CGN Art Preview: January 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
Housewarming
On view as of January 9, 2026
“Housewarming” marks the inaugural exhibition at Elise Seigenthaler Gallery, with works by Amira Diaw, Rebekka Federle, Ava Peterson, and Olivia Porter.
Leah Ke Yi Zheng: Change
Thru Apr 12, 2026
Leah Ke Yi Zheng’s upcoming exhibition presents a complete series of 64 paintings based on the hexagrams of the I Ching (Book of Changes), a foundational text in Chinese philosophy that offers insights into the changing nature of existence. Each painting reflects on a hexagram not through literal representation, but through an evolving visual language shaped by abstraction, intuition, and the interplay of light and material. As she works with silk and hand-built hardwood stretchers, in continual difference, the exhibition becomes a meditation on change itself: how it is read, made visible, and experienced through painting.
Zheng’s practice brings together traditional Chinese materialities and conceptual art methodologies to explore transformation, multiplicity, and the logic of variation.
MoCP at 50: Collecting Through the Decades
Jan 22, 2026 - May 16, 2026
Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)
Since opening in 1976 and initiating collecting in 1979, MoCP has acquired over 18,000 objects by more than 2,000 artists, representing a broad scope of aesthetics, technologies, and processes. The variety of artworks collected has allowed the museum to engage in conversations across political, social, and cultural landscapes.
To celebrate this milestone, MoCP at Fifty examines the evolving practice of building a dynamic collection, presenting a range of objects, from the rarely exhibited to newly acquired works. Together, these selections question and reflect on the role cultural institutions play in shaping the photographic canon. Each of the museum’s five galleries represents a decade of collecting, beginning with the most recent acquisitions (2016-2026) in the first gallery, then moving backwards through time.
The 92nd Exhibition of Visual Artist Members
Jan 23, 2026 - Mar 7, 2026
The Arts Club’s Exhibition of Visual Artist Members is a beloved tradition that brings great pride and prestige to the institution and its membership. Following an inaugural exhibition of paintings by John Singer Sargent in 1916, the second exhibition ever mounted at The Arts Club was of work by our members. Although its structure has changed over the past century, the goal of the exhibition remains the same: to celebrate and showcase the creative efforts of our artist members across a range of media, styles, genres, and forms.
To continue The Arts Club’s tradition of showcasing a current and dynamic representation of our members’ practices, participants are asked to submit works completed within the past two years. Some of the artists members are participating in this exhibition for the first time; others have participated for several decades.
Living with Modernism: Kelli Connell
Jan 24, 2026 - Apr 27, 2026
Presenting two series by the Chicago-based artist, Connell’s nationally traveling exhibition Pictures for Charis responds to the iconic photographs of Highland Park-born artist Edward Weston through a queer, feminist lens. Her second major body of work—Double Life—explores the evolution of intimate relationships shaped by the changing nature of identity over time, and features new commissions responding to the architecture of the Mies van der Rohe-designed McCormick House. The exhibition marks the largest presentation of Connell’s work in Chicago, placing queerness, power structures, and shifting ecologies in the twenty-first century in conversation with two giants of modernism.
• Special Events
MLK Day 2026: Chaos or Community?
Monday, Jan 19, 2026 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
HPAC proudly presents a free public Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration MLK DAY 2026: CHAOS OR COMMUNITY on Monday, January 19, from 11 AM – 4 PM at 5020 South Cornell Avenue. Eclectic programming for all ages blends live music, thought-provoking film, artmaking, and meditation, to highlight art as a vessel for collective memory, liberation, and joy, while reflecting on Dr. King’s profound impact on social justice and cultural movements. Registration is recommended at HydeParkArt.org
Winter NewberryFest
Saturday, Jan 24, 2026 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM
The Newberry will hold an event on Saturday, January 24, designed to help both new and returning visitors learn more about the independent research library in Chicago’s Gold Coast. “Winter NewberryFest” is an open house-style event that will lean into the library’s extensive collection of maps, dating from the 1500s through present.
Chicago Museum Member Swap Weekend
Jan 29, 2026 - Feb 1, 2026
Chicago’s first Museum Member Swap Weekend takes place during the last weekend of January. Members of the following museums can visit 11 other museums around the city with a single member card free of charge.
Participating institutions include:
- American Writers Museum
- Driehaus Museum
- Glessner House
- Illinois Holocaust Museum presents Experience360
- International Museum of Surgical Science
- Intuit Art Museum
- Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
- National Museum of Mexican Art
- National Public Housing Museum
- National Hellenic Museum
- Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art
• CGN News
2026: The CGN Arts Guide Turns Ten
Ten years of CGN Arts Guides. Artists from left: Carlos Rolon, Scott Reeder, Judy Ledgerwood, Bethany Collins, Tony Tasset, Andrew Holmquist, Amanda Williams, Christina Ramberg, Jonathan Higgins, Diego Marcon
