By GINNY VAN ALYEA&nbsp;

Summer has somehow come and gone, and the energy of a new vibrant season is upon us. This coming weekend opens the start of the fall art season throughout the city, and these new shows are just the beginning.&nbsp;

A&nbsp;host of openings, clustered on the evening of Friday, September 7, mark the traditional start of the season, which happens largely in the city&#39;s first commercial artistic center in River North. There are dozens of new exhibitions opening, and many represent the highlight of the gallery&#39;s programming for the entire year.&nbsp;Gallery district lines and identities have evolved over the decades, since the heydey of the 1980s, but new life in today&#39;s River North comes in the form of an art and design collaboration between the nearly two dozen galleries still based near Superior and Franklin streets today and the dozens of design showrooms that have come to also call River North home, following a migration from the Merchandise Mart. The result of that collaboration is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/4th-annual-river-north-gallery-walk-designer-windows">4th Annual River North Gallery Walk and Designer Windows</a>, which covers a lot of creative ground in one weekend, with gallery artists matched with designers and showrooms, as well as individual galleries opening their latest exhibitions. There are several special events to attend as well, including a Friday kickoff event with Jesse Chicago |&nbsp;Home Element,&nbsp;featuring&nbsp;a live art creation by <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/linc-thelen-gallery">Linc Thelen</a>, and an after party&nbsp;at the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/archetype-excavation-and-expectation-by-adam-siegel">Golden Triangle</a>. Saturday, September 8 is also a new family day in the district. Complete details and a list of participants may be <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/4th-annual-river-north-gallery-walk-designer-windows">found here</a>.&nbsp;

After a very busy couple of weeks, we of course cannot wait for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/expo-chicago">EXPO CHICAGO</a> which&nbsp;opens at the end of the month on September 27 with its Vernissage, an opening benefit for the MCA. The art fair&#39;s slightly later than usual start, combined with some very notable programming thanks to Art Design Chicago,&nbsp;means that this September may be the busiest certainly in recent memory.&nbsp;

Obviously there is a lot of great art to see, and these&nbsp;are just a few&nbsp;highlights from this opening September weekend&nbsp;around the city.&nbsp;We will&nbsp;share more of the season&#39;s&nbsp;highlights and coverage as the fall goes on, and don&#39;t forget to view our full calendar of events. Stay tuned for&nbsp;Part II of our Fall Preview,&nbsp;featuring shows opening September 15&nbsp;and beyond, including many shows on the city&#39;s West Side.&nbsp;

Finally,&nbsp;I have to admit that I&nbsp;didn&#39;t see it until I&#39;d finished this wrap up, but all I could hear in my head was &quot;Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves...&quot; (Aretha Franklin on my mind!), as so many of this season&#39;s early highlights feature women!&nbsp;

Enjoy this start to fall, and see you in the galleries!&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>Thursday, September 6</h3>

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2956" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2956/original/todros.jpg" />

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/todros-geller-strange-worlds">Todros Geller: Strange Worlds</a>, an exhibition opening at the Spertus&nbsp;Museum / Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies and in partnership with Art Design Chicago, is&nbsp;an exhibition featuring&nbsp;more than 30 works exploring the life and practice of a Chicago artist and educator central to the history of modern American and Jewish art. Geller, who immigrated to Chicago from Ukraine in 1918, was inspired by the blending of old world traditions and modern culture that characterized Chicago&mdash;what he termed the collision of &ldquo;strange worlds.&rdquo;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>Friday, September 7</h3>

River North, as mentioned above, offers the largest group of&nbsp;openings in the city on September 7.&nbsp;

Highlights include: 

<img alt="" data-caption="Medina Dugger; Alanna Airitam; Endia Beal " data-rich-file-id="2957" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2957/original/edelman.jpg" />

A&nbsp;show at <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/how-do-you-see-me">Catherine Edelman Gallery</a>,&nbsp;How do you see me?,&nbsp;features&nbsp;three women who confront the way people of color&nbsp;are perceived in&nbsp;art, the work place, and through their physical appearance.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Bruno Surdo" data-rich-file-id="2958" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2958/original/bruno.jpg" />

Around the corner&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/bruno-surdo-liberation">Gallery Victor Armendariz</a>&nbsp;opens a show by artist Bruno Surdo, titled&nbsp;LIBERATION.&nbsp;The 17 paintings included in the show explore personal yearning for spiritual and individual independence using various motifs and subject matter.&nbsp;The artworks challenge the viewer to connect with images that correspond to their own yearning for personal freedom.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Mary Ann Papanek-Miller" data-rich-file-id="2959" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2959/original/albano.jpg" />

At <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/mary-ann-papanek-miller-preparing-for-winter">Jean Albano Gallery</a> a show focused on the season beyond fall is Mary Ann Papanek-Miller: Preparing for Winter.&nbsp;Papanek-Miller is known for using a layered collection of visual images, creating a narrative within each piece.&nbsp;Her work&nbsp;incorporates reflections from childhood stories, songs, and rhymes which reveal a deep concern for the environment.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Alicia LaChance" data-rich-file-id="2960" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2960/original/cooper.jpg" />

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/coming-full-circle-alicia-lachance-and-joanne-mattera">Melanee Cooper</a> closed her eponymous River North gallery 9 years ago, and now she&#39;s back in the exact same space (740 N Franklin) she left when she moved to California. &nbsp;Her first show celebrating her return is called Coming Full Circle and features the work of artists&nbsp;Alicia LaChance and Joanne Mattera. Artist Arno Elias will also be exhibiting at the gallery.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Vera Klement" data-rich-file-id="2961" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2961/original/klement.jpg" />

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/drawing-show-teacher-and-two-students-vera-klement-heather-accurso-elizabeth-carson-manley">At Printworks</a>,&nbsp;Drawing Show &ndash; Teacher and Two Students &ndash; Vera Klement, Heather Accurso &amp; Elizabeth Carson Manley​ features the work of three esteemed artists from the perspective of the student/master relationship.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="René Romero Schuler" data-rich-file-id="2967" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2967/original/rene.jpg" />

Artist Ren&eacute; Romero Schuler is turning 50 this year, and her latest body of work,&nbsp;In Search of Ground, taking up the entire space at <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/rene-romero-schuler-in-search-of-ground">Zolla/Lieberman Gallery</a>, has emerged as a body of work that has given Rene solace through pain, strength through grief, and peace through turmoil. On view in addition to her paintings are also&nbsp;India ink drawings and&nbsp;steel wire sculptures.

Many other shows are opening in River North this evening. If you can&#39;t see them all in one night, come back on Saturday morning for the <a href="http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/free-cgn-saturday-gallery-tours">first&nbsp;free gallery tour</a>&nbsp;of the season from 11am-12:30pm, as well as family day activities that are part of RNDD&#39;s Gallery Walk weekend.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Michiko Itatani " data-rich-file-id="2962" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2962/original/michiko.jpg" />

In the West Loop <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/michiko-itatani-and-paula-henderson">Linda Warren Projects</a> opens their final gallery show on Friday night, and it features the work of two artists:&nbsp;Michiko Itatani and Paula Henderson.&nbsp;While clearly distinct in both style and focus, each artist uses recurring motifs and imagery to explore their individual concerns for the forces that shape and define our human condition.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Patty Carroll " data-rich-file-id="2964" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2964/original/pattyc.jpg" />

Artist Patty Carroll has a Friday evening&nbsp;opening at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/patty-carroll-anonymous-women--3">One After 909</a> in West Town. The solo exhibition, Anonymous Women is a&nbsp;continuation of a decade-long series.&nbsp;The first variations of the&nbsp;series fully explored the intricacies of homemaking and femininity, while the most current work depicts their twisted friction.&nbsp;Despite the leaps and bounds of progress the women&rsquo;s movement has made over the course of her lifetime, with this work Carroll recognizes how far we still have to go.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>Saturday, September 8</h3>

<h3><img alt="" data-caption="Ed Paschke" data-rich-file-id="2965" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2965/original/paschkecollege-art-collection.jpg" /></h3>

The Figure and the Chicago Imagists: Selections from the Elmhurst College Art Collection&nbsp;opening at the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/the-figure-and-the-chicago-imagists-selections-from-the-elmhurst-college-art-collection">Elmhurst Art Museum</a>&nbsp;features the Elmhurst College Art Collection, focused on artists working in Chicago between about 1950 and the present. The exhibition is curated by Suellen Rocca, one of the original members of the Hairy Who and Curator and Director of Exhibitions at Elmhurst College (Rocca is featured on the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2018/8/artist-suellen-rocca-a-life-story-through-art">fall 2018 cover</a> of CGN). The exhibition features artists such as Ed Paschke, Barbara Rossi, Gladys Nilsson and others and is part of Art Design Chicago.

Note that other Imagist-related exhibitions this fall will take place at the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/hairy-who-1966-1969">Art Institute of Chicago</a> and <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/break-a-rule-ed-paschke-s-art-and-teaching">The Block Museum of Art</a>.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="George Peter Alexander Healy" data-rich-file-id="2966" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2966/original/portraits.jpg" />

Beauty&rsquo;s Legacy: Gilded Age Portraits&nbsp;in America at the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/beauty-s-legacy-gilded-age-portraits-in-america">Richard H. Driehaus Museum</a>&nbsp;looks at the popular revival of portraiture in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when both the established elite and the newly wealthy sought out artists who could highlight their social standing and personal affluence. Simultaneous exhibitions at the museum are&nbsp;Gilded Chicago: Portraits of an Era and&nbsp;Treasures from the White City: Chicago World&rsquo;s Fair of 1893.

&nbsp;

Top image: Barbara Rossi at Elmhurst Art Museum, Michiko Itatani at Linda Warren and&nbsp;Medina Dugger at Catherine Edelman Gallery.
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A summary of early September gallery and museum show highlights in Chicago.

Fall Preview – Part I: First September Openings

By GINNY VAN ALYEAIn a city known for bars that offer everything from dry ice in your martini to two dozen TV screens on at the same time, The Stony Island Arts Bank may soon manage to be the most socially relevant, and appealing, of them all.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2954/original/bankdoor.jpg" alt=""></figure>The Arts Bank, opened three years ago when the Chicago Architecture Biennial debuted in the fall of 2015, began as an ambitious and multifaceted endeavor of the internationally renowned, Chicago-based artist and community developer Theaster Gates. The Arts Bank’s mission and influence was quickly and widely recognized for the many connections and collaborations it has fostered within the local arts community as well as the neighborhood. Now Gates is moving the project, which is part art space, part architectural treasure and more than a little social mission, into an ambitious, much more public and lively second phase of his original vision, increasing the pace of his plans for the many ways the art center can impact the surrounding South Shore neighborhood. As he said on a late spring day during a tour of the Arts Bank before it reopened after four months of renovations, “We’ve learned a few things.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2953/original/yard.jpg" alt=""></figure>Housed in an imposing, abandoned stone structure on Stony Island Boulevard, far on the city’s South Side and miles from traditional art centers, The Bank, as it’s commonly referred to, gets its name from its home, the former Stony Island State Savings Bank, a classic structure built in the 1920s, which eventually fell into disrepair. In a building pretty much left for dead, Gates saw an opportunity to invest in something that would continually pay creative dividends. Just as a real bank accepts deposits from customers, raises capital and then makes loans and provides support for its clients, the Stony Island Arts Bank seeks to be a rock solid institution that can compound interest in order to benefit a range of community members long term.&nbsp;For many, Stony Island used to mean a connector to the Chicago Skyway on your way in or out of town. It was a section of town seen only in passing on the way elsewhere. When Gates wanted to build an arts center, he knew a location off the beaten path would be critical.&nbsp;Gates says, “The goal was to let the city see, and the world see, that there is beautiful architecture on the South Side.” He wanted to bring art to people living in the community as much as he also wanted to draw people to a neighborhood they were unfamiliar with. The building would be a lure that would draw people to a place where they would realize, as he explains, “that there was this work happening that was about capturing these moments of architectural beauty, so that beautiful things could happen on the South Side to black people by black people.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2950/original/moulding.jpg" alt=""></figure>He goes on, “It was a demonstration work for me, that South Siders didn’t have to go somewhere else in order to have a well-built, intimate space; those spaces were all around us, they just needed some care. And maybe we had some of the best architectural stock in the country, or definitely in the city.”The original bank is a mimic of one on the North Side at the intersection of Damen, Milwaukee and North Avenues, and its classic design is representative of what was in style at the time. Gates says now that using a structure like the bank was an experiment at the start, and he knew he’d have to try a range of programming to see what would attract locals as well as the art community. What at first seemed like the perfect expansive venue – it’s 20,000 square feet – for hosting exhibitions, performances, residencies and film screenings, sometimes simultaneously, was actually intimidating. The formidable, protective structure originally intended to safeguard money, seemed in its present form meant to keep certain people out, exactly the opposite of Gates’ welcoming vision.&nbsp;He realized, “We learned that the building itself has the potential to be uninviting for folk who live locally. It’s so big, that it had a way of making our neighbors feel more like it was made for someone else.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2951/original/smith.jpg" alt=""></figure>He came to see that while the beauty of the building can help draw people to a new destination, it’s more important to get people in the door and to make them feel as if they should be there. He says, “The building by itself isn’t a calling card for everyone. Another kind of invitation also needs to happen.”&nbsp;Essentially, Gates discovered that the best way to make friends with your neighbors is to invite them to your party.&nbsp;He shares, “Last summer we opened up the yard and began having movies and barbecues out there. We had food trucks coming through, and all of a sudden, the yard became its own little pocket park. Kids would bring their little dogs and they would stroll in the yard. It was amazing.”&nbsp;This maturing vision for the Arts Bank could not have been known at the start, and Gates acknowledges that being able to see such changes over the past three years has been remarkable, though he’s not entirely surprised that it’s taken time. He says, “We knew that we had a couple of amazing aspects right away – we had the Johnson Publishing collection, we had the Frankie Knuckles [house music] albums, and the [60,000] glass lantern slides from the [Department of Art History at] the University of Chicago, but we didn’t have a mechanism, yet, of making those things as accessible as we wanted.”&nbsp;As Gates points out, that accessibility required resources, which were very limited, to hire a librarian, a set of archivists, docents, and managers of the collection. They did have pride and excitement for what they had prepared to share. So they got creative, for instance starting a book club based on the Johnson Collection and inviting those who had a connection to Johnson to participate. In order to overcome limits, such as physically accessing the hundreds of books and albums stacked up to the library ceiling, Gates and his team decided they needed a kind of catwalk, which would allow staff to use the entire soaring space.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2952/original/uofcglasslanternslides.jpg" alt=""></figure>Next they devised a sound system that allows a DJ working from the catwalk to pump music through the building. For Gates, he says, “The building can function as a kind of resonator, allowing albums we have to both be digitized and also become a basic program in the Bank. If nothing else is happening, you’re going to hear good music – some house, some soul, gospel, you might hear comedy – whatever we have in this collection, because the music has to be felt.”The many, and sometimes unconventional, ways the collection can be experienced goes to the heart of what Gates is trying to use the space in the Arts Bank for at this time, as he is very interested in activating a place or material and engaging people on a relatable level. Gates refers to a fellowship he did at Harvard a few years ago, when he spent time thinking about something he calls ‘critical preservation.’ When considering the Arts Bank he asks out loud, “Are there ways adjacent to conventional preservation, where things are restored to their original hand? Is there an alternative to that, where you actually allow some of the truth of the history of the building to be evident? I felt if we let people see the truth of our buildings, then they can feel good about their own buildings, which is like, ‘Yeah, there was some rain damage, and I can’t afford to re-do it all, but I need a new kitchen.’”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2949/original/gates.jpg" alt=""></figure>When the plan to build the Arts Bank first came up, the city gave Gates and his Rebuild Foundation the building for $1, but as Gates explains, the building had a negative value at the time of $500,000 (there was a hole in the ceiling almost as big as the roof, and extensive water damage from deteriorating skylights). To fund the initial $6.2 million restoration of a space suitable for art, Gates raised private funds from many supporters. He recalls, “The bones of the building were in great shape, but it needed a new envelope and a lot of care.” Even the architectural artifacts that give so much character to the building, he points out, have their own history of trauma, which then creates an opportunity for dialogue between space and art. The completion of the initial restoration, for Gates, and even this second phase of development, where they have installed walls in the atrium space, is proof that the City of Chicago and the arts community helped to build the bank. Says Gates, “It feels really good. Projects can happen on the South Side, and they’re not city-incentivized; they’re just because a lot of people believe in them.”That belief drives Gates in his quest to preserve history while, as he says, at the same time, retrofitting a place so it fulfills a new purpose, in this case as a space for artists, scholars, for symposium, conferences, and music. Gates has built the house, while the art, artists and neighbors within it are making it a home.&nbsp;The Bank, even with its new walls, is not intended to be a white cube, and after the efforts to invite more members of the public in, especially not just art viewers but neighbors, Gates emphasizes that he wants people to feel at ease when they are there. He explains, “These are normal people’s lives, everyday folk. They don’t want an audience of journalists visiting when they’re trying to have a meditation class. So the challenge that we had with rebuilding the Arts Bank is that, as excited as we are to shine a light and share with the public the things that we do, we also want to protect people’s privacy.”&nbsp;The way to do this is a programmatic split that on the one hand allows the Bank to host ambitious, public events but also, for instance, allows space for neighbors and those who live in and around Dorchester Art Housing [mixed income housing that features an even distribution of artist, public, affordable rate, and market rate homes]. For Gates it’s key to say to the public, “Not everything is show and tell with the spectacle of a public event. Some things need to be just at the neighborhood, grassroots level and to just mature in their own time.”Back to the Arts Bank as an antidote to Chicago’s sports-centric bar scene.Gates’ theory behind a split that serves various needs extends to the business of the Bank too. He shares, “One of the ongoing jokes that I have with my alderman is I need to be able to sell a good drink here. However, even though not every space needs to be a bar, or a pop-up yoga studio, we do need some spaces that make money, so that the other spaces can be free.” When Gates thinks about future opportunities, he wants to be able to offer what some people want and others need, “We want people to say, ‘Yeah, a chicken sandwich costs $5, a good drink costs $10,’ and not apologize for having both programs. Hey, a person can go get a $10 Negroni then go do some free yoga and work it off.”Money is not the only reason to offer food and drinks at the Bank. It also creates an ongoing reason for coming to South Shore and being able to stay there. Says Gates, “People go downtown to have a good meal, and they go to Pilsen, or farther North to have a reasonable drink. We don’t want people to have to travel. We just want to have more amenities that say ‘yes’ to the people who live close.”Within the Bank’s 20,000 square feet there is ample space for casual gatherings that may have nothing to do with art or yoga. Gates explains, “Sometimes I’m building with ambition toward the future.” Pointing to a large, Victorian looking curved structure, backed by a wall-length mirror, he says, “This bar’s about 30 years older than the architectural promenades of the building – it’s from the 1890s – but the size was right, so we built the bar space into the building with the understanding that we would grow into it.” By thinking ahead architecturally, Gates says there’s room for growth. Plans are underway at the Bank to start a food program that will also invest in local entrepreneurs, as well as a beverage program. For Gates, “If there is good music and an espresso, we want to be a contender to Starbucks.” At the end of the day, that big, beautiful bar, with a backdrop of live music, will draw people looking to connect or unwind.<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2955/original/library.jpg" alt=""></figure>So much of Gates’ time and practice is thoughtfully planned, but he says he’s also found himself as of late serving as a steward called to help in the aftermath of a tragedy. He got a call from Samira Rice, whose son Tamir was killed in Cleveland by a police officer in 2016. Recalls Gates, “She said, ‘I need help deinstalling the gazebo where my son was killed,’ and at that point, my job was to just help manage this moment. It wasn’t an art move; there was no personal ambition. She just needed someone who could have the logistical wherewithal to handle this object.”&nbsp;Gates and his team didn’t know what to do with the gazebo, but he says they knew they needed to remove it in its entirety or the City of Cleveland was going to raze it. Gates explains, “People were mourning, and these teddy bears are kind of part of the altar. People would remember others killed by police.” Samira asked if we would care for the gazebo for awhile, which became an opportunity to ask a national question, ‘What does it mean that all of these deaths happened?’ and ‘How do we grapple with this around the country.’” Gates began to see that the gazebo had one function in Cleveland and another at the Bank that would allow for reflection on peace, and questions about violence. He began to envision something adjacent to the gazebo with swings, a little park, a place, he thinks, “where young people can come and actually be safe. As we’re continuing to work on the violence in this neighborhood, could this be a space of peace, even temporarily?”This spring the gazebo’s parts were neatly organized and stacked up in a room at the Arts Bank not much bigger than the structure itself. Gates imagines, “Next, we clean up the parts, and we offer the gazebo back to the city of Cleveland, when they’ve had a moment to reflect on their own defensive reaction to this complicated moment. In this room, that gives us a chance to say, ‘Yeah, there’s Aunt Jemima, there are negative stereotypes, but there are also things that are too close to talk about – they just happened.' I see value in being the steward of those things. To number the roofing deck, to care for the steel – artists are well equipped to do that. Artists are probably more sensitive and more equipped to do it than the City of Cleveland could ever do it, because it’s part heart, and it’s part logistics. That’s art."&nbsp;The Stony Island Arts Bank is located&nbsp;at&nbsp;6760 S Stony Island Ave., Chicago, IL.&nbsp;For more info visit the Bank's <a href="https://rebuild-foundation.org/site/stony-island-arts-bank/">website</a>&nbsp;Top image:&nbsp;The Stony Island Arts Bank was formerly the Stony Island State Savings Bank, built in the South Shore neighborhood in the 1920s. Photo: Tom Harris

Artist Theaster Gates' vision for the future of his Stony Island Arts Bank 

The Evolution of a Vision: What’s Next for the Stony Island Arts Bank

By APRIL LANE

To those who decry the merciless Chicago heat, the brisk cool isn&rsquo;t the only thing you can look forward to this fall. From large scale expositions to smaller gallery exhibitions, CGN has made a comprehensive list of great art events to come. I recently completed an internship at Chicago Gallery News this spring, and with all the information that comes through the office, I selected just a few special exhibitions coming up in area museums that I am looking forward to and that I hope you will enjoy as well.

(Editor&#39;s note: an additional fall round-up of gallery opening highlights will be published by CGN in early September)

&nbsp;

<h3>The Time is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago&#39;s South Side, 1960-1980&nbsp;</h3>

September 13&ndash;December 30

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/the-time-is-now-art-worlds-of-chicago-s-south-sides-1960-1980">Smart Museum of Art</a>

During the 1960s and 70s, Chicago was shaped by art and ideas produced and circulated on its South Side. Defined by the city&rsquo;s social, political, and geographic divides and by the energies of its multiple overlapping art scenes, it was a vibrant era of creative expression that produced a cultural legacy whose impact continues to unfold nationally and internationally.

The Time Is Now!&nbsp;examines this watershed cultural moment&mdash;brimming with change and conflict&mdash;and the figures who defined it. A companion book is being published with the DuSable Museum as well.&nbsp;

Also, on Saturday, September 15 from 11am-6pm&nbsp;in various south side locations, an <a href="https://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/events/1459/celebrating-south-side-stories/">all-day festival</a> of art, music, film, and food marks opening of&nbsp;The Time Is Now!&nbsp;and other Art Design Chicago projects across the South Side.&nbsp;

Top image: &nbsp;Carolyn Lawrence,&nbsp;Uphold Your Men, Unify Your Families (detail), 1971, Screenprint on wove paper. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Gift of David Lusenhop in honor of the artist, 2013.7. &copy; Carolyn Lawrence.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="James Webb. Installation view of Prayer (Johannesburg), 2012. Photo by Anthea Pokroy. © James Webb. Courtesy of blank projects and Galerie Imane Farès." data-rich-file-id="2926" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2926/original/webb-prayer.jpg" />

<h3>James Webb: Prayer</h3>

Museum Admission $20+

Sept. 7&ndash;Dec. 31

<a href="http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/james-webb-prayer">The Art Institute of Chicago</a>

A project by South African visual artist and musician James Webb, this exhibit encompasses recordings of prayers from members of various faiths and spiritual affinites throughout the city of Chicago. The prayers are played on 12 speakers mounted onto a red carpet which visitors can walk up to and closely listen to the prayers being uttered. The work aims to showcase the humanity and solidarity that comes across in the vulnerable act of prayer. Webb&rsquo;s Chicago version of Prayer is his first in North America, having remade this project ten times in various cities since his first in Cape Town, South Africa in 2000 following the end of apartheid. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3><img alt="" data-caption="Karl Wirsum, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 1968. The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Purchase Prize Fund, 1969.248" data-rich-file-id="2924" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2924/original/sreamin-jayhawkins.jpg" /></h3>

<h3>Hairy Who 1966-1969</h3>

Museum Admission from $20+

Sept. 27&ndash;Jan. 6, 2019

<a href="http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/hairy-who-1966-1969">The Art Institute of Chicago&nbsp;</a>

In collaboration with Art Design Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago presents Hairy Who 1966-1969, a collective of work made by Chicago-based School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) graduates &nbsp;Karl Wirsum, Jim Falconer, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Suellen Rocca&nbsp;and Jim Nutt. Starting in the 1960s, the self-made group of artists showcased their vibrant, avant garde and graphic work, which commented on sexuality, gender and social norms, at the Hyde Park Art Center. The exhibition is presented on the 50th anniversary of their final Chicago show, featuring prints, drawings and&nbsp;paintings by the group.

&nbsp;

<h3><img alt="" data-caption="Ralph Arnold, Who You/Yeah Baby, c. 1968. DePaul Art Museum. Reproduced with permission from The Pauls Foundation." data-rich-file-id="2923" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2923/original/ralph-arnold-hats.jpg" /></h3>

<h3>The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold: Art, Identity, and Politics</h3>

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/the-many-hats-of-ralph-arnold-art-identity-and-politics">The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)</a>&nbsp;at Columbia College Chicago

October 11&ndash;December 21

The Museum of Contemporary Photography presents The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold: Art, Identity, and Politics. This exhibition showcases the artwork of American artist and teacher Ralph Arnold, who created a body of collages as a response to popular ideas and media depictions regarding gender, race, sexuality during the 1960s and 70s that continues to remain relevant in Chicago&rsquo;s art scene, even in 2018.

&nbsp;

<h3><img alt="" data-caption="Quilt Artwork (detail) by Jessica Skultety" data-rich-file-id="2927" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2927/original/wmg-quilts.jpg" /></h3>

<h3>Quilt + Resist: Art, Politics, Storytelling</h3>

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/quilt-resist-art-politics-storytelling">Woman Made Gallery</a>

Nov 9-Dec 1

Free and open to the public. Opening reception on Friday, November 9.

This event showcases roughly 40 female-identifying quilters who aim to tell stories with a variety of methods -- whether it be abstract or pictoral. &nbsp;Juried by artist and teacher Marcia Grubb and quilt maker, activist and psychologist Adelia Moore, the quilts exhibited aim to tell a variety of stories from different women artists, depicting how they view and interpret the world around them. &nbsp;

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2947" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2947/original/saints-and-sinners.jpg" />

<h3>Saints &amp; Sinners Walking Tour: Chicago&#39;s Legacy of Virtue and Vice</h3>

Fridays through September

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/richard-h-driehaus-museum">Richard H. Driehaus Museum</a>

Tickets $30-$50. Ages&nbsp;21+

During this walking tour, which takes place weekly this fall, not only will attendees explore Chicago&rsquo;s Gold Coast neighborhood, but they&rsquo;ll learn all about Chicago&rsquo;s prohibition history and the key players in the Temperance movement between 1848&ndash;1871. They will also view numerous historic landmarks and pubs and sip spirits from renowned pubs along the way. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

CGN&#39;s complete calendar of exhibitions and openings may be found <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar">here</a>.&nbsp;
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A round up of fall 2018 art events by a former CGN intern

A Fall Museum Preview

By MIA DIMEO

For more than 25 years, the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) has been devoted to creating quality architectural programming and exhibitions from within a terra cotta, Beaux Arts Railway Exchange Building at 224 S. Michigan Avenue designed by Daniel Burnham, the architect who started it all.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="The new home of the Chicago Architecture Center can be easily spotted by the prominent CAC logo above the site of the center's popular river cruises." data-rich-file-id="2943" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2943/original/download-2.jpg" />

On Labor Day weekend the rebranded Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) opens in a new home, the modernist, glass and steel One Illinois Center (111 E. Wacker Drive), one of the last designs of another one of Chicago&rsquo;s architectural lions, Mies van der Rohe. When CAC decided to acquire the new space they set out to implement a fresh vision and identity that would expand outreach and encompass all of the tours, talks, exhibitions, camps, classes and special events that attract 690,000 visitors annually.&nbsp;

One of the top attractions, for tourists and local architecture lovers alike, in CAC&rsquo;s former home was the Chicago Model, a 320-square foot miniature metropolis envisioned by President and CEO Lynn Osmond and completed in 2009. The process of creating the Model began by making a digital map of Chicago and 3D printing each of its 1,300 buildings before meticulously placing them in situ.&nbsp;

The Model is now the centerpiece of a larger exhibit in the new headquarters, and with 3,000 buildings it is more than twice its previous size, paralleling the Chicago&rsquo;s more recent growth upward and outward. It is set within an examination of the city&rsquo;s built history&mdash;from a phoenix of innovation rising up from the Chicago fire, to the epicenter of modern architecture today. The immersive Chicago Model Experience also highlights architects of note, explores the area&rsquo;s diverse neighborhoods and includes a laser light show.&nbsp;

Take that, Navy Pier.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="The CAC's new lobby welcomes more visitors than ever" data-rich-file-id="2944" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2944/original/chicago-architecture-center-lobby-3b-credit-courtesy-caf.jpg" />

Daniel O&rsquo;Connell, CAC&rsquo;s Director of Communications and Public Affairs, stresses that the big strides the organization has made will gain momentum in the new space. &ldquo;It gives us room to be more ambitious in our educational initiatives,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We work with Chicago Public Schools, host an engineering festival and present a range of programming for young women in the field. We are eager to draw everything together in a holistic way, in a space designed for us to fit our focus on public engagement.&rdquo;&nbsp;

In addition to several exhibition spaces, the 20,000-square foot center, designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, also features a new lecture hall and a design studio, all perched above the dock of the much-lauded River Cruise aboard First Lady Cruises.&nbsp;

&ldquo;CAF started the cruises in 1983, back when no one did anything on the river,&rdquo; says O&rsquo;Connell. &ldquo;So, we&rsquo;ve been part of that change which has come to fruition with River Walk. Making our new home above the dock feels like we&rsquo;re coming full circle.&rdquo;&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="The lecture hall allows for more public programs" data-rich-file-id="2946" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2946/original/lecturehall.jpg" />

Visible from the street through 40-foot windows, the second-floor exhibition space debuts with Building Tall, a display of supersize skyscrapers models investigating how and why skyscrapers are built, and how engineers and architects keep making them better. Familiar local towers, along with many from around the world, are featured in the exhibit, including Saudi Arabia&rsquo;s Jeddah Tower, which will be the world&rsquo;s tallest building when completed in 2020.&nbsp;

Why was it vital for Chicago to have a center dedicated to architecture? The fact that CAC has made 85 tours happen 7,000 times a year says something about the city&rsquo;s buildings as important cultural landmarks. With deep roots planted by CAC (as well as the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which launched in 2015) Chicago&rsquo;s status an architecture capital is flourishing.&nbsp;

O&rsquo;Connell agrees. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been around 50+ years, and in that time the city has only burnished its image as the center of innovative architecture. The first skyscraper was built here, and we have a great design heritage,&rdquo; he says.

CAC&rsquo;s new location is directly in the heart of the city, at the intersection of the Magnificent Mile and the Cultural Mile, atop the site of Fort Dearborn, where Chicago was founded in 1803. The river-side spot has evolved as the city has, from grain elevators and railroads to its present modernist structure, and now the Chicago Architecture Center is a part of that story.&nbsp;

A grand opening weekend celebration takes place at 111 E. Wacker, Aug 31&ndash;Sept 3.

Visit <a href="http://www.architecture.org">www.architecture.org</a> for details.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h4>Open House Chicago: OCTOBER 13 AND 14</h4>

Covering more than 200 sites, Open House Chicago is CAC&rsquo;s most geographically expansive program, offering behind-the-scenes looks at architectural gems, many of which are not normally open to the public throughout the city. The annual weekend initiative allows easy access to diverse spaces including civic buildings, theaters, mansions, office buildings and places of worship.&nbsp;

OHC&rsquo;s sites present a broad picture of the area&rsquo;s cultural environments &mdash; a 1928 firehouse recently renovated by Chicago Filmmakers; the Italianate mansion home to Palette &amp; Chisel Academy of Fine Arts; Oak Park Art League&rsquo;s former carriage house gallery; and the Pilsen studio of muralist H&eacute;ctor Duarte, to name a few.&nbsp;

This year, new sites include Garfield Park&rsquo;s ArtReach Chicago, a recently opened nonprofit providing mobile and studio art access (including glass blowing) to under-served Chicagoans, and the soon-to-be-completed University of Chicago&rsquo;s Green Line Arts Center in Washington Park. Still under construction, OHC visitors will get an early look at the space dedicated to performance, theatre residencies, rehearsals, training, and education, as well as showcasing work by emerging and established artists. For complete details visit <a href="http://openhousechicago.org">openhousechicago.org</a>

&nbsp;

Editor&rsquo;s note: The Chicago Artists Coalition also goes by CAC.

&nbsp;

Top image:&nbsp;THE CHICAGO MODEL EXPERIENCE, GREAT FIRE, COURTESY CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE FOUNDATION
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The Chicago Architecture Foundation rebrands as the Chicago Architecture Center and opens a new headquarters in Chicago

Rising Up from the Roots: New Chicago Architecture Center Builds Engagement

FALL 2018My mother owned a glittery pin that she used to wear in the 90s that said ‘Art Saves Lives.’ I always liked it, especially since at the time it was very tween-trendy to collect pins featuring clever sayings and places and pin them on your backpack or jean jacket (I also had one that said ‘Be careful, or we shall banish you to the Midwest!’) I still see that Art Saves Lives pin every day on the bulletin board above my desk.&nbsp;We say CGN is a cheerleader of the arts, and, as many in the art world experience an unpredictable market, I have been thinking about how to better communicate why art is important in my own life as well as how to make the case for why people should actually buy it.&nbsp;As art occupies more of the public space than ever, which is a positive thing, it still needs to be invested in and supported. The general points about why it’s good for individuals to buy art are because you love it, because it supports an artist, because it makes a statement, because it’s unique. However, to buy art costs money. So what justifies the financial outlay, when we are often able to enjoy images and the fruits of creativity for free at a time when many of us generally want fewer things?&nbsp;There is a new generation of art collectors coming of age. Baby Boomers still make up half of art buyers, but Millennials are the fastest growing group, according to a 2018 study by US Trust. More women are also buying art, and more new collectors seek to invest in art that will appreciate, as they are more likely to sell pieces than previous generations. &nbsp;Today both time and money are precious, and so is an attention span. While this rising demographic approaches a great deal of things in a more personally relevant way, how they value art may be more market–based, or even crowd–sourced as they seek to build a personal brand and rely more on data to inform their everyday lives. Millennials are also more likely to buy art online or to discover emerging artists via platforms like Instagram. They are engaged, but it may not be in person on a regular visit to a gallery.&nbsp;This brings me back to why art is important to me and how art can save lives. An artist’s view of the world, seen and experienced in person through a constructed object, a performance or a concept, can be a powerful learning resource as well as a lens through which to view history or what is happening right now. A work of art can memorialize a tragedy, and it can preserve beauty; it can provide a vehicle for&nbsp; participating in a larger community and also connect with the past.In this fall issue of CGN, artist <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2018/8/artist-suellen-rocca-a-life-story-through-art">Suellen Rocca</a> shares her experiences of working with young children in museums as well as public schools. Observing the world around her informs her own art and has allowed&nbsp;her to help others think creatively. Art of the past also offers an ongoing and critical connection:&nbsp;"I believe—I’m sure many other artists do too—when an artist looks at a work of art from any period or culture and feels a connection with it, is drawn to it, it becomes a part of them and comes out in a very personal way."Dealer Catherine Edelman has started a nonprofit after more than 30 years running her own gallery. CASE Art Fund will award&nbsp;biannual grants to fine art photographers who are working on humanitarian issues. Edelman believes in the power of art and says, "It is our hope that when viewers see the work in a non-traditional manner, they will stop, think, ask questions and act. We firmly believe photography can effect change."Artist and community developer Theaster Gates opened the Stony Island Arts Bank three years ago. He is making a new community in the South Shore neighborhood while he also takes on new projects in his own artistic practice. When considering an artist's larger role in the world he says, "It’s part heart, and it’s part logistics. That’s art.’&nbsp;My message to buyers entering the market is to consider why art is what is left behind once we are gone. Art is not part of a personal brand that changes with the wind. Art that survives the ages should connect us to someone or some thing. To buy a work of art is to invest in an artist’s unique talent and be able to admire and learn from it everyday.&nbsp;– Ginny Van Alyea, CGN Publisher&nbsp;Pictured from left: Suellen Rocca, Bareshouldered Beauty, 1965, Oil on canvas, 83 1/4 x 59 3/4 inches, 213 x 158 cm.&nbsp;©️Suellen Rocca, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery;&nbsp;Theaster Gates at Stony Island Arts Bank with deinstalled materials from Cleveland gazebo where Tamir Rice was killed in 2016;&nbsp;©️Omar Imam, CASE Art Fund artist. Courtesy Catherine Edelman Gallery

Publisher's Letter: Art Saves Lives

By APRIL LANE

The Other Art Fair (TOAF),&nbsp;presented by Saatchi Art and heading into its 7th year in business,&nbsp;will make&nbsp;its first appearance in Chicago September 28-30, 2018&nbsp;at Mana Contemporary Chicago&nbsp;in&nbsp;Pilsen.&nbsp;TOAF&nbsp;has become&nbsp;known as the leading art fair for emerging artists in the United Kingdom, and with Chicago being an epicenter for art -- brimming with historic museums, theatres and galleries -- there&rsquo;s also an ever-growing population of independent, up-and-coming visual artists who would like to gain exposure by having their work featured in a big-name fair&nbsp;but who aren&rsquo;t yet connected with an established&nbsp;gallery or exhibitor who can get them in the door.

&ldquo;What we&#39;re trying to do is give a voice and a creative platform to those artists,&rdquo; says Ryan Stanier, founder and general manager of TOAF.

TOAF has received more than 500 applications for the Chicago fair, and its team of seasoned art world partners and staff are&nbsp;hand-selecting 120 artists to exhibit their work in the upcoming exhibition&nbsp;this&nbsp;fall. Exhibiting artists come largely from Chicago and throughout&nbsp;the Midwest, but also from as far&nbsp;as Beijing, India, Colombia, Toronto&nbsp;and London.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Left; Moksha Kumar, Vadodara, Gujarat, India; Right: Alvaro Galindo, Chía, Colombia" data-rich-file-id="2928" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2928/original/art1.jpg" />

What TOAF says sets it aside from many&nbsp;bigger name fair competitors is that it explicitly&nbsp;tries to invite&nbsp;first time art buyers and&nbsp;novice collectors&nbsp;to search for original artwork alongside&nbsp;artists who are at the fair&nbsp;to speak for and represent themselves and their work. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re connecting local artists in Chicago to an art buying audience by&nbsp;saying, &lsquo;If you&rsquo;ve got $100, you can come to The Other Art Fair, and you can find an artwork which you can fall in love with and talk to the artist about, and then you can own it,&rsquo;&rdquo; explains&nbsp;Stanier. &quot;It really does make [the fair] accessible, and&hellip; that really is a big point of difference for us.&rdquo;

<img alt="" data-caption="Left: Pamela Staker, Chicago; Right: Raphaella Lima, Niterói, Brazil" data-rich-file-id="2932" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2932/original/art2.jpg" />

What started off in 2011 as a smaller fair that took place once a year in London to draw attention to emerging artists&nbsp;has ballooned into an international success. Over the past seven&nbsp;years, TOAF has held a total of 22 fairs and has featured more than 1,000 exhibiting artists. This year&nbsp;TOAF is hosting a total of 10 fairs in cities throughout the United States, UK and Australia.&nbsp;Moving forward in 2019&nbsp;Stanier says TOAF&rsquo;s plan is to increase the number of fairs per year&nbsp;to 15.

There&rsquo;s more to TOAF than just&nbsp;supporting local artists by selling art: the fair is meant to be an interactive experience for everyone who visits. The fair allows for visitors to spend a number of hours enjoying interactive art installations as well as&nbsp;various amenities, including&nbsp;music, numerous restaurant partners, virtual reality and tattoo projects. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like when you go to a museum -- you almost want to experience something unexpected, and that&rsquo;s what we are really try getting across during the fair,&rdquo; says Stanier. &ldquo;Even if you come and don&rsquo;t buy anything, it doesn&rsquo;t matter. Ultimately, I want everyone to walk away saying that they had a really good day out.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

<h3>Other events at TOAF to note:</h3>

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<h4><img alt="" data-caption="Limited edition print by Chicago artist Hebru Brantley" data-rich-file-id="2929" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2929/original/hebru.jpg" /></h4>

<h4>GUEST ARTIST HEBRU BRANTLEY PRESENTED BY LITTLE BLACK PEARL</h4>

Purchase a limited edition print, exclusive to the fair, by acclaimed Chicago artist Hebru Brantley. All proceeds support our Charity Partner, Little Black Pearl.

&nbsp;

<h4><img alt="" data-caption="TOAF After Dark is Sept 29" data-rich-file-id="2930" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2930/original/nightout.jpg" /></h4>

<h4>TOAF AFTER DARK SPONSORED BY THE COOPER SOUTHBANK</h4>

The Other Art Fair and&nbsp;The Cooper Southbank&nbsp;give you Art&#39;s biggest Saturday night on September 29,&nbsp;6&ndash;10pm. Enjoy a late evening of art, live music, drinks and special programming. Tickets start from $13.50 and permit re-entry to the fair on Sunday September 30th.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Art activities and offerings for the youngest visitors" data-rich-file-id="2931" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2931/original/pages.jpg" />

<h4>THE LITTLE ART PAGES</h4>

Younger visitors explore the fair with a free creative newspaper suitable for all ages.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<a href="http://theotherartfair.com">The Other Art Fair</a> takes place September 28-30, 2018 at <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/mana-contemporary">Mana Comtemporary</a>&nbsp;(2233 S. Throop St.) in Pilsen. 

It happens to coincide with the 7th edition of <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/expo-chicago">EXPO CHICAGO</a> at Navy Pier.&nbsp;

Visit <a href="http://chicago.theotherartfair.com">theotherartfair.com</a> for more info.
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The Other Art Fair comes to Chicago for the first time Sept 28-30, 2018

The Other Art Fair is coming to Chicago

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417656/spaqbdesj1ojifwwkwfc.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;Lauren Grundhofer Peterson serves on so many philanthropic and professional arts organizations, her love of art could qualify as a full time personal passion. She serves on the The Auxiliary Board of The Art Institute of Chicago, and is an active member of the MCA’s Emerge, The Arts Club of Chicago, ArtTable, The Art Institute’s Sustaining Fellows, as well as numerous other alumni groups and charities. She has dedicated herself professionally to art since graduating from Boston College in 2003 and receiving a Master’s Degree from SAIC in 2009. After 11 years in Christie’s Chicago office, Lauren joined Phillips in 2017 to serve as Regional Representative, Chicago and Midwest, and Associate Vice President to establish a Midwest presence for the international auctioneer specializing in 20th Century &amp; Contemporary Art, Watches and Jewelry. We asked Lauren to share her story of working in the auction world as well as insider tips for treasure hunting by auction. – GV&nbsp;Chicago Gallery News: How did you become interested in contemporary art?Lauren Peterson: I had a strong interest in the Dada and Surrealist movements as an undergraduate at Boston College. I was fascinated by how these groups of artists reacted to the issues of their day – wars, technology, science, the advent of psychology, etc. During graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), I wanted to learn what the artists of my day were examining through their practices. I still find art schools to be a barometer of the way things are heading in contemporary art.&nbsp;CGN: Tell me a bit about the focus in general at Phillips, as well as what your new role in Chicago is?LP: Phillips is very focused, specializing in works from the 20th and 21st centuries, which makes us rather unique in the auction world. We have six departments: 20th Century and Contemporary Art, Photographs, Design, Editions, Watches and Jewelry. We also broker private sales. My colleague Carol Ehlers and I have been brought on to establish a presence for the firm in the Midwest.&nbsp;CGN: Do auction houses get a bad rap in the art world?LP: Yes and no. I think in any relationship business, a person’s understanding of it is based on the experiences they have with the professionals in that field. The key to a good experience is finding trustworthy, informed and qualified individuals – a gallerist, an art advisor, a curator, an auction specialist or all of the above. Auctions are transparent, since demand dictates price, and the market speaks. Auction houses also have resources. Phillips has a team of specialists around the world, and we encourage people to ask the tough questions, as we want anyone buying or selling with us to be comfortable with the process.&nbsp;CGN: Bidding: in person, or online?LP: The online experience has been transformed since I began in this business over 15 years ago. Call me old school, but I still advise collectors to preview works in-person when they are able. Previews are what make auctions unique. You can learn a lot by looking under the hood and examining museum-quality works in an intimate way. That said, once you’ve seen the artwork in person or been in touch with a specialist to answer questions, you can bid online or even by app from anywhere in the world without any issues.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Estate Sales vs Auctions?LP: Estate sales certainly have a place in the ecosystem.&nbsp; The format tends to benefit the buyer because, when you are handling an entire household’s contents, some things may have been be overlooked. At Phillips, we are selective and seek out specific works to craft focused sales. Additionally, an auction is not just the day of the sale. Well before the hammer falls we are researching, writing essays, creating sale plans, organizing tours and events, speaking to the press, calling potential buyers and ensuring the best possible result for each of our consigners on the day of the sale.&nbsp;&nbsp;CGN: Weirdest valuation or work you’ve encountered?LP: When you think you’ve seen it all, something surprises. That said, very early on I worked with a collector who owned a Victorian hair wreath. The sentiment is sweet – these artifacts were made from the hair of a loved one and kept as a memento, often after that person had passed.In reality, I find them pretty creepy.&nbsp;CGN: Do you have advice for anyone unfamiliar with auctions?LP: Auction specialists love to educate and we often have an art history or fine art background. If someone has never been to a live auction, go visit a local house. It’s fun to see a sale in person and they’re usually open to the public. I also encourage people to go to New York in November and May for the previews and sales to see things that may not have come to market for years and may not be seen again for a generation – perhaps several.</body></html>

A Q&A with Lauren Peterson of Phillips Auction House in Chicago

Lauren G. Peterson: A Familiar Face Gets a New Start at Phillips

<h2>Chicago&rsquo;s &lsquo;Art on theMART&rsquo; to debut world&rsquo;s largest video display in September</h2>

An ambitious plan to transform the facade of Chicago&rsquo;s iconic 1930&rsquo;s Merchandise Mart into a massive canvas for projected art is just weeks away from dazzling residents and tourists alike. Dubbed&nbsp;&ldquo;Art on theMART&rdquo;, the public installation will launch Saturday, September 29.

By&nbsp;Jay Koziarz, Curbed Chicago

<a href="https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/8/20/17728826/art-on-the-mart-september-opening">Read More</a>

&nbsp;

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<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2933" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2933/original/badowski.jpg" />

<h2>Michigan Avenue sculpture by famed Israeli artist is gone</h2>

A brightly colored work by Yaacov Agam had stood in front of a building at 150 N. Michigan Ave. since 1983. It&#39;s now in storage.

By&nbsp;ARI BENDERSKY, Crains Chicago Business

<a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/news/michigan-avenue-sculpture-famed-israeli-artist-gone">Read More</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2935" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2935/original/article0-large.jpg" />

<h2>Chicago&#39;s Sector&nbsp;2337, Home to&nbsp;the Green Lantern Press, To Close</h2>

Beginning in 2019, the artist-run nonprofit organization&nbsp;Green Lantern Press&nbsp;(GLP) will close its Chicago-based headquarters&nbsp;Sector 2337&nbsp;and continue its publishing, curatorial, and public programming projects remotely.

Via Artforum

<a href="https://www.artforum.com/news/chicago-s-sector-2337-home-to-the-green-lantern-press-to-close-76294">Read More&nbsp;</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2934" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2934/original/screen-shot-2018-08-21-at-3-16-15-pm.jpg" />

<h2>Artists Explore a New Canvas: Tennis Courts</h2>

This project, &ldquo;Art Courts,&rdquo; was spearheaded by the United States Tennis Association as part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the U.S. Open. Organizers hope to inject a dash of enthusiasm and color into community tennis courts in underserved neighborhoods &mdash; as well as enliven a sport that, to some, possesses a reputation for stuffiness and adherence to rules.

By&nbsp;Andrew R. Chow, The New York Times

<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/arts/design/us-open-tennis-art-courts.html">Read More&nbsp;</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2936" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2936/original/180827-r32632.jpg" />

<h2>Alex Katz&rsquo;s Life in Art</h2>

Alex Katz is on fire. He said so himself, when I visited his studio one day this spring. &ldquo;One thing after another is coming up,&rdquo; the ninety-year-old said, flashing a wide smile that transformed his usual expression of slight gloom. His proposal to place a series of cutout sculptures of his wife, Ada, on the median of New York&rsquo;s Park Avenue had been accepted by the city, and he had been commissioned to enhance the interior of a subway station. &ldquo;I told them a couple of little mosaics in the subway isn&rsquo;t going to change anything, what you need is an environment&mdash;and they went for it,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;

By&nbsp;Calvin Tomkins, The New Yorker

<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/08/27/alex-katzs-life-in-art">Read More</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

News from Around the Art World: August 21, 2018

By Franck Mercurio

The best art engages viewers on multiple levels&mdash;emotional, intellectual, and spiritual&mdash;and the art of Renee Robbins does just that. Her colorful, faceted forms, inspired by nature, capture our imagination while prompting us to care about the environment and our own relationships with the natural world.

<img alt="" data-caption="Comma Size, gouache, watercolor, and colored pencil on paper, 15&quot; x 22&quot;, 2017" data-rich-file-id="2905" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2905/original/comma-size-72.jpg" />

A selection of Robbins&#39; paintings, prints, and multimedia works is currently on view in&nbsp;Hidden Worlds, a solo exhibition at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (now open through October 20). The show features five of the artist&#39;s recent series, showcasing her creative range:&nbsp;Sea Change,&nbsp;Wunderkammer, Biota,&nbsp;The Love Letter Etchings, and&nbsp;Galactic Lagoons.

<img alt="" data-caption="Drawbridge 48&quot;x72&quot;, acrylic on canvas, from Sea Change series" data-rich-file-id="2903" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2903/original/drawbridge-72.jpg" />

Robbins&#39; work explores scale in particular, referencing everything from sub-atomic particles to cosmic bodies, often within the same piece. These visions of nature constitute the artist&#39;s &quot;hidden worlds&quot;&mdash;some too small to see without a microscope&mdash;others so vast and distant that only a telescope can reveal them.

This contrast of scale and form sparks curiosity in viewers. Why are certain forms repeated in nature? What are the connections between those structures? This questioning is akin to a scientific observer exploring a query in pursuit of knowledge.

In this way, Robbins&#39; art inspires wonder about the natural world, but also subtly informs viewers about environmental issues. In her&nbsp;Biotaseries, the artist investigates the flora and fauna of a distinct region, often through multiple views within a single painting. In addition to inspiring appreciation for the shear diversity of life within a given habitat, the&nbsp;Biota series also examines the ecology of those life forms&mdash;how they relate to one another and their natural environment.

<img alt="" data-caption="Lure 30&quot; x 30&quot;, acrylic on canvas, 2014. From the Galactic Series" data-rich-file-id="2906" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2906/original/galacticlure.jpg" />

Similarly, in her series&nbsp;Galactic Lagoons, Robbins examines the interconnectedness of natural forms in unconventional ways, while subtly communicating messages about conservation. In the artist&rsquo;s own words, this series &ldquo;brings together aquatic and celestial spaces to explore natural wonder.&rdquo; These paintings reflect Renee&#39;s fascination with aquatic life&mdash;but also suggest the importance of water as the giver of life. As such,&nbsp;Galactic Lagoons carries a universal conservation message: the importance of clean water for our own survival and the survival of the planet.

Only a few blocks east of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Robbins&#39; themes of water and hidden worlds play out in a big way. In her mural project&nbsp;Kaleidoscope of Hidden Worlds&nbsp;(2017), the artist imagines what lies hidden underneath the surface of Lake Michigan: the Morgan Shoal, reefs (past, present, and future) and the biodiversity of the lake. Located underneath Lake Shore Drive inside the Fullerton Avenue underpass, the murals&rsquo; imagery moves from small scale to large scale as pedestrians walk west to east towards Lake Michigan. In Robbins&#39; own words, the murals &ldquo;consider the complex relationships between humans, nature, and the cosmos.&quot; Many of the forms that Robbins creates in her paintings&mdash;microscopic images, molecular diagrams, cellular structures, and camouflage systems&mdash;appear at a much larger scale in the murals. To envision the &ldquo;hidden&rdquo; biodiversity of the lake allows us to better appreciate it&mdash;and then, hopefully, to act to conserve it.

<img alt="" data-caption="A Kaleidoscope of Hidden Worlds, Murals by Robbins on both sides of the Lake Shore Drive at Fullerton underpass" data-rich-file-id="2902" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2902/original/murals.jpg" />

Where is the human presence in Renee&#39;s work? Sometimes it shines through in very conspicuous ways, such as the WWI camouflage patterns that populate paintings such as&nbsp;Sanctuary (2017). But the human presence is also suggested in the way the artist mixes different natural forms from different sources; perhaps something that only a human observer might do.

But even the simple act of making images inspired by nature suggests that humans are actually a part of nature and not separate from it. Sometimes, it takes an artist to reinforce such a basic&mdash;yet vital&mdash;message.

<h4>Hidden Worlds, Paintings and Etchings by Renee Robbins</h4>

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum&nbsp;

Thru Oct 20, 2018

&nbsp;

Related events:&nbsp;

Artist walk and talk: Sunday, October 14, 2-3:30pm (talk starts at 2:30)

&nbsp;

Image at top of page: Sanctuary, 2017

For more info visit the Nature Museum <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/peggy-notebaert-nature-museum">website</a>&nbsp;and Renee Robbins&#39; <a href="https://reneerobbins.com">website</a>&nbsp;
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&nbsp;

Renee Robbins: Revealing Colorful Worlds

Brought to you&nbsp;by popular demand, CGN has launched&nbsp;a weekly interview series similar to&nbsp;&#39;An Interview With a Dealer&#39; but with a&nbsp;focus on&nbsp;meeting&nbsp;and learning about one&nbsp;new artist. This week we feature Sandra Perlow.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Age: 77

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

Previous/other occupations: Art teacher in Chicago Public Schools;&nbsp;professor at Columbia College Chicago, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

&nbsp;

Favorite spot in the city?&nbsp;The Cultural Center&#39;s mosaic floors

Art supply store? Blick

Music or Podcasts? Music - Opera

Sweater or Hoodie? Sweater

Coffee or tea? Tea

&nbsp;

Share with us a little bit about your artistic background and training.&nbsp;

Sandra Perlow:&nbsp;When I was 8 years old my mother took me to the Art Institute of Chicago, and that trip sparked my excitement for painting, drawing, and patterns. I received my Bachelor of Art Education from SAIC because my mother wanted to make sure I would be able to make a living. I actually have 2 Master&#39;s degrees:&nbsp;an MFA from SAIC, and an MA from Illinois Institute of Design, which is sadly no longer in existence. Because of my degrees I was able to teach&nbsp;while simultaneously pursuing my own artwork. I started teaching art in Chicago Public Schools, and then I taught at Columbia College Chicago and SAIC. For over 30 years I taught courses in drawing and fundamentals of 2D design, which both influenced my own art work.

&nbsp;

What art&nbsp;has been particularly meaningful in your life?

SP:&nbsp;I am interested in the layers of history, particularly of the city of Chicago, and I&#39;m also inspired by architecture. You can say that shapes, images, writings and patterns of Chicago and the midwest, are meaningful to me. This translates well into my love of abstraction and collage. I hope that reflects in my work. Collage is all about layers and communication &ndash; not just people communicating with the pieces I create, but the materials themselves should communicate and interact with each other.

&nbsp;

Do you remember the first work of art that made a lasting impression on you?

SP:&nbsp;I don&#39;t know if I have a specific piece, but I&#39;ve been fascinated by [Pablo] Picasso ever since I learned about him and his work - specifically his Cubist period. I love how he made everything so fresh. Picasso had ideas that other people never thought about, and the way he expressed them through painting and sculpture has always inspired me. He was maybe the first artist&nbsp;I learned about who elevated the art of collage for me. Collage seemed like such a natural progression for him, and everything influenced his work. He was fearless and tried everything.

&nbsp;

Please describe your studio.&nbsp; &nbsp;

SP:&nbsp;My studio has 12 foot tall white walls, which are&nbsp;large enough for me to hang my work&nbsp;and then stand back and really take a good look at the piece and decide what to do next. I have a section of the studio dedicated to &ldquo;office&rdquo; things, with a computer, artwork by colleagues, a flat file for specialty papers, a couch, coffee table, and a bookshelf filled with artist books for reference.

My studio is located in the Loop. I love the location, because everything is simultaneously old and new, sloppy and clean. You see brand new buildings next to old ones, and there is always a buzz in the air.

&nbsp;

How do you know when a piece of yours is finished?

SP:&nbsp;It&#39;s a gut feeling. The key is to not overwork&nbsp;it and make sure it doesn&#39;t lose its freshness.

&nbsp;

What do you do when you feel creatively blocked?

SP:&nbsp;Usually I take a little breather. I&#39;ll step away from my work for a week&nbsp;and then ease back into it;&nbsp;little by little it comes back.

&nbsp;

You have $400 to spend on art supplies, what do you purchase?

SP:&nbsp;Different brushes, interesting papers, colored inks, different brands of gouache and Golden brand acrylic paints. I&#39;ve been really drawn to yellows recently, and I just purchased a tube of &ldquo;Interference Green (fine)&rdquo; by Golden. It&#39;s an iridescent green sheen that I&#39;m excited to play around with. I would probably look for more paints like that to experiment with.

&nbsp;

Do you have a role model or mentor?

SP:&nbsp;I wish I had one when I was younger. Years ago I was very quiet and kept to myself regarding my work. My father was a pharmacist and my mother really wanted me to be something. Her husband died when she was young and she wasn&#39;t much of a people person. I made sure to marry someone who was diligent in life and work, who was a great role model for me in working hard and accomplishing what I set my mind to.

Regarding role models in the art world, I&#39;d say Jonathan Lasker, George Condo, William Conger, and David Sharpe.

&nbsp;

What should we expect to see from you next?

SP: More collage inspired work, more monoprints. and I might take a course in printmaking to see what else I can combine in future work.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;
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Artist Insights: Sandra Perlow

<h3>Below is CGN&#39;s summary of July 2018&nbsp;art&nbsp;community news and updates.&nbsp;</h3>

<h3>To send us your news&nbsp;<a href="mailto:info@chicagogallerynews.com?subject=For%20CGN%20News%20Updates">email us</a>.&nbsp;</h3>

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<h2>&bull; Anniversaries</h2>

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/arc-gallery">ARC Gallery </a>is celebrating 45 years as an artist-run gallery this summer. On July 21 they held&nbsp;a Summer Evening Gala fundraiser and celebration in their in-progress space at 1463 W. Chicago Ave. in West Town, where they will be moving soon from their former location on N. Damen.

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<h2>&bull; Art World Moves and&nbsp;Updates</h2>

&bull;&nbsp;CGN&nbsp;is moving its office&nbsp;as of August 1!&nbsp;We will be located at 858 N. Clark Street, Ste. 204 (60610) near the Newberry Library. Please come say hi or stop in to help us rehang dozens of past magazine covers!&nbsp;

&bull; <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/catherine-edelman-gallery">Catherine Edelman Gallery</a>, which opened in&nbsp;River North at 300 West Superior Street in the fall of 1987 and specializes in photography,&nbsp;is moving to a new location in West Town in January 2019.

The gallery will close at the end of 2018&nbsp;and reopen at 1637 W. Chicago Ave. just east of the galleries at 1709-11 W. Chicago.

&bull;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/pagoda-red--2">PAGODA RED </a>is&nbsp;moving from Winnetka to Chicago.&nbsp;On August 10, the collection from the Winnetka gallery moves to Pagoda Red&#39;s Lincoln Park&nbsp;warehouse at Webster &amp; Elston&nbsp;where&nbsp;their&nbsp;entire collection will be open to the public this&nbsp;fall. Until then&nbsp;you are welcome in&nbsp;our Fulton Market gallery and garden at 400 N.&nbsp;Morgan, Chicago.

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<h2>&bull; Call for Artists</h2>

<img alt="" data-caption="Fermilab 2015 AIR Lindsay Olson, Particle Soup, Cotton, linen, lace, Acrylic, DMC embroidery floss on linen, 22” x 30”, 2014" data-rich-file-id="2892" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2892/original/particle-soup-full-size.jpg" />

&bull; Submissions for the artist-in-residence program at Fermilab&nbsp;are due&nbsp;Sept 1. Past residents have included&nbsp;Jim Jenkins, AIR 2017, and Lindsay Olson AIR 2015. &nbsp;

Fermilab is America&rsquo;s national laboratory dedicated to particle physics research. To initiate and stimulate communication and interactions among scientists, artists and the public, the laboratory has created an Artist-in-Residence program and seeks applications for the 2019 cycle. The Fermilab artist in residence will interact with scientists at the laboratory, learn about their research, see how it connects to society. Then use this information to create a body of work, leading to presentations in the community and possibly an exhibition of the artwork at Fermilab. A small stipend will be provided by the Fermi Research Alliance.

Applications and questions for the 2019 Artist-in-Residence program should be submitted to <a href="mailto:art@fnal.gov?subject=Fermilab%20AIR%202019">art@fnal.gov</a>&nbsp;Artists will be notified before November 10, 2018. More info may be found <a href="http://events.fnal.gov/art-gallery/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AIR-2019.pdf">here</a>.&nbsp;

<h2>&nbsp;</h2>

<h2>&bull; Art&nbsp;Awards and&nbsp;Acquisitions</h2>

&bull; Northern Trust&nbsp;announced on July 9 that the&nbsp;Northern Trust Purchase Prize&nbsp;will be donated to the&nbsp;Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago&nbsp;during the seventh annual EXPO CHICAGO, the International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art, (Sept. 27 &ndash; 30, 2018). As Presenting Sponsor of EXPO CHICAGO, Northern Trust, will purchase the annual gift of artwork from the EXPOSURE section of the exposition, for galleries eight years and younger.&nbsp;The selected artwork will be unveiled on&nbsp;September 28 at 12 p.m.&nbsp;on the Northern Trust Exchange Stage as part of the Exchange by Northern Trust:&nbsp;An Interactive Conversation Around the Art of Collecting&nbsp;program.

&bull; <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/mana-contemporary">Mana Contemporary</a><a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/institutions/mana-contemporary"> </a>announced on July 9&nbsp;a new residency program in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). This yearlong residency will run August 1, 2018&ndash;August 1, 2019, and is designed to support the next generation of new media artists.

The first five residents, Cat Bluemke,&nbsp;Jenna Boyles,&nbsp;Minsun Cho,&nbsp;Morgan Green and&nbsp;Joo Young Lee,&nbsp;have been selected by the Mana curatorial team from a pool of graduating candidates nominated by the SAIC graduate department. The program supports interdisciplinary artists and aims to foster innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship in the field of new media. As part of the community-based residency, the artists will work together in a collective studio and engage the public through self-generated programming, workshops, and exhibitions. Mana&rsquo;s New Media Program&nbsp;initiative is dedicated to supporting the production and presentation of work that engages the intersection of art and technology.&nbsp;

&bull; <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/document">DOCUMENT</a>&nbsp;shared that&nbsp;Howardena Pindell&#39;s&nbsp;Video Drawings: Abstract (Fish Schooling), 1976 was recently acquired by Milwaukee Art Museum.&nbsp;Geraldo de Barros,&nbsp;Untitled (from Sobras Series), 1996-1998 and&nbsp;Untitled (from Sobras Series), 1996-1998 were recently acquired by The Art Institute of Chicago.&nbsp;

&bull; Two of <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/schneider-gallery">Schneider Gallery&#39;s</a>&nbsp;represented artists, Rania Matar and Ian Van Coller, have both been named Guggenheim Fellows for 2018.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Marshall Brown, Dequindre Civic Academy, Detroit" data-rich-file-id="2893" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2893/original/brown.jpg" />

&bull; From <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/western-exhibitions">Western Exhibitions</a>: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquired the major components of The Dequindre Civic Academy&nbsp;by Marshall Brown from his presentation at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennial, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Columbia College&nbsp;acquired three collages by Brown from his Chimera&nbsp;series that were featured in the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2017. The National Gallery of Art acquired Untitled (Welcome),&nbsp;a 6-color reduction woodblock print, by Stan Shellabarger. The Art Institue of Chicago acquired a work on paper, Tantric Necromantic,&nbsp;by Geoffrey Todd Smith from his recent show Field Streaming at Western Exhibitions. The Smart Museum of Art&nbsp;acquired a drawing by Orkideh Torabi&nbsp;for their Art To Live With Program. 
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&bull; The Field Foundation of Illinois&nbsp;has awarded 3Arts a $25,000 grant to&nbsp;invest in Chicago&#39;s artists of color and their production of new art through the 3AP (3Arts Projects) program, a crowdfunding platform with a built-in match and behind-the-scenes training, video production, and coaching designed to help artists build serious momentum in their careers.

&nbsp;The Siragusa Foundation&nbsp;is partnering with 3Arts to support the one-of-a-kind&nbsp;Make a Wave&nbsp;artist-to-artist-giving program.&nbsp;With the Foundation&#39;s generous $10,000 contribution, every artist who receives a 3Arts Award will be invited to select another Chicago artist to receive a surprise $1,000 grant, sending a wave from artist to artist throughout our city.

Join 3Arts on&nbsp;November 5&nbsp;at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago to meet the 2018 awardees. Tickets go on sale in September at&nbsp;<a href="http://3arts.org">3arts.org</a>&nbsp;To read a 2013 CGN article on 3Arts <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2013/5/3arts-changing-chicago-artists-lives-for-5-years">click here.</a>

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Top of page: CGN is packing up nearly 75 past magazine covers to move to a new office at 858 N. Clark St. on&nbsp;August 1, 2018
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In the News: CGN Art Community Updates Vol. 3, July 2018

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417669/bv6pqcsdv5vj5x6tyqkw.jpg"></figure>BY RILEY YAXLEYIn 2009 Alex Williams complained in the New York Times that the word “curate” had been improperly extended to fashion, food, and entertainment, while he made the case that the action is more appropriately suited to the degree-holding curators employed by museums. A friend recently explained to me that they are an “event curator,” event curation being an elevated way of describing event planning. “Curate” is being widely appropriated to describe careers and work that are far from the realm of museums or gallery spaces, forcing many to reconsider what the term means and how people understand the storied history of curatorial practice.After talking to Graham, I began to question what it means to be an actual art curator. What does that process look like? How does an individual start their curatorial career? Where are they instructed in the practice and what are the early opportunities for emerging curators to establish themselves?&nbsp;I have been immersed in Chicago’s arts industry for about nine months, starting with an internship at Chicago Gallery News last winter and followed by internships at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. During my time at each of these institutions, I was incredibly fortunate to meet a wide variety of artists, gallerists, curators, and art professionals.However, I began to notice that arts publications don’t often highlight younger arts professionals and individuals early in their careers. The newsfeeds of Hyperallergic, frieze, or ARTnews are saturated with profiles, interviews, and appointments of chief curators, executive directors, established artists, and so on. The idea for this interview series for CGN, Art Is… emerged because of my own curiosity and as a response to this coverage dearth, and to draw attention to individuals who are still breaking into the art world.When I accepted a job in Visitor Services at the MCA and was introduced to Graham Feyl, also a Visitor Services Associate at the museum, we quickly developed a friendship. As the idea for this series took shape, I knew that he would be one of the first individuals I asked to interview.Graham is currently the curator-in-residence at The Overlook, a multidisciplinary art space, whose mission is to “provide emerging women artists, queer artists, and artists of color a platform to further their practice through residencies, programming, and collaborative projects.” He completed his undergraduate degree in Art History at the University of Illinois Chicago and is attending the School of the Art Institute this fall to earn his Master’s in Modern and Contemporary Art History.The Overlook was founded in July 2016 by Jenn Sova, an artist, curator and activist living in Chicago. I had the pleasure of meeting Jenn during a field trip to the Museum of Contemporary Photography where we were given a private print viewing of Breaking the Binary: Queerness and the Image, which included goading works by Robert Mapplethorpe, lush images by Alexandre Haefeli, evocative portraits by Zanele Muholi, as well as the evasive work of Laurence Rasti for There Are No Homosexuals In Iran. When I joined Jenn and a few others for drinks at the Chicago Athletic Association after the viewing, I was struck by her indomitable energy and drive, a sentiment echoed by Graham during our interview. “She knows how to network and support people,” he says. In two years The Overlook has already hosted 12 residencies, 11 exhibitions, and 40 events. It has shown work by 33 local, national, and international artists. Graham is The Overlook’s first digital curator-in-residence.Graham’s partnership with The Overlook began in fall of 2016, when a friend invited him to a photography exhibition where he met Jenn for the first time. Following the 2016 presidential election, their relationship deepened as they discussed the implications of being queer individuals in a politically turbulent time. Graham recalls that Jenn wanted him to do a curatorial residency with The Overlook for months, but it wasn’t until The Overlook relinquished their physical space that Graham developed the idea for his curatorial residency - object / item / material / me. Faced with the challenge of organizing art exhibitions without a permanent location, Jenn proposed a digital curatorial residency. Graham would select and write essays about each artist and their work, which would culminate in a pop-up exhibition of the selected works.The idea began with the work of Janelle Miller, a multi-disciplinary artist and archivist. Her collection/installation Building Virtue: A Study (2017-cont.) is a collection of fans that depict black people in various scenes: a boy and girl praying, a mother and child tending a garden, a young couple playing the piano together, and a mother with her children as they celebrate one child’s birthday. The fans from Building Virtue: A Study (2017-cont.) were originally placed in church pews and were used by churchgoers during services before Janelle began to collect and archive them for her work. Through Janelle’s practice, Graham began to understand how these objects and their materiality could begin to explain Janelle’s personal, artistic practice, as well as how the fans are visually significant objects to members of the black community and their religious practices<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2894/original/picture-20clipping.png" alt=""></figure>The eight artists represented in object / item / material / me were selected from online submissions that Graham reviewed. He was looking for artists who understood what he himself was grappling with as a curator. “I know it’s a simple idea, but I think it’s worth thinking about and talking about,” he says about the ideas of exploring how individuals have found themselves through objects - how someone has come to find their racial, sexual, gender or political identity through an object.I push back at the simplification of his idea. We are so accustomed to the idea of producing work that is groundbreaking and innovative, but where is the space to contemplate the simple? As a fledgling curator, He says that he’s had to challenge his desire to curate a groundbreaking show and explains, “There’s no instruction [at university] on DIY spaces. Everything is [from an] institution with all these resources - as if you should only be thinking at that level.” DIY spaces, like The Overlook, are providing the space and resources for curators early in their careers to establish their curatorial practice at the community level.Such alternative spaces give curators the room to experiment and fail without the pressures of a large art institution. Take Hans Ulrich Obrist for example. He describes his first curatorial exhibition, which was hosted in his own kitchen, as a project where “artists shared in all tasks relating to my exhibitions, not just their individual pieces.” The name of the exhibition World Soup was coined by Richard Wentworth, and&nbsp; Peter Fischli and David Weiss took the exhibition photographs.During the course of his residency, Graham has developed relationships with each of the artists included in object / item / material / me. He admits to wrestling with holding himself accountable in representing each artist accurately, but also exercising his objectivity and authority as the exhibition curator. Each artist submitted responses of their understanding of the terms “object,” “item” and “material.” Graham is&nbsp; also grateful for the group of artists that he’s working with. He says these relationships are challenging him to be “clear with what he’s doing and what he wants to do.”object / item / material / me explores ideas of materiality that are present in almost all exhibitions, but it is the community that has gathered to contemplate and discuss these ideas that strikes me the most important part of the curatorial process - the conversation surrounding the work. Jenn’s committed support gave Graham the confidence and platform to organize his curatorial debut for The Overlook. Each artist that Graham selected has made the conscious choice to trust him with representing their work. Graham is currently in the process of establishing a venue and date for object / item / material / me’s pop-up exhibition, and I look forward to seeing the culmination of his residency this fall.&nbsp;Top Photo:&nbsp;Courtesy of The Overlook&nbsp;Read Riley Yaxley's follow up interview <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2019/3/art-is-the-bittersweet">Art Is... The Bittersweet</a>, March 2019</body></html>

Art Is... Graham Feyl

<html><head></head><body><figure class="image"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1721417514/ixe8btp1k5lxipedqwyp.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;Brought to you&nbsp;by popular demand, CGN has launched&nbsp;a new weekly interview series reminiscent of 'An Interview With a Dealer' with the focus on&nbsp;meeting&nbsp;and learning about one&nbsp;new artist each week. This week we feature Juan Angel Chavez.&nbsp;&nbsp;Age: 46Hometown: La Junta Chihuahua, MexicoPrevious/other occupations:&nbsp;Butcher, child jockey, DJ, construction worker and art educator.&nbsp;Spot in the city:&nbsp;Any DIY skate spotArt supply store:&nbsp;Swap-O-Rama on Tuesdays or any abandoned buildingMusic or Podcasts:&nbsp;MusicSweater or Hoodie:&nbsp;BothCoffee or tea:&nbsp;Coffee&nbsp;CGN: Share with us a little bit about your artistic background and training.JAC: I went to art school but never finished. Art&nbsp;school is worth it, you just need to be in the right mind set.&nbsp;CGN: Do you remember the first work of art that made a lasting impression on you?JAC:&nbsp;The first time I was intrigued by the idea of art was when I was very little. In Mexico, we had a family friend that was connected to the environment in many ways. He built his own house. Grew his own food and traveled by foot or mule back. &nbsp;He lived like it was 1887, he never had electricity or any comforts of the modern world.&nbsp; He was Yaqui and Pima but had been living in Chihuahua for almost a century. My family knew him because my great grandfather was a close friend of his. We also knew that he knew every plant, tree, bug or rock in the mountains, for their medicinal properties. He also built perfect barb wire fences.Besides these great things, he had a knack for collecting doll heads and sticking them on top of the fence posts around his house. He collected metal cans and used the metal to make anything he needed..&nbsp;hinges, patch holes on doors or just used them as cups. In retrospect, this was my first introduction to the effect of being connected to a creative process.&nbsp;CGN: What art has been particularly meaningful in your life?JAC: I’ve always been a jealous of music, film and writing. Compared to visual art they have an advantage for reaching sentiments in a much greater form. I feel like I’m always trying to compose my work in the same format as films or songs are written. Compositions of entry points, accessible beats, profound content for observations of contemporary life.&nbsp;CGN: Describe your studio!JAC: My studio is my home. I own a building in McKinley Park. I live upstairs and the studio is on the first floor. I have a small wood shop and an office.&nbsp; That’s it!In the studio, I don’t keep a lot of materials because I find them when I need them. In the office it is just a flat file cabinet, a desk and a lot&nbsp;of models of sculptures that I’ve made.&nbsp;CGN: Anything you can’t work without?&nbsp;JAC: IDEAS, I can’t live without them.&nbsp;CGN: How do you know when a piece of yours is finished?JAC: I know a piece is done when I don’t have any interest on it. I spend lots of time thinking and my work is kind of immediate.&nbsp;CGN: What do you do when you feel creatively blocked?JAC: I go skate, a bike ride helps or just take a walk.&nbsp;CGN: Your studio is about to disappear, you have enough time to grab one item, what do you take?JAC: The small axe my father gave me. It's sentimental.&nbsp;CGN: Do you have a role model or mentor?JAC: I have had many role models throughout my life. Teachers, artist, family but I always looked up to my grandfather the most. He only had a 6th grade education but managed to establish a beer distributing business that supported 12 children and grandchildren. He put them all through university and helped them establish their own careers. He was an example of hard work and what really matters in life.&nbsp;CGN: What should we expect to see from you next?JAC: Paintings, plywood assemblages and a monstrous interactive installation coming to Mexico in 2019.&nbsp;&nbsp;</body></html>

Artist Insights: Juan Angel Chavez

<h2>Chicago&#39;s Lighthouses: Shedding light on artists with disabilities</h2>

Some street art in Chicago is shedding light on the challenges millions of us face every day. Let&#39;s take a stroll with Dean Reynolds:&nbsp;This summer in Chicago beacons of hope have sprouted on the sidewalk, dotting Michigan Avenue&#39;s &quot;Magnificent Mile&quot; with a message for the masses.

Story produced by Charlie Brooks, CBS News

<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chicagos-lighthouses-shedding-light-on-artists-with-disabilities/">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="Photo courtesy of Museum Hack" data-rich-file-id="2885" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2885/original/screen-shot-2018-07-23-at-4-00-16-pm.jpg" />

<h2>Museum Tours for People Who Don&rsquo;t Like Museum Tours</h2>

On a recent Monday afternoon, Sarah Dunnavant, a 27-year-old actress and guide with the tour company&nbsp;Museum Hack, gathered her group of eight at the entrance of the&nbsp;Art Institute of Chicago, promising to reveal the &ldquo;salacious, sexy and scary&rdquo; parts of the museum in an animated two-hour &ldquo;un-highlights&rdquo; trip through the museum.

By Elaine Glusac, The New York Times

<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/travel/museum-tours.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fdesign&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=design&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=3&amp;pgtype=sectionfront">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="Artist Jen Mussari does some touch-up painting at her art installation called &quot;The Punching Symphony,&quot; photo courtesy of Jose M. Osorio" data-rich-file-id="2883" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2883/original/chi-29rooms-sensory-ct0076603666-20180720.jpg" />

<h2>Pop-up &#39;sensory&#39; exhibit in West Town features local artists, interactive rooms</h2>

For four days in July, Chicagoans can become part of an art installation, full of vivid colors that zig and zag. They can enter a room full of shredded paper, write down their thoughts, then shred said thoughts by hand via pasta-maker.

By Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune

<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-29rooms-sensory-places-20180717-story.html">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Bernstein" data-rich-file-id="2882" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2882/original/image.jpg" />

<h2>A stunning mirrored art installation debuts at Navy Pier this weekend</h2>

On Saturday, July 28, Chilean artist Iv&aacute;n Navarro&#39;s installation &quot;This Land is Your Land&quot; will make its Chicago&nbsp;appearance in Polk Bros Park. Made up of three structures that look like water towers, guests can situate themselves under each tower&#39;s eight-foot-tall support to reveal a mirrored interior outfitted with neon lights. One of the pieces depicts a neon ladder than appears to ascend endlessly upward, while another displays the words &quot;We&quot; and &quot;Me&quot; perpetually repeating.

By Zach Long, Timeout Chicago

<a href="https://www.timeout.com/chicago/news/a-stunning-mirrored-art-installation-debuts-at-navy-pier-this-weekend-072318">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="Photo courtesy of Christie's" data-rich-file-id="2884" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2884/original/art-tech-summit-blockchain.jpg" />

<h2>Will blockchain deliver a registry of all traded works of art?</h2>

Christie&rsquo;s summit weighs up pros and cons of the technology and how it might bring greater transparency to the art market

By Anny Shaw, The Art Newspaper

<a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/will-blockchain-deliver-a-registry-of-all-traded-works-of-art">Read More</a>

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News From Around the Art World: July 23rd, 2018

<h2>Is the state-owned art at Thompson Center in jeopardy?</h2>

Here today, gone tomorrow: Is that the fate of the 150 pieces of state-owned art residing at the James R. Thompson Center? The Thompson Center collection, which contains several valuable pieces by&nbsp;Chicago Imagists&mdash;a midcentury school of artists that includes Ed Paschke, Roger Brown, Ray Yoshida and Gladys Nilsson&mdash;is part of a state collection launched in 1978 with an initiative that dedicates half a percent of funds appropriated for state-funded public construction projects to art. The 600-piece collection appears in 25 sites around the state. The Thompson Center&#39;s artworks represent the biggest concentration, and its future is as uncertain as the fate of the building.

--Lisa Bertagnoli, Crain&#39;s Business Chicago

<a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20180713/ISSUE01/180719956#utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=ccb-morning10&amp;utm_campaign=ccb-morning10-20180716">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2880" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2880/original/intuit-chicago-calling-11-28-1746200.jpg" />

<h2>&lsquo;Chicago Calling&rsquo; offers an inside look at the city&rsquo;s outsider&nbsp;artists</h2>

Outside of a relatively small group of insiders and specialists, many people, including some in the broader international art world, probably don&rsquo;t realize that Chicago has long been one of the leading centers for outsider or non-mainstream art. Driving home that reality is the core mission of the largest and most ambitious exhibition ever mounted by Intuit:&nbsp;The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, a 27-year-old museum that has been at the forefront of displaying and promoting such work.

--Kyle MacMillan, Chicago Sun Times

<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/chicago-calling-offers-an-inside-look-at-the-citys-outsider-artists/">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2881" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2881/original/kg5-0.jpg" />

<h2>Exploring Nature and Humanity: Young-Il Ahn at Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago</h2>

A monographic exhibition of new paintings by Korean artist&nbsp;Young-Il Ahn&nbsp;will open on July 14 at Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago. The works on view explores the relationship the artist shares with beauty, nature, and music. &ldquo;His work is frequently associated with Dansaekhwa, an aesthetic position specific to Korea, which expresses natural processes through a mostly monochromatic palette,&rdquo; the gallery says. &ldquo;As a Korean-born painter working in the US, Ahn is unique among Dansaekhwa artists.&rdquo;

--Blouin Art Info

<a href="http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/3154804/exploring-nature-and-humanity-young-il-ahn-at-kavi-gupta?utm_source=Blouin+Artinfo+Newsletters&amp;utm_campaign=d930e3afce-Daily+Digest+Newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_df23dbd3c6-d930e3afce-83745981">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2878" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2878/original/nicoletta-fontani-and-elizabeth-wicks-restore-masterwork-by-violante-siries.jpg" />

<h2>How a Female-Led Art Restoration Movement in Florence Is Reshaping the Canon</h2>

Sometimes, all it takes is for someone to ask the right question.

That is exactly what&nbsp;Jane Fortune&nbsp;did on a visit to Florence 12 years ago. While touring the Renaissance city&rsquo;s exquisite museums and fresco-covered churches, the American philanthropist began to wonder, &ldquo;Where are the women?&rdquo; Her search for an answer set Fortune on a passionate quest to restore the lost legacies and artworks of Florence&rsquo;s forgotten female artists, digging into museums&rsquo; archives and dusty deposits with her organization,&nbsp;Advancing Women Artists&nbsp;(AWA).

--Kate Brown, Artnet News

<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/advancing-women-artists-1313612">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2879" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2879/original/istock-500217098.jpg" />

<h2>Programme of paid internships aims to make US museum staff more diverse</h2>

In response to the demographic disparity of staff in museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) has launched a paid internship programme aimed at giving undergraduate students from under-represented backgrounds an opportunity to work in the arts.

--Gabriella&nbsp;Angeleti, The Art Newspaper

<a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/paid-internship-programme-aims-to-curb-demographic-imbalance-in-us-museums">Read More</a>

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News from Around the Art World: July 16, 2018

Brought to you&nbsp;by popular demand, CGN has launched&nbsp;a new weekly interview series reminiscent of &#39;An Interview With a Dealer&#39; with the focus on&nbsp;meeting&nbsp;and learning about one&nbsp;new artist each week. This week, our first installment of the series features Dabin Ahn, represented by <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/andrew-bae-gallery">Andrew Bae Gallery</a>.&nbsp;

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Age: 30&nbsp;

Hometown: Seoul / Chicago

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Spot in the city:&nbsp;Starbucks (2nd floor, 1003 N Rush St)

Art supply store:&nbsp;Blick Art Materials

Music or Podcasts:&nbsp;Music

Sweater or Hoodie:&nbsp;Hoodie

Coffee or Tea:&nbsp;Coffee

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CGN: Share with us a little bit about your artistic background and training.

DA:&nbsp;Ever since I made my first oil painting on a stretched canvas in 2007, my work has been strictly about depicting figures and objects in a realistic manner. During my BFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I was encouraged to depart from my old habits and lots of fun things started to happen in my work.

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CGN: What art&nbsp;has been particularly meaningful in your life?

DA: It has always been, and most likely always will be, traditional painting on canvas. I surely will expand my work at some point and possibly incorporate other media, but nothing will satisfy me more than the process of making a 2-dimensional painting.

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CGN: Do you remember the first work of art that made a lasting impression on you?

DA: It is probably the very first painting that I ever sold during my first solo show in 2011. The 18 x 24in self-portrait was lacking in many ways, but it was a good fail as I learned what to do (and what not to do) when making a painting.

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CGN: Describe your studio!

DA: I do not have a studio at the moment. It has been about 2 years since I started working at home and&nbsp;I paint in my bathroom, to be more specific. While it may&nbsp;not sound like a suitable space for making work,&nbsp;there is&nbsp;ventilation in the ceiling, enough room for a table and&nbsp;stool, and most importantly I can hang canvases up to 60 inches on one of the walls. It&rsquo;s free!

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CGN: Anything you can&rsquo;t work without?

DA: Jerky maker. I place it near wet paintings and everything is dry in just few hours. Definitely by the next morning.

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CGN: How do you know when a piece of yours is finished?

DA: Since I always work with a sketch, it is easy to know when my work is complete. I just don&rsquo;t know when to stop with my sketches. I spend much more time working on my sketches than the actual paintings.

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CGN: What do you do when you feel creatively blocked?

DA: I personally&nbsp;haven&#39;t had that experience, but taking some time away from looking at art and making art would probably work for me.

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CGN: You have three minutes to take anything you want from an art supply store, what do you grab?

DA: 2 x Double primed linen rolls. Both of my hands would be already full, but I&#39;d be very happy about the situation.

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CGN: Do you have a role model or mentor?

DA: Gerhard Richter and Jerry Saltz.

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CGN: What should we expect to see from you next?

DA: Today is July 12th&nbsp;and my solo show opens tomorrow at Andrew Bae Gallery. I have prepared a lot and hope to see many faces at the opening and throughout the show.

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Dabin Ahn is represented by Andrew Bae Gallery. For further information regarding Dabin and his upcoming show please visit <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/andrew-bae-gallery">Andrew Bae Gallery</a>.

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Artist Insights: Dabin Ahn

The summer art season is about to be in full swing, as many galleries open their latest exhibitions this coming weekend. The hottest&nbsp;months of the year inspire&nbsp;many&nbsp;galleries &nbsp;to welcome art collectors and visitors to the city to&nbsp;spend time in&nbsp;the districts and&nbsp;explore a unique part of area&nbsp;culture by viewing work created by living artists.&nbsp;

There is a lot to see Thursday through Sunday, with the bulk of the openings taking place in River North and West Town on Friday night. Openings continue on Saturday night in West Loop, West Town and Michigan Ave.&nbsp;

Many artist talks&nbsp;are also planned for Saturday and Sunday in both galleries and museums, with a handful of events taking place in the suburbs.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Our summary of the weekend&#39;s highlights is below. New events are being added daily.

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In River North, the traditional July happening that was a much loved fixture on the art calendar for many years&nbsp;is back,&nbsp;with the second annual <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/a-midsummer-art-walk">Midsummer Art Walk</a>. Resurrected and reimagined last year by a group of dealers who wanted to reinvent a familiar seasonal&nbsp;energy for a district long associated with art, the event is casual but promises to be a lively evening of mingling in the name of art discovery.

Throughout the city galleries have spent time planning their&nbsp;new shows, the final stop before the fall art frenzy opens in September and continues through EXPO Chicago.

<img alt="" data-caption="Dabin Ahn" data-rich-file-id="2861" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2861/original/dabin.jpg" />

Galleries are&nbsp;dispelling&nbsp;old notions of lazy summer group shows by&nbsp;featuring new artists, for instance at <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/dabin-ahn-2-3">Andrew Bae Gallery</a>, the artist Dabin Ahn is a recent SAIC grad who is the gallery&#39;s first-ever artist from Chicago and the only new one to be added to the roster in over 13 years.&nbsp;Opening&nbsp;Friday, July 13.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Whit Forrester " data-rich-file-id="2862" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2862/original/ceg.jpg" />

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/the-chicago-project-vii-selections-from-our-online-gallery">Catherine Edelman Gallery</a> celebrates 15 years of curating The Chicago Project VII: Selections from our Online Gallery&nbsp;a show created in 2003 as a biennial&nbsp;online-only gallery devoted to unrepresented photographers in the Chicagoland area.&nbsp;Opening&nbsp;Friday, July 13.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Kirill Polevoy" data-rich-file-id="2863" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2863/original/gva.jpg" />

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/gallery-victor-armendariz">Gallery Victor Armendariz</a> opens two shows simultaneously, Kirill Polevoy: Sideshow and Oliver Hazard: Purple Dawn,&nbsp;highlighting the range of figuartive work on view in the space, which marked its first anniversary this past March.&nbsp;Opening&nbsp;Friday, July 13.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Marc Dennis, American Tulips, 2005, 48 x 48 inches, Oil on canvas" data-rich-file-id="2859" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2859/original/dennis.jpg" />

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/galleries/carl-hammer-gallery">Carl Hammer Gallery&#39;s</a> group show highlights the gallery&#39;s recent acquisitions from artists such as Mary Lou Zelazny, Jay Kelly, Amy Laskin and Marc Dennis.&nbsp;Opening&nbsp;Friday, July 13.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Deborah Stratman, The Illinois Parables, Film Still, 2016" data-rich-file-id="2860" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2860/original/weinberg.jpg" />

A thought provoking exhibition at <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/weight-of-a-world">Weinberg/Newton</a>, Weight of a World,&nbsp;presents artworks that elicit lessons to be learned &ndash; and to be taught &ndash; from global conflict, local lore, and cultural identity. Opening&nbsp;Friday, July 13.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Elizabeth Atterbury at DOCUMENT" data-rich-file-id="2864" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2864/original/document.jpg" />

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/friend-of-a-friend-elizabeth-atterbury-gordon-hall-huong-ngo-em-rooney">DOCUMENT</a>, one of a handful of West Town spaces opening on Friday, features its summer group show featuring artists&nbsp;Elizabeth Atterbury, Gordon Hall, Huong Ngo and&nbsp;Em Rooney. Opening Friday, July 13.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Brittney Leeanne Williams, &quot;Devoted Sisters,&quot; 2018, Color pencil, graphite" data-rich-file-id="2865" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2865/original/cad.jpg" />

The <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/you-will-be-the-archivist-of-your-desires">Chicago Artists Coalition</a>, which just moved to a new expansive space on West Fulton in West Town,&nbsp;is actually&nbsp;presenting an off-site exhibition in Pilsen at the Chicago Art Department (1932 S. Halsted).&nbsp;You will be the archivist of your desires,&nbsp;a&nbsp;HATCH Projects&nbsp;exhibition, features&nbsp;new works by&nbsp;Brittany Leeanne Williams,&nbsp;Frances Lightbound,&nbsp;Marissa Chris Zain Neuman,&nbsp;Meg Leary,&nbsp;Pooja Pittie, and&nbsp;Sydney Shavers.&nbsp;Opening Friday, July 13.&nbsp;And if you&#39;re in Pilsen, it&#39;s 2nd Friday!&nbsp;More than 20 galleries surrounding South Halsted and 18th Street showcase cutting edge art from Chicago and beyond.&nbsp;Pick up a map at&nbsp;1945 South Halsted in the the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/2nd-friday-gallery-night--10">Chicago Arts District</a> meeting spot.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Danny Torres at The Dime" data-rich-file-id="2869" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2869/original/dime.jpg" />

Tony Fitzpatrick&#39;s <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/urban-menagerie-by-danny-torres">The Dime</a> on Western Ave. opens the first solo show by artist Danny Torres, Urban Menagerie. According to Fitzpatrick, artists like Torres are exactly why he opened The Dime.&nbsp;Opening Friday, July 13.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Greg Breda at PATRON" data-rich-file-id="2866" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2866/original/patron.jpg" />

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/greg-breda-hei">PATRON</a> in West Town opens their&nbsp;first solo exhibition with Los Angeles based artist, Greg Breda,&nbsp;titled,&nbsp;Hei.&nbsp;Opening Saturday, July 14.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Aimee Beaubien at Carrie Secrist" data-rich-file-id="2867" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2867/original/ab.jpg" />

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/truth-claim">Carrie Secrist Gallery&#39;s</a>&nbsp;group show is as vibrant as the season and as hot as the political climate. TRUTH CLAIM features six artists and artistically explores the term&nbsp;&ldquo;Truth Claim&rdquo;, formally known as a proposition or statement that a particular person or belief system holds to be true.&nbsp;Opening Saturday, July 14.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Young-Il Ahn, Water SQRW 18 (detail), 2017" data-rich-file-id="2868" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2868/original/youngii.jpg" />

In the West Loop, <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/young-il-ahn">Kavi Gupta&#39;s</a> newest show at their 219 N. Elizabeth St.&nbsp;location features the intricate, large-scale paintings&nbsp;of Korean artist Young II Ahn, who recently had a large-scale solo exhibition at LACMA&mdash;the first time a Korean artist has received the honor. Opening Saturday, July 14.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Tom Burtonwood's 3D printing" data-rich-file-id="2870" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2870/original/tom2.jpg" />

On South Michigan Ave. in <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/tom-burtonwood-three-points-make-a-plane">Bert Green&#39;s</a> high rise space,&nbsp;Tom Burtonwood&#39;s&nbsp;3D printed images are on display. Burtonwood&nbsp;reinterprets physical space through technological means using scanning, printing, and virtualization of positive and negative spaces to expose the inner workings and invisible structures of our environments. Opening Saturday, July 14.

&nbsp;

<h3>View the full CGN calendar <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar">here</a>.</h3>

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Top image from TRUTH CLAIM at Carrie Secrist Gallery
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A summary of July gallery openings in Chicago

The Heat is On: July Art in Chicago

Recently the West Town-based Conservation Center shared a story with its clients and CGN about some recent restoration efforts, one of which pertains the gorgeous exhibition on view now at the Art Institute of Chicago featuring the art of Charles White. Following is the post from the <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/the-conservation-center--2">Conservation Center.&nbsp;</a>

By THE CONSERVATION CENTER

&quot;Charlie said to me, on more than one occasion, to focus on making the best drawing or painting you can. The ideas will take care of themselves. After all, you are making a picture. Its power has to be projected by its presence. This is clearly the case with just about every work he made.&quot; &ndash;&nbsp;Kerry James Marshall

Charles White, born and educated in Chicago, was one of the preeminent artists to emerge during the city&rsquo;s Black Renaissance of the 1930s and 1940s. This year, White&rsquo;s hometown is recognizing his contribution to the portrayal of African American culture and history with a retrospective of the artist&rsquo;s paintings, drawings, and prints at the&nbsp;Art Institute of Chicago. After being on display in Chicago from now until September, the exhibition will travel on to&nbsp;New York&rsquo;s Museum of Modern Art&nbsp;and&nbsp;Los Angeles&rsquo; County Museum of Art.

<img alt="" data-caption="Charles White at home in Altadena, California, 1971. Image courtesy of The Charles White Archives." data-rich-file-id="2854" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2854/original/charles-2bwhite-portrait.jpg" />

In correlation with the exhibition, we wanted to share our recent treatment of a 1965 Charles White lithograph that came to us from a private client who had concerns about framing damage. The lithograph on paper, titled &ldquo;Juba&rdquo;, had been passed down to our client Stacy Robinson by her father Louie Robinson, who was a journalist,&nbsp;one of the founders of&nbsp;Ebony Magazine, and a friend of Charles White. &quot;My father&#39;s work put him in close contact with many prominent Black actors, sports figures, and influencers of the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s,&quot; Stacy shared with us.

<img alt="" data-caption="Louie Robinson in the 1960s. Image courtesy of the Robinson family." data-rich-file-id="2852" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2852/original/1.jpg" />

Stacy&#39;s mother worked for a state college, and enjoyed collecting art by African American artists. &quot;Her collection included works by Charles White, Ernie Barnes, Elizabeth Catlett, and a Chicago artist named Bob Lee. Most of them were artists she and my father knew personally, or met over the years,&quot; Stacy explained. When Stacy&#39;s father passed away in 2015, her mother moved to Chicago.&nbsp;It was at this time that Stacy and her sister began to adopt some of the collection.&nbsp;&quot;My sister chose a very large portrait of Satchel Paige by Ernie Barnes.&nbsp;The Charles White was always my favorite so I brought it home and hung it in my living room.&quot;

&quot;I just knew this artwork wasn&rsquo;t being displayed to show it&rsquo;s ultimate beauty and I was also worried about fading and deterioration over the years. I researched some options and found The Conservation Center. I liked The Center&rsquo;s background and it seemed like the perfect fit for us,&quot; Stacy explained.

Upon unframing the piece, our conservators noticed the work was signed with a dedication to Louie Robinson. &ldquo;To you, with warmest regards and many thanks,&rdquo; was written carefully next to the title, signature, and blind stamp along the bottom edge of the lithograph.

&quot;The added gift was when I saw the signature by Charles White and that it included an inscription to my father, Louie. It turns out that my father had written a series of articles on Charles White, and the most extensive was written for Ebony Magazine in the 1960s entitled,&nbsp;Charles White &ndash; Portrayer of Black Dignity.&nbsp;The piece was actually a gift from the artist to my father.&quot;

The piece exhibited mat burn and a light strike within the mat opening. One of our client&rsquo;s concerns was the mat margin, as the large mat borders extended into the piece and hid some of exterior edges of the lithograph&rsquo;s image.

The piece exhibited age-related discoloration and select handling dents throughout. There was also a layer of minimal surface soil, and residual pressure sensitive tape stains on the verso margin edges.

The frame itself exhibited a moderate layer of particulates, abrasions, and scratches. There were multiple dents throughout, and the glazing was not UV-filtering. The matting and backing board were non-archival and acidic. When we removed the piece from its frame, we discovered a 1968&nbsp;Los Angeles Times&nbsp;newspaper between the backing board and the print. Our client, who was unaware of the clipping before bringing the work to The Center, was delighted to learn of the news. &ldquo;It was dated 1968 with a picture of newlyweds Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis on the front page. It was kind of like finding a time capsule!&rdquo; she told us.

Our Paper Conservators began their treatment by surface cleaning the lithograph on the recto and verso using dry methods. Next, the adhesive stains on the verso were mechanically reduced. The piece was then water bathed and light bleached to reduce discoloration and staining, to raise the pH neutrality, and to relax the overall sheet.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2853" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2853/original/before1.jpg" />

Our client elected to keep the original frame and have the piece reassembled with new matting. Our Framing Conservators began their treatment by cleaning the frame using the appropriate solvents. Next, scratches and abrasions in the frame were retouched as best as possible. The piece was float mounted on an archival 4-ply mat, to allow for the full image to be visible.&nbsp;The piece was then reassembled in the frame with a conservation grade glass that protects against UV light rays. An acid free coroplast backing board was attached to the reverse to provide additional protection, and the hanging hardware was replaced. The newspaper was retained separately from the piece, and returned to the client to live on as part of the work&rsquo;s story.

<img alt="" data-rich-file-id="2851" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2851/original/before.jpg" />

When the piece was returned to Stacy, she was delighted with the treatment results. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very excited with the results of the restoration. The work looks beautiful. The restoration team was able to not only restore the brilliance of the print, but reduce the discoloration caused by the haphazard mat and frame job we had before. The whole restoration process has really been an enjoyable experience of search and discovery.&rdquo;

Luis Serrano,&nbsp;a renowned artist and professor, attended the Art Institute&#39;s opening gala for the exhibition on June 8th.&nbsp;After the event, Serrano was kind enough to share his reflection on the piece we treated in relation to White&#39;s work.&nbsp;

&quot;Charles White&rsquo;s teachings and art transcend time, race, politics, and culture. His masterful use and distribution of tonal values, as well as the creation of harmonious atmospheric pictorial space create powerful poetic effects as evidenced in &#39;Juba.&#39;&quot;&nbsp;

Heather Becker, The Center&#39;s CEO, was also present at the Art Institute opening. As a graduate of the School of the Art Institute and a large advocate of Charles White&#39;s work, Heather was eager to show her support.

Becker shared, &quot;I highly recommend going to see this inspirational body of work by Charles White currently on exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago if you have not already.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/charles-white-a-retrospective">Charles White: A Retrospective</a>&nbsp;runs through&nbsp;September 3, 2018 at the Art Institute of Chicago.
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The Conservation Center restores a Charles White lithograph from 1965

The Careful Conservation of a Charles White Lithograph 

<h2>Theaster Gates salutes the spaces where Ebony and Jet&nbsp;happened</h2>

&ldquo;A Johnson Publishing Story,&rdquo; an exhibition that opened in Chicago last week, memorializes the iconic tastes of the late John and Eunice Johnson, pioneers in African-American publishing, fashion and cosmetics. Chicago artist/developer Theaster Gates has installed select furnishings from the Johnson Publishing Co. offices in the Ebony/Jet building that opened in 1972.

Besides a stylish desk, credenza and sofa, there&rsquo;s an IBM Selectric typewriter custom-clad in red alligator leather. Autographed copies of books by Richard Wright and Langston Hughes are on view too. Cards inform visitors: &ldquo;These objects are sacred, please be respectful.&rdquo;

By Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun Times

<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/theaster-gates-salutes-the-spaces-where-ebony-and-jet-happened/">Read More</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Saul Bass, Vertigo film poster. Courtesy of The Saul Bass Poster Archive &amp; Saul in his office, 1970s. From Saul Bass: A Life in Film &amp; Design. Courtesy of Laurence King Publishing." data-rich-file-id="2842" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2842/original/made-america-fall-in-love-with-alfred-hitchcock-and-quaker-oats.jpg" />

<h2>This Artist&rsquo;s Radical Designs Made America Fall in Love with Alfred Hitchcock and Quaker Oats</h2>

They called him the&nbsp;Pablo Picasso&nbsp;of commercial artists. For over 50 years, beginning in the late 1940s,&nbsp;Saul Bass&nbsp;crafted quietly brilliant images for Hollywood and Madison Avenue, many of which still feel strikingly contemporary decades later. Much like Picasso, he reinvented himself again and again throughout his long life, excelling at wildly different genres of visual art&mdash;you can&rsquo;t talk about Bass without talking about posters, logos, feature films, documentary shorts, or title sequences.

By Jackson Arn, Artsy Editorial

<a href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artists-radical-designs-made-america-fall-love-alfred-hitchcock-quaker-oats">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="Enclosure C at Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey. Photo: Vincent J. Musi/National Geographic Creative" data-rich-file-id="2843" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2843/original/site-of-the-earliest-known-temple-on-earth-continues-to-keep-its-secrets.jpg" />

<h2>The site of the earliest known temple on earth continues to keep its secrets</h2>

One morning in May I stood in a dark room in southern Turkey, watching blue-skinned early humans domesticate wheat between bouts of interpretive dance. They were holograms, and they swayed across the walls to a doomy arrangement of bells, drums, and spectral voices: the soundtrack to the dawn of time. The display was a concession to drama in an otherwise austere complex of new museums &ndash; low, tan, elliptical structures tucked into a dip in the Harran plain &ndash; built to ease visits to G&ouml;bekli Tepe, a hilltop cluster of stone circles that is sometimes described as the earliest temple on earth. The museums take their shape from the limestone ruins a short walk up the rise, but for all the touch screens and soft-power gloss &ndash; this is the project of a large Turkish conglomerate &ndash; their&nbsp;raison d&rsquo;&ecirc;tre&nbsp;could hardly be more mysterious.

By Yasmine Seale, Apollo Magazine

<a href="https://www.apollo-magazine.com/the-site-of-the-earliest-known-temple-on-earth-continues-to-keep-its-secrets/">Read More</a>

&nbsp;

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<img alt="" data-caption="Édouard Manet, Woman in Striped Dress, before and after treatment, (1877-80) Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2018; photos: Kris McKay and Allison Chipak" data-rich-file-id="2845" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2845/original/woman-in-striped-dressbefore-and-after.jpg" />

<h2>What colour is this dress? Guggenheim reveals Manet painting after three years of restoration</h2>

A freshly-cleaned fashion statement by &Eacute;douard Manet goes back on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York today (29 June) for the summer, after three years of research and restoration. The free and expressive brushstrokes and bright colours of Woman in Striped Dress (around 1877-80), a full-length portrait of an unidentified model&mdash;and of the dress itself&mdash;were hidden under two layers of discoloured varnish.

&ldquo;Especially towards the end of his life, [Manet] was really quite modern in the way that he approached the canvas and he would describe things with very few touches,&rdquo; says Lena Stringari, the deputy director and chief conservator of the Guggenheim Foundation, who led the project. &ldquo;As this very thick and unsightly varnish came off, you could see how just with a few little touches he could make something sing.&rdquo;

By Victoria Stapley-Brown, The Art Newspaper

<a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/guggenheim-says-yes-to-the-dress-with-manet-painting-restoration-reveal">Read More</a>

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<img alt="" data-caption="TEER, Tehran’s first contemporary art fair, takes place in a high-rise car park. Photo courtesy of the organizers." data-rich-file-id="2844" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2844/original/teer01-1024x692.jpg" />

<h2>&lsquo;Art Is Almost Free&rsquo;: Iran Opens Its First-Ever Art Fair&mdash;Just as the Value of the Country&rsquo;s Currency Plummets</h2>

Imagine you are a gallerist preparing to attend an art fair. But almost overnight, the value of the works you plan to sell drops by half.

What is a bad dream for some dealers is a reality in Tehran, where 10 dealers gathered last week to participate in the country&rsquo;s first art fair. Teer Art opened&nbsp;against the backdrop of protests&nbsp;in the Iranian capital as the country&rsquo;s currency, the rial, hit a new low. Since the US withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal in May, the rial has lost more than 40 percent of its value. Against all odds, however, the mood on the fair&rsquo;s opening day on June 24 was positive. There&rsquo;s a first time for everything, and for this first edition of an art fair in Tehran, just opening on time is an achievement.

By Tahereh Sariban, Artnet News

<a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/donald-trump-irans-currency-free-fall-not-stop-tehrans-first-art-fair-1311443?utm_content=from_www.artnet.com&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=US%20newsletter%20for%207%2F2%2F18&amp;utm_term=New%20US%20Newsletter%20List">Read More</a>

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News from Around the Art World: July 2, 2018

<h3>Below is CGN&#39;s summary of recent art-world news and changes.&nbsp;</h3>

<h3>To send us your news&nbsp;<a href="mailto:info@chicagogallerynews.com?subject=News%20Submission&amp;body=Please%20add%20my%20update%20to%20your%20next%20CGN%20news%20summary.">email us</a>.&nbsp;</h3>

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<h3>&bull; Passings</h3>

Sabina Ott, artist, professor and local creative champion died at age 62. After a four-year battle with cancer, Ott passed away at home Tuesday, June 26. She exhibited extensively throughout Chicago any beyond, and she was represented by Aspect/Ratio. <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2018/6/artist-and-professor-sabina-ott-dies-at-62">Read more here.&nbsp;</a>

Long-time&nbsp;art dealer Roy Boyd died on Wednesday nearly four years after closing his eponymous River North gallery. Read CGN&#39;s full tribute <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2018/6/founding-river-north-dealer-roy-boyd-has-died">here</a>.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>&bull; Art World Moves and&nbsp;Updates</h3>

<a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/art-services/leslie-hindman-auctioneers--3">Leslie Hindman Auctioneers </a>announced&nbsp;that the firm appointed Thomas Galbraith as Chief Executive Officer, effective June 4, 2018. He succeeds Hindman who founded the firm in 1982. The appointment follows a private equity investment that positions the firm for aggressive growth. 
&nbsp; 
Galbraith co-founded The Petraeus Group in 2010. The consulting firm has provided growth and start-up strategies to Steven Murphy &amp; Partners, Art Dubai, Paddle8,&nbsp;Arthena&nbsp;and numerous other luxury brands and VC firms. During this time, Galbraith also served as Managing Director of Paddle8 and prior to that as Director of Global Strategy for Artnet. He was most recently appointed interim CEO by the board of Twyla, a Google&nbsp;Ventures backed&nbsp;startup, tasked with repositioning the company towards a more profitable future.

Hindman will be stepping back from the day-to-day operations of the auction house and&nbsp;said,&nbsp;&ldquo;We are extremely excited to have Thomas join us as CEO. With his experience at the&nbsp;cross section&nbsp;of technology and&nbsp;art, and his reputation as a thought leader in the industry, we are poised for future expansion.&quot; Hindman will still serve as Chair of the firm&#39;s board.

Melanee Cooper Gallery, which was based in Chicago in River North&nbsp;until closing in 2009 when Cooper relocated to California,&nbsp;will be&nbsp;re-opening after a nine year hiatus. Cooper calls her return to her original gallery space at 740 N. Franklin Street &quot;serendipitous.&quot;&nbsp;Cooper is pleased to be among her old neighbors and plans a September 7 opening in conjunction with fellow River North galleries and the River North Design District.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h3>&bull; Artist Awards and Exhibitions Elsewhere</h3>

Richard Gray Gallery artist and Stony Island Arts Bank founder&nbsp;Theaster Gates received&nbsp;the Kurt Schwitters Prize.&nbsp;The award ceremony took place on the occasion of&nbsp;Theaster Gates: Black Madonna&nbsp;opening at Sprengel Museum Hannover.&nbsp;Spanning across four European institutions,&nbsp;Black Madonna&nbsp;is a multi-part project that explores the history of the black woman and her image. Additionally Theaster Gates: Black Madonna&nbsp;at the Kunstmuseum Basel&nbsp;takes place in&nbsp;two of the museum&rsquo;s locations.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Theaster Gates" data-rich-file-id="2838" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2838/original/gates.jpg" />

Ben Blount, whose exhibition Typecast is on view at <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/calendar/ben-blount-typecast">Aron Packer Projects</a> in the CGN office through July 28, has a billboard up on the 606 Trail at Kimball Ave. featuring his Make American Great Again art &ndash; read between the lines when you go by.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Ben Blount's 606 Trail Billboard" data-rich-file-id="2841" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2841/original/blount.jpg" />

Artist&nbsp;Lynn Basa&nbsp;has received the largest public art commission in the history of the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhoods for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wickerparkbucktown.com/art-around-wpb/future/one-big-thing-lynn-basa-s-workers-cottage/">Worker Cottage Parklet</a>, a sculptural installation that pays homage to the traditional Chicago &ldquo;worker cottages&rdquo; frequently found in working- and middle-class neighborhoods in the nineteenth century. The $80,000 commission was awarded to Basa by&nbsp;Wicker Park Bucktown Special Service Area #33, the neighborhood&rsquo;s business improvement district,&nbsp;after an extensive call for artists and jury process led by Chicago art professionals.

Basa&rsquo;s&nbsp;Worker Cottage Parklet&nbsp;will be installed by July 2018 at the highly visible intersection of Milwaukee Avenue and Wood Street in Wicker Park. The intersection was redesigned in 2014 by the Chicago Department of Transportation in collaboration with WPB SSA #33 and 1st Ward Alderman Joe Moreno, to create a safer transit environment and develop a location specifically for a future public artwork.

<img alt="" data-caption="A rendering of Worker Cottage Parklet by Lynn Basa" data-rich-file-id="2839" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2839/original/worker-cottage.jpg" />

A giant silver hand by artist Kavi Gupta Gallery artist&nbsp;Tony Tasset&nbsp;is part of&nbsp;<a href="https://frontart.org">FRONT International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art</a>. When finished, the 7-ton work will stand 21 feet high.&nbsp;FRONT will be held July 14&ndash;Sept. 30 at 18 venues and dozens of sites in downtown Cleveland, Ohio City, University Circle, Akron and Oberlin. (Image pictured at top of page)

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

<h3>&bull; Announcements</h3>

<a href="http://www.chicagoartdepartment.org">Chicago Art Department</a> is excited to announce the pilot program for the&nbsp;Core Residency Program,&nbsp;an ambitious intervention in the field, one that will challenge&nbsp;artists, organizers, cultural producers to lead studio work, exhibitions, and public programs around topics that matter. 
 
Each of CAD&#39;s Core Residencies will come with the challenge of exploring inside a specific topic, and&nbsp;will be fully-funded with stipends and budgets to support professional development. Core Stipends will be $2000 per residency, which will include $500 to specifically support professional development enrolling in outside programs at organizations such as Hyde Park Art Center, Lillstreet Art Center, Spudnik Press, and Chicago Artists Coalition. Applications are due&nbsp;July&nbsp;8, 2018.

<img alt="" data-caption="Outside the Chicago Art Department" data-rich-file-id="2840" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2840/original/cad.jpg" />

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Top of page: Tony Tasset&#39;s giant hand sculpture will be installed in Cleveland as part of FRONT

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A mostly monthly round up of news from around the Chicago art world.

In the News: Updates from the CGN Art Community Vol. 2

By GINNY VAN ALYEAVeteran art dealer Roy Boyd passed away this morning, according to friend and long-time gallery artist Betty Cleeland.&nbsp;Boyd is&nbsp;survived by four sisters.Boyd's&nbsp;eponymous&nbsp;gallery, which he opened with his late wife Ann&nbsp;in 1972, closed in October 2014 after 42 years in business.&nbsp;Boyd served as president of the Chicago Art Dealers Association from 2003–2007, and the gallery participated in the original&nbsp;International Art Exposition at Navy Pier in the 1980s&nbsp;as well as Art Chicago and other international art fairs for many years.The Boyds opened Roy Boyd Gallery first&nbsp;in suburban Western Springs, before moving in 1976&nbsp;to downtown Chicago near the original site of the Museum of Contemporary Art&nbsp;(the museum opened in 1967 at 237 East Ontario). In 1979 they moved to West Superior Street to the second floor above Young Hoffman Gallery, along with&nbsp;Jack Lemon's&nbsp;Landfall Press. In a 2012 CGN interview&nbsp;Ann Boyd recalled, "It was a wonderful time. There was hardly any activity during the day, but people who came to see us came for a purpose. We were all feeling pressure to have higher ceilings, more space for art, more elbowroom during openings. Some artists thought we were crazy, until they&nbsp;saw the big spaces and recognized the sense of camraderie. Our insurance when we started was $1,500 a month because our agent thought all of our windows would be smashed." By 1983 16 galleries had opened in what would soon be known as River North.&nbsp;The gallery's ultimate home was at&nbsp;739 N. Wells, where the couple lived in an apartment above the gallery.&nbsp;Boyd&nbsp;opened a second location&nbsp;in Los Angeles from 1981–1993.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2835/original/boyd30th-copy.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Ann and Roy Boyd with friend Edward Albee (left)</figcaption></figure>Roy became a personal friend&nbsp;during my early years working at Chicago Gallery News and the Chicago Art Dealers Association&nbsp;with Natalie van Straaten, and he continued to be a great supporter&nbsp;throughout my first years as CGN&nbsp;publisher. He was good company, whether he was stopping by our old lower level office on Franklin&nbsp;for a CADA meeeting or just a long chat.One of my favorite memories is from one day in 2007, quite a while before the 2008 presidential election, when attention in town and around the country was growing around Barack Obama. The CGN office was still located &nbsp;at 730 N. Franklin, in the lower level of the Central Arts Building and&nbsp;underneath Andrew Bae Gallery. One of the other tenants in the building was&nbsp;David Axelrod, who was advising Obama at the time. Because his profile was still low, Obama would come to the building for meetings from time to time. One day, while Roy was on my couch for one of our usual chats, we noticed a large SUV pull-up outside the building entrance and saw Obama&nbsp;dash in with his security detail.&nbsp;Others&nbsp;noticed too and&nbsp;gathered to wait&nbsp;in growing numbers. After waiting long enough hoping to&nbsp;glimpse the state senator another time, Roy decided it was time to walk back to the gallery. Wearing his own signature all-black outfit and ball cap, Boyd opened the front door of the Central Arts Building and strode outside into the crowd, which in its frenzy to snap pictures of Obama, ended up with pictures instead of a friendly, but certainly not politically famous, local art dealer, smiling at his mistaken celebrity.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2836/original/roy2.jpg" alt=""></figure>Roy was always good for a joke and a laugh.&nbsp;His openings promoted and honored his artists and&nbsp;served as gatherings for many art world friends. The post-opening dinners he and Ann threw in their apartment above the gallery&nbsp;were a special chance to&nbsp;relax and connect with new friends and old while celebrating the artist of the evening.&nbsp;Boyd's gallery&nbsp;roster was packed with artists who worked primarily in abstraction. Many painted&nbsp;in&nbsp;vibrant colors and used bold textures, while other artists&nbsp;worked in sculpture using wood, or metal.&nbsp;Over the years represented and exhibited&nbsp;artists included, to name a few,&nbsp;William Conger, Sarah Krepp, Betty Cleeland, Roland Ginzel, Daniel Bodner, Jay Phillips, Joan Livingston, Carlos Estrada-Vega,&nbsp;Jerome Powers, Anne Wilson,&nbsp;Mark Arctander,&nbsp;Teo González, Dan Ramirez, Jay Kelly, John Fraser,&nbsp;Mario Trejo,&nbsp;Brigitte Riesebrodt,&nbsp;Buzz Spector, Joel Perlman,&nbsp;Vadim Katznelson, and Markus Linnenbrink. Many area collections began at the Boyds' gallery, as visitors were drawn in as much by the friendly and knowledgeable dealers&nbsp;as the accessible and appealing art.Roy and Ann kept things interesting for the gallery and for themselves until the end, as they continued to take on&nbsp;new artists whose art they just enjoyed and whose friendship they cherished. In 2013 to mark four decades in business,&nbsp;the Boyds let their artists take over the commeorative exhibition. At the time Boyd said,&nbsp;"We're going to just have a group show for our 40th anniversary. We're letting our artists submit their favorite old work, or they can submit something new. We just wanted to recognize the people we've worked so well with."Ann Boyd passed away in April 2013. Roy is now greatly missed as well.&nbsp;This post will be updated as we confirm more details.&nbsp;Top image: Roy and Ann Boyd, 2007.

Roy Boyd Chicago art dealer passed away June 27, 2018

Founding River North Dealer Roy Boyd Has Died

Artist and Columbia College Chicago professor Sabina Ott died today at age 62 following a hard-fought four year battle with cancer. A mentor as well as fun-loving friend to many, she is a creative force who is greatly missed.&nbsp;

Ott was born in New York City and&nbsp;raised in Los Angeles and received her BFA&nbsp;in painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1979 before receiving an MFA in painting there in 1981. She made her way to the &quot;third coast&quot; in 2005 to&nbsp;serve&nbsp;as&nbsp;Chair of Art and Design at Columbia College Chicago and she called&nbsp;the city home from then on.&nbsp;

Exhibiting since 1985, Ott has participated in over 100 solo and group exhibitions at institutions in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Auckland, New Zealand; Melbourne, Australia; and many cities across the US. Her work is in numerous museum collections including The Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Oakland Museum of Art.&nbsp;In recent years&nbsp;she completed a public art commission for the Chicago Transit Authority and a solo exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center.&nbsp;

In 2011&nbsp;she founded <a href="https://www.terrainexhibitions.com">Terrain Exhibitions</a> with her husband&nbsp;John Paulett, an author&nbsp;and educator. Terrain is&nbsp;a public exhibition space &ndash; Ott&#39;s front lawn &ndash;&nbsp;in suburban Oak Park&nbsp;dedicated to featuring interventions into the conventional landscape of a front yard by emerging as well as established artists who have been invited to create a site-specific work that challenges the space between public and private, decoration and function, figure and ground. Artworks are intended to be accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.&nbsp;

<img alt="" data-caption="Who Cares for the Sky?, at the Hyde Park Art Center, 2016" data-rich-file-id="2837" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/chigal/rich/rich_files/rich_files/2837/original/sabina-ott.jpg" />

In 2016, Ott constructed a massive,&nbsp;scalable installation of polystyrene, plywood, industrial spray foam and paint for an exhibition, Who Cares for the Sky?, at the <a href="http://www.hydeparkart.org/exhibition-archive/sabina-ott-who-cares-for-the-sky/?_sf_s=sabina">Hyde Park Art Center</a>. A version of the work, Because the mountains were so high,&nbsp;was recreated for a special project at EXPO Chicago that same year. CGN&#39;s Franck Mercurio wrote <a href="https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2016/9/local-artists-create-immersive-environments-at-expo-chicago">about the work</a> as Ott was putting the finishing touches on it:

&quot;Walking through Sabina Ott&rsquo;s grotto-like installation,&nbsp;because the mountains were so high, I ran into the artist herself as she applied finishing touches of white paint to the work&rsquo;s polystyrene and spray foam walls.

&#39;It&rsquo;s not quite done yet,&#39; she said matter-of-factly.

&quot;Ott had borrowed a security guard&rsquo;s stool, using it as an improvised ladder while she touched-up the edges of a video monitor embedded into one of the installation&rsquo;s walls. The Thursday afternoon crowd of art collectors and journalists had just begun to filter through EXPO Chicago&rsquo;s maze of booths. Some people ventured into Ott&rsquo;s installation as the artist continued to work.

&#39;I think I hear my gallerist,&#39;&nbsp;said Ott, as Jefferson Godard of Aspect/Ratio appeared from around the corner.

&#39;Sabina, let&rsquo;s take a walk and see some art!&#39;&nbsp;said Godard.

&nbsp;

In 2019, Ott will be featured in a solo exhibition at <a href="http://www.aspectratioprojects.com">Aspect/Ratio</a>.&nbsp;

To view the many visual tributes to Ott from around the art community, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/sabinaott/">click here</a>.&nbsp;
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Artist and Columbia College Chicago professor Sabina Ott dies

Artist Sabina Ott Dies at 62

Each week CGN interviews a local art-industry professional to discuss the ins and outs of running a space&nbsp;in the city of Chicago. This week we caught up with Michelle Graves, Chair of <a href="http://www.agitatorgallery.com/">Agitator Co-operative Gallery</a>.

&nbsp;

Age: 38

Current Position: Chair of Agitator Co-operative Gallery

Hometown: Lafayette, IN&nbsp;-&gt; Bloomington, IN -&gt; NYC -&gt; Chicago resident since 2004

Current other occupations: Director of <a href="http://stateoftheartchicago.com">State of the Art</a>;&nbsp;Adobe (Certified Expert) Instructor at Digital Bootcamp, Ascend Training and Columbia College Chicago

&nbsp;

5 favorites from the past week:

Restaurant: Feed - Quarter dark chicken with mashed potatoes/gravy and fried okra!

Shop: Savvy Seconds and 1sts - best resale shop in town. I frequented Christin&rsquo;s shop so much, we became each other&rsquo;s ride-or-die and now travel internationally together.

Read: The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli - a fascinating read on time and how it relates to physical heat and the human perspective.

Neighborhood: I currently live in the beautiful Humboldt Park area, 5 minutes from my art studio in East Garfield Park and 10 minutes from Agitator in Wicker Park/West Town.

Music: I grew up on garage punk/rock, watching bands play in basements, but my current taste is eclectic. Some current favorites across the genres are Shannon and the Clams, L.A. Witch, The Spits, Future Islands, and Motor City Drum Ensemble.

&nbsp;

CGN:&nbsp;Tell us a little bit about your background and the journey that has led you to work with Agitator Co-operative Gallery?

MG: My entire background involves fine art. I was always involved with art organizations in and outside of academia. Through the years, I slowly began to gain confidence as an artist and embraced leadership skills as well as interest in business that I was surprised to possess.

I&nbsp;credit the Chicago Outfit Roller Derby team with&nbsp;giving me&nbsp;major leadership and business knowledge;&nbsp;I was a co-founding member and original Marketing Manager for them, and&nbsp;building this team, brand and organization (not to mention learning to strategize and compromise with a variety of personalities) has given me a vast amount of&nbsp;interpersonal experience that I use frequently.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In my art practice, I have applied to numerous calls for art, some of which&nbsp;have accepted me and of course some have not. To fulfill the desire of exhibiting my artwork and colleagues work, I have been involved with putting on many &ldquo;alternative space&rdquo; or non-gallery exhibits dating back to my undergraduate&nbsp;and BFA photography program and James Nakagawa.&nbsp;This kind of exhibit gave me the start-to-finish experience of putting on a show&nbsp;that includes curation, marketing, reception logistics, and quality control of the display.

In early 2017&nbsp;I was inspired by the recent presidential election to do&nbsp;something positive and maintain some sort of integrity in my life. I attempted to build a monthly meet-up community at my art studio that was inclusive, encouraged important discourse&nbsp;and was meant to be a safe space where people could&nbsp;belong.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In the meantime, while submitting&nbsp;applications for art calls, I came across a call for an art co-operative led by Larry Kamphausen and Gretchen Hasse. &nbsp;My application was accepted and we had our first meeting in April 2017. Our beginning meetings discussed&nbsp;what we wanted out of our co-operative. I brought up a quote referencing political turmoil having two forms of underground from Tom Robbin&rsquo;s book&nbsp;Still Life with Woodpecker. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s the underground involved in political resistance and the underground involved in preserving beauty and fun - which is to say, preserving the human spirit.&rdquo; This preservation resonated with everyone and our mission statement included this tone.&nbsp;We came to a consensus on our name, Agitator Co-operative Gallery, and I was nominated Chair. We found a perfect storefront that has been open to the public, exhibiting under-represented artists and generating discourse on important topics since September 2017.

&nbsp;

CGN:&nbsp;Give us a day in the life!

MG: A day in my life is not&nbsp;consistent.&nbsp;Sometimes I wake up and teach a six-hour long Advanced Adobe workshop. Sometimes&nbsp;early on a Saturday I meet my business partner, Keith Skogstrom, downtown for an art install through our art subscription company, State of the Art. Sometimes&nbsp;Agitator has an opening and I help install and tidy the gallery beforehand. Or&nbsp;I might do yoga, go for a jog, sit in my apartment bay window on a sunny day, respond to emails, or&nbsp;do some marketing for the gallery and State of the Art. When I have my own art exhibit deadlines approaching I force myself to be at my studio by a certain time. Occasionally I travel to other cities to bench coach the Chicago Outfit Roller Derby team, or&nbsp;I have epic&nbsp;adventures in other countries. Other times I listen and stare at the sky, or moving cars, or an ant crawling by and contemplate existence.

&nbsp;

CGN:&nbsp;How would you sum up your experience with Agitator Co-operative Gallery?&nbsp;&nbsp;

MG: Through being a member of Agitator&nbsp;I have deepened my experience in communicating, planning,&nbsp;building and balancing the dynamic of a group of creative people. &nbsp;I have also really come to&nbsp;appreciate&nbsp;working with&nbsp;a variety of personalities and love finding the commonalities that bring people together.

&nbsp;

CGN:&nbsp;Do you have a favorite recent exhibition you worked on?&nbsp;

MG: I have a huge affinity for physics/science theory and use this research in my art. My recent favorite event held at Agitator was an Art of Science&nbsp;lecture series led by Yoav Kashiv. &nbsp;The lecturer was Ritoban Basu Thakur who spoke on CMB and the Early Universe and encouraged questions/challenges during the lecture. There was a great turnout of both artists and physics researchers. The conversation was awe inspiring and I was excited to understand the material and participate in the discussion. This inspiration will definitely influence the work&nbsp;on display at my solo show at Morpho Gallery in August, 2018.

&nbsp;

CGN:&nbsp;What are some successes you have had this year? What about challenges?

MG: The term &ldquo;success&rdquo; has changed for me in the past six&nbsp;months. &nbsp;At the end of our roller derby team chant, right before we go on the track, I like to say, &ldquo;Success feels great!&rdquo; In this frame&nbsp;success does not mean winning according to the score;&nbsp;there are many successes throughout the game. These small (or large) successes throughout a journey are motivators. The challenges are the various tasks we face, and the successes are borne from overcoming,&nbsp;or continuing to push the self through, the challenge.

&nbsp;

CGN:&nbsp;Favorite cultural pursuit outside of the art world?

MG: My favorite cultural pursuit outside of making art and Agitator Gallery is the pursuit of travel. Traveling has opened my eyes and my mind to an amazingly beautiful planet that contains our humanity, which is full of very interesting individual people.

&nbsp;

CGN: What&rsquo;s coming up next at Agitator?

MG: Agitator Co-operative Gallery has a different exhibit once per month, curated by one of it&rsquo;s members.&nbsp; Our current active members are Larry Kamphausen, Gretchen Hasse, Luna Rail, Andrea Kaspryk, Karmen Elaine, Emilio Nadales and myself. The next exhibit is coming up on July 14 with work by Daphne Walsh and Danielle Owensby curated by Luna Rail.&nbsp;Our exhibit&nbsp;opening receptions are typically held on the second Saturday of every month from 6&ndash;10pm.&nbsp; We are located at 1112 N. Ashland, just south of Division in Chicago.&nbsp; Other events throughout the month can be found on&nbsp;<a href="http://www.agitatorgallery.com/">agitatorgallery.com</a>&nbsp;and current updates can be found on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/agitatorgallery/">Facebook</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/agitatorgallery/">Instagram</a>. Feel free to follow us and become one of the regulars at our fun, inspiring events!

&nbsp;

Michelle Graves&nbsp;is the Chair of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.agitatorgallery.com/">Agitator&nbsp;Co-operative Gallery</a>

Photo Credit:&nbsp;Brenda Hernandez

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CGN Interview Series, Michelle Graves of Agitator Co-operative Gallery

<h2>Barrels of Fun: Christo Erects a Brilliantly Colored Pyramid as Tall as Egypt&rsquo;s Sphinx in London&rsquo;s Hyde Park</h2>

The artist Christo is known for making the impossible possible. In 2016, he allowed hundreds of thousands of people to walk on water when he erected floating piers in the middle of Italy&rsquo;s Lake Iseo. In 1983, he and his wife Jeanne-Claude surrounded 11 islands in Miami&rsquo;s Biscayne Bay with floating fabric the color of Pepto Bismol.

By Naomi Rea, artnet News

<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/christo-launches-a-massive-temporary-public-artwork-in-london-1304879?utm_content=from_&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=US%20afternoon%20newsletter%20for%206/22/18&amp;utm_term=New%20US%20Newsletter%20List%20%2830%20Day%20Engaged%20Only%29">Read More</a>

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<h2>&lsquo;They Force You to Look Without Judgement&rsquo;: Watch Nick Cave Describe the Origins of His Trademark Soundsuits</h2>

If you visit the Park Avenue Armory in New York sometime this month, make sure to bring your dancing shoes. The artist&nbsp;Nick Cave&nbsp;has transformed the massive drill hall into a cavernous disco where New Yorkers are invited to boogie their anxieties away. On select evenings through July 1, the installation also hosts transporting performances during which a cast of dancers don &ldquo;Soundsuits,&rdquo; the ecstatic, wearable sculptures that have made Cave famous.

Via artnet News

<a href="https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/watch-nick-cave-via-art21-1305284?utm_content=from_&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=US%20afternoon%20newsletter%20for%206%2F21%2F18&amp;utm_term=New%20US%20Newsletter%20List%20%2830%20Day%20Engaged%20Only%29">Read More</a>

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<h2>From the community: Art Design Chicago: &lsquo;Sculpting a Chicago Artist&rsquo; comes to Oakton July 12</h2>

Oakton Community College&#39;s Koehnline Museum of Art will display the works of a world-renowned Chicago sculptor and the influences of his teachers as part of Art Design Chicago. &quot;Sculpting a Chicago Artist: Richard Hunt and his Teachers, Nelli Bar and Egon Weiner&quot; opens Thursday, July 12, and runs through Sept. 14 at the college&#39;s&nbsp;Des Plaines&nbsp;campus, 1600 E. Golf Road. The public is invited to a free opening night reception from 5 to 8 p.m.

By Community Contributor Oakton Community College, The Chicago Tribune

<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/evanston/community/chi-ugc-article-art-design-chicago-sculpting-a-chicago-arti-2018-06-20-story.html">Read More</a>

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<h2>Why Have There Been No Great Black Art Dealers?</h2>

IN 1966, TWO BROTHERS, Alonzo and Dale Davis, set out from Los Angeles on a road trip across the United States, seeking out other artists of color like them. They meant for the trip &ldquo;to broaden our limited art history experience,&rdquo;&nbsp;Alonzo&nbsp;says, since African-American artists had been conspicuously absent from his curriculum at Pepperdine University, or&nbsp;Dale&rsquo;s at the University of Southern California. &ldquo;We drove from L.A. to Mississippi, up through New York and Chicago, and somewhere between all those cornfields, we thought: it&rsquo;d be interesting to own a gallery.&rdquo;

By&nbsp;Janelle Zara, The New York Times Style Magazine

<a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/t-magazine/black-art-dealers.html">Read More</a>

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<h2>&lsquo;Worker Cottage Parklet&rsquo; art installation honors Chicago&rsquo;s working class&nbsp;history</h2>

Chicago&rsquo;s past is right under our feet. Just below the trendy bars of Milwaukee Avenue, markers of the street&rsquo;s former life as a working-immigrant thoroughfare &mdash; hand-hewn granite cobblestones and streetcar ties &mdash; lie in their final resting place buried underneath the street&rsquo;s modern pavement.

Some of those granite cobblestones will be allowed to see the light of day again as part of Chicago artist Lynn Basa&rsquo;s newest public art installation, &ldquo;Worker Cottage Parklet,&rdquo; which will be installed July 18 on the corner of Milwaukee and Wood.&nbsp;Commissioned by Wicker Park Bucktown Special Service Area #33 for $80,000, this is the largest public art commission in the history of the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhoods.

By Jane Recker, Chicago Sun Times

<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/worker-cottage-parklet-art-installation-honors-chicagos-working-class-history/">Read More</a>