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

Una Vuelta a Mis Raíces (A Return to My Roots): Monochromatic Pigment Paintings by Robert Lipton SEP 18-NOV 6, 20263rd FLOOR GALLERY Inspired by the powerful materiality of abstract expressionism and contemporary masters such as Antoni Tàpies, Anselm Kiefer, and Bosco Sodi, Robert Lipton presents a series of richly textured mixed-media paintings that explore color, surface, and transformation. Built through layers of pigment and organic processes, these works invite viewers to slow down, look closely, and discover shifting landscapes of texture, depth, and form. Image: Untitled 2025 -Mixed media on canvas 66” x 41”

Una Vuelta a Mis Raíces (A Return to My Roots): Robert Lipton

Art Educator &amp; Alumni Exhibition Presented by ArtConnectED Sept 18 – Nov 6. 3rd Floor Gallery ArtConnectED understands the importance of building community and the role the arts play in bringing people together. Art Connection: Past Meets Present celebrates the enduring connections between art educators and their former students, honoring the shared creative journey that begins in the classroom and continues throughout a lifetime. This exhibition showcases the impact of mentorship, inspiration, and the lasting influence that teachers and students have on one another. Through a variety of media and artistic voices, the show highlights how creative dialogue and exploration can span years, evolve, and continue to inspire new perspectives. Awards:Awards are generously provided by BLICK Art Materials and by donations from partnering art schools, colleges, and universities. Opening ReceptionBridgeport Art Center, 3rd Floor Gallery on September 18th from 7:00-10:00P Image:Natalie Pivoney – Creekside Elementary SchoolMillennial Park – Oil on Canvas 2026 – 30W” x 20H”

Art Connection: Past Meets Present

ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONWoman Made Gallery presents&nbsp;In Full View, a juried group exhibition of work by 47 women and non-binary artists age 65 and older. Selected by Jerry Zbiral, the exhibition explores visibility and invisibility as they relate to identity, aging, memory, and the legacy of a fully lived life.&nbsp;Working across a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, fiber, and mixed media, the artists consider what it means to be seen, overlooked, remembered, or revealed, and how those experiences shape both life and art. The work speaks to presence, resilience, personal history, and the evolving power of creative expression over time.Opening Reception:&nbsp;October 10, 2026 | 4–7 p.m.Artist Walkthrough &amp; Closing:&nbsp;November 7, 2026 | 2–4 p.m.Exhibiting Artists:&nbsp;Pánne Ally, Loraine Anderson, Laura Balombini, Jane Barrow, Marian Berg, Lindsey Berkun, Carrie Betlyn-Eder, Mary Ann Bucklin, Kathy Castleton, Laura Cerf-Dahl, Margaret Colarelli, Marie Corfield, Susan Fecho, Viktoria Ford, Tammi Franke, Amanda Freymann, Anne-Bridget Gary, Mary Gingrich, Shari Gullo, Pam Hamilton, Deborah Hirshfield, Pamela Hobbs, Ellen Holtzblatt, Judith Huacuja, Frederica Huff, Mama Coco, Jude Kallok, Ruth A. Keitz, Katherine Kraus, Phyllis Lear, Sylvia Lorraine, Darcy Lynn, Maureen May, Angela McElwain, Erin McNamara, Karen Mosbacher, Karen Musgrave, Moni Olguin, Linda Popp, Cherry Rahn, Jane Rieso, Paulette Schermerhorn, Beth Shadur, Carol Spindel, Paola Tavoletti, Mary Jane Tenerelli Janet Tsakis<a href="https://us.list-manage.com/Vdu3cazbpHK?e=a3993dd90f&amp;c2id=31024f3b516cbeaa8db35c380455cf8f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SEE THEIR WORK AND STATEMENTS</a>

In Full View

Krasl Art Center presents&nbsp;Intervals of Mark and Matter, a group exhibition featuring KC Crow Maddox, Karen Dana Cohen, Evan Mazzelan, Amelia Mendelsohn,&nbsp;Ivan Montoya, Thương Hoài Trần, and Antonio Scott Nichols. On view from August 15 through November 7, 2026, the exhibition brings together artists whose practices approach painting through layered processes and cross-medium experimentation. Across the exhibition, painting extends past tradition. The artists work across oil, acrylic, textile, and hybrid approaches, allowing representational imagery to come together in different forms. These works speak to painting as an open field and framework that expands beyond the medium. The artists draw from personal histories and cultural references to shape works that move between intimate scale and broader social context. Figures, patterns, and textures are built up and reference individual experiences and the artists’ specific perspectives.&nbsp;&nbsp; Across the exhibition, painting becomes more than a surface; it becomes a language for relation. These images offer a portrait of contemporary painting as a living, inclusive practice, one that reflects the complex emotional and cultural landscapes of the present. Other exhibition related events:PUBLIC P<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001pSSRl7evIb86RM80nIvm5Hy9YjoYjA5bEd3F7q3w_sCHUKjU229cZXVHuroKXZrKkmofcgjUzdjvigac_nl6rwRgtRsUT6v0TZ2FjWxaiHjZB96ch0h-AsSeiUa_pgbaK-le-SmEp0PdBhBkKPgTN2w6-McHSUjpyZcQOWs5QqUHaWyykTYm1Q==&amp;c=6hib9qryNzLfZvFGK85jhGcMsJR__HdSoZYLRo1_u2hGBpzNkfW0dg==&amp;ch=UEQe7idMHjCsN8dwYdbmLQ_rS_u0IY0QRKxgrpKLSEg2V1dllVXIjw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">REVIEW PARTY</a>Friday, August 14, 20266 - 8 PM <a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001pSSRl7evIb86RM80nIvm5Hy9YjoYjA5bEd3F7q3w_sCHUKjU229cZXVHuroKXZrKtfDWvDHHFA3YKYyInWDKpr7yrejL5zZpa_F5o_v_nT8811KUx_HSd1N_CmMDec6N09F7sUmj0WD3aNhp53SYPcb9FKQYYNhinK2MluAMlugdSNG1hTGYopIdkSN_QMwR&amp;c=6hib9qryNzLfZvFGK85jhGcMsJR__HdSoZYLRo1_u2hGBpzNkfW0dg==&amp;ch=UEQe7idMHjCsN8dwYdbmLQ_rS_u0IY0QRKxgrpKLSEg2V1dllVXIjw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">COFFEE WITH THE CURATOR</a>Thursday,&nbsp;August 20, 202612 - 1 PM CLASS OFFERINGS: APPROACHES TO CONTEMPORARY PAINTING Instructors: Meli Bandera, Tami Fauver, and Nathan Margoni(5) Tuesdays, 6 - 7 PM, September 1 - 29. For more information regarding the exhibitions, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001pSSRl7evIb86RM80nIvm5Hy9YjoYjA5bEd3F7q3w_sCHUKjU229cZTgx-nBs_T0I20ArstDnjsh-3AiwkY3XB9iF1u4E9q325Qxi_Yzcs_3MRYXaqbNox3UbPVCKbepaWvuCVLs0B-YghzGV2LJiTQGs69kp-Dvp&amp;c=6hib9qryNzLfZvFGK85jhGcMsJR__HdSoZYLRo1_u2hGBpzNkfW0dg==&amp;ch=UEQe7idMHjCsN8dwYdbmLQ_rS_u0IY0QRKxgrpKLSEg2V1dllVXIjw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.krasl.org</a>. Evan Mazellan,&nbsp;Embracing Couple, Oil on canvas, 24 in. x 16 in., 2026.

Intervals of Mark and Matter 

Krasl Art Center presents a new interdisciplinary installation by Bella Kiser in the Project Space, expanding her ongoing exploration of soft architecture, a practice that uses soft sculpture and participation to consider how identity and experience shape ideas of home.&nbsp;Kiser is a mixed-race Filipino American artist from Chicago, IL, currently based in Detroit, MI. She is a graduate of Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Combined Degree Program, where she received a BFA in Studio Art and a BS in Environmental Studies. Throughout her practice, she works with wearables, textiles, and immersive environments to construct what she describes as&nbsp;fabritecture,&nbsp;a malleable, ever-changing building system shaped by sensory and emotional experience. Her work engages questions of identity, otherness, comfort, and discomfort, as well as critiques of American productivity culture, while foregrounding the physical conditions of lived experience.&nbsp;In this exhibition, Kiser also draws from the form of the&nbsp;Balikbayan Box, a package sent by overseas Filipinos to family back in the Philippines, as a conceptual reference point for thinking about container, care, distance, and return. Through soft sculpture and audience interaction, she builds environments that invite bodily experience, informing the interpretation of the work.&nbsp; Other exhibition related events:PUBLIC P<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001UBr39of_zhZbpwGpurhBfkSk8_znP-1C_6OeatmVlbgZisH0dVlz9P0eY1VGdkbj1RI3xMTfo8ZUaP4NPTPnBYveoiC0LqukjH939JJ3rtaYt8m_BKqVTU-eg46q84BzhPZJLjupHDvjnaw_7Oir1ZpMc28_6lGKqx7XfgXEj0wEuzwAmaJEyQ==&amp;c=fiKcx2h_nBWAS4xnKbX2wcgC3ytmtOVOAVjva-94UWvNMn1OuqkCKg==&amp;ch=i-cMYFbz8TWdKndA4lMm5sSeTCcgFToAOAANxGBD1S3l1CTb6sOI8g==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">REVIEW PARTY</a>Friday, August 14, 2026﻿﻿6 - 8 PMARTIST TALK: BELLA KISERSaturday, August 15, 202612 - 1 PM<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001UBr39of_zhZbpwGpurhBfkSk8_znP-1C_6OeatmVlbgZisH0dVlz9P0eY1VGdkbjxGAUsfPhX1V60O6mobrFrw1W78bxf_AZ4F6fAX1AbDDoKH21-9itZ-vn3mKnpa_wR4wcMBoN7FMmZXE8v9D1XkozdJr6boDkXsdi3RGJz2-NVGNEG7pltQcybDR4xdFD&amp;c=fiKcx2h_nBWAS4xnKbX2wcgC3ytmtOVOAVjva-94UWvNMn1OuqkCKg==&amp;ch=i-cMYFbz8TWdKndA4lMm5sSeTCcgFToAOAANxGBD1S3l1CTb6sOI8g==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">COFFEE WITH THE CURATOR</a>Thursday,&nbsp;August 20, 202612 - 1 PMCLASS OFFERINGS: APPROACHES TO CONTEMPORARY PAINTINGInstructors: Meli Bandera, Tami Fauver, and Nathan Margoni(5) Tuesdays, 6 - 7 PM, September 1 - 29. For more information regarding the exhibitions, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://sfpwlrdab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001UBr39of_zhZbpwGpurhBfkSk8_znP-1C_6OeatmVlbgZisH0dVlz9BV97qIuz4gK2PyLrsJQGItl1YuGgfNx7Z7dIS3NrwpsUJG67nvBG_r1LZsrlQdKB7ogsOoYS3VAtCTnMl1Onqmnuog-FXfPb15Bn09n6WjE&amp;c=fiKcx2h_nBWAS4xnKbX2wcgC3ytmtOVOAVjva-94UWvNMn1OuqkCKg==&amp;ch=i-cMYFbz8TWdKndA4lMm5sSeTCcgFToAOAANxGBD1S3l1CTb6sOI8g==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.krasl.org</a>.

In the Project Space: Balikbayan Box by Bella Kiser

The West Town Art Walk is an upcoming event featuring the works of artist Patrick Jilbert. It will take place from October 2nd to November 7th. The event will showcase a variety of art pieces and installations, providing an opportunity for art enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the creativity and talent of Patrick Jilbert. Attendees can expect a vibrant and engaging experience as they walk through the art displays in West Town.

West Town Art Walk Featuring Patrick Jilbert

Laleh Motlagh: Rooted. Uprooted. is an exhibition scheduled from September 12 to November 7, 2026. Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, 5 - 8 pm.Artist talk: Saturday, September 19, 12:15 -1:30 pm The event is organized by SoNa Chicago Contemporary Art, located at 1527 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60622. In her upcoming solo exhibition, Rooted. Uprooted, Iranian-Azerbaijani American artist Laleh Motlagh presents new bodies of work exploring multicultural identity, resilience, and personal geography. Moving between the memories of her hometown of Tabriz, Iran, and her current life in Chicago, Motlagh navigates the complex realities of geopolitical displacement and belonging. Her recent work acts as a profound meditation on the enduring traumas of conflict, specifically reflecting on the devastation of the recent war, while remaining deeply present to her immediate surroundings. The studies of her houseplants that have been a key part of her practice are now interwoven in subtle ways so even as she is thinking about the war in Iran, her work still embodies the beauty and peace of plants and interior places. Motlagh’s work is so relevant to these times and reflects how many of us feel, rooted and uprooted, having to hold many realities at the same time. Expanding upon the themes of transformation and quietude established in her 2024 exhibition, Entanglement, Motlagh introduces new paintings and a series of new monoprints from the collection of her dried plant materials. These tactile works serve as visual archives of preservation, investigating the lingering lifeforces of botany and their capacity to find beauty within interior landscapes. By interweaving domestic peace with distant geopolitical unrest, Rooted. Uprooted. invites viewers to hold multiple and conflicting truths simultaneously, capturing the collective precarity of existence and the enduring pursuit of consolation. Laleh Motlagh لاله مطلق (b. Tabriz, Iran) is a Chicago-based artist and educator. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the world. She has received multiple awards and recognitions. Motlagh received her MFA from the University of Illinois Chicago and teaches at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Laleh Motlagh was one of NewCity’s Breakout Artists of 2023.

Laleh Motlagh: Rooted. Uprooted.

Oliva Gallery presents the opening reception for Pleasure Spread, a two-person exhibitionTara Sabini and Jeremy Plotkin Wong. The exhibition brings Sabini’s maximalist oil paintings into conversation with Wong’s biomorphic ceramic sculpture, examining pleasure as something seductive, excessive, unstable, and psychologically charged. Sabini draws from the theatrical abundance of seventeenth-century Flemish still life, redirecting its proximity between luxury and mortality toward femininity. Pattern, ornament, and the body accumulate until visual abundance begins to exert pressure. Wong begins with the ceramic vessel and pushes it beyond utility, producing swelling, curling, and contorted forms whose polished surfaces remain appealing even as their anatomy becomes increasingly uncertain. Together, the artists locate pleasure at the point where attraction becomes complicated. Sabini intensifies the image until abundance begins to press back against the viewer, while Wong transforms the vessel until function gives way to something creaturely. Throughout Pleasure Spread, ornament becomes consequential and pleasure exceeds its expected boundaries. About the Artists Tara Sabini is a Chicago-based maximalist oil painter and graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited nationally, and she has participated in residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Lillstreet Art Center. Jeremy Plotkin Wong is a Chicago-based performance and sculpture artist whose interdisciplinary practice combines ceramic and sculptural form, abstraction, material experimentation, and performance. Wong received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and entered the MFA program in Ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2025.

Pleasure Spread

In Full View is an exhibition scheduled to take place from October 10 to November 7.

DOCUMENT is delighted to present&nbsp;The Awnings, Alexandra Barth’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and the artist’s first in Chicago.Alexandra Barth is a Slovakian artist based in a small town near Verona, in Northern Italy. Her painting practice is grounded in the observation of quietly evocative interiors and furnishings, rendered through precisely layered applications of airbrushed paint. For the past two years, she has turned this attention toward the retractable awning, a common feature of commercial and residential buildings across Italy and Southern Europe. Painting from unstaged photographs sourced on the web, Barth focuses on the awning in every form except its fully functional state—emphasizing instead its everyday, technical, and non-aesthetic aspects, and the tension between its familiar Italian character and its purely mechanical qualities.The exhibition treats the awning less as a functional object than as a symbol, tracing the hidden lifecycle it typically undergoes unseen: manufacture, retail display, and eventual resale. Barth’s source images are drawn from online marketplaces such as Facebook Marketplace and Subito, where sellers of secondhand units post close-up photographs of pattern and condition alongside pictures of shuttered awnings removed from the storefronts and entryways they once shaded.In&nbsp;The Showroom, a formation of small-scale models in various awning shapes curiously adorns an interior wall, echoing the display logic of the retail settings found throughout the exhibition. Red, orange, pink, blue, beige, and gray tones—drawn from the retail displays and online listings that inspire the work—dominate the paintings’ palette.By foregrounding the awning’s “behind-the-scenes” existence, Barth invites viewers to reconsider the quiet, overlooked architecture that structures public space.Alexandra Barth (b. 1989, Malacky, Slovakia) lives and works in Sanguinetto, Italy. She received her degree from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2013. Recent solo exhibitions include DOCUMENT, Lisbon, Portugal (2025); LOOM Gallery, Milan, Italy (2024); Mrs., Maspeth, NY (2023); Photoport, Bratislava, Slovakia (2023); A SUD, Pescara, Italy (2022); Stone Projects, Prague, Czech Republic (2022); Chris Sharp, Los Angeles, CA (2021). Group exhibitions include Photoport, The Elevator, Temporary Parapet, MDŽ, and White&amp;Weiss, in Bratislava, Slovakia. In 2024 she was awarded the TCP Art Finance Prize at The Armory Show, and her work is in the collections of the Zahorie Gallery of Jan Mudroch in Senica, Slovakia and the Morgan Stanley Collection, New York, NY.

Alexandra Barth: The Awnings

Cutting East to West celebrates the diversity and enduring creativity of papercut art from around the world. Originating in Asia, papercutting has traveled across cultures and generations, evolving into distinct regional traditions, techniques, and contemporary forms. Featuring 48 artists from across the United States and abroad, the exhibition presents both time-honored practices and innovative new approaches. Participating artists are Aaron Reser, Amanda Humpage, Amy M. Bennett, Barbara Schreiber, Beatrice Coron, Benjamin Feinstein, Bethany Ricks, Bianca Levan, Carolyn Guest, Charles Kubly, Daniela Yew, David Friedman, Deborah Brewer, Dena Bach, Frances Halley, Gillian Jackson, Irena Boobyer, Janelle Washington, Jennifer Kaplan, Jerise Fogel, Karen Aldrich, Karen Bell, Kathleen Rupff, Kathleen Trenchard, Kory Sutherland, Leah Korican, Liu L, Lorraine Bubar, Lucrezia Bieler, Lucy P. Liu, Marie-Helene Grabman, Melanie Kehoss, Nancy Keyes, Peter Weideli, Randall Williams, Reni Gower, Richard Schuchman, Rosa Daragan-Powers, Sam Wróbel, Sara McMahon, Shruti Satish Amritkar, Sue Gettlin, Tiffany Budzisz, Volha Palunisa (Baburyna), William Carroll, Yang Cuevo, YS Liu, and Yun Xie. Presented in collaboration with members of the Guild of American Papercutters (GAP), Cutting East to West invites visitors to discover the precision, imagination, and cultural stories held within a single sheet of paper. Papercutting on Stage: Kamishibai 紙芝居 Workshop Oct 16, 2:00 - 4:00 PM | $45 Opening Reception : Cutting East to West Oct 16, 6:00 - 8:00 PM | free Papercutting Art Live-Demonstration Oct 17, 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM | free Oct 18, 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM | free One Sheet, Many Stories: Chinese Papercutting Across Cultures Oct 24, 2:00 - 4:00 PM | $45 Intro to Wycinanki - The Polish Folk Art of Papercutting Oct 25, 2:00 - 4:00 PM | $45 Event Registration: https://www.heritageasianart.org/2026gap

Cutting East to West: Guild of American Papercutters Members' Exhibition

Out There October 9 - November 7, 2026Opening Reception: Friday, October 16th&nbsp;from 5 to 8PM (Gallery Night MKE) 207 E Buffalo St, Suite 404, Milwaukee, WI 53202 (Marshall Building, 4th floor) Kim Storage Gallery is pleased to present Out There, a two-person exhibition of new&nbsp;work by Hector Acuna and Andy Paczos. The title borrows the advice a teacher gave Paczos at the&nbsp;School of the Art Institute of Chicago: look out the window, "there's lots of good stuff out there." He&nbsp;took it, and has painted Chicago from direct observation for three decades since. Acuna works the&nbsp;same way, returning to his Wisconsin sites across multiple plein air sessions and staging handmade&nbsp;props to paint in natural light. Both find their subjects by standing in front of them Andy Paczos, From Chicago. Ave. Bridge, Oil on linen, 28 x 40", 2011

Out There

Transition&nbsp;September&nbsp;3, 2026 - November 8, 2026 Transition&nbsp;presents a body of work by Mélanie Denis created over three years, crossing three territories, three inner states, and three defining moments of a life. Through this series, the landscape becomes the reflection of a personal transformation, moving through grief, emancipation, and rebirth. View details <a href="https://www.pistachiosonline.com/collections/transition" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>&nbsp;

Transition

Elmhurst Art Museum kicks off the Veteran Art Summit with poetry readings and presentations inaugurating the 2026 Veteran Art Triennial RESISTING THE LONG WAR. Other participating venues include the Chicago Cultural Center, Hyde Park Art Center, and Walls Turned Sideways with additional exhibitions and related programming. Each exhibition offers a distinct curatorial frame on artists’ creative defiance to war and militarism, and each location will host programming during the Veteran Art Summit, November 5–8, 2026.

Veteran Art Summit

Surreal &lt; Virestic &gt; Uncanny: Digital Photography by Tim Arroyo and Dave Sobotka is an event showcasing digital photography. The event runs from October 19 to November 11, with a public reception on Wednesday, October 21, from 11am to 1pm.

Surreal < Virestic > Uncanny: Digital Photography by Tim Arroyo and Dave Sobotka

Featured artists: Lita Albuquerque, Lisa Beck, Christopher Robin Duncan, Lia Halloran, David Huffman, Gary Lang, Charles Long, Jonathan Ryan, Penelope Umbrico.… before the dawn&nbsp;brings together an intergenerational group of nine artists whom explore the enduring artistic, psychological and philosophical pull of the moon and the nocturnal sky. Sharing formal and existential curiosities, the participating artists engage the night as both a site of observation and imagination, where scientific inquiry, mythology, memory, and lived experience converge.… before the dawn&nbsp;considers the conceptual landscape suspended between our earthly vantage point and the celestial body that has long shaped humanity's understanding of time, nature, and the cosmos. Simultaneously familiar and unknowable, the moon occupies a singular place within our collective imagination. It governs tides, marks the passage of time through its phases, inspires myths across cultures, and has served as both a scientific frontier and a symbol of longing, transformation, and transcendence.&nbsp;The artists in&nbsp;… before the dawn&nbsp;extend a centuries-long artistic lineage that has found inspiration in the night sky, while offering a contemporary sensibility to this timeless subject. Working across painting, sculpture, photography, and interdisciplinary practices, each artist constructs a deeply personal relationship with the moon as image, object, metaphor, and presence. Together, their works collapse the vastness of the cosmos into intimate encounters, transforming an ancient celestial constant into a moment in time that embraces an individual’s ability to reflect on perception, belonging, wonder, and the fragile conditions of life on Earth.… before the dawn&nbsp;is curated with the assistance of gallery artist Whitney Bedford and Aandrea Stang, Director of the University Art Gallery at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

... before the dawn

Brendan Fernandes: In the Round

In the newest iteration of Bedford’s acclaimed&nbsp;Veduta&nbsp;series, moonscapes mark a natural progression from her previous body of work which featured sunsets, some of which were created in the aftermath of the devastating 2025 Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. In this transition from day to night, Bedford introduces a new chromatic register in&nbsp;Nocturnes, transforming the atmospheric qualities of the&nbsp;Veduta&nbsp;series from muted luminosity to the heightened ambiguity of moonlit landscapes. The resulting works constitute a subtle yet striking evolution of the artist’s ongoing engagement with light, atmosphere and the moods they evoke.&nbsp; Veduta paintings are a genre of painting made popular throughout the 16th to 18th centuries. Originally, these highly detailed depictions of recognizable European vistas: significantly, this genre also captured imagery of healthy and pristine vistas untouched by development, pollution and other man-made blight. Seeing what the world looked like through this artistic lens in the 1600s is an eye-opening assessment of the complicated relationship between humanity and nature.&nbsp;As Vedute evolved through shifting art-historical paradigms, the landscape remained recognizably the same while becoming increasingly sensorial. Artists turned to intensified color and expressive brushwork in their pursuit of the sublime. This evolution marked a shift from quaint pastoral depictions of the countryside toward more evocative, moody, and dramatic phenomenologies. Bedford’s new series of Veduta paintings consists entirely of moonlit landscapes and seascapes that embrace the essence of the sublime while situating the series within a specific moment in time: darkness. Inspired by masterworks by artists such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Milton Avery, Camille Pissarro, and Frederic Edwin Church as underpaintings, Bedford layers vivid neon-colored tree and cacti motifs, many native to her Southern Californian environs. A third element introduces an architectural gesture: a three-quarter view of an interior room defined by a floor, back wall, and hints of two adjoining walls. Together, the underpainting, neon flora, and architectural framework draw the viewer into an intimate, immersive space, enhancing the experience of the sublime. With&nbsp;Nocturnes, the moon becomes both protagonist and antagonist—amplified by the characteristics of being moody and dramatic—while also playing the role of guide, existential muse and keeper of time. Long burdened with symbolic and emotional meaning across art, literature, music, and mythology, it appears here as something more detached: an omnipresent witness. Absorbing centuries of the human experience as we move firmly into the Age of the Anthropocene,&nbsp;Nocturnes&nbsp;are presented on a stage in dialogue with the scenic past revealing the friction and the disconnect between the past and present landscapes. Image: Whitney Bedford,&nbsp;Veduta (Constable Moonlight), 2026. Ink and oil on nylinen on panel, 44 x 60 x 2 inches.

Whitney Bedford: Nocturnes

Our fall show, In Dialogue: Works by Melissa Herrington &amp; Allison Svoboda, opens on Thursday, September 10th with a reception in the gallery from 5-7pm. We hope you'll join us for an evening of captivating art, engaging conversation and light refreshments! In Dialogue: will be on view through November 14.

In Dialogue: Works by Melissa Herrington & Allison Svoboda

Temporary Solutions to Lifelong Problems explores the ephemerality of thought and memory within the context of our contemporary moment. This solo exhibition, featuring the incredibly striking work of Chicago artist Jack Vonty, invites viewers into a richly layered world that encourages deep personal reflection. The opening reception, free and open to the public, will take place on September 19, 2026 from 5:30-8:00 PM. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the artist, enjoy light refreshments, and be among the first to see this gripping exhibition.&nbsp;Vonty’s art is an expression of freedom that questions the world we live in. Each body of work depicts personal thoughts that scramble through the mind on a daily basis. By using a variety of mediums and unconventional techniques to create unique textures along with random text placement, he conveys a story that allows the viewer to write the ending.&nbsp;Curator, Kaitlin Rikala&nbsp; Atelier Joliet is located at 150 N Chicago St, Joliet, IL 60432 Gallery Hours:&nbsp;Thursday-Saturday, 4-8 PM &amp; by appointment&nbsp; Image credit: artist, Jack Vonty

Temporary Solutions to Lifelong Problems

old friends is pleased to present or, The River, new works by Martyna Alexander (b. 1989, Ann Arbor, MI) and Andrew Hayes (b. 1981, Tucson, Arizona). Martyna Alexander’s dreamlike topography emerges through washes of acrylic, overlaid with marks suggestive of an unknowable order. Andrew Hayes’ formalistic sculpture pairs paper and steel, the two substances alchemized, mirroring one another in fluid motion. Both artists speak spatially, their works boundless, sensual, and sensory. Alexander paints landscapes as if seen through a haze, in pigmented stains that seep and sink into the canvas weft. She allows space to remain perceptual and indistinct, intentionally obscuring any discernible landmark. Floating through the composition are hallucinatory gestures, in graphite or soft pastel, pulled from the artist's own lexicon of organization. Red Flag radiates with desert heat, each cell in the superimposed graphite grid blazed with a single red mark. There is no containing Alexander’s landscapes; their atmosphere seeps into the room. Like a mirage, they shimmer into and out of being. Hayes marries disparate materials; beginning with old, mass-printed books, he bends, contorts, and slices the pages, then anchors these compositions between subtly carved metal structures. Steel glints, not coldly, but with a seductive, supple quality. Though the paper retains certain literary visual identifiers (marbled edges, tabs, the ghost of text), Hayes anonymizes all content - he responds solely to its material potential. Hayes’ sculptures are precisely choreographed; undulating metal giving way to splayed pages, frozen at the apex of movement. Both artists allude to narrative, a suggestive presence of space or story, yet intentionally conceal definition. Their works speak to a symbolic dimension, a space where reference dissolves into abstraction. The sensory impression remains - a metallic taste, the scent of wet grass, an auric residue. or, The River will be on view at old friends, 3149 N. Halsted St., Chicago, IL, from September 12th through November 14th. Gallery staff are available to guide viewers through the exhibition via Zoom upon request. Please email <a href="mailto:office@oldfriendsgallery.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">office@oldfriendsgallery.com</a> with any questions or inquiries. <a href="mailto:office@oldfriendsgallery.com?subject=or%2C%20The%20River%20%7C%20Preview%20Request&amp;body=" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(244, 244, 244);" target="_blank">Request a Preview</a> Pictured: ANDREW HAYES Aureate Inclusion, 2025Fabricated steel and book paper17 x 10 x 2-1/2 inches

or, The River, new works by Martyna Alexander and Andrew Hayes

It's always the Stone Age for Lithographers! They both rock and roll...out their prints.&nbsp;Stone Age&nbsp;at the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative will feature handmade fine art lithograph prints created by both renowned lithographers along with some of our most recent litho students at the studio. Each of these artists grain, draw, and print from a stone to create their work. Come to the Opening Reception on Saturday, September 19th from 5-8pm for a first look at this selection of gorgeous prints. Stone Age: A Lithography Showcase will be on view until November 14th, 2026. <a href="https://nctrkqcab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001nhc794-8dIpLCI629RNjn4tXatffnPJnC8HNFmMY1UojArMyukmt7Mey0iEQxqi4dDYA6jBBwkB8VWDkeAFbLkxTtSbdMeHfF5EM80bV2VYRLikpD2oaLMzuS0Ik8t7DZMmRmxwxw-Dn4H41APG5Yz_uyOidhegW1C5KdhZjJLxKnr9mNtJ8FP2p_w-GDLIKGmDL87pOnuedbxaJ1LUbZnaZpy4KpHYIfUAlEAr-V9PL6sAS8oQogqptNGSdpSbQn0Rus40W_0voFrGtfbaK5HifZU7LhHq4q4l5Iq9UOrDNyiQl0DEQzqU7HcBnUNrg-Homqpr2Jiw7u5MMnhtQf7wucmp3eYxuMpL8zT6nZsI=&amp;c=uBC0uObWrAoVX5p2t1s1GxjuryWmdHapkU_PXp7FuJqk3TxPUbqBzg==&amp;ch=gnKrv75K0pgrOPmm_vKhBt1u9JfxwdLIxjcpEiLAGUZw56NnQs_H9Q==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">GALLERY HOURS</a>&nbsp;- Wednesdays &amp; Fridays 12-5pm, Sundays 11-3pm or by appointment.&nbsp;<a href="mailto:info@chicagoprintmakers.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Schedule a visit.</a>Or, check out the beautiful prints from the comfort of your home at our&nbsp;<a href="https://nctrkqcab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001nhc794-8dIpLCI629RNjn4tXatffnPJnC8HNFmMY1UojArMyukmt7A2NRdwlNe_2gr3dC6wowStF_hZhtdH42Fd_k0K3pCDFKkIdtKRTDX4yBnfeDJFtgc--t8Qq17b_l3nq2ITDOJJLUxboNrGc0cImz_BAo5yuzNsCfhlAn-UiX06gWwTX_TUGoBMQbA6IxN126nnoB_JvXvVP9DGnwg==&amp;c=uBC0uObWrAoVX5p2t1s1GxjuryWmdHapkU_PXp7FuJqk3TxPUbqBzg==&amp;ch=gnKrv75K0pgrOPmm_vKhBt1u9JfxwdLIxjcpEiLAGUZw56NnQs_H9Q==" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">online shop</a>!

Stone Age: A Lithography Showcase

Alongside&nbsp;Nocturnes, Secrist Beach presents eleven paintings from Whitney Bedford’s new body of work&nbsp;Leda and the Swan, featuring reinterpretations of a single painting—itself an interpretive work—Luigi Mussini’s&nbsp;Leda and the Swan&nbsp;(1840–1850). The subject, drawn from Greek mythology, has been rendered repeatedly over centuries in painting, sculpture, poetry, and numerous other artistic forms. Depicting the seduction of Leda by the Greek god Zeus, who appears in the form of a swan, the enduring popularity of the myth lends itself to the charged erotic atmosphere of the scene.Mussini’s version is striking in its detail, form, and execution, resulting in a sensual painting that serves as a constant throughout Bedford’s versions. Her return to this single composition amplifies her interest in repetition as a method: how reiteration alters meaning, and how art history and personal narrative converge through the mechanics of reproduction. Through repetition, the painting ceases to function as a fixed mythological scene and instead becomes a stage for transition across centuries of art history, shifting notions of mastery and originality, and the personal narratives that emerge through sustained return. In this way, the image heightens the visibility of change—whether formal, conceptual, or biographical. Image: Whitney Bedford,&nbsp;Leda and the Swan (Silver Moon, Blurred Body), 2026. Ink and oil on linen on aluminum stretcher, 24 x 36 inches

Leda and the Swan

Work by<a href="https://www.chicagoartistscoalition.org/people/mauricio-lopez-f/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank"> Mauricio López F.</a>,<a href="https://www.chicagoartistscoalition.org/people/gabriel-moreno/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank"> Gabriel Moreno</a>, and<a href="https://www.chicagoartistscoalition.org/people/pablo-lazala-ruiz/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank"> Pablo Lazala Ruiz</a>, curated by<a href="https://www.chicagoartistscoalition.org/people/serena-jv-elston/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank"> Serena JV Easton</a>*Artists and Curator are part of the 2025 CAC Residency Cohort GALLERY HOURSWednesday 11 AM - 4 PMSaturday 12 PM - 4 PMAll other days by appointmentPlease email dana@chicagoartistscoalition.org Zombie gathers the practices of Mauricio López F., Gabriel Moreno, and Pablo Lazala Ruiz, tracing systems of extraction across borders, languages, and industries. Through objects dislocated from place: tools rebranded, images redubbed, machinery left to break down, the work returns again and again to the worker: the body that labors, rests, and is called back to labor before rest is complete. This exhibition sits inside the exhausted systems that are already obsolete but refuse to finish dying, creating the working dead: zombie here not a metaphor, but a diagnosis. ARTIST AND CURATOR BIOS Mauricio López F. is an interdisciplinary artist from Santiago, Chile, currently based in Chicago, USA. Emerging from Chile’s early hardcore punk scene, he later studied Musical Composition at Escuela Moderna de Música and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Aesthetics from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where he focused on the Chilean avant-garde. He recently completed an MFA in Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) on a merit full scholarship. His practice explores the entanglement of visuality, sound, and motion through unexpected social synchronizations. López F. has received several recognitions, including a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and a fellowship from The Arts Club of Chicago. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Chicago Artists Coalition, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and, most recently, Monira Foundation. He was also named one of Newcity's Breakout Artists for 2026. His work has been presented throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, including at Centro Cultural GAM, EXPO Chicago, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gallery 400, Kobun Gallery (Japan), and the Ars Electronica Festival (Austria). <a href="https://mauriciolopezf.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">mauriciolopezf.com</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/mauriciolopezfernandez/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">@mauriciolopezfernandez</a> Gabriel Moreno (b. 1992) is an artist working in sculpture, drawing, and collage. He believes sculpture is a language of “touch”: a poetic operation where two things meet and change one another. His work has explored American histories of meat packing, refrigerator manufacturing, and logging as ways into studying industry, fantasy, preservation, and its failures. Moreno’s primary investigation is the paradoxical destruction implicit in modern development and production. Refrigerators are sometimes used to house precious contents. Other times they are cut down into molds for casting. He relies on the immediacy of objects to hold together material operations of maintenance,&nbsp; presentation, splintering, and proliferation. Industrial artifacts and social propositions alike, these objects speak to the fantasy of defying entropy while admitting the impossibility of existing outside it. <a href="https://www.gabrielgranatmoreno.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">gabrielgranatmoreno.com</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/ga_beh/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">@ga_beh</a> Pablo Lazala Ruiz (b. 1992, Bogotá, Colombia) is a multidisciplinary artist, exhibition designer, and educator based in Chicago. He holds an MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), along with degrees in Architecture and Fine Arts from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá). He recently participated in the SOMA Summer residency (Mexico City, 2026). His sculptural and installation-based practice examines the conditions that shape public and private space, probing ideals of progress, homogenizing structures, and the invisible systems of the built environment. Working with the rituals, (im)materialities, and temporalities of construction, he dismantles architectural rhetorics and creates spaces and stories grounded in concealment, camouflage, and impermanence. He has exhibited projects from his artistic and curatorial practice at venues including the National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago), the Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU, Bogotá), Espacio Odeón (Bogotá), Galería SantaFe (Bogotá), Galería ArteCámara / Cámara de Comercio de Chapinero (Bogotá), Espacio Más Allá (Bogotá), The Wrong Biennale (Online/Bogotá), Elastic Arts (Chicago), Galería SGR (Bogotá), Liberia Central Contemporánea (Bogotá), Compound Yellow (Chicago), and the Jim Shields Gallery through the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. <a href="https://pablolazalaruiz.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">pablolazalaruiz.com</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/pablolazalaruiz/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">@pablolazalaruiz</a> Serena JV Elston is a transdisciplinary sculptor and curator contemplating the body and its relationship to structures of power. Her research-based practice explores ecology, posthumanism, disability, and embodiment through a post-colonial lens. Her work asks if an institution can disable bodies, can bodies disable institutions. Grappling with disability as identity and condition, she depicts figures in states of decomposition and incompleteness. In her work, the body is never singular; it extends beyond flesh to encompass the institutional, the architectural, and the ideological. She renders bodies as precarious material forms that are vulnerable, interdependent, and impermanent. Serena interrogates the illusion of immortality alongside the certainty of death, asserting that all bodies, whether organic or constructed, require care to endure. Institutions that appear eternal are, in truth, as fragile as flesh. Through sculptural inquiry, she exposes systems of power as contingent structures sustained by our unconscious participation and vulnerability. By materializing their instability, she invites viewers to recognize the impermanence of these systems as clearly as we recognize our own mortality. <a href="https://serenajve.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">serenajve.com</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/serenajve/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" target="_blank">@serenajve</a> ABOUT CHICAGO ARTISTS COALITION Founded in 1974, CAC began as a small group of artists advocating for rights, support, and visibility. Currently located in West Town, CAC is a non-profit organization that supports contemporary Chicago artists and curators by offering a&nbsp; residency program, exhibitions, professional development and resources that enable them to live, work and thrive in the city.Chicago Artists Coalition’s mission and programs are funded by City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Driehaus Foundation, Field Foundation of Illinois, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, Terry and Donna King, Nancy Herring and John Balfe, Statsinger Cohen Foundation, and the generosity of our board members and supporters.

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