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

Pistachios is collaborating with Precious Collective to host an exhibition titled Things Unsaid, which will be at Pistachios from August 14, 2025 to October 26, 2025 before traveling to Munich Jewelry Week in 2026. The exhibition features 35 members from Precious Collective, an international community of artists that are bound together by their ambiguous definitions of what exactly ‘precious’ is in relation to jewelry. Conceptually, the exhibition will explore: What is a tangible manifestation for the things unsaid? How can we extend the voice of materiality through acts of making? Where does the metaphysical influence the language of jewelry? This is the first time Precious Collective will be featured in the United States. On Thursday, August 14, 2025 from 4:00pm to 7:00pm we'll be hosting a reception to celebrate the exhibition with Lynne Speake, the Founder and Creative Director of Precious Collective, in attendance.&nbsp;

Things Unsaid

August 18 – August 31 CSI Project Space: China - U.S. Sculpture Exchange&nbsp; Image: Together, Haijun Zhang

CSI Project Space: China - U.S. Sculpture Exchange 

The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art presents the first monographic exhibition in forty years of the work of Walter Osborne, one of Ireland’s most-heralded artists. The exhibition charts Osborne’s trajectory from his student days in Dublin and Antwerp through his sojourn in Brittany and his early practice in England before returning to his native city in 1892 to care for his niece and aging parents following the death of his beloved sister Violet. Through his depictions of Dublin’s streets, parks, public spaces, domestic interiors and gardens, countryside, and most importantly its people, a vision of a vibrant––if divided––Ireland emerges. Osborne’s experiences abroad and his commercial acumen helped establish Dublin’s unique brand of Modern painting rife with the possibility of change. Iconic works by the artist on loan from the National Gallery of Ireland, Hugh Lane Gallery, Hunt Museum in Limerick, Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, and private collectors in Ireland and the United States offer a rich tapestry of life and art in Ireland at the close of the nineteenth century.&nbsp;This exhibition is made possible by the Donald and Marilyn Keough Foundation with additional support from the J. Brien and Maggie Murphy Endowment for Exhibitions, James and Barbara O’Connell Family Fund for Exhibitions, Friends of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, Charter Membership, and in partnership with the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies. Image: Walter Frederick Osborne (Irish, 1859–1903),&nbsp;Mary Guinness and Her Daughter Margaret, 1898. Oil on canvas, 54 × 60 inches (137.2 × 152.4 cm) unframed. Heritage Gift, 2023, National Gallery of Ireland Collection, NGI.2023.16. Photo credit: Photo, National Gallery of Ireland

Homecoming: Walter Osborne’s Portraits of Dublin, 1880–1900

Tim Anderson: Stay the Course

Our Biennial is one of the Midwest’s largest and most prestigious juried exhibitions, offering artists an opportunity to have their work viewed by three talented curators: Chanelle Lacy, Director of Art Initiatives at Gertie, Joe Lanasa, Director/Founder of Fulton Street Collective, and Cortney Lederer, Public Art Consultant and Educator. Our Biennial will be promoted and viewed by hundreds of visitors, including gallerists, curators, and collectors. Cash awards and cash equivalents will be presented at the artists’ reception. Awards, which may include Best of Show and Juror’s Merit categories, are given at the jurors’ discretion. From the final pool of selected applicants, the jurors will also award 3 artists, who have not exhibited at the Evanston Art Center in the past 5 years, with the opportunity to be included in an exhibition in our galleries. Chanelle Lacy is a curator, cultural producer, and Reiki Master. She is also the Director of Art Initiatives at Gertie and the fearless leader of EarlyWork! Passionate about bringing ambitious, rigorous, and challenging projects to life, Chanelle works closely with artists both emerging and established to expand not only their creative practices but the art historical canon at large. Her passion for art and her commitment to amplifying underrepresented and marginalized voices make her a true champion of the arts. Most recently she produced SKIN + MASKS, a blockbuster exhibition crafted in collaboration with musician and activist Vic Mensa, centering works by contemporary artists exploring the elusive essence of identity. Originally presented in a classic gallery setting, SKIN + MASKS traveled to Chicago’s famed Magnificent Mile for a six-month pop-up exhibition presented in partnership with EXPO Chicago and the City of Chicago. In 2021 she curated Realms of Refuge, a group exhibition focused on the alchemical processes that enable us to transcend our earthly entanglements to reach higher states of consciousness, embodiment, and expression. Chanelle forged her path in the arts working at a contemporary gallery where she lent her vision to the program for six years. During three years of her tenure, she held the position of Director. Chanelle continues to be a force, serving as a trusted advisor. Cortney Lederer is a public art consultant and educator with over twenty years of experience managing artistic programming for foundations and organizations. Cortney has curated installations by notable artists such as Jacob Hashimoto (2019) and Olafur Eliasson (2021) at th Willis Tower and Luftwerk at the landmark Chicago Board of Trade Building (2024). She served as the art advisor for E(art)H Chicago, (2023) an initiative supported by the Illinois Science and Energy Innovation Foundation (ISEIF), providing $700,000 in grants to artists to inspire new ways of thinking about environmental responsibility in neighborhoods across Chicago. This summer, she launched a new public art initiative for the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (2024) connecting people to nature through 30 art installations across the city. Cortney is currently serving as the public art consultant for the Chicago Park District to design and manage an RFP for artist responses to contested monuments on parkland through installations, onsite programming, and activations. She is also the Public Art Consultant for the City of Wichita, managing three, new public artworks for the Arkansas River Improvement Project. Most recently, she worked with a team of planning consultants hired by Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) to develop a community-engaged, pilot cultural and historical marker program. This pilot program celebrates the city’s cultural heritage by sharing untold stories and events through artist-designed markers. Cortney is an Associate Professor, Adj., in the Arts Administration and Policy department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and serves on the board of Arts of Life and Every House Has a Door. Joe Lanasa is one of the founding members and the current director of the Fulton Street Collective. He created FSC in late 2002, along with his amazingly talented friend, Anna Fermin. Their original vision still holds true today, which is to host a community of creative, talented people, and give them the resources they need to support and cultivate their art so that they can enrich the lives of others and become part of the greater community. Joe is also a street poet, songwriter, rock musician singer, and guitarist, performing in mostly Chicago-area clubs for over ten years now. His musical influences include a crazy blend of brilliant performers, including Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, Scott Momenthy, Iggy Pop, early Springsteen, Marty Robbins, Elvis, Van Morrison, and Bob Marley. IMPORTANT DATESJUNE 2, 2025: Artist Submission DeadlineJULY 16: Notification of acceptanceAUGUST 17 – 19: Accepted artworks delivered to Evanston Art CenterAUGUST 20 – 22: InstallationSEPTEMBER 21: Biennial Exhibition closesSEPTEMBER 22 &amp; 23: De-install and pick up artworkThe Evanston + Vicinity Biennial Exhibition will be exhibited in the first-floor gallery of the Art Center. Evanston Art Center, a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization, is dedicated to fostering the appreciation and expression of the arts among diverse audiences. The Art Center offers extensive and innovative instruction in broad areas of artistic endeavor through classes, exhibitions, interactive arts activities, and community outreach initiatives. Evanston Art Center is located at 1717 Central Street, Evanston, IL. Evanston Art Center Gallery Hours: 9am – 6pm, Monday – Thursday; 9am – 5pm, Friday; 9am – 4pm, Saturday &amp; Sunday. First and second-floor gallery spaces are handicapped accessible. Limited free parking is available.

27th Evanston and Vicinity Biennial

Legacies on Display: The Forbidden and Venerated Arts of BurmaTaking Museums to the Streets:&nbsp;Using Fine Art for Protest, Courtesy of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics,&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.politicalgraphics.org/" target="_blank">www.politicalgraphics.org</a>

Legacies on Display: The Forbidden and Venerated Arts of Burma

This Fall, the&nbsp;Elmhurst Art Museum&nbsp;presents&nbsp;Shakkei: Work by Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust,&nbsp;the first major museum exhibition for Chicago-based artists Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust. Lake and Faust are mutually inspired by the Japanese principle of&nbsp;Shakkei&nbsp;(“borrowed scenery”), a design philosophy that incorporates organic features and architectural designs. The artists’ kaleidoscopic works use color and pattern to create immersive optical experiences, interpreting the Eastern concept broadly as a metaphor for empathy, adaptability, and the ability to hold multiple viewpoints simultaneously. The exhibition will feature recent large-scale artworks by Lake and Faust in separate galleries, as well as a collaborative new work combining their design languages. The exhibition is curated by Liz Chilsen, Manager of Exhibitions &amp; Collections, and will be on view at the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 South Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst, fromSeptember 4, 2025 to January 4, 2026.For this exhibition, each artist will bring their own perspective to the concept of&nbsp;Shakkei, reflecting their unique experiences and history. While Lake’s imagery is based on the symbolic floral motifs found in antique Japanese girls’ kimonos, Faust often incorporates the surroundings of the project or exhibition venue into his “wallworks,” creating site-specific perspectives manipulated from digital photographs. The dialogue between artists addresses the intersection of the patterns of everyday life and cultural and social histories. Allison Peters Quinn,&nbsp;Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Elmhurst Art Museum, said, “Shakkei&nbsp;highlights cross-cultural exchange by showcasing Japanese principles of landscape design and its influence on contemporary art and architecture. The artists are longtime admirers of each other’s work and decided to collaborate for the first time on a new installation for this show.” She added, “Inspired by our McCormick House designed by Mies van der Rohe, Mayumi and Bob have pushed themselves to consider how their work creates vistas and portals that heighten our understanding of the world around us.&nbsp;We are excited to be the first to present this incredible blend of art practices rooted in nature, pattern, and play, that turn the everyday into an extraordinary, immersive sculptural experience.” ABOUT THE ARTISTSWorking in the space between art and design,&nbsp;Bob Faust&nbsp;crafts artwork with typography at its core and viscerality on its surface. Faust has over 30 years of experience as the principle and creative director of the eponymously named cultural branding studio, Faust. He makes his work with purpose first—to inform, empower and/or instigate in the service and celebration of human difference. Text, patterns, and the ideas of surprise and discovery emerge as throughlines throughout his conceptual art practice that defies categorization and genre. Faust has been recognized nationally and internationally for his inimitable creativity through many prestigious honors including a University of Illinois, College of Fine &amp; Applied Arts, 2022 Distinguished Legacy Award and City of Chicago, 2022 Mayor’s Medal of Honor. Exhibitions have included Mass MoCA BY The Numb3r5 (Mass MoCA), For And Nor But Or Yet So (Poetry Foundation), WA/ONDER (167 Green), with all, and still... (The Peninsula Chicago), Rapt on the Mile (The Magnificent Mile Association), Ways and Means (Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and The Chicago Transit Authority), About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and New Queer Art (Wrightwood 659), Great Ideas of Humanity: Out of the Container (Chicago Design Museum), guilty / Innocent (MASS MoCA); Unfolded: Made with Paper (Chicago Design Museum), Betweens (Riverside Arts Center), and CHGO DSGN (Chicago Cultural Center). In addition to his own work, Faust is also the professional and personal partner of artist Nick Cave. Together they founded the non-for-profit Facility: a multi-use creative space in Chicago that seeks to build community and change the world through art and design. Mayumi Lake&nbsp;is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work explores the ideas of time, memory, and floating between the real and imaginary. With a foundation in photography, she integrates digital images of nature and Japanese textiles into her collages, sculpture, sound, moving images, and installation to expand the narrative of the work and form conceptual layers. Lake’s artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, Asia Society, Art in General, and Artists Space in New York; Chicago Artists Coalition and Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago; Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City; Fotografie Forum International in Frankfurt; Cornelius Pleser Galerie in Munich; Galleria PaciArte in Brescia; FOTOAMERICA in Santiago; Witzenhausen Gallery in Amsterdam; and the Setouchi Triennale in Takamatsu. She has published two monographs, Poo-Chi and Ex Post Facto, with Nazraeli Press. Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Art Institute of Chicago, Asia Society, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE)/City of Chicago, the McCormick Place Art Collection/Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), Video Art World, the Joy of Giving Something Foundation, and Facebook. Lake received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.Shakkei: Work by Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust&nbsp;is presented as part of the sixth edition of the&nbsp;Chicago Architecture Biennial. Running&nbsp;September 19, 2025 - February 28, 2026&nbsp;at locations throughout Chicago,&nbsp;SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change&nbsp;explores timely global issues through the lens of architecture and design.&nbsp;Learn more at&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/" target="_blank">chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org</a>This exhibition is sponsored by Wintrust Bank with additional support from the Illinois Arts Council, Discover DuPage, Enjoy Illinois and anonymous donors. ABOUT THE ELMHURST ART MUSEUMThe Elmhurst Art Museum is located at 150 South Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst (IL), 25 minutes from downtown Chicago by car or public transportation (Metra). On the museum’s campus is the McCormick House, a single-family home designed in 1952 by Mies van der Rohe, one of the great architects of the 20th Century. The McCormick House is one of only three residences designed and built by Mies in the United States – and one of only two open to the public. The Museum is open Wednesday and Thursday from 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., Friday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Regular admission prices are $18 for adults (ages 18+), $15 for seniors, $10 for students, and $5 for children. For more information, please call 630.834.0202 or visit&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.elmhurstartmuseum.org/" target="_blank">elmhurstartmuseum.org</a>.

Shakkei: Work by Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust

Artists Reception Friday, September 5th 6-8pmImage: Impulse, Christina Cooley

Somewhere Between, Christina Cooley

September 5 - October 11, 2025 Opening reception:&nbsp;Friday, September 5th -&nbsp;4pm to 7pm Main / Office Galleries

Lora Fosberg

September 5 - October 11, 2025 Opening reception:&nbsp;&nbsp;Friday, September 5th -&nbsp;4pm to 7pm South Gallery

Audrey Niffenegger

82nd Annual Salon Show

Image: Akemi Nomo,&nbsp;LifeTime ( 人间，人間 )Photo credit: Industry of the Ordinary

Industry of the Ordinary Summer Residency 2025 Exhibition 

New Works by Vidvuds Zviedris

The&nbsp;Driehaus Museum&nbsp;is proud to announce&nbsp;Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade,&nbsp;an exhibition illuminating the volume and breadth of Louis C. Tiffany’s vast artistic production. From the 1890s to the 1920s, Tiffany Studios created a captivating range of decorative lighting fixtures that embraced the technological shift from oil lamps to electricity and simultaneously met the styles and tastes of nineteenth and twentieth century consumers. Drawn from the expansive collections of the Museum and the private art collection of Richard H. Driehaus (now in the Art Exhibition Lending Foundation), the exhibition explores how the artisans at Tiffany Studios used a range of materials—including bronze, enamel, pottery, and glass—to bring Tiffany’s innovative lighting designs to life. Organized by guest curator Alexandra M. Ruggiero,&nbsp;Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade&nbsp;will be on view at the Driehaus Museum,&nbsp;50 E. Erie Street&nbsp;from&nbsp;September 12, 2025 to March 15, 2026.&nbsp;Executive Director of the Driehaus Museum&nbsp;Lisa M. Key&nbsp;says, “Many Chicagoans and tourists have seen Tiffany lamps in passing but have not had a chance to encounter them in depth or within a richly contextualized narrative. This is a chance to draw people back to the Driehaus Museum by inviting them to see familiar works in new ways. It is an opportunity for the Museum to highlight a core strength and position as a national leader in the complex storytelling of the Gilded Age and the interpretation of design and decorative arts from this time period. In this case, the exhibition will explore the broader context—from design processes, to materials, labor, and the influence of designers like Clara Driscoll—to reframe the narrative around Tiffany Studios. “Building on past exhibitions such as&nbsp;Eternal Light: The Sacred Stained-Glass Windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany&nbsp;(2019-2020) and&nbsp;Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection&nbsp;(2015),&nbsp;Tiffany: Beyond the Shade&nbsp;expands the narrative of Tiffany lamps beyond their iconic glass shades. Guest curator Alexandra Ruggiero&nbsp;says, “I am thrilled to partner with Driehaus Museum and present the&nbsp;extraordinary range of&nbsp;Louis C. Tiffany’s&nbsp;lighting fixtures&nbsp;with a new perspective. The exhibition features objects that exemplify Tiffany’s remarkable ability to marry innovation and outstanding design, enabling museum visitors a chance to marvel at the materiality and incredible artistry of Tiffany lamps.&nbsp;In addition to presenting a range of lamp types and designs, the exhibition will include a selection of decorative objects produced by Tiffany Studios, such as&nbsp;Favrile&nbsp;glass and pottery vases, enamel and bronze boxes, and a leaded-glass fire screen. The exhibition also includes noteworthy works never before exhibited at the Driehaus Museum, including a table lamp with an enameled base and a monumental bronze and Favrile glass chandelier. Within the setting of the Driehaus Museum, the exhibition contextualizes&nbsp;the significant output of Tiffany Studios and provides visitors with a look at the innovation, design, materiality, and business of Tiffany lamps.Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade&nbsp;deepens the natural partnership between the Driehaus Museum and the Richard H. Driehaus Art Exhibition Lending Foundation. By bringing together works from the Museum’s permanent collection and the Foundation holdings, the Museum can offer a broader, richer, and more nuanced presentation of Tiffany’s legacy—one that exemplifies Richard Driehaus’ belief in the power of beauty to inspire. This support deepens the Museum’s role as a cultural steward of the Richard H. Driehaus collection and extends its ability to tell new stories through exceptional design. ABOUT THE CURATORAlexandra M. Ruggiero is a decorative arts curator specializing in glass and a Consulting Curator at The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in New York. Ruggiero enjoyed a decade of curatorial experience at The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG), where she worked on projects and research that spanned the history of glass. From 2019 to 2022, she was Curator of Modern Glass with responsibility for acquisitions, exhibitions, cataloging, and research of the CMoG’s glass collections from 1825–1945. In 2023, she was the Interim Department Head, Curator of Collections &amp; Exhibitions at The Rockwell Museum—A Smithsonian Affiliate in Corning, NY. Ruggiero earned a master’s in the History of Decorative Arts through the Corcoran College of Art + Design and Smithsonian Associates in Washington, D.C. and a bachelor’s degree in Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the Association of Art Museum Curators. ABOUT THE DRIEHAUS MUSEUMThe Driehaus Museum engages and inspires the global community through exploration and ongoing conversations in art, architecture, and design of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are presented in an immersive experience within the restored 1883 Nickerson Mansion, and the 1926 Murphy Auditorium. The Museum’s collection reflects and is inspired by the collecting interests, vision, and focus of its founder, the late Richard H. Driehaus. For more information, visit<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.driehausmuseum.org/" target="_blank">driehausmuseum.org</a>&nbsp;and connect with the Museum on&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Driehaus-Museum/362867207176025" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, TikTok,&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/driehausmuseum/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade

Over the past decade, the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has sustained an international forum on architecture and urbanism centered in Chicago and has continued to produce the largest exhibition of contemporary architecture in North America every two years. CAB exhibitions and public programs have engaged over 2.2 million visitors with innovative ideas in design through over 400 original projects created by architects, artists and designers from nearly 50 countries. CAB is excited to celebrate its tenth anniversary with CAB 6, the next iteration of the Biennial to be held in 2025, led by Florencia Rodriguez, a writer, editor and Director of and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago's School of Architecture (UIC/SoArch), who will be the Biennial's first Latina Artistic Director.&nbsp; Titled&nbsp;Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, CAB 6 will present an expansive and multi-faceted exploration of the field of architecture and the built environment globally, specifically as they respond to and are remade by a rapidly changing world. In tandem with exhibitions, installations, events and a robust youth education program throughout Chicago, CAB 6 will also produce a series of initiatives, both local and virtual, that will expand the intellectual footprint of the Biennial beyond the city itself.&nbsp; The sixth edition of CAB, which is free and open to the public, will open its central exhibition in the Chicago Cultural Center on September 12, 2025 and run through February 28, 2026. Image: Image: Chicago: How Do You See? by Norman Kelley for CAB 1, 2015. Photo by Nathan Keay.

CAB 6

CAB 6 will be open to the public and on view from September 12, 2025 through February 28, 2026. The hub of the Biennial will once again be the Chicago Cultural Center, located in downtown Chicago.

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2025

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, Sept 12, 2025 5-8pmOn view Sept 12 through Nov 1, 2025Group Exhibition -&nbsp;Misha Goro: Images of the City. Oil paintings on aluminum.

Misha Goro: Images of the City

Sept 13 – Oct. 3 CSI Project Space: By Degrees IV

CSI Project Space: By Degrees IV

Theaster Gates: Unto Thee&nbsp;centers on the multifaceted practice of Theaster Gates and&nbsp;explores how he employs sculpture to expose the complexities of surrender and accumulation through a series of large-scale installations, music and film, and the redeployment of deaccessioned objects from the University of Chicago, where Gates is currently Professor of Visual Arts.&nbsp;Through a series of sculptural interventions meditating on sacrifice,&nbsp;rites, consecration, libation, vows and offerings, Gates elevates invisible labor, interrogates artistic legacies, questions economies of power, and, equally, celebrates Black&nbsp;artistic and intellectual contributions.&nbsp;The exhibition will present Gates's latest work that continues to build on&nbsp;the material legacies of under-recognized histories, voices, and, in some cases, institutional structures&nbsp;first mined in these University objects. Gates will temporarily reunite these objects and collections back at the University for this special exhibition.&nbsp;The large-scale solo exhibition will also be accompanied by a site-specific installation as part of the Museum’s Threshold Lobby Series, which will be on view through July 2026.<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://uchicago.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aba2086a45b4ee8391b89447b&amp;id=6d81ba16bf&amp;e=a6ad3ea4a5" target="_blank">Read the Exhibition Listing</a>

Theaster Gates: Unto Thee

Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928–2011) began printmaking in 1961, working across lithography, woodcut, and etching for the next fifty years. Frankenthaler is known for her abstract paintings and especially her signature “soak-stain” technique—allowing paint to sit, spread, and pool on untreated canvas. She brought this same sensibility, what she described as a&nbsp;“pouring, flooding, spilling, bleeding one,”&nbsp;to works on paper.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; While printmaking is often characterized by precision and control, Frankenthaler’s prints allow for chance encounters between pigment and surface—unintentional effects that emphasize the agency and alchemy of materials. The exhibition will focus on her print practice and call attention to the unpredictability, chance, and accident in Frankenthaler’s work. The exhibition will include works by other artists in The Block’s collection who similarly have embraced chance, accident, or aesthetic surprise in their artworks. It will bring together a sampling of lithographs, drawings, and watercolors by Frankenthaler’s friends and colleagues—Joan Mitchell, Grace Hartigan, and Robert Motherwell—and many other artists from The Block’s permanent collection. In 2023, The Block Museum was one of ten university museums to receive artwork as part of the&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(78, 42, 132);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://nublockmuseum.blog/2024/04/01/the-block-among-national-museums-to-receive-works-from-helen-frankenthaler-foundation-prints-initiative/" target="_blank">Frankenthaler Print Initiative</a>. The exhibition will feature this extraordinary gift and bring it into conversation with prints in the collection. The exhibition will be closed December 20, 2025 – January 8, 2026 for the Year End Holiday.

Frankenthaler and Printmaking

September 27 - Nov 9 Evanston Art Center: CSI Biennale

Evanston Art Center: CSI Biennale

Yupo work by Chicago-based artist&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://vesnajovanovic.com/" target="_blank">Vesna Jovanovic</a>&nbsp;features invented spaces that collapse body and setting in dramatic and humorous measure. Jovanovic considers how we navigate social space and relationships in a post-pandemic culture. Her research led her to read Rabelais, a French medieval writer, who included bodily topics such as food, sex, defecation, and slapstick violence in comical ways in his novels. Some literary theorists claim that his grotesque humor deliberately maintains a tradition from medieval marketplace carnivals where an emphasis on the body—in contrast to the mind or soul—restored a sense of kinship among the masses. These festivals diffused tensions between people from different social positions and created camaraderie, if only for a day. Jovanovic’s seductively dark and funny imagery of candy and other items wedged in fleshy cavities reminds us not to take life too seriously.

Vesna Jovanovic: Carnival

Oct. 11 – Nov. 21 CSI Project Space: Group Exhibit - Curator Chris Wubbena ﻿Oct Sculpture in the Parks: New Installations Photo credit: Chris Wubbena

CSI Project Space: Group Exhibit

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago&nbsp;will become the&nbsp;exclusive U.S. venue for "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind,"&nbsp;a comprehensive solo exhibition dedicated to the artist, musician, and activist Yoko Ono (b. 1933, Tokyo, Japan; currently residing in New York, NY),&nbsp;opening in October 2025. Traveling from Tate Modern in London, where it achieved record-breaking attendance, and developed in close collaboration with Ono’s studio, this&nbsp;groundbreaking retrospective spans seventy years&nbsp;of Ono’s innovative&nbsp;career. The&nbsp;exhibition features over 200 works, including participatory instruction pieces and scores, installations, a curated music room, films, music, photography, and archival materials. The exhibition highlights&nbsp;significant works from throughout Ono’s decades-long career, including the landmark performance piece "Cut Piece"&nbsp;(1964), a foundational work in performance and feminist art; her&nbsp;collaborations&nbsp;with&nbsp;prominent musicians&nbsp;such as&nbsp;John Cage,&nbsp;Ornette Coleman, and her late husband,&nbsp;John Lennon; selected activations of instruction-based artworks from her influential book&nbsp;"Grapefruit"(1964); innovative films from the 1960s and 1970s such as&nbsp;"FLY" (1970–71) and the once-banned "Film No.4 (Bottoms)"&nbsp;(1966–67), which she created as a "petition for peace"; recent works like her ongoing installation "Wish Tree" (1996–present); and public artworks emblematic of Ono’s enduring commitment to peace activism. Image: Yoko Ono with&nbsp;Glass Hammer, 1967, from&nbsp;Half-A-Wind Show, Lisson Gallery, London, UK, 1967. Artwork © Yoko Ono. Photo © Clay Perry.

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