practice includes painting, photography, video, performance, sculpture, textiles, and installation. Across media, her works address themes of postcolonial space, visibility and invisibility, regeneration and mourning. Jefferson Pinder&nbsp;focuses primarily on found objects and video, He investigates identity by creating dynamic circumstances through his innovative use of materials. His work has been featured in numerous group and solo shows including exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Showroom Mama in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and the 11th&nbsp;Shanghai Biennale. Edra Soto&nbsp;is a Puerto Rican born interdisciplinary artist and co-director of the outdoor project space The Franklin.&nbsp;Her recent projects, which are motivated by civic and social actions, prompt viewers to reconsider cross-cultural dynamics, the legacy of colonialism, and personal responsibility. ABOUT THE CURATORDr. Giovanni Aloi&nbsp;is an author, curator, educator, and maker specializing in the histories of art and politics of aesthetics in representations of nature in art. He’s the founder and Editor in Chief of&nbsp;Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture&nbsp;and US Correspondent for&nbsp;Esse&nbsp;Magazine – Art + Opinion. Aloi is co-editor of the University of Minnesota series&nbsp;‘Art after Nature’, and has authored four books including&nbsp;Why&nbsp;Look&nbsp;at Plants? - The Vegetal World in Contemporary&nbsp;Art&nbsp;(2019),&nbsp;Lucian Freud – Herbarium&nbsp;(2019) and the forthcoming Vegetal Entwinements (2023) co-edited with Michael Marder,&nbsp;Estado Vegetal&nbsp;(2023),&nbsp;Botanical Revolutions&nbsp;(2025), andLawn&nbsp;(2025). He lectures at museums and universities internationally and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Queen Mary University of London, Goldsmiths, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London and New York. He received his Ph.D. in natural history and contemporary art from Goldsmiths University of London and has worked as an educator at Whitechapel Art Gallery and Tate Galleries. ABOUT THE DRIEHAUS MUSEUMThe Driehaus Museum engages and inspires the global community through exploration and ongoing conversations in art, architecture, and design of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are presented in an immersive experience within the restored Nickerson Mansion, completed in 1883, at the height of the Gilded Age, and the Murphy Auditorium, built in 1926. The Museum’s collection reflects and is inspired by the collecting interests, vision, and focus of its founder, the late Richard H. Driehaus. For more information, visit&nbsp;<a style="color: windowtext;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.driehausmuseum.org/" target="_blank">driehausmuseum.org</a>&nbsp;and connect with the Museum on<a style="color: windowtext;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Driehaus-Museum/362867207176025" target="_blank">Facebook</a>,&nbsp;<a style="color: windowtext;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://twitter.com/DriehausMuseum" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, and&nbsp;<a style="color: windowtext;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/driehausmuseum/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>. ABOUT THE TERRA FOUNDATIONThe Terra Foundation for American Art, established in 1978 and having offices in Chicago and Paris, supports organizations and individuals locally and globally with the aim of fostering intercultural dialogues and encouraging transformative practices that expand narratives of American art, through the foundation's grant program, collection, and initiatives.

A Tale of Today: Materialities

Corbett vs. Dempsey is pleased to present Arch Connelly: The Future Reflected, Wallworks 1981–1991. This is the first solo exhibition of Connelly's work in Chicago and his first gallery show since his death. Born in Chicago, Arch Connelly (1950-1993) attended graduate school at Southern Illinois University (SIU), in Carbondale, Illinois, where he majored in ceramics. In the mid 1970s, Connelly lived in San Francisco, where he was associated with the gay performance troupe Angels of Light, together with fellow artist Martin Wong, and designed sets for the Cockettes. Settling in New York in 1980, Connelly quickly became an important new figure on the East Village art scene, starting with a solo exhibition at Artists Space and continuing with four solo shows at the legendary Fun Gallery, among other venues including White Columns, Holly Solomon Gallery, and Castelli Graphics. Connelly charted a very personal terrain in his work, using faux pearls, silk, sequins, glitter, and shattered eggshells to create what Rene Ricard called "space age surrealism," a sort of alchemical admixture of materials and images, embracing kitschy opulence by raising it to a new altitude and forcing it into a complex new identity. "Connelly pushes this decadence just one step further," wrote artist Jeff Perrone. "Where formal rigor turns dark, into an area where the bubbly takes an ominous tinge, into the arena of fin-du-siecle stage setting, blatantly theatrical, paintings like heavy velvet curtains ready to part, waiting for action to begin." Decades ahead of his time, exploring an explicitly queer aesthetic in a manner that could easily be mistaken for something made today, Connelly made oval and circular smiley-face canvases as well as gay porn collages, all constructed out of fabulously shimmering and cheaply obtained materials. With a career on the rise, one of Connelly's porn collages graced the cover of the November 1991 issue of Artforum. Tragically, he died of AIDS less than two years later, at age 43. Although he has been seen in recent group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as being the subject of an in-depth survey at SIU last year, this is the first solo exhibition of Arch Connelly's work in the city of his birth and the first commercial gallery presentation to showcase his artwork since his untimely passing, spotlighting rare collages and major works on canvas, focused specifically on his wall-hanging compositions. Image: Arch&nbsp;Connelly,&nbsp;The Future Reflected,&nbsp;1984,&nbsp;acrylic, plastic jewels, pearls on silk moire,&nbsp;40 x 40 inches. Photo by Travis Roozee.&nbsp;

Arch Connelly: The Future Reflected, Wallworks 1981–1991

Artist and musician&nbsp;Petr Válek&nbsp;(b. 1976) creates most of his work in a tiny garden studio in the Czech Republic. This short video on view in the valut takes place in an AI film set resembling a cable access bedroom show on which a ragtag group of costumed misfits move through a virtual-fractal 3D software landscape constructed in a Kodachrome palette over a four-on-the-floor techno soundtrack.

In the Vault: Petr Válek

In the North Gallery, Corbett vs. Dempsey is delighted to present Circle Chat, an exhibition of new paintings by Mike Cloud. This is the gallery's first show with the artist. Mike Cloud (b. 1974) is a Chicago-based artist whose complex and vibrant paintings often utilize conventional support materials organized in unconventional ways. Stretcher bars, normally brought together at perpendicular angles, are instead conjoined into star or diamond shapes, one sometimes crossing in front of another like a highway offramp; canvas may be affixed to the front of the bar, rather than stretched around it, and thin strips of canvas might cross the field like streamers or banners. Are Cloud's paintings abstract? This is a complicated question to address. Are they representational? Yes, they represent specific and concrete things in the world – people, places, objects. Do they represent these things through visual likeness? Not so much. Instead, Cloud invokes other forms of semiosis, producing meanings through a variety of means – written language, linguistic permutations, website urls, hieroglyphs, pictograms, and other symbolic imagery such as hand-birds. Again, are they abstract? Yes, Cloud's paintings are abstract in the sense that they condense vast amounts of information into a limited space. In the new works presented in Circle Chat, Cloud has included two canvases that utilize hinges to fold into floor sculptures, one hinged horizontally like a construction site sign ("Oyster Oil"), the other hinged vertically, sitting on the floor like a scrim ("Kingdom of Luang Phrabang"). Highly specific, yet mysterious and spring-loaded, these virtuosic, operatic works are ultimately meditations on the fundaments of painting – color, facture, form, speed – and the relationship between the act of interpretation and being in the world. Mike Cloud's solo exhibitions include: Thomas Erben Gallery, NY (2014, 2019, 2024); The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago, IL (2017); Max Protetch Gallery, NY (2008); MoMA PS1, NY (2005). His work has been included in group exhibitions such as Good Weather, Chicago, IL; the American Academy of Arts in Letters, NYC, NY; the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Slovak Republic; White Columns, NYC, NY; Honor Fraser Gallery, CA; Ceysson &amp; Bénétière, NYC, NY; Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; Good Children Gallery, LA; Marianne Boesky Gallery, NY; White Columns, NY; Max Protetch, NY; Apexart, NYC. Image: Mike Cloud,&nbsp;Shoemaker Levy,&nbsp;2025,&nbsp;oil on canvas,&nbsp;55 x 60 x 3 inches.&nbsp;

Mike Cloud: Circle Chat

Vertical Gallery celebrates our 12-Year Anniversary with an international group show!On display from&nbsp;April 4 through April 26,&nbsp;the show features 10 returning artists:Martin Whatson (NO)&nbsp;2CHOEY (TH)&nbsp;Jerome Tiunayan (US)&nbsp;Hama Woods (NO)&nbsp;Alex Krueger (US)&nbsp;Arne Spangereid (NO)&nbsp;Grant William Thye (US)&nbsp;Daniel Sueiras Fanjul (ES)&nbsp;Liz Flores (US)&nbsp;Marcelo Suaznabar (BO)&nbsp;&nbsp;Eight additional artists are showing at Vertical for the first time:Jonlouis Gonzalez (US)&nbsp;CABNOV (PH)&nbsp;Matthew Shutt (UK)&nbsp;Ian Inoy (PH)&nbsp;Maks Simone (US)&nbsp;Twopy (FR)&nbsp;TOPO (ES)&nbsp;Glass Cuisine (US)&nbsp;

12-Year Anniversary 

Not Just a Pretty Picture&nbsp;is&nbsp;Rhona Hoffman Gallery's&nbsp;final exhibition&nbsp;in&nbsp;their&nbsp;West Town space&nbsp;opening&nbsp;March 14th.&nbsp;This group show includes drawings, assemblage, sculpture, prints, and paintings by established artists Giovanni Anselmo, Susan&nbsp;Hefuna, Sol LeWitt, Gordon Matta-Clark, Sylvia Mangold,&nbsp;Martin Puryear,&nbsp;Edda Renouf, Richard Tuttle, and Gunter Umberg.&nbsp;This exhibition&nbsp;displays Gallerist Rhona&nbsp;Hoffman's depth as a curator in&nbsp;its&nbsp;appreciation for the artist's exploration of materiality, process, concept, and inquiry into the human condition.&nbsp; The artists manifest their&nbsp;investigations&nbsp;into&nbsp;philosophical states of being and formal queries in their respective practices.&nbsp;They&nbsp;engage, reveal, and offer experiences of existential dualities: simplicity and complexity; visible and invisible; humble and divine.&nbsp;Ranging from Anselmo's&nbsp;Verso Oltremare (Towards Overseas),&nbsp;a&nbsp;500lb&nbsp;esoteric sculpture made of Italian piedmont granite, wire, and aquamarine paint&nbsp;to Tuttle's quizzical lure to gaze upon the ordinary with wonder. These works engage&nbsp;both&nbsp;the intellect and intuition with&nbsp;weighty integrity, beauty, and&nbsp;ephemeral calm.&nbsp;Giovanni Anselmo&nbsp;(b.1934 – d.2023, Turin, Italy), a key figure in the Arte Povera&nbsp;movement, explored forces of nature, gravity, and tension in his minimalist sculptures and installations. His works often incorporated raw materials like stone, wood, and metal, engaging with ideas of impermanence and energy. He had major solo exhibitions at the Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna&nbsp;and Castello di Rivoli in Italy, and Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland. He was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 1990.&nbsp;Susan Hefuna&nbsp;(b.1962, Cairo, Egypt) works across drawing, photography, video, and sculpture, exploring themes of cultural identity, architecture, and language. Influenced by her German-Egyptian heritage, she often incorporates intricate patterns, mashrabiya designs, and layered narratives in her work.&nbsp;She has had solo exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery in London, Pi Artworks in Istanbul, and Sharjah Art Foundation. In 2011, she was nominated for the Jameel Prize at the Victoria and Albert Museum.Sol LeWitt&nbsp;(b.1928 – d.2007, New York, NY) was a pioneering figure in Minimalism and Conceptual Art, best known for his geometric wall drawings and modular sculptures. His philosophy emphasized the idea behind the work over its execution, allowing assistants to produce his pieces based on precise instructions. His work was the focus of major solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and MASS MoCA in 2008, where a large-scale installation remains on permanent view.Gordon Matta-Clark&nbsp;(b.1943 – d.1978, New York, NY), trained as an architect, became famous for his "building cuts",&nbsp;radical interventions that sliced through abandoned structures. His work questioned urban space, decay, and social structures, leaving a lasting impact on contemporary architecture and conceptual art. He had important solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 1977, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and The Bronx Museum of the Arts. In 1977, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Architecture, Planning &amp; Design.Sylvia Plimack Mangold&nbsp;(b.1938, New York,NY) is known for her precise, observational paintings, focusing on both interior spaces—particularly depictions of floors and mirrors—and the natural world, especially trees. Her work engages with realism, perception, and the passage of time. She has had solo exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, and Alexander and Bonin Gallery&nbsp;in New York. In 1979, she received a National Endowment for the Arts Grant.Martin Puryear&nbsp;(b.1941, Washington, D.C.)&nbsp;is a sculptor known for his handcrafted wooden forms, blending traditional craftsmanship with modernist abstraction. His work, often organic and symbolic, reflects influences from architecture, African art, and his background in furniture-making. His sculptures have been featured in major exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Over his career, he has received significant honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989 and the Gold Medal for Sculpture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2007.Edda Renouf’s (b.1943, Mexico City, Mexico) minimalist paintings and drawings explore the physical qualities of paper and canvas. By incising, rubbing, and layering pigment, she creates meditative compositions that evoke rhythms in nature and music. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows at the&nbsp;Guggenheim Museum in New York, The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and Galerie m Bochum in Germany. She received a National Endowment for the Arts Grant in 1980.Richard Tuttle&nbsp;(b.1941, Rahway, NJ)&nbsp;is a conceptual artist working in the space between painting, sculpture, and drawing. Known for his delicate, understated works, he challenges traditional art categories through the use of humble materials and irregular forms that invite close engagement with space and perception. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum&nbsp;in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Tate Modern in London. He was awarded the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 1998.Günter Umberg’s (b.1942, Bonn, Germany) work focuses on the material and optical qualities of painting, particularly the depth and texture of monochrome surfaces. His velvety, dark pigments create intense visual fields that invite contemplation and shift with changing light. His paintings have been exhibited in solo shows at Kunstmuseum Bonn, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and Dia Art Foundation in New York in 2010. In 2000, he was honored with the Will-Grohmann Prize from the Berlin Academy of Arts. Image: Giovanni AnselmoVerso Oltremare, 1984Stone, wire, ultramarine paint114 x 51 inches

Not Just A Pretty Picture

Artists' Talk at the Gallery&nbsp;Thursday, April 17th, 7 PM Steve Geer&nbsp;presents On Chicago Streets, a group of 11 images of interactions between people and their environment on the streets of Chicago. These photographs do not feature special occasions or grand newsworthy events but show snippets of everyday life, scenes that are familiar and that we can identify with. As viewers we become like the photographer, flaneurs. We empathize with the strangers shown in the photographs and try to imagine ourselves in their shoes. Since the images present familiar interactions between people, they ultimately are about human nature and hence about us, the audience. Anthony Iacuzzi's&nbsp;exhibition of AI-augmented photography is titled Imaginings: Exploring the Intersection of Human and Machine. This exhibition presents a series of 15 diptychs, each juxtaposing an original photograph with its AI-augmented counterpart. The project delves into the evolving relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence, exploring how these technologies can both enhance and challenge our perceptions of reality.By employing AI prompts and other tools within Photoshop, the artist has invited the "machine" to reimagine the visual world, offering unexpected interpretations and unforeseen aesthetic possibilities. The results are a blend of the familiar and the fantastical, where recognizable scenes are transformed by the software algorithm and the imagination of the artist.This exhibition invites viewers to contemplate the role of the artist in the age of AI. Is the human touch diminished or amplified by this collaboration? How do these augmented images challenge our understanding of authenticity and authorship?

Steve Geer and Anthony Iacuzzi: The Real and Imagined

Rod Slemmons Honored in New Exhibition SeriesThe&nbsp;Chicago Cluster Project&nbsp;is a new exhibition and public program series inspired by former MoCP Executive Director Rod Slemmons (2002–2011), celebrating his enduring impact on photography and photography education in Chicago. On view at 400 N. Peoria Street—home of the historic Hedrich &amp; Blessing Photography studios—the exhibition&nbsp;Don’t Make Photographs, Think Them&nbsp;invites contemporary artists to respond to Slemmons’ archive and collection of historical cameras. MoCP staff will take part in two public programs reflecting on Slemmons’ legacy.Saturday, March 28, 2025Opening receptionDon’t Make Photographs, Think Them5:00 - 8:00 pm@ 400 N. Peoria St.Chicago, IL 60647 Thursday, April 3, 2025The New Automat6:00 pm@ 400 N. Peoria St.Chicago, IL 60647 Join MoCP Executive Director Natasha Egan and Chief Curator and Deputy Director Karen Irvine with artists and SAIC educators Matt Siber and Jan Tichy for a panel discussion exploring the legacy of Rod Slemmons and his final writing on photography. Friday, April 25, 2025Shadowy Evidence3:00 pm@ 400 N. Peoria St.Chicago, IL 60647 MoCP Curator of Academic Programs and Collections Kristin Taylor and artist Selena Kearney will discuss the Rod Slemmons archive of historical photographs of Native Americans.&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://mocp.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9e4250b7536dc23e9352b28ee&amp;id=8d1afcaa50&amp;e=62775191de" target="_blank">The Chicago Cluster Project</a>

The Chicago Cluster Project

ARC Collective: Member Show

Chicago Cultural Center, Exhibit Hall and Sidney R. Yates Gallery, 4th Floor North + Randolph Square, 1st Floor NorthCurated by Ryan N. Dennis and Jessica Bell BrownA Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration&nbsp;explores the profound impact of the Great Migration on the social and cultural life of the United States from historical and personal perspectives. Co-organized by the Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) and the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), the award-winning exhibition features newly commissioned works across media by 12 acclaimed artists, including&nbsp;Akea Brionne, Mark Bradford, Zoë Charlton, Larry W. Cook, Torkwase Dyson, Theaster Gates Jr., Allison Janae Hamilton, Leslie Hewitt, Steffani Jemison, Robert Pruitt, Jamea Richmond-Edwards,&nbsp;and&nbsp;Carrie Mae Weems. Through the artists’ distinct and dynamic installations,&nbsp;A Movement in Every Direction&nbsp;reveals anew the spectrum of contexts that shaped the Great Migration and explores the ways in which it continues to reverberate today in both intimate and communal experiences. A Movement in Every Direction is accompanied by a two-volume publication that includes commissioned essays by Kiese Laymon, Jessica Lynne, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, and Dr. Willie J. Wright.The Great Migration saw more than six million African Americans leave the South for destinations across the United States at the start of the 20th century and well into the 1970s, including Chicago, IL. This incredible movement of people transformed nearly every aspect of Black life, in both rural towns and urban metropolises, and spurred an already flourishing Black culture.&nbsp;A Movement in Every Direction&nbsp;provides a platform for the featured artists to explore, reflect on, and capture their own relationships to this singular historic happening, both personally and artistically. Brought together by co-curators Ryan N. Dennis (she/her), MMA Chief Curator and Artistic Director of the Museum’s Center for Art and Public Exchange, and Jessica Bell Brown (she/her), BMA Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art, the works offer an insightful rumination on the complexity of the Great Migration as a narrative that is still unfolding. The exhibition showcases an incredible richness of artistic vision and endeavor, with installations ranging widely in conceptual and technical approach and embracing painting, sculpture, drawing, video, sound, and immersive installation.

A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration

Modou Dieng Yacine & Johannes Sivertsen

Wakaliga Uganda, also known as Ramon Film Productions, is a Kampala-based film studio founded in 2005 by Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey Nabwana (Nabwana IGG), affectionately dubbed “Uganda’s Tarantino.” Operating on ultra-low budgets—often under $200—Wakaliga creates action films that combine handmade props, untrained actors, and raw storytelling to craft a cinematic universe as inventive as it is self-aware. Cult classics like&nbsp;Who Killed Captain Alex?&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bad Black&nbsp;refract Hollywood’s hyper-violence through a distinctly Ugandan lens, offering playful yet incisive critiques of global power dynamics. More than a film studio, Wakaliga Uganda is a community hub, providing a space for local martial artists, actors, and technicians—many of them teenagers—to hone their craft. At the Renaissance Society—marking their first exhibition in the United States—Wakaliga Uganda will premiere&nbsp;If Uganda Was America, a speculative satire that flips geopolitical hierarchies, alongside a curated selection of their films. Presented within a site-specific installation designed by Studio 2050+, the exhibition captures Wakaliga’s project beyond their DIY ethos.Curated by Myriam Ben Salah.Major annual support for the Renaissance Society is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Ren programs are supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Annual support is provided by The Provost’s Discretionary Fund at the University of Chicago.&nbsp;The 2024–2025 Music Series is generously sponsored by a grant from the University of Chicago Women’s Board.All Renaissance Society publications are made possible by The Mansueto Foundation Publications Program.&nbsp;&nbsp;Film ScreeningAction! Documentary Double FeatureThu, Apr 3, 7pmLogan Center for the Arts, Screening Room915 60th&nbsp;St.&nbsp;This documentary double feature offers a rare look behind the scenes at the DIY studios of two enterprising filmmakers, one in Uganda and the other in Tunisia—each of them putting their own wild spin on 1980s-style action flicks.&nbsp;Once Upon a Time in Uganda!(2021) introduces us to writer-director Isaac Nabwana, the driving force behind Wakaliga Uganda, and tracks his unlikely partnership with Alan “Ssali” Hofmanis, an American producer and super-fan who moved to Kampala to join him.&nbsp;In VHS – Kahloucha&nbsp;(2006), documentarian Nejib Belkadhi trails amateur Tunisian filmmaker Moncef Kahloucha as he makes his latest feature,&nbsp;Tarzan of the Arabs, with the help of the people around him.&nbsp;DiscussionGrassroots Filmmaking and African CinemaFri, Apr 18, 7pmSwift Hall, 3rd&nbsp;Floor1025 E 58th&nbsp;St.On the occasion of Wakaliga Uganda's exhibition at the Renaissance Society, join us for an expansive discussion with novelist and scholar Akin Adesokan and other participants to be announced. In his multidisciplinary work, Adesokan has explored conceptual patterns in Nollywood and African cinema and the cultural consequences of globalization, among many other subjects. While reflecting on Wakaliga Uganda's movies and methods, this evening program considers the Kampala-based film collective’s work in relation to larger movements in African cinema and grassroots filmmaking.&nbsp;Visit&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://renaissancesociety.org/" target="_blank">renaissancesociety.org</a>&nbsp;for more information.

Wakaliga Uganda: If Uganda Was America

This winter, the Elmhurst Art Museum presents Sustenance &amp; Land: Five Artists Consider Our Relationship with the Earth, a group exhibition exploring human connection to the land and the many ways the earth sustains us. Participating artists Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman, Chunbo Zhang, Lydia Cheshewalla, Claire Pentecost, and Tomiko Jones work in a variety of methodologies addressing human relationships to the land, exploring a broad spectrum of themes including nutrition, cultural relationship to food, scientific investigation, spirit, history, and the future. Humor and creativity are woven throughout, guiding viewers through a rich tapestry of ideas about how we interact with the earth. Curated by Liz Chilsen, Sustenance &amp; Land: Five Artists Consider Our Relationship with the Earthtakes place at the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 South Cottage Hill Avenue, from January 25 to April 27, 2025.&nbsp;Interim Director of the Elmhurst Art Museum Ann Quinn Kelly says, “It will be an honor for the Elmhurst Art Museum to host this extraordinary group of artists. Their work is diverse in focus and technique. Together, the exhibition will raise meaningful considerations about our multifaceted relationship with land and how it sustains us.”&nbsp; Highlights of the exhibition include Ciurej and Lochman’s Processed Views: Surveying the Industrial Landscape, a series which interprets the frontier of industrial food production and the alarming intersection of nature and technology. Also featured is Ciurej and Lochman’s Recipes for Disaster, a 68-page book of recipes that address the dangers of the climate crisis. Chinese-born, Chicago-based artist Chunbo Zhang explores cultural influences and differences between Chinese and American cultures by looking at food presentation. Her seductive watercolors of American staples, such as Chicago deep dish pizza and burgers, critically examine American consumption.Osage artist Lydia Cheshewalla presents intricate collages constructed of seeds. Her multifaceted, land-based practice shows a gentle care for the landscape, inspiring viewers to approach nature with curiosity and to take restorative actions for the earth. Claire Pentecost interrogates the imaginative and institutional structures that organize divisions of knowledge, focusing on nature, artificiality, and food systems. In Our Bodies Our Soils, Penatecost collects soil samples from a wide variety of farms and presents them in jars reminiscent of apothecary inventories or pharmaceutical processes, addressing the state of our soils and its intersection with health. Tomiko Jones presents These Grand Places, multimedia collages that incorporate archival pigment prints, platinotypes, tri-color gum prints, cyanotypes, handwritten text, video, artifacts and performance.&nbsp;This series looks at public land as sites of trauma instigated by the immeasurable, but palpable, effects of human activity and climate crisis.&nbsp; Finally, a tandem exhibition in Mies van der Rohe’s McCormick House on the museum campus presents photographs from the Elmhurst Art Museum collection, including black and white photographs by Chicago photographers Joe Jachna (American, 1935-2016) and Michael Tropea selected from a gift to the Museum from the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation. Jachna's photographs depict the landscape in abstract compositions which impart a mysterious or otherworldly sense, while photographs by Michael Tropea capture industrial views of sites along the Mississippi River.&nbsp;ABOUT THE CURATORLiz Chilsen leads the Exhibitions and Collections programs at the Elmhurst Art Museum. She has organized over 50 exhibitions, including at the Chicago City Gallery in the Historic Water Tower, Chicago Transit Authority’s InTransit Gallery, and at Columbia College Chicago among others. She is founder of “Lessons of Place,” a long-term photography project that explores human relationship to place. For over two decades she taught in the Departments of Photography, Humanities, and Journalism at Columbia College Chicago. She holds an MFA in Photography, and a BS-Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.&nbsp;Image: Tomiko Jones,&nbsp;These Grand Places.&nbsp;Digital&nbsp;Image&nbsp;collage: BW photograph with cyanotype overlay. 2020. Dimensions variable

Sustenance & Land: Five Artists Consider Our Relationship with the Earth

This solo exhibition of work by Willie Cole, who was an Arts/Industry resident in the Kohler Co. Pottery in 2000, features newly commissioned sculptures alongside a selection of works spanning over three decades.Cole visualizes the reality that domestic spaces are often tangled with histories of enslaved labor. He uses the visual vocabulary of the domestic sphere—shoes, tools, furniture, for example—to bring forward the grief and intimacy that linger within private spaces.By using craft and household objects in his artworks, Cole spreads awareness of women’s and enslaved peoples’ labor that has been ignored or under recognized and is integral to the history of the United States. These reflective works are Cole’s initiative to complicate labor histories and lack of visual representations in the art canon.Home Assembly highlights Cole’s refiguring of familiar and frequently discarded objects to confront and demand attention from his audience. His assemblages and prints convey intricate histories and messages, demonstrating the complexities and the commonalities shared in the cultivation of homes and the lives they shelter. Cole frequently uses the iron —burn marks, the ironing board, and the iron itself—as parts of human figures, as protective shields, as the shape of ships that transported enslaved Africans to the Americas, and to commemorate the work of women.The chandelier sculptures on view allude to the community investment involved in constructing a home. When creating these, Cole often works with specific neighborhoods to collect discarded plastic bottles, resulting in community connections and cleaner streets.Home Assembly honors Cole’s impact on the fields of labor and methodical craft, which are at the core of the Arts/ Industry program.Image: Willie Cole, The Royal Roost I, 2024; saxophones, vintage suitcase, leather, and wood. Courtesy of the artist.

Willie Cole: Home Assembly

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, March 7, 2025 5-8pmOn view through April 27, 2025Two Person Exhibition - Joan Geary and Rebecca Stahr: Echoes of Earth and Sky Rebecca's recent encaustic paintings merge an interest in process and the encaustic medium with an organic, almost three dimensional approach to developing a composition. Images that seem to reference nature are the accumulation of thousands of little points of pigmented wax applied in layers. The image seems to simultaneously form and dissolve, and speaks to the mutable and atomically fractured nature of our physical environment. With a technique that recalls the repetitive creation of weaving and textiles, Stahr creates images that can be read both as surface and image. Geary was born in Chicago, IL, but raised in Glenview, a northern suburb. An early encounter with surrealism – specifically Salvador Dali – and the pop art and op art movements of the 1960s laid the foundation for Geary's lifelong obsession with art. As an adolescent, she would take the bus into the city to spend the day walking around The Art Institute of Chicago alone, seeking out those edgy genres that made such bold use of color, shape, and odd juxtapositions; such a foil to her daily life, and so defiant and wholly different than what she knew. Her solo meanderings through the museum lit something up in her, a yearning for something more – to see and create.Joan works mainly in oil and cold wax, a medium that allows for the buildup of a rich history and patina through amassing layers of paint and excavation back through those layers. Luminosity and light have become trademarks of her work, which explores color and shape inspired by nature and God. Her work has been featured in numerous venues throughout the Midwest, as well as publications such as The Chicago Tribune, The Doings, and a book titled Cold Wax Medium: Techniques, Concepts, and Conversations by Rebecca Crowell and Jerry McLaughlin. Image: Rebecca Stahr, Land of the Mystic, encaustic on wood panel, 8" x 8"

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