CGN Art Preview: February 2026
CGN adds to its calendar of art events daily, and there is no shortage of new exhibitions, openings, art fairs, talks and family art events to explore. We have put together a preview of what is coming up the rest of this month. Even though it's winter and we are looking to stay in and cozy, there is plenty to see and enjoy throughout the city.
Events happen throughout the city as well as in the suburbs and within a day's drive. Whether you have an hour after work or you are looking for a weekend road trip, take a look and do a little planning in order to take a step into the world of art. Everyone is welcome!
Highlights are organized by event type. Dates vary and are subject to change.
– Ginny
CGN Publisher
• Exhibitions
Ancestral Futures
Feb 5-27, 2026
Opening: Friday, Feb 6, 2026 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
What does it mean to be a good future ancestor? How might today’s personal, cultural, social, and or environmental actions become legacies for those who come after us? This juried exhibition, curated by artist and ceramicist Donté K. Hayes, shows works that meditate on wisdom, intentionality, and the responsibility of shaping a world that extends beyond ourselves.
Hold
Feb 5-Mar 1, 2026
Opening: Saturday, Feb 7, 2026 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Perspective Gallery presents "HOLD," Perspective Gallery’s 2026 Invitational Exhibition featuring works by selected BFA students from the School of the Art Institute. Curated by Aimee Beaubien, Professor & Chair in the Department of Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, "HOLD" features work by six emerging artists currently pursuing their BFA, and working within the Department of Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Abigail Brooke Ackles, Ethan Kunoff, Isabel Lim, Collin Lust, Sarah Price, Dev Kili Stolkiner.
Won’t You Celebrate With Me?
Feb 6-27, 2026
Opening: Friday, Feb 6, 2026 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Chicago Artists Coalition (CAC)
Won't You Celebrate With Me? is an exhibition where artists Reevah Agarwaal, Cay Mims, and Nekita Thomas journey through memory, weaving truth and wonder to investigate what lies beyond the surface.
Part personal archive, part apparition, this exhibition explores themes of memory, lineage, and impermanence. Agarwaal, Mims, and Thomas take their past narratives and shape them into new realities, seeking deeper understanding of what may remain unsaid. Together, they question the ways in which we construct and control our own memories.
Resilience in Color
Feb 7-Feb 28, 2026
Opening: Saturday, Feb 7, 2026 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Exhibition of art of and by ВІРОС (Black Indigenous People of Color) Artists
The Heresy of Legacy
Feb 13, 2026 - Mar 28, 2026
Opening: Friday, Feb 13, 2026 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
The Heresy of Legacy, the first exhibition at Volume Gallery’s new, expanded, space, explores the cyclical nature of movements and currents in art, architecture, and design—how innovation emerges in friction with established legacies, and how heresy becomes the foundation for new canons. This group exhibition considers what happens when today’s artists engage the paradox of history: honoring the influence of the past while consciously dismantling it. Rooted in the history of the avant-garde, the exhibition acknowledges how reactionary moves have continually propelled art, architecture, and design forward.
I Dream I Cross the River in One Stride
Feb 13, 2026 - Mar 28, 2026
This group exhibition gathers the work of Clémence Gbonon (b. 1994), Brittney Leeanne Williams (b. 1990) and Autumn Wallace (b. 1996).
I Dream I Cross the River in One Stride takes Lorraine O’Grady’s foundational essay Olympia’s Maid: Reclaiming Black Female Subjectivity as a point of departure. If, as O’Grady argues, the Black female body has long functioned as the unseen reverse side of Western femininity—present as stereotype, absent as subject—these artists reclaim their right to explore an image that is self-authored, multiple and unafraid of its own excess.
• Performances and Special Events
Glenn Kotche Solo Concert
Saturday, Feb 7, 2026 3PM
Corbett vs. Dempsey presents a rare solo concert by Glenn Kotche. Glenn Kotche (b. 1970) is one of the great multi-directional percussionists of our time.
Most widely known for his work in the engine room of the band Wilco, Kotche's excursions in experimental and improvised music have been chronicled on many solo records.
Concert | A Birthday Celebration for Yoko Ono
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2026 7:30PM
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA)
On her 93rd birthday and coinciding with the close of Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, an array of performers come together for an intimate tribute to Ono's life and legacy. Iconic instruction-based artworks, including Sky Piece to Jesus Christ (1965), will be enacted, culminating in a musical set. Northwestern University's Contemporary Music Ensemble, led by renowned conductor Alan Pierson, will perform.
DARKROOM Annual Benefit Auction Party
Thursday, Feb 26, 2026 5:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)
Celebrate MoCP's 50th anniversary at the annual benefit auction party DARKROOM on February 26, 2026. DARKROOM brings together hundreds of photography enthusiasts, artists, and arts patrons for an evening to support the museum. This year, MoCP honors photographer Joel Sternfeld with the Silver Camera Award while showcasing nearly fifty artists in the auction and offering one-of-a-kind live arts experiences on-site at DARKROOM.
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