New Exhibitions and Events: September 15–17
This is a very busy week in the art world during a very busy month in everyone's world. We have tried to summarize some of what's happening this weekend and we will be updating CGN's calendar daily, so check back for updates!
Happy September and happy Chicago Exhibition Week!
– CGN
Chicago Exhibition Week
September 14–20
Chicago's galleries are the reason to get out and explore, and this year’s participants represent a broad cross-section of the city, from longtime galleries to newer and artist-run spaces. Among them are Anthony Gallery, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Devening Projects, Elise Seigenthaler Gallery, The Franklin, Good Weather, Kavi Gupta, M. LeBlanc, Mariane Ibrahim, McCormick Gallery, moniquemeloche, Regards, Rhona Hoffman Gallery (participating with the launch of a second RHG catalog rather than a gallery exhibition), Secrist | Beach, Volume Gallery and WesternExhibitions.
Pope.L: No Thing Skin Sets
Sep 15 – Oct 31
Corbett vs. Dempsey presents its first exhibition of Pope.L’s work, bringing together installations, paintings, and works on paper. The selection includes the projector-based installation I Machine and groups of Skin Set works, reflecting the artist’s expansive practice and his probing approach to race, class, language, and perception.
Clotilde Jiménez: Eramos Silencios
Sep 16 – Oct 31
For his second solo exhibition in Chicago, Clotilde Jiménez explores family history, memory, and identity through a personal narrative rooted in Puerto Rico. Paintings, collages, drawings, and sculptures use the orange as a recurring symbol of both familial abundance and the secrets and silences carried between generations.
Brendan Fernandes: In the Round
Sep 16 – 19
Performance: Wednesday, Sep 16, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
The Driehaus Museum’s first artist-in-residence brings dance, sound, and sculptural installation into the historic Murphy Auditorium. Inspired by the experimental spirit of Judson Dance Theater, Fernandes’s Score for the Murphy Auditorium returns on September 16, inviting audiences to encounter movement in dialogue with the building’s architecture. Programs are free; reservations are encouraged.
Brendan Fernandes
Sep 17 – Oct 31
Opening Reception: September 17th, 5:00–7:00 PM
moniquemeloche presents an exhibition by Chicago-based artist Brendan Fernandes, whose multidisciplinary practice spans dance, installation, video, and sculpture. His work considers migration, labor, queer identity, and collective movement, bringing cultural performance into contemporary art through collaborative projects.
Flowers and Leaves
Sep 17 – Oct 24
Opening: Thursday, Sep 17, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Christy Matson’s fifth solo exhibition at Volume Gallery begins with a collection of nineteenth-century family textiles. Drawing on inherited lace and woven cloth, Matson translates floral and geometric motifs into layered collages and Jacquard-woven paintings, connecting the history of women’s labor with questions of memory, resistance, and pattern.
Alexandra Barth: The Awnings
Sep 17 – Nov 7
Opening: Thursday, Sep 17, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Alexandra Barth’s first Chicago exhibition turns a familiar architectural feature into an unexpected subject. Working from photographs found online, the artist uses airbrushed paint to depict awnings in showrooms, secondhand listings, and states of disuse, revealing the overlooked patterns, mechanics, and histories of everyday surroundings.
Second Star
Sep 17 – 30
Opening: Thursday, Sep 17, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Secrist | Beach introduces its satellite project space, Second Star, with an inaugural project featuring Stephen Eichhorn. The opening takes place during Chicago Exhibition Week at 1801 W. Hubbard Street.
Olivia Zubko: Nymphaeum
Sep 17 – Oct 31
Opening: Thursday, Sep 17, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
In her first solo show at Western Exhibitions, Chicago artist Olivia Zubko transforms familiar objects from bathrooms, locker rooms, and other intimate spaces into ceramic sculptures. Cast fixtures and everyday materials evoke rituals of bodily care, while references to mythological bathers connect domestic experience with the history of the human figure.
Nolis Anderson: No Such Thing
Sep 17 – Oct 31
Opening: Thursday, Sep 17, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Eight medium-format photographs mark Nolis Anderson’s first exhibition at Elise Seigenthaler Gallery. Made over three years, the portraits explore ideas of perfection through conversations with their subjects and the unpredictable qualities of film. Scratches, dust, and light effects become part of the finished images, embracing the space between intention and accident.
Karla Wong: Journeys of Being
Thru Jan 10, 2027
Opening: Thursday, Sep 17, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Celebrate Karla Wong’s richly symbolic paintings with the artist and the Intuit Art Museum community. Drawing on her Mexican and Chinese heritage, her experience as a trans woman, and her ties to Oaxaca and Chicago, Wong creates dreamlike scenes of identity and transformation. The free reception includes Mexican cocktails, bites, and a performance by singer Geo Meneses.
Jaume Plensa: Beyond Silence
Sep 17 – Dec 19
Opening: Thursday, Sep 17, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Jaume Plensa’s tenth solo exhibition with GRAY brings together monumental carved-wood reliefs, cast-iron and granite sculptures, and smaller bronze works. Moving between architectural scale and intimate encounters, the exhibition explores the human figure through contrasting materials, with two twenty-eight-foot reliefs at its center.
Japanese Whiskey & Koji Fermentation: Science, History, and Taste
Thursday, Sep 17, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
International Museum of Surgical Science (IMSS)
The International Museum of Surgical Science hosts an evening exploring Japanese whiskey through its scientific and cultural history, with koji fermentation providing the focus for a program connecting science, history, and taste.
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View full CGN calendar here.
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