2023 End of Year Wrap-Up
In 2023 we spoke with many artists, shared updates and insights from industry leaders, covered civic news and art community milestones, shared happy announcements as well as sad news about closures and passings. As we close out one year and begin a new one, we look back at what we covered in CGN these past months. The new year's events and exhibitions will be here before we know it, and we wish you wonderful and restful holidays as we recharge and look ahead to more art and inspiration in 2024.
Happy new year!
In Search of Art Between $5,000–$10,000
January 2023
By Bianca Bova
Buying art—despite what the instagram art market “gurus” that seem to proliferate by the day would have you believe—is not a privilege reserved for the moneyed few. Certainly if your ambition is to own a Gerhard Richter or a Claude Monet (or, for now, an Anna Weyant), you will be boxed out unless your checkbook, your existing collection, and your connections all pass inspection. If your ambition is to simply build a meaningful collection of works that reward you for living with them, that remains achievable.
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By Alison Reilly
April 2023
Throughout Anna Kunz's 20 years as Associate Professor in the Art and Art History department at Columbia College, she mentored many young artists as they began their careers. As part of her legacy, Kunz generously established a scholarship called the AK Prism Award. “For ambition and kindness, my initials - AK,” she told me. She explained that she wants to use her work as an artist to help others.
MCA Director Madeleine Grynsztejn On Chicago as Flash Point and Flashlight
By Anna Dobrowolski
April 2023
Madeleine Grynsztejn is a leader on a mission. Since starting her tenure at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2008, Grynsztejn has been committed to presenting art ‘you don’t yet know you love.’ Today as she enters her 15th year as MCA director, she says she is ready to prove that contemporary art is entering a golden era, and Chicago is its crucible.
Hard at Work at 87: Richard Hunt
By Anna Dobrowolski
April 2023
Encountering Richard Hunt’s monolithic sculptures around Chicago is much like running into an old friend, someone you recognize no matter how much time has passed. Hunt’s large-scale public works are out in the elements, soaring into the skyline. Each one signifies you’re in the presence of something distinctly from Chicago, with characteristics that mirror the city’s famed architecture – structures are imposing yet delicately rendered, sturdy but changeable, familiar as well as innovative, raw but refined.
Preserving Art from the African Diaspora: Diasporal Rhythms Celebrates its 20th Anniversary
By Jackie Lewis
April 2023
When art collector Patric McCoy spoke with CGN 10 years ago, he shared the story of how a collecting group based on the South Side of Chicago had started a decade prior. Diasporal Rhythms, he explained, represented a different concept of collecting in Chicago, “Our organization is charged with how to redefine the term ‘collector.’ In America it has this meaning of being wealthy, private, academic - having the magic ability to know the future value of something. That’s what the majority of people in this country believe. We’re saying none of that has to be true.
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The Art Dealer as Collector and Connector: William Lieberman
By Ginny Van Alyea
April 2023
When I spent an afternoon this winter with William Lieberman, owner of Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, it was not to discuss his role as an art dealer. Instead, it was to see his personal collection, which he had recently installed in his new Streeterville condo overlooking Lake Michigan. Lieberman had just moved from a house in East Ukrainian Village and was eager to highlight hundreds of works in a fresh setting. Taking in the abundantly-filled walls, I asked him how he chose the art that he lives with, knowing that every day at the gallery he strives to build other people’s collections.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres “Untitled”, 1995, Billboard
By Jason Pickleman
Spring 2023
A horizontal black and white photo of an evenly gray sky depicts a bird flying left to right, its wings outstretched, up and down. The bird is a black silhouette—elegant, formal, and free.
As seen in Chicago Transit Authority’s underground subway and on its elevated passenger train platforms, the image is located amidst conventional advertising billboards. Unlike its neighboring images that advertise legal services or fast food restaurants, the image of the flying bird is bare of any text, or any explanation. No logo. No copy. No text. Just the image of the bird, flying.
By Jackie Lewis
Summer 2023
It is no small thing to make a gallery last for five decades, and this year ARC Gallery & Educational Foundation is turning 50.
Light Over Light: Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero of LUFTWERK
By Alison Reilly
September 2023
In advance of their exhibition Light Over Light opening at Volume Gallery in West Town this November, I spoke with Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, who make up the artistic duo, Luftwerk. The two generously shared insights about their history as artistic partners, their process for designing large-scale interventions at architectural icons like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and Farnsworth House, and how they have moved from using electric to ambient light in their installations.
A Transcendant Sculptural Legacy: Ruth Duckworth
By Mary DeYoe
September 2023
In the documentary from the early aughts by Karen Carter, Ruth Duckworth: A Life in Clay, the octogenarian artist says “I don’t think everyone has a destiny. It’s more haphazard than that.” This rings true for an artist whose sculptural work demonstrates a deep fascination with nature, geomorphology and the interconnectedness of the natural world as a whole.
Building a Next Gen Collection: Zach Smith
By Bianca Bova
Fall 2023
To visit the home of an art collector for the first time is to ask to be surprised. Even more personal than the simple questions of taste and of what someone chooses to live with, there is the intimate question of how they live with art. When collector Zach Smith welcomed me into his family’s Chicago home, I found myself enthralled by the answers to both.
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Read all of CGN's interviews and features here.