The exterior of Addington Gallery on Wells Street in River North

By JACQUELINE LEWIS

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Addington Gallery, a fixture in Chicago’s River North Arts District and a reflection of founder Dan Addington’s unique role as both artist and gallerist. Since opening its doors, the gallery has navigated major shifts in the neighborhood’s landscape, from changes in the retail environment and art market to a steadily growing residential population, attracted to the area’s artistic reputation but simultaneously pricing galleries out of it. Through it all, Addington and his gallery have remained passionate about showcasing thoughtful, process-driven art that people can afford. As River North keeps evolving, Addington Gallery remains a welcoming space where creativity and community come together.

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CGN: Let’s start with a bit of background. What led you to your home in River North at Addington Gallery?

Dan Addington: I grew up in the western U.S., in Colorado, Montana, and Alaska, but our family eventually returned to our Midwestern roots. I went to high school and college in Iowa. I double majored in art and theater at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, followed by a master’s degree in art and art history at Arkansas State, and an MFA in painting at Illinois State University. Immediately after graduate school, I moved to Chicago and began exhibiting my own work right away.

CGN: How did your past experience lead to Addington Gallery?

DA: My original intent was to continue exhibiting my work and eventually teach art at the college level. I had taught classes as a graduate student and knew that I loved that interaction. I had also worked at the campus galleries at Arkansas State and Illinois State. I worked side-by-side with Director Barry Blinderman at ISU designing art catalogues and organizing and installing exhibitions. During that time, I also spent time with well-known artists Barry brought in from New York, where he had previously owned and operated Semaphore Gallery. Working so closely with notable artists over those years and talking to Barry about his time as an art dealer had an indelible effect on me. I was intrigued by the idea of working in galleries.

Dan Addington, pictured in his gallery circa 2010

CGN: You’re celebrating 25 years of Addington Gallery in River North this year. How has the gallery changed and evolved over the past quarter century?

DA: I spent the first six of those 25 years working in other spaces, meeting dealers, and learning as much as I could about the process. My first full-time gallery job was with Eva Cohen Gallery in both Highland Park and River North. I split my time between the two locations and eventually became the director of the downtown space on Superior Street. Eva was a great teacher.

It was a challenging job, and I learned very quickly that you had to get good at everything. One day I was helping curate a show and learning the physical techniques associated with preparing and installing artwork. The next day I was meeting new clients, learning to be responsive to their needs, deciphering their ideas, going to their homes, negotiating acquisitions, and installing on site. I loved all of it, but what kept me most excited was working with artists and feeling like I was part of a team helping facilitate their vision in the world. 

Around the same time, I began exhibiting in commercial galleries in other cities and found that I had a unique rapport with the dealers who represented my work. Gwenda Jay Gallery was the first to represent my work in Chicago, and Gwenda was a great mentor to me. After Eva Cohen retired, I became director at Gwenda’s gallery, and eventually a partner. Gwenda Jay / Addington Gallery opened in 2000–that’s the 25 year anniversary being celebrated this year. Operating the gallery day-to-day gave me the experience that ultimately convinced me to open my own space in 2007, Addington Gallery, where I started showing many of the artists Gwenda and I had represented together.

The challenge of opening a gallery and the excitement of becoming a parent for the first time happened within a year of each other. Looking back to 2007, those 18 years have been thrilling. I’ve loved exhibiting each artist and have learned from every one who has hung art on these walls. The gallery has grown too, and every time a new artist shows here, it brings new life and vision into the space. The gallery is a kind of macro-vision of the values I believe in as an artist. Being an artist and a curator intermingle and inform one another. In many ways, the gallery is a physical manifestation of the creative concepts I care most deeply about, and it comes to life through relationships and collaboration.

Gallery visitors view work by Robin Deneven

CGN: You’ve been in the center of River North for many years. Can you speak to the changes you’ve seen? What do you think the future holds for the neighborhood?

DA: Wells Street has seen a lot of development, especially in the past 10 to 12 years. Businesses come and go, and COVID was tough on small retailers. But many restaurants in the area have persevered since 2020, and more have joined them. The same is true of galleries. Those that have closed in River North have typically done so because an owner retired, while some new galleries have also opened.

Meanwhile, a large number of new residential buildings continue to go up across the neighborhood, and Wells Street has never been as active as it is today. When I first started here, the vast majority of art deliveries I made were to the North Shore and western suburbs. Now, most of our deliveries go to homes in the city, especially the area from downtown Chicago up through the upper North Side. The River North Arts District remains a thriving center for the arts in Chicago.

CGN: Have you ever considered moving the gallery?

DA: I’ve looked at other spaces, but I love the walk through traffic we get here, and I like our space. River North is easily accessible, more people live in the area than ever, and there are many visitor in nearby hotels around Michigan Avenue. The number of galleries within walking distance makes it a destination for art lovers. Opening nights happen every other month, usually on the first Friday, and they’re always fun and well attended.

A view of work by Howard Hersh at the gallery in early years.

CGN: With all these years under your belt, what do you consider to be some of the most important aspects of managing your gallery?

DA: Every exhibition we mount still feels important and exciting to us, and we continue to get better at curating and installing them. You know that anticipation you feel when a musician or band you love releases a new album, and the excitement of listening to it for the first time? That’s how I feel when an artist brings in a new series of paintings. It’s exciting every single time.

As an artist myself, I make it my business to understand how each painting is made—the materials, the process—but even more importantly, why the artist made those choices. Every artist has a story. It’s embedded in the work, and it’s my job to help communicate that.

It’s thrilling to see people who visit the gallery connect deeply with the work, whether it’s on a gut level, a spiritual level, or an intellectual level. Some are young people walking in for the first time, and others are seasoned collectors. I’m constantly reminded how meaningful a career in the arts is when someone tells me how moved or affected they were by what they saw here.

I’m also fascinated by process-oriented abstraction and the materiality of the medium, and I value drawing and the skill of observation. I’ve pursued these ideas in my own work for years, and I’m always interested in how they emerge in other painters’ work. At the gallery, it’s not unusual to see artists who chart their own course between these two sensibilities.

From left: Dan's wife Steph, Dan, son Aedric, and artist Makoto Fujimura during his exhibition reception at the gallery in 2011.

CGN: With this year’s milestone, do you have anything special planned? 

DA: While we’re always working to develop new, exciting, and visually compelling exhibitions, we also continue to look outward to the community. I regularly guest curate exhibitions at other venues across the city and work with local community art centers.

We recently launched the Young Curators Initiative, in which we turn over the gallery space to curatorial studies students with a focus on women of color. We work with their advisors to support them as they curate their first public exhibition in a professional setting.

This summer, we launched Sketchbooks for Kids, where we give a quality 8x10” sketchpad and dual-tip pen to any child 15 or younger who visits the gallery with a parent or guardian. These were the tools I loved most as a child, the ones I carried everywhere, and they’re what started me on this journey. It’s a small but meaningful way to pay that forward.

Both of these programs flow directly from my own experiences. We love to encourage the artist, and the art viewer, within each person at every age.

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After 25 years, Dan Addington’s dedication to art and community remains at the heart of the gallery. As River North continues to change, Addington Gallery stands strong as a space where artists and audiences come together. This milestone marks not just an achievement, but a continuing journey.

Addington Gallery

744 N. Wells

Chicago, IL 60654

addingtongallery.com

View Dan’s work at danaddington.com