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

In celebration of the publication of Drawing Sculpture (Soberscove, 2026), a book of images of recent drawings of sculptures by Carroll Dunham, Corbett vs. Dempsey is delighted to present an afternoon conversation between Dunham and John Corbett, with a specific focus on the book's unusual subject matter. As the book jacket explains: "In Drawing Sculpture, we see Carroll Dunham thinking about sculpture over the course of a year. Spurred by curiosity about the forms that he found himself doodling along the edges of a new group of paintings in 2023, Dunham began drawing fantasies of sculpture as a break from working on the paintings. The eighty drawings collected here offer intimate access to an artist's process, tracing the emergence of a sculptural vocabulary as they explore spatial relationships, materials, and presentation for sculptures that don't exist." Carroll Dunham is an internationally renowned artist, acclaimed as a painter and drawer of exceptional imagination and power. At the end of January, his survey exhibition Carroll Dunham: Drawings 1974-2024 will open at the Art Institute of Chicago. Copies of Drawing Sculpture will be available at the event. The event is scheduled for Saturday, January 24 at 3pm, and it is free and open to the public. It will be held at 2156 West Fulton St., Chicago, IL 60622.

Carroll Dunham Conversation and Book Launch

Goldilocks Moment&nbsp;is a playful yet contemplative exhibition that explores themes in the popular childhood fairy tale such as those moments&nbsp;when things are "just right." How do we find that moment? How do we keep it? What do we do when we lose it?&nbsp;The&nbsp;story changes when the Bears come home and disruption occurs. But who is the intruder in this story?&nbsp; There is a concept in the field of astronomy called the Goldilocks zone, which is the exact distance from the sun where human life is possible.&nbsp;The artists are interested in the Goldilocks Moment as functional folklore and how the concept gets adopted by economists, scientists, and culture makers to describe a kind of moment, the right moment to leave, the moment to stay, the moment of creation, the moment of equilibrium, the “just right” state of being.&nbsp; The artists are a collective of mostly University of Chicago graduates who have collaborated for many years. They have presented their work in unique spaces including the loading dock of a contemporary art museum and a friend’s garage as a drive-through exhibit during covid.&nbsp;Working together for them is an endeavor of joy that represents a Goldilocks Moment. Each of the artists bring these larger questions into a personal realm that they explore through a variety of media. The artists use photos, film, sculptures, painting and performance to wrestle with ideas such as cultural change, how images can illuminate qualities of common experiences, and one’s comfort and identity in society. They realize that even the practice of creating can bring Goldilocks Moments. As one of the artists put it,&nbsp;In the field, my Goldilocks Moment is when I am so much in the moment of making an image, that I can forget having made it or ever having been there. The artists in this exhibition are Anthony Adcock, dado, Marco G. Ferrari, Hannah Givler, Maymay Jumsai, Stacee Kalmanovsky, Paul G. Somers, and Jay Wolke. The Goldilocks Moment&nbsp;opens at SoNa Chicago Contemporary Art on Friday, January 9 from 5-8 p.m. The Reception for the show will be on Friday, January 16 from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.&nbsp; There will be an Artist Talk on Saturday, January 31 from 2-3:30 pm, where a panel of several of the artists will be interviewed by Molly O’Donnell. SoNa Chicago Contemporary Art is located at 1527 N. Ashland Ave. Regular hours are Fridays 5-7 p.m., Saturdays from 12-4 p.m., and by appointment by calling Laura Botwinick at 773.513.4436 or emailing&nbsp;Lkbotwinick@gmail.com. <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1767477319/hpghdooyyxg16gldj91i.jpg">

Goldilocks Moment Artist Talk

Exhibition KeynoteTeresa Montoya’s Tó Łisto (Yellow Water)Saturday, February 7, 2PM, In-Person, FREECelebrate the opening of&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://northwestern.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=904f932038284b4d9eea69636&amp;id=f6508446e8&amp;e=64540e863b" target="_blank">Teresa Montoya’s Tó Łisto (Yellow Water): Ten Years after the Gold King Mine Spill</a>. The exhibition explores the impact of the 2015 Gold King Mine spill on Diné (Navajo) communities in the Animas and San Juan watersheds. Combining documentary photographs with scientific data and poetic reflection,&nbsp;Tó Łitso&nbsp;invites viewers to consider water as a life-sustaining resource and as a conduit for histories, stories, and harm.<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://northwestern.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=904f932038284b4d9eea69636&amp;id=a446e0cfea&amp;e=64540e863b" target="_blank">RSVP FOR OPENING KEYNOTE</a>

Exhibition Keynote: Teresa Montoya’s Tó Łisto (Yellow Water)

The conversation with Ivy Wilson, Associate Professor of English at Northwestern University, and John Corbett about Duke Ellington's 1939 U.S. passport&nbsp;has been postponed. Please join us on&nbsp;Saturday, February 21&nbsp;at&nbsp;2pm&nbsp;to dive into this fascinating artifact, the significance of personal documentation in periods of international crisis, and the status of ephemeral material culture in African American history.

In conversation with Ivy Wilson

Saturday, February 21, 2PM, In-Person, FREE﻿The thirty portraits in the exhibition&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://northwestern.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=904f932038284b4d9eea69636&amp;id=2a032550f6&amp;e=64540e863b" target="_blank">Hamdia Traoré’s “Des marabouts de Djenné” and Muslim Portraiture in Mali&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;reflect the artist's intimate connections to the city’s people and deep history. Learned and devout, marabouts teach in Jenne’s over 50 Qur’anic schools, offer spiritual guidance, and treat ailments through their knowledge of the Qur’an. This public program will discuss Hamdia Traoré’s portraits of marabouts in relation to an earlier generation of Muslim portraiture, and will also consider the role of archives in preserving the history of West African photography.<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://northwestern.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=904f932038284b4d9eea69636&amp;id=81c7a85e25&amp;e=64540e863b" target="_blank">RSVP FOR OPENING KEYNOTE</a>

Hamdia Traoré’s "Des Marabouts de Djenné," West African Portraiture and the Archive

Lecture in Photography: Joel SternfeldThursday, February 26, 202612:00 pm Ferguson Lecture Hall600 S. Michigan Ave.Chicago, IL

Lecture in Photography: Joel Sternfeld

In this conversation with tattoo artist Beth Mintzer and decorative arts curator Elizabeth McGoey, discover how Tiffany lamps have shaped artistic expression from historic interiors to contemporary tattoo studios.

Ornament & Identity: From Tiffany Studios to Tattoo Studios

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.mocp.org/events/lecture-in-photography-bob-thall/" target="_blank">Lecture in Photography: Bob Thall</a> Thursday, March 12, 20266:00-7:30 pmMoCP600 S. Michigan Ave.Chicago, IL Please join MoCP and Columbia College Chicago School of Visual Arts for a Lecture in Photography with Bob Thall. *Ferguson Lecture Hall is located on the ground level of 600 S. Michigan Ave. For several decades, Bob Thall has been known for his formally rigorous and deadpan portrayals of the urban and suburban landscape in Chicago, photographing in sharp detail a view camera. His new project looks at cities across the US and his long term commitment to black and white large format work. Thall served on the faculty at Columbia College Chicago from 1976 to 2017 and chaired the Photography Department from 1999 to 2011. His work and scholarship have played a crucial role in the museum’s history and the broader educational landscape. Lectures in Photography is co-sponsored in partnership with MoCP and Columbia College Chicago School of Visual Arts.

Lecture in Photography: Bob Thall

DiscussionSpecial Guests of the ArtistWith Danny Bredar, Gaylen Gerber, and Oscar ZhengSun, Mar 22, 2pm For this informal discussion in the gallery space, Leah Ke Yi Zheng is joined by three people from her close circle: artists Danny Bredar and Gaylen Gerber, and her son Oscar Zheng. Each of them brings an intimate familiarity with her practice and a deeply personal perspective on her work. In an impromptu, unscripted exchange, they surface aspects of Zheng’s exhibition that might not emerge in a formal artist talk. Their conversation mirrors the spirit of the&nbsp;I Ching&nbsp;itself, which, according to Zheng, absorbs all aspects of life. Visit&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://renaissancesociety.org/" target="_blank">renaissancesociety.org</a>&nbsp;for more information.

Discussion with Danny Bredar, Gaylen Gerber, and Oscar Zheng

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.mocp.org/events/talk-and-workshop-reimagining-the-photo-album-with-matthew-finley/" target="_blank">Talk and Workshop: Reimagining the Photo Album&nbsp;with Matthew Finley</a> Saturday, April 11, 202612- 1 pm Lecture1-2:30 pm Workshop MoCP600 S. Michigan Ave.Chicago, IL Join MoCP collection artist Matthew Finley (American, b. 1972) for a lecture and workshop exploring the creative possibilities of family and personal archives. Participants will reimagine the photo album as a space for personal or fictional storytelling, using either their own pictures or provided images to create imaginative, curated albums. This program is inspired by Finley’s series and new book&nbsp;An Impossibly Normal Life, a fictional narrative composed of sourced snapshots from around the world that reimagine his late uncle’s life and their shared experiences of coming out and belonging.&nbsp; This program will be held in the MoCP print study room. It is free but requires registration (link is forthcoming).

Talk and Workshop: Reimagining the Photo Album with Matthew Finley

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.mocp.org/events/lecture-in-photography-carla-williams/" target="_blank">Lecture in Photography: Carla Williams</a>Wednesday, May 6, 20266:00-7:30 pm Ferguson Lecture Hall600 S. Michigan Ave.Chicago, IL&nbsp; Carla Williams (American, b. 1965) is a photographer and curator known for her explorations of identity, race, gender, and representation. In her early work in the 1980s, she used a large-format camera to explore her own image, in work that reflected the lack of visibility of Black women in photographic history. Williams is the co-author of&nbsp;The Black Female Body: A Photographic History&nbsp;(2002) with Deborah Willis. She served as a curator of photography at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and was a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

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