<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418887/u4iz2jwu2es2o7akxowx.jpg"></figure><a href="https://patrongallery.com">PATRON Has a New Home in An Old Theater</a>PATRON announce the opening of their 5,000 square foot new home at the site of the historic Alvin theatre in Chicago’s West Town gallery district. Located at 1612 W. Chicago Ave., this historic structure, originally built in 1914, was the site of a vaudeville theater run by the Lynch Circuit and later became a part of the Balaban &amp; Katz chain, two pioneering theatre corporations that were integral to perfecting the “palace” theatre concept in the early 20th century in Chicago. The original theatre sat 540 people and, in the 1970s, the site operated as a Spanish-language movie house. The historic building serves as a perfect home for PATRON as they deepen their commitment to the city of Chicago and its vibrant art community. Drawing from their name, the mission of the gallery has always been rooted in an artist-centered approach, which engages art audiences from all walks of life, and is fueled by the belief that a patron can be anyone with a passion and drive to champion and support artists. The gallery’s layout and design will take cues from our existing location and expand on the concept of home, featuring three separate gallery spaces and open communal spaces that foster a warm, inviting approach to accessibility. With seating areas throughout as well as a multi-purpose screening and lecture hall, they hope to invite audiences to come to not only experience art but to spend time at the gallery contemplating and engaging with the community and team.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418888/ug4dvlny0dbam4ygadts.png"></figure><a href="http://kavigupta.com">Kavi Gupta Is Expanding</a>When <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/carrie-secrist-gallery">Carrie Secrist Gallery</a> left the ground floor of 835 W Washington last year and moved nearby to 900 W, their expansive space became vacant. The owner of the building, however, is fellow gallerist Kavi Gupta. That gallery is opting to take over Secrist's old space and expand (they will remain on the second floor too). They shared yesterday via PR: "After two decades operating in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, Kavi Gupta is fulfilling our original vision for our gallery at 835 W. Washington Boulevard by expanding our operations to include our building’s 4,000-square-foot&nbsp;west suite on the ground floor. We are thrilled to share this news in anticipation of the restoration of community gatherings following the difficulties of the past year.This expansion creates a new, multi-purpose, museum-quality exhibition space. In addition to our new rooftop sculpture garden, the space&nbsp;will allow us to host expanded programming and events, as well as a curated bookshop that extends our art publishing arm, Kavi Gupta | Editions."The inaugural exhibition in the new street-level space, opening May 22, 2021, is the gallery’s debut solo show with South African artist Mary Sibande.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418889/ydtlffxlhh0y6mzpumet.png"></figure><a href="www.3d4dbycsi.org">Chicago Sculpture International Opens New Art Space: 3D4D</a>Chicago Sculpture International (CSI) has a new art space, 3D4D by CSI, at 1912 N Damen. The gallery opens its first exhibition April 23 with a retrospective of the late Ron Gard’s work, “Nexus Between Spaces”.The exhibition will feature Gard’s small and medium sculptures, as well as a digital display highlighting Ron’s artistic legacy. 3D4D by CSI’s first opening reception is Friday April 23, 6-9pm and was planned to coincide with the International Sculpture Center’s&nbsp;International Sculpture Day, #ISDay, on April 24. The exhibit will run six weeks through June 5. The reception will be in-person (10-15 people) with staggered gallery visits, observing social distancing, and masks required.Ron, a well-known local Chicago Sculptor, passed away in 2019. Gard was a member of Chicago Sculpture International since 2010 and a long-time board member. Ron had been making sculpture since 1977, and his work has been exhibited throughout the country. He was a large contributor for multiple Chicago public sculpture shows, including the famous Chicago Lakefront Sculpture Exhibit, 2012-2013, hosted by the Chicago Park District.3D4D also plans on live streaming the events on Instagram.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418890/kqrghy9pnd1fjhwead9w.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/arts_77.html">City of Chicago Announces Arts 77 Recovery and Reopening Plan</a>Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, the Department of Cultural Affairs&nbsp;and Special Events (DCASE),&nbsp;the Chicago Park District,&nbsp;and other City of Chicago departments announced “Arts 77” —&nbsp;a citywide arts recovery and reopening plan&nbsp;for all of Chicago’s 77 community areas, representing an initial investment of&nbsp;over $60 million to support local artists and organizations. Additional&nbsp;updates regarding&nbsp;financial&nbsp;grants&nbsp;and programs to&nbsp;support&nbsp;arts&nbsp;recovery&nbsp;will follow&nbsp;in the upcoming weeks.“Arts 77”&nbsp;signals&nbsp;a new direction&nbsp;for&nbsp;Chicago’s cultural policy,&nbsp;in which the arts are&nbsp;embedded in initiatives&nbsp;and strategies&nbsp;across&nbsp;City government.&nbsp;This&nbsp;plan seeks to expand access and participation in the arts citywide, prioritize employment of creative workers through City programs and services, and deepen public sector investment in the creative sector though financial support and cultural&nbsp;policy. Today’s&nbsp;announcement&nbsp;launches&nbsp;new and expanded programs including&nbsp;the&nbsp;Neighborhood Access Program, the&nbsp;Chicago Band Roster and Chicago Presents grant programs, Culture in My Neighborhood (a $40 million collaboration by DCASE, the Chicago Park District,&nbsp;and Chicago Public Library),&nbsp;Individual Artists Program&nbsp;grants,&nbsp;Artist Response Program&nbsp;grants, and $18.5 million in art&nbsp;and&nbsp;infrastructure investments.&nbsp;For details&nbsp;and upcoming Arts 77 webinars for the cultural community, visit <a href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=Fx6ZlfogyykExOP4a2vWQ4TXG4aEpmBXWyior40nHaWAo1VE03LSQKj1M6FDUhuWuWJ9_BYLPtpUivDHORxxkVXshLCRT3wjV7CgXbLJWP9J5MP9LJ6jv7-2Bb0c97UF1yE1XeiKasl3Q0KHAlfCn9N7XONZksYe5OIXa5kf5eLUqZODuRSP9aq4SJ-2B49W0jH0wJ361JczapSvf6rbhPl3ofH-2F0oe7S01YlpSH23Pryiy4gAY8fw38eIs9J-2FbJWHRTvmSCMnvVd1mQZ2CICfFLzJBY5eoKuGOjLY7fqz4d4EE7SRvj0v-2Bq-2BvJLFN3pMpEo3Uu4qdxY-2BZn5isqNnFzRlPp186tcyURXdTVTCQGbVU0VcHfZPmDgXwc8hdYYPCMa-2BaEGoYvjaGBuylnfYtss-2Bd1ZFrXIkXfGMSkKqd30G1iWd2YYwLvk7jXxGifYEdUKn0QcvBBtXIi3nRHcckvTUvEqXbw-3D-3D">Chicago.gov/Arts77</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Art World Recap: 4/21/21

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418887/dlamf5zahyyqhzauwmg7.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/open-studio-night-2b74cf4b-0712-44b8-a8e5-c92cddacb22c">Open Studio Night</a>Opening: Friday, April 23, 6 – 10&nbsp;pmDragonfly GalleryThis Open Studio Night at Dragonfly Gallery will take place during the 1st Annual Exhibition: Photographic Processes &amp; More. Masks are required and social distancing will be practiced.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418888/inz2quq3xw9j0tvxvar7.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/ebony-g-patterson">Ebony G. Patterson, Brittney Leeanne Williams, Layo Bright</a>Opening: Saturday, April 24, 11&nbsp;am – 6&nbsp;pmMonique Meloche Gallerymoniquemeloche is pleased to present&nbsp;an exhibition of new large-scale tapestries and hand-cut paper works by&nbsp;Ebony&nbsp;G. Patterson. This is her fifth solo show with the gallery. Emerging from the framework of her immersive post-colonial garden-like installations, Patterson’s recent practice further considers the rich, expansive possibilities&nbsp;of the garden – a space for life and death, a complex entanglement of race, gender, class, and violence.The gallery is excited to introduce&nbsp;Layo&nbsp;Bright&nbsp;(b. 1991, Lagos, Nigeria) who will present a series of new ceramic and pottery plaster sculptures in the gallery’s viewing room.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418889/q4lpp8xkcfta5pwt1eh9.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/water-the-plants">Water The Plants!</a>Exhibition Begins April 24Vertical GalleryThis special exhibition includes collaborative paintings between: Joseph Renda Jr. and: Collin Van Der Sluijs, Sergio Farfan, Steve Seeley, Jason Brammer, Karl Jahnke, Kate Lewis, Kayla Mahaffey, Wingchow, and Grant William Thye.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418890/vj9yzqyfzlcwqi7tepwv.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/manuel-mathieu-negroland-a-landscape-of-desires">Manuel Mathieu Negroland: A Landscape of Desires</a>Exhibition Begins April 24Kavi Gupta GalleryKavi Gupta presents Negroland: A Landscape of Desires, a solo exhibition of new paintings and ceramics by Haitian-born, Montreal-based artist Manuel Mathieu.Mathieu’s practice is guided by intuition and the unknown as much as by intellect and memory. He sees the artist’s studio as crucible—a container in which forces and pressures are exerted to transform materials and ideas. The work is not the end of the process; rather, it creates the circumstances for connections, perspectives, and relationships to come into being.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418891/vsc2wt0ru5loikuoj5bv.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/the-metamorphosis-of-gabriel-villa-d4c185cc-b899-4aad-bb74-098cdd03394d">The Metamorphosis of Gabriel Villa</a>Exhibition Begins April 26Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC)The Metamorphosis of Gabriel Villa introduces Villa’s new direction from painting into installation and clay sculpture created during his Jackman Goldwasser Residency at Hyde Park Art Center, along with previous paintings. Through an extensive studio and public art practice, Villa seeks to seamlessly translate the language of Mexican traditions and the personal, urban American experience into charged intimate narratives. Villa’s subjects are ever evolving but always concentrate on psychological and social inequity in the multifaceted contemporary world.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Start April 23 - 26

<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-architecture-biennale-uic-chicago-20210419-qtwnyix4dfd6dprdumrexq6qou-story.html">UIC architecture team is creating U.S. entry to Venice Biennale, and it’s all about how Chicago invented the way Americans build houses</a>The wooden framing for houses would seem like an unlikely thing to elevate into art. It’s utilitarian and basic, the common sight of American suburbia — pine, lumber, another house going up for another family. Maybe a little hopeful if seen in that light, but otherwise about as exciting as your local Home Depot.Wood framing will be the subject of this year’s American entry into the prestigious Venice Architecture Biennale, the global showcase for architectural thought held every other year in Italy — this summer’s a year delayed by the pandemic. The title of the U.S. Pavilion will be “American Framing,” created and curated by architects and educators Paul Andersen and Paul Preissner as part of a project now being assembled with the help of students at the University of Illinois at Chicago.Via Chicago Tribune&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/how-a-rock-wall-and-pool-of-water-have-thrown-a-wrench-into-the-redesign-of-hirshhorn-sculpture-garden/2021/04/16/010babfa-9ec6-11eb-b7a8-014b14aeb9e4_story.html?fbclid=IwAR3cCkyw98OaTabg_F4lb65L4gp98dLfUFqtdON9X0rCwaZSVQC3PIzLaLE">How a rock wall and pool of water have thrown a wrench into the redesign of Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden</a>The rhetoric around the Smithsonian’s renovation of the Hirshhorn Museum’s sculpture garden is officially heated.There were reports last month, amplified by a group opposed to key elements of the project, that artist and designer Hiroshi Sugimoto had threatened to quit. Sugimoto had told the Art Newspaper that he would resign if the museum did not accept a “key part of the redesign.” But that was in the context of an article in which he stressed his collaborative role with his predecessors on a garden that has evolved over the years.Via Washington Post&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/the-art-angle/art-angle-podcast-dawoud-bey-1959107">The Art Angle Podcast: How Photographer Dawoud Bey Makes Black America Visible</a>This month, the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd has brought the racial justice protests of the last summer viscerally back into the public consciousness, reigniting conversations in the news and in households everywhere about the reality of the Black experience in America.This weekend, those same conversations will also have a powerful new point of focus at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where a retrospective of the photographer Dawoud Bey presents his magisterial exploration of the subject, in the form of his penetrating portraits of Black lives from all points on the national compass. Ranging in registers from jubilation to agony, to ingenious self-invention, to blissed-out hope, the show is curated by Elizabeth Sherman and SFMoMA curator Corey Keller.Via Artnet Art AngleKey photo: Dawoud Bey, portrait by: Whitten Sabatini. Courtesy of the artist.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/sothebys-monet-water-lilies-painting-may-2021-1234590123/">Sotheby’s to Sell $40 M. Monet Water Lilies Painting in&nbsp;May</a>In a dramatic close to Sotheby’s modern art evening sale in Hong Kong on Sunday, vice chairman Brooke Lampley unveiled a large-scale <a href="https://www.artnews.com/t/claude-monet/">Claude Monet</a> water lilies painting to the live-streamed auction’s audience. That work, titled Le Bassin aux Nymphéas, is itself now going to be sold by the house. It will hit the block at Sotheby’s New York Impressionist and modern art evening sale on May 12, where it is expected to fetch $40 million.via Artnews&nbsp;

What We're Reading: 4/19

<html><head></head><body>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418881/l5rmboirddwvgl3hp38x.png"></figure>By CGN Staff via PRAfter wrapping up its first entirely online-only edition this week – EXPO CHGO Online – EXPO CHICAGO today announced the dates for its next in-person edition at Navy Pier for April 7 – 10, 2022. April will host the fair for the foreseeable future as well, returning to a time of year that hosted international art exhibitions like Art Chicago for decades.&nbsp;Last May Tony Karman announced the fair, planned for September 2020, <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2020/5/expo-chicago-to-move-from-september-to-april-8-11-2021">would move to April 2021</a>. Then plans were adjusted once again to <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2021/1/expo-chicago-to-go-virtual-for-spring-2021-dates">move the fair online</a>. Moving forward, the exposition will be presented annually in April. Dates beyond 2022 include April&nbsp;13 – 16, 2023 and April&nbsp;11 – 14, 2024 for the 10th and 11th editions at Navy Pier.&nbsp;EXPO CHICAGO will continue to develop and present year-round programming initiatives leading up to its ninth edition, to be announced.“We feel strongly that focusing on presenting the next edition of EXPO CHICAGO in April of 2022 respects both the current global recovery process and provides sufficient time for galleries, curators, and collectors to fully ramp back up for in-person presentations in their galleries and at fairs," said Tony Karman, President | Director. "I'd like to express my deepest appreciation for the sound advice and continued support we've received from our Selection Committee, key institutional stakeholders, leading galleries, Navy Pier and Chicago’s civic leaders. I am confident that our new dates will enable us to welcome friends and exhibitors from around the world back to Chicago."&nbsp;EXPO CHICAGO’s commitment to rigorous programming, critically acclaimed curatorial initiatives, institutional partnerships, and VIP events remain core to the exposition. Furthermore, the exposition will continue its partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, co-presenting the Vernissage opening night benefit, with proceeds supporting the institution. The previously announced program curators for IN/SITU Marcella Beccaria – Contemporary art historian and Chief Curator and Curator of Collections at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Turin) – and Humberto Moro – Deputy Director and Senior Curator at Museo Tamayo (Mexico City) – for the EXPOSURE section will be joining as planned for the ninth edition.“A treasured annual tradition at Navy Pier for nearly a decade, EXPO CHICAGO is one of our most highly anticipated events each year, and we are thrilled to officially welcome it back to Chicago’s lakefront in 2022 and beyond,” said Navy Pier President and CEO Marilynn Gardner. “The exposition’s return next spring will surely signal a renewed sense of hope and optimism as we make strides toward a full recovery from the pandemic and once again host guests from around the globe for this important and unique art experience.”We have missed attending EXPO this past year but are grateful for their efforts to continue offering programming all year and to bring collectors, artists and dealers together virtually. We can now look forward to spring 2022. – GV&nbsp;Want to go back in time? Read CGN's posts from 2012 about EXPO before it even began.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2012/2/mmpi-cancels-art-chicago-after-30-year-run-chicago-looks-to-fall-art-fair-on-the-horizon">February 2012: MMPI Cancels Art Chicago after 30-year run... Chicago Looks to Fall Art Fair on the Horizon</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2012/9/expo-chicago-to-revive-windy-city-s-glorious-art-fair-legacy">September 2012: Expo Chicago to revive Windy City’s glorious art-fair legacy</a>&nbsp;</body></html>

EXPO CHICAGO Announces Return to Spring Time Slot After a Decade As a Fall Mainstay

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418881/hwjol4xx6daoituro29x.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/christy-matson-12-recent-works">Christy Matson: 12 Recent Works</a>Exhibition Begins April 16&nbsp;Volume GalleryIn this new body of work, Matson paints the threads of both warp and weft, building layers of color that intersect in the weaving, interrupted by bubbles of painted paper yarn that burst up from its surface. Her artworks are washed in color where dye permeates fiber, bleeding from thread to thread to blur the grid on which they are organized, with subtle gradations flushing into sudden shades. Matson’s freedom with color highlights her interest in both constraint and precision.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418882/wmn4ilzpximswr0omcpi.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/michelle-bolinger">Michelle Bolinger</a>Exhibition Begins April 16&nbsp;Paris London Hong KongChicago-based painter Michelle Bolinger creates abstract paintings that investigate modes of seeing and oscillate between the surface and three-dimensionality. Layering and then taking away many thin layers of paint, Bollinger builds a multi-layered surface that is then interrupted with flat areas of color or defined geometric forms to create an optical surface tension.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418883/lhis1lg5js5jcm7isusu.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/boundaries">Boundaries</a>Exhibition Begins April 16&nbsp;Woman Made GalleryBoundaries&nbsp;explores modern digital and physical boundary setting as we emerge from global pandemic conditions.&nbsp;While many new physical boundaries have been defined for us, other boundaries were left to be defined. &nbsp;This exhibition considers the magnitude of this particular moment, as well as conceptual dimensions and negotiations of boundaries broadly, and as particularly experienced by womxn and non-binary individuals.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418883/yo0yvmpoimhhvej8tyrv.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/paul-mpagi-sepuya-bd907de6-3c97-490d-96a2-ac3ebc64e7b4">Paul Mpagi Sepuya</a>Exhibition Begins April 16&nbsp;DOCUMENT&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418884/kbuyhg1wvssen0ir97vm.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/ryan-travis-christian">Ryan Travis Christian</a>Exhibition Begins April 16&nbsp;Western ExhibitionsRyan Travis Christian’s 1990s suburban Chicago upbringing offered up absurd experiences, which he uses as fuel for the surreal personal narratives in his pop-culture-influenced graphite drawings. Impacted by Chicago-style figuration, Christian focuses on the paradoxical relationship between childish cartoons and ominous messages, musing on the technological and material obsolescence of his inspiration. Vintage political cartoons and hand-drawn animation influence Christian’s detailed vignettes—namely from Ub Iwerks, George Condo, and the Hairy Who—Christian comes to terms with his sources’ sordid pasts while embracing their richness and flavor.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418884/f36q0sfxglje9k6q6zze.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/milwaukee-s-spring-gallery-night-and-day">Milwaukee's Spring Gallery Night and Day</a>Exhibition Begins April 16 – 17Lily Pad | West&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418885/wujjzu62wavjfdawhlv5.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/american-roulette">American Roulette</a>&nbsp;Opening: Friday, April 16, 6 – 9&nbsp;pmEpiphany Center for the Arts&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418886/me5uc5aiosn2fk4xkpdp.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/damon-locks-then-x-enters">Damon Locks: Then X Enters</a>Opening: Saturday, April 17, noon – 4&nbsp;pmGoldfinch&nbsp;At the onset of the pandemic, away from his studio and most of his materials during lockdown, Damon Locks found himself needing to make work in ways that were outside his normal path. As an electronic sound-maker, one of the most important tools in Locks’s toolbox is his sampler, which is used to create sound pieces out of collected parts. This echoes how he builds visual images. Digital and screen printing are well-trodden parts of his artistic practice, and Locks regularly uses his computer to compile, construct, and reconstruct images, tweaking them until ready for display. But now, struck with the desire to create and without access to the computer as conveyance, he began to rely on the tools at hand. Ink, brush, bamboo pen, paint, scissors, glue, drawing and tracing paper stepped in where digital design programs once stood.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Start April 16 – 17

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417789/qrjqhz8b6vbijhh5hevo.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/ct-sta-artist-david-csicsko-st-0413-20210412-ijhgkg3wifchpfpkkkiakcwkx4-story.html?fbclid=IwAR33zuIDmHCs_ts035BSDjmIZ-f48Z_zF0L0KeQ_HqT-uZw7xLdcfZQ2ZQg">David Lee Csicsko spent part of pandemic creating free coloring sheets to do while sheltering at home</a>The artwork of David Lee Csicsko brings smiles to people’s faces. His bold, bright creations add cheerfulness to every subject he interprets, no matter how somber the topic.Take the lives of saints. Most people grew up with holy cards and statues that depict saints in their martyrdom and perfect holiness, as exceptional people to revere in a detached, superhuman way.Csicsko takes a different approach. Enthralled with the saints since he was a child, his playful images make them human and approachable, inviting viewers to learn more about them and to embrace their messages.Via Chicago Tribune(Read CGN's 2020 interview with Csicsko <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2020/7/artist-david-lee-csicsko-lends-graphic-talents-to-benefit-healthcare-heroes">here</a>)&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-nft-artist-chicago-20210322-6w2cp5skjrg27ig4vstqfhnb54-story.html?utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=VAP&amp;fbclid=IwAR2mus2FHNRWFehlWLN-9xBez4RF7ebwQMXvtB_AF3t73jtozG41xemmEzw">What is NFT art? Chicago artists explain the goldrush, as one collection by Beeple brings in $69 million</a>Sara Ludy could buy her own island.Maybe. Possibly. Assuming everything goes the way it has lately for digital artists selling their work right now in the form of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Maybe then. <a href="https://www.saraludy.com/">Ludy has spent</a> a couple of decades creating digital art and virtual-reality pieces and teaching the brave new world of new media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; last spring, after years in the city, she left Chicago for her dream state, New Mexico. She’s a significant figure in digital art. She’s not wading into NFTs to get rich quick. And frankly who knows if she even wants an island?Via Chicago Tribune&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/collectors-eye-they-built-a-world-class-collection-of-black-artists-work-who-are-they-acquiring-now-11594828483?mod=hp_featst_pos4">From July 2020: Collector’s Eye: They Built a World-Class Collection of Black Artists’ Work. Who Are They Acquiring Now?</a>With the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2021/4/cgn-art-world-recap-april-6">news today</a> that the Art Institute of Chicago has a new chair of the Board of Trustees, Denise Gardner, we pulled up this article we were reading last summer.Ms. Gardner, the vice-chairman of the board at the Art Institute of Chicago, said she recently walked into the room at home where she has long displayed the masters of the collection—and realized every artist was a Black man. She had bought a couple of major works by Black women lately, so she resolved to add these artists to the main room, thereby allowing Black women to share the spotlight.Via WSJ&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/gardner-heist-netflix-documentary-1957735?utm_content=from_&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=US%20News%20Morning%204/13/21&amp;utm_term=US%20Daily%20Newsletter%20%5BMORNING%5D">An Explosive Netflix Documentary About the $500 Million Isabella Stewart Gardner Heist Names the Gangsters Who May Have Done It</a>“This was a solvable crime,” Colin Barnicle, director of the <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/gardner-heist-docuseries-netflix-1951491">new Netflix documentary series</a> <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81032570">This Is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist</a>, told Artnet News.But more than three decades after the most expensive art theft in U.S. history, Boston’s <a href="https://www.gardnermuseum.org/">Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum</a>’s stolen paintings are still missing, with their empty frames hanging on the walls of the Venetian-style palazzo.Via Artnet&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 4/13

<html><head></head><body>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417626/ybpoan1vqiompgjjon4w.jpg"><figcaption>John Kiley, Blue Halo, 2020, blown and cut glass, 14.75 x 14.25 x 9 in. Courtesy of Traver Gallery</figcaption></figure><a href="https://intersectchicago.com">Intersect Chicago (the old SOFA) announces fall in person dates</a>Intersect Chicago — the future of SOFA will take place in-person November 4–7, 2021. This year the fair presents an exploration of materiality and meaning in design, objects, furniture, and art with a focus on local, regional, and global creation. The fair's focus on glass continues to grow and evolve, and viewers can anticipate that glass will be a highlight of the 2021 edition. Visit <a href="https://vgmgt.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63b52f0348afa8b143fb2ed1c&amp;id=9d0959fc8c&amp;e=dff93cd990">IntersectChicago.com</a> for updates and news in the coming weeks about virtual programs and events leading up to November.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417627/e5udabmd00cgouocwnam.jpg"><figcaption>Lori Sapio.&nbsp;Denise Gardner, 2021. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.artic.edu/press/press-releases/297/art-institute-of-chicago-announces-denise-gardner-as-next-chairperson-of-board-of-trustees">The Art Institute Announces the Next Board Chair, Collector Denise Gardner</a>The Art Institute of Chicago announced today the election of Denise Gardner as the organization’s new chairperson of the Board of Trustees. Gardner will succeed Robert M. Levy as the leader of the governing body of both the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and the Art Institute of Chicago museum. Levy will remain on the board and Gardner will take over as chair when Levy’s term ends in November.With her professional background and a nearly 30-year relationship with the Art Institute as a volunteer and philanthropic leader, including 15 years as a trustee and five years in her current role as vice chair of the board, Gardner is uniquely positioned to advance the strategic vision of both the museum and the school. Deeply invested in and knowledgeable about the Art Institute of Chicago, she has modeled support and advocacy for the museum and school by championing artists and the accessibility of art and art education for historically underrepresented audiences. She has built a personal collection of art that is internationally recognized and cultivated rich relationships with many artists and educators.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417628/n34cfe3yow4pam65f2jv.jpg"><figcaption><a href="https://www.artsy.net/artist/stephen-towns">Stephen Towns, </a><a href="https://www.artsy.net/artwork/stephen-towns-we-will-rest-our-thoughts-in-the-embers">We Will Rest Our Thoughts in the Embers</a>, 2020, <a href="https://www.artsy.net/de-buck-gallery">De Buck Gallery</a></figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-best-booths-expo-chicagos-online-edition">Check out 'the 10 best' booths at EXPO's online edition&nbsp;</a>More than a year after the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic set in and art fairs around the world canceled their plans for the foreseeable future, Chicago’s EXPO fair is holding its 2021 edition online, rescheduled from the fair’s usual in-person time slot in September. This year’s edition, known as <a href="https://www.artsy.net/fair/expo-chgo-online">EXPO CHGO ONLINE</a>, gathers presentations from more than 80 U.S. and international galleries showcasing both contemporary upstarts and well-known figures working in painting, sculpture, fiber art, and much more.Three of the chosen galleries are from Chicago (Daiter, Meloche, and Mickey)Via Artsy&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417629/qlkt8tgwcaxwgfxvbshw.png"><figcaption>Amy Sherald, Breonna Taylor, 2020, oil on linen Joseph Hyde/© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser &amp; Wirth</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-best-booths-expo-chicagos-online-edition">SAIC Grad Allison Glenn curates Exhibition Devoted to Breonna Taylor</a>"To have a contemporary exhibition by majority Black artists in this space acts as a decolonization of these galleries," Glenn says.The show is laid out in three sections to reflect the words in the title: "Promise, Witness, Remembrance."Via NPR&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417630/dtwofikjpyz2hbekn3pj.png"></figure><a href="https://bradlippitz.com/properties/680-n-lake-shore-drive-unit-523-chicago-il-60611-10978559">680 N Lake Shore Drive, Unit 523</a>Completely gutted and masterfully redesigned this oversized one-of-a-kind 1-bedroom/1.5 bath residence exudes sophistication. Featuring art on nearly every wall, including works by Alexander Calder and others, this art filled unit could be yours for under $500K.Via Compass/Brad Lippitz&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Art World Recap: April 13

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418881/ollhcab8aoubpgrb91wc.jpg"></figure>Gallery Chat: SaraNoa MarkFriday, April 9, 12 – 4&nbsp;pmGoldfinchSaraNoa Mark on-site gallery chat on Friday, April 9th, 12-4pm. Book your appointment now to visit the exhibition; the artist is available to answer questions and&nbsp;give casual walk-throughs.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418882/wlqkagqzavk6tlhtfyvo.jpg"></figure>USUAL OBJECTS Panel DiscussionFriday, April 9, 5 – 6&nbsp;pmCarrie Secrist GalleryIn addition to our virtual booth for EXPO CHGO, the gallery will be hosting a special panel discussion featuring the participating artists in our current exhibition USUAL OBJECTS. The panel discussion will further examine contemporary still life in the current context of the coronavirus pandemic against the&nbsp;historic backdrop of the still life genre.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418883/vd3otgltzi77wya8yonh.png"></figure>Seeing Double: Mughal Reflections in South Asian ArtSaturday, April 10, 9 – 11&nbsp;amSouth Asia InstituteThis class will provide both historical and current perspectives on South Asia’s imperial past. ‘Reflecting’ on the Mughals is pivotal to the way India and Pakistan envision their nations – and grapple with their (post)colonial history.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418884/mndbdeonlwk7eq4iquyn.jpg"></figure>In Conversation with the ArtistsSaturday, April 10, 3 – 4&nbsp;pmEat Paint StudioPlease join me for our second conversation with Claire Elliott, Vanessa Shinmoto, and Alexandra Stevenson this Saturday, April 10, from 3-4PM CST. We'll talk more about color, process, and maybe dive into philosophical meanderings about the value of art. The virtual talk will take place via Zoom.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418885/wuxmwd4thbkpra9ppdim.png"></figure>Artist Talk: Jill MagidSaturday, April 10, 6 – 7&nbsp;pmThe Renaissance SocietyFeaturing the premiere of a new film and other new works, Jill Magid’s Tender: Balance at the Renaissance Society thinks about the circulation of pennies, against the backdrop of the pandemic, and measures of absence and loss. With dimensions that both intimate and observant of larger systems around us, this exhibition both parallels and builds on a monumental but nearly invisible public artwork that Magid began in New York in fall 2020.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418886/al6reetakjfrp4bn6wki.png"></figure>Music for Self-care and HealingSunday, April 11, 2 – 3&nbsp;pmNorthern Illinois University (NIU) Art MuseumJen Conley, board certified music therapist and licensed professional counselor, will provide an overview of music therapy, share remarkable stories from her practice and provide suggestions on applying the healing powers of music in your own life.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Talks This Weekend: April 9 - 11

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417762/gtpz1ygptpytrxgaykmt.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/ellen-lanyon-a-bit-of-magic">Ellen Lanyon: A Bit of Magic</a>Exhibition begins April 8Gray&nbsp;Often discussed in relation to Surrealism and Magic Realism, Chicago painter and printmaker Ellen Lanyon (1926 - 2013) is celebrated for her fantastical and meticulously crafted still-life compositions. A reflection of her own private mythology, Lanyon's juxtapositions of exotic specimens from the natural world with everyday household objects subvert ideas of domesticity and offer mysterious new narratives both playful and sinister.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417763/adwb3dzjpc7pubgzosg4.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/lust-love-and-loss-in-renaissance-europe">Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe</a>Exhibition begins April 8Smart Museum of Art&nbsp;The objects on view—created for private homes and personal consumption—offer glimpses into the lives of artists and their audiences. Painters, printmakers, and craftsmen, inspired by popular literary sources including Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron, and the Bible, interpreted their stories for everyday settings.&nbsp;Taken together, the works of art on display illuminate the many ways that objects lay at the heart of cultural rituals and consuming desires through which relationships were formed, celebrated, and extinguished.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417764/navd17gcuv0fn4ap0cnq.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/momentum-moving-joyfully-forward">Momentum: Moving joyfully forward</a>Exhibition begins April 9Springboard Arts&nbsp;The emergence from a turbulent season can be a time of positive change, fueling momentum to keep moving forward. In our new exhibit, “Momentum,” the idea of moving forward with strength and purpose is depicted in the vibrant work of our artists and in the subject matter they address.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417765/mevirnifvv7rq9lr8eno.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/space-chapter-one">Space: Chapter One</a>Exhibition begins April 9Oliva Gallery&nbsp;Organized by the Chicago-based Didaar Art Collective, this group show exhibits a selection of juried drawings and printmakings on the perception of space or the ideas(s) of alternative spaces by Iranian visual artists who live in Iran and beyond.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417766/rdohx8leokz3ck5iputq.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/hurvin-anderson-anywhere-but-nowhere">Hurvin Anderson: Anywhere but Nowhere</a>Exhibition begins April 10Arts Club of Chicago&nbsp;In this new series of paintings, Anderson trains his eye on a section of wall from a seemingly insignificant building that is being overtaken by foliage. Working and reworking the composition in multiple sketches, transparencies and paintings, he invites introspection, as well as recognition of the destructive factors at work in such marked locations in the natural environment.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417767/bhicnmphhtergi8rb94m.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/jill-magid-tender-balance">Jill Magid | Tender: Balance</a>Exhibition begins April 10The Renaissance Society&nbsp;As the pandemic began last year, the complex relationships between individuals, groups of people, institutions, and deeply-rooted systems quickly came into stark relief. Magid was especially struck by the way public figures weighed the loss of human lives against the supposed costs for the economy. Against this backdrop, she began developing a project that would take multiple forms over time, while centering on the circulation of pennies, as they’re exchanged by hand and within the economy at large.&nbsp; &nbsp; Featuring the premiere of a new film and other new works, Jill Magid's Tender: Balance at the Renaissance Society follows the movement of pennies and some of their afterlives, while thinking about absence, loss, and traces left behind. Reflecting her unique approach as an artist, the exhibition has aspects that are intimate and poetic while also observing broader systems around us—in this case the intertwining of the economy and the lives of individual people.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417767/mfg9efglkl7piwm8luvd.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/figures-faces">Figures / Faces&nbsp;</a>Exhibition begins April 10Evanston Art Center&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417768/miensfzwformle2b3myv.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/2021-mfa-candidates-thesis-exhibition">2021 MFA Candidates Thesis Exhibition</a>Exhibition begins April 10Snite Museum of Art&nbsp;This annual exhibition is comprised of the culminating thesis projects created by the students graduating from the three-year masters in fine arts degree program of the University of Notre Dame Department of Art, Art History &amp; Design.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417769/eonha6uoifnibxwosdlg.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/is-this-real">Is This Real?</a>Exhibition begins April 10Gallery Studio Oh!&nbsp;A two-person exhibition featuring landscape and figurative paintings and drawings by Ellen Holtzblatt and imaginative, surreal gouache paintings and sculptures by Kathy Weaver. Through her paintings and drawings, Ellen Holtzblatt explores the profound connections between the physical and spiritual world. Kathy Weaveruses her imagination fired by buried memories and a love of technology to comment on the status quo. Both artists are on a journey to find meaningful coincidence that lead to a deeper connection with the universe.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Start April 8 – 10

<html><head></head><body>By GINNY VAN ALYEAWhile we are all yearning &nbsp;for a return to 'normalcy' soon, there are moments and events that still manage to remind us that we have shifted to a new normal, if you will. Last May EXPO CHICAGO's Tony Karman announced that EXPO would be taking an early, preemptive step to move the fair from its usual September dates to April 2021. This seemed, at the time, to be abundantly cautious but prudent, and an April in-person was totally doable.&nbsp;Well, a year goes fast, even when it's rough. EXPO's team has been busy preparing for a strong virtual showing, one that showcases contemporary and modern art features presentations of available artwork from over 80 international galleries, Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) members, EXPOSURE galleries, and Special Exhibition participants.&nbsp;The online iteration of EXPO includes the usual line up of best feet forward, even in this virtual format, with strong offerings from local participants as well as from international exhibitors and partners. EXPO CHGO ONLINE will offer a series of dynamic discussions, film screenings (presented in partnership with Daata), exhibition tours, and performances reflecting Chicago’s interdisciplinary arts scene.&nbsp;Programs taking place during EXPO CHGO ONLINE will be free and open to the public April 8-12 via the&nbsp;<a href="https://expochicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=feab88d1702b05fff44372e88&amp;id=eafb9b310e&amp;e=b25d02ccd1">EXPO CHICAGO microsite</a>. Each gallery has also been invited to present one artwork that contributes to a broad rethinking of the environment, to be exhibited within a focused programming section.Just a few highlights of the exhibition include:&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417652/af1xxnonq7ovtgyexiae.jpg"><figcaption>The April 8 kick-off event is Presented in partnership with Chicago Architecture Biennial</figcaption></figure>• The fair kick's off for VIPs on <a href="https://program.expochicago.com/expo-chgo-kick-off-program-framing-the-moment-on-music-architecture-and-improvisation/">Thursday, April 8 </a>with a special event featuring David Brown (Artistic Director, Chicago Architecture Biennial), Ken Vandermark (Musician), Rosa Barba (Artist), and moderated by John Corbett (Gallerist, Corbett vs. Dempsey), this panel convenes thought leaders from visual art, music, and architectural backgrounds to discuss the ways improvisational techniques influence their diverse practices in the creation of visual, sonic, and constructed spaces. Panelists will explore how improvisational methods impact both collaboration and community.&nbsp;• Friday, April 9 <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/emerging-artists-with-humberto-moro">Humberto Moro</a>, deputy director and senior curator at the Museo Tamayo and EXPO CHICAGO’s EXPOSURE curator, leads a tour of EXPO CHGO ONLINE. Moro will present a selection of works from a range of galleries featured in the EXPOSURE section of the digital exposition, in addition to key pieces from emerging artists throughout the fair.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417653/ezmfnyfkyxdnqarjdstu.jpg"></figure>• Saturday, April 10 – Corbett vs. Dempsey presents the fifth incarnation of its&nbsp;Sequesterfest&nbsp;series, this time as part of the program for EXPO CHGO ONLINE art fair, presented in the Experimental Sound Studio’s miraculous Quarantine Concert series, which has been streaming live music and audio art directly into people’s homes since the outbreak of the pandemic.&nbsp; Sequesterfest&nbsp;5 singles out three members of Wilco – singer and guitarist (and most recently author!)&nbsp;Jeff Tweedy, guitarist&nbsp;Nels Cline, and drummer&nbsp;Glenn Kotche&nbsp;– inviting them to show how a few seasons off-road adds up.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417654/jcvfe4v5iy38f5uybxos.jpg"></figure>• April 12 The Arts Club hosts a panel, <a href="https://program.expochicago.com/panel-for-and-from-the-void-artists-on-making-in-an-empty-institution/">For and From the Void: Artists on Making in an Empty Institution</a>. Unable to host audiences en masse for performances in the actual building, The Arts Club of Chicago opted, during a pandemic-induced hibernation, to explore the generative potential of emptiness. The club invited three artists in three disciplines to ponder the question, “What does one do with an empty institution?” Musician Angel Bat Dawid, Dancer Jasmine Mendoza, and Theater maker Kurt Chiang (with their collaborators Isaiah Collier, Keaton Fox, and Livia Chesley respectively) took on the task of making art for and from a void. The three lead artists, with programmer Jenna Lyle, discuss their discoveries from the process and the inherent contradictions in the original prompt: is an arts institution ever really empty?&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417654/xdv8xhauevtukdzu5fgp.jpg"><figcaption>Ellen Lanyon</figcaption></figure>• Locally, Gray Gallery will be highlighting artist <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/ellen-lanyon-a-bit-of-magic">Ellen Lanyon</a> with a solo exhibition of paintings from the late artist's, sold to benefit the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.The Arts Club of Chicago opens its exhibition featuring the work of Turner Prize-nominated artist <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/hurvin-anderson-anywhere-but-nowhere">Hurvin Anderson, Anywhere but Nowhere.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;Of course, if you're local you can visit area galleries all week, as all are open at least by appointment.&nbsp;Enjoy this version of EXPO. Though it is the new normal for now, it's a strong connection to what we used to experience in years past and what we can look forward to again, hopefully some day soon.&nbsp;&nbsp;From the archives:<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2020/5/expo-chicago-to-move-from-september-to-april-8-11-2021">EXPO CHICAGO to Move from September to April 2021</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2020/9/expo-chicago-s-tony-karman-on-fall-without-a-fair">Tony Karman on Fall without a Fair, Sept 2020</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

EXPO CHGO Online Opens This Week

<a href="https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg-hinz-politics/847-million-raised-mid-fall-groundbreaking-set-obama-center?utm_source=breaking-news&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=20210330&amp;utm_content=hero-image">Mid-fall groundbreaking set for Obama Center</a>With more than $800 million in commitments and cash on hand, the Obama Foundation intends to begin construction of the long-planned Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park by mid-fall, officials said today.In a meeting with Crain’s editorial board, foundation Chair&nbsp;Valerie Jarrett and construction chief Lori Healey said that, with only routine city building permits yet to be obtained, land clearance work on the 18-acre site will begin “around Sept. 1,” with actual construction perhaps two months later but definitely before winter.Via Crain's&nbsp;<a href="https://news.wttw.com/2021/04/04/chicagos-arts-community-sees-wave-new-black-leaders">Chicago’s Arts Community Sees Wave of New Black Leaders</a>Chicago’s arts organizations have always been enriched and influenced by the work of Black artists and performers, though they have not always been inclusive of Black voices. And Black leadership in those organizations have historically been even less inclusive.Amid the turbulence of the last year, a wave of new Black leaders has arrived in Chicago’s arts community. Now, they are tasked with navigating some of the city’s best-known institutions through incredibly challenging times for the arts.Via WTTW&nbsp;<a href="https://www.adfwebmagazine.jp/en/art/museum-debt-deprives-us-of-our-future/">Museum Debt Deprives Us of Our Future</a>Art museums across the United States are in a dire financial crisis. As a result of closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, many museums have undertaken drastic measures such as furloughing and laying off staff, selling artwork from their permanent collection, and scaling back programming and exhibitions in order to mitigate massive revenue losses. However, museums rarely acknowledge the extent to which industry financial practices, in particular the use of debt to finance capital projects, endanger their sustainability, especially during times of national and international economic crisis.By Riley Yaxley, ADF Web Magazine&nbsp;<a href="https://myemail.constantcontact.com/VAS-Weekly-Newsletter--March-27--2021.html?soid=1102371355349&amp;aid=FAexjWQiHmc">The MCA Blows It</a>Wrapping the corner walls of the entrance to “The Long Dream” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago are the names of the more than 70 local artists exhibiting work in the exhibition. Some of these names belong to my friends and colleagues, and there are others I don’t personally know but greatly admire. Rather than feeling vicariously buoyed by reading these names, and appreciating the institutional recognition of a segment of Chicago’s arts community, I instinctively flinched.By Robin Dluzen&nbsp;&nbsp;Thumbnail image: Diane Christensen and Jeanne Dunning with Steve Dawson, “Birth Death Breath,” ﻿2016, inflatable opera. Installation view, Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, Illinois&nbsp;

What We're Reading: 4/5

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418881/g9vpyre2dfq8hgi74fqa.jpg"></figure><a href="https://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/?mc_cid=28cea9dbe1&amp;mc_eid=a6ad3ea4a5">The Smart Reopens Next Week</a>On April 8, the Smart Museum of Art will open to the public, offering timed reservations to visit Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe, a new exhibition in which passion, violence, and virtue emerge as fundamental, intertwined elements in European artworks of the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. In addition, the Museum will be open to University of Chicago classes and individual or small group student research visits coordinated through the Feitler Center for Academic InquiryThe Museum also shared an article from nine UChicago experts discussing the <a href="https://news.uchicago.edu/story/what-experts-have-learned-from-covid-19-pandemic-one-year?mc_cid=28cea9dbe1&amp;mc_eid=a6ad3ea4a5">past year's impacts</a> on health, science and more.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418882/nxy8f21hpmn52rn74gni.png"></figure><a href="https://www.artdesignchicago.org/adcnow/">Art Design Chicago is Back</a>Art Design Chicago&nbsp;is back again with Art Design Chicago Now,&nbsp;a series of free public conversations, hands-on workshops, behind-the-scenes collections tours, and digital storytelling amplifying the voices of Chicago's diverse community of makers―past and present. Details <a href="https://www.artdesignchicago.org/adcnow/">here</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418883/ct9rctkmcmcfavk5equx.png"></figure><a href="https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/900-N-Lake-Shore-Dr-APT-712-Chicago-IL-60611/3849428_zpid/?">900 N Lake Shore – An Accessible 'Miesien' Home</a>A renovated "12" tier 2 bed / 2 bath unit in the architecturally significant Mies Van Der Rohe building is for sale with a recent price cut.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h1>&nbsp;</h1></body></html>

Art World Recap: April 1

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/rchl9kccndskl4drwaza.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/diane-arbus-a-secret-about-a-secret">Diane Arbus: A Secret about a Secret</a>Exhibition begins April 1Alan Koppel Gallery – NorthSeven iconic artworks by one of America's preeminent photographers, along with works by contemporary artists influenced by Arbus.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/dlcxcubs9vmpieechwfi.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/joerg-metzner-missing-the-tree-at-greenwood-beach">Joerg Metzner | Missing: The Tree at Greenwood Beach</a>Exhibition begins April 2Perspective Group + Photography Gallery, Ltd.Metzner’s photography is narrative by nature, encompasses environmental portraits, landscape, documentary, editorial and fine art photography. Point him in any direction for a travel assignment and he will happily hit the road.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418877/fzyg8s10cdppkjswor1f.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/in-from-the-cold">In From The Cold</a>Exhibition begins April 2Carl Hammer GalleryIn From The Cold is a celebration of the self-taught brilliance of “outsider” art and artists, a recognition which the world art establishment was reluctant to make many years ago.&nbsp; Today, the modern art world as a whole recognizes, with high esteem, the achievements of the outsider artist.&nbsp; Their works have become iconic byproducts of and leave significant legacies to the American art experience itself.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418878/ukprijiepngz3jjbxwzp.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/paula-blackwell-out-of-the-blue">Paula Blackwell: Out of the Blue</a>Opening: Saturday, Apr 3, 2021 2 – 6&nbsp;pmAddington GalleryPaula Blackwell is a leading artistic voice in the Pacific Northwest. Her emotionally charged, moody landscapes point as much towards our inner life as they do reference the natural world. Process leads the charge in her work as she manipulates layers of wax and pigment, exploiting the translucency of the materials to create a palpable sense of atmosphere, never becoming a slave to detail and illustration.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418879/z92ptb67rg2bkys4ywr1.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/now-and-then-paintings-by-joanna-pinsky">Now and Then: Paintings by Joanna Pinsky</a>Exhibition begins April 3&nbsp;Evanston Art CenterPinsky creates installations of the shaped paintings, hanging them so they seem to interact with each other. &nbsp;Nothing is hung parallel or perpendicular to the floor giving the appearance that the objects seem to be floating in space like memories when you fall asleep at night, collapsing time and place into unexpected relationships.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418879/si0c2abp5qy1d8vrqrel.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/kour-pour-familiar-spirits">Kour Pour: Familiar Spirits</a>Exhibition begins April 3&nbsp;Kavi Gupta GalleryPour’s debut at the gallery will present a group of paintings he created around the motif of the tiger. As with past bodies of work, such as his acclaimed carpet paintings, this series contains elements that reference both global art history and various interconnected cultural iconographies. Pour uses the word foster to describe his process of activating such visual associations, suggesting that he is nurturing something temporarily in his care.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418880/oct8e17fasvfnjxb1nzx.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/boom-bloom-featuring-nikki-renee-anderson-renee-robbins-artlab-mike-slaski">Boom Bloom: Featuring Nikki Renee Anderson &amp; Renee Robbins | artlab: Mike Slaski</a>Exhibition begins April 3&nbsp;Krasl Art CenterBoom Bloom features sculptures by Nikki Renee Anderson and paintings by Renee Robbins that explode, reconfigure, and blossom. Biomorphic compositions multiply, shift, and drip inside a candy-colored otherworld. Themes of growth connect the works in rhythmic blooms at either the beginning or the end of natural cycles. While drawing from the familiar, invention and a whimsical sense of play characterize the work.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Start April 1 – 3

<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/richard-driehaus-stock-market-daredevil-preserved-traditional-architecture-11616673753?mod=searchresults_pos1&amp;page=1">Richard Driehaus, Stock-Market Daredevil, Preserved Traditional Architecture</a>The Wall Street Journal featured an obituary of Chicago's famed philanthropist this past weekend.&nbsp;Via WSJ&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/louvre-collection-online-artists-guaranteed-income-san-francisco-morning-links-1234588045/">Louvre Puts Entire Collection Online</a>The&nbsp;Louvre&nbsp;has just&nbsp;put its entire collection—all 482,000 pieces—online. “Today, the Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known,” its president,&nbsp;Jean-Luc Martinez, said&nbsp;<a href="https://click.email.artnews.com/?qs=d88ecd0b3929ee266aa65d62df5db4251ed5f9a7b674aa0109cde586329f2dde70f43764c676d7243f2cc5a850225d46f472b3a5b3b2acb4">in a statement</a>. Only about 30,000 entries were previously accessible to the public.Via Artnews&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/two-non-profit-organisations-team-up-to-offer-usd100-000-grants-to-artists-in-the-san-francisco-bay-area">Two non-profits team up to offer $100,000 grants to artists in the San Francisco Bay Area</a>The Oakland, California-based Kenneth Rainin Foundation has partnered with United States Artists to launch the Rainin Fellowship, which will annually award grants of $100,000 each to four artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each artist will be selected on the basis of making an impact on the community.Via the Art Newspaper&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mcachicagostore.org/all-products/browse/keyword/new-era">MCA Marks Opening Day of Baseball with Limited-edition Chicago team caps</a> Go all nine innings and celebrate Opening Day with $9 off the Joshua Vides × MCA White Sox or Cubs hat. These numbered, embroidered, and paint–splattered fitted caps are available exclusively at the MCA Store. The Store is open Tuesdays 10 am–9 pm and Wednesday to Sunday 10 am–6 pm. <a href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=1409aff7d4&amp;e=95b957c616">Shop</a>&nbsp;

What We're Reading: 3/29

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image image-style-side"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/q4lag3i2ki4k9qvemwgk.png"></figure><a href="https://www.hydeparkart.org/get-involved/artist-opportunities/artists-run-chicago-fund/">Artists Run Chicago Fund Deadline: March 31</a>Attention Chicago artist-run spaces, time is running out! Don't forget that applications are open for Hyde Park Art Center's Artists Run Chicago Fund. HPAC's Artist Run Chicago Fund <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001u2enedW6KuGOEGlRzJp6Jeh6OLYbTXAeB6PYyCRK0i7Y64ZIaUcxgNFYzNlRuN6XLXqVhpUvwcZbVteW5zjW3Lq3QmCd53zdzS22_vLA4wHPyptQJZZo7rloBNe7Ov-Ns2Q-OCznCb7okYyGHc1Z_C886Xyom_9MDUquICWln9FmbgTo1ovkjIu-fTQZlWuDjM3i8Uzq8L6bMmaDdlRzXiMKHjkx6nwUoNZawIgkcDo=&amp;c=3ode9-ISYXoGbSyqiKc2y8_47ZR8H9Ev9h8n3AZiQPPWps9u1lVv3A==&amp;ch=832h_-AbCsEqaZ2UKkv01m0bH_iAFez41xmghCPNjWHovGIVUEwLpA==">open call </a>seeks to award 20 $8,000 grants to artist-run spaces, programs and platforms through a juried open call.⠀The deadline to apply for an Artist Run Chicago Fund Grant is March 31, 2021. This initiative is being funded by an anonymous donor and is being fully administered by Hyde Park Art Center.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/njdyh9uczyxy577f8gu9.gif"></figure><a href="https://artadia.org/?mc_cid=5d971b1564&amp;mc_eid=46cd983d87">Announcing the 2021 Chicago&nbsp;Artadia&nbsp;Awards Finalists</a>Artadia, a nonprofit grant making organization and nationwide community of visual artists, curators, and patrons, is pleased to announce that Andrea Carlson, Melissa Leandro, Cecil McDonald, Jr., Carlos Javier Ortiz, Celeste Rapone and Nate Young have been selected as the 2021 Chicago Artadia Awards Finalists.&nbsp; The Finalists will each receive virtual studio visits with second-round jurors, who will ultimately select three artists to receive $10,000 unrestricted funds.&nbsp;The 2021 Chicago Artadia Award application was open to visual artists working in any visual media, at any stage in their career, who have been living and working within Chicago Cook County for a minimum of two years.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418878/kkrggqnqwcepu213cgb4.png"></figure><a href="https://www.hfas.org">The Harlem Fine Art Show is running online through May 28</a>The Harlem Fine Art Show ran in Chicago a few years ago, as well as in other cities, and now it's running virtually through July 2021. Open 7 days digital visitors can examine each gallery’s artworks, singularly and vividly, in both 2D or 3D on the wall. 60+ booths present select artists and galleries from around the world highlighting the African Diaspora in virtual reality. Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, HFAS provides a platform African Diasporic Visionaries as well as American visual artist to exhibit and sell their artwork. The Harlem Fine Arts show has also created economic empowerment, educational opportunities and professional recognition within the multicultural community.&nbsp; &nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Art World Recap: March 29

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/mwxcfoli8rkbf6ux3caa.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/victoria-adams-distancing-imagination-and-the-faraway">Victoria Adams –&nbsp;Distancing: Imagination and the Faraway</a>Opening: Friday, March 26, 4 – 7&nbsp;pmZolla / Lieberman Gallery&nbsp;VICTORIA ADAMS:&nbsp;Distancing&nbsp;features wide-open panoramic spaces and horizons with clear views of turbulent skies. Adams' interests include the universal human need to speculate on what lies behind a horizon—to be in one place and project the imagination into another, as yet unattainable, state of being that is beyond the horizon and into the “distance." Horizons and Distance are gateways to the “faraway”, both spatial and temporal, and they are a constant feature of western romantic landscape art.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/xclu3qgpma50rfbjxy35.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/richard-lee">Richard Yu-Tang Lee: I Come In Peace</a>Opening: Friday, March 26, 7 – 10&nbsp;pmFirecat Projects&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418877/f3j6x0zdnn6he00oyjea.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/jeane-cohen-in-the-walls-of-my-house-there-were-spirits">Jeane Cohen: In the Walls of My House There Were Spirits</a>Opening: Friday, March 26, 4 – 7&nbsp;pmZolla / Lieberman Gallery&nbsp;In this body of work, Cohen is wringing pathos into the paintings by drawing on experiences of disintegration, fear, a collapsed boundary between interior self and outer world, and feelings of futility. Addressing what can be framed as a personal or cultural threat of spiritual collapse, the paintings’ untethered fields imprint the churning, melting, bending, dislodging, and charred sensations of continuously renegotiating reality.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418878/cmooiemzynqtkuycxvla.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/very-well-thank-you-the-arts-as-a-means-to-well-being">“Very Well, Thank You”: The Arts as a Means to Well-being</a>March 26 – May 15Northern Illinois University (NIU) Art Museum&nbsp;The exhibition investigates the unique role and way the visual and performing arts assist in maintaining social, psychological and physical health and happiness.Artists were selected from a national call for entry and invited to participate because of their interest in presenting work that attempts to examine how the arts contribute to well-being through visual harmony, balance, color, humor, being in the moment and process.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Start March 26

<html><head></head><body>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/hcgrn0mrfqkbjpefc2et.jpg"></figure>Chicago Loop Alliance teases 2021 plans for downtown: mural walks, pop-ups, open streets on State&nbsp;<a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=4tNED-2FM8iDZJQyQ53jATUXhkX0UhPogPnfTGmCBMoMg-3DhJZy_BYLPtpUivDHORxxkVXshLCRT3wjV7CgXbLJWP9J5MP9LJ6jv7-2Bb0c97UF1yE1XeiuuTDCWCbvFFcP-2BZ-2Ft6yZw0AYl95zT-2FawsXUF9bauiyJaIwQEPKT5KsxsRa76apy-2FMrOWnmtAYMvp9zzbJ0JD13hiHMKIzOGBcWlIBsz-2F9mXvts5k4ykU-2B1yGIsYqLzeM-2B9jy-2FDJtZwE2J-2FM1a7vxnU810CEtE2dlOe7XHWDmYPv-2BM7ND5XYtjQZSUKrtLCEBxQHZL1Nk0-2FRj-2Fe3jNCKkmGFUhQI67vJACdRxNSLtuebEt2akFo-2BVLcuFh2qdfBp7qTUMlF3YX0NWgsmyTTNPgigv316gOOzvjZiJ1FWp2bA-3D">Chicago Loop Alliance</a> and the <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=4tNED-2FM8iDZJQyQ53jATUXhkX0UhPogPnfTGmCBMoMiPwphVy7EprdUlhr1z0fI-2BZ-2Fl3eUrT03zmwrqRm15HeQ-3D-3Dh3Qi_BYLPtpUivDHORxxkVXshLCRT3wjV7CgXbLJWP9J5MP9LJ6jv7-2Bb0c97UF1yE1XeiuuTDCWCbvFFcP-2BZ-2Ft6yZw0AYl95zT-2FawsXUF9bauiyJaIwQEPKT5KsxsRa76apy-2FMrOWnmtAYMvp9zzbJ0JD13hiHMKIzOGBcWlIBsz-2F9mXvts5k4ykU-2B1yGIsYqLzeM-2B9jy-2FDJtZwE2J-2FM1a7vxnTPAuhjf7ESA6vIWLlv3X9NVVGSMtCl7Hc9fdS77OCcxU4jpGcwNZX6opJZpxlH5ARCua7WY1l9F3YWq9gY8LcecwlwEKBZjHRtal-2B2WGriNMMNoDEiuyfGzWi0CzyR-2FAMNCLVs9VpvPldz2luRJqsM-3D">Chicago Loop Alliance Foundation</a> hosted their 16th&nbsp;Annual Meeting on March 23.&nbsp;During the virtual meeting attendees got a first look at the organization’s potential 2021 plans and programs, including an ambitious open streets project that would see parts of State Street in the Loop closed to vehicle traffic for up to 12 Sundays this summer.&nbsp;“Last year was incredibly challenging for the Loop community, which relies so heavily on the 370,000 workers and millions of visitors it normally sees,” said Chicago Loop Alliance President and CEO Michael Edwards. “This month, we noticed a 35 percent increase in pedestrian activity on State Street, which has really improved the atmosphere and energy downtown—we’re all starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. As vaccine distribution continues to ramp up, and as the weather warms, we see many opportunities to attract people back to the Loop in 2021."&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418877/ghflls1lsrnxwyzrxks8.jpg"><figcaption>Diane Arbus, Triplets in Their Bedroom, NJ, 1963, gelatin silver print, 15 x 15 inches</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/organizations/alan-koppel-gallery-north">Alan Koppel Gallery opens satellite gallery in Glencoe</a>Alan Koppel Gallery announced this week that they have opened a satellite location: Alan Koppel Gallery – North in Glencoe, IL. Located at 342 Park Avenue in downtown Glencoe, this new auxiliary gallery will bring modern and contemporary masterworks to the collectors and art lovers of Chicago's North Shore. The gallery's main location is still on N. Dearborn St. in Chicago.The inaugural exhibition in the space is "Diane Arbus: A Secret about a Secret" with seven iconic artworks by one of America's preeminent photographers, along with works by contemporary artists influenced by Arbus. The show runs through May 8.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418877/f9le66lmlctybbky0un5.jpg"><figcaption>Lanna Thai Coffee Table, Teak Wood, 50"W x 38"D x 17"H, $4,200 Now: $1,260</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goldentriangle.biz/just-in/thai-lanna-coffee-table-19t08099a.html">Golden Triangle Moving Sale Ends March 27</a>The Golden Triangle is moving from their Clark Street warehouse to the west side. To clear out a lot of their (often large) furniture and objects, their entire collection is being offered at 70% off, online or in person. All Sales Are Final &nbsp;No Holds, Returns, Refunds or Exchanges. Sale Ends March 27th, 2021&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418878/mezwcoycxqo2fgnplvjl.jpg"></figure>Weinberg/Newton Gallery Names Artist Collective as Inaugural Artists in Residence<a href="http://www.weinbergnewtongallery.com">Weinberg/Newton Gallery </a>named Chicago-based organization A Long Walk Home as inaugural recipients of the Art &amp; Advocacy Residency. Conceived as an expansion of the gallery’s mission to raise awareness for social justice issues in collaboration with artists, the Art &amp; Advocacy Residency offers awarded artists the use of the 2,200 square foot gallery space over the course of 12 weeks, in addition to a stipend. Participating A Long Walk Home artists Scheherazade Tillet, Robert Narciso and Leah Gipson will collaborate to realize The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar, an installation comprised of four community altars to be placed throughout Chicago this May and June as temporary monuments to missing and murdered Black girls.The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar will engage Black girls and young women in Chicago as citizen-artists who will research, assemble and activate the altars, using the project to advocate for change within their communities. Each public altar will serve as a sacred space and gathering site for grief, healing, safety and comfort through multi-disciplinary art practices. The ALWH Collective is interested in finding ways for communities to come together to grieve, celebrate life, and make sustainable changes in their own communities. Over the course of the residency, ALWH and Weinberg/Newton Gallery will present programming that offers the public insight into the creation of The Visibility Project: Black Girlhood Altar.&nbsp;<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/platform/amp/2021/3/24/22346728/aldermans-bid-restrict-house-museums-iwithdrawn-should-stay-that-way?utm_campaign=chicago.suntimes&amp;utm_content=entry&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;__twitter_impression=true&amp;fbclid=IwAR2qOgrrj8TB0Obn365Ysn40mO8McwcufwPWZYEfb5kRlUcOPjqyLjhofEc">An alderman’s bid to restrict house museums is withdrawn — and should stay that way</a>There are tons of problems the city’s lawmakers need to address — crime, the stratospheric costs of municipal pensions, historic racial and social inequalities — but passing a law to restrict the creation of neighborhood house museums, of all things, certainly isn’t one of them.Yet that’s the quixotic battle Ald. Sophia King (4th) has chosen to fight recently, that is until the arts and culture community mounted up against her proposed ordinance, forcing her to withdraw the measure Tuesday from the City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards.Via Chicago Sun Times&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Art World Recap: March 25

<html><head></head><body>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417672/zzmyrlkh46g7doa9vamw.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/lecture-in-photography-candice-breitz">Lecture in Photography: Candice Breitz</a>Wednesday, March 24, noon – 1&nbsp;pmMuseum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)Candice Breitz’s recent work reflects on a media- saturated global culture and probes widespread indifference to the plight of those facing real&nbsp;world adversity. Breitz will discuss her work including Labour (2017, ongoing), currently on&nbsp;view in Reproductive, which explores links between capitalism, labor, male dictatorships and the regulation of women’s bodies.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417673/oga9n4bny5est0nia0co.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/conversations-from-the-frontlines-transitioning-to-a-regenerative-economy">Conversations from the Frontlines: Transitioning to a Regenerative Economy</a>Thursday, March 25, 5 – 7&nbsp;pmWeinberg/Newton GalleryClimate solutions must address the legacy of pollution and promote racial and economic justice. In Michigan City, Just Transition NWI and the LaPorte County Chapter of the NAACP are fighting dirty, uneconomic coal plants and advancing a vision of a more sustainable economy that promotes the health of the community. This roundtable discussion will feature two leaders in the ongoing efforts including their advocacy, supported by Earthjustice, for the closure and cleanup of five coal ash ponds at the Michigan City Generating Station.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417674/iuasp8cqriakoppyp2am.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/music-talk-justin-vivian-bond-with-jim-hodges">Music Talk: Justin Vivian Bond with Jim Hodges</a>Saturday, March 27, 4 – 5:30&nbsp;pmMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA)&nbsp;Join in as acclaimed singer-songwriter, author, painter, performance artist, and actor Justin Vivian Bond chats, riffs, and improvises with installation artist Jim Hodges in Hodges’s studio in Queens, with Bond’s band in the background.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417675/dvxtzgtpky8cvzrl40qq.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/miranda-july-in-conversation-with-jennifer-reeder">Miranda July in Conversation with Jennifer Reeder</a>Tuesday, March 30, 6:30 – 7:30&nbsp;pmSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Visiting Artists ProgramMiranda July is a filmmaker, artist, and writer whose work explores human connection, inclusivity, desire, fear, and fantasy. Across media, July's daring, urgent, and idiosyncratic voice finds unexpectedly accessible forms that reflect the poignancy and strangeness of the human plight.July will discuss her practice with filmmaker Jennifer Reeder (MFA 1996). Reeder constructs personal fiction films about relationships, trauma, and coping. Her innovative, award-winning narratives borrow from a range of forms including after-school specials, amateur music videos, and magical realism.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Talks This Week: March 23 - 30

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/samxodelh1g2ct06ntjv.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.edelmangallery.com">Catherine Edelman Gallery Announces New Plan to Stay Open After Closing in December 2020</a>Catherine Edelman Gallery announced this week that they are staying put in their West Town brick-and-mortar space at 1637 W. Chicago Ave. As Edelman said, she built the space out of nothing and she's thrilled to be able to keep it open after a very challenging 2020. In a video message, Edelman takes a moment to acknowledged her former staff, Juli Lowe and Tim Campos, who were with her for 11 and 9 years. Edelman had long planned to pass the gallery on to Juli, but the pandemic changed the course of the best–laid plans.&nbsp;Together, with her artists, Edelman is now working to develop a new and sustainable gallery model. CEG also announced the debut of an innovative Viewing Room that allows the public to walk through the show as if they were in the gallery, no doubt anticipating that some members of the collecting community, both local and around the world, may opt to view art virtually beyond the pandemic. This new experience, coupled with in-depth artist interviews, and in-person and online programming, offers a fresh approach to the traditional Tuesday through Saturday hours while giving Edelman flexibility to spend time with viewers and clients one by one and also to continue mounting exhibitions. “Artists need a space to see their work. And the public needs a space where they can see, learn and ask questions. I look forward to engaging with the public in a new, more personalized way,” said Edelman. Currently the gallery is open by appt. The current exhibition, Gallery Artists 2.0, runs through May 29, 2021&nbsp;<a href="https://link.chicagobusiness.com/click/23300690.72558/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jaGljYWdvYnVzaW5lc3MuY29tL3Jlc2lkZW50aWFsLXJlYWwtZXN0YXRlL2FtaWQtYnJvYWQtb3Bwb3NpdGlvbi1hbGRlcm1hbi1kcm9wcy1wcm9wb3NhbC1ob3VzZS1tdXNldW1zP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9YnJlYWtpbmctbmV3cyZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDIxMDMyMyZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1oZXJvLWhlYWRsaW5l/5f4c3915c90d524d8471bc4aC086285f9">Amid broad opposition, alderman drops proposal on house museums</a>Facing broad and powerful opposition to her proposal to limit conversion of houses into museums, Ald. Sophia King dropped the plan today, just ahead of a City Hall meeting about it.&nbsp;Several area arts leaders and organizers made a full press to draw attention to the ordinance and its potential impact.&nbsp;Via Crains&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/ae6gzmd0ozkes0bzcjnw.png"></figure>Randolph Street Market Takes a Detour to Michigan This SummerFounder Sally Schwartz had to stop her famous Randolph Street Markets in Chicago last spring due to the pandemic. Now, with the home of the markets, Plumber's Hall, being under construction all summer, she's decided to head to Harbor Country Michigan instead.&nbsp;As Sally shared on Facebook, "You can't keep a good show down! Ninety minutes from the city your world will be transformed! Three Oaks is a quintessential small “hometown” community nestled within Harbor Country, which is the summer home to many Chicagoans.&nbsp;&nbsp;Come shop our curated dealers treasures, cruise the main drag and even stop for a swim at Warren Woods State Park. It will be worth the trip and the start of a new tradition."&nbsp;The market returns May 28, 2021. Visit their <a href="https://www.randolphstreetmarket.com">website</a> for details.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418877/wzl7o6ut7p2yak43cjwv.jpg"></figure>New Chicago Takes 10 Performance Series Spotlights Performers Impacted by COVID-19Chicago Takes 10, a new, virtual performance series sponsored by the Walder Foundation that supports performing artists and arts organizations who have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The series premiered March 18 and highlights diverse performance styles throughout the Chicago region, featuring local musicians, performers, and dancemakers. Chicago Takes 10 hopes that artists and organizations will have a new platform to share their work with audiences here in the Chicago region and beyond. Join Emcee <a href="https://www.chicagotakes10.org/artists/sandra-delgado">Sandra Delgado</a> every other Thursday at 6 p.m. CT. All performances run 60-90 minutes. Visit <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagotakes10.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2YWZBGnCfAi5hQMYSJqz-XWsjCI_bxVZvMqFf_romZjdls9_HtlJFTEr8&amp;h=AT0QjbLqBWc15VKlov9JaytAsZj3bzGIJ8gcO6h06x6w8AW2ySS4hmOxa2uEFFBNTP-U_3o3aVhRD5BGgMiHdh0mh_KUVo8nYX6oY-kZJmG1vHc2FO9ueD7HibfMXPUEQVp_4hM&amp;__tn__=-UK-R&amp;c[0]=AT3qrHqzf4M82yK7czb7rDHMNL8sOe1l51frrT30E2NMtvOsPTtbcmgQu6rC8meG96Mj5rllfll6Hbn8j-xX1adH3QaO0gXN_iIgeHRzQ3oxSe464WQfuCGSrZeNTVaqt2jJCLIepTkEd8kkwh2LHym8bvx15BiyEVPz9CMDRpSFCwBB91vMWclH0iBOA82rucZYwrW-tisA">www.chicagotakes10.org</a> for details and to view performances.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418878/n1cbhigvvavqs1ece2hc.jpg"><figcaption>Via TANK Shanghai</figcaption></figure>Theaster Gates in ShanghaiGates shared via Facebook that he has opened a sprawling new exhibition in Shanghai called BAD NEON at TANK Shanghai. Gates &nbsp;said, "BAD NEON transforms TANK No. 3 into a space where light, sound, and roller disco can live alongside two of my favorite visualists: the painter Agnes Martin, and the social theorist W.E.B Du Bois. These synergies feel particularly relevant in this moment, and I’m excited for people to experience the energy of the space."&nbsp;Gagosian shared, In his exhibition Bad Neon,&nbsp;<a href="https://gagosian.com/artists/theaster-gates/">Theaster Gates</a> transforms the unique space of Tank Shanghai—which is housed within decommissioned aviation fuel tanks of a former airport—into a roller-skating rink, complete with neon lights, music, and artworks. Visitors are invited to experience the energy of Gates’s art on skates, including two iceberg-shaped sculptures, Houseberg (gold) and Houseberg (silver), which pay tribute to 1980s Chicago house music and clubs. Over the course of the exhibition, musicians and artists will craft different genres of music, introducing more possibilities to the site."&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

CGN Art World Recap: March 22

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/pmw3rghlsiutaa4kuntm.png"><figcaption>Drawing by Chris Ware &nbsp;</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.saic.edu/magazine/spring21/drawing-inspiration-how-chris-ware-sees-chicago">SAIC's New Magazine is Out and Features Alumnus Chris Ware</a>A year ago, Chicago's creative and cultural hubs shut down—but the city and its people persisted.&nbsp;In this issue of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago magazine, SAIC spotlights how Chicago's makers are inspired more than ever by the beauty and resilience of the place they call home.Over the last 30 years, Chicago’s Loop has experienced a renaissance, anchored by glittering theater marquees and bustling restaurants and shops. But that wasn’t always the case. When artist and writer Chris Ware (SAIC 1991–93, HON 2019) first moved to Chicago in the ’90s, he would bike through the empty Loop at night. “It felt post-apocalyptic, abandoned, filthy, segregated, and miserable yet concomitantly weirdly lawless and unaccountably occasionally inspiring,” Ware said. “I recall the predominant colors being brown and gray. Lots of trash.” – Brontë Mansfield (SAIC MA 2017)&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/beginning-her-career-yayoi-kusama-donated-11-works-her-doctor-now-they-may-sell-14-million-180977271/?utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_medium=socialmedia&amp;fbclid=IwAR3zJ5arsy3_NgZ0GRazcnzUG4MQB5q590RknJXiG7OxikKscywJFGsLXlU">Trove of Early Yayoi Kusama Works to Go on Public View for the First Time</a>When the esteemed Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama was a struggling creative in 1960s Manhattan, she needed a doctor but couldn’t afford one. Faced with few options, she visited physician Teruo Hirose (one of only two Japanese-speaking doctors on the island at the time), who often provided inexpensive or pro bono medical care to fellow Japanese immigrants.&nbsp;Hirose agreed to treat her, and in return, she gave him a number of artworks as a token of gratitude. The pair remained friends until Hirose’s death in November 2019 at age 93.This May, reports Angelica Villa for ARTnews, 11 of these gifted artworks are set to hit the auction block. Combined, Bonhams expects the three paintings and eight works on paper to sell for between $8.8 million and $14 million.Via ARTnews&nbsp;<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/3/20/22338709/chicago-history-museum-new-ceo-donald-lassere-plans-attendance-teens-diversity-exhibits">New CEO of Chicago History Museum has a plan to build and diversify attendance</a>Chicago’s oldest museum also has one of the lowest profiles, playing second fiddle to the Art Institute, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium.But that could change, if Donald Lassere, newly hired president and CEO of the Chicago History Museum, has his way.Lassere is returning to his hometown of Chicago with a plan to make the History Museum more interactive and exciting and to build and diversify museum attendance that is now “more than 80%” white in a majority-minority city.Via Chicago Sun Times&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 3/22

<html><head></head><body>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/gsch5ue2m3dsahaxykzz.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/photos-at-zoom-discussion-session-walker-evans">Photos at Zoom Discussion Session: Walker Evans</a>Friday, March 19, 12 – 1&nbsp;pmMuseum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)Presented virtually on Zoom | Register&nbsp;<a href="https://mocp.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9e4250b7536dc23e9352b28ee&amp;id=24aa1158cc&amp;e=62775191de">here</a>Join the MoCP for a casual drop-in session where we will closely read and discuss one photograph together in the museum's collection.&nbsp;This week we will look at Walker Evans'&nbsp;Kitchen Wall in Bud Field's Home, Hale County, Alabama, 1936.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418877/oulc4wx1pky5bqhccltq.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/open-dialogue-adrienne-maree-brown-on-how-we-talk-with-each-other">Open Dialogue: adrienne maree brown on How We Talk with Each Other</a>Friday, March 19, 1 – 2:15&nbsp;pmMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA)The Dialogue Series is a museum-wide commitment to sustained inquiry about museum practice, access, and inclusion. Each annual series includes eminent speakers presenting innovative work happening across disciplines, panel discussions, and opportunities for open dialogue with audiences.<a href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=bcab35ec75&amp;e=7d7a84135f">RSVP</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418877/vmbjeourts4irgddmxni.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/take-care-be-well">Take Care, Be Well</a>Saturday, March 20, 11 am - 8:30 pmSmart Museum of ArtMarking the end of the Smart Museum’s exhibition Take Care, and situated one year after Chicago’s stay-at-home order, this day-long series of live-streamed experiences and recorded content reveals the myriad ways we may turn toward each other for mutual support, sustenance, and compassion.<a href="https://uchicago.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aba2086a45b4ee8391b89447b&amp;id=40b7a6a57d&amp;e=00938adab1">Learn more and save the date »</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418878/rtk3rehamfwu0fezrt6q.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/artist-talk-claire-elliott-vanessa-shinmoto-and-alexandra-stevenson">Artist Talk: Claire Elliott, Vanessa Shinmoto, and Alexandra Stevenson</a>Saturday, March 20, 3 – 4&nbsp;pmEat Paint StudioEat Paint Studio is pleased to announce our first exhibition of 2021. “Inscapes” features work by three artists, Claire Elliott, Vanessa Shinmoto, and Alexandra Stevenson, whose paintings navigate landscapes from the inside out. Each of the artists represented in this group exhibition find connections to nature as a spiritual and regenerative force while improvising on the duality of their inner and outer experiences.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/inscapes-a-conversation-with-the-artists-registration-146490925301">Please register here</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Talks This Weekend: March 19-20

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417670/wjaxzwy4lvinngzdgtoo.jpg"><figcaption>Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times</figcaption></figure><a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/3/17/22336357/aldermans-bid-to-restrict-house-museums-draws-outrage-from-emerging-tourism-sector">Alderman’s bid to restrict ‘house museums’ draws outrage from emerging tourism sector</a>An ordinance introduced by Ald. Sophia King (4th) to restrict “house museums” in residential neighborhoods has drawn outrage from a small but passionate community of existing or planned operators of such museums — including projects honoring Black history icons Emmett Till, Phyllis Wheatley, Lu Palmer and Muddy Waters.Via Chicago Sun Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/art-world-gets-crash-course-in-nfts-a-frenzy-ensues-11616039940?st=5o3sg8vygrxyfli&amp;reflink=article_gmail_share">Art World Gets Crash Course in NFTs; a Frenzy Ensues</a>After Beeple’s $69 million sale, Christie’s remakes its sale categories, Sotheby’s is offering digital artworks and accepting Bitcoin and galleries are setting up task forces to study up on crypto-millionaires. It’s ‘like we just discovered an unknown continent.’Via The Wall Street Journal&nbsp;<a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/deubt-london-gallery-weekend-1952681?utm_content=from_&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=US%2010%3A11%20a.m.%20newsletter%20for%203%2F18%2F21&amp;utm_term=US%20Daily%20Newsletter%20%5BMORNING%5D">London Dealers Are Debuting the City’s First-Ever Gallery Weekend This Summer to Revive the Local Art Scene After a Year of Lockdown</a>To celebrate the end of lockdown and resuscitate the local scene, a group of London galleries are launching the city’s first gallery weekend this summer.Via Artnet&nbsp;<a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/03/15/chicagos-newest-music-venue-epiphany-center-for-the-arts-is-staging-live-social-distanced-indoor-shows/?fbclid=IwAR0QHEt7VrsPCqUKSK8uhbfyXxzrqjkdfWOQ9RhmI6E6y3E3zF8ASCoMNnA">Chicago’s Newest Music Venue, Epiphany Center For The Arts, Is Staging Live, Social-Distanced Indoor Shows</a>While Chicagoans eagerly await the return of live music and entertainment to venues across the city, Chicago’s newest venue has been putting on live indoor shows already.Epiphany Center for the Arts, which includes the <a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/11/06/historic-church-of-the-epiphany-transformed-into-15-million-wedding-and-event-venue-opening-this-winter/">former Church of the Epiphany</a> at 201 S. Ashland Ave. along with other buildings on its 42,000-square-foot campus, is home to three unique venues — Epiphany Hall, The Sanctuary and The Catacombs — along with a cafe and a courtyard.Via Block Club Chicago&nbsp;</body></html>

What We're Reading: 3/18

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/v9r0wogqhezj3sg2vcco.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/figure-it-out-eccentric-visions-in-figurative-art">Figure It Out: Eccentric Visions in Figurative Art</a>Opening: Friday, March 19, 6 – 9&nbsp;pmEpiphany Center for the Arts&nbsp;Figure It Out: Eccentric Visions in Figurative Art brings together five artists from the Midwest who make distinctly idiosyncratic figurative work. Each of them presents a unique vision that feels both alien and familiar; one that is grounded in personal emotions but is also infused with popular culture, humor and shared experiences. They offer personal mythologies and introspective processes that are made accessible through a language of cartoon imagery, patterns and bright colors.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418876/hyeyrxyr805cmgdo9yeb.png"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/preview-10">Preview 10</a>Opening: Friday, March 19, 3 – 8&nbsp;pmChicago Artists Coalition (CAC)&nbsp;Preview 10 presents various creative viewpoints from recent works that are gestures in new directions for the artists, in preparation for their solo exhibitions in 2021 and 2022. The exhibition is conversational, provisional, and open-ended in allowing the art to define itself and to evoke feelings of persistence and renewal.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418877/ka9qgmqq1ilixb1mt50o.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/jurors-exhibition">Jurors Exhibition</a>Exhibition begins March 19&nbsp;Bridgeport Art Center&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418878/akj5tw2awhqnrcet3psa.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/inspired-inspire-artworks-from-michigan-city-area-schools-art-educators">Inspired / Inspire: Artworks from Michigan City Area Schools’ Art Educators</a>Exhibition begins March 19&nbsp;Lubeznik Center for the Arts&nbsp;Highlighting eleven visual arts educators from Michigan City’s elementary, middle and high schools, Inspired / Inspire celebrates these extraordinary teachers, who, despite a most challenging academic year, continue to inspire and be inspired every day. Not only do they educate their students through a world of possibilities, but they also maintain individual creative studio practices.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418879/hsrcd72ozywdf2nmoj8k.jpg"></figure><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/events/1st-annual-exhibition-photographic-processes-more">1st Annual Exhibition: Photographic Processes &amp; More</a>Opening: Saturday, March 20, 6 – 10&nbsp;pmDragonfly Gallery&nbsp;1st Annual Exhibition: Photographic Processes &amp; More will feature work by Aaron Wilder, Alkebuluan Merriweather, Barbara Nati, Camille Silverman, Darren Oberto, Deven Mauri, Erin Patton-McFarren, Francisco Malave, Jim Brady, JoAnn Terry, Julie O’Connor, Nemanja Zdravkovic and Ozzie Stern. The exhibition highlights traditional photographic works such as landscape photography &amp; still-life and also explores work that pushes the boundaries of real versus digital.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

New Exhibitions Start March 19-20

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721418870/mxqcecktlcw3zv4fwrqf.png"></figure> &nbsp;By CGN StaffWith the news that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration is planning to move to the long-awaited fifth phase of reopening in the not so distant future, we have already been thinking about art fairs like EXPO Chicago and when and how they will return to business. Phase five promises “all sectors of the economy reopen” and “conventions, festivals, and large events can take place.”Coming up sooner is EXPO's online, five day slate of public panels and events, featuring 80+ local and international galleries, plus some starry artist, musician and performance names (Jeff Tweedy and Theaster Gates). We can't help but think that were this event to have taken place in person (as sort of planned as the first plan B when EXPO 2020 was postponed) these people would not have actually come together in the same way, making this seem like a glass half-full alternative opportunity we are grateful for after a year of closures and suspensions.&nbsp;EXPO CHGO ONLINE&nbsp;runs April 8–12, 2021 and is a curated digital exposition of contemporary and modern art complemented by five days of virtual programming. EXPO CHGO ONLINE will feature 81 galleries in a focused online presentation, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA). The site will include a “Dealer’s Choice” feature, inviting exhibitors to select one artwork on view from an artist outside of their roster, emulating casual recommendations made at a physical fair. Additionally, notable international curators, museum directors, and critics including Renaud Proch (Independent Curators International), Humberto Moro (Museo Tamayo), Marcella Beccaria (Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea) and Eric Shiner (Pioneer Works) will curate a selection of works from EXPO CHICAGO ONLINE, to be featured on the exposition homepage (<a href="https://hookart.com/expo-chgo">hook.art/expo</a>).Each gallery will also be invited to present one artwork that contributes to a broad rethinking of the environment, to be exhibited within a focused programming section. Accompanied by a curatorial statement from Katie Pfohl (Curator, New Orleans Museum of Art), the exposition’s Environmental Curator, this section is conceptually linked to the fair’s recent symposium Alternate Assembly: Environmental Impact in the Era of Pandemic, and will connect to a virtual panel organized by Pfohl as part of EXPO CHGO ONLINE’s program.“With EXPO CHGO ONLINE we welcome the world to explore the artwork offered by our participating exhibitors, and to utilize the numerous features included in our virtual programming we’ve built to encourage the interplay between galleries, collectors, curators and patrons like one might experience at an in-person fair,” said Tony Karman, President | Director of EXPO CHICAGO. “We are deeply grateful to our exhibitors and for our partnership with Hook to present this unique platform. We pledge to continue to enhance our virtual offerings to better serve our participants and patrons,” he added. “In addition to maintaining our longstanding Curatorial Forum initiatives and our commitment to supporting local and international art institutions and partners, I am also proud that EXPO CHGO ONLINE will introduce a series of performances and talks that further highlights Chicago’s rich cultural community.”&nbsp;Alongside the virtual exposition, EXPO CHGO ONLINE will offer a series of dynamic discussions, film screenings, exhibition tours, music and dance performances reflecting Chicago’s interdisciplinary arts scene.&nbsp;Programs taking place during EXPO CHGO ONLINE will be free and open to the public via <a href="http://program.expochicago.com/">program.expochicago.com</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Schedule highlights include:THURSDAY, APRIL 8&nbsp; &nbsp;o&nbsp;&nbsp; The Curatorial Forum brings together curators from across the US with two main goals—promoting collaborations and knowledge-sharing across the country, and advancing civic-minded practice among curators and in the institutions they work for. For the last four years, convenings have addressed issues of racial inequities in the museum and curatorial fields, a topic which will remain at the center of this special interim session of the Forum.&nbsp;12 p.m. CST: ICI |&nbsp;Race and Representation in Museums&nbsp;(virtual, Closed Door Session).&nbsp;Presented in partnership with Independent Curators International (ICI)&nbsp;&nbsp;o &nbsp;Framing the Moment: On Music, Architecture and Improvisation.&nbsp;Featuring David Brown (Artistic Director, Chicago Architecture Biennial), Ken Vandermark (Musician), Rosa Barba (Artist), and moderated by John Corbett (Gallerist, Corbett vs. Dempsey), this panel convenes thought leaders from visual art, jazz, and architectural backgrounds to discuss the ways improvisational techniques influence their diverse practices in the creation of visual, sonic, and constructed spaces. Panelists will explore how improvisational methods impact both collaboration and community.&nbsp; 5 p.m. CST: EXPO CHGO Kick-Off Program.&nbsp;Presented in partnership with Chicago Architecture Biennial&nbsp;FRIDAY, APRIL 9o&nbsp;&nbsp; Attend&nbsp;a&nbsp;Curator-Led Digital Tour with&nbsp;Humberto Moro, deputy director and senior curator at the Museo Tamayo and EXPO CHICAGO’s EXPOSURE curator, for a tour&nbsp;of EXPO CHGO ONLINE. Since 2016, Moro has been an adjunct curator at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia and has previously held curatorial positions at the Park Avenue Armory in New York and Museo Jumex in Mexico City. In this program, Moro will present a selection of works by emerging artists from a range of galleries featured in the EXPOSURE section of the digital exposition, in addition to key pieces from emerging artists throughout the exposition.&nbsp;11 a.m. CSTo &nbsp;Enjoy&nbsp;An Evening with Theaster Gates,&nbsp;a program led by artist, and Founder and Executive Director of Rebuild Foundation, Theaster Gates.&nbsp;6:30 p.m. CST Program&nbsp;SATURDAY, APRIL 10o&nbsp;&nbsp; Featuring the premiere of a new film and other new works, Jill Magid's Tender: Balance at the Renaissance Society thinks about the circulation of currency and measures of absence and loss, with dimensions that are both intimate and attuned to larger systems. This exhibition is the second manifestation of a larger unfolding project by the artist, set against the backdrop of the pandemic. While developing new threads, Tender: Balance parallels Magid's monumental but nearly-invisible public artwork, Tender, produced by Creative Time in New York last fall, for which Magid engraved the edges of 120,000 new US pennies with the words ‘THE BODY WAS ALREADY SO FRAGILE' and quietly put them into everyday circulation. On the exhibition's opening day at the Renaissance Society, artist Jill Magid joins curator Karsten Lund to discuss the project and its various manifestations, in Chicago and beyond.&nbsp;6 p.m. CST: Artist Talk&nbsp;&nbsp;o&nbsp;&nbsp; Tune in for a special live performance of solo sets by&nbsp;Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche and Nels Cline&nbsp;at&nbsp;7 p.m. CST: Performance.&nbsp;Presented in partnership with Corbett vs. Dempsey’s Sequesterfest 5, part of the Experimental Sound Studio’s The Quarantine Concert series&nbsp;&nbsp;SUNDAY, APRIL 11&nbsp;o&nbsp;&nbsp; With The Arts Club of Chicago in a pandemic-induced hibernation during the cold winter months, three polymath artists explore the club’s rooms and think experimentally about how to perform in an empty institution.&nbsp;Tiny Performances in Empty Rooms features musical artist Angel Bat Dawid collaborating with composer and multi-instrumentalist Isaiah Collier, dance-maker/performer/choreographer Jasmine Mendoza collaborating with filmmaker Keaton Fox, and theatre artist/performer Kurt Chiang collaborating with performer Livia Chesley.&nbsp;5 p.m. CST: Performance.&nbsp;Join for an in-depth follow-up with the artists on Monday, April 12 at 11:30 a.m. CST on the EXPO CHICAGO microsite.&nbsp;Presented in partnership with The Arts Club of ChicagoAlso: EXPO CHGO ONLINE will be complemented by a thematic selection of short films on the environment by emerging contemporary artists, curated in partnership with&nbsp;Daata (daata.art). The works will be screened together as a compilation on Sunday, April 11, and will be available to view throughout the weekend on a dedicated page on the EXPO CHICAGO microsite.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;MONDAY, APRIL 12o&nbsp;&nbsp; In his first solo museum exhibition, artist and musician Omar Velázquez (Puerto Rican, b. 1984) presents recent paintings and sculptures that address the intersection of painting, music, and folklore at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Velázquez speaks with Carla Acevedo-Yates, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator, from his studio, giving a peek into his painting and instrument-building practice and inspirations including Puerto Rican painter Francisco Oller. &nbsp;2:30 p.m. CST: Artist Studio Visit |&nbsp;Music and Art with Omar Velázquez.&nbsp;Presented in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago&nbsp;The Online Dispatch will be presented daily to relay the program offerings. Subscribe to The Online Dispatch <a href="https://www.expochicago.com/online-dispatch">here</a>.A full schedule of EXPO CHGO ONLINE programming and events including dates, times and streaming links will be available on March 22 via <a href="http://www.program.expochicago.com/">www.program.expochicago.com</a>.&nbsp;</body></html>

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