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 Jackson Junge Gallery in celebrating the past, present, and future of Benjye Troob’s remarkable career in FORMS &amp; HORIZONS: A Retrospective.Spanning more than four decades of drawing and painting, this retrospective highlights Benjye Troob's lifelong dedication to art. The exhibition brings together her select works from the late 1990s to today, offering visitors an intimate look at Benjye’s artistic evolution and her ever-shifting yet unmistakable vision. While her style continues to evolve, her art consistently captures both the vitality of the human form and the beauty of the natural world.Free and open to the public.

Forms & Horizons: A Retrospective

David R. Harper: Good Morning Sweetheart&nbsp;brings together sculpture, textiles, ceramics, stained glass, and found imagery to explore how memory takes shape in objects. Couches, perfume bottles, motel soaps, detergents, birds, flowers, fragments of figurative sculpture, and everyday household items appear throughout the exhibition. Familiar at first glance, these things are carefully handmade, altered, and recombined—becoming intimate, uncanny, and quietly charged.The exhibition unfolds across two connected spaces. In the MMoCA Icon, Harper creates a suspended environment centered on a lightweight mid-century couch upholstered in handwoven tones of pink, sherbet, melon, and honey. Embedded with domestic cleaning products, the couch becomes a floating “memory bank”—a meditation on home, care, and repose—surrounded by a mobile featuring a summer patio umbrella and garlands of cast-ceramic Froot Loops.In the State Street Gallery, the exhibition pivots around&nbsp;She Drank the Water That Was Meant for the Orchids&nbsp;(2019), a recent addition to MMoCA’s collection. New large-scale embroideries, stuffed horses with embedded objects, shelves of ceramic vases covered in cast cicadas, and ceramic flower bouquets extend the exhibition’s domestic and emotional terrain.Across both spaces, memory functions as a material. Objects act as containers of experience—holding care, pleasure, grief, desire, and loss. Rather than telling a single story, Harper creates environments where meaning emerges through movement and attention. Looking becomes an active process, shaped by proximity, perspective, and the viewer’s own lived experience.About the ArtistDavid R. Harper (b. Toronto, Canada / Lives and Works in the American Midwest), received his BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fiber and Material Studies. He currently teaches in the Painting and Drawing department at the Art Institute of Chicago and the New Studio Practice department at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.&nbsp;Harper’s work employs both traditional and non-traditional materials such as embroidery, ceramic, and casting materials such as salt and charcoal in a cross-disciplinary manner to create objects installations that grapple with notions of loss, love, feelings of belonging and how we use objects to inform our notions of self.&nbsp;Harper has been included in group shows at museums in the US and Canada, including MASS MoCA, National Gallery of Canada and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and has participated in numerous solo exhibitions including&nbsp;My Own Personal Ghost&nbsp;(The John Michael Kohler Art Center),&nbsp;Plateau&nbsp;(South Bend Museum of Art)&nbsp;Skin and Bone&nbsp;(Textile Museum of Canada), A solo touring exhibition of Harper’s work titled&nbsp;Entre Le Chien et Le Loup&nbsp;was organized by the University of Toronto in 2013&nbsp;He has participated in several residencies, including the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency (2016), Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (2014), and the Kohler Arts Industry (2012/2014)&nbsp;&nbsp;His work can be found in a number of notable collections, including The Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), The John Michael Kohler Art Center, The Museum of Wisconsin Art, The National Gallery of Canada, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation (Los Angeles), and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

David R. Harper: Good Morning Sweetheart

Cutting and Pasting a World: The Paper Craft of Henry Darger&nbsp;April 22, 2026 to January 31, 2027&nbsp;IAM joins in the celebration of the 250th anniversary celebration of American craft, Handwork 2026, organized by Craft in America, with an exhibition exploring the connection between Henry Darger’s art and traditional American paper crafts. Drawing on research by guest curator and art historian Dr. Mary Trent(College of Charleston), the exhibition illustrates how the turn-of-the-century practices of making paper dolls and paper dollhouse scrapbooks may have influenced Darger’s evolution as an artist and maker. By showcasing both finished artworks and original source materials, the exhibition demonstrates how Darger adapted these humble pastimes into sophisticated methods for constructing large-scale, mixed-media narratives. The exhibition provides context for these crafts within the early 20th-century movement to instill middle-class American "taste" in a burgeoning immigrant population. Likely exposed to these practices within social welfare institutions as a child, Darger ultimately subverted them—transforming decorative domestic crafts into a profound and complex commentary on the vulnerabilities of marginalized children.&nbsp;&nbsp;IAM joins in the celebration of the 250th&nbsp;anniversary celebration of American craft,&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.handwork2026.org/" target="_blank">Handwork 2026</a>,&nbsp;organized by&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.craftinamerica.org/" target="_blank">Craft in America</a>, with an exhibition exploring the connection between Henry Darger’s art and traditional American paper crafts. Drawing on research by guest curator and art historian&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Mary Trent (College of Charleston), the exhibition illustrates how the turn-of-the-century practices of making paper dolls and paper dollhouse scrapbooks may have influenced Darger’s evolution as an artist and maker. By showcasing both finished artworks and original source materials, the exhibition demonstrates how Darger adapted these humble pastimes into sophisticated methods for constructing large-scale, mixed-media narratives. The exhibition provides context for these crafts within the early 20th-century movement to instill middle-class American "taste" in a burgeoning immigrant population. Likely exposed to these practices within social welfare institutions as a child, Darger ultimately subverted them—transforming decorative domestic crafts into a profound and complex commentary on the vulnerabilities of marginalized children.&nbsp;

Cutting and Pasting a World: The Paper Craft of Henry Darger

Heather Mekkelson: bass note

Apr. 25 – Sept. 27, 2026&nbsp; Michigan Avenue Galleries, Chicago Cultural&nbsp;Center&nbsp; Photographer Lauren Deutsch and filmmaker Jonathan Woods present an immersive exhibition translating the energy of Chicago’s improvised music scene into color,&nbsp;movement&nbsp;and visual form. Developed&nbsp;by the Tangible Sound Collaborative, the project celebrates the city’s legendary experimental music community and honors the influence of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).&nbsp; Through photography, film and installation, the exhibition explores how music can inspire visual expression while celebrating the artists and ancestors whose creativity continues to shape Chicago’s cultural identity.&nbsp;

Tangible Sound: Arrival to a Higher Ground 

Italian immigrant Silvio Barile spent decades converting his pizzeria into a museum to honor his heritage. The Italian American Historic Artistic Museum in Redford Charter Township, Michigan, was once enormous. The interior walls of the restaurant were covered with murals, photos, and postcards of iconic Italian imagery such as statues of Julius Caesar, Roman ruins, Renaissance-era paintings, olive trees, and Italian and American pop culture figures. In addition to two-dimensional adornments, Barile fabricated large-scale concrete statues depicting events and characters renowned in Italian and American history. His sculptures filled the pizzeria, then the patio behind it, then the acre of woodland behind the patio. Even after the restaurant closed in 2002, the museum remained and continued to grow.After Barile’s death in February 2019, increasing costs and pressure from the community resulted in the destruction of the site in 2020. In May 2021, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center acquired three large painted concrete works by Barile that were believed to be the last remaining components of the museum. In the early months of 2022, a grouping of eight additional works was found and acquired by the Arts Center. This is the first time these works are being shown outside of the Michigan site.

Silvio Barile

ATHENA 2026 Solo Shows

Dr. Charles Smith served as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam, an experience that left lasting wounds and shaped his artistic vision. In the 1980s, he began transforming his Aurora, Ill., home into the African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archive—a monumental environment of nearly 600 sculptures and 150 monuments honoring African-American history and civil rights. Using found materials, Smith created life-sized figures and symbolic structures referencing slavery, the Middle Passage, the Underground Railroad, African American cultural and political figures, and everyday life. Through the concept of&nbsp;anti-monumentalism, Smith critiques traditional monuments and holds space for histories often excluded from civic memory.Curated by IAM Assistant Curator Christina Stavros,&nbsp;Monumental: The Work of Dr. Charles Smith&nbsp;features pieces from the Museum’s collection alongside select loans, including several recently conserved works now on view for the first time in years.

Monumental: The Work of Dr. Charles Smith

Friday evening, May 1, 5 to 8 PM.&nbsp; Joan Holleb, “Woodland Tales” Landscapes on Copper. Spring River North Gallery Walk, 5-8pm. ﻿On view through July 1st, 2026.

Joan Holleb: Woodland Tales

Group Exhibition Opening Reception:&nbsp;May 1, 2026, 6–10 PMExhibition Dates:&nbsp;May 1 – May 29, 2026 Chicago Grand Gallery presents&nbsp;Without Permission, a group exhibition featuring&nbsp;Paul Sierra, Kevin C. Lawler, and David Hauptschein. Bringing together painting, material-based practice, and AI-driven image-making, the exhibition explores shifting identity, surface, and constructed narrative across three distinct artistic approaches. Working across abstraction and figuration,&nbsp;Paul Sierra&nbsp;creates paintings that reflect identity in transition. His work draws from memory and migration, where forms remain fluid and continuously evolving. Kevin C. Lawler&nbsp;approaches painting through material and surface. With a background in traditional gilding and conservation, his work carries a strong sense of craft, where texture and process become central to the visual experience. David Hauptschein&nbsp;presents AI-based digital works that question authorship and image-making in the contemporary moment. Using artificial intelligence as both tool and collaborator, his work constructs layered, often unsettling visual narratives. Without Permission&nbsp;brings these practices into dialogue, where painting, process, and machine-generated imagery intersect. The exhibition resists fixed meaning, instead embracing transformation, tension, and the instability of form.

Without Permission

One of only two Chihuly exhibitions in the world in 2026,&nbsp;CHIHULY at Meijer Gardens Presented by Macatawa Bank&nbsp;is a major exhibition of international significance. The experience spans both the outdoor gardens and indoor Sculpture Galleries, creating a dynamic dialogue between glass, landscape, and architecture.&nbsp;Outdoors, guests will encounter monumental glass sculptures, vibrant&nbsp;Reeds, and striking site-responsive installations that appear to grow from the landscape, amplifying color, light, and form throughout the gardens. Indoors, the separately ticketed gallery exhibition&nbsp;Chihuly: Radiant Forms&nbsp;traces more than 40 years of Dale Chihuly’s creative journey. The exhibition features work from many of his most celebrated series, including&nbsp;Baskets,&nbsp;Macchia,&nbsp;Seaforms,&nbsp;Putti,&nbsp;Ikebana,&nbsp;Persians,&nbsp;Venetians,&nbsp;Cylinders, and&nbsp;Rotolo, along with original drawings that offer insight into his creative process and sources of inspiration.&nbsp;Designed for visitors of all ages,&nbsp;CHIHULY at Meijer Gardens&nbsp;invites both long-term admirers and first-time viewers to experience the work of one of the world’s most influential artists in a setting where art, culture, and nature meet. See&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=u001.gqh-2BaxUzlo7XKIuSly0rC-2Fc4ce2SDpH5WBMhYM8Lg3vMPQs5XAbZCZ0FrT4y8DV5IAx5_a1zzESVdmgLIQ4rlql6kbXT9QXaGGWYBxHAPtO1QqWO5GLp4idxebnEhHBD62Papsj-2FEMdnG4nN1Qo796g0RxGgCD6tZhe9AwtUHIFq1tAylqDj842HkNV4wYVNY4xw2XiPRSDLBolCKLsmz4mAfXyTKdAWEBNXMZS2HPTyW9tzh76eJPxtoS3TeCfWde-2FWTR36oITD8AJ2o16OioU6rZzSVhUtY-2FQMgnv00UizvWdkF-2F6vDGFX8RjYZ6VxGE9RjaFP3GxOchTBy9JEhqw0aRDSSQKKZ9o5ocAwD09kINSqSLHBx-2FwnUgD-2BEf05TldTsoQY4IIsvjRN-2FDK-2FrtXNjUU2iL2upL7H53VA7YA-2BwQHU-3D" target="_blank">website</a>&nbsp;for related exhibition programming. Tickets go on sale in February.

CHIHULY

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is excited to announce a solo exhibition by Mike Cloud (b. 1974, Chicago; lives in Chicago) for its latest&nbsp;<a href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=b49b61817e&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" target="_blank">Chicago Works</a>&nbsp;presentation, titled&nbsp;Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction.&nbsp;Opening on May 2, 2026, in the MCA’s Turner Gallery and closing on February 7, 2027, the exhibition presents a series of newly commissioned works that continue Cloud’s experimentation with abstraction, symbolic language and the sculptural dimensions of painting.&nbsp;Cloud challenges historical framings of abstract painting as pure and apolitical, approaching his works instead as products of their political contexts and the capitalist systems through which they circulate. Crudely constructed from wooden stretcher bars, thickly layered in painted signs, and protruding into three-dimensional space, Cloud’s sculptural paintings are objects, rather than pristine surfaces, that possess a deliberately improvisational and, in his words, “unschooled” aesthetic. The artist sources his subjects from online news outlets, often alluding to contemporary stories of suffering and tragedy through his enigmatic visual vocabulary, developed over two decades. Forms resembling snowflakes, rainbows, four-leaf clovers, hearts and hands densely cluster across his canvases, which are stapled to configurations of stretcher bars that hover between abstract structures and recognizable shapes.The new paintings made specifically for this exhibition extend these strategies while foregrounding three recent developments in Cloud’s practice: emojis, an “X”-shaped painting, and the protrusion of his works off the wall and on to the floor of the gallery. Through the use of hinges, the paintings become modular, endowed with the capacity to be folded, installed upright, and exhibited in multiple configurations. Cloud’s work embodies the slipperiness of symbols, the malleability of meaning, and the potential for freedom within ambiguity.&nbsp;Cloud will be in conversation with exhibition curator Nolan Jimbo on May 2, 2026, in the Edlis Neeson Theater.&nbsp;Mike Cloud is the 27th artist to participate in&nbsp;<a href="https://mcachicago.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c24ba7c5a91cefd699dc985e1&amp;id=dd5f8f7c3d&amp;e=4ba592fe2a" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 124, 137);" target="_blank">Chicago Works</a>, a solo exhibition series at the MCA that features artists who are shaping contemporary art in the city and beyond.&nbsp;Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction&nbsp;is organized by Nolan Jimbo, Assistant Curator. ABOUT THE ARTISTMike Cloud was born and raised in Chicago. He earned a BFA from the University of Illinois Chicago (2001) and an MFA from Yale University (2003). He is currently Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University.&nbsp;Cloud’s solo exhibitions include&nbsp;Circle Chat, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago (2025);&nbsp;Called Ahead, Fahrenheit Madrid (2024);&nbsp;The Myth of Education, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago (2018);&nbsp;Bad Faith and Universal Technique, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York (2014);&nbsp;Systems, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (2006); and&nbsp;Special Project: Mike Cloud, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2005). He has also participated in group exhibitions at Artists Space, New York; Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; Good Weather, Chicago; White Columns, New York; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Cloud received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024, the Richard Pousette-Dart Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ in 2023, and the Jules Guerin Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 2023.At the MCA, Cloud previously participated in the group exhibition,&nbsp;The Long Dream&nbsp;(2020), and his work,&nbsp;Cycle and Stable&nbsp;(2015), resides in the museum’s collection. His work is also held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.&nbsp; SUPPORTGenerous support for&nbsp;Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction&nbsp;is provided by the Sandra and Jack Guthman Chicago Works Exhibition Fund. Mike Cloud (b. 1974, Chicago, IL; lives in Chicago),&nbsp;Poison Arrows South Africa, 2026. Acrylic on canvas, hinges, pegs, rope, and watercolor tape; 48 × 47 × 75 in. (121.9 × 119.4 × 190.5 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York. Photo: Colleen Keihm.

Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction

Opening Reception for Part 1: Saturday, May 2, 2026, 4pm–7pm&nbsp;Curator Talk: 4pm&nbsp;&nbsp;Palomar&nbsp;is a group exhibition about watching the sky, something that appears deceptively simple. Featuring twenty-eight artists, it unfolds in two parts, each five weeks long. Some works remain in place while others come and go, this encounter in time acting like a double exposure. Gradually, the familiar act of looking up spills over into a sense of life that is more layered and complex, or even contradictory. It turns out there is a lot at stake in the space above us.&nbsp;Decades ago, after the launch of the first satellite into orbit, humans had big dreams of leaving the Earth. Politicians, poets, and scientists made public comments in this spirit. Today it’s mostly billionaires who talk of escape, or of mining the planets out there. The rest of us look to the sky from the ground as life carries on. An earlier age of optimism around space exploration and human progress has given way to a new era, as the stars fade from view in our cities, new technologies emerge with unsettling effects, and those in power surveil from above. Through it all, the sky is a steady presence. The sun rises and sets. The moon, too. The stars come out, where you can see them. We organize our lives by these patterns. They infuse our concepts, our sense of time, and our language, even when they’re not on our minds.Part 1 of&nbsp;Palomar&nbsp;introduces certain celestial rhythms and cycles, while thinking about astronomy and other forms of observation in everyday life. It also begins to draw out experiences of time, as it is marked, measured, and perceived. Part 2 brings into view changing relationships with technology and the militarization of the skies. Both parts are shadowed by the question of what one sees and what one doesn’t, and the roles that images play, especially photographs, often wrapped up with the comforts and discomforts of distance.&nbsp;The exhibition borrows its title from the name of an observatory on a California mountaintop, which once had the largest optical telescope in the world. It lost that distinction in 1976, but it is still used to study the stars. In the eighties, Italo Calvino wrote a book about a man who shares his name with that place:&nbsp;Mr. Palomar, a seeker of the cosmic in the commonplace and an unflagging, if absentminded, observer. Taken together, these two touchstones evoke different kinds of observation and attention.&nbsp;Looking overhead can be a way to understand one’s place in the world, as it has been for thousands of years. Given the many ways people watch the sky or look to the cosmos, from scientific study to the habits of daily life, there are just as many different things to think or feel. The movement of the heavenly bodies offers a measure of continuity in the face of destabilizing change; the view above can be a source of solace, a realm of startling beauty, a reminder of something larger than oneself. The sky can also be a dark premonition, a site of violence or grief, a reminder of what there is to lose, or for many what is already gone. Sometimes it’s all of this at once.Curated by Karsten Lund.&nbsp;Artists featured:Part 1 (May 2–June 7, 2026)&nbsp;Darren Almond, Sarah &amp; Joseph Belknap, Myriam Boulos, Vija Celmins, Paul Fägersköld, Pierre Huyghe, Rinko Kawauchi, Jason Lazarus, Tony Lewis, Aspen Mays, Eadward Muybridge, John Opera, Chantal Peñalosa Fong, Kathleen Ryan, Carrie Schneider, Heji Shin, Erin ShirreffPart 2 (June 10–July 13, 2026)&nbsp;Sarah &amp; Joseph Belknap, Myriam Boulos, Vija Celmins, Cynthia Daignault, Paul Fägersköld, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Sebastian Jefford, Jordan Kantor, Tony Lewis, Eadweard Muybridge, John Opera, Trevor Paglen, Torbjørn Rødland, Kathleen Ryan, Heji Shin, Erin Shirreff, Alec Soth, Shomei Tomatsu, Samira Yamin&nbsp;Videos online&nbsp;(Parts 1 &amp; 2)Allora &amp; Calzadilla, Chantal Peñalosa Fong, Simon Starling, Alice Wang&nbsp;CreditsLead support for this exhibition is provided by School Museum Fund, The Hees Family.&nbsp;Friends of Palomar Patron Circle: Maria Christina &amp; Guy-Karim Caland Puymartin, and Zach Smith.&nbsp;Renaissance Society programs are supported by Teiger Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.&nbsp;EventsOpening Reception (Part 1)Sat, May 2, 4–7pmTalk at 4PM between curator Karsten Lund and Steven L. Bridges (MSU Broad Art Museum)&nbsp;Walkthrough (Part 1)Sun, May 17, 1PMLed by Karsten Lund&nbsp;WorkshopSun, May 17, 3PMLed by Karsten Lund and Joshi Radin Flores&nbsp;Performance: Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie StewartSat, Jun 13, 4PM&nbsp;Opening Reception (Part 2)Sat, Jun 13, 5–7PM&nbsp;Walkthrough (Part 2)Thu, Jun 18, 6:30PMLed by Karsten Lund&nbsp;Performance Lecture: Day &amp; Night with Sarah &amp; Joseph Belknap&nbsp;Sun, Jun 21, 12PM &amp; 10PM12PM Logan Center for the Arts, Screening Room10PM Midway Plaisance Winter GardenVisit&nbsp;<a href="http://renaissancesociety.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">renaissancesociety.org</a>&nbsp;for more information.&nbsp;

Palomar (Part 1)

Gelsy Verna (1962–2008) was a Haitian-Canadian artist, educator, and collaborator who taught at UW–Madison and left a lasting impact on students and colleagues. Working primarily in collage and drawing, Verna used symbols, text, and layered images to explore how meaning is never fixed, but constantly shifting.Throughout her work, Verna often challenged familiar cultural icons. In one series, she reimagined Martin Luther King Jr. with different hairstyles, patterns, and even Mickey Mouse ears. In another, she portrayed Marilyn Monroe with brown skin. With wit, courage, and imagination, these works invite viewers to question how identity, history, and power are constructed.Mother, Father, Please Help Me&nbsp;was drawn and redrawn over several years in collaboration with artist and frequent collaborator David Dunlap. Built through many layers of images and marks, it functions as a palimpsest—a surface that holds traces of earlier versions beneath what we see now. The work embodies Verna’s belief that images and symbols change over time, and that new meanings emerge through revision, proximity, and combination.This artwork has both a front and a back, and both are essential to fully experiencing the piece. To allow visitors to encounter the complete work, the reverse side has been carefully reproduced and printed for display.Recently acquired by MMoCA from the artist’s estate,&nbsp;Mother, Father, Please Help Me&nbsp;is among the last major works available from Verna’s studio. Verna died suddenly in 2008 at just 46, leaving behind a rich artistic legacy that her sister, Mahalia Verna now works to preserve.&nbsp;

Gelsy Verna: Mother, Father, Please Help Me

2025 Master of Fine Arts degree candidates — present their thesis projects and conclude their residencies in the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University.This exhibition and the associated events are co-organized by the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice and the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University. Support provided by the Norton S. Walbridge Fund; the Myers Foundations; the Jerrold Loebl Fund for the Arts; and the Alsdorf Gallery Endowment.

Art, Theory, and Practice

This summer, the&nbsp;Driehaus Museum&nbsp;presents&nbsp;Ink &amp; Outrage: 18th&nbsp;Century Satirical Prints in London &amp; Dublin,&nbsp;an exhibition that explores the wit and graphic brilliance displayed by English graphic satirical artists such as James Gillray (1765-1815) and Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) to lampoon civics, society, and culture in Georgian London. The exhibition places original prints in dialogue with plagiarized works by artists in Ireland, evoking conversations about piracy, originality, and reproduction that have become more relevant than ever today. Organized by guest curators&nbsp;Silvia Beltrametti&nbsp;and&nbsp;William Laffan&nbsp;and following its debut at the Irish Architectural Archive in Dublin in 2025,&nbsp;Ink &amp; Outrage: 18thCentury Satirical Prints in London &amp; Dublin&nbsp;takes place at the Driehaus Museum, 50 E. Erie Street, from&nbsp;May 15 to September 13, 2026.&nbsp;Now ubiquitous in Internet meme culture and modern-day satire, the groundbreaking use of image and text during the Georgian period was a powerful form of storytelling, holding those in power accountable, and fostering bonds between classes and communities.&nbsp;Ink &amp; Outrage: 18th&nbsp;Century Satirical Prints in London &amp; Dublin&nbsp;includes approximately 100 original prints and features loans from The William A. Gordon Library of British Caricature, the collection of the O’Brien family, and the Richard H. Driehaus Art Exhibition Lending Foundation.The exhibition places original prints alongside plagiarized works made in Ireland,&nbsp;where copyright law of images did not apply and business for replicas flourished. These pirated copies provoked historic debates around authorship and plagiarism that set the stage for current conversations around artificial intelligence, intellectual property, and mass reproduction today.In the context of the Driehaus Museum, the exhibition presents Georgian satirical prints as a vital precursor to the art, architecture, and ideas that shaped the United States during the Gilded Age. The works reflect the visual and political culture of an influential period in Britain and Ireland that went on to inform American taste and civic life.&nbsp;Executive Director of the Driehaus Museum&nbsp;Lisa M. Key&nbsp;says, “Ink &amp; Outrage: 18th&nbsp;Century Satirical Prints in London &amp; Dublin&nbsp;is a model for meaningful international collaboration, strengthening the Museum’s commitments to rigorous scholarship, shared stewardship, and cross-cultural exchange.&nbsp;We hope visitors see the trajectory from these early forms of satire to the present day, and the importance of satire as a public forum for debate and connection.” Co-curator&nbsp;Silvia Beltrametti&nbsp;adds, “Caricature is the intellectual vehicle that speaks truth to power in the fastest, funniest, and most piercing way possible. Behind the blasts of color in these prints lie a remarkable copyright story-- free from the legal constraints, Irish publishers could copy original productions from London.”Major support for this exhibition is provided by the Driehaus Trust Company, LLC. ABOUT THE CURATORSSilvia&nbsp;Beltrametti&nbsp;is&nbsp;a&nbsp;lecturer&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;Department&nbsp;of&nbsp;Art&nbsp;History,&nbsp;Theory&nbsp;and&nbsp;Criticism&nbsp;at&nbsp;the&nbsp;School&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Art&nbsp;Institute&nbsp;of&nbsp;Chicago. Beltrametti is an expert on art law and her research focuses on the international trade of art as well as intellectual property, specifically on how copyright shapes artistic production. She has published in the&nbsp;Columbia&nbsp;Journal&nbsp;of&nbsp;Law&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;Arts&nbsp;andNorthwestern&nbsp;Journal&nbsp;of&nbsp;Technology&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Intellectual Property.&nbsp;In&nbsp;2025&nbsp;she&nbsp;contributed&nbsp;to&nbsp;Myth&nbsp;and&nbsp;Marble,&nbsp;Ancient&nbsp;Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection&nbsp;(ed. Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine&nbsp;A.&nbsp;Ruff,&nbsp;Yale&nbsp;University&nbsp;Press).&nbsp;With&nbsp;William&nbsp;Laffan,&nbsp;she has published two substantial articles on Dublin caricatures in&nbsp;Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies.William Laffan&nbsp;is a cultural historian and the author of numerous books on Irish art and architecture. He served as editor of&nbsp;Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies&nbsp;and has published extensively across a wide variety of cultural topics.&nbsp;In 2014 he co-authored&nbsp;Russborough:&nbsp;A&nbsp;Great&nbsp;Irish&nbsp;House,&nbsp;Its&nbsp;Families&nbsp;and&nbsp;Collections&nbsp;and&nbsp;the following year was historical adviser to the landmark exhibition at the Art&nbsp;Institute&nbsp;of&nbsp;Chicago,&nbsp;Ireland, Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690- 1840&nbsp;and edited the show’s catalogue.&nbsp;In 2024 he curated&nbsp;Thomas Frye, An Irish Artist in London&nbsp;at&nbsp;Dublin&nbsp;Castle.&nbsp;With&nbsp;Silvia&nbsp;Beltrametti, he has published two substantial articles on Dublin caricatures in&nbsp;Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies.&nbsp;Image: After James Gilray,&nbsp;Oh! that this too too solid flesh would melt, Published by William McCleary, Dublin.

Ink & Outrage: 18th Century Satirical Prints in London & Dublin

May 15-July 3 Presented by: Ron Jerak &amp; Michael Preski What 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

Krasl Art Center presents&nbsp;Sculpture in the Direct Method, a group exhibition featuring Ajene Cetawayo Williams, Isaac Duncan III, Albert LaVergne, and Richard Hunt. On view from May 16 through August 9, 2026, the exhibition brings together two generations of artists to explore how material, form, and process shape contemporary and modern Black sculpture.Spanning generations of artistic practice,&nbsp;Sculpture in the Direct Methodexplores how artists engage abstraction, representation, and material process as interconnected and evolving strategies. The featured artists employ a range of visual languages, from gestural and improvisational approaches to more structured and symbolic forms, reflecting the breadth of contemporary and modern Black artistic practice.At the center of the exhibition is the direct method of metal sculpture, in which materials are cut, bent, and welded together to build form. This process allows for immediacy and revision, positioning material as an active and responsive element in the development of each work. Rather than adhering to predetermined outcomes, artists working in this way often allow form to emerge through interaction with their materials.Within this framework, abstraction operates as a critical language. Across Black sculptural traditions, abstraction has been used to engage complex histories and lived experiences. In this exhibition, abstraction and representation move fluidly, offering multiple ways of approaching identity and cultural expression.Sculpture in the Direct Method&nbsp;highlights the diversity of approaches and relationships within Black art, emphasizing how artists use material, form, and process to explore and reimagine social, cultural, and aesthetic landscapes.&nbsp; Other exhibition related events:PUBLIC P<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0018nGdO601K0Us765swOcLJfngaCAZK9Xpmx94WQZZwxVfLw22_iXp3k1uBVdLFIQC9fQbVHFvHVSq1OPWsIwZ1hTMTJqhYjzWAErQJh9DQ2SrJ_Hy0oGG8LD6gSx35mpeIQxaf_aO8OwmoWtmFTvhKzxghxu7-PE_CN3c8A9MA91sPFQj1gmosg==&amp;c=wEhlYspdbK8skk8jBCXuB7cKSX69SRG4MTy-zyu4SDZvQvucsarXsg==&amp;ch=TDWbgZ80bkqthX-o6bdbvqljuVQ3OlTItpD2tUiNXIWEr5DM8-KA-w==" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(22, 22, 22);" target="_blank">REVIEW PARTY</a>Friday, May 15, 2026﻿﻿6 - 8 PMARTIST IN DIALOGUE:&nbsp;Isaac Duncan III and Ajene Cetawayo WilliamsSaturday, May 16,&nbsp;2026﻿﻿12 PM<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0018nGdO601K0Us765swOcLJfngaCAZK9Xpmx94WQZZwxVfLw22_iXp3k1uBVdLFIQCGU3A5vO7RN90eKktov-ar5K8RfXWg4zaIRRBznJX1_xfYZe9VzsjCaxqBisvvFc6KXLxn4XKNMpl5PInNIUyyJpZcx3hq9fTFFRwqfimTkDMVzESSxqu4PMMVTnGc8Yy&amp;c=wEhlYspdbK8skk8jBCXuB7cKSX69SRG4MTy-zyu4SDZvQvucsarXsg==&amp;ch=TDWbgZ80bkqthX-o6bdbvqljuVQ3OlTItpD2tUiNXIWEr5DM8-KA-w==" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(22, 22, 22);" target="_blank">COFFEE WITH THE CURATOR</a>Thursday,&nbsp;May 21, 202612 - 1 PMCLASS OFFERINGS: ART AND LABORAges 13+(5) Tuesdays, 6 - 7:30 PMMay 26 - June 23&nbsp;Instructors Tami Fauver and&nbsp;Meli BanderaBased on the book&nbsp;Art and Labor&nbsp;by Ellen Boris and supplemental readings about Richard Hunt. For more information regarding the exhibitions, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0018nGdO601K0Us765swOcLJfngaCAZK9Xpmx94WQZZwxVfLw22_iXp3nDt0v7q1qrzW9pZxMrgzZKFbCEhszZ0BI3Ak268G3qKRRaUwHkV3YBxnGY3Fc1V0GoHCeLM5vjXQFdHyrE9d49pNF60MdLJIhsxui7xQqN7&amp;c=wEhlYspdbK8skk8jBCXuB7cKSX69SRG4MTy-zyu4SDZvQvucsarXsg==&amp;ch=TDWbgZ80bkqthX-o6bdbvqljuVQ3OlTItpD2tUiNXIWEr5DM8-KA-w==" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(36, 125, 146);" target="_blank">www.krasl.org</a>.

Sculpture in the Direct Method

Juried Group ShowHarmony is often hard to achieve. But let's be honest: Do we always want harmony? How tensions are resolved, make peace with, or completely defy opposition can be more enlightening.&nbsp;We want the clash. We want the contradiction. Let's see the fight!CONFLICT OF INTERESTS is about friction. It is about using the “wrong” material on purpose. It is about the disconnect between what something looks like and what it says.ShadowBoxX Gallery has asked 50 talented artists from across the country to show us what that disconnect looks like.

Conflict of Interests

The Shape of Color, A Formalist Painting Exhibition

The Prix Pictet is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading photography awards. Founded in 2008 by the Pictet Group, it seeks to harness the power of photography to draw global attention to critical sustainability issues. To date, the award has completed eleven cycles, each organized around a theme that highlights a distinct facet of sustainability.&nbsp;Storm&nbsp;is the theme of the eleventh cycle.Storm&nbsp;is both a natural phenomenon and a metaphor for the unseen and relentless forces shaping the world today. As a theme, it speaks to the growing volatility of our age, encompassing environmental collapse, political upheaval, economic instability, and social unrest, situating us perpetually on the brink of crisis.The theme challenges photographers to capture the raw energy and far-reaching consequences of these turbulent conditions. Whether addressing the devastation of climate disasters, experiences of displacement, or the simmering tensions within divided societies,&nbsp;Storm&nbsp;reveals not only disruption but also its generative force: the possibility of transformation, renewal, and hope that can emerge in its aftermath. The twelve shortlisted artists are:Takashi Arai (Japan/Germany)Marina Caneve (Italy)Tom Fecht (Germany/Italy)Balazs Gardi (Hungary/USA)Roberto Huarcaya (Peru)Alfredo Jaar (Chile/USA)Belal Khaled (Palestine)Hannah Modigh (Sweden)Baudouin Mouanda (Republic of the Congo)Camille Seaman (Denmark/USA)Laetitia Vançon (France)Patrizia Zelano (Italy)Alfredo Jaar was announced as the winner for his series&nbsp;The End, 2025 Support for this exhibitionMoCP is supported by Columbia College Chicago, MoCP Advisory Board, Museum Council, individuals, private and corporate foundations, and government grants.The 2025–2026 exhibition season is sponsored in part by the Comer Family Foundation, Efroymson Family Fund, Henry Nias Foundation, the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, Rowan Foundation, United States Artists, and Venable Foundation. MoCP also acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council and a CityArts grant from the city of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Image: Takashi Arai, 6 April 2013, Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, 2013, from the series “Exposed in a Hundred Suns”

Prix Pictet Storm

Japeth Mennes: I will always love ewe

In his first exhibition at EAM, visual artist Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford presents a series of outdoor sculptures in Wilder Park (on view starting April 18) as well as an immersive installation within the iconic McCormick House. Bridging handcrafted techniques and digital fabrication, featured works serve as a low-carbon alternative to traditional monumental sculpture as a way of reflecting on labor, materiality, the internet age, and architectural legacies. Curated by&nbsp;Allison Peters Quinn, EAM Executive Director and Chief Curator,&nbsp;Near Immortality&nbsp;features&nbsp;new sculptures inside the McCormick House&nbsp;created from 3D scans of important design items in EAM’s collection, including Mies’ Barcelona Chair and a leg splint designed by Charles &amp; Ray Eames.&nbsp;Hulsebos-Spofford is a sculptor and assistant professor of sculpture at Indiana University Northwest. He is also a co-director and founder of the collective Floating Museum, and co-curator of the 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Through his large plaster and silicon sculptures, he reinterprets modern monuments and classical sculptures as glitched assemblages. Although many of his works evoke ancient art history, Hulsebos-Spofford’s pieces are rooted in modernist aesthetics and its relevance in the everyday experience.&nbsp;

Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford: Near Immortality

Raised in Wheaton, Illinois, and based in New York, Jeanette Andrews&nbsp;bridges the worlds of illusion, installation, and conceptual art, creating interactive vignettes and surreal, multisensory experiences that investigate perception, cognition, and the seemingly impossible. Andrews applies sensory illusion techniques and her interest in the bounds of perception to create artworks that explore magic, multiple realities, and the human psyche, often inviting audiences in as co-creators in her illusory performances.Her first solo museum exhibition,&nbsp;On Wonder, Mind, &amp; Magic&nbsp;will present interactive and site-specific works including installation, sculpture, video, sound, and performance, alongside&nbsp;new work developed while Artist in Residence at MIT’s Center for Art, Science, and Technology&nbsp;in 2024-25. Curated by&nbsp;Liz Chilsen, Manager of Exhibitions &amp; Collections, the exhibition represents a return home for Andrews, who cites EAM as an early influence in her pursuit of a career honing her technical skills and applying magic and sensory illusion techniques to create artworks.&nbsp;Andrews has presented numerous commissioned works with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, as well as for the Quebec City Biennial and Boca Raton Museum of Art, presented talks for Cooper Hewitt, Chicago Ideas Week, The British Society of Aesthetics, and universities, including Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Harvard. She has held residencies with the Institute for Art and Olfaction and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston and is a former National Arts Club Artist Fellow and Affiliate of metaLAB at Harvard. She was a 2024-2025 Visiting Artist for the Center for Art, Science and Technology at MIT and the current visiting artist for the Arts Institute at Brown University.

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