West Town, Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village, Kinzie Corridor, Humboldt Park

West Town

Wisconsin

IL • MI • IN

West Loop, Fulton Market, East Garfield Park

West Loop and West Side

Evanston, The North Shore, Northern, Western and Southern Suburbs

Suburbs

Old Town, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Roscoe Village, Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square, Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, Uptown, Edgewater, Andersonville, Rogers Park

North Side

Michigan Avenue, Streeterville, The Gold Coast, The Loop, and South Loop

Michigan Avenue

Pilsen, Bridgeport, Chinatown, plus Hyde Park, Jackson Park/Dorchester, and Bronzeville

South Side

Superior and Franklin streets, West Chicago Ave, and down to Merchandise Mart and the River

River North

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://northwestern.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=904f932038284b4d9eea69636&amp;id=4c60f6170c&amp;e=ec81127d70" target="_blank">RSVP</a> Join&nbsp;Dyani White Hawk and Caroline Kent for a conversation on abstraction, feminism, and their overlapping artistic interests.In her multidisciplinary practice,&nbsp;Dyani White Hawk&nbsp;(Sičáŋǧu Lakota) brings together Lakota artistic traditions with Minimalist, and Color Field artistic influences. Working across painting, sculpture, and print, Dyani White Hawk emphasizes how color, shape, pattern, and material can carry meaning. Her recent series&nbsp;They Gifted (Night)&nbsp;and&nbsp;They Gifted (Day),&nbsp;is on view in&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://northwestern.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=904f932038284b4d9eea69636&amp;id=d2eb88c636&amp;e=ec81127d70" target="_blank">The Living Room at The Block</a>&nbsp;from November 12 to December 14, 2025.&nbsp;Caroline Kent&nbsp;(Northwestern University, Art, Theory, and Practice) uses abstraction to explore the possibilities and limits of language. Her richly layered compositions speculate on communication and miscommunication, drawing attention to how meaning can shift across context and culture.Together, White Hawk and Kent will discuss their artistic influences, conceptual frameworks, and the evolving role of abstraction as a space for cultural reflection, resistance, and reimagination.&nbsp;The evening will be introduced by&nbsp;Megan Baker,&nbsp;Assistant Professor of Anthropology. Dyani White Hawk&nbsp;(Sičáŋǧu Lakota) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis. White Hawk was featured in the 2022 Whitney Biennial and the recent solo exhibition Speaking to Relatives at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. She has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Creative Capital, Anonymous Was a Woman, Joan Mitchell Foundation and McKnight Foundation. Her work can be found within collections such as the Guggenheim, Brooklyn Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, MoMA, NY, Walker Art Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Caroline Kent is a Chicago-based visual artist. Kent speculates in both the potential and the limitations of language, and ultimately questions the modernist canon of abstraction. She earned an MFA at the University of Minnesota. She has exhibited widely at sites including the Walker Art Center, The Flag Art Foundation, the DePaul Art Museum, the California African American Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Kent is a 2025 USA Fellow and received the 2025 Aspen Arts Prize for innovation in abstraction.&nbsp;She has received grants from The Pollock Krasner Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, and The Jerome Foundation.&nbsp;Kent is Assistant Professor of Art, Theory and Practice, at Northwestern University.

Artist Talk: Dyani White Hawk and Caroline Kent in Conversation

Irish artist Elaine Byrne and Aliza Shvarts, Director of SAIC's Low-Residency MFA and Assistant Professor, Performance will discuss how borders political, social, and psycho- logical- define, divide, and drift, shaping the sense of belonging and exclusion. Drawing on Byrne's Drifting Sovereignty and her research into borders and the essay film, the conversa- tion explores how art can make visible the fluidity of environmental and geopolitical change.

In Conversation: Boundaries/Borders a discussion with Elaine Byrne & Aliza Shvarts

In conjunction with artist Temitayo Ogunbiyi’s exhibition, indigenous scholar and practitioner Stephanie Morningstar speaks on themes related to her work and to Ogunbiyi’s. A storyteller connecting people, plants, and the land, Stephanie bridges Indigenous and Western paradigms, helping communities reclaim relationships with the natural world and each other.Free and Open to the Public.&nbsp;Photo:&nbsp;You will feel out of many one people, 2019. Varnished Japanese ink and acrylic on found fabric. 54 x 36 in (137.1 x 91.4 cm).

Stephanie Morningstar on Indigenous Plant Knowledge

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://perspectivegallery.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=04a588cae42ffc5c2d944d823&amp;id=5f075450b2&amp;e=49b9939ea4" target="_blank">Register here</a>This November, Perspective Gallery presents&nbsp;In Their Gardens of Good and Evil, a two-person exhibition contrasting two visions of nature shaped by personal tradition and belief.In The 7th Year,&nbsp;artist&nbsp;Susan Isaacson&nbsp;reflects on the Jewish custom of letting the land rest every seventh year. Her work explores themes of renewal, connection, and oneness with the natural world, offering comfort while confronting life’s fragility and transience.In contrast, artist&nbsp;Katsy Johnson&nbsp;unveils&nbsp;Evil Flowers, a modern floral representation of the Seven Deadly Sins. Drawing on classical still-life traditions, Johnson transforms lush bouquets into dark meditations on human vice, weaving in unsettling modern intrusions such as cell phones, doll artifacts, and even live animals.Together, these works invite viewers into a “garden” that is both sanctuary and snare—where renewal and temptation bloom side by side.

Virtual Artists’ Talk: Susan Isaacson and Katsy Johnson

Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding&nbsp;- December 6 - 12:30PM&nbsp;-&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://northwestern.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=904f932038284b4d9eea69636&amp;id=07a41e4e91&amp;e=ac2aadcc58" target="_blank">RSVP</a>Explore artworks in depth through lively conversation and fresh perspectives with our Student Associate team.Join us for Art Talks!, a unique, participatory tour where Block Museum Student Associates (BMSA)&nbsp;lead discussion-based sessions focusing on artworks that ignite their curiosity. These 45-60 minute drop-in talks offer an opportunity to explore 1-3 selected artworks in depth, encouraging ample discussion and diverse perspectives. Open to all,&nbsp;Art Talks! highlight&nbsp;the interdisciplinary insights of our Student Associates and are ideal for anyone interested in a dynamic and interactive approach the museum.&nbsp;

Art Talks! with Block Museum Student Associates 

Tom Torluemke&nbsp;is known for his ambitious and evocative socio-political paintings. Drawing is the rarely seen starting point and driving force in his practice. It serves as a meditative and relaxing exercise, a testing ground for ideas, and a springboard for the direction the artist takes when pursuing a project. This exhibit features a selection of drawings by the artist stemming from three areas of the artist's work: plein air landscape drawings of the area near the artist's home, fanciful and personal autobiographical graphite drawings, and studies for the artist's large, imaginative, ambitious socio-political paintings.Born in Chicago, Illinois, his practice spans 40+ years and includes works in painting, drawing, sculpture, and installations in various mediums. Torluemke is known for his powerful, no-holds-barred approach to subject matter relating to socio-political, ethical, and humanistic themes. With over 150 solo and group exhibitions and 30 public art commissions throughout the Midwest, his work testifies to the relevance and scope of his ideas and his ability to present them in a meaningful context within their communities. In 2025, Torluemke's work on paper was the subject of a career retrospective,&nbsp;Tom Torluemke: Live! On Paper, 1987 – 2024&nbsp;curated by&nbsp;Dan Cameron&nbsp;at the&nbsp;Chicago Cultural Center&nbsp;with a monograph published by&nbsp;SKIRA Editore, Milan. The show was reviewed in&nbsp;Art Forum&nbsp;magazine in October 2025.&nbsp;All gallery events are free and open to the public. Additional information found at the gallery website at&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://bgfa.us./" target="_blank">https://bgfa.us.</a>&nbsp;Please forward to any interested parties. Closing Reception: Saturday January 17 2026, 2-5 pm

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