What's Next: On View in Chicago’s New Spaces
*These highlights are from CGN's fall 2024 magazine. To subscribe to the print edition click here.*
VSG Contemporary
• Untitled Omakase, Opening September 27
• Listen, Listen, Opening November 1
VSG Contemporary opened in 2022 as A Very Serious Gallery, a leap of faith by founder Allan Weinberger. This fall, VSG is set to showcase two highly anticipated exhibitions. Kicking off on Friday, September 27, Untitled Omakase, curated by renowned artist and Chicago native Lefty Out There, will feature a dynamic collection of 18 national and international leading contemporary artists with a strong influence from street art and graffiti. The show will highlight global talents, many of whom are exhibiting in Chicago for the first time, including Portugal’s HelioBray, Brazil’s Rafael Sliks, Denmark’s Mikael B, the internationally acclaimed Bisco Smith, alongside Louis de Guzman, Whisbe, and several other renowned artists. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity for Chicago’s art community to experience fresh, groundbreaking works from both established and emerging figures in the global street art scene.
Lefty Out There's curatorial debut at VSG Contemporary promises to celebrate urban art's influence on the global stage while positioning Chicago as a vital platform for international talent.
Full Artist List: Astro the Baptist, Bisco Smith (USA/Portugal). Defer, Dot, Dont Fret, Fatal Attraction, Fidia (Italy), Heliobray (Portugal), Lalo, Lefty Out There, Louis de Guzman, Marcos Alvarado, Mikael B (Denmark), Rafael Sliks (Brazil), Saute, Sechor, TJ Kiser, Whisbe.
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Later this fall on Friday, November 1, Montana-based artist Taylor Ana Valdez will present her second solo show, Listen, Listen, where she invites viewers to connect with the wisdom of nature and seek guidance from the spirit world, fostering healing and harmony within ourselves and our relationships.
673 N. Milwaukee Ave. (West Town)
Hours: W 12–5pm, Th 1–8pm (Open Late), 12–5pm
MAYFIELD
Yawn Sigh, Oct 6–Dec 1
Public opening Oct 6, 2–6pm
Mayfield is a multi-use space housed in a near west suburb of Chicago. It’s a private residence and public site collectively organized by Madleine and Alberto Aguilar. This fall it will host a group exhibition with a cheeky title that plays on the word Lawn Sign. 13 artists will make a public declarations using the format of the lawn sign (it’s an election year, ‘tis the season), but the nature of the sign can be anywhere between political, directional, street, protest, picket, hand painted, classified, advertisement, billboard, motivational, marriage proposal, lost pet, for sale, for rent, or otherwise.
Participating artists include: Andi Crist, H Schenck, Regin Igloria, Jeremy Carter, Jesse Malmed, Jordan Knecht, Mae C. Bishop, Atlan Arceo-Witzl, James Jonkowiak, Luba Mendelevich, Pedro Trueba Ramirez, and Berenice Vargas Bravo.
505 Marengo Ave. (Forest Park, IL)
Hours: by appointment only
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OLD FRIENDS GALLERY
• Ambulance Chase, September 27–November 16. Opening September 27, 6–9pm.
• Luis González Palma, Opening late fall
Located almost under the Paulina Brown Line El stop, on the border of Roscoe Village, Old Friends Gallery was founded earlier this year by Fawn Penn with the intention of highlighting artists working in diverse or historically overlooked materials. The gallery aims to showcase harmonious intersections between disciplines, embracing experimental materiality and its legacy within Abstraction as a throughline.
Owner/Founder Fawn and Director Delia Pelli-Walbert have hosted several exhibitions to date. In late September the gallery will host Bianca Bova as curator for Ambulance Chase, which will include works by Peter Fagundo, Michelle Grabner, and Jonathan Worcester. The gallery’s last show of 2024 will be a review of portraiture by the Guatemalan photographer Luis González Palma, centering his Bodyguard daguerreotypes.
3405 N. Paulina (W. Lakeview/Roscoe Village)
Hours: Th–Sa 12–6pm
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Secrist Beach
• Anne Lindberg: Of All Colors
• Manifest, a group exhibition
Sept 20–Nov 9
Carrie Secrist has had a gallery for 30 years, but she started fresh this spring when she opened the doors to her 10,000 square foot space in West Town, renamed Secrist Beach. Expansive and fabulous, the warehouse is like the space Carrie must have dreamed of when she first opened Gallery A in River North in the 1990s. After many years in the West Loop, Secrist’s new gallery home on West Hubbard feels like both a destination and a destiny. After an appearance at the Armory show in New York in early September, the gallery will open a show of new work by Anne Lindberg on September 20, running through November 9. Lindberg’s exhibition will be all about the color blue, centered on a 54 foot long thread installation. Running concurrently is Manifest, a group exhibition featuring a combination of artists and architects and will be about light, color and space.
1801 W. Hubbard (West Town)
Hours: Tu–F 10am–6pm, Sa 11am–5pm
TALA
• Blinked Twice by @_muneco – Thru October 6
• Group Exhibition curated in collaboration with Rupture and Verge Frames – October 18–December 16. Opening October 18, 7–10pm
Tala is proud to present a group exhibition curated in collaboration with Rupture, a Chicago BIPOC Maker/Visual Artist database working to create opportunities and representation in the fine art sectors of Chicago founded by Roland Santana. Framing provided in partnership with Verge Frames (who support the artist's work with complimentary framing).
1644 W. Chicago (West Town)
Hours: Th–Sa 1–7pm