2022 Culture Short List
Here for you is CGN's short list of upcoming exhibition highlights for the first half of 2022. While we were in production for this year's CGN Arts Guide towards the end of 2021, we combed through various sites and calendars to see what was being promoted as of press time. We expect the exhibitions highlighted here to open on schedule and in person, or virtually if needed, but please check with each individual institution or gallery space prior to visiting. There is a lot to look forward to in 2022!
Our full events calendar is available at chicagogallerynews.com/events
– CGN
Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott
This is the first comprehensive retrospective of one of America’s most compelling and controversial artists, Robert Colescott (1925-2009). In his large-scale paintings, Colescott confronted deeply embedded cultural hierarchies involving race, gender, and social inequality in America with fearless wit and irony.
Thru May 22, 2022 • Chicago Cultural Center
Bob Thompson: This House is Mine
The Smart presents the first museum exhibition devoted to the artist in more than 20 years.
This House Is Mine traces Bob Thompson’s brief but prolific transatlantic career, examining his formal inventiveness and his engagement with universal themes of collectivity, bearing witness, struggle, and justice.
February 10–May 15, 2022
Igshaan Adams: Desire Lines
This spring the Art Institute brings Igshaan Adams’ textiles to the foreground. Through the beads, shells, glass, rope, wire, and found objects he uses to compose his weavings, Adams highlights the material aspects of lived spaces along with the personal stories held within them.
NICK CAVE: Forothermore
The MCA presents the first career-spanning retrospective of the internationally renowned Chicagoan Nick Cave (American, b. 1959), an artist celebrated for projects that blend community building with vibrant works of art across disciplines, including immersive installations, textural sculptures, impeccably crafted fashion, and dynamic videos and performances.
May 14–Oct 2, 2022
The Museum of Contemporary Art