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

By CGN Staff

School 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. 

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. 

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. 

See you in the galleries! 

Labor Day Weekend Openings

No Space Between Us: Teresa James & Fred Stonehouse

Hofheimer Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, September 3, 5 to 8pm

Teresa 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. 

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.

Contemporary Chronicles

South Asia Institute

Opening: Friday, Sep 3, 11 am – 6 pm

Featuring 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.

Dredske: A Ridiculous Clusterf#*k

Elephant Room

Opening: Friday, Sep 3, 6 – 9 pm

Dredske 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.

RNDD Gallery Walk: September 10

The River North Design District's 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. 

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 here, and buy your VIP and after party tickets as well. 

River North Gallery Openings

We will highlight individual River North gallery openings next week as well. You can see the full list here. 

The Neon and Light Museum

We 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. Tickets are available in advance for $40. 

Logan Square, Garfield Park, West Town/Ukrainian Village

Abstract Expressionism – Stanley Dean Edwards

Oliva Gallery

Opening Sep 10, 5-8pm

The 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.

Tender to the Bone

Goldfinch

Opening Sep 12, 12 - 4pm

Through 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.

David Heo – Presence

Vertical Gallery

Saturday, Sep 11, 5 – 8 pm

A 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. 

Susan Rothenberg: On Both Sides of My Line, 1974-1979

Gray Warehouse

Sep 10 – Oct 9

On 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.

Coming In Part II: Sept 13–30

• West Loop and West Town

• Art Fairs as well as Other Shows at Museums and Art Institutions