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

Join us Wednesday, June 24th, 5-7 PM for bubbles to celebrate the launch of Volume Gallery’s collaboration with Stony Island Arts Bank.Design and architecture have been a shared language for Theaster Gates, Heiji Choy Black, and the founders of Volume Gallery, Sam Vinz and Claire Warner, since the beginning of their friendship. The Stony Island Arts Bank and Volume Gallery have long championed many of the greatest contemporary emerging and established designers and artists, bringing their work to the worldfrom their spaces in Chicago.In this group exhibition, artists and designers share a common desire to honor where they come from with objects of beauty and brilliance and of enduring meaning and substance. The many perspectives, cultures, and geographies represented in Chicago are brought to life here as these makers intend to better our world through art and craft. Featuring work by:Tanya AguiñigaRobell AwakeStephen BurksSung JangTerumi SaitoSHENEQUALarry TchogninouNorman Teague&nbsp;Stony Island Arts Bank6760 S Stony Island Ave2nd Fl GalleryChicago, IL 60649&nbsp;

Volume Gallery x Stony Island Arts Bank Reception

Juror for Body Sovereignty: Danni O’BrienSolo artist: Audrey Yang

Body Sovereignty (Front/Group) & Solo (Back)

You are cordially invited to&nbsp;BAC's14th Annual Art Competition.&nbsp;This competition was created to showcase the exceptional talents and abilities of Chicago area artists.

14th Annual Juried Art Competition

The body has always been contested territory. Legislated, pathologized, fetishized, disciplined—the body and its desires have rarely been left in peace, let alone in the control of the people who inhabit them. With this perennial conflict in mind, and on the occasion of Pride Month, ARC Gallery is pleased to present Body Sovereignty, a group exhibition of works that collectively investigate questions of bodily autonomy, and how that autonomy—or lack thereof—impacts corporeal and sexual expression. Curated by Danni O’Brien (she/they), a queer, interdisciplinary artist based outside Baltimore, Body Sovereignty brings together nearly 40 artists’ works that claim radical ownership over sexuality, desire, and bodily identity. This exhibition showcases art that refuses to be tamed; work that finds the erotic in the accidental, the absurd, the domestic, and the discarded; work that borrows the visual language of instruction and mechanism only to subvert it; work that is bold in its irreverence, polymorphic in its affect, and unafraid to blur lines between innocence and perversion, function and fantasy, the handmade and the found. The art included in Body Sovereignty spans mediums, including art assembled from cultural cast-offs, scavenged and repurposed into something fantastical and alive. Art that is cheeky and meditative in equal measure. Art that takes months to resolve what was gathered intuitively, that which arrives slowly at something unsettling and true. In these artists' hands, the body isn’t treated as mere subject matter, but as a site of survival. Body Sovereignty is not about shock. It is about depth of feeling, and about understanding, as Audre Lorde wrote nearly 50 years ago: “The erotic is a measure of our most expansive sense of self.” Exhibiting Artists: Sarah Barnett, Patrick Bell, Neb Berry, Harley Burns, Daisy Canaan, Ollie Caplin, Jana Cariddi, Kelly Clare, Genevra Daley Bell, Stephanie Dishno, Elizabeth Folk, Henry Gepfer, C Hancock, Brooks Harris Stevens, Yani He, Anna Henson, Jamie Ho, Benjamin Hunt, Ali Hval, Erin Juliana, Lauren Kalman, Ariana Leon, Aida Lodge, Maria Macko, Thomas McIntyre, Shug Munic, Matthew Nicholas, M.A. Papanek-Miller, Emily Peca, Emmett Ramstad, Mia Rose, Brooke Schuh, Emma Schwartz, Ivette Spradlin, Leah Tacha, Jean "J.C." Villalon, Kenzie Wells, Melissa Wilkinson, and Isabel Zeng. About the Curator: Danni O’Brien Danni O’Brien (she/they) is a queer, interdisciplinary artist based outside Baltimore, MD. Through scavenging and collecting, O’Brien builds enigmatic sculptures and reliefs from found objects, vintage patent diagrams, handmade paper pulp, ceramics, and the cast-offs of consumer culture. Her work grapples with queer identity, dystopian survival, and conspicuous consumption — playful and absurd on the surface, deeply meditative underneath. O’Brien has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Asya Geisberg Gallery, Hamiltonian Gallery, and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, and has held residencies with The Wassaic Project, Baltimore Clayworks, the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, Byrdcliffe Colony, and Stove Works, among others. She is the recipient of Individual Artist Grants from the Belle Foundation for Cultural Development and the Maryland State Arts Council. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Body Sovereignty 

I would have to say that what art gives me is awareness. Awareness of this short period of time that we have, on one hand, and on the other hand, a way of understanding reality. It may sound corny or dramatic, but for me art is a form of salvation.- Liliana Porter* SECRIST | BEACH is pleased to announce a solo presentation for New York-based gallery artist Liliana Porter. Titled The Strange Task, this exhibition will feature a variety of media including painting, works on paper, sculpture and video all featuring Porter’s coterie of endearing inanimate found objects, toys and figurines. This exhibition is presentedconcurrently with UNREAL, an invitational survey featuring a group of artists exploring contemporary anxieties and the surreal dimensions of everyday life.Both exhibitions open Friday, April 10 from 5–8 PM at SECRIST | BEACH and remain on view through June 13, 2026.Born in Argentina in 1941 and based in New York since 1964, Liliana Porter has developed a enigmatic multidisciplinary practice spanning more than six decades. Working across video, photography, painting, printmaking, drawing, collage, small-scale installations, and theatre, her work incorporates everyday found objects to investigate themes of identity, labor, and time, with an idiosyncratic blend of poetic metaphor and humor. Porter constructs situations in which ordinary objects are transformed into agents of reflection on the human condition.Porter is widely recognized as an important figure in conceptual, Latin American and feminist art. Her uniquely personal visual language is rooted the theory of surrealism highlighting not only our relation to objects, but the very nature of objecthood itself. By placing these toys and figurines in a specific context where they are either connected to each other or, conversely, directly connected to the viewer, the fidelity of emotional connection is enhanced. Works included in the exhibition - such as To Get There, To Hold the String, To See a Bird, and To Do It Again - stage moments of quiet action and contemplation.Objects and protagonists develop a narrative that is as approachable as it is meaningful, creating a reconsideration of our own everyday actions.As co-founder of the influential New York Graphic Workshop (1964), Porter also produced prints for the Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. Although their artistic practices diﬀer in both method and context. significantly, both artists share a commitment to distorting reality as a method of inquiry. This conceptual aﬃnity situates Porter within a broader lineage ofSurrealist experimentation, where altered perception functions as a means of probing psychological, cultural, and symbolic structures. Highlighting Porter’s connection to this artistic movement, The Strange Task is presented alongside UNREAL, an exhibition featuring a group of artists whose work engages with contemporary manifestations of surrealism. Thesimultaneous presentation of these two exhibitions establishes a dialogue of contemporary approaches to the surreal, highlighting the relevance of imaginative distortion as a strategy for interrogating collective consciousness.____Liliana Porter’s (b. Argentina, 1941, resides in New York since 1964) recent solo exhibitions include those at Dia Beacon in New York, Les Abattoirs in Toulouse France, El Museo de Barrio in New York City; The Perez Art Museum in Miami; Galería Luciana Brito in São Paulo, Brasil; ART OMI in Ghent, NY; Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA; El Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales in Montevideo; Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Franklin Rawson in San Juan, Argentina; Museo de Arte de Zapopan in Guadalajara, MexicoHer most recent institutional exhibition took place at Dia Bridgehampton in 2025. Porter's most recent theatrical performance, THEM was co-directed with Ana Tiscornia with music by Sylvia Meyer and debuted in New York at The Kitchen in 2018. Image: Liliana Porter, Woman Sweeping with Gold, 2025, Glitter and figurine one a pedestal, Dimensions variable

Liliana Porter: The Strange Task 

Chicago Grand Gallery presents a solo exhibition by Natalia Shutiak HER Her explores the unstable terrain of memory, sensation, and inner perception. Moving between figuration and abstraction, the exhibition unfolds as a psychological landscape where identity becomes fluid, fragmented, and constantly shifting. Through layered textures, gesture, and atmosphere, Natalia Shutiak constructs works that resist fixed interpretation. Rather than presenting “her” as an image, the exhibition approaches femininity as a state of becoming — intimate, unresolved, and deeply felt. Opening ReceptionJune 5, 2026 · 5–9 PM

Natalia Shutiak: HER

<h2>Feel Free</h2> Featuring Paulina Ho, Rachel Hayden, Jeremy Miranda, and Hanna Lee Joshi. May 15 to June 27, 2026 <a href="https://luma.com/mft1i4iz" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Details and opening RSVP</a>

Feel Free

This body of work utilizes the performative self-portrait as a feminist act of claiming space, rewriting boundaries, and reimagining what it means to belong. Begun over five years ago,&nbsp;Homesick&nbsp;examines the contrast of Rodrigues’ multinational, transient upbringing with her current life parenting in a Chicago suburb. The images embody a spectrum of emotions: dark humor, maternal frustration, yearning, and hopefulness. They reveal both comfort and discomfort, acknowledging the contradictions of domesticity as both refuge and constraint. Ultimately, this work celebrates the moments of rootedness Rodrigues attempts to build after a lifetime of movement.Homesick&nbsp;opens on Thursday, June 4, 2026&nbsp;with an Opening Reception on Saturday, June 6, 2026 from 5- 7 PM. The exhibit runs through Sunday, June 28, 2026.A Virtual Artist’s Talk will be held on Thursday, June 18, 2026 at 7 PM. To register for the talk,&nbsp;<a href="https://perspectivegallery.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=04a588cae42ffc5c2d944d823&amp;id=e037db3d4f&amp;e=d73170d386" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">click here</a>!

Kathryn Rodrigues: Homesick

The John D. Nichols Collection is now on display. Come and explore the largest exhibit and public sale of ancient Chinese tomb pottery in North America. The exhibit is museum-like in its breadth and presentation, ranging from 4000-year-old Neolithic jars to Ming Dynasty equestrian figures. All pieces are now online with complete photosets, descriptions, and pricing. About The Collection The John D. Nichols Collection includes over two hundred pieces of terra cotta pottery and bronzes spanning the period between 2000 BCE and 1000 CE, mostly from archeological sites in Northern China. The pieces are very diverse, including vessels, human figures, animals, architectural models, and ritual objects. All were buried for the afterlife, their locations forgotten over thousands of years. As China developed in the 1990's and early 2000's, large new buildings were erected in the oldest inhabited areas, requiring deep excavations. Many of these construction sites yielded ancient artifacts. Frenzied global interest followed, with excavated pieces first heading to Hong Kong and eventually to collectors in Paris, New York and Chicago. Legal restrictions followed and by 2009, importation to the US was all but banned by treaty. Ancient Chinese pottery is now rarely seen outside of museums.

Echoes of the Afterlife

The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) is pleased to presentBetween Voice and Silence, an international group exhibition on view May 1 throughJune 28, 2025. The exhibition brings together three artists, Katya Lisova (Kyiv), MatviiVaisberg (Kyiv), Ira Bondarenko (Ann Arbor), whose works in textiles, printmaking, ceramics, and fiber examine empathy, resilience, and the endurance of cultural identity against the backdrop of Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine.The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Ukrainian poet Maksym Kryvtsov(1990–2024), who was killed defending his country in January 2023, only months after the publication of his debut collection. His writing, which locates tenderness and humanity amid destruction, serves as a moral and artistic touchstone for the works on view.Between Voice and Silence&nbsp;takes its title Maksym’s poem “In that space between Voice and Silence” and alludes to the liminal space that defines wartime experience and the territory between what can be said and what is rendered unspeakable. The exhibition reflects on the limits and power of human agency in the face of overwhelming force. The value of humanity lies in its capacity to transcend adversity by embracing compassion and keeping empathy and human connection alive&nbsp;in&nbsp;the most oppressive darkness.Working across distinct media and generations, the three participating artists deploy Ukrainian visual vocabularies to contest cultural erasure and affirm collective memory.Image: Katya Lisova,&nbsp;Old Chestnut (Старий каштан),&nbsp;2024 - 2025,&nbsp;2’(W) x 3' (H)

Between Voice and Silence

<a href="https://www.evanstonartcenter.org/exhibitions/thinking-through-tapestry-american-tapestry-alliance" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Thinking Through Tapestry</a>&nbsp;is a juried exhibition featuring work that celebrates, explores, and builds upon specialized techniques often associated with tapestry.&nbsp;Selected artists&nbsp;explore techniques that consist of discontinuous weft-faced woven processes rooted in tapestry techniques, such as wedge weave, pulled tapestry, the use of hachures, or other structures, including the H.V. (Handarbetets Vänner) technique. The exhibition highlights work illustrating the close relationship between tapestry weaving, drawing, painting, and sculpture.&nbsp;The jurors of the exhibition are Emily Silver and Erin M. Riley.Emily Silver lives and works in Los Angeles and is on the faculty at Santa Monica College in the Sculpture Department and the Director/Curator of the Pete and Susan Barrett Gallery. She is also the co-founder of L.A. Tactile Lab, along with Svetlana Shigroff and Liv Aanrud.Erin M. Riley is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work focuses on women and women’s issues primarily in hand-woven, hand-dyed wool tapestries. Riley’s work challenges society’s comfort level by displaying shocking images, including nudity, drugs, violence, self-harm, sexuality, and menstruation.A catalog accompanies the exhibition and is available for purchase on the American Tapestry Alliance’s website.&nbsp;Juried Artists:Laura Burcin, Barbara Burns, Emily Cabaniss, Ching-Ting Chiu, Jasmine Claros, Molly Cleator, Deborah Corsini, Nancy Crampton, Sharon Crary, Liliana Crespi, Sam Dienst, Alex Friedman, Rama Ganesan, Tricia Goldberg, Anne Heide, Barbara Heller, Sally Heller, Sofia Herr, Connie Lynn Higgs, Christine Holtz, Rebecca Hooper, Cameron Kashani, Judit Eszter Kárpáti, Kristin Kelley-Munoz, Brendan Kenny, Riley Klein, Robbie LaFleur, Mary Lane, Fannie Lee, Monique Lehman, Connie Lippert, Kyle McKeown Mansfield, Ann Marie Miller, Pip Milton, Janet Moore, Annabelle O’Reilly, Tea Okropiridze, Anna Olsson, Libby Raab, Ellen Ramsey, Helena Richardson, Minna Rothman, Wendy Saam, Kristin Tinsa Saeterdal, Jennifer Sargent, Rowen Schussheim-Anderson, Mary-Ann Sievert, Kyla Sjogren, Rebecca Smith, Linda Soranno, Karmen Steigenga, Vicki Stone, Adrienn Szabo, Kathe Todd-Hooker, Trang Tran, Alta Turner, David van Buskirk, Stevie Van Housen, Ginny Wallace, Sue Weil, and Xingyi Zhao.GALLERY HOURS &amp; VISITOR INFORMATION:This exhibition will be held in the First Floor Gallery of the Evanston Art Center (EAC). Masks are optional but strongly recommended for students, visitors, and staff.Gallery HoursMonday–Thursday: 9am–6pmFriday: 9am–5pmSaturday–Sunday: 9am–4pmHOW TO PURCHASE ARTWORKArtwork sale proceeds benefit both the artist and the Evanston Art Center.&nbsp;If you are interested in purchasing artwork on display, please contact&nbsp;Emma Rose Gudewicz, Director of Development and Exhibitions, at&nbsp;egudewicz@evanstonartcenter.org&nbsp;or (847) 475-5300 x 102.This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.Image Credits (L to R):&nbsp;Sam Dienst,&nbsp;Tea Okropiridze, and Libby Raab

Thinking Through Tapestry | American Tapestry Alliance

Bookmark Activity:&nbsp;10 – 11 amStory time with CPL:&nbsp;11 am – 12 pmIn partnership with the Chicago Public Library, creating a handmade bookmark to use with all of your favorite reads, then listen along to Librarian Megan as she share stories about pattern and color.Free with RSVP.<a href="https://uchicago.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aba2086a45b4ee8391b89447b&amp;id=bf2065a19b&amp;e=00938adab1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Register Here</a>

Tuesdays Together: Story Time at the Smart

Woman Made Gallery presents "Routes &amp; Roots," a juried virtual exhibition exploring immigration and migration through the work of women and non-binary artists. On view May 18–June 30, 2026.Juried by Eliana Miranda, the exhibition takes its name from the two forces shaping every immigrant story: the paths we travel and the ties we carry. Selected works span border crossings and&nbsp;ordeals, exile and quiet acts of belonging, cultural hybridity, intergenerational memory, and more. <a href="https://womanmade.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=77610ec6940e4a7c0d652a863&amp;id=6b96d5a34c&amp;e=a3993dd90f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">EXPLORE THE EXHIBITION</a> Exhibiting Artists:&nbsp;Patricia Anderson-Turner, Alexandra Buxbaum, Mandel Cameron, Melisa Celaya, Colleen Coleman, Lauren Doorish, Michel Flores, Jennifer Godinez, Javiera González Velásquez, Sol Henriquez, Jee Hwang, Doina Iacob, Kelly Johnson, Yian Lin, Crystal Marshall, Danielle Muzina, Carol Neiger, Priscilla Otani, Jennie E. Park, Isabella Picardi, Julianna Sanroman, Jo Scheder, Marie Scherpe, Stephanie Tirado, Sharmeen Uqaili, Lucero Vargas, Alyssa Wilson, Jenn Wright, Elmira Yousefi, Amo Zeng<a href="https://womanmade.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=77610ec6940e4a7c0d652a863&amp;id=2ad6bc8a31&amp;e=a3993dd90f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SEE THEIR WORK AND STATEMENTS</a>

Routes & Roots

June Special Exhibitor: Amy MalcolmExhibit:&nbsp;Moon ShadowOpening: Friday, June 5th, 5-7 PM This month, we're excited to be exhibiting new work from&nbsp;special exhibitor Amy Malcolm! Amy is a Chicago-area artist who creates&nbsp;painterly cartoon-like art inspired by her work as a professional illustrator and as an employee at DC Comics. She combines spontaneous line with narrative inspiration to concoct visual satire;&nbsp;much of her work depicts women in various states of being female.&nbsp; These satirical "cartoons" allow viewers to&nbsp;create their own stories about the women being depicted.&nbsp;This work is a breath of fresh air - stop in and let it wash over you! <a href="https://vividartgallery.net/amy-malcolm-june-special-exhibitor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">See More of the Exhibit</a> First Friday - This Friday, 4-7 PM

Amy Malcolm: Moon Shadow

The paintings of Chicago artist Joan Holleb occupy an exciting place between between process and image, between poetry and narrative. The material qualities of these&nbsp;works set them apart from most paintings, generating the unexpected effect of slowing down our gaze and causing us to look carefully at the interaction of copper, patina, and paint on the surface of the work.Holleb begins the act of painting by pouring a patina solution on the surface of the copper and letting it run in various directions and oxidize. Typically, this process dictates the direction the composition will develop, and the use of chance and spontaneous activity becomes the foundation for all that follows. Says Holleb: "I actually paint/draw with the patinas and splash them across the metal because I enjoy the uncertainty of what will happen - it creates a challenge as to how to paint the piece."As Holleb develops the work, the paintings become compelling and ambitious meditations on our relationship to the natural world. Holleb uses oil paint to seemingly coax a landscape from the surface of the painting. In some of the recent work, her focus has turned upward, and the light through leaves and branches in the forest has become her subject. "For me, the light in my paintings is not just the light we see with our eyes but is also an allegorical light, something I think we all need every day in our lives to give us hope." Holleb continues: "I want my paintings to vibrate on the wall and I want viewers to have to stop and wonder for a moment, 'What am I looking at?' - I want to encourage them to create their own interpretations."&nbsp;

Joan Holleb: Woodland Tales

A Curated Exhibition of Contemporary Painting, Sculpture, and Works on Paper<a href="https://us.list-manage.com/UXb33nbZ8El?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Oliver Hazard BENSON</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/dsewcIKjWcE?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">William BLAKE</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/1BcUXSCp3gk?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Mary BLOCK</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/1A1w4r23Rmh?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Mary BORGMAN</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/12byu7dbp_t?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Donald Owen COLLEY</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/y8tgRR2H93p?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Jesús CURIÁ</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/e2ekSh8ScoC?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Ben DUKE</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/17831PqIVFg?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Christina HAGLID</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/qfh6xcjqXTd?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Nathan Brad HALL</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/ckhUHAIH2mD?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Amy HEIFITZ</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/q7XZqn4apXr?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Adam HOLZRICHTER</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/wdFYmBksnWl?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Suk Ja KANG</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/HODvpowhYly?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Wesley KIMLER</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/11mVTb7H4S6?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Jim ROSE</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/farN1Gqg4MJ?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">John RUSH</a><a href="https://us.list-manage.com/40ahWQVqXg5?e=c95ff8b063&amp;c2id=400d724778e1f5bdfce24ee427cf4378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">Bruno SURDO</a>

Collector’s Choice

Presented by: Ron Jerak &amp; Michael PreskiWhat happens when you bring an Abstract painter and a Surrealist together in one exhibition? The audience gets to take a journey through the artists’ story laid out on canvas, doused in color and covered in a vision.Ron Jerak creates the images he envisions by using strong color and contrast, incorporating straight lines and sharp angles. Symmetry is often present in his works, though asymmetrical compositions are employed as well. Michael Preski creates intricate and often highly detailed imagery with multiple mediums, layering different segments until they form the final piece. Like Ron’s works, they can cover a full range of concepts with their subjects, but all of them tell a story. Both of their stories are contained within each individual piece as well as the whole of their works. These stories are often drawn from everyday events, emotions and general life experiences as how the viewers experience the world. And though every piece is open to the audience’s interpretation, the artists guide their perceptions using the visuals themselves as a map. So feel free to join these two artists as they share their stories depicted in vibrant colors and unwavering imagery.<a href="https://www.bridgeportart.com/canvas-color-vision/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Details</a>

Canvas, Color, & Vision

From a 6th-century gilt bronze Buddhist sculpture to white porcelain and contemporary paintings of the late 20th century, the works of art in this exhibition demonstrate the artistic legacy produced on the Korean peninsula over millennia. Among the 140 artworks on view, 22 are officially recognized as National Treasures or Treasures by the Korean government.

Korean National Treasures: 2,000 Years of Art

This exhibition foregrounds the University of Chicago’s pivotal role in studying and exhibiting contemporary Chinese art since the mid-1990s. In February 1999, Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Chinese Art History at the university, opened his first exhibition at the Smart Museum of Art. Entitled&nbsp;Transience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century&nbsp;(1999),&nbsp;&nbsp;the exhibition – and many more Wu curated in the ensuing years – was field-defining and forged new avenues for situating Chinese art within a broader global contemporary framework.Taking these earlier exhibitions as points of departure,&nbsp;Beyond Boundaries: Three Decades of Contemporary Chinese Art at the Smart&nbsp;reflects on the enduring adaptability of contemporary art from China as it continues to grow within and beyond cultural and academic institutions. Bringing together artworks acquired by the Museum over the last three decades, archival materials, ephemera, as well as new work,&nbsp;Beyond Boundaries&nbsp;explores how artists navigate and challenge physical limitations across cultural, environmental, and political terrains. Through strategies of fluidity, they confront dominant social expectations and political hegemonies – not only within a rapidly transforming China, but also amid broader global uncertainties. In doing so,&nbsp;Beyond Boundaries&nbsp;invites us to revisit fleeting moments, environments, and actions, and urges us to reconnect, return, and remember.Support for&nbsp;Beyond Boundaries&nbsp;is provided&nbsp;by Markovitz Family Foundation for the Arts and Education. Additional support is provided by the Smart Museum's Board of Governors, and SmartPartners.&nbsp;Presented in&nbsp;the Robert and Joan Feitler Gallery, and the Joel and Carole Bernstein Gallery.

Beyond Boundaries: Three Decades of Contemporary Chinese Art at the Smart

For our summer exhibition, we will present five distinct bodies of work that exist somewhere between a traditional group show and a series of solo exhibitions. Spanning all three gallery spaces, the exhibition offers independent presentations by each artist, creating the experience of moving through a collection of intimate, mini solo shows housed within a larger collective framework.The gallery is especially thrilled to present New York based artist Melody Tuttle for the first time.&nbsp;Additionally, and we look forward to expanding on this in the coming weeks, we are pleased to announce that the gallery now fully represents Isamar Medina. This exhibition will debut the first of four planned bodies of work to be presented over the next two years, each with 6 works on paper and two paintings, culminating in Medina's first solo exhibition with the gallery in 2027.&nbsp;

Five Bodies

Alma Thomas (1891–1978) is a singular figure of twentieth-century American art. She developed her form of abstraction – characterized by the dazzling interplay of pattern and hue – late in life, after retiring from a long career as a schoolteacher. Her vibrant and rhythmic art transcended established genres, incorporating elements of gestural abstraction and color field painting and creating a style distinctly her own.Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas&nbsp;draws on the extensive holdings of the artist’s paintings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and offers an intimate view of Thomas’s evolving practice during her most prolific period, from 1959 to 1978. At a deeply politicized moment in American life, Thomas’s abiding sources of inspiration became the cosmos, nature, and music. As she stated, “Through color I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness, rather than on man’s inhumanity to man.” The exhibition&nbsp;invites visitors to see the world through the eyes of Alma Thomas.SUPPORTComposing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas&nbsp;is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Generous support has been provided by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Chris G. Harris, the Wolf Kahn Foundation, and Susan Talley.

Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas

Join us Friday, May 29th, from 6-10pm for the Opening Reception of PRIDE! - Jackson Junge Gallery’s newest group exhibition featuring artists from the LGBTQ+ community. Giving queer and non-binary creators a platform to share their experiences through art, the gallery hopes to foster an inclusive space for marginalized voices. Explore your own identity and challenge traditional notions of gender and sexuality with PRIDE!

PRIDE! Group Exhibition

On Thursday, June 18 from 5:30pm - 7:00pm the JDMF invites you to attend the opening of the SkyART Teaching Artist exhibition. This new venture celebrates the success of SkyART's service to youth on Chicago's South and West sidesThe John David Mooney Foundation is proud to exhibit the work of the Chicago Artists who teach and uplift young artists from under-served communities, bringing local and emerging talent to our International Currents Gallery for the first time! SkyART The Teaching Artists Exhibition will be on display, free and open to the public, from June 18 to July 8, 2026<a href="https://www.mooneyfoundation.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.mooneyfoundation.org </a>Valet Parking Available &amp; Reduced Rate Parking across the street at Sterling Park GarageImage: Victoria Jimenez, ‘Going on a Walk’, mixed media on paper, 18 x 24 in, 2021

SkyART Teaching Artist Exhibition

The devastation of the two world wars played a pivotal role in shaping the field of modern plastic surgery. In the early twentieth century, surgeons became artisans—suturing torn flesh like tailors mending fabric, reinforcing facial structures like carpenters restoring damaged frames. These groundbreaking reconstructive techniques laid the foundation for a discipline that would evolve beyond necessity into the realm of aesthetics.Simultaneously, artists—painters, sculptors, and draftsmen documenting the wars—engaged in parallel work. They studied the human form, deconstructing and reimagining faces and bodies through drawings, sculpture, and canvas. Anatomical study, once central to classical realism, became a bridge between art and medicine, guiding surgeons in their quest to restore symmetry, balance, and expression. The artist’s eye informed the surgeon’s hand, just as surgical reconstructions inspired new artistic interpretations of the human body.By the latter half of the twentieth century, plastic surgery had moved beyond reconstruction to self-reinvention. Like artists shaping raw material into beauty, surgeons refined and reshaped faces and bodies to align with personal desires and cultural ideals. The line between restoration and enhancement blurred, and the human body itself became a canvas for transformation.With the dawn of the new millennium came once-unimaginable feats—most notably, full-face transplantation. Surgeons, like sculptors working in living clay, not only rebuilt faces but gave patients entirely new ones. These innovations merged medicine, aesthetics, and identity in unprecedented ways.Today, the relationship between plastic surgery and art continues to evolve. Surgeons and artists share a common pursuit: to shape, refine, and redefine the human form. Whether working with marble or muscle, canvas or cartilage, both seek to capture the essence of beauty, resilience, and identity in constant flux.The International Museum of Surgical Science is proud to present these coinciding exhibitions as&nbsp;"A Year of Plastic Surgery"—a yearlong exploration of this remarkable field. Through monthly programs, we celebrate the masters of both flesh and form, bridging the worlds of surgical innovation and figurative art. Header Image: A soldier of Company K, 110th Regt. Infantry (formerly 3rd and 10th Inf., Pennsylvania National Guard), just wounded, receiving first-aid treatment from a comrade. Varennes-en-Argonne, France, on September 26, 1918. U.S. Army / U.S. National Archives

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